BattleMaster Community
BattleMaster => BM General Discussion => Topic started by: Antonine on October 15, 2015, 02:02:30 PM
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There's been talk about this already but this is just a plea for all continents but one to be closed for the time being even if that means everyone having to pick one character to move to East Continent.
With only 500 or less players, and even fewer active ones, I find myself autopausing disturbingly regularly just because there's no enjoyment to be had in the game unless you're at the top or have time to roleplay (which I don't) largely because, with the exception of a few realms, everything seems to have gone quiet.
We're now seeing problems like not being able to gather together enough mobile CS to siege a city due to low player density and attempts to compensate for that kind of problem just end up ignoring the root cause.
So please, please can everyone just be moved onto one continent where the upheaval of all the new arrivals will be enough to keep things active and interesting until geography changes or whatever can be worked out.
That's my request anyway :-\
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I feel like the game is stuck in the awkward position of certain realms on different continents being the only reason some players stay around. That allows the other continents to have more characters than they otherwise would have. If you get rid of all but one continent you might make the problem worse. So much of the game involves history. Get rid of the history and you lose so much.
The ideal solution to me is to have some sort of system which naturally has an emergent wild lands. Either as a single continent or on every continent, have the size of the playing area naturally grow or contract based upon player density. This could be implemented with larger rogue spawns or some such along the edges of the map forcing everyone towards the middle until an equilibrium of player density is able to both defend the monsters and still have functional realms. As player strength grows they can reclaim lands. As player strength wanes, the lands are reclaimed by rogues.
The biggest issue is that the current continents aren't designed for this sort of system. In fact, it's not even necessarily a system which is best implemented with continents but more of a Pangaea type environment. Where the total possible land area might be the size of All of the current continents but the starting area only 1/4th the size of a current continent.
For reference: I'm referring to something similar to early stage Dwilight but instead of having realms separated by geography, everyone would start clumped together.
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Well....
We devs have been in discussion and as I've mentioned to some players already, some bigger changes are coming between now and the end of the year. However, not everything is quite able to be announced as limited volunteer time means being careful about what we commit to.
But I can share that we do intend to adjust Dwilight's monsters to be more based upon noble to region density. And for character limits to be changed. And for large realm penalties to be improved and additional ones added. Relevant announcements in more detail for these and others will be forthcoming at the appropriate times, but this should whet your appetite for now. There are still some server move issues we must handle first.
We'd love to have a more dynamic region count like you describe, but a) it would essentially require closing or reworking all current continents, and b) everyone on the frontier of that sole continent would have to bear in mind that they would be in constant danger of being overwhelmed if the density drops, while those in the core would be insulated, creating a potentially serious balance issue with only one continent available to the player. Not the best player experience, especially for the additional work input.
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At this point I do not think it is wise to penalize large realms. Large realms are actually worth playing now that small realms are too small to function.
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At this point I do not think it is wise to penalize large realms. Large realms are actually worth playing now that small realms are too small to function.
Dwilight would like to disagree with your notion.
Also, I would highly disagree with moving to East Continent, that's hardly the best continent for the number of people it'd be holding. Dwilight would probably be a better one if the western side were returned.
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Well....
We devs have been in discussion and as I've mentioned to some players already, some bigger changes are coming between now and the end of the year. However, not everything is quite able to be announced as limited volunteer time means being careful about what we commit to.
But I can share that we do intend to adjust Dwilight's monsters to be more based upon noble to region density. And for character limits to be changed. And for large realm penalties to be improved and additional ones added. Relevant announcements in more detail for these and others will be forthcoming at the appropriate times, but this should whet your appetite for now. There are still some server move issues we must handle first.
We'd love to have a more dynamic region count like you describe, but a) it would essentially require closing or reworking all current continents, and b) everyone on the frontier of that sole continent would have to bear in mind that they would be in constant danger of being overwhelmed if the density drops, while those in the core would be insulated, creating a potentially serious balance issue with only one continent available to the player. Not the best player experience, especially for the additional work input.
Two things:
1. Why is just Dwilights monsters the only one being reworked? Shouldn't all continents have a similar change if it promotes value on at least one of the continents?
