Das dritte Zeitalter

The third age (German: Das dritte Zeitalter) is the title for a new game based on Eressea with some radically different rules. This page documents the preliminary rules for the game as agreed on and implemented by the design team. Changes may happen at any time (E3A is a play in the river :), we're still figuring things out.

Live development updates can be found on http://twitter.com/eresseadev

Our projected start for the game is sometime in June.

Miscellaneous

1. To reduce the amount of units required, there is no more perception or stealth, and likewise, no stealing.
2. All money-making commands (BUY/SELL/TAX/ENTERTAIN/WORK) have been removed.
3. The TEACH command has been removed.
4. The SABOTAGE command has been removed.
5. The SPY command has been removed.
6. The DELIVER command has been removed. Use @GIVE to achieve the same result.
7. The SIEGE command has been removed.
8. You can no longer give items or people to other players with the GIVE command.
9. Captains receive a +1 bonus to their ship's range for every 7 levels of sailing skill (7 = 1, 14 = 2, 21 = 3)
10. Hunger does not stop long orders.
11. Faction stealth and demon's ability to hide their race have been disabled.
12. Expensive skills cost 500 silver (instead of 200). The cost of learning magic does not change.

Alliances

1. There is no HELP GIVE option
2. There is no HELP COMBAT option
3. There is a new ALLIANCE command to form an alliance.
4. You can only be in one alliance at a time.
5. All members of an alliance have an automatic HELP COMBAT status towards each other.
6. Each alliance has an admin, usually the person that created the alliance.
7. ALLIANCE KICK <faction-id> removes a faction from the alliance (admin only)
8. ALLIANCE LEAVE leaves the current alliance
9. ALLIANCE COMMAND <faction-id> makes another faction the admin (admin only)
10. ALLIANCE NEW creates a new alliance with you as the owner
11. ALLIANCE INVITE <faction-id> invites another faction to your alliance for this turn (admin only)
12. ALLIANCE JOIN <alliance-id> joins another alliance (if you got an invitation in the same turn)

Races

1. Every faction has a main race that can be recruited for ca. $100/person, and a more expensive secondary race (prices are still being decided on).
2. Valid race combinations are (with secondary race): human(elf), halfling(dwarf), goblin(demon), orc(troll)
3. Goblins are the cheapest race, and cost only $60/person. In turn, demons are the most expensive race.
4. Goblins cost only 6 silver maintenance
5. There are no cats, insects, aquarians
6. Humans can not get migrants (see GIVE).
7. To recruit the secondary race, specify the race, e.g. RECRUIT 10 TROLL. Units can not be mixed-race.
8. Humans get shipcraft +2, sailing +2
9. The familiar races get shuffled around a bit
10. Trolls cannot ride
11. All races start with 20 hitpoints except for goblins who start with 16.
12. All daemons begin their life with Stamina 6. Trolls begin with Stamina 2.
13. Hunger can no longer kill a fully rested unit.
14. Orcs no longer start life with weapon skills.
15. Halflings receive a +1 defense bonus
16. Orcs learn combat skills a little faster, but economic skills a little slower than other races.
17. The old orc bonus of being able to recruit twice as many peasants is given to goblins this time.
18. Elves regenerate more hitpoints when they are in a forest.

Weapons and Armor

1. Goblins cannot use plate armor, lance, mallorn lance, axe, claymore or halberd. And of course no elven bow or tower shield.
2. Dwarves get to build and use a new item, the tower shield (Turmschild): It greatly reduces the chance of being hit by archers, has an AC of 2 and costs 2 iron to produce at weaponsmithing 6.
3. Dwarves can build a repeating crossbow (Repetierarmbrust) that takes only one turn to reload and does 4d3+3 damage.
4. Only dwarves can use tower shields and repeating crossbows.
5. Only halflings and dwarves can use the repeating crossbows.
6. The laen sword's damage is reduced to 2d9+4.
7. The elven bow's damage is reduced to 2d4+5.
8. Only elves can use elven bows.
9. Goblins can not use certain heavy weapons and armor. These are plate armor, lance, mallorn lance, elven bow, axe, claymore and halberd.

Region ownership

1. The faction with the biggest castle or watch (see below) in a region is the owner of that region.
2. A new building, the watch, exists in two sizes: 1-4: guard house, 5-10: guard tower. To build it, use MAKE WATCH (MACHE WACHE). Cost is 1 wood per size.
3. The owner of a region gets 1-5% of the region's silver in taxes every month, depending on the region's morale.
4. The tax money is given to the owner of the biggest castle.
5. Taxation happens after working.
6. Region ownership is recalculated after taxation.

Magic and Alchemy

1. There is no astral space
2. There are no wormholes (yet)
3. Only the secondary races (demon, dwarf, elf, troll) can learn magic.
4. The alchemy skill is gone. Important potions will be replaced by magical artifacts.
5. Water of Life is not one of those.
6. There are only 4 magic schools, with reorganized spell-lists. Tybied gets removed.

Combat

1. You will no longer get a skill bonus added to your damage.
2. halberds and greatswords no longer give a bonus when used on horseback.
3. Horses give no benefit in combat excpet 10% increase in the chance to flee.
4. We introduce a new type of horse: The charger (dt.: Streitross). Chargers can be produced in a stables, with a Training skill of 4, 1 iron, 200 silver and a horse for each. See also combat changes above.
5. Chargers (war horses) give a bonus of (riding-2)*1.5 to the combat skill and 20% increase in chance to flee.
6. Against trolls, this bonus is only (riding-2)*0.75.
7. Heroes have 3 attacks per turn, not 10.
8. Only monsters and the corpses of your own army provide loot (no loopholes for the removed GIVE)

Economy and Morale

1. Peasants in every region have an initial morale of 2.
2. When a region loses its' owner, morale falls to 0.
3. For every 10 turns under the same ownership, a region's morale rises by 1 point.
4. A region's taxes are a percentage of the peasants' wealth equal to the region's morale or the size of the biggest castle or watch, whichever is smaller.
5. A new building, the market, replaces trade and herbalism.
   1. With a market, factions can receive herbs and luxury goods produced in the region and its 6 adjacent regions.
   2. Each region can only have one market per faction (further markets are ignored).
   3. Markets need to have a size of 10, with each size-step costing 1 wood and 1 stone.
   4. Market upkeep is 200 silver/turn.
   5. Markets only allow buying, not selling of goods.
6. Herbs and Luxury items are used as spell ingredients.
7. Herbs do not rot.
8. Regions owned by halflings have a higher effect on the peasants' morale.