Gameplay

Every press of Trade a day runs one day of the city. Its citizens grow hungry, thirsty and cold, the shops (yours among them) make their goods, the market sells, and at dusk your wages and takings land. Everything you do between presses bends that day a little.

Time

A year is 390 days, split into five seasons of 78: Spring, Thaw, Harvest, Waning and Frost. You begin at 18. Enter trades one day and Shift+Enter a week. [ runs a season, ] a year, and \ asks how many days. Auto (Space) runs the quiet days by itself and stops the moment a real choice needs you; + and − change its speed.

Money

All money is counted in Bits. Eight Bits make a Silver Mark and 40 make a Crown. The Holdarn Iron-Pence is a separate currency whose rate drifts each season. You can buy 100 Bits' worth with Shift+L and sell the whole position with Shift+R.

Shops

B opens a new shop in the district you have picked with N. It is a copy of the trade you have selected, or a Bakery if you have none. Its price is the trade's entry price plus 1,500 Bits for every shop you already own; Vothmark standing moves that by up to 25% either way. Thrifty and guild membership each take 10% off. Shift+B sells the selected shop for its till plus half its entry price. Opening a cheap staple in a wealthy district asks you to press B twice, because the well-off there will not buy it at any price.

• Output and price. ↑↓ change how much the shop makes each day. , and . move its price in steps of 10, from 50% to 150% of the market.
• Retooling. T switches the shop, in one step, to the good its district pays most for. Shift+T steps through the trades by hand instead. Either costs a flat 100 Bits and clears the shop's stock.
• Staff. H hires a hand for free. Each hand has a skill from 1 to 5, adds three times that to the shop's capacity and costs 3 Bits a day. A promotes a manager, who adds 12 capacity and stops rivals poaching from that shop. Shift+A trains the crew for 80 Bits, and Z lays a hand off.
• Supply chains. Some trades run better when you also own their suppliers: every partner trade you own adds 25% to output. A named supplier who is your ally adds 20%, and one you have crossed drags output down. Three, four or five shops in one district add 5%, 10% or 15% to all of them. Codex → Trades lists every partner.

Standing

Your standing is what the common people think of you, from −100 to +100, and it is the main thing the Board looks at. Every day it closes 1/500 of the gap to a target (1/350 with Quick study), so it moves slowly. The target is set by your prices: 100 minus your shops' average price as a percentage of market, raised by a fifth for every shop you own, up to five. One shop at 70% of market aims for +36; the same shop at 120% aims for −24. Guild membership (+10), the guild's Warden seat (+10), a spouse (+4) and each grown heir (+6) add to it.

People of note

Eleven named figures each hold a regard for you, from −100 to +100; at 50 or more they count as an ally. Select one with P, then:

• Gift (J) always lands: regard +4, and the price rises as regard does.
• Bribe (K) costs the figure's base price, cut by up to half as their regard and your standing rise (15% less again with Silver-tongued). It may be accepted, refused or exposed. Accepted, it gives regard +25 and their faction +8; exposed, it costs 20 standing and draws heat. The panel beside the figure shows the price and the odds.
• Feast (Shift+K) costs 80 Bits per figure and gives everyone +2 regard and you +6 standing. It can be held once every 90 days.
• Patronize (Shift+J) pays 200 Bits or more to the figure's faction for +5 standing with it.
• Favours come only from allies: I spends 40 of their regard on +12 standing and +4 with their faction, once every 60 days; Shift+I asks for coin instead.
• Marriage (M) is possible with Clerk Oresby, Sera Lanval or Maret Voss once her regard reaches 50. It brings her purse as a dowry and +5 standing. An heir arrives a year later and comes of age after sixteen years; Shift+M puts a grown heir to work in the shop.

The five powers

Calvendris, Vothmark, Holdarn, Tordrim and the Hush Trade each keep a standing with you. Gaining with one moves the others: favour with the Concord's Calvendris cools the smugglers, and favour with the Hush Trade costs you with Calvendris and Tordrim. Codex → Factions has the whole table and what each power's friendship is worth.

Heat, the Watch and the Hush Trade

Heat is the Watch's suspicion. From 40 heat an arrest can come on any day, and it grows more likely as heat climbs. Jail lasts 45 days; X buys you out at 25 Bits a remaining day. Shift+X pays 25 Bits a point to cool heat ten points at a time. Shift+S buys temple sanctuary from arrest for 30 days, and Shift+C confesses, trading standing for a clean slate.

Every fifteen days the Hush Trade may offer a smuggling run, and the offer stays open for 20 days. Y takes it for 300 Bits, 15 heat, +10 with the Hush Trade and −6 with Calvendris. One run in ten is a sting that sends you straight to the Watch. U refuses.

Street moments and calamities

Every so often a knock at the door offers two paths: a raise, a price war, a charter, a guild vote and more. Click one of them, or ignore it and let it pass. A surge or glut on your good offers a one-press bonus. After your first year, a catastrophe can strike, at most two in a life. While one rages, D gives relief and E profiteers.

The guild and the Wall

Q joins the trade guild for 400 Bits and 1 Bit a day in dues. Members get standing, 10% off premises, a shield against poaching and relief when a catastrophe strikes. After two years of membership with standing 40 or more, you become its Warden. On day 100 of every year the Wall Question opens for 30 days. A Board Senior or a Harbor-Master can sponsor the levy with G (500 Bits, +15 standing) or divert it with V.

The civic climb

Three authorities run Corenveld, each with three ranks, and you can climb all three at once: the Alderman's Board (O), the Crown (C) and the Secretariat (S). Each press contests the next rank up. Meeting a rank's requirements only lets you stand: your strength against the rank's difficulty sets the odds, and the button shows the percentage before you commit. A rank held on one authority weakens your case on the others. Codex → Civic Offices lists every rank and what it takes.

The Reckoning

When the life ends, the Reckoning lists your final purse and its peak, your shops, standing and years in office, the highest rank you reached on each authority, and the achievements you earned in that life. It closes with an epitaph chosen by the greatest thing you did.

Controls

? shows this list in the game, and W opens the achievements. A left click on any button does its first action, and a right click does its second (the Shift key).

Controller

A controller works everywhere, though the in-game help does not list it. The positions are the same on any pad.