2. I don't think that the frontier issue is necessarily a bad thing. Everyone starts on the frontier, and then secured their borders as core regions. The incentive for pushing the frontier would simply be that new nobles come along and might want to forge a new destiny. Starting new realms along the frontier promote opportunity with difficulty. Also, I wouldn't propose that it only effects the frontier regions. The idea would be to balance it out by making sure that core regions have chances for instability. If a region has no lord for more than a week, chances of rogues showing up and the region going rogue would rise significantly. So you couldn't have non-dense central realms holding more regions than they should. It would definitely be a different style of game than we currently are used to,but it might be necessary to adapt. Finally, it doesn't have to be restricted as the only continent. It was just one idea amongst many. I do think all continents could benefit from such dynamic region count controls though. If applied to current continents, you'd naturally have size reduction as so many realms hold way more regions than they even properly have staffed with lords.
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The entire population of AT and BT could be absorbed into EC with no problems. EC alone used to hold over 1000 characters. It might be a little crowded, but that's a good thing.
And I agree that choosing islands is needed now.
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BT and FEI should go first.
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I like BT and I like FEI. My characters have huge history on both. But I agree, they should go first. Amongst other things, consider what a difference it would make if EC suddenly had to deal with a group of nobles determined on founding New Arcaea, a group of Sartanians trying to revive the Church of Ibladesh, Thalmarkinians running amok, etc. Yes losing history would be a wrench but I think that most players would rather play a fun game where their history can be used as an excuse for conflict in their new home than a stale game where there's lots of history to remember but not much going on.
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Proably should sink AT as well. I don't know why that continent is still up when it has been stagnant for years.
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I do think one of the central problems is that there seems to be some sort of denial that if we just adjust some things or create mechanics that influence denser realms that the game will magically fix itself.
It's been on a slow decline for a long time. The game as currently designed is suited for a noble base 3-5x as large on each continent. There is no easy fix to that. Closing continents or freezing all continents and starting a new continent based on a current map are solutions which need to be on the table.
It might not be the ideal solution or what we like, but things just keep getting worse as time goes on (in terms of active characters)
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I think the best solution for solving BM's fundamental problem is applying character death through battles and age to everyone.
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I think the best solution for solving BM's fundamental problem is applying character death through battles and age to everyone.
That would certainly help. At least it'd be one valuable aspect of a solution.
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Aging is a counterproductive mechanic. Any halfway realistic implementation penalizes activity, and incentivizes old characters to sit at home and do nothing.
This is true whether or not there is death from old age.
What would be more helpful would be a mechanic that incentivizes activity, and penalizes sitting at home doing nothing...but without actually penalizing players who are not active enough to play very frequently/heavily.
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Letting people leave forever won't help with any changes. When a ruler character dies, it brings many changes. If you give more options to allow characters to be killed, it will probably give more reasons for people to go to war or write RPs about as there will actually be something to write about instead of writing some random thing that pops in your head. Anyway this argument has appeared numerous times so I won't bother repeating it.
It is hard to implement a mechanic that incentivizes activity while not penalizing inactivity. Providing any kind of incentive makes less active players worse off compare to active players and that is completely acceptable since if you are putting less hours into something, you won't get as much done as someone who puts a lot more hours.
Activity alone is not going to solve the problem. People will lose interest in the game over time no matter how well you make the game. That is why you need to bring new people to the game instead of trying to keep those you have forever. Even those who stuck by the game since the beginning are leaving.
Sure getting rid of few islands will help the game live a bit longer but I am not sure we can truly solve the player decline in anyway at this point.
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Really?
We've been having this discussion for YEARS now.
Just close two continents and be done with it. It will help the game survive another five years, but of course it won't last forever. No game does. That we've made it so far is a miracle already, and very few games have such a history.
Maybe it's just time to revive SpellMaster and turn the game back into what it was supposed to be at the start?
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Really?
We've been having this discussion for YEARS now.
Just close two continents and be done with it. It will help the game survive another five years, but of course it won't last forever. No game does. That we've made it so far is a miracle already, and very few games have such a history.
