Closing Islands ?

[egamma]

I agree with this in principle, but I strongly suspect that we would lose a lot of players if we did this. There are some players who've been around a while that only play on one island; close their island and they would just be gone, and then that only exacerbates the problem doesn't it?

If that's the only island they play on, then their loss would have no effect (positive or negative) on the player density of the other islands. Overall it would be a net increase in density.

[Geronus]

If that's the only island they play on, then their loss would have no effect (positive or negative) on the player density of the other islands. Overall it would be a net increase in density.

True. That said, I still worry that we'd also lose some people who play on multiple islands but consider one of them their favorite. This sort of hypothesis is pretty much impossible to prove though without surveying the player population, and I suspect that if we did a certain percentage of people would tell the survey that they would quit even if they ultimately didn't intend to in an effort to discourage the Devs from closing their particular favorite island.

[Alpha]

If my favorite island was just selected to be closed, I don't know if it would cause me to quit, but it would certainly make it more likely. I'd be far less likely to quit if it was closed after a long fight/invasion/blight, whatever is chosen.

[Blue Star]

Competition to not close a island?

I think that's a horrible idea. Character's will be highly motivated by OCC purposes aka saving the contient. Argue they won't but we all know it's very controversial either way.

If a Island closes, well better get on the wiki and record the history, though if it does, on a island my character is in I will gladly have one of them die on the island. A Captain always goes down with his ship, ya know.

Pick a island at random using a hat and pick out all except the one piece of paper containing the last contient and their we'll settle with that one. No matter what people are gonna leave, if they leave they leave we must move past it and keep going if they stay good for them lets create chaos in BM.

When a island closes 2 week notice is good enough. I will though be looting up until the very last day I can leave the island... can't leave without some goodies.

[Eduardo Almighty]

I will not quit BM if I lose an island. But I have at least one character I will miss a lot in all his content, including the environment of his island. I'm sure everyone or most of us have the same feeling about it when we are building histories.

While it can help, if it happens, I think it must be done as with the last war island, without invasions, just the feeling that their world is coming down. Let the people RP like crazy, move with their characters or simple let them die there to start a new one. But then, that would be good to have a second character in Dwilight.

I would like to see a war island once again. This is excellent to train good military minds and it can be good to spread more wars in another islands. It's much better than just attract old players. A war island will give a boost to the players we already have and increase the war spirit throughout the entire game.

[Vellos]

Competition ideas:

The continent with the single realm that controls the largest % of its regions will be closed.
The continent with the fewest battle casualties in the last 90 days will be closed.
The continent with the largest % of bilateral relations at alliance or federation will be closed.
The continent with the fewest auto da fes and persecution of nonbelievers in the last 90 days will be closed.
The continent with the smallest maximum single-region food stockpile will be closed.
The continent with the fewest active secret societies will be closed.
The continent with the fewest successful rebellions in the last year will be closed.

I could come up with these all day.

We could come up with maybe 20 or 30 things we'd like to see happening in BM, and make a scoreboard. Sure, you could game the hell out of it: but doing so would, in and of itself, create the kinds of events in game we like to see.

[Geronus]

I'm not in love with a lot of those ideas. Many of them will lead to rampant meta-gaming and in some cases could do serious damage to the game itself by artificially encouraging things like rebellions to be started constantly for OOC reasons, not IC ones. I mean, if you say something like "island with fewest rebellions gets sunk!" the next day you're going to have rebellions in half the realms in the game, all started for OOC meta-game reasons.

[Frostwood]

Crazy idea time:

I don't know how hard this is to program, but you could have the sunk island's realms arrive as an invasion force, with their armies still intact to the other non-sunk islands, and attempt to carve out a new realm on the island, using colony takeover mechanics, and the ability to setup a temporary capital  until they can conquer a city or townlands.  Thus realms can be preserved if they can destroy the original realms, or gain alliances.

There is already ghost realms without regions, so you could probably setup a ghost copy of the realms  on other islands.  This way you have a player invasion, which could change the dynamics of the islands.

[Swiftblade]

Why not a Battlemaster Apocalypse?

I have noticed that there is fighting on some islands, a lot of old rivalries and hatreds coming up, some splitting of the communitys.

Has anyone ever played the Heroes of Might and Magic Series? At the end of Heroes 3, the world implodes, and mages open up portals to another world where they have to move to.

My basic idea is an "Invasion" on all islands at once, kinda like the ones they have on belatuerra. Make them tough to stop. Realms will have to bad together to try and withstand. Some islands will be overrun and the remaining nobles will have to run to the other islands, that also have invasions going on. If the realms can't band together then the islands become over run with enemies, but the islands are still "there", and can be returned to. Whatever islands remain, standing will become the main islands that new characters can be created on. Lets say that all other islands but Atamara became overrun. All the nobles flocked there and drove the invasion from the face of the island. All other islands have been taken over. The density would be extremely high, there would be crowding, noble poverty, lack of armies. This would then cause others to band together to try and retake there lost lands. They may last a little while, be able to rebuild a few cities, but if those expeditions don't last then the density remains high. If the Expeditions last on another island then they earned the right, and other people will flock to them to help rebuild.

Also the intrigue, the maneuvering, everything would be insane.

If in fact, all islands become overrun, then create a new larger island that doesn't have an invasion, if people want to survive then they will escape to that land, try and remake their broken realms, and yet still have the ability to try and retake their lost lands.

I think a major overhaul needs to happen, and this seems like a good way to do it, increase density, and still leave the history intact, while creating new history, and an interesting one at that.

[Frostwood]

snip

Tom has repeatedly said no GM or random invasions, too much work.  Perhaps the OP should be updated in bold to avoid this.  It is a cool concept, but it is off the table.

[Ender]

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.

If modifying continents is too much of a hassle for the coders, though, just pick one and sink it if changing the size of the game is the best possible solution to fixing player density problems.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Honestly, I'm not liking any of these ideas. There is basically only one island I wouldn't miss, but that would be removed by moderator which has its own very fanatically devoted fanbase. I would probably leave if an island closed, or worse, there was some sort of "competition" regarding it. Talk about bringing out the worst in people, that's what competitions do.

[Velax]

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.

[egamma]

Tom said no island name-dropping, please respect that rule in this thread. Start a poll elsewhere if you want.

[vonGenf]

Competition to not close a island?

I think that's a horrible idea. Character's will be highly motivated by OCC purposes aka saving the contient. Argue they won't but we all know it's very controversial either way.

I entirely agree with this. The end result may be ok, but I wouldn't enjoy the process of the competition. It would not keep within the spirit of the game.