Monster Problems

[Feylonis]

If refreshing an island will make things better, I don't mind having resets.

People seem to want the old way of letting people conquer everything. 10 people running a 30 region realm is not going to happen again.

Well if Dwilight continues to shrink then maybe it is a good time to close it and be done with it. I know at least one person will be very happy about it. Tom.

I'm not sure if you're blind or unable to understand the argument. People already aren't conquering everything. More than half of the continent is not under the control of any realm. A border had been drawn -- everything west is rogue, everything east is playable. That obviously has not work, and the border was relaxed. What you are advocating has already been tried, and it has not worked.

Dwilight has, for the longest time, been the reason why I continue to play Battlemaster. It is the reason I chose to come back. Close it, and the game will hemorrhage even more players.

[Victor C]

Of course.... Offering realistic solutions is always a better option. Though, again, I don't see many. You offer no solution and you question when someone tries to resolve it?

No one was taking risks, no one was interacting. It was one giant peaceful island. Any new player was basically greeted by "oh hi! We're doing nothing, just sit there and play with a stick!"

You're leaving the Devs with these options:

Do nothing and watch the game die from infinite peace
Or
Try something and deal with complaints

You're supposed to be feeling pressure and this time is supposed to be difficult. Difficulty is what dwilight is supposed to be about, remember? Uncharted land with Daimons and stuff. Wasn't that fun?

What if down the road that happens again? When the player.base grows more, something similar happens? What if something better happens?

There is so much more opportunity that will be available and you're all not even giving it a chance to progress. If things remain the same, the situation is going to get worse. That is the fact you cannot refuse. It has been proven numerous times.

All the devs can do is try to help the game with what they know, trying to prevent the same things from happening again.

I see a lot of closed minds rejecting change, that never ends well... Not in real life, not in game either. Change allows for both improvement and failure, if you fear failure too much, you'll be stuck and nothing will progress.

[GundamMerc]

Of course.... Offering realistic solutions is always a better option. Though, again, I don't see many. You offer no solution and you question when someone tries to resolve it?

No one was taking risks, no one was interacting. It was one giant peaceful island. Any new player was basically greeted by "oh hi! We're doing nothing, just sit there and play with a stick!"

You're leaving the Devs with these options:

Do nothing and watch the game die from infinite peace
Or
Try something and deal with complaints

You're supposed to be feeling pressure and this time is supposed to be difficult. Difficulty is what dwilight is supposed to be about, remember? Uncharted land with Daimons and stuff. Wasn't that fun?

What if down the road that happens again? When the player.base grows more, something similar happens? What if something better happens?

There is so much more opportunity that will be available and you're all not even giving it a chance to progress. If things remain the same, the situation is going to get worse. That is the fact you cannot refuse. It has been proven numerous times.

All the devs can do is try to help the game with what they know, trying to prevent the same things from happening again.

I see a lot of closed minds rejecting change, that never ends well... Not in real life, not in game either. Change allows for both improvement and failure, if you fear failure too much, you'll be stuck and nothing will progress.

This isn't about change. This is about Dwilight becoming non-viable as a gaming community as a result of realm after realm being destroyed or having to completely focus on fighting monsters. Reducing the area available for players on Dwilight isn't a solution, because it goes against the very strength of Dwilight, which was its size. Dwilight is able to have isolated conflicts that are unlike the other continents because it is massive.

In addition, by artificially destroying realms using monsters to increase density (which it often fails to do through frustrated players quitting rather than moving), we are slowly coming to the point where we remove a core tenet of the game, that if you don't like a realm you can go elsewhere.

[Feylonis]

It already has progressed. Nearly half (the western half) of the realms in Dwilight were wiped out. Some people moved east; a lot quit the game entirely. More than a year was given for this solution to 'work'. It has not. Players have been voicing their discontent with the mechanic; they have been silenced, and quit. Something indeed has to change; the rogue mechanics forcibly pressuring outer realms is not working.

[Zakilevo]

It already has progressed. Nearly half (the western half) of the realms in Dwilight were wiped out. Some people moved east; a lot quit the game entirely. More than a year was given for this solution to 'work'. It has not. Players have been voicing their discontent with the mechanic; they have been silenced, and quit. Something indeed has to change; the rogue mechanics forcibly pressuring outer realms is not working.