Maybe it's just time to revive SpellMaster and turn the game back into what it was supposed to be at the start?
Spell master we had last time was pretty fun. What happened to that anyway?
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It required too much constant input from Tom to keep going once he was distracted by other things (IIRC, at that time, it was RL creeping in).
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I actually agree with the 'death' thing as well. Personally I would go further and make the infiltrator game more dangerous. Make it possible for infils to kill another noble (and preferably give them an option to be invisible also, but then limiting their hours and making a % chance that they're spotted anyway). As a trade-off, any infil caught attempting to assasinate someone can be executed on the spot (without ban). This would allow for more flow through and intrique also.
The continent closing is a thing which was debated years ago also. At this point I think it would be a good idea to close 1 or 2. IMHO FEI should be the first and either Atamara or Belu second. Will we then also allow a second char on DWI though or not?
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Spell master we had last time was pretty fun. What happened to that anyway?
It didn't scale. By its nature, it was dependent 100% on the GM (me), and any absence would mean a stop in gameplay. BM prospered because as a game run by a computer, it simply continued when I wasn't there, just development stopped but not the game itself.
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Rather than open Dwilight to second characters, we should make all islands single character per family. Get rid of all of the iron clad alliances and two character bad behavior.
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Rather than open Dwilight to second characters, we should make all islands single character per family. Get rid of all of the iron clad alliances and two character bad behavior.
That might work if you combine it by eliminating 2 or 3 islands then leave the remaining with one character per island. That way players are more likely to be invested in the characters they do have. You'll have less copycat characters.
I think the ideal solution would be to sink all islands but Dwilight and one other. The reason to keep Dwilight is that it's the most well designed of the current maps. The ability to actually siege cities due to circle regions around them is a great design choice. Especially if it's ever combined with changes to food system.
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There are various mechanics changes which could be made, don't get me wrong. But reducing the game to one stable and one testing continent would be a good start at getting it off life support to buy time for the changes to be made which might enable it to attract new players. Mortality would be a great change to make but it, like so many other things, would be part of a long term fix.
Right now the game doesn't need tinkering with, it needs electric shock therapy. Cutting losses and closing continents will improve density and make it much more fun on the remaining one or two continents. That's the kind of treatment the game needs. Working on a long term recovery is pointless if the game dies before then anyway.
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How about this?
1) All characters can be killed (Could be for a short period after closing of the continents)
2) After closing the continents, allow characters from other continents to move to remaining continents.
3) New character limit to 1 per continent - Applies right after the end of immigration from closed continents.
- If you have more than 1, you can still play them up to 2 characters but if you lose or pause your characters, you cannot create or unpause them until you meet the limit.
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If you implement a limit, everyone has to follow it. No grandfathering. That just gives the grandfathered players an unfair advantage.
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So just straight up 1 character per continent?
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That would mean nobody can play more than 2 chars. That's quite a big change from the 5 chars people have now (although I guess the war island will remain a separate thing, so you can have 3 chars).
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The only really good map there is is unfrozen/uncut AT.
Also you people with all your limits and ceilings. As Jenko poignantly put it:
(http://www.rollitup.org/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F31.media.tumblr.com%2F2d59a4c978d8e7f73baf7b42bbbcd6a1%2Ftumblr_n7r2fmD3zr1t5jijao1_500.gif&hash=92c1e653a95b29cae54f2036e2678fb2)
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The only really good map there is is unfrozen/uncut AT.
Also you people with all your limits and ceilings. As Jenko poignantly put it:
(http://www.rollitup.org/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F31.media.tumblr.com%2F2d59a4c978d8e7f73baf7b42bbbcd6a1%2Ftumblr_n7r2fmD3zr1t5jijao1_500.gif&hash=92c1e653a95b29cae54f2036e2678fb2)
Unfrozen AT was a borefest, that's why they froze it in the first place :P Ironically however, they ended up destroying two realms which were at the very least somewhat entertaining compared to the rest.
Destroy FEI and possibly AT, and then do what Indirik says and limit players to one character per island.
