Messages

46

Feature Requests / Re: Bring back old age penalties

« on: December 17, 2018, 02:37:38 PM »

Yup, the downside is pretty much why it was removed.

10 years ago, a realm of 5 regions had 20 nobles, most of them young, almost all of the participating in the mobile army. Say, 75%.

If we extrapolate with how things were when the penalties were removed, and the current density... Today, that same realm would have like 10 nobles total, 7 of which would get like 5 hours per turn, at least 5 of those would forever squat safe regions, and your mobile army would be about 3 active nobles and 2 who always lag behind. Good luck waging any kind of war with that.

47

Dwilight / Re: Shameless Astrum Recruitment Thread

« on: December 17, 2018, 02:33:31 PM »

Indeed. Though some etiquette about not going to gratuitously bash realms in their threads would be fine, often newbs are lured by completely distorted accounts of how "great" a realm is.

In my experience, claims of greatness to come are usually unfounded, and leave people underwhelmed and disappointed. "Success begets further success." Wishing greatness isn't enough to make it happen. Looking at what a realm did in its last few months is typically a pretty good indicator of what it might do in the months to come. "Change" is a nice slogan, just like in RL politics it sells, but just like in RL... "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", sometimes we really just change in order to stay the same.

48

Dwilight / Re: Shameless Astrum Recruitment Thread

« on: December 12, 2018, 03:32:12 PM »

On the other hand, if someone prominent in Astrum holds these as ideals, and people join Astrum expecting them, they can work together to make the things he says true.

If, on the other hand, everyone just says, "Astrum is terrible, don't go there, no one ever does anything," then there's no chance for the realm to improve.

I've seen too many places fail to deliver on promises... When a realm has not used past opportunities, one should not gamble on it using future opportunities.

Yes, losing a bunch of nobles can create a viscous cycle that's hard to get out of, but attitude remains key. From what I keep hearing, Astrum has a very rigid model it wants to adhere to, and more care is placed to maintain that model, than to try to keep things fun for its nobles. Those two goals don't need to be antagonistic, but that's just an observation of where all of the leadership's energies seem to be going.

49

Dwilight / Re: Shameless Astrum Recruitment Thread

« on: December 11, 2018, 08:12:57 PM »

When Westgard was founded, it was (as I recall) one of four realms set aside for refugees of the sinking, the other three being in the south of the EC where the ice receded.

If they wanted a PvP realm, they could go to Alara, Minas Nova, or Greater Xavax (as they became). If they wanted to fight monsters, they could join Westgard.

If I recall correctly, there were still several people who didn't pay attention to what they were getting into, and complained about Westgard being all PvE. I don't think they stuck around long.

Thanks for the clarification.

50

Dwilight / Re: Shameless Astrum Recruitment Thread

« on: December 11, 2018, 08:02:46 PM »

To be fair, while I wasn't there at the founding, I think the main difference between Westgard and the rest, regarding monsters, is that we embraced our situation, rather than pity ourselves for it. I don't think that the players from AT and FEI really had a monster-killing theme in mind when they got lumped there, I think they rather just decided to go along with what they got. And that ever since, the players there have been focusing on "what can we do now, with the context we have", instead of "what could we do, some day, if X, Y, and Z weren't as they are now?".

Much of the continent has complained about not being able to do what they wanted because of the rogue invasions, but really, when the rogues waned, the only realm that really got out of its way to do something was... Westgard.

There are always a ton of opportunities, but everyone's always too busy playing it safe.

51

Dwilight / Re: The Shameless Westgard Recruitment Thread

« on: December 10, 2018, 04:38:59 PM »

Westgard:

*Always monsters to kill
*Now an unlimited quantity of offshore barbarians looking to impale themselves on our arrows
*Armies pretty much always on the move
*Gold to help everyone field large units
*Best place to grind for H/P
*The most active realm of Dwilight (and one of the most active realms of the game)
*All titles are elected, has a strong government that tries to work by consensus, united by RP codes (ethics of the Virtues)
*Strongest realm of the continent
*A lot of regions still planned to be taken (and with reasonably odds of the realm succeeding in taking)
*Possibilities for marshalship (need more competent people to finally go through with that 3rd army plan)
*Rare or only realm to currently use multiple active armies (no bureaucrat army)

52

Dwilight / Re: Tol Goldora vs Westgard War Name

« on: December 07, 2018, 06:02:31 PM »

Distance from realm penalty causes more problems for a large army out for an extended period of time than a single individual or small group.

Also, it wasn't about the threat they were now, but what they threatened to become. A raiding realm built directly on our borders without even a hint of discussion beforehand says we're facing a realm with no interest in cooperation or collaboration. And regardless of their status as 'threat' or not, that still ignores the incredibly important fact that Westgard relies upon those rogue lands for it's economy. Keeping a mobile monster-fighting army mobile isn't cheap. TG looting in those lands would cause peasant uprisings which are costly on many levels, and bring them into inevitable conflict with Westgard simply due to their proximity. Their *capital* was right on our borders. That puts us at obvious odds regarding expansion, and TG would no doubt intend to expand.

Case in point, Tol Goldora is tied for second most populous realm, after Westgard.

53

Feature Requests / Re: Character letter endings

« on: December 06, 2018, 01:40:19 PM »

It's been requested before. Not sure what the dev input was. I think there's a fear of spam, and personally, I feel like these endings only have merit if they are actually written out by the person, I wouldn't appreciate them as much at all if I knew they were automatic.

54

Development / Re: Make Battlemaster Great Again - War Overhaul

« on: December 04, 2018, 01:34:38 PM »

So, why to have the option at all? The only place I imagine it will work is in Sirion, the only realm I saw with Lordless regions for weeks...

