Does anyone know the details on buildings and construction?

I know you have to have deeds to place buildings. I know that the buildings have an upkeep that has to be paid. Questions I have are:

If you build a city with a ToL, can it be a safehold if you want?

Merchants.. if people come and spend money at the merchant, where does it go? Do you get it or does it poof?

How long does it take to roll up items?

I'm sort of toying with the idea of making a merchant city.. make it a safehold, open ToL, no trainers or anything.. wonder if it would work =P

thats sort of what stumpy's shops is, just east of khar.

Good stuff to read here.

I'm torn as to what to offer here, but it's my opinion that you should try this as a gamble... be prepared to lose everything on this, keep that in your mind.

The reason I say that is, an open city [at least if you are talking about playing this on Death server] is completely unwelcome by most of the guilds. Since most of the land is already 'claimed', you'll be hard-pressed to find a locale to call your own and NOT be approached by a local guild who will either demand your loyalty and try and get you pledged to them [so as to oversee your activities in what they consider 'their' neighborhood and get a piece of the loot as tax], or insist you turn over/destroy your ToL. The reason for this is any open tree will be used by their enemies to act as a rally point for sieges, and you will unwittingly become a scapegoat by the defending guild, fairly or not.

How much of an experimenter are you? If you're a real gambler, try this: create this as a real freehold, near some obscure and distant hunting area far from any other city, and only build merchants. Don't plant a tree. Although the regen/invulnerability a tree provides is a no-brainer, having a city that cannot be bonded to may make the local guildies think it over and leave you alone. No tree, no rally point, anyone of their enemies [or griefers and theieves in general] must first travel all the way there on foot, past patrols and other hazards. No massive groups suddenly appearing near their holdings with a shitload of open merchants and trainers to use before bringin in the siege tents and trebs. Remember, an open town is griefer bait, tree or no, so building the place without walls just won't matter, if some group of assholes wants to attack your buildings, it'll happen.

But you WILL become a haven for griefers and other undesireables, make no mistake. How much of a fully functioning town are you planning on? You could theoretically offer to let other folks build stuff there too [and in an open town with no real guild behind you, I don't see how you could keep them out, really], and hjopefully someone will build/help you pay for a guard force.

If this ever got built though, I'd probably patronize you. Make sure you put in a Barb trainer.