Contracts and negotiation

Evaluate the assignment before accepting

The archive contains 50 contract templates, from deliveries and patrols to camp attacks, hunts, arena matches and crisis missions. The contract index lists each script type. It does not imply that every template is currently available: settlement, campaign, crisis, location and DLC state can change the offers and objectives.

Read the objective and inspect the destination and expected opposition before you accept. The contract index summarizes each template’s scripted goals, offer context, threats, payment structure and branches. Travel can consume supplies, recruits may need recovery, and a reward is not a guarantee that a fight is profitable. The early-contract guide compares common job types and gives a cautious first-company checklist.

Why new offers may be delayed

The employer’s open contracts and recent activity affect when it can issue another offer. A noble house can have one open contract and must wait more than three in-game days after issuing one before becoming ready again.

A civilian settlement’s open-contract limit matches its size: one, two or three. Its usual wait after issuing a contract is five, four or three days respectively. On campaign day one, the cooldown wait is skipped when an open slot is available.

An Oriental city-state can have up to two open contracts through campaign day five and up to three from day six onward. After issuing one, it must wait more than four in-game days before it is ready to issue another.

Meeting these conditions only makes the employer ready for another offer. It does not guarantee that an offer appears immediately or determine which job it will be.

Understand the payment fields

The contract configuration defines separate multipliers for payment on completion (1.0), payment in advance (0.75) and a per-head component (0.05). These are calculation inputs, not a universal quoted payout; each contract builds its reward from its own settings and campaign state. Check the actual offer and objective text.

Negotiation settings include maximum annoyance 9, annoyance gain between 3 and 6, and a 10% refusal-chance constant. Repeated counteroffers can therefore change the negotiation state and can be refused. The data does not justify a single “always counter X times” rule for all contracts.

Worked example: Drive Off Brigands

This template sets a seven-day virtual-time timeout and chooses a bandit camp nearest to the settlement offering the contract. Its objective is to clear that camp, then return to the settlement. The script creates defenders and scales their strength and camp resources with contract difficulty; it is not simply a promise to remove the camp’s current occupants.

The reward pool starts from 550 crowns, then applies the contract’s payment, difficulty and company-reputation multipliers. In 33% of contract starts, the script sets its internal advance/completion shares to 25%/75%; otherwise it assigns the full share to completion. Global advance and completion payment settings further affect the crowns paid, so use the actual offer and negotiation result.

At difficulty up to 1.15, a non-event camp’s existing loot is cleared when the contract is prepared. Do not accept this job solely to claim loot you have already spotted there. At business reputation of at least 500 and difficulty of at least 0.95, a separate 20% roll can add a randomly named Robber Baron; above 600 reputation, a further roll can add a bounty hunter. On contract close, the home settlement’s Ambushed Trade Routes situation remains for four days.

See event scripts and the world-event system for campaign events that can overlap with travel and crisis contracts.