Patrizierforum

Information regarding map, registration, savegame download, jury and evaluation

Here are this year's game details:

• Starting town: Lübeck
  
• Date: June 21st, 1330
  
• Total population: 42,433 inhabitants
  
• Your character: Bruno Warendorp, inexperienced shopkeeper
  
• Seed capital: 30,000
  
• Ships: Snaikka "Nordlicht" ("Northern Lights"), Crayer "La Perla"
  
• Map: modified version of the default map with 22 towns; Groningen and Scarborough are missing
  
• Distribution of goods: > see Excel spreadsheet <
  

New: English version!


Your goals:

• Expand to a total number of six trading offices. The first one of these is already set in Luebeck. One of the five more ones to be founded shall be in an inland town and another one in a trading station.
  
• Found and establish two Hanseatic settlements with at least 5,000 inhabitants (without beggars) each. This will result in a total of eight tradings offices.
  
• The rank of the Alderman at the time your game ends.
  

Difference between pirates and white doves:
Pirates are free to attack towns, plunder their town coffers, capture other traders' ships, hire tavern pirates or do illegal missions from the side room, which is not allowed for the white doves. Generally speaking, white doves are not allowed to do anything that could potentially result in an indictment against them, no matter whether they are eventually caught or not.
Pirates and white doves will be ranked separatedly.

The starting save:
... can be downloadad from here:
as >> ZIP file << or as >> PAT file << and >> PST file <<
Copy the two files into the subfolder "Ein", which you will find in the "Save" directory of your main Patrician 3 folder.

When will your savegame count as official?
The savegame is official as soon as it has been examined by the jury and the relevant values have been inserted into the evaluation. A member of the jury will also review your savegame with a short commentary.
Again, you will be able to submit your savegame to the jury using the board's file attachment function (preferrably as ZIP or RAR file, but you can also submit in the original formats of PAT and PST). For doing so, we have created the dedicated "Briefkasten" subforum with access rights for all contest participants. More detailed information on how to use this function and on how to become a participant can be obtained here.
The approved savegame will be offered for download by all board members at the same location.

The rules:
GOOD NEWS: The Lubeck Tournament shall be extended for another three months:
Duration of the contest: January 1st, 2009, to March 31st, 2010, at 22:59 UTC.

There will be one single starting save for all the participants. This implies that everyone will use the same character in the game. We most politely ask all the participating Alderwomen for their understanding. Thank you.

Cheats like money cheats, using hex editors or the hot-seat mode are forbidden!

The following is generally prohibited in the tournament:
Operation of automatic trading routes which are, according to their purchase and sales prices, found suspicious of being an arbitrage route
Auctions of businesses or ships
"Demolition trick" as well as all the other building exploits ("hemp bug", fast construction trick etc.)
"Beer trick"
Levon's and Mighty's Gold Trick
Earning ships from tavern missions (escort, patrol, "revenge my brother")

Feeding the poor, dismissing sailors and giving loans with the intention of impounding ships are allowed.

The winner:
The winner is whose savegame meets all the conditions first (game historiography counts). Should we have two submissions with the same date, the higher total population in the Hanseatic League will decide.

Registration:
There is no need for a registration. However, in order to be able to put your savegames into the postbox, you will want to join the "Contest-Teilnehmer 2009" group. See > Wie werde ich Contest-Teilnehmer? <.

Your submitted savegame will only be visible for the jury (and the board administration). As soon as a member of the jury has downloaded and reviewed your savegame, your posting will be activated. Thereafter, it will appear publicly in the thread and can be downloaded by the community.

The jury:
Charlotte, Wasa, x9jaan

As every year, we would like to thank all those who have helped making this contest reality by their continuous efforts!

Bruno Warendorp is a historic character: born around 1255, died June 29th, 1341. He was Lord Mayor of Lübeck from 1301 till his death, sightly 40 years.

Dear members,

Although I tried my very best regarding the translation into English, I know there is the possibility of misunderstandings arising because of poorly translated technical or historical terms. Therefore, if any part of this posting appears strange or unclear to you, please do not hesitate to complain.

Also, please take my apologies for not having translated some of the reference postings my initial posting links to. Please ask if you need additional help.

Have fun in 2009!

Regards,

Tim

Hey Steersman,

Zitat

We are allowed to earn the money in the escort/fugitive/avenge my brother missions?

Yup, you are allowed to do those missions for the money. Just refrain from capturing the ships. Whether you'd like to flee or to sink them is your choice.

