The Battlemaster Newsletter

[Penchant]

The Battlemaster Newsletter

This is the official battlemaster Newsletter, recently created. It is currently mainly a dev blog with additional things as my time allows.

Dev Blog
It will be issued as new major updates are made, minor updates will either be added to the Dev Blog's most recent issue or to the next one, depending on what seems best. New sections to the dev blog will hopefully be added, but that is dependant on the time available to the Dev Blog staff. As the blog has a new issue every time Battlemaster has a major update, some sections might not be updated for several days after the most recent issue although the Dev Blog staff will do its best.

Features in Progress

Features in progress are features that have been partially coded and are being actively worked on. They are:


Rebalance
New Interface for Character Creation, almost done, mostly just needs to be polished up
Duchy Bulletins
Improving step down process as duke/duchess
Reorganization of Command for an explicit Duchy Commands section


The Rebalance is a combined effort of all the devs headed by ^ban^, the new Interface for Character Creation, coded by Anaris, is a cleaner, better interface for creating new characters which also provides more information on realms based on the last 30 days currently allowing you to understand betterwhat the realm is like before joining.


Features Implemented

Features Implemented are the new features implemented since the last major update. They are:


Buy Region with family gold implemented once again for foreign realms, available on the actions page.
Balance column in Your Guilds under Information allowing you to see your balance with your different guilds without being at a guildhouse
Scribe Notes default to military tab now when viewing them
Stepping down from lordship via Politics->Govern estates now requires a reason and goes through the proper honour loss mechanics like stepping down from Command.php


Since the last update the features implemented are more minor due to things like the Rebalance and the new Character Creation Interface have been taking up a lot of the Devs' time.


Bugs


The Bugs section is about the issues in the code, referred to as bugs, fixed since the last major update. They are:

Cleanup script-running out of memory fixed
Double first name rebellion announcement bug fixed
Improved error handling for '#' or lack thereof when changing Realm Colour as previously it would assume the # was there and strip the first character for the RGB code, making it 5 characters. Now it checks for strength length, # at index 0 of string, and alphanumeric type for string
Checking for army names starting with The and giving an error, as The is already added automatically
Characters that are both dukes and lords messaging all their vassals (lords of duchy + knights of region) working
Knights of Duchy, Lords of Duchy, and Nobles of Duchy messaging works, as well as the reply to list with said lists
Lords of Duchy referendums now work (though there's still a minor bug needed to fix about estateless lords)
Actual Duchy name appears in messaging text rather than the old city-based duchy names
Continue Shopping link when buying additional paraphernalia works all the time now
Text error for rogue nobles viewing leaderlist*
Negative provisions when buying provisions should no longer occur
Gender fixes region allegiance changes
Gender fixes for text when duchies change realms
Prevent Sages repairing items over 100%
Prevent infiltrators from getting negative hours when killing militia
Various fixes to ensure no backslashes are displayed in duchy names
Fixing the issues when updating Minify so that Javascript works again.

*=leaderlist.php is the Character List in the Local Information column, second to the right.

There were 17 bugs fixed in this last update that were actual issues in the code. Not all bugs on the bugtracker are actual bugs and not all bugs fixed are from the bugtracker, thus this number might not agree with what you would count based soley off the bugtracker.  Major bugs fixed were the issues with Javascript, messaging issues created from the new estate system, the separation of duchies from cities, and no longer having the issue of negative provisions when purchasing them.

Dev Plans

Dev Plans are the plans that the individual devs have for their dev work. The current Dev Plans are:

Anaris: Finish polishing up the new character interface, then work on surveys to start tracking player experience and feeling about the game, and the realms they play in.
^ban^: Finish Rebalance
Vita: Finish up his current open projects and bug fixing
Foundation: Take a vacation.
Tom: Work on Might and Fealty and [explorers]

Junior Devs are devs in-training to become regular devs. At this time they only do bugfixes, which are checked over and critiqued by a Anaris. The new Junior Devs are:

Swiftblade
Feyeleanor
Wimpie
Naidraug

Family of the week: Himoura Family played by Justin aka Stabbity
The family of the week is a family featured every week for uniqueness and/or its contributions to the game through gameplay. While its labeled family of the week, it also about featuring the player, but as not all players have their info public they are referred to by their IG family, and then other names like real name and forum name if available.