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I like having 2 characters on a continent. I feel it adds depth to the roleplay side of the game... ie. family ties etc. I guess that is kinda a personal thing though and not everyones bag.
As to continents. I have been on all but FEI,
I find BT the most active if infuriating of the continents I lived on, that said I guess it could be realm specific. AT made my eyes bleed with boredom.
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Many people use their secondary character to boost their 'main' realm's noble count.
Just look at all the big realms. You will see family names repeating quite often.
We have about 150 active players left meaning we will need a small map like EC.
Probably need to change EC a bit to make it more circular or something though since the map is quite flawed.
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That's the problem with 2 chars on 1 continent. There are some who use them as they're supposed to (i'm a big fan of that as well), but most simply use them as additional swords in the army basically, with little personality to the second char.
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Sink all continents but one (don't care which one is spared, just have it start in a reset). Keep the war island open, as a sidegame for those who want it. Many will probably leave the game, but hey, it's already desolate in many places.
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Sink all continents but one (don't care which one is spared, just have it start in a reset). Keep the war island open, as a sidegame for those who want it. Many will probably leave the game, but hey, it's already desolate in many places.
I agree that we can't take any half assed measure at this point.
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My question is this: Is this whole thread just talk or is there actually a will to do something from the dev team? This conversation has gone on for years and nothing has happened. If there is serious consideration for ideas on how to do this properly, then it's a good discussion to have. Otherwise, I feel like we're almost wasting our time.
I'm happen to spend some time coming up with different ideas as solutions but I want to know that time is useful.
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I think this time they are serious about closing islands. Tom said so himself. It is coming down to which ones to close at this point.
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I think this time they are serious about closing islands. Tom said so himself. It is coming down to which ones to close at this point.
It's also important to not get lost in one hundred other things that could be done. We've been lost in these discussions for years.
Let's focus on the important things, and do them. Table other things for later.
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The benefit of keeping two islands open seems to me that you could have one SMA/RP and one not. However, I fall on the side that all but War Island (which I'm not even counting) and one other should be closed. Everytime a island is closed people are gonna leave the game. At this point, it would probably be better to close all but one to get that out of the way upfront and give people time to adjust, rather than just closing another in another couple of years. I would suggest opening up Dwilight to 2 characters and keeping that as the last island. Open up the west and if in the far future all of Dwilight is even too much space for the playerbase, it is easy to partition off one of side depending on activity, etc, without losing all of the realms/history.
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FEI is the most interesting continent right now with multiple wars and more about to break out.
Certain top players are working to remodel FEI and make it a lot more interesting without need for dev involvement. Let this be a natural process and not some game mechanic cluster!@#$.
Pretty much every realm on FEI should be at war within two months.
The real problem with the game is a lack of good leaders whose main goal is to provide fun content for their realm and others'. Many players who get rulership spots become obsessed with holding their title and crush any attempt to do anything fun, because that's just too risky to them. These players should be removed from office, not continents removed from the game.
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FEI is the most interesting continent right now with multiple wars and more about to break out.
Certain top players are working to remodel FEI and make it a lot more interesting without need for dev involvement. Let this be a natural process and not some game mechanic cluster!@#$.
Pretty much every realm on FEI should be at war within two months.
The real problem with the game is a lack of good leaders whose main goal is to provide fun content for their realm and others'. Many players who get rulership spots become obsessed with holding their title and crush any attempt to do anything fun, because that's just too risky to them. These players should be removed from office, not continents removed from the game.
We tried it. Can't leave the game as it is anymore. Too few people left. We need to close places down before all continents become too empty. It will hurt quite a bit but at least the game will survive for few more years.
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Rally the Band of the Hawk and cease the great plains of the flat lands and then we shall see where the maidens at the bars and inn take us. Never will we have defeat, never unless defeat be a porch with a sea breeze and women worth it all.
Am I posting on the right post? ::)
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I've been thinking, for closing islands and enforcing character limit, how about putting a soft limit first?
