Again Jens, TMP is the reason we don't have more war.
You think Madina is sitting in the Tower for fun? It's because our allies cant come help us because of TMP reducing their armies to nothing. I've spent weeks trying to get allies and people in to help us fight (and to ensure certain Realms won't join in - which is just as important).
2-3 weeks ago I had the potential for a 25K vs 20K battle royale - all I needed was a bit of time and for Madina to get a siege workshop. Now I'm stuck twiddling my thumbs because of TMP effects hoping to gods that we can keep TMP away until Fissoa is ready to fight again since they will not be fielding 10-12KCS like we need them too.
I should NOT have to be worrying about TMP effects during a freaking war. Nor should TMP make it impossible for another Realm to fight.
The system is BROKEN. Plain and simple.
You want people to fight - I will say what I said to start with - you encourage them to do it. TMP has ONLY EVER STOPPED FIGHTING -- ruin regions, ruin armies -- thats not motivation to fight, that's motivation to fix regions or train units. People inherently do not want to fight a war when they are at a disadvantage yet that's exactly what TMP does. Fighting for TMP always been to PREVENT !@#$ from happening. No one wants to fight anymore because it's fun - we end up fighting because we have too. That is the exact mentality that has developed in the last few years with TMP and that's a serious problem
Encourage people, reward them, give them a good damn reason to fight. Because you'll get screwed over by TMP is not motivation, never has been, and never will be. Basic basic basic conditioning principles - punishment is extremely ineffective and leads to unintended and undesirable results. Rewards are extremely effective, and when presented in a consistent manner (with random rewards attached) becomes exceptionally addictive and compelling.
TMP currently does not encourage fighting. It encourages avoiding TMP (which is what we see - fight monsters, fight small battles, avoid TMP) and just pisses off players whose realms and plans get screwed - then we bitch on the forums and that just upsets the hardworking dev's. No one is happy at the end of the day -.-
I can't fight a war, I can't encourage players to stay, and I have only TWO bad options left now because of TMP. Attack Candiels with a vastly smaller force against a fortified city (lose) OR leave my Capital exposed and march 15K of troops through a neutral Realm which would then (along with it's 2 allies) attack Madina as a result. Yup. Brilliant plans either way - if I wanted to destroy my realm . . or my option is to stop fighting and go back to fighting beasts to avoid TMP.
Woot. Excellent options all around. Was this because of another Realm or players it'd be fine. But it's HIGHLY aggravating coming from game coding and programming.
I have done less fighting since TMP came out combined than I did in my two years of BM on either FEI and SEI. I came to Dwilight with some 430 honour and 49-50 Prestige. That was what 3-4 years ago? since then I've only gained minimal honour and lost prestige. The rest of my Characters have fared the same - the majority of their stats are from pre-TMP time, despite attempts to join warring realms and to get fights going. There have only been two significant changes since Dwilight came in - TMP and Estates - both of which a large amount of player base has argued had serious flaws.
I don't think the player base is wrong in either case. I think the changes to estates going into effect will be excellent and help return some focus to warring and battles - hopefully some changes can be made after to TMP to return the focus to wars as well.
Of course, there is an Irony here, considering that SEI and SWI were sunk - but those islands had some of the most fun I had outside of Nighthelm and Dwilight. And really Nighthelm was just a giant war machine.
You should have plopped down a lot of militia or got allies involved earlier, or simply done some diplomatic hocus pocus and taken the boat like Jens did with 3,000cs to smash up their hinterlands. Or some similar combination.
The FACT is - we haven't been sitting around for a month because of TMP. We've been doing it from a lack of ideas.
We have a lack of ideas because we have a lack of sharing and speaking in the realm. Instead, we have 3-4 people who play the game privately and expect the rest of us to sit around guarding the Tower.
That is PRECISELY why Tom implemented TMP. Because he wants leadership like that in Madina to fail.
