Lift Character Restriction on Dwilight?

[Stabbity]

Apparently you are unfamiliar with Morek's current diplomatic situation then :P

I am very aware of it, and can tell you, things can be done to fix the place. The war is a good start.

[Scarlett]

There are two reasons why this is hurting Dwilight.

The first is that everybody is a lord and so the feudal ladder has had rungs removed. Nobody has knights. This reduces the value of higher titles because there are so many to go around. When everybody is a Duke, Dukes ain't special.

The second is that everybody has only one or two neighbors rather than the four or five neighbors you might have on other continents. Combine this with the difficulty of moving long distances (however justified it may be) and you have incentivized everyone to park themselves in the richest region they can find and send money home to their family rather than doing anything, because doing anything takes much longer and it is pretty difficult to have an impact. Not impossible as there are some dedicated players there who will work around these things.

The rule was a worthy experiment and would be a good idea were the player population twice what it is. I don't have a pony in the race and you could make a case that the damage this rule does is worth the benefit it brings .. rather than plugging your ears and insisting that it doesn't cause any harm.

[vonGenf]

The rule was a worthy experiment and would be a good idea were the player population twice what it is. I don't have a pony in the race and you could make a case that the damage this rule does is worth the benefit it brings .. rather than plugging your ears and insisting that it doesn't cause any harm.

Dwilight is still the place I have the most fun playing, by far. I don't know how much the one-player rule is a cause of that. It's certainly not the only cause, and it could very well be that it is in fact a minor aspect. However I still prefer to keep what sets Dwilight apart rather than uniformising it with the other continents, because I fear that the only way it can go is down.

[Stabbity]

I feel if we allow two nobles on Dwilight the place will soon be overrun with alts that no one cares about who are just there to lead troops and hold an estate. I don't want more worthless Knights on Dwilight. Part of the reason Dwilight is interesting is because everyone only has one character there to focus their play on the continent. The stakes are somewhat higher as a result.

[Dante Silverfire]

I agree 100% with Stabbity. The important thing about Dwilight is that there are NO nobles who are simply there to wield a sword while another character of that player actually is a real RP'ed character.

That is what makes Dwilight unique and we ought not to lose that.

Ideally we'd spread the 1 character per continent rule to all continents.

[Stabbity]

I agree 100% with Stabbity. The important thing about Dwilight is that there are NO nobles who are simply there to wield a sword while another character of that player actually is a real RP'ed character.

That is what makes Dwilight unique and we ought not to lose that.

Ideally we'd spread the 1 character per continent rule to all continents.

Ehhhhhhh I'd hate ALL continents to have it. I like playing two characters on the same island from time to time. 

[Geronus]

There are two reasons why this is hurting Dwilight.

The first is that everybody is a lord and so the feudal ladder has had rungs removed. Nobody has knights. This reduces the value of higher titles because there are so many to go around. When everybody is a Duke, Dukes ain't special.

You are ignoring the fact that the overall character count in Battlemaster is basically a zero sum game. There are only so many players and so many characters, and this restriction or the lifting thereof will logically have little to no effect on that issue. Therefore, if you lift this restriction on Dwilight, all the extra characters that you hope will appear are going to come mostly at the expense of other islands if they come at all. If they come in large enough numbers to address the problem you've identified here, you're probably going to end up creating that very same problem on some other island(s) as a result. Considering the size of Dwilight, truly ameliorating this issue would probably involve stripping several other islands bare of characters, so the more likely result of ending the one-character limit is that it doesn't make much of a difference on Dwilight but does have a discernible negative impact elsewhere.

[Indirik]

...you could make a case that the damage this rule does is worth the benefit it brings .. rather than plugging your ears and insisting that it doesn't cause any harm.

I will agree that, from a certain perspective, this rule could be considered to be "hurting Dwilight". There is definitely a lower character count on Dwilight than there could be if we lifted the rule. We could potentially see player densities as high as other islands if we did. And to be completely truthful, the lower player densities do have a negative effect on the island.

For myself, though, I think that the disadvantages of the lower player density are well worth what we get in return. From a player standpoint you get the knowledge that each character is a unique character with their individual motivations. You don't get the zombies, alts, and second-character-sheeple which drive those higher densities. You generally don't have those secret ties between realms that are defined and cast in concrete due to second characters in the other realm. (Yes, you can still have secret alliances. But secret alliances worked out between multiple players are much, much different than secret alliances that exist because John Doe plays the power character that runs two different realms.) You don't get realms propped up by 5 of the 7 players in the realm bringing in a second character. (Although you still do get those people that start an advy, move him to their realm, and then use that advy as a proxy for their noble under the guise of "I'm Lord Kepler's messenger"...  >:( )

The first is that everybody is a lord and so the feudal ladder has had rungs removed. Nobody has knights. This reduces the value of higher titles because there are so many to go around. When everybody is a Duke, Dukes ain't special.

I partially agree with this. We do have a lot of lords. But then again, a lot of players don't bother going for those higher offices simply because they don't want the hassle/responsibility. I have passed up multiple council positions and influential religious positions simply because I don't have the time, even on other islands with higher character densities. I would bet that almost every other player does the same thing. Dropping the one-character restrictions may slightly increase competition for positions on Dwilight a bit. But it would also drop competition on other islands as well, as people leave those islands to bring a second character to Dwilight.

So yes, I agree that there are some negative aspects to the one-character rule for Dwilight. But I think the positive aspects it brings to Dwilight more than compensate, resulting in a net positive. If you don't like the resulting lower player density, then there are plenty of other islands to choose from.

[Scarlett]

To be fair, it isn't the 'one character per player' rule necessarily that is hurting the feudal hierarchy, it's just the shortage of characters of which this rule is one but hardly the only cause. Yes you do get zombie alts on other continents but my experience is that most people legitimately want to have two separate experiences, as we've all see how two realms on the same continent can be like playing two different games - just as a single realm with only 15 people in it is pretty dull even if those 15 people are good players. You can't have really interesting politics when a voting bloc is three people.

[Stabbity]

I feel being restricted to a single experience at a time on Dwilight is part of its allure. You get really unique cultures as a result, and they feel more than just tacked on oddities written about in dialogue than anything else. Dwilight is one of the few places where you can have culture shock when interacting with different realms.

[Geronus]

To be fair, it isn't the 'one character per player' rule necessarily that is hurting the feudal hierarchy, it's just the shortage of characters of which this rule is one but hardly the only cause. Yes you do get zombie alts on other continents but my experience is that most people legitimately want to have two separate experiences, as we've all see how two realms on the same continent can be like playing two different games - just as a single realm with only 15 people in it is pretty dull even if those 15 people are good players. You can't have really interesting politics when a voting bloc is three people.

The real solution to this is to increase the player count, but I think we all know that that's a problem. Unfortunately, it's not one with an easy fix, but it is one that has been discussed elsewhere.

[Chenier]

I like the status quo.

[Perth]

I like the rule.

The benefits outweigh the negatives of it. I don't think removing the rule on Dwilight would add much anything of value.

[Tiridia]

If the issue is noble density in available regions, there is the other variable too. You could always reduce available regions. If noble count increases, free them.

Do this by tweaking monster spawns. Increase until balance is found, then decrease. Let weak realms die and become wildlands.

[Daycryn]

^I do like the idea of increased spawns. Dwilight should be something of a dangerous wilderness anyway.