Allow all characters from AT, FEI and BT to be on the island of their choice, but more character you have up more likely they will die. Let's say, if you have 4 characters on ET due to closed continents, since you are 3 characters over the limit, your characters are very likely to die from even a light wound. Also, not just from a battle wound. You can die from infiltrator attacks as well.
When you only have one character per continent, this obvious does not apply and only the standard rule of no character death rule applies unless your character is a hero.
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Would it be possible to make a brand new Island while all of the other ones are closing. Make this due to and IG event and slowly move characters over to the new island.
Make this new Island large and have it hold all the original realms that the game started with from all of the closed islands. Give them their main capitol and 3 other regions from their original realm.
This could reboot the game and let people keep their history of their family.
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Would it be possible to make a brand new Island while all of the other ones are closing. Make this due to and IG event and slowly move characters over to the new island.
Make this new Island large and have it hold all the original realms that the game started with from all of the closed islands. Give them their main capitol and 3 other regions from their original realm.
This could reboot the game and let people keep their history of their family.
Pretty sure the Dev said no. Because if they want to make a new island, they need to close the game for a year.
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Pretty sure the Dev said no. Because if they want to make a new island, they need to close the game for a year.
That's not strictly true from my understanding. Designing a new island would take a year. Creating a new island, using a current island map as a template and exact copy could be much easier.
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Just take the biggest map and change the names of the city's and regions and give them the old realms flags.
How many original realms were did the game start with?
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If closing islands will lose players, and we're not gaining new players, then how will this help?
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Re: Closing islands - Some islands have decayed past the point where they are no longer viable for play. The play experience on some islands has decayed to the point where it is detrimental to the game overall. The game needs action, strife, and conflict.
Continually allowing accounts to add more and more characters to shore up character counts is not helping. IMNSHO it has actually hurt more than it helped, for reasons enumerated in multiple other threads. Players have more characters than they can actively play, resulting in lots of zombie characters, and players with no ambition or drive to better their situation or position because they already have all the responsibility they want or can handle.
The hope is that improving the play experience of the game will allow us to retain more of the small number of people who join and try out the game.
Re: Opening new islands - Thee is no time or resources available to open new islands. Although community involvement can help in some instances, in essence crowdsourcing the work, it can only go so far. There is still a mountain of dev-only work that needs done, and extremely limited coder resources. We could, theoretically, simply dupe one island. I don't really know the full scope of effort involved in that, but there's no way it can be as simple as: 1) copy, 2) paste, 3) play. It also does not solve any of the significant issues that players have pointed out over the years with just about all of the maps.
In addition, we don't need a new, large island to hold everyone. EC is one of our smaller islands and it could easily hold one character from every active account without breaking a sweat. You wouldn't really start feeling the lack of elbow room until you hit somewhere around 600. If we could everyone to play one character on EC, then we would have a very active and dynamic game.
Re: Single character per island - We've done this on Dwilight for many years, and the resulting political landscape is much more dynamic than any other island. Players are much more engaged in their realms, without the problems of mules, drones, and political deadlock resulting from multiple characters per account. In short: If you're bringing in a second character for no other purpose than to add headcount to a depleted realm, you're not helping.
Re: How many original realms - I'm not sure. I think EC opened with 8? There is a page on the wiki about it. "Original realms" or something like that. The exact number was uncertain due to how long ago it was, some info lost during the Tiki>Wiki conversion, and lost players.
I hope all this makes sense. I'm in a bit of a hurry right now.
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IMNSHO, with the recent changes, the only logical path is to sink all islands except a testing and a stable. EC seems like an option for that, but in truth, this new "stable" needs to be shaken up. Remove all current realms and allow all the things to be changed with the influx of new players. We will lose a number of players doing this, but I don't see how with the current new policy implemented, we can do anything else to survive. We should reduce characters to 2 and be done with it.
My guess is that a number of islands will now be completely unmanageable shortly. It's time for the dev team to step up and implement changes like this immediately. Do I want this? No. But the longer that it's talked about and nothing happens, the less effective it will be. I am not trying to sound harsh, but this has been my experience in games. Do it quick like a band-aid.
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Can't do changes that will require too much work. After all, we have volunteers not full time workers.