The Himoura family specifically was chosen for its intrigue and diplomacy, as that is the main attributes I have personally witnessed although there is also that he is a good roleplayer (the one roleplay message I have seen was good, but others could have gave him his roleplay medals for roleplaying via how he plays his character also). I also see separation of OOC/IC being done very well with the player where interacts with players of characters he is at odds with while not being aggressive in his OOC communication with them.

Suggestions are welcome for future family of the weeks, but suggestions without reasoning will not be used.


Shout out to the player of the Motosuwa family for reminding me to get this published.

Special Thanks to: Tom, for allowing me to do this and giving me access to the necessary information, Ethan/Vita for helping me finally get this started through his encouragement and information, Tim/Anaris for giving me information and his encouragement,  Joe/^ban^ for giving me information and encouragement, and Peter/Foundation for giving me information and humor

Feedback on the Dev Blog is welcome as well as comments or questions about the content of the Dev Blog, although negative feedback should be at least semi-constructive.

[egamma]

It's nice to see work being done on bugs! 204 is still a really bad number, double what it was a year ago, but I think the newbies will cut that number down soon enough.

[Thehatter]

Yay, I'm famous!

[Stabbity]

Number 1! Number 1!

[Zakilevo]

What happened to generals or marshals being able to see the number of siege engines in their armies? I thought that was on the way of implementation?

[Penchant]

What happened to generals or marshals being able to see the number of siege engines in their armies? I thought that was on the way of implementation?

When it was posted that it was going to be done, Anaris was busy with other things to code, and still is. It is planned to be done with the other changes to combat and war that take place in the Fall and Winter.

P.S. I will try to respond to all questions or comments needing a response as soon as I can, and all those that seem like they should, I will post in a sort of Message to the editor Section of the following Dev Blog Issue.

[Anaris]

When it was posted that it was going to be done, Anaris was busy with other things to code, and still is. It is planned to be done with the other changes to combat and war that take place in the Fall and Winter.

...Unless someone else has time to take it up before then.

[Wolfang]

So, Anaris is not the only dev working on the game anymore or am I reading this wrong?

[Anaris]

So, Anaris is not the only dev working on the game anymore or am I reading this wrong?

No, that's correct. Vita has been doing some minor bugfixes and feature request implementations for a while now, and ^ban^ has been the main force behind the rebalance, when he has time out from moving across the country. Four new devs have just started to learn the ropes, too, as Penchant noted.

[Lanyon]

I'd like to say it's is awesome that Stabbity got the first family of the week spot! He's never afraid to play others to his own interests or be the bad guy in a situation! MI BROS UNITE!

[Wimpie]

All hail tha Wimp  8)

[Eirikr]

Hey, I reported a chunk of those bugs! Yay, fixes!

Thanks guys, keep up the great work!

[Chaotrance13]

I'd like to say it's is awesome that Stabbity got the first family of the week spot! He's never afraid to play others to his own interests or be the bad guy in a situation! MI BROS UNITE!

I don't see why it's needed. This is a dev blog. Not a "Let's give all my bestest buddies props" shout out.

[Lanyon]

because it gives the game a sense of community. The same reason why you see interviews of the best LoL players or of famous mapmakers for other games.

[Penchant]

I don't see why it's needed. This is a dev blog. Not a "Let's give all my bestest buddies props" shout out.

As stated here:

Feedback on the Dev Blog is welcome as well as comments or questions about the content of the Dev Blog, although negative feedback should be at least semi-constructive.

So as long as his shout out to his bestest buddy pertains to the content of the Dev Blog, I am fine with it. Its also sorta feedback since its supports my decision on making Stabbity family of the week. If the real issue is with the fact I have Family of the week in it in the first place, then I might just rename it to a Newsletter because while the main part of it is the Dev features, I do hope to add more things to it that are not necessarily related to Dev things if my time allows. The focus is and will be the Dev features though. Feel free to continue to share opinion on it, and I will listen to it/take your suggestions seriously.