No matter who you are in the real world, once you’ve assumed the throne in one of the kingdoms of Lords Online, your character changes, and you have a realistic goal --- becoming a feared king – or perhaps beloved, but more likely feared. With LO being centered around management of a kingdom, effective governing couldn’t be more important to success in game. 

Resources
Resources are the most basic and most important part of the game. Like the atoms that are used to build cells, and the cells that are used to build complex organisms, it all starts here. Each lord is allotted a certain amount of resource fields outside the walls of their main castle. Types of fields include Quarries, Iron Mines, Sawmills and Farms. The resources the fields will yield are then used in city construction, military training, castle expansion and much more. The level of a resource field will affect how much of that resource it produces, with higher level fields producing more than lower level fields.

Efficiency
The efficiency is decided by several aspects, including the population, loyalty and public resentment. First, let’s look at the population. Taking a different path than traditional SLGs, Lords Online doesn’t have a single building that directly increases the population, instead they take a more practical approach and incorporate population into every building constructed - buildings don’t just stay empty after all. So efficient city construction doesn’t mean building a whole block of residential buildings just for the people to enjoy, but building a city that has enough of what it needs in all areas, whether for the army, administration, or resource collection and storage. Also, the population won’t get up in arms because they all don’t have luxury cottages, instead citizens’ loyalty and public resentment directly correlate with the security they feel, and the amount of taxes they pay. Taxes have a big influence on loyalty and public resentment, so all Lords should be prudent when raising or lowering their tax rate.

Civilization
If the resources are the basis of city development, then civilization boosts it. The castle’s technology research, construction, and city expansion are all decided by the civilization value. Players can’t build another castle before their main castles civilization points meet the requirement. There are 2 ways to make your kingdom more civilized, the first is to lower the tax rate, and the other is to hold ceremonies in the castle. If the tax rate is very low, civilization points will gather more quickly, but at the same time, kingdom revenue will fall. So players must seek a balance between their civilization and their economic development. The other way to raise civilization is to hold ceremonies in the main castle. These ceremonies not only make your city more civilized, they also allow you to create your own unique culture.

As the game continues to take shape, stay tuned to the official Lords Online forum at http://forum.lo.igg.com  for all the latest news.