EC will probably not go anywhere because that is Tom's favourite island and he will rather see the game destroyed first before seeing that island gone.
Hopefully there will be some changes to EC to make it more viable. Maybe adding sea travel or changing Obsidian islands to be more viable would be nice.
We will definitely lose players that is for sure. But by doing this, the game will survive for maybe another 5 years. At the end, however, the game will die regardless. That is why people make sequels :o
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Can't do changes that will require too much work. After all, we have volunteers not full time workers.
EC will probably not go anywhere because that is Tom's favourite island and he will rather see the game destroyed first before seeing that island gone.
Hopefully there will be some changes to EC to make it more viable. Maybe adding sea travel or changing Obsidian islands to be more viable would be nice.
one thing i would do, would be to reset the island. Instead of making everyone having to just settle inside a realm, it would be fun to reset it and see the new realms forming.
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That's no different from closing the EC and opening another island that has the same map. And for why we're not closing EC, see above re: "Tom's favourite island."
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That's no different from closing the EC and opening another island that has the same map. And for why we're not closing EC, see above re: "Tom's favourite island."
Aside the fact that i don't see this as a pretty valid reason, I still believe it would be better and give a more fair change to players that lose their main island. Everyone also knows that people does not stick together and do a mass move to one realm(since that would also be considering as making a clan).
In the end closing the other islands and having players move to EC with no compensation or anything at all would just be a way to punish them and show that the history and work they did in other islands is basically useless.
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Aside the fact that i don't see this as a pretty valid reason, I still believe it would be better and give a more fair change to players that lose their main island. Everyone also knows that people does not stick together and do a mass move to one realm(since that would also be considering as making a clan).
In the end closing the other islands and having players move to EC with no compensation or anything at all would just be a way to punish them and show that the history and work they did in other islands is basically useless.
I'm sorry; it doesn't matter what you think would be better.
This is Tom's game, and that's one of his absolute do-not-cross lines.
The EC will not be reset.
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It is not like people want to see EC survive. It is what Tom wants. And when you are playing on his playground you follow his rules...
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I want to see the EC survive. And yes, for history. But also because geographically, its the most conducive to faster-paced wars between smaller realms. With the possible exception for Krimml, which would (ideally) have been located just a nudge southward cloesr to Akesh Temple. Other than that, there tends to be a pretty good distance of cities between each other on EI, imo.
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I love EC. It's had the most dynamic environment I've seen, with maybe the exception of some times on BT. And as Vita said, it's well arranged for some good wars. Enough cities to support more than a dozen realms.
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Tom won't close EC. That's fine.
Tom won't allow a reset of EC. That's frustrating as it's forcing a bunch of players into a new island which will either completely alter it anyway *OR* will result in the forced players going "What's the point?" Either a "soft" reset by nature or just throwing away players. So, either he'll have to go away from his own words or he just doesn't care.
I'm confused as to what is really wanted with BM. Is it just that Tom's ready for the game to expire and doesn't want to do things that will help? If that's the case, that's fine. It happens. Admins move on. We, as players, will find something else if that's what is wanted.
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The reason Tom doesn't want to close the EC is the history. A reset would destroy that history in exactly the same way.
A bunch of new people coming in all at once will shake up EC considerably, but it won't throw 14 years of history out the window.
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Will we be allowed to create new realms in new lands or will we have to take from the current realms?
The first one would preserve history.
The second would appear to allow us to ruin the experience and history of EC. Naturally, most players when forced out of their home islands will want to create something similar to what they had before. They'll be frustrated and upset. Some will want to just wreck havoc for being forced into a new scenario.
Will this be done at all though? If we are going to do it, might as well do it soon. That way players don't keep getting hit with bad news over and over again. BM will take a hit from this change in the negative fashion.
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Things are still being set up. Details will be revealed soon, as they are available.
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Will we be allowed to create new realms in new lands or will we have to take from the current realms?
I'm not sure what "new lands" you're expecting to be created for this. We've been saying over and over that creating a new continent is a lot of work; well, that's just as true for adding land to an existing continent.