Don't forget Nivemus!

Jest aside, regions occasionally go lordless due to revolts, wounds, inactivity, title swaps, etc. Corruption would still be possible then.

I wouldn't mind it being removed altogether though.

55

Dwilight / Re: The Shameless Westgard Recruitment Thread

« on: December 03, 2018, 04:50:54 PM »

Limited time offer: On top of the chance to kill infinite monsters, join Westgard TODAY to get the chance to kill countless scurby-ridden eastern invaders!

56

Development / Re: Make Battlemaster Great Again - War Overhaul

« on: December 03, 2018, 12:04:25 AM »

Yea, a week grace period sounds fine.

And yea, I've seen corruption done or attempted on nearly every region we've taken over, plus a number of times my side doing it as well. It used to be something I would say a few times per year, at most, back before I deleted my account. But now it's almost systematic. You see that unitless noble just standing there during the TO, just waiting for his click battle...

Actually, yea, I think unitless nobles should risk capture during hostile TOs.

On way or another, I hate the mechanic.

57

Development / Re: Make Battlemaster Great Again - War Overhaul

« on: November 30, 2018, 01:36:58 PM »

I would like to reiterate how extremely lame click-wars are.

And how incredible lame it is for 1 dude with a little paper boi to be able to completely undo the work a continent's largest army has spent a week doing.

Corruption is an increadibly unfun mechanic, and it's largely to blame for why I don't like PvP at all anymore, and try to avoid it. You get a handful of privilieged freeloaders, who defunded their realms' mobile armies for years, able to completely undo whole realms' worth of efforts, with nothing but a single click, and barely any risk.

Raising the family wealth limit was an incredible mistake. It should have been halved to 5k, not doubled to 20k. There's really no reason people should be defunding their realms this much.

And please, do something about corruption. It's an utterly terrible gameplay feature.  It should be utterly removed.

But assuming you aren't willing to do that, at least nerf it, please? Getting caught even trying to corrupt a region from an enemy should be an automatic ban from that realm, not just gold confiscation. Big whoop 2k gold was lost, when these defunders have tens of thousands? And cities should NOT be corruptible. It's just game-breaking. Some random rural, okay, maybe, if there's no army around, no lord...? Also an auto-fail for the next week the follows a TO? Just like regions aren't meant to be able to revolt the turn they were taken anymore, at least give the ruler or the elections the time needed to put a new lord instead of turning this game into some increadibly lame click-war.

BM was NEVER meant to be a click war.

But it has become standard in PvP that within minutes of a region being taken over, the enemy tries to corrupt it. It's goes completely against the spirit of what PvP used to mean in this game. It's not collaborative team efforts that dominate anymore when these single-click gimmicks are so overpowered.

58

Helpline / Re: Game Manual Questions

« on: November 29, 2018, 04:59:18 PM »

From 100 on, it's by leaps of 50, up to a max of 400.

I don't remember how they are paid. I haven't been fined in... wow... so many years. Maybe a decade.

Also, you could add that when in prison, the judge can take your unique items.

Priests can also be banned if they are auto-caught trying to do trouble.

Maybe clarify that people who are arrested not doing anything in particular cannot be banned. For example, caught by patrols while travelling or arrested by a noble (priest/advy). They need to be caught red-handed doing something bad.

59

Dwilight / Re: Monster Problems

« on: November 29, 2018, 02:45:35 PM »

Letting a marauder realm settle on our border and grow beyond control is not really a good way to make sure we can keep to PvE in the future.

Short war against a fledging colony now > Eternal war against a powerhouse later

Tol being successful would be disastrous for Westgard. Even if they were to magically never maraud Westgard (seeing what they are doing now and saying OOC, I'll never believe that), a huge nation on our border combined with a diminished rogue spawn overall is a recipe for total boredom. If there are less rogues to begin with, and Tol kills a ton of them, what the heck are we going to have left to do? There's no thrill about fighting tiny hordes. Westgard would cease being the shield of humanity, the only nation surrounded by rogues, but would become enclaved behind another larger realm.

There was no winning solution to the problem of the Tol clan settling on our border. Every solution to protect our PvE involves PvP. Which is giving these people exactly what they came there for to begin with. To go antagonize the only realm that was truly having fun NOT caring about politics and PvP. A more old-school BM experience, with the realm as a team, where the point isn't to always be at each other's throats with ridiculous schism-spawning plots and fratricide, where there are no gimmicks like peasant militias, region corruption, spies, defections, etc., that have now become the norm but were exceptions to the rule back then.

"Internal conflict! Internal conflict!" Some chant for it ad nauseum. Not everyone enjoys it.

There are a ton of realms for PvP on other continents, and even on Dwilight. There was no reason to go and try to ruin Westgard's fairly unique PvE culture and gameplay.

"Let's go pick on this one realm and unite a huge coalition to force it into a big war because we are bored and can't be assed to fight a closer war and we're too afraid of risking harm to our own lands" is nothing to be proud of.

Dwi was always a frontier continent. Realms being able to just pack up and settle on the West, with but a tiny 8k or so army... is really removing from that. Meanwhile, less density in the East, farther away neighbors, more alliance-blocks, less close war prospects... Basically the opposite of everything that's been aimed.

60

Dwilight / Re: Monster Problems

« on: November 28, 2018, 09:48:02 PM »

And look. Now people are planning on fighting Westgard. PvP here we come. I don't see any problem.

A long distance war, utterly boring, upon the one realm that was never about PvP, and despises the mere idea of it.

Wonderful progress, that was?

Things were more fun just fighting the rogues. At least then, when clans spied on us, we didn't have to care.