Closing Islands ?

[Foxglove]

FEI roleplays happen in fits and starts. It all depends on whether the players have the time to write them. Kindara used to be a massive roleplaying realm where you'd see 10-20 full length RPs per day. I believe both Cathay and Sorraine have had large numbers of RPs in the past.

[Indirik]

Sorraine did for a little while, but then someone left, and someone else switched realms, and on or two paused... it's still a fairly active realm, but not an RP haven.

[Tiridia]

...and then again, writing messages with a tag "roleplay" does not equal roleplaying. An ordinary letter written in character is just as much roleplaying. As long as the characters seem like medieval nobles, then you are playing in a roleplaying environment. Or, should I say, SMA environment.

I have long wished the message tag would be changed to something more appropriate such as "narrative". :)

[de Aquitane]

mm coming to fei I personally haven't seen much role playing, is there a certain realm your referring to?

To be honest my experiences from FEI are quite outdated. A few years back it used to be considered the more roleplay heavy enviroment, and from my recent half year stroll there a while back I still think it's the island where the charecters are furthest away from the players themselves.

But if the continent is no longer considered the RP haven of silly actions, it should play as a choice for the block too.

[SaDiablo]

well if your going to have to sink islands, then the islands that sink will have players moving into islands with established realms which results them starting over.  I think something larger needs to be done that can satisfy many parties. It would still have its cons, you can't prevent it and it may take some work and be a challenge but I think the overall pros would outweigh the cons.

Dwilight as an island should stay but it should import realms from the colonies.  The Lich King could cast a spell to do this but its so big and risky it has adverse affects such as sinking parts of Dwilight, non capitals and has part of the colonies and BT rise in its place.  In the Middle of the map you can have the Lich Kings Island, unreachable to the nobility but it can send off random attacks similiar to the BT invasions.  Just a chaotic point some realms would have to deal with.  Combining those realms puts in a unique diversity and can keep a realm like Outer Tilog flowing.

BT should be sunk, its not an island for new players to reach easily and lets be honest and declare the undead/monsters victorious and the gods sink the island in response to it.

FEI was created to be a roleplay island, I don't believe it ever achieved that and it is also the smallest island via the number of regions. Its a good option to end but live at the same time.  The character base there is more chaotic than other realms which is good.

Combine it with EC would bring it up to size with Atamara.

Combining EC with FEI could prove impossible due to shapes but then you could just divide into four sections and combine into something completely insane.  Have majority of regions go rogue from this. 

Atamara by itself is large enough to stand alone imo.  But it should still feel the effects of the other islands.  A large invasion of undead/monsters to destroy as much as possible and to show the gods they didn't quite succeed in destroying all the undead/monsters from BT.

That creates 3 islands but allows you to feasibility keep old histories while new histories are written.

and if this was brought up I apologize but there is 30 pages of comments and that is a lot to read.

[trying]

You clearly didn't read the part where Tom said
no new maps

[Gustav Kuriga]

You clearly didn't read the part where Tom said
no new maps

He didnt advocate a new map

[Anaris]

FEI is the roleplay island.

For about the 480th time:

This has not been true for years. The FEI has no special features to it (except seasons, for some reason).

[Naidraug]

Would  be good to post this on the game News Ticker. A link to this post, would help a lot of people to be part of the discussion.

Also, if we sunk 1 or 2 islands, and start a big migration, it would be interesting to reset all islands, make all equal. I think it would be fun think, everyone start realms from scratch an has the oportunity to create new cultures on the game.

[trying]

He didnt advocate a new map

Yes he did. He wants maps to be merged creating a new map.

[Indirik]

No resets. Half the players would instantly quit. At least.

[Kwanstein]

You lost half the player base already, when you decided on using the same maps, no resets, for over a decade. Things don't stay fresh that long, you shouldn't expect them to, and it's evident that things, beginning around 2009-2011, got real tired out. There was suddenly a lack of enthusiasm amongst the player base, with less wars, less realms, less players. This is the most obvious reason for the decline, and it ought to be what you address if you intend on fixing things.

[Naidraug]

No resets. Half the players would instantly quit. At least.

So what is the plan to retain the players that will "lose"  their island?

BM need a fresh start, a little more support, a mobile version to help people to stay connected and avoid  pausing when travelling (risking the loss of interest when they return)

Right now most of the player retention responsability is on the player not the game.

Now there is the chance to change this, because there is no point on deleting one or more islands if nothing is done to keep the interest of old and new players.

[Anaris]

So what is the plan to retain the players that will "lose"  their island?

BM need a fresh start, a little more support, a mobile version to help people to stay connected and avoid  pausing when travelling (risking the loss of interest when they return)

Right now most of the player retention responsability is on the player not the game.

Now there is the chance to change this, because there is no point on deleting one or more islands if nothing is done to keep the interest of old and new players.

Everything you're talking about doing requires more people's time. Developers' time.

Right now, you know how many developers there are actively doing stuff?

Me.

And I have a real job, and a wife, and at least the rudiments of a social life.

Yes, I would love to be able to say, "Here! Here is the brand-new mobile BattleMaster site, guaranteed to be at least 5000% better than before! Here is a brand-new island to move the people from our X deleted islands to, to get everyone interested in exploring again! Here are the 30 most-needed new features and big changes to make the game in general more fun to play, so everyone playing is more likely to stay, new or not!"

But as much as I honestly enjoy working on BattleMaster development, and do devote a lot of spare time to it, for me to do all that stuff by myself, at the current rates, would take at least a year or two.

[Naidraug]

Yes also require a proper comunity manager and a monetization plan to elevate the game to a more professional level.

Make it a brand, with professionals dedicated to it full time.