Again. Suggest something more productive. I can complain about many things too. But I don't contribute much so I stay quiet. If you want to change things so badly, why not pick up php and html? There are crash courses you can take. And they are FREE. once you know how to do them, you can start fixing bugs. What does that even mean? You are freeing up more dev time for Vita` and Anaris for them to actually start implementing changes instead of fixing bugs.

Don't forget they are spending their LEISURE TIME to do this. They ain't getting a penny out of doing any of this. Maybe it is about time some of your complainers to start helping out with things that need to be done to get this game going?

[Sacha]

Turning down the spawn rates would be a start. Turning down the need to micromanage your realm to find that perfect balance between size and density would help too. Turning down micromanagement in general would help. The more you force realms to focus on their own problems, the less opportunity you give them to make problems for others.
 
IMHO, the game started going downhill when region maintenance became a numbers game. When I started playing, the main reason to choose a particular lord was the lord themselves. As a lord looking for knights to draw to his cause, my main concern was looking appealing to them; i.e. have a personality and ambitions that spoke to them. Now, knights are mainly just employees. I need them for tax efficiency, they need me to have an income. The game as a whole was more RP-driven 10 years ago because players didn't have to focus most of their playing time on managing their own realms.

You want suggestions? Get rid of estates as anything more than an RP flavor text, and bring back the old 'communist' tax systems. Simplify, man.

[Zakilevo]

I kind of agree with the whole estate thing. I don't give a damn who my lord is these days as long as I get paid 200 gold+.

Who cares about an awesome lord when I can get 200 gold anyway? Gold talks ^^

I think they tried to make lords and knights become closer through estates but I haven't really felt any attachment in a long while.

[Anaris]

I am working on some changes to how monsters on Dwilight work right now, based on conversation with Vita and Andrew on IRC.

The general thrust is this:

Monsters on Dwilight will be strongest within the greatest concentration of rogue regions. (Right now, obviously, this is the West.) Monsters coming from there will be stronger and smarter than monsters spawning elsewhere.

Please note that the "stronger and smarter" means, at least for now, that those monsters will be like the monsters you have been seeing, and monsters spawned outside that area are being nerfed.

Additionally, due to the way we will be representing "smarter" (since there was no differentiation in the past), all existing monsters, however strong they may be, will be considered "dumb" monsters by the game. They will continue with whatever goals they have right now, but then will exhibit classic monster behaviour: wander randomly, break stuff, eat peasants, occasionally start a TO.

Furthermore, the presence of civilization will itself have a taming effect on the monsters, a halo of sorts that will weaken monsters that spawn within the closest few regions to human realms.

A consequence of this (that we would be happy enough to have you "game", since it fits with any reasonable IC explanation for why the behaviour exists in the first place) is that if you can split up rogue areas, and cut them off from the main bulk of rogue regions in the West, you will make life at least somewhat easier for yourselves. So for instance, if Westgard is able to take and hold Ygg d'Razhuul, that will prevent smart monsters from spawning in any of the rogue regions between them and Arnor.

I'm nearly finished writing these changes now, and expect them to go live later today—most likely either just before or just after the sunset turn change.

[Anaris]

.....No comments on this?

Have you seen any noticeable change in the monster behaviour yet?

[Zakilevo]

.....No comments on this?

Have you seen any noticeable change in the monster behaviour yet?

Nothing noticeable yet. They are still crazy.

[Gabanus family]

.....No comments on this?

Have you seen any noticeable change in the monster behaviour yet?

I like the idea and am curious to see how it works out.

[Constantine]

Not sure what comments were expected.
So this change makes life easy for old half-dormant realms in the east. Good for them?

[Anaris]

I was mostly just surprised that discussion stopped so entirely, after it was so lively.

And I'm not sure what you expected. Realms on the frontier of Dwilight are monster-fighting realms. There was a brief period when this was not true, but for the majority of its life, that has been the reality. If you don't like playing in a monster-fighting realm, go to one of the "half-dormant realms in the east" and stir !@#$ up.

[Vita`]

Not sure what comments were expected.
So this change makes life easy for old half-dormant realms in the east. Good for them?

Because sarcastic replies are very helpful and appreciated. Again, no matter what is done, some will complain, rather than offer constructive criticism.

[Sacha]

Well I'm cautiously optimistic. I guess the trick is finding the right balance. But it'll take at least a couple weeks of observation before we can really say if the changes (if any) are good or bad.