Zitat

Treasure hunts, we need the map piece with the X on it?

There is no rule on this topic, but I would agree it belongs to fair gameplay. You will still be within the rules if you use save / load, though.

Zitat

If you do not actively pirate, but give a ship to the tavern pirates, are you dove or pirate?

That's a hard one. Based on the current set of rules, I would say you count as dove. I will ask the jury for verification, though. I'm just the translator this year.

Zitat

Is smuggling white dove or pirate?

White dove, as well as all the other illegal tavern missions provided you don't attack AI ships.

Zitat

Lastly, no demolition of AI businesses or housing, or Turkish style building?

No demolition of AI buildings. Turkisk style building is theoretically allowed, but you won't need it in this contest.

Zitat

Thanks, and you may count me in on this one.

That's great to hear, looking forward to it!

Cheers,

Tim

Just a short note due to misunderstandings arisen in the German section:

The total number of trading offices to be founded in the default towns is five. Plus your starting office in Lübeck, that's six trading offices in the Hanseatic League. Not more, not less. Then, there are the two settlements - as you will need a trading office there as well, the number of trading offices at the time your game ends will be eight.

Zitat

We are allowed to capture the regular pirate vessels if we play as doves, aren't we? Georg Beauchamp's ship, as an example?

Actually, I've never opened the starting save. I take it Georg Beauchamp is a "free" pirate active on the map and not spawned by a tavern mission? You are allowed to capture the regular pirates who spawn at the unoccupied town locations on the map.

Zitat

And, there is no rule about which five towns we can build new offices in? The selection is purely up to our own choice?

Nope, not quite. One of the five towns has to be an inland town (that means either Novgorod, Cologne or Thorun) and another one a Hanseatic trading station.

Zitat

Lastly, we are not permitted to build a ship and then to auction it to the AI? In some games I have built a series of snaikkas to improve a shipyard, and disposed of them by auction when larger size ships are available. So we are not permitted to build and sell off ships? I can understand a rule about playing as a pirate to capture and auction ships, but a white dove build and sell seems different.

I don't know, I will ask the jury.

Also, as an update, please don't take my statement about white doves being allowed to smuggle or to give ships to pirates as valid any more. It's currently being discussed again - outcome is open. Sorry.

Actually, the requirement for the trading station and the river town offices are mentioned in the rules already:

Zitat

Expand to a total number of six trading offices. The first one of these is already set in Lübeck. One of the five more ones to be founded shall be in an inland town and another one in a trading station.

Also, the question about auctoning ships has already been answered (must have forgotten about it when responding to your post):

Zitat

The following is generally prohibited in the tournament:
[...]
Auctions of businesses or ships
[...]

As for the other questions - we currently have a thread running in the hidden section of the board, where the issues are being discussed. Once we have found a coherent answer, the rules will be updated.

This year's regulations are very different from what we used to have before, so it was sort of logical that we would run into this kind of problems. Please excuse.

The jury has now decided on all the questions which have been raised in the various discussions:

Zitat

1) Are we allowed to operate automatic trading routes?

You are, of course. Automatic trading routes are a most essential part of the game concept - no way we would forbid those.

Zitat

2) Where is the limit between what counts as arbitrage and what is a "normal" trading route?

You are not allowed to operate automatic trading routes, which are, according to the purchase and sales prices for the various goods, found suspicious of arbitrage trading. I know this rule has its grey zones, so please search your conscience and make the best of it.

Zitat

3) Is it obligatory to have the puzzle piece with the "X" before claiming a treasure?

Nope, at least for the reason that a ship may find the treasure by accident. Also, there is a very comprehensive collection of treasure maps on the forum.

Zitat

4) Are the white doves allowed to give ships to tavern pirates?

No, this kind of indirect piracy is forbidden for the doves as well.

Zitat

5) Are the doves allowed to smuggle?

Nope, because being a "white dove" and breaking the law on purpose appear somehow contradicting.

Zitat

6) As a consequence of (4) and (5), are the white doves allowed to do anything illegal?

No, they aren't. The jury has decided that any action that could potentially result in an indictment against you is prohibited for white doves, who are, per definition, peaceful and loyal towards the law. No, you won't be excluded from the contest because of a heresy or sodomy charge.

Zitat

7) May we auction our own ships if we built them ourselves?

No, the player is not allowed to host any auctions, neither of buildings nor of ships. However, you can still participate in AI-initiated auctions.

***

I hope this clears all the open questions. If anything remains doubtful for you, please have no hesitations to ask again.