The first one would preserve history.
The second would appear to allow us to ruin the experience and history of EC. Naturally, most players when forced out of their home islands will want to create something similar to what they had before. They'll be frustrated and upset. Some will want to just wreck havoc for being forced into a new scenario.
It wouldn't ruin history. It would have a significant impact on the status quo, but that's an enormously different thing.
History is what has already happened on the continent. That can't be ruined—it can only be continued, or cut off. Tom doesn't want it to be cut off.
Will this be done at all though? If we are going to do it, might as well do it soon. That way players don't keep getting hit with bad news over and over again. BM will take a hit from this change in the negative fashion.
It will be done when the dev team has time to make sure it's done right. I could just turn off continents tomorrow—blip! Like flicking a switch! But that wouldn't give proper warning, or allow for people to emigrate their characters, or any of the important things that turn sinking a continent from a disaster into merely a stressful event.
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Anaris,
I am curious if a middle of road solution has been considered. I am making the following assumptions:
1. EC will never be reset or closed.
2. We need to close at least one island
3. We need at least 1 testing island and 1 stable island for ease of development and testing new features.
Based upon the assumptions above, could you not close all islands except EC and Dwilight and then create a third island as an exact copy of EC. This would allow EC and it's history to remain, while allowing those who have lost an island to not feel forced into joining the existing current status quo.
I realize this is not a trivial action but none of the options are. I am mainly wondering if this has even been considered or would be considered. I think it offers a happy compromise.
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Don't forget about War Island.
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Anaris,
I am curious if a middle of road solution has been considered. I am making the following assumptions:
1. EC will never be reset or closed.
2. We need to close at least one island
3. We need at least 1 testing island and 1 stable island for ease of development and testing new features.
Based upon the assumptions above, could you not close all islands except EC and Dwilight and then create a third island as an exact copy of EC. This would allow EC and it's history to remain, while allowing those who have lost an island to not feel forced into joining the existing current status quo.
I realize this is not a trivial action but none of the options are. I am mainly wondering if this has even been considered or would be considered. I think it offers a happy compromise.
Seems like too many islands left. Not counting war island, there should only be one, or two max, IMO, or we will just be talking about this again in a year or two.
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Since we can't close EC and people don't want Dwilight to go, we probably should just close the rest.
War Island is here to stay as well anyway. That is three in total. Why not just allow 1 noble and 2 advies instead?
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How about closing Beluaterra in a way that would likely be palatable for most of the players on that island? Turn on mortality for all characters, turn off immigration, and launch the end of times undead invasion. This would be a fun historically appropriate way to close the island, and the players who decided to stay wouldn't be cursing the Devs names...too much.
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How about closing Beluaterra in a way that would likely be palatable for most of the players on that island? Turn on mortality for all characters, turn off immigration, and launch the end of times undead invasion. This would be a fun historically appropriate way to close the island, and the players who decided to stay wouldn't be cursing the Devs names...too much.
That requires too much work. Better to spend it elsewhere.
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Since we can't close EC and people don't want Dwilight to go, we probably should just close the rest.
War Island is here to stay as well anyway. That is three in total. Why not just allow 1 noble and 2 advies instead?
Honestly, I agree completely. Supporting three continents with full nobles would be hard enough anyway. That's probably as barebones as we can go.
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It really wouldn't be that difficult. Monster rates can easily be dialed up to insane levels. Mortality code already exists.
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Fwiw: colonies will also remain. It is a special purpose, one turn a day island. People play there for the slow turn rate. Because it is low population, nothing we do to it, leaving it or closing it, will really have any effect.
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Fwiw: colonies will also remain. It is a special purpose, one turn a day island. People play there for the slow turn rate. Because it is low population, nothing we do to it, leaving it or closing it, will really have any effect.
So, if I'm understanding everything correctly, we are looking at two possible cases.
1. Atamara, Far East Island, and Beluaterra are closing.
Or
2. Atamara, Far East Island, Beluaterra, and Dwilight are closing.
Case #1 seems more likely with the need to keep a testing island.
Please note, I'm not a dev so this is only guesswork on my part.
