BattleMaster Community
BattleMaster => Development => Topic started by: Penchant on August 18, 2013, 05:40:14 AM
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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 (http://mightandfealty.com/en/about) and [explorers] (http://lemuria.org/explorers/index.html)
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 (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=3190) 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.
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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.
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Yay, I'm famous!
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Number 1! Number 1!
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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?
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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.
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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.
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So, Anaris is not the only dev working on the game anymore or am I reading this wrong?
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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.
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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!
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All hail tha Wimp 8)
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Hey, I reported a chunk of those bugs! Yay, fixes!
Thanks guys, keep up the great work!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=32507) Wiki page: Here (http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Arundel_Family)
I will publish a new issue hopefully within the next 36 hours.
Edit: It will probably be another day, things came up.
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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'.
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I think you're probably one of the best at that, no? Judging by your family page & updates on wiki.
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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.
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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.
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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 (http://mightandfealty.com/en/about) and [explorers] (http://lemuria.org/explorers/index.html)
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 (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=32507) Wiki page: Here (http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Arundel_Family)
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.
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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.
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To facilitate updates, you could make shorter updates, which take less time to write?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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
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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.
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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.
LIES! ;)
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LIES! ;)
I truly am sorry to everyone looking forward to it, but stuff came up again and do to the fact I am younger, I have no choice in the matter so I wasn't able to get really any work done although I will see if I can spend an hour before I go to bed. I am very confident that I am more disappointed than anyone else because I feel like I failed you all, which I already did once by letting it go several months ago right after its the initial couple weeks. Once more, I am so sorry guys!
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I truly am sorry to everyone looking forward to it, but stuff came up again and do to the fact I am younger, I have no choice in the matter so I wasn't able to get really any work done although I will see if I can spend an hour before I go to bed. I am very confident that I am more disappointed than anyone else because I feel like I failed you all, which I already did once by letting it go several months ago right after its the initial couple weeks. Once more, I am so sorry guys!
Instead of doing it all at once, why not work on one thing at a time? You can give out maybe one award a day?
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Instead of doing it all at once, why not work on one thing at a time? You can give out maybe one award a day?
Yes let's turn it into BM twitter.
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Instead of doing it all at once, why not work on one thing at a time? You can give out maybe one award a day?
Good idea and thanks for trying to help me instead of complain about my failure.Yes let's turn it into BM twitter.
I don't quite know about that though, although the idea when I think about it has some interesting advantages.
To everyone,
I would love to say I will have it all done tomorrow, but I know I don't know I can because I have plenty of homework to work on tomorrow and I would like to aid in fixing some of the recent BM turmoil with the controversial event in Dwilight done by Justin, aka Stabbity or the Himoura Family. As I stated I have plenty of homework to do tomorrow and I would like to work on the BM turmoil so a limited release is extremely likely tomorrow as it makes things a lot easier on me. Also by fixing the turmoil, I don't mean spend a bunch of time on my characters and ignore the newsletter although I would like to encourage others to try and do meaningful things with their characters more often, I mean help alleviate some of the OOC anger/frustration by players by communicating with various people to move on with the situation in the best way possible.
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Good idea and thanks for trying to help me instead of complain about my failure.
We are all here to enjoy not to stress ourselves over. Do take your time with it. Once the game feels like work, it isn't fun anymore.
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Starting us off:
Dev Plan
Entire team focused on solving the density issue.
Dev Summary of the Year:
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
Thats 15 new features. In addition to 15 new features there have been 236 bug fixes this year.
Awards
All awards are determined by the editor through suggestions and his personal opinion. These are not official awards by the development team in any way, simply awards meant to be fun done by the editor.
Player
Best Family of 2013: Nifelleisca Family
Honorable Mentions: Himoura Family, De Vere Family
Best Veteran Player Starting Again of 2013: Nifelleisca Family
Best New Player of 2013: Renodin Family (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=34659)
Honorable Mentions: Daimall Family (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=34069)
The Renodin Family was recommended by several for his great interactions with others, friendliness out of character, and effort in roleplaying. While technically invalid due to join date, the Daimall Family (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=34069) was also recommended and due to a lack of suggestions, receives the honorable mention..
