Illarion.org

As an experiment, this game month past I kept track of all the tributes I paid into the cities. What I was shown was a significant difference by the game when I checked into the magic gems I received for last month's payment. Can someone tell me why the game tribute computations are off by so very much?

For instance, I paid a straight 50 silver coins to Galmair. The game said I paid only 9 silver, 96 copper. For Runewick, it's even more in error--I paid in a straight 100 silver. The game said I only paid 6 silver, 98 copper. What gives with this difference?

The game keeps donations via the donation square seperate. The tribute taken at the end of the month are the taxes you pay. If i remember right, They are based on your town rank and how much money you have.

Are you telling me the tribute is automatically deducted from my available coin at the end of the month and that the donations made at the square are NOT counted toward total tribute?

Taxes are automaticall collected

Donations dont count as taxes

thebigbear wrote:Are you telling me the tribute is automatically deducted from my available coin at the end of the month and that the donations made at the square are NOT counted toward total tribute?

Tribute is automatically deducted yes.
The donations do however count towards the total treasury of the town, which in turn determines how many gems the characters of that town gets.
Donations will not show up at the end of the month in how much you paid, as that is only an inform of what taxes were deducted and how many gems were received.

Taxes and donations go both into the town treasury.

The output of gems is determined by:
1. The total amount of coins in the town treasury
2. Your rank
3. Amount of tax players

Except for the rank, there is no individual influence, e.g. it doesn't matter how much taxes you individually pay, only the total sum of all citizens matters.

Thank you all for your input.

Now then, what strategies do players follow for "donations?" I've heard one or two people say they donate only the "junk" they find, such as rope from the farm fields, bowls, monster-drop weapons and other low value items that pop up. How about what other players do? Should I continue making a monthly donation of coins or just let the game collect the automatic "taxes" and feel that's my share of being a citizen?

I know the magic gems are important and would like to collect as many as I can, but do others feel this is important?

thebigbear wrote:I know the magic gems are important and would like to collect as many as I can, but do others feel this is important?

at the moment magic gems are only for fighters important
(( hope / may be this will change one day ))

At the moment they are usefull for warriors. You can put them into armors, shields and weapons - the gems add a bonus to them. In some cases I have seen that they were used in magic rituals (under GM supervision) to get some effects. And last but not least, some just use them to trade with them.

thebigbear wrote: Now then, what strategies do players follow for "donations?" I've heard one or two people say they donate only the "junk" they find, such as rope from the farm fields, bowls, monster-drop weapons and other low value items that pop up. How about what other players do?

Sometimes players teamed up to donate some very valuable items - loot from treasure hunts, items just crafted for donating etc... Just to get some extra gems in the next month. But what strategy you want to follow is up to you and how and if you want use the gems ingame.

I am NOT a fighter, but I must defend myself and I must do the various tasks in the cities to gain "favor" of the rulers. Therefore, I DO have to do some fighting of low-level creatures-- rats, slimes, mummies, skeletons, etc. It ain't easy, but somebody has to clean out those dungeons and sewers! Anyway, I started collecting the gems to augment my primary weapons. It only gives me a few percentage points, but that's part of the game, right? So, I'm still interested in hearing what strategies other players use to make donations and gather magic gems.

The best effects with gems you will get when you have one gem (of the same level) of each sort in a weapon like: latent ruby, amethyst, sapphire, obsidian, emerald, topaz (diamonds so far do as i know not add to the bonus and they are very very very rare anyways). Its not worth gemming the first weapons you use ( up to skill 60-70 i would say) cause you change weapons pretty fast to better ones and each time ungemming a weapon costs you 10 Gold, same for armor).
As i know the outcome of your gems is depending on yer rank and the taxes you pay. So e.g. Galmair got a treasury + this month of 1000 gold, it has x players living their and than the outcome of gems is divided through all people and the taxes/rank they payed/have.

So in theory a City with a few but very rich people will get much more gems per individual as a City with loads of people but only a few very rich ones.

At least thats the way i understood it, you prolly can find out the complete Tax/gem output formula at Github.

I normally donate stuff i found that i dont need (not caring bout the worth of em) and from time to time i aim to get the output of gems very high with donating a lot of crafted items (diamond rings and so on).

This answer raises another question--is it possible to live at a place NOT one of the three cities, like the Hemp Necktie Inn, maybe, and NOT pay taxes to any city? As a noob player I don't know the total landscape of Illaria so maybe there are livable places on the map I haven't discovered yet.

The Hempty is the place where you can live without paying taxes .... but you also did not get magical gems as reward

You can give up your citizen ship if that is what you are asking. You are then an outlaw. You can still enter all towns (as long as they don't ban outlaws) and you don't have to pay taxes. But you won't receive any gems.

For those curious: The Code of Taxes and Gem Distibution!

Ranwyln wrote: each time ungemming a weapon costs you 10 Gold, same for armor.

It isn't costing me 10 gold to remove gems from an item. Are you sure about this?

LucyP wrote:

Ranwyln wrote: each time ungemming a weapon costs you 10 Gold, same for armor.

It isn't costing me 10 gold to remove gems from an item. Are you sure about this?

Cost of removing all gems from an item is the items value (the one displayed on mouseover).