It seems that
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That requires too much work. Better to spend it elsewhere.
Since all of the mechanisms for my suggestion exist, I would think that a goal of the Devs would also be to try and keep players from wanting to quit as a result of the changes to the game. Many of the players on Beluaterra moved there specifically for the invasions. Personally, if the Devs let my character and the rest of the island go out in a blaze of glory, I would be happy and much more likely to give a chance to an island, like the EC, that previously hasn't appealed to me in the last 9+ years.
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Invasions are over. Tom isn't going to put any more of his time doing another invasion. Tim is too busy fixing bugs and doing other vital coding.
That is why scrolls are randomly being generated across the BT.
Don't know what people are doing with them though.
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Not using them in enough frequency or large enough quantities...I'd love to see a group orchestrate 20-100 scrolls launched within 1-2 day time period. *cackles*
There have been some minor usages of 5 or so scrolls at a time, but the continent-wide effect of that is only minor with that few number and infrequency of scroll usage.
There's around 600 summon scrolls on BT now. There will be some scroll improvements later (soonish), to help 'encourage' their usage.
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"Back in the day," invasions were basically mindless unbeatable uber-spawnings that eventually just ended while a bunch of nobles huddled behind whatever walls remained on the island. No talking monster champions, no necromancer, no daimons or children of the light...just lots and lots of undead everywhere. Plus, the scrolls don't seem to be triggering any type of significant spawnings yet.
So, rather than continuing to be dismissive and acting as an authority on everything that the Dev team and Tom are thinking, maybe you can let them respond to a reasonable and workable idea for going through with the sinking of Beluaterra using existing mechanisms and doing it in such a way that is more likely to retain players than piss them off...unless that is one of the desired goals.
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There is no current plan to sink Beluaterra.
There is a current plan to do some fun PvE stuff on Beluaterra in the foreseeable future.
For more details on that, you'll just have to wait and see.
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Plus, the scrolls don't seem to be triggering any type of significant spawnings yet.
Again, because there's been no significant scroll casting to trigger any significant spawnings. I don't think there's been more than around 5 scrolls launched at any one time anywhere and that won't do anything more than cause one day of slightly increased effects. Please, someone launch 30 scrolls within a day and let's see what happens. I know that entire realms have more than that. With the average scroll per noble rate what it is, it should only take around 5-10 folks launching all their scrolls.
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1) I'm not sure what "new lands" you're expecting to be created for this.
2) It will be done when the dev team has time to make sure it's done right. I could just turn off continents tomorrow—blip! Like flicking a switch! But that wouldn't give proper warning, or allow for people to emigrate their characters, or any of the important things that turn sinking a continent from a disaster into merely a stressful event.
1) If I am not mistaken, there are uninhabited lands on EC. Perhaps those?
2) LOL. We know you have the power. That wasn't the point. Will you use this power anytime soon? I haven't any doubt that it will be a very stressful situation if not a disaster even with warnings. But in not doing it...
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There is no current plan to sink Beluaterra.
There is a current plan to do some fun PvE stuff on Beluaterra in the foreseeable future.
For more details on that, you'll just have to wait and see.
I'm moving a character there asap.
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I'm moving a character there asap.
Urgh... I just moved a character out of that place...
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Again, because there's been no significant scroll casting to trigger any significant spawnings. I don't think there's been more than around 5 scrolls launched at any one time anywhere and that won't do anything more than cause one day of slightly increased effects. Please, someone launch 30 scrolls within a day and let's see what happens. I know that entire realms have more than that. With the average scroll per noble rate what it is, it should only take around 5-10 folks launching all their scrolls.
I did collect 11 scrolls with Remorse and did a nice run behind enemy lines and used 3 or 4 scrolls in a several different regions. And, I'm happy to report that the mayham it caused was quite fun. The realm even looked at combining scrolls into one mass for one character to use but I don't think we had any where near 30 of them combined.
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I managed to collect 13 of them. Due to the time required to cast, and my missing a turn, it took me a day and a half to cast them all. Spawned at least 8kcs of rogues.
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Dammit Vita!