The Battlemaster Newsletter

[Azerax]

I like the idea of family spotlights.  After the death of Xerxes, I checked out his family page on the wiki and realized just how crappy mine really is.  It may inspire others to work on theirs.

[Penchant]

And on that note, here is the next Family of the Week:

Arundel- He is a great roleplayer and schemer. Roleplayed being a woman so well, I often think of him as a she, then soon after correct myself. When asked, players described him as "True to character, even if it went against what he as a player knew was best" "He is very involved, outspoken and a bit of dare devil" and "Totally different characters that promoted gameplay when they encountered it" His character Alice was described as "Alice was a brazen and fierce but just ruler" while Arke as "Arke was a blunt, abrasive and abusive person with devotion and appreciation for certain aspects of life"

Family page: Here Wiki page: Here


I will publish a new issue hopefully within the next 36 hours.

Edit: It will probably be another day, things came up.

[Zakilevo]

Too bad Arundel quit.

He was a great player. I think many people are too focused on winning the game (including myself). I should really learn 'staying true to character'.

[Wolfang]

I think you're probably one of the best at that, no? Judging by your family page & updates on wiki.

[Lorgan]

Too bad Arundel quit.

He was a great player. I think many people are too focused on winning the game (including myself). I should really learn 'staying true to character'.

Too bad that 'staying true to character' too often means 'destroying everything in your path' for you. :P

But yeah Arundel <3.

[Zakilevo]

Too bad that 'staying true to character' too often means 'destroying everything in your path' for you. :P

But yeah Arundel <3.

Yep. My characters sure love destroying everything in their paths.

[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. 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 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
Surveys for Island Sinking, Game Experience, New Player, New Character, and Exit


The Rebalance is being sidelined for a few weeks as ^ban^, the head of the effort, is busy. The new Interface for Character Creation has been sidelined temporarily as the surveys were deemed more important but, are not far from being done. The duchy related items are still being worked on.

Features Implemented

Features Implemented are the new features implemented since the last major update. This last update was mostly bugs so I will keep the last issue's features up. 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


Bugfixing and working on the surveys has been the focus, thus no new features are out yet.

Bugs
The Bugs section is about the issues in the code, referred to as bugs, fixed since the last major update. They are:
More Cleanup script errors
Messages with npcs that reference gender now make properly uses female pronouns when appropriate
Knights will not follow their lord to a realm if banned the realm the lord is joining
Rebels are banned when joining a new realm during the rebellion
Regions can no longer switch allegiance when being took over, unless joining the realm taking it over
Lords can no longer switch allegiance to realms they are banned from
Infiltrators can no longer go to tournaments
Fixed an issue with Buying regions
Fixed an issue when wounded and try to view a scribe note, now the proper error message is shown

There were 9 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 solely off the bugtracker. 

Dev Plans

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

Anaris: Finish up surveys then finish up the new character interface
^ban^: Work
Vita: Finish up his current open projects and bug fixing
Foundation: Infrequent Bugfixing
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 and work under the watchful eye of Anaris. The Junior Devs are:

Swiftblade
Feyeleanor
Wimpie
Naidraug

Family of the week: Arundel
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.

Arundel- He is a great roleplayer and schemer. Roleplayed being a woman so well, I often think of him as a she, then soon after correct myself. When asked, players described him as "True to character, even if it went against what he as a player knew was best" "He is very involved, outspoken and a bit of dare devil" and "Totally different characters that promoted gameplay when they encountered it" His character Alice was described as "Alice was a brazen and fierce but just ruler" while Arke as "Arke was a blunt, abrasive and abusive person with devotion and appreciation for certain aspects of life"
Family page: Here Wiki page: Here
Suggestions are welcome for future family of the weeks, but suggestions without reasoning will not be used.


Special Thanks
To: Tom, Anaris, ban, Vita, Renodin, and Lorgan

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.

[Penchant]

My apologies readers, for not continuing to update this. I became rather busy with school, though I am getting more active again, slowly, and I do intend to start this back up soon.

[Wolfang]

To facilitate updates, you could make shorter updates, which take less time to write?

[Penchant]

I am currently working on starting up the Newsletter again and due to my pathetic life span previously I am making it monthly instead of the original goal of weekly. As well with 2013 ending, I would like your help by giving me your opinion on various awards. Please PM your suggestions to prevent any fighting about who is right or wrong, or whether a suggestion was stupid or any issues like that. More than 1 suggestion is welcome as I will also be doing honorable mentions for every catergory

The launch date is: February 1 *

The current awards being suggested are:

Player

Best Family of 2013:

Best Veteran Player Starting Again of 2013:

Best New Player of 2013:

Best Roleplayer of 2013:

Best Schemer:

Friendliest Player of 2013:

Character

Best Emperor/Empress:

Most Controversial Ruler:

Best Ruler:

Best Banker:

Best Judge:

Best General:

Best Schemer:

Best Death:

Best Trader:

Most Religious:

Best Cavalier:

Best Hero:

Craziest Character:

Most Diplomatic:

Realm

Best Realm:

Most Improved Realm:

Saddest Ending to a Realm:

Best New Realm:

Best Military:


Religion

Religion sparked biggest war:

Most Improved Religion:

Best New Religion:

Miscellaneous

Best Developer:

Best New Feature:


Features Implemented in 2013:

   
• Dead characters can see their sent messages
• Total consumption and production added to food report for dukes and bankers
• A new interface for making new characters
• Formations are shown under army page
• Sea Travel
• Provisions
• Sanity check for peasant mobs
• Command page reorganized for duchy commands to be explicit
• Family wealth limit increased
• Caution tag removed when messaging entire realm
• Rebalance done
• Bankers can get access to lord's markets with permission
• Siege Engines in army available for marshal and general
• Scribe Notes defaulting to military tab
• Can see balance with guilds via Information>Your Guilds
• Buying regions in foreign realms reimplemented

* February 1 Central Time, noted as it is not guaranteed it will be posted in the morning thus for some it may in fact be February 2 when launched.

[Penchant]

In addition to suggestions for awards, if you would like to suggest new awards, that would be great as well. You can me PM on forums, send me a note on IRC to Penchant`, or OOC message me your suggestion to Xavier, Benedict, or Marco Penchant in game.

[Penchant]

An additional thing I would like to request for those willing is their top 5 or top 10 moments of Battlemaster last year. I hope to assemble something like the highlights of 2013 Battlemaster with these, but there is no need for your top 5 or top 10 moments to be something that other people also liked, it could be a roleplay from someone that only you got that you just loved, an awesome battle, anything you found awesome enough to be part of your top 5-10 moments of Battlemaster last year.

[Eirikr]

An additional thing I would like to request for those willing is their top 5 or top 10 moments of Battlemaster last year. I hope to assemble something like the highlights of 2013 Battlemaster with these, but there is no need for your top 5 or top 10 moments to be something that other people also liked, it could be a roleplay from someone that only you got that you just loved, an awesome battle, anything you found awesome enough to be part of your top 5-10 moments of Battlemaster last year.

I think I made maybe 5 new banners... So there's my top 5.

:P

Just kidding!

[jaune]

1. Creation of Ar Agyr
2.  Darka's survival last year
3.  Conquering Hawthorne through diplomacy
4. OO destroyed Enweilian army alone when they tried to land Ar Agyr lands through sea(Army is prolly a bit too big word for it, but it sounds cooler! There was 4 -5 units who tried to land AA)
5. Suville's attack to Carelia, which caused big conflict at south

[Penchant]

Extremely sorry guys! Something came up and I wasn't able to spend the necessary time today to finish it up. It will be published tomorrow though.