Dom quickly asked the System to explain what had been updated as Andrew looked at him eagerly. His Guards stood around him, watching the bustle of the City of Riverside as more final preparations were made for the coming celebrations.
[Whilst less than One Percent of the current Map has been explored by Players, The World Map has undertaken several planned updates. These include:
The addition of some new Kingdoms, Cities and Towns that would have been visited by Players during Battle Maps and Specific Quests. There is no guarantee that any that you visited have been included in the update, as many Quests have been conducted since launch by a variety of Players. However, you may come across these in unexplored or in some cases previously explored lands.
The World Map has also been upgraded, as well as the arrival of new forces, within the ongoing ocean, some new Islands and small Continents have also arrived. These will primarily be opportunities for sea faring players or those who are new to the game and spawn on them. Some of these Continents are far from the Northern Continent where Players are primarily based, however some will be within travel distance.
With the update, the World Map has suffered some disruption. The Tectonic Plates have been impacted and some areas where the land was untouched now have new residents. Both the Land, Sea and Nature that surround you have all been impacted. Your location may be clear from any impacts, but please do be aware.
The World Map has so far been primarily in a calm space, however Natural Events will now take place. This could include Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, Tsunami's, Ice Storms, Wild Fires, Drought, Tropical Cyclones, Flooding, Tornados and more.
The arrival of some of the additions also caused excess land to be added, however the capacity of the World Map has not allowed this, therefore you may also see the occasional Impact Event as additional land arrives delayed. No Characters will be on these Impact Event's, however they could land amongst Player or Character Cities.
Due to the small percentage of the map being currently populated, the chances of any of these Natural Disasters, including Impact Events, is minor. The majority of the World Map is also Water and therefore the chances are reduced even further.
Some Players are growing at exceptional speeds, which is good to see. Whilst it will not be obvious, some balancing will take place so as to support all Players, be them the top Players or the lower ranks. No one should suffer from the balances, however if you do, we can only apologise.
New Rankings will be released at the end of the week to show the current Top Players, with appropriate rewards. We will also be introducing tournaments and mini quests for lower ranked Players so not only the Top Players are rewarded.
There will be future updates in due time, we apologise for the abruptness of this one and hope to give you more notice in the future.
On a final note, a congratulations in advance to one Player who is about to become the first Player to found their own Kingdom. This is ahead of schedule and additional changes had to be made in response ahead of plan, good luck. For the groups of Players trying to either build their own Kingdom or claim someone else's, also good luck.]
"They made the update early because of you!" Andrew said to Dom when he could tell that he had finished reading the update in front of him. Dom couldn't disagree as he tried to take in what he had just read. He already suspected that Song Jiang and the Bandits of Liangshan had arrived in the game map, so he wasn't surprised by the main update, it did however make him think about Meritamen's father Rameses. Thankfully, the map was ten times the size of earth and the chances of meeting anyone were extremely small. It was by some luck that his friends and Alice had all spawned within some form of travel distance to the east coast of the main continent so they could head south towards him.
The Natural Disasters warning did panic him slightly as they were next to a Mountain, the Sea and Forests, but there was little he could do to control them. He would speak with Kai later and ask what his thoughts were, as they could look at some modern technologies that may be able to be passed across in the Engineering classes to prepare to deal with the aftermath of any of these.
The final part is what Andrew was talking to Dom about, and the fact that he was founding a Kingdom ahead of schedule was both rewarding, but also worrying as Dom didn't think he was that exceptional at gaming. They always did well as a group, but not enough to contend with the best.
"What do you think Balancing means?" Andrew asked Dom, seeing that he hadn't responded to the first question.
"I have no idea." Dom replied honesty, worried if it would impact his daily spawns or increase the difficulty of their quests going forwards. The Update did state that it shouldn't negatively effect anyone, but it was still worrying and something he needed to add to his list of things to think about.
"I saw Crassus on the way as he was heading to see Shang Yang at the Town Centre, he seemed excited." Andrew added, changing the conversation, "I'm meeting Kai shortly as we are going to speak with all of the Players we brought with us and Astrid. Try and see their backgrounds and work out how we can incorporate them following your Aunt's guidance. I think most will want to join me on the North West excursions under Tomyris."
"It's the front lines and it's fighting so they'll enjoy it." Dom agreed, "We need to do something to make them stay loyal as well though, I'll ask the Heroes if they have any ideas."
