Topics

1

BM General Discussion / Large flaws in estate and tax system

« on: September 06, 2014, 05:49:01 PM »

While at-that-time large reconstruction of the estate system did give some, in my opinion, improvements, I would note visible flaws which directly degrade gaming interaction:

- More than once I checked, and lord of the region earns more gold from wild lands than from having knight with estate. for those who want to grab money by all means this is likely great opportunity, while i think it makes no sense game-wise.
I can clearly say that I have never seen any use of having knight in a region. They just draw money which would otherwise come to you, and even ask for more funds while you are always short of funds. begone, knights! we don't want new knights, no new players as well 

- I cannot check it myself, but I see that so many regions have no lords, while dukes don't care though there are enough knights around. Again, no need even for lords: food is produced smoothly (that i can see as a banker), wild lands probably bring more (as for lords), so begone, lords    I see that dukes don't appoint lords for many rl months.

- As estate coverage is no more, region almost never falls into trouble except when acquired by brutal force or heavily looted (both occasions being incredibly rare as there is so little speed difference between friendly and brutal takeover that almost noone ever attempts brutal takeover. So all these slow old guys who worked as courtiers and were sensibly useful for the realm are absolutely not needed any more. You can play game at slow pace as inalienable rights still (formally) exist, but noone needs you for anything other than quick moving troops, meaning if you don't log in often enough you are nobody. Begone slow guys, nobody wants you 

to not just make sarcastic complaints, but to try to be constructive, I will point that i really don't understand why estate coverage is removed.
- that was main motivation for interaction between lord and knight. now lords and knights almost never talk.
- gave much more importance to every single noble in the realm, making game more funny for everyone
- small-level politics could even be played by switching estate to control, production or even to nothing
- leaders had to care for all knights much more. now leaders still care, but only in strictly narrow sense - care for having troop-holding slots that would blindly follow control-freak leader

how game would be hurt if some realms would lose some regions for not having enough knights to support regions? in my opinion there are many, many possibilities for playing game and have fun for everyone other than controlling as many regions as possible

2

Development / Giving back in-game mentors

« on: July 05, 2014, 12:45:55 AM »

Rare new players are condemned to forums from the very beginning, they are not given opportunity to choose path where they will be dedicated to in-game play as they can hardly overcome basics without hanging on forum help.

Bringing back in-game mentors would give more alternatives to new players, current circumstances just fuel forum-master.

3

Development / Improved army chest

« on: May 29, 2014, 07:32:59 PM »

over many complaints i would currently have, I feel need to favorize at least one: gold distribution scheme utterly needs some improvement.

army chest could, for instance, be used for all sponsors to send funds to it, and army nobles should be able to withdraw proportionally to their honor, prestige, some internal army rating, and use that gold for recruitment.

i feel current begging for funds each and every week is possibly the most annoying and boring aspect of playing.

4

BM General Discussion / Wounds worsening or mechanics harassing players.

« on: January 05, 2014, 08:23:01 PM »

With wounds improving and worsening three times (!), effectively removing character from the game for the week's time, I have to ask the public what is the whole point of such "feature".

Logging once to see that wounds worsened, next time it improved, than worsened again, and three times in such a manner. Is that an ultimate test of player's patience  ?

5

Feature Requests / Recruitment related to diplomatic relations

« on: November 23, 2013, 07:09:55 PM »

How complex would it be if diplomatic relations would influence recruitment abilities?

Details
When realm A is in war with realm B, in regions where peasants hate realm B recruits would have higher morale, and more recruits would be trained per day. Counter-effect is bellowed realm is attacked.
Of course, when realm is also in war with realm C, who is loved by some peasants, in such regions effect would balance each other.
It is only my assumption that it's not overly complex to code when there are already peasants' diplomatic mood in place for every region.

Benefits
It would add little more depth and complexity, and most importantly, it would put more weight on diplomacy in overall. That would not actually be revolutionary change, but just enhancement of existing "regional diplomacy" feature

6

Helpline / banker's profit

« on: November 07, 2013, 05:18:22 PM »

could someone explain to me how does it work with banker's deals, i tried to monitor reports, but it seems i missed something.

my character who is a lord gave trade access to banker.

there are reports how banker makes deals and how much he earns by selling food from my char-lord's granary, but it is not visible what region lord gets from such deals.

7

Helpline / What is going on with this maintenance/upkeep stuff.

« on: November 05, 2013, 11:10:42 AM »

I don't know whether it is a bug or not, so I posted it here.

New "maintenance" report is coming together with "upkeep" report and now it seems all guild costs are tripled. Middle temple costs goes from 13 to 38 gold weekly "maintenance and upkeep" and now it's nearing earning of some poorer knight?

Is it really what is intended? Over the fact that in my limited knowledge of english "maintenance" and "upkeep" are mostly synonyms, that whole stuff with maintenance is really not playable anymore, it was really unfunny anyhow, and now it is like intended to push us out the game completely.

