Do your characters gain xp while in Free Play?

[Joria]

I can see where Free Play can lead to some interesting stories even though you can't really do dynasty ones.  But while they are busy being whatever they are, do they gain xp?  Would it be pointless, forinstance, for me to keep my level 8 smith busy at the forge?  And even if he doesn't gain xp, what happens to all the stuff he makes?  Does he get to sell it to other kingdoms once you've made a new one and does it help your original kingdom?

Story ideas, for instance,  "Does the monarch and spouse live happily ever after or does divorce rear it's ugly head?  What about nooboo?  Do they make more and find the needs of a large family ruin the romance?"

[Lilygirl]

I'd have to reread the quest information for Free Time, but I'm sure I read that your heros don't gain any XP towards leveling up. The other stuff I'm not sure about as I haven't played my game past completing the first Ambition, but I think someone said on the forum somewhere that you lose everything in your inventory when you choose a hero to become the monarch of your next game (after completing the other quest - not the Free Time one - sorry, I can't remember the name).

[Saltypaws]

On my game I did not lose anything in my inventory when I started a new kingdom.  Now that was starting a new kingdom, I don't know if you lose anything when you play free time.  However, I did continue playing the kingdom that I was playing when I got the option to play the free one, so it just continued.

[Joria]

I completed the first kingdom and got to the choice of Free Play or make a new kingdom.  I wanted to make a new kingdom so sent the character I had chosen, (badly), off to do this with her little band of explorers.  So, I tried playing her.  Nothing left in her inventory and where were the rest of the people?  Plus the kingdom is a duplicate of the first one in all aspects, (starts with only the castle), with the same kind of quests etc. for building it up.  I'm stumped.  I really didn't want to just repeat the first learning bit but it seems that is what we are stuck doing.  Plus, on the map her kingdom is exactly the way her first one was between Crafthole and Trevonny.  (sp?)  What did I do wrong and how do I do a DIFFERENT kingdom?

Free play was fun but only for a very brief time, then it got boring.  So if you don't really gain anything from it, since I see I really couldn't bring my stuff with me to a new land, what's the point?  And what happened with patrolling and finding new countries?  Why can't you actually go there?  Or did I misunderstand something?

[WebbyMom]

You are right - it seems that you begin each Ambition with a new kingdom, which is a replica of the last kingdom except that you have moved over/made/chosen a new monarch.

When starting the second Ambition (I picked the "domination" one), I noticed that you didn't really have to re-do the first quest all over again. I did - stupidly. LOL But I noticed that when I moused over it, it gave me the tooltip that it would "disappear in two quests" (or something like that). In other words, that one would only stay around so long, and you didn't really have to start with it.

Characters don't gain XP or anything else in free play. They'll gain money and possessions, such as whichever fish they've caught or money they've earned from their job, etc. But if you decide to play another character in free play, you lose all that by quitting that quest. Weird? Yes. Good for story-telling only? Sure. 

It was not what I was expecting nor wanting. I wanted to take my first king further - expanding into new territories, gaining more resources, etc. I found out that just wasn't going to happen. Bummer.

However - it's not all dark and dreary.

The benefits are:

• You get to test new traits in a monarch (and all the other heroes) and see where they'll get you
• You get to choose a new "feel" or style for your castle and all other work places
• You get to test a new order of building placement relative to your Ambition
• It forces you out of the mold and into variety!

There are 12 Ambitions (I think... 12 or 13). That gives a lot of great gameplay to make sure each type of hero reaches a level 10 in their career so you can get their award for doing so. There are tons of other awards to concentrate on winning, too. It will probably take a few times through the game, with different personalities and Ambitions and choices along the way to do that. There may be more to the strategy part of this game than we think. 

And - here's the neat part - I noticed in the game files that there is a folder for "Installed Worlds". It's empty now - but if it's there, that means there will be new "worlds" or Kingdoms coming in future EP's. I think that's something pretty positive to look forward to.

In the meantime, we can perfect our strategies. 

[samoht04]

I would say not because my Blacksmith was on Free Play for a while before I started playing him and he had almost finished making something when I played him and he had an empty XP bar. My Monarch gets richer so your money does increase.