Save the Colonies!!!

[Revan]

Save the Colonies? This has an easy answer. If/when Minas Thalion next take Irdalni, the Duke of Alowca should switch allegiance to them. Minas Thalion are proving that they're about the only realm who can hold a candle to Lukon in terms of military organisation and well, how could it not be a good thing if Lukon got it's first proper rival in a while? Hopefully the leadership of Oritolon would then make a hasty about face, relinquish claims on the lost lands and work with Minas Thalion to take Lukon city.

I actually tried to play devils advocate with my other character on the matter with Duke Pyran. He'd been making noises about secession due to the poor war effort after all, but alas, he's stonewall Oritolonian. Probably won't happen. But I do think that'd shake things up a fair bit. And Giblot would definitely end up with the space she needs to reassert herself up north.

Failing all that, my impression is that the Lukon-Oritolon relationship is inexorably falling apart so there are bound to be some interesting things happening eventually! Especially with it looking unlikely that Minas Thalion will get rolled over any time soon. It seems like that nest of anti-Oritolon/Lukon feeling is here to stay.

Snooping around the map, the Lendan Stones, Arak Castle, and the Arrakir, don't have region IDs. Or not anymore. Or...if they do they are really out there random somewhere that make no logical sense in the format of the rest of the map.

The Colonies map is the only one that could definitely use a graphical upgrade though.

I'm certain Arak Castle and Arrakir belonged to Lukon when I first started playing. Their removal was probably something to do with the Lich King. Tom was a vengeful god back then. The bridges that link Assassins to Helsera and Briarull to Hilly Holes were put in to try and relieve the relentless pressure on Outer Tilog too. Something to give Giblot another outlet and presumably, stop things getting stale. Happening in 2005 I think. It's mentioned in the GGG somewhere, anyway.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

There's a possibility that the smaller player pool may be linked to the fact that there is only one turn per day. Also, the rather less graphically nice looking map.

[STiAle]

the Duke of Alowca should switch allegiance to [Minas Thalion]

Never gonna happen

[Duke Pyran]'d been making noises about secession due to the poor war effort after all, but alas, he's stonewall Oritolonian.

And the ruling family of Warmanoras has now become a die-hard MT hater since MT's ill-considered raid to the region, not to mention the fact that Ori's PM has an estate in Warmanoras. MT will get a brutal taste of Ori's long standing tradition of political struggle if Alowca joins them. ;D That will be interesting for Ori & MT players, but doesn't really change things for other realms.

[steelabjur@aol.com]

My biggest issue with the Colonies is the travel times when combined with one turn a day turn battles into once a month activities at most, especially once the roads decay from battle. For example, let's say Vladamire Abjur has a unit of 100 men and no scouts and wants to travel to Ammersfield from OTC (due to Outer Tilog's ongoing war with Giblot, this particular path has become familiar stomping grounds to me). The most direct route is Outer Tilog - Rollsovar - Ammersfield, which looks like a fairly small trip right? That movement would take him roughly 50 hours, or 8 turns. That means that move will take literally more that a week real time to perform. A week to travel through one region. That's not including the return trip (which, if there is any wounded, is going to take even longer and there is going to be wounded guaranteed from the starvation in the area). I know that things are supposed to move slower in the Colonies, but that's a touch ridiculous, don't you think? Turns things into a slog and it's hard to keep things interesting when most of your time is spent in the middle of moving to the place where action is (hopefully) going to happen. Fighting the Giblot nobles is easy, the real fight comes not from their army but from their regions!
Ran into a similar problem in the Assassins, moving across those bridges from the Bakker Woods to the eastern regions we gained is a pain in the neck. It's practically the same amount of time spent to move from DC to Koolaris via the bridges as it is to travel south to Steepglades first and then head north from there, and that method is almost always the better choice tactically (it's easier to keep an army cohesive over shorter 1-2 turn "hops" than it is trying to move it over a long multi-turn path). Makes maintaining Helsera and Koolaris difficult as well for Courtiers.

Personally, I'd do away with the roads (due to there supposedly being "very little infastructure outside of the main cities" already being one of the main causes of their being only one turn a day in the colonies) and take a look at slashing travel times generally. I'd also consider making it harder to control regions outside of those bordering the various Capitals, the aforementioned lack of infrastructure again making it harder to control places just outside of a realms' easy reach and thus making succession/colony takeovers a more attractive option to empire building. Hopefully it would also encourage tribute-type war concessions as opposed to wars of annexation. Realms that really hated each other could still wipe the other off the map, but it would be better to setup a new realm in their place as opposed to try to rule the regions themselves. I really think that would make the Colonies play more like how they're described to be than how they currently play now while making them unique and fun in their own way.