"A fun time gaming, being able to help create something so they can feel part of it." Andrew replied with a shrug of his shoulders, "If we use that as a base, it's what would keep me loyal if I wasn't your best friend."
"Same here to be fair, I think we are going to be in a rush today the Palace is under preparation and Actumerus said that the Coronation should be today." Dom stated as Andrew looked towards Dom's towering Guard.
"It is what I was told to pass on." Actumerus shrugged, the Forbidden Guard style armour shaking on his shoulders as he did so.
"You are a scary man." Andrew commented, receiving a rare smile from the guard. Andrew soon left and headed to the Warehouse in the Market Zone to meet everyone as he had planned, as the Tavern had been taken over by Subutai. Dom continued to the Town Centre where additional Drapes and Banners were also hanging. The floors had all been cleaned and scrubbed outside of the Town Centre, and the giant pond with the water fountain had small colourful Koi Carp that had been added to it. Dom wasn't sure where the Carp had come from, but suspected Crassus had purchased them along with the rest of the things he constantly purchased that added to the depth of Riverside.
The doors were also open, with more cleaning taking place and Dom could see that Wang Shu the head builder was inside having some large sculptures of Sabre Tooth Tigers pushed beside the entranceway. Dom didn't know who had sculpted them, but it had clearly taken a long time and he was surprised he wasn't aware of it. Wang Shu smiled at him, another of Dom's original Civilian arrivals, before shouting at one of his strong son's to put more effort in to straightening the Sabre Tooth Tiger Sculpture.
Dom passed through the entrance and entered the Great Hall. The Great Hall had originally been the main base of Riverside, he had lived on the top floor of the Town Centre, with there being all of the key offices for the different parts of Riverside's different Civilian Branches. As the Town had grown, more and more Offices had been added and different Heroes and Civilians had taken ownership of the rooms. Dom wasn't sure who lived in the Town Centre now, but expected it would most likely be the residence of Shang Yang who lived for his work.
The Great Hall was normally full of banquet tables, but instead today it was set up in a theatre style, with row after row of seats all faces the raised stage at the far end. The raised stage had a large throne placed on it, bigger than anything that Dom had expected, which had also been sculpted from wood and was also adorned with symbols of things that made up Riverside, with a Sabre Tooth Tiger head at the rear. Beside the large throne were two smaller ones, one adorned with snakes and the other with wolves, symbolising the other two animals at the three Beast Halls of Riverside. Dom didn't see the need to have a correlation between the three Beast Halls and him and his wives, but he felt that it looked good and he assumed that is what they were aiming for.
Shang Yang was sat beside Crassus, the two of them smiling as they noticed Dom's approach. They both stood up and in unusual fashion, bowed slightly to him. Dom smiled back at them as he approached, seeing that many people were doing final touches to the room, placing flowers in pots, or laying down furs on the seats closest to the raised platform.
"Good morning Lord Lazarus." Shang Yang welcomed, his tone polite but Dom could see a slight glint of pride in his eyes.
"You have done an incredible job." Dom praised as he looked around, the Great Hall almost unrecognisable from what it had once been.
"The plans have been in place for a while, so we just had to act on it." Shang Yang replied as he looked around the room as well. "We have come a long way in a short period of time. But today we will be more than a collection of Cities, we will be a Kingdom. A Small one, but a Kingdom regardless."
"And you will be it's Ruler." Crassus added, a grin of his own. "We joked with Meritamen that you should be the Pharoah, but she said there can only be one and her father wouldn't be happy. I pushed for Emperor, but Shang Yang said we aren't big enough yet."
"You will be King." Shang Yang laughed, shaking his head. "Everything is prepared, I have your armour polished upstairs with your sword. Your wives have gone to meet our guests with some Generals and Elite Warriors, Meritamen has been ingenious with the use of the White Letter that you had."
"What is the plan?" Dom asked them both, as he sat down with them. Crassus pulled a parchment from beside him and began to read from it.
"It's a short list thankfully." Crassus grinned, "We will get you dressed, then have you welcome the Guests on your mount in the Military Zone. Units are polished and in formation ready, their Generals should be with them by the time we arrive. The new Warriors have been placed in to some units as well for added effect. Whilst you depart, we will begin filling the Town Centre with guests, a combination of key Civilians, Warriors and those that have been invited by Ballot. You will then return in style, we will have Civilians lining the route from the Military Zone to the Town Centre, most will already be getting in to position."
"That sounds like a lot of work." Dom replied, wondering how much effort had gone in to this as Crassus continued listing out what else was due to happen.