Magical Events in Bescanon & Surrounding Regions

[Lancaster]

Recently, we had some magical events take place on the north-center portion of EC:

With night falling, peculiar sounds filled the air, of groaning, creaking timbers. No, not the usual perpetual production of siege engines within Bescanon. Something different.

Some claimed to see large shadows moving through the sky above, but others denied these reports on account of it being a night filled with dark stormclouds. Elsewhere, peasants claimed to have been injured by shattered wood falling from the sky. They were promptly investigated for witchcraft rather than provided medical care. Within Perdan, a considerable amount of sod fell upon Eros Harte's head.

As troopleaders attempted to continue about their duties they began to notice that the infrastructure once known to be in the region was no longer present. Or in other cases, infrastructure once known to be in one region was suddenly within another region, causing people to doubt which region they were really present within.

The beam of light began to dim, ever so gradually, throughout the night. After many hours, the portal light was extinguished, leaving the charred remains of the eight portal stones encircling a unique item, Othello's Gloves of Imagination.

Some RC's got switched around, but it also looks like Bescanon and Perdan lost their walls entirely? Or they were moved and given to the Northern-allied realms across the river? Doesn't seem exactly fair, usually these things have a trade-off where there are positives and negatives to either side, but this looks like the North just basically won the war with one move?

My character is all the wall on a different portion of the island, but still this seems a bit uneven to me.

[Eduardo Almighty]

Earthquake! Thunderstorm!   (3 hours ago)
message to everyone in the vicinity of Bescanon
As Othello ran, the ground began to rumble and the clouds began to darken throughout Bescanon and all bordering regions of Troyes, Perdan, Brive, Meuse, and Nascot. Animals sought shelter as the elderly declared that a storm was a-brewin'. Fissures began to break open, swallowing livestock, peasants, and their hovels. Elsewhere, buildings gained damage from the quaking ground.

As the sun began to set, lightning began to flash throughout the sky. Within Bescanon, a tree above Benjamin Pryde was struck, splitting its trunk. A Troyes field was lit aflame bordering Ehrendill Eyolf Serpentis's camp. In Perdan, portal stones carried by Spazzle and Rudrik attracted the lightning, incinerating the stones and wounding the adventurers with second-degree burns upon their bums.

Hurray!!! My char was a little involved  8)

[Gabanus family]

I will restate my absolute disdain towards such heavy consequence magic on any island beyond BT.

For me this is the final drop though, as it stands I'll just delete my char on EC and not come back for a while. I'll sleep on it for a night though.

[Eduardo Almighty]

Well, considering that I'm just doing nothing in Troyes for days, yes, EC seems pretty empty. However, I'm facing the same with my Priest in Madina and while there's more actvity in Angmar (BT), I believe I'm doing more in, believe me, the Colonies... for the Khan!!!

[Logar]

Retaliate with 8 portal stones of your own   8)

[Gordy77]

I was only struck by the immediacy and magnitude of the event; the adventurer got almost precisely what they wanted, practically straight away, with little consequence.

[Lefanis]

I have to say that I am more than a little frustrated by this decision as well.

EC is the only normal server that remains PvP... Or so I thought until portals popped up. It is the only island where Old BM of interstate wars with is still happening. Heavy magic does not belong on EC. There is enough PvP interaction on EC without adding in these sorts of manual interventions.

That is to say nothing of the ramifications these actions - from what I have gathered, not only were walls switched between Bescanon and Troyes (as requested by the spellcasting advie), but additionally, recruitment centers have been also switched around in multiple regions, and Perdan City's level 5 walls also removed.

Why are the GM's making such heavyhanded manual moves on the sole PvP server? Can we please refrain from alienating the dwindling playerbase that remains and just wants to play a game with strategy and roleplaying, set in a low-fantasy middle-ages world? Portals belong on Beluaterra, where people signed up for them, and possibly Dwilight, with the Zuma. Not EC. Players are legitimately frustrated with such actions, and some are deleting/pausing already. I am sure this was not the intent of the GMs, but ultimately this is the result... I hope that the GMs consider taking back some of the additional effects beyond what the advie requested, which was already a big change, and remove portal stones from EC in the future.