[Somra]

Other than that awesome skeleton-spawning spazzed out failure on taking OT city back when (with the 'Assassins Colony' implosive massacre), I haven't seen anything really assist the unique culture of the Colonies for a fair while. And the Lich King has had plenty of time to prepare since his last excursion..
So yeah, definitely up for having him wake up from his nap.

As far as the Lenden Stones, they were the very first thing I really focused on when I started playing years back. They've always been a bit special to me; So, so long as whatever is attributed to them is added in well, I'll be pleased with their improved integration into the game. Of course, I also did some extensive RPing of there being Rhinos out at the Stones.. A tribute of some sort to that would be lovely <3

[Valast]

I'm certain Arak Castle and Arrakir belonged to Lukon when I first started playing. Their removal was probably something to do with the Lich King. Tom was a vengeful god back then. The bridges that link Assassins to Helsera and Briarull to Hilly Holes were put in to try and relieve the relentless pressure on Outer Tilog too. Something to give Giblot another outlet and presumably, stop things getting stale. Happening in 2005 I think. It's mentioned in the GGG somewhere, anyway.

Nope never belonged to Lukon.  BUT it did come active one time.  But just once in the 8+ years of playing there

[Chenier]

My biggest issue with the Colonies is the travel times when combined with one turn a day turn battles into once a month activities at most, especially once the roads decay from battle. For example, let's say Vladamire Abjur has a unit of 100 men and no scouts and wants to travel to Ammersfield from OTC (due to Outer Tilog's ongoing war with Giblot, this particular path has become familiar stomping grounds to me). The most direct route is Outer Tilog - Rollsovar - Ammersfield, which looks like a fairly small trip right? That movement would take him roughly 50 hours, or 8 turns. That means that move will take literally more that a week real time to perform. A week to travel through one region. That's not including the return trip (which, if there is any wounded, is going to take even longer and there is going to be wounded guaranteed from the starvation in the area). I know that things are supposed to move slower in the Colonies, but that's a touch ridiculous, don't you think? Turns things into a slog and it's hard to keep things interesting when most of your time is spent in the middle of moving to the place where action is (hopefully) going to happen. Fighting the Giblot nobles is easy, the real fight comes not from their army but from their regions!
Ran into a similar problem in the Assassins, moving across those bridges from the Bakker Woods to the eastern regions we gained is a pain in the neck. It's practically the same amount of time spent to move from DC to Koolaris via the bridges as it is to travel south to Steepglades first and then head north from there, and that method is almost always the better choice tactically (it's easier to keep an army cohesive over shorter 1-2 turn "hops" than it is trying to move it over a long multi-turn path). Makes maintaining Helsera and Koolaris difficult as well for Courtiers.

Personally, I'd do away with the roads (due to there supposedly being "very little infastructure outside of the main cities" already being one of the main causes of their being only one turn a day in the colonies) and take a look at slashing travel times generally. I'd also consider making it harder to control regions outside of those bordering the various Capitals, the aforementioned lack of infrastructure again making it harder to control places just outside of a realms' easy reach and thus making succession/colony takeovers a more attractive option to empire building. Hopefully it would also encourage tribute-type war concessions as opposed to wars of annexation. Realms that really hated each other could still wipe the other off the map, but it would be better to setup a new realm in their place as opposed to try to rule the regions themselves. I really think that would make the Colonies play more like how they're described to be than how they currently play now while making them unique and fun in their own way.

Which makes me wonder... Are there ever any battles on the colonies? They must be rather small, as the colonies have poor regions mostly and people have to limit their recruitment so that they can pay them for 2-3 weeks.

On top of the "twice the travel times, half the hours, hours the turns" I already stated, I'll add that core things like tax and payment working the same as elsewhere pretty much made it unplayable to me.

I did try the colonies a few times. Left, then came back. The 1 turn per day wasn't what bothered it, it's all of the rest that did.

[steelabjur@aol.com]

Which makes me wonder... Are there ever any battles on the colonies? They must be rather small, as the colonies have poor regions mostly and people have to limit their recruitment so that they can pay them for 2-3 weeks.

On top of the "twice the travel times, half the hours, hours the turns" I already stated, I'll add that core things like tax and payment working the same as elsewhere pretty much made it unplayable to me.

I did try the colonies a few times. Left, then came back. The 1 turn per day wasn't what bothered it, it's all of the rest that did.

There are, but they are very infrequent against other players. Travel time plus one turn a day makes getting places a headache, especially in areas that have seen frequent battle/looting and have bad roads as a result. Lukon can field an impressive army, and Giblot and Outer Tilog aren't slouches in a pinch either. The Assassins army was never very big for that reason though, and I can't speak for MT or Orits military capabilities.
I tend to go with a throwaway method of troop recruitment, the honor loss for losing them due to not paying doesn't bother me (rather I try to offset it with what I gain from battle), so I load up as many high quality troops as I can afford to get to the front and just worry about getting them into battle, I set my unit to 90% retreat as default and use them to grind down the enemy. If any of my men survive, I use them to hunt and loot as much as I can first rather than worry about saving them for their training, cohesion, or the like. I fight tooth and nail for every scrap and try to make any victory by my enemy as costly as I can.