8

BM General Discussion / What prevents game to be competitive... i.e. to be a game.

« on: September 27, 2013, 08:09:55 PM »

Hello,

I will share some thoughts here about what I think in current setup of game mechanics is preventing game to be interesting from point of view where lack of competitive opportunities deprive us of fun.

Do not expect much more response from me, partly for not having time to hang on forums, partly for not being able to enjoy in offenses and rude talk from some forum member who express their disagreement that way.

So, here are some item related to current game mechanics state.

1. Since the time religions are castrated being deprived of ability to collect gold and with situation where religious takeover became only hypothetical possibility, all what I saw with religions is that they split in two types of religions: theocratic religions or religions tightly tied with some realm's hierarchies and independent religions. First group, who was more powerful before as well, now became overly too powerful, and other group cannot be significant in any way, anymore. so, now, on continents, we can see either totally dominant or completely weak religions. there will never be clashes or possibilities to change something in-game.

2. Though changes to tax system made some great step toward reinstating logical game hierarchy, where rulers are stronger than dukes, there is still untouchable and too comfortable position of dukes which make them more fun-killers than driving force to fun. Dukes cannot be replaced neither in rebellion nor via infiltrators attack, so they are here forever, they get used to such position and fall asleep. Not all of them, of course, but large majority.

3. The fact that game still have concept of honor and prestige and that rulers do not "earn" any penalty for large betrayal directly affects boredom in diplomacy all the time. While judges can lose incredible amount of honor by torturing lowly infiltrator, ruler can break long-term alliance and attack former ally within one -day. So we permanently have sudden change of side "all-against-one" gangbang which more looks as a lottery than as a consequence of some long-term diplomatic efforts. Alliances are shapeless and meaningless as game mechanics allow them to be such. The other example of it is possibility that realm can be allied to both opposing sides in war. If game mechanics does not enforce some logic at least on basic level, we can expect that grotesque situations will take place, and if such situations are not aligned with any in-game flavor, they are not funny at all.

4. Possibility to freely adjust realm government options made even realm type shapeless and tasteless. We have monarchies where all positions are re-elected, and monarchies where ruler appoint judge, which should be major characteristic of tyranny. Giving too many too easy options rendered government type insignificant.

5. Too many too long elections referendum - that is one of real sources of boredom and annoyer. The modern concept where elections are ideal just way of resolving political issues, while being questionable in modern world is really, really not aligned with medieval world. There should be as little elections as possible, power should be taken by force, plotting, rebellion, assassinating, not by "fair" elections, that are simply tasteless.

6. Weakening realm government positions rendered them non-attractive as many other things in game.
- I could understand why generals were deprived of power in times when some generals were micromanaging each and every troop in the realm, but I feel now it could be time that some power or at least some more options should be given back to them. For instance, if generals do not need to know conditions of each and every troop as that is marshal's duty, shouldn't they at least have overall troop condition of the army, to know how marshals are doing? Should they have opportunity to read all internal army orders and standing orders, or even to change marshals standing orders for each army, where something like that would be known to nobles? Should they know how recruitment centers are filled even when they are not in capital? If not giving them significantly more power, should at least some more buttons be given to them, to make that positions more attractive, as they are seemingly not so attractive currently. General is simply too responsible for realm affairs, while having too little power.
- It is even more the case for bankers. If bankers would be given more power, I humbly believe the whole concept of economics could more affect politics, intercept with it, creating much more fun. For instance - just an idea - should banker be given exclusive right for all foreign trade? Lords who does not want banker messing with their supplies would be able to trade only with internal regions, while all foreign prices would be set by bankers. Dukes who does not like that should simply secede! Or if they prefer current realm's shield, they should negotiate with bankers.
- Rulers also need, really need, more powerful  exiles. That could give much more interesting clashes with government members, especially with judges, and put more logic in ruler's position. Should exiles be so penalized? Maybe some initial prestige loss would suffice? I am pretty certain exiles, especially many exiles, would be seen as unjust and tyrannical by most of nobility even without game mechanics to enforce it. The opinions comes from simple long-time observation - exiles are penalizing rulers so much that they are rarely used or not at all, while they could create lot of in-game fun. Why rulers have to beg judges to punish some noble day by day? Or why rulers should not get rid of some government member? In times where they are in clash, ruler should have some ultimate button that proves his/her position of ultimate power.
- Judges.. I don't think they need more buttons, but they certainly need more direction, very clear and authoritative direction about game policies. It is so common that judge fears to send any kind of fine against any noble as they simply fear or Titans so much that they would rather never take risk.

9

BM General Discussion / Back to BM

« on: August 08, 2013, 07:51:36 PM »

As a player I have strong feeling that most of socializing, political
 intrigue, major decision agreements are moved to ForumMaster to the
extent that it is almost impossible to establish communication - even
 on level of mere courtesy - via in-game messaging, in so many realms.
 Most of my characters are frequently changing realms in hope to find