Best Roleplayer of 2013: Daycryn Family
Best Schemer of 2013: Himoura Family
Honorable Mentions: De Vere Family, Silverfire Family, and Nifelleisca Family
Friendliest Player of 2013: Bowker Family (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=28752)
Honorable Mention: Lapallanch Family (http://battlemaster.org/UserDetails.php?ID=30364)
The player of Bowker Family, Miriam, is seen by many as very friendly. The runner up is the Lapallanch Family.
Character
Best Emperor/Empress: Senate of Cagilian Empire
Honorable Mentions: Velax de Vere, Alice Arundel
Best Ruler: Fingolfin Noldorin
Honorable Mentions: Leopold Arrakis, Merlin Silverfire
Best Banker: Brant Everland
Honorable Mention: Hrok Stefanovic
Best Judge: Arke Arundel
Best General: Enzo Solari
Honorable Mentions: Red Marlboro, Kihalin Lapallanch
Best Death: Kende Indirik
Best Trader: Hrok Stefanovic
Honorable Mention: Marco Penchant
Most Religious: Rabisu Daycryn
Honorable Mention: Torpius, Mathurin Hossenfefer
Best Cavalier: Saul Tarvitz
Best Hero: Red Marlboro
Craziest Character: Arke Arundel
Most Diplomatic: Galiard Scarlett
Realm
Best Realm: Thalmarkin
Honorable Mentions: Luria Nova, Perdan
Most Improved Realm: Niselur
Honorable Mention: Asylon, Fissoa, Minas Leon
Saddest Ending to a Realm: Aurvandil
Best New Realm: Ar Agyr
Honorable Mention: Lyonesse
Best Military:Darka
Honorable Mention: Thalmarkin, Cagilian Empire, Perdan
Religion
Religion sparked biggest war: Sanguis Astroism
Honorable Mention: Da Great Goat
Most Improved Religion: Order of the Elders
Honorable Mention: Da Great Goat
Miscellaneous
Best New Feature: Bankers Access to Lord's Markets with Permission
Honorable Mentions: Sea Travel, Scout Reports Defaulting to Military Tab
This post will be continually updated with additional posts going along with updates so you don't have to guess what the updates are. I would also like to remind everyone that these awards are based off the suggestions of others and the editors opinion. The awards are in no way official.
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Oh I am considered a friendly guy ;) Must admit Miriam is one of the most friendly people I've met on BM. I hope we continue to have her around.
P.S What is this density issue the dev team is working on? Will this have any visible impact on the game?
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Oh I am considered a friendly guy ;) Must admit Miriam is one of the most friendly people I've met on BM. I hope we continue to have her around.
Miriam is one of the friendliest people I've met, period. Oddly enough the only people that I can think of offhand that would compete for that position also hail from South America, must be something in the water over there.
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Miriam is one of the friendliest people I've met, period. Oddly enough the only people that I can think of offhand that would compete for that position also hail from South America, must be something in the water over there.
Maybe the warm weather down there is making people friendly :)
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Thank you guys. :) Maybe De Legro is right and our water is magic :p
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Thank you guys. :) Maybe De Legro is right and our water is magic :p
(http://www.fullhdwpp.com/wp-content/uploads/Magic-water_www.FullHDWpp.com_.jpg)
what you call "magic" I call "radioactive" :p
Well deserved Mirry.
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Reposting what I stated earlier in another thread when work on religions was asked:
Dev work is becoming more structured in working on a topic and improving that, thus it is likely that when any religious features are worked on there will be a variety of things looked at and implemented, although after the current event is over there is already something planned afterwards to be working on. It is possible for small features for religion to be coded before all of religion is worked on as small features are occasionally done by Vita when time allows and he is motivated.
As well you can expect a rather large update tomorrow and hopefully it will even be fully released tomorrow.
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Any updates on this?
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There has been an update today with more awards likely to be added tomorrow.
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There has been an update today with more awards likely to be added tomorrow.
Oh I didn't even get a notice on that weird. Nice work.
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I unfortunately did not have time for more awards though tomorrow it's extremely likely I will. I have received more suggestions with them wondering if they are fine doing so. To clarify, suggestions may continuously be given, even to awards already decided on, but in the case of the award already being decided the suggestion will at most result in an honorable mention.