[Zane]

More magic in the Colonies would be great fun.  A wildcard like magic could do very nicely complimenting the quirky, rather eccentric nature of the Colonies.

I've never had a problem with the 1 turn per day, but then again, I've been playing a priest there for years so turns mean almost nothing to my play.

[Chenier]

More magic in the Colonies would be great fun.  A wildcard like magic could do very nicely complimenting the quirky, rather eccentric nature of the Colonies.

I've never had a problem with the 1 turn per day, but then again, I've been playing a priest there for years so turns mean almost nothing to my play.

Haha, yea. I remember now, last time I was on the colonies... I *wanted* to become a priest of Shadowism. But go figure, they didn't want to let me, because some dude heard bad rumors of things the family could have done on Beluaterra. That's pretty much when I decided to pack up and leave, and that was my last attempt to try to set up on that continent. I had tried to get involved in Outer Tilog a few times, but always ended up bored to death. The amount of RP was absolutely below what is often advertised, and the little that was RPed at the time were mostly isolated random narratives of "this is funny because it's gory".

Come to think of it, my experiences with the Colonies suggests that it has a very similar player culture to AT's. Same trends for clear-cut divisions into stereotypes, importance of sillyness in humor, tensions frequent if not constant but battles much more sporadic, etc.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Once upon a glorious dream, there was a nobleman's player, hidden betwixt the horrors and the Rock, scheming that upon the perusal of items in Assassins, seeing as only but a stronghold was left remaining, no path would there be for the useful defeat of information upon emigration through the city or townsland, so as to bring shame and honor upon them all.

[Tom]

   
• Magic & Magic scrolls: I have had two scrolls total... ever, used them and they fizzled saying my skill with that wasn't sufficient or something like that.  Drop more scrolls exponentially or introduce something else that proliferates magic and it's use on the Colonies so that our skills with them do increase and they have an actual effect in game.

I actually like that. We don't yet have an island that is different in magic.

Once the new travellers system is on stable, it would actually be feasable to have a lot more wizards on Colonies than on other islands, thus making scrolls easier to get.

[feyeleanor]

I say give the Lukon players what they want: a decent apocalypse  ;)

[Thanatos]

Hell yeah!... Apocalypse is  always a good idea!! :D

but seriously.... I don't think adding anything in game is really the issue, although some cool additions would be welcome .... travel time is too slow and as mentioned already it just plain takes  to long to get across the island and people get bored waiting over a week just to get next door,  cutting down the time it takes to get anywhere would increase the amount of battles per month and keep more people around.... the way it ist now we're lucky to see a good fight once a month, if that....failing that idea, a warp portal from Portion to Giblot and Alebad would work for us ; )

More fights per month...and more people will stick around for sure, right now we get people join every month and leave out of utter boredom because they can't be bother to travel for 10-14 days just to find our prey has run away and we have to loot an empty region and turn around for another 10-14day trip home... no fun at all there....

Making the regions easier to manage would free more people up for combat too....I know its all part of the game to have to constantly manage regions and its not to say thats a bad thing, it isn't...adds to the realism and makes it more than just a wargame, BUT... with the lack of players on the colonies it makes it harder and sometimes impossible for some realms to wage war and keep their regions stable at the same time....again, less fighting, less action....more people leaving the colonies out of boredom.


as far as people making political changes in the game and re-wiring alliances and wars to make things more interesting.....not so much goona happen I don't think, we all wanna kill who we wanna kill ;) ...long term friends and enemies have been made and we all want to see the outcome of our alliances and wars.....it just takes to damn long to get to where we need to go to kill the people we want to....and half the realm can't come anyway...cuz we have to little players to keep regions from revolting while we're away trying to keep our realms and the island alive with some action.

Big battles and constant fighting is what keeps people around and keeps them into it and not loosing interest... making colony regions easier to maintain and by doing so freeing up more people to fight, and making the travel times and therefore the trips to the battles faster would put some action back in there, and that's what it is seriously lacking at the moment, and why people leave.

Another Liche King rampage, wizards, whatever else would all be cool, but the main problem is the drag and waiting time involved between fights.....any fights.... we can chase undead around or chase realms around, but if it is going to continue to take so long to get from point A to where we get to kill stuff....then I don't see anything really changing as far as more players wanting to stick around long term......that's my 3 cents on it anyway ; )


PS: if you are goona do anything crazy.....the jk about the portal from Portion to Giblot... would be a nice one   ::)  heh

[Tom]

So basically, speed up travel and things are good? That's literally 30 seconds and two database queries.