Closing Islands ?

[vonGenf]

If putting the blight in the game is so easy because it just requires a cloud over the map, that still more or less fits with the idea of shrinking continents by just making regions unavailable. To use my examples again, blight clouds = storm clouds over flooded regions, smoke clouds over lava regions, or just use blight and call it unknown black magic or the result of something nefarious that spread as a result of the invasions on BT.

This would have the advantage of keeping most realms viable.

I've checked the number for the EC (random example). If you just flooded all coastal regions, these number of regions would disappear:


             Towns   Townlands     Rurals
Perdan      2       0              4
Sirion        1       0              10
Caligus      2       0              6
Obsidian Islands    Wiped out      
Westmoor 0       0              2
Nivemus    1       0              4
Eponllyn    0       0              2
Armonía    1       0              4
Fallangard 1       0              1

The islands could be kept to avoid killing OI. Otherwise, the EC would be left with 82 regions instead of 123.

The map wouldn't really need to be redrawn. You could add a cloud over the coastal regions, and eventually have it recede in a few years if it is thought warranted.

[vonGenf]

To be clear, I propose that this be done to more than one continent.

[Stabbity]

Not a bad plan though it has to be done with some care. Wiping out only coastal regions would unbalance a continent like Atamara. Wipe all the coastal regions of Atamara and you might as well rename the continent to "Caligamara".

[Wolfang]

Best idea so far von Genf imo. This would have the effect of concentrating players on less land.

Another way I believe this could be achieved is by increasing rogue spawning (and bigger rogue spawns) depending on the continents (I think different continents should have different values for rogue spawns). This would have the effect of increasing rogue regions, the loss of territories for nations that don't have enough nobles until they reach a higher density in nobles as they lose land.

It would be touch and feel to see how strong the rogue spawns should be, maybe gradually increasing them until the desired effect is achieved or making it seasonal.

[trying]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of closing down an island. If FEI were to be sunk, for example, I'd quit, as I've invested far too much time into that island to want to start all over again. That would, in turn, remove my three characters on other islands.

I have no doubt that other people feel just as strongly about other islands.

Well would you stay if you "won" the island?

[Stabbity]

Well would you stay if you "won" the island?

No one wins in the game of thrones!

[Indirik]

Increasing rogue spawn prmanently wouldn't really work. BattleMaster works bestas a PvP game. Turning it into PvM would really change the nature of the game.

[Tiridia]

Introduce... dragons!

As we know, they like to inhabit desolate areas. The more desolate the region is, the higher the risk of attracting a dragon. So if a region is rogue and surrounded by only rogue, it has a very high risk of attracting a dragon. Ie. the region is blighted, but just with a dragon symbol or some such. But the dragon might move too, to a region nearby with the same requirements. Regions with a dragon tend to spawn more monsters, so it would be slightly more dangerous to live next to a dragon.

But the dragon itself would never attack troops. Though it could snatch peasants and cattle now and then around its lair.

Low noble density attracts dragons and if the density rises, some of them will just fly away.

[Blue Star]

Increasing rogue spawn prmanently wouldn't really work. BattleMaster works bestas a PvP game. Turning it into PvM would really change the nature of the game.

You have to admit a little Pve is not bad. It gives newer players the chance to build up some h/p when realms aren't at war and even gives players a chance who are usually maintenance to be active in the cleansing of them. Increase the rate would not turn this into a pve game. No fun in fighting npcs.

It would just give players a chance to obtain "Extra" h/p, but in no way should that be the main focus for a realm if the realm is smart it will encourage new players to go get them at first... though stomping monster is fun.

mm also the idea of limiting New players to going to certain islands until they've stayed in game for a duration or such, would not be ideal simply because that limits them. Though if a rotation schedule was worked out I can see it being beneficial. Perhaps, everyone who joins on a certain day(s) has their first char go to X Continent and it changes accordingly, but does not limit them from choosing their second char placement afterward.

[Foxglove]

Going back to directly answer this:

Now stop derailing this discussion. I am still looking for comments on which approaches would be more acceptable and which ones less, and there are many valuable comments so far.

I think most people (including me) see completely closing an island as the less acceptable, or completely unacceptable, approach. I think it would cause some players to leave the game, and driving existing players away is only going to do further harm to the game.

A more acceptable approach would be to reduce the existing regions on all islands by some magical explanation that's acceptable from a workload point-of-view for the Devs. I'm not in favour of the idea of flooding coastal regions, because it would virtually wipe out several realms on most islands (Caergoth, Kindara, Coralynth, Obsidian Islands, Barony of Maker, Suville, etc). If a region reduction approach was taken, the regions would have to be carefully chosen for balance, and it would have to happen slowly enough for the players to adjust to it, rather than as an overnight event.

I'd also consider the original island merger idea to be possibly acceptable, but not in the way it was originally presented. If it did happen, I'd prefer to see the closed island stay on the merged map and for it to be possible for people on the open island to make expeditionary attempts to recolonize the closed island. Anaris has said he's willing to work on improved undead/monster AI and goal-seeking, and he would enjoy the coding, so why not have the closed island overrun by more aggressive and intelligent undead/monsters once the humans have abandoned it? Then, if several realms band together it might be possible for them to sail to the closed island and beat back the monsters/undead to carve out some areas of the closed island for recolonization. Keeping the closed island in view of the players, and able to be partly recolonized through great efforts, would be great from a RP point-of-view (exiled realms seeking to regain their lost lands, or original realms on the open island launching monster hunting crusades into the closed island), and it also retains some of the large-scale PvE gameplay that appears to have been popular with players in the past. Heck, it might even increase the fun level. Plus, the closed island wouldn't just sink and its history totally disappear from the game, but be available to be fully reopened in the future when the player base grows. At the minimum, I see that as being more acceptable than just having an island vanish.

Anyhow, of the things discussed so far, I think those are the only options that I'd feel were acceptable.

[Miriam Ics]

One thing that I have been thinking is about a talk we had at IRC recently.
Someone (Delvin must remember who), suggested that, those who donate over x, could have the account locked for no deletion even if auto paused.
I really like this idea and believe that some old players would come back if they still could have the old account active.
Or maybe could be: if you donate for x month and / or if you played for 2 years non stop, you can guarantee your account will not be deleted for inactivity or any other reason.

Another suggestion would be to have the old players to be able to start differently than a new player.
New players need time to learn the game and get used to it. Old players want to do everything but they must act as a new one.

[Poliorketes]

You want less regions? Put 10-15 'resident' monster hordes on every wood or mountain region! You know, in a lot of tales the woods are haunted, and the mountains are troll infested!

For sure this would left the regions empty and rogue!  :P

[egamma]

We could also merge regions. Rather tricky, I know, but you wouldn't have to redraw the maps, and you could just undo it if/when player count increases.

[loren]

And you completely ignored the entire history of the game. Let's see, the EAST island is called that because? Anyone got an idea?

Because in SpellMaster there were three islands, East South and West.  The east Island was eponymous the eastern island of the three. The south island was actually the War-Islands (hence south-west, and south-east) The colonies map is actually the West Island map.  It's also why there was a Lich King character there for a time as there was a Lich King character in SpellMaster.

Any other questions?

[Stabbity]

Because in SpellMaster there were three islands, East South and West.  The east Island was eponymous the eastern island of the three. The south island was actually the War-Islands (hence south-west, and south-east) The colonies map is actually the West Island map.  It's also why there was a Lich King character there for a time as there was a Lich King character in SpellMaster.

Any other questions?

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