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Would it be possible for you to move the rewards to a new page or to the front? Or post it on wiki? It might become hard to track where it is eventually.
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Awards? What awards?
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Awards? What awards?
The awards posted in the newsletter.
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Any update?
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March Issue
Dev Plan
Monitoring/ implementing the Ice Age affecting FEI, AT, and EC as well as the rogue invasion of Dwilight.
Dev Summary of the Month:
As should now be clear to those on the Far East, Atamara, and the East Continent, the Event that we have been counting down to over the past month is not, in fact, the sinking or freezing of one island, but rather the (literal) freezing of parts of several. BattleMaster is entering its Ice Age, and parts of the south of the East Continent and Far East, and the north of Atamara, will be covered over the course of a month or so with a glacier. In addition, western Dwilight will be reclaimed by the monsters.
We believe that this will accomplish our goal of reducing the number of active regions in the game. This will increase the noble-per-region density, which will in turn (we hope) make play more dynamic and fun, even if it is within a somewhat smaller area.
We also have a couple of other exciting projects we're working on, but we don't want to make any announcements until we're more sure how (and when) they'll pan out. However, we think that when they come, you'll be very pleased.
Some changes have been pushed live that should assist the realms whose lands are being reclaimed in finding new lands for yourselves. When drafting recruits, you will have a new option available that will allow you to draft many more recruits, at a very large cost in region morale. Your troops will need much less pay for the time being, and will not complain about being far from home. Oh, and you won't need an adjacent region to start a takeover. These bonuses will only apply to realms in the west of Dwilight, and realms that have already lost at least 1 region to the Ice.
Additionally, I would like to share with you some rough estimates of the final extent of the glaciers (subject to change without notice):
East Continent (http://topazgryphon.org/~tcollett/bm/ec_glacier_estimate.jpg)
Atamara (http://topazgryphon.org/~tcollett/bm/at_glacier_estimate.jpg)
Far East (http://topazgryphon.org/~tcollett/bm/fei_glacier_estimate.jpg)
On Dwilight, the monsters will be more or less bottled up behind Ygg d'Razhuul and Candiels, and prevented from crossing the sea routes.
The awaited event has begun, the Ice Age. In order to boost density without sinking an island, the Ice Age has occurred. The islands of Atamara, Far East Island, and East Continent are all getting hit by glaciers and Dwilight is having a rogue invasion, driving humans from their homes. To aid those that are being forced from their homes they are receiving several advantages. They are: a special drafting option, less pay for troops, troops won't complain about being far from home, and the realm doesn't need to border the region to take it over. Unfortunately with the Dev Team focused on the event, a very time consuming thing, only 1 bug fix was done last month.
Feel free to ask questions or give comments. Questions could be about the recent things implemented, the newsletter, or anything else you can think of.
P.S. Awards should be finished soon, my sincerest apologies it is taking so long.
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Are you allowed to tell us exactly which realms have received advantages?
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I am guessing most realms on Western Dwilight (Asylon, Barca, and Niselur), Eponllyn (EC), Darka(AT), and Kindara(FEI).
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I am guessing most realms on Western Dwilight (Asylon, Barca, and Niselur), Eponllyn (EC), Darka(AT), and Kindara(FEI).
And Lyonesse and maybe ML. (Both AT.)
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Probably Rieleston too. And with how the ice on EI was done, possibly Fallangard/Perleone soon. Possibly PoZ, Cathay, or another southern realm (I haven't looked at FEI map lately so I'm just conjecturing these from vague memory).
Basically: any realm west of those Dwilight chokeholds getting monster deluged, and any realm getting chill/frost/ice warnings with snow trolls/ice demons on another island.
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April Issue
Dev Plan
Currently the renewed Titans system is being finished up this month to replace the Magistrates. As well there is the War Improvements Package. Look here (http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,5596.msg127208.html#msg127208) for more information and to participate in discussion on the topic.