[Haerthorne]

When I recommended that what be done be done regarding the portal stones, I really wasn't imagining that something of this magnitude would happen. A bit of magic here and there, someone getting hit by a spark might make sense, but this goes beyond what is feasible IC to something that has dramatically affected the course of war and politics on the EC.

The walls in Perdan were moved to Meuse, a location that can't sustain much in the way of militia and doesn't need the walls. It is kind of funny that they are there, but the implications are massive in terms of what can happen now because not just Perdan but Bescanon no longer have their walls, and that Troyes now does have walls. All of this happening while two massive armies of approx. 20kCS each are facing off against each other between Bescanon and Troyes. As for the RCs moving, some of them were destroyed including the best RC that Perdan had.

There is also a great deal of political maneuvering going on regarding the region at this point.

EC is the only normal server that remains PvP... Or so I thought until portals popped up. It is the only island where Old BM of interstate wars with is still happening. Heavy magic does not belong on EC. There is enough PvP interaction on EC without adding in these sorts of manual interventions.

I'll echo this point by Lefanis and add that after the FEI and Atamara were sunk it threw the balance of islands heavily in the favour of monster/magic dominated ones.

[GoldPanda]

It's funny how nobody said anything when most of the Xavax leadership was getting taken out by magickal attacks on the regular, or when almost the entire population of Isadril just up and left, or when the militias in Krimml and Akesh Temple switched places...

Very funny indeed.

[Gabanus family]

It's funny how nobody said anything when most of the Xavax leadership was getting taken out by magickal attacks on the regular, or when almost the entire population of Isadril just up and left.

Very funny indeed.

Not to break your balls, but I did say something about it. In fact I nearly quit BM entirely around that time as my char + realm was hit even harder. Garas back then was continously targeted by scrolls of accident wounding him half of the time. Problem back then was that magic was only used against Oligarch and later Xavax, so nobody else was bothered by it.

But I have been arguing against magic pretty much from the start. BM never used to have any magic at all, let alone this impactful.

[Ketchum]

The adventurer should suffer some consequence for such big event, as side effect. You taking too much medicine, you will have the side effect. Same here, you used magic something that an adventurer could never understand, never mind unable read books at all, there should be a penalty to balance the event.

Overall I am for magic on Dwilight and Belu only. My adventurer opens Portal in Colonies and the Light still there, never resolve even before this EC event happens.

[Constantine]

Firstly, since when is portal magic giving what player requests? Without drawback and to that level of magnitude? Do you win wars through portal magic now?

Secondly, I think it was a very very big mistake to have the dev who really hates Perdan and its players and was quite vocal about it on these very forums, handle the portal effects. Especially when these results are obviously unfair and out of any reasonable proportion.
Let me be very clear here. I can not claim that Vita blatantly and purposefully screwed Perdan up but I will repeat that it was a mistake to not distance himself from this situation, knowing his own biases and knowing we all know them as well.

I'm left with a seriously bad taste in my mouth and I think other Titans should look into this very carefully. If that was actually condoned by everyone, I think it's time to involve Tom because this is a very serious and out of proportion dev intervention.

Retaliate with 8 portal stones of your own   8)

No.
We should not be pushed to play adventurers and farm portal stones to then petition devs for enormous unconditional advantage in wars.
This is not how this game is supposed to be played.

[Wimpie]

I'm left with a seriously bad taste in my mouth and I think other Titans should look into this very carefully. If that was actually condoned by everyone, I think it's time to involve Tom because this is a very serious and out of proportion dev intervention.

I don't think anyone is involved in these portal events, except Vita. (to my best knowledge)

[Anaris]

I absolutely agree that portal events should never directly give an adventurer what they ask for if it is something that could have a serious effect on the balance of the island.

I've begun discussing this with Vita, and we will work out a plan for how to proceed with this particular incident, and portal events in general.

I do hear those of you saying that magic should have less of an impact on the EC. I think you're probably right; we just need to figure out the best balance of expectations and code.

[Gordy77]

If it's random, which I didn't realise, make the outcomes public and validated.

Something like a % table where it's likely to go conditionally good or bad and a small chance for catastrophic events.

Then, make agreement among the Devs what limits a portal event would have. Reduction of a walls strength instead of removal altogether, or moving characters or a single living from the dead. Make that fairly absolute, with some flex to reward exceptional RP or circumstances.

Those level five walls must have cost a fortune on their own let alone the other actions.