Dev Work Done
Continued the Ice Age and has done more with Dwilight's rogue invasion
A Night of Ominous Lights (1 day, 21 hours ago)
message to Everyone on Dwilight
The past few days have been cloudy, and mariners sailing the seas west of Dwilight have reported seeing a strange light reflecting off the clouds further out to sea. Today, though, a strong wind has scoured the skies clear, and at midnight the first quarter moon rises clear and bright.
Its light shining down meets another light from below: an eerie greenish glow, emanating from the western sea. It source is beyond sight of shore, but ships sailing just far enough west that they can barely see land return with their captains pale and shuddering as they report that the light is shining from terrible glaciers just visible from their vantage point within sight of land.
Just when most people are putting it aside and beginning to sink into an uneasy slumber, though, yet another phenomenon appears: vast transparent curtains of greenish-purple light rippling throughout the night sky. This aurora must be the harbinger of something dreadful, for as soon as it appears, a strange sound begins to emanate from woods and rocky highlands, and wilderness all across the continent. It grows in strength until it is clear that every monster on the continent is giving tongue in a terrible howl. The moment it reaches an unbearable volume, it stops, and at the same instant, the aurora vanishes. Then the earth begins to tremble as thousands of clawed, hooved, and padded feet begin thundering toward the west...toward the Iceglow.
The freezing has continued, and the monsters on Dwilight are all going to the West, even those that are already on the west island are heading west. What will happen once they get there is yet to be known. To address some people's concerns regarding the event:
When the dev team sat down and decided to make a determination of how to achieve our goals, we set out a clear policy that we would not consider political boundaries when setting policy. There was a suggestion or two that perhaps the event could be used to help reshape the politics of some islands. We quickly, and almost unanimously, decided that this was not desirable. We do not want to sit down and say "These realms are good, and we should preserve them. These realms are bad, and should be destroyed." This subjective decision process is bad for the game and the players. Who wants to be the player that has the dev team come down and say "For the good of the game, we have decided that your realm, specifically, has to be eliminated."
Part of the assumption that you're making is that, if we would have tried to use political boundaries and specific realm traits to determine which realms should die, that we would have of course agreed that your realm would be saved. You have no guarantee that this is the case. Perhaps we would have closed the north. Or the south. Or the outside of both halves. Or pared the north and south down by 25% of the map size. Or maybe we would have blown a huge hole in the middle of both the eastern and western halves. Who knows? In any case, there's no guarantee that Barca, or Asylon, or Niselur, or Astrum, or any other specific realm would have survived the decision process.
So in the end, we decided to go with island history, and revert the western half to a monster-riddled wilderness. I'm sorry that some realms had to be destroyed in the process. But at least, in the end, every player knows that what was done was not done in an effort to specifically target any individual realm or alliance. This is true of the decisions made regarding all islands.
You have my personal promise on that fact. And if the personal promise of the dev team is not good enough for you, then there is absolutely nothing that can be done to convince you of how things were done, and why they had to be done that way.
I think - from what I hear right and left - that most players are actually unhappy about the solution at all because of instead one realm, many realms of them are affected and would just hear from the dev team an honest "ok that didn't work out as we wanted, we should just have done better something else".
Yes, that's always what people want you to say when they think you're wrong.
But what about when they're wrong—or, at best, very premature in their assessment?
An event like this is guaranteed to produce those feelings in a large number of people, no matter how we choose the regions to remove. And the other alternative—simply doing nothing—is also not viable. Sure, it doesn't piss lots of people off and make them leave now—but it also doesn't make the game engaging and exciting in the future, which will, over time, cause a lot of people to leave nonetheless.
if you are wrong, that is not decided yet,
This is the key here.
but for most, with the limited information given, it sounds like this.
Limited, biased, non-scientific information—and, ultimately, however accurate it is, all of it is simply giving the result we knew would happen: Some people who are being affected by the ice and the monsters are leaving the game. During the event and a period immediately following it, I would be shocked to find that account deletions did not outpace account creations.
The point is not, and never was, for the shrinking itself to create more interest and bring in more people. We tried to come up with ways to fluff and manage the shrinking that would help to mitigate the damage, but there's no way we can completely eliminate it.
The point of these actions was never about making things better now. It was always about making things better in the future.
The sooner you all realize that, and stop looking at the results in the present as "proof" that our actions were wrong, the sooner you can all get back to playing the game, and we can get back to improving it, rather than having to spend vast amounts of time on the forum each day refuting the same tired arguments over and over again.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "choice modifier," but...
The reason we were focusing on noble density is because that is a very strong predictor of two things: first, being able to find meaningful interaction, and second, being able to maintain your realm without dedicating a large proportion of the realm's nobility purely to that.
We believe that the increased density will lead to more interaction, and more opportunity for war between the realms that are left, because there will be more nobles available who are not tied to region maintenance.
Both those things should increase overall fun, and thus retention.
However, we do have other plans in the works that we hope will also improve matters. Believe me, no one would be happier than me if we could implement all these changes and see a resulting rise in the player count that means we can immediately start "giving back" regions that we glaciated or...monster-ated. (Nom.)
Shut down the Magistrates and started work on renewing the Titans system.
After giving proper time to the Magistrates experiment, we have decided to take the lessons it has provided us and unite the Titan and Magistrate systems. Moving forward, we will be taking the best advantages of the Magistrate system, with the transparency of open reports and verdicts, and combining it with the Titans' private discussions and information gathering tools. Reflecting upon the Magistrate experiment, we find that the public discussion on each case distracted the Magistrates, resulted in a large share of forum vitriol, and usually offered little in benefit to each case. We also found that Magistrates listing the initial report and final verdicts helped clarify the game's position on edge situations and helped share knowledge of what was acceptable and unacceptable in the game. We hope to improve upon both these aspects with the new Titans.
Starting immediately, the Titans will once again be the body to which all complaints about other players should be submitted. However, they are undergoing an overhaul that should help to increase transparency and responsiveness, which will take several more days to complete. Any complaints submitted before then will be addressed, but be aware that there will be a delay.
Its been talked about for a few months and it has finally been decided to in fact shut down the Magistrates. Anaris is currently in the process of taking the good things from the Magistrates and some other things as well to renew the Titans again to be the sole judicial body in Battlemaster.
Priests can once more see the military in the region they are in and their realm's regions.
This is on a trial basis, so if it is found people are abusing it, it will likely be revoked soon after.
April Fools- Create a Daimon.
We apologize to those who may have fallen a little too hard for the "undercover Daimon" joke.
For those who have enough character slots, we invite you to keep the adventurer and enjoy playing the adventurer game. For those who do not, you can simply pause or delete the "Daimon" character and continue playing as normal.
Normal restrictions on pausing a new character have been lifted temporarily.
Players had the ability to "Create a Daimon" being told that they could choose several abilities to have, starting out with none and gaining 1 a day. It was said that you were pretending to a peasant for the time being. Unfortunately the next day came, and instead of the daimons gaining their powers their reports gamewide of crazy peasants thinking they were peasants, and thus the daimons, which seemed like adventurers when you played, were in fact just adventurers.
Miscellaneous
With Tom consolidating his social media pages, please like Tom's Games (https://www.facebook.com/tomsgamescollection), his new Facebook page.
What was your first active role in a realm?
Feel free to ask any questions, about the game, development, or the newsletter.
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I started as a loud-mouth Vice Marshal of an Army
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My first active role? As a Baron of Chrysantalys Mines >:D That place is where my RC building madness began.
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My first active role in a realm was as a drunken Battle Group Leader (I know, I'm old). My character got "lost" on the way to help Talerium with a succession, and wound up looting Darkan lands. It was after that he quit drinking and turned to... Pancakes *dramatic music*.
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I think my first role was VM of the main army in the Barony. I did a good enough job to make it to Marshal of Sordnaz's hand-picked Immortals spec ops in about two months. Good times...
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What was your first active role in a realm?
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It was trying to make Axewild (smallish badlands region) self sustainable some 1 or 2 years ago as a fairly new noble.
and then becoming a lord of another region with the family i played back then (became discontinued. perm vacation because i moved => other stuff to do => when i came back i found out the family was deleted :/ )
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What was your first active role in a realm?
My first active role was as soon as my character stepped off the boat in Dwilight. I happened upon a city that was a week or two away from founding a republican/democratic colony realm. I jumped at the chance, and joined in on the decision making process once the colony was created. It didn't take long before the character got absorbed into a plethora of hidden agendas, backstabbing, and personal vendettas that come with jostling for power against others.
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My first active role would be Duke of Gethsemene. However preceding that was being involved in the actual founding of Old Grehk.
That being said, my real first active role was as a troopleader!
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Great newsletter! My first active role was with my character Willhelm on Dwilight when he became Earl of Aspar in Asylon. My first non-lordship appointment was with my character Xerxes on Atamara when he was appointed Marshal of the Hawthorne Grand Company, and then soon after that Royal Marshal of Lyonesse. The previous Royal Marshal, Flint Comacho attempted a rebellion and got himself banned. After Xerxes became Royal Marshal I made him a hero and he lasted maybe one or two battles. A bit of a shock even though I knew heroes could die in battle, I really didn't expect it to happen so soon.
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My first character joined Dwilight when it was still mostly unconquered and was an unruly pestering small fry for a while who couldn't understand why all those old quiet men in Corsanctum couldn't organise themselves to fight some monsters. But that finally paid off and led to her marshalship.
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My first active role was with a lordship in Darka. I think it was Winsor? That might not be right. It was a badlands by the volcano. Darka had an active irc group. I learned a lot about the game from the Finnish players. In an effort to understand how they thought I even learned some Finnish history. Darka was so much fun. How are they doing these days? Is the glacier going to affect them much?
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Darka lost quite a few regions, including a city and a stronghold, to the glaciers. But they also took Hawthorne, too. Not sure how it works out. Most of the regions they lost were pretty crappy.
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My first active role? My first character started as Region Steward in Grentzen region on Colonies island. Most people underestimate Region Steward role at that time. If Region Steward did not count, then when Grentzen Region Lord went missing, my character was appointed as Count of Grentzen. That is when I began to take an active role in my realm affairs and actively contributed to the realm history and had some parts in shaping the island history as a whole ;)
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My first active role? My first character started as Region Steward in Grentzen region on Colonies island. Most people underestimate Region Steward role at that time. If Region Steward did not count, then when Grentzen Region Lord went missing, my character was appointed as Count of Grentzen. That is when I began to take an active role in my realm affairs and actively contributed to the realm history and had some parts in shaping the island history as a whole ;)
I agree on people underestimating Region Steward. Not only does it give you a great claim if your lord disappears but if he doesn't and a lordship opens up it can make getting that lordship easy if you were a good steward. That and if it's a rural region you can make extra gold off it.
As well, if you were active as steward, I totally count that. If it was just a title from your lord but you weren't allowed to do anything or chose not too, I would consider the lordship your first active role, but I have a feeling you were in fact active as steward.
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I agree on people underestimating Region Steward. Not only does it give you a great claim if your lord disappears but if he doesn't and a lordship opens up it can make getting that lordship easy if you were a good steward. That and if it's a rural region you can make extra gold off it.
As well, if you were active as steward, I totally count that. If it was just a title from your lord but you weren't allowed to do anything or chose not too, I would consider the lordship your first active role, but I have a feeling you were in fact active as steward.
Yes, indeed I am pretty active as Region Steward. Grentzen is a Woodsland region and it produces food a lot at that time, enough to feed the capital city. I learnt a lot from the game and the people, now it is time I give back whenever I can. I mentored a few players by being Mentor class myself, some of the players I mentored even being called "My Minions" from the "Despicable Me" movie. One of my students had a funny religion calling hugging the tree and pray to the tree, he refused to join the main realm religion, sadly he was no more playing here. It was good times ;D
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For those waiting on the release of this month's issue, I am sorry it is not out yet, as I was really hoping to get it out this weekend. Unfortunately I have a lot work to do with school this week and my first final of the semester so it is unlikely it will be published until next weekend.
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My first active role was in the first Niselur: I wrote a roleplay when the general/marshal was wounded in battle against the undead and my character fought to his side to protect him; he got promoted to Vice-Marshal the next day. That got me bumped right up in the hierarchy when we started reclaiming regions in the Gaston area; being Astrum's banker was fun too, put a system in place to basically automate the whole process. 8)
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My extreme apologies, finishing up school has kept me quite busy this month thus I will be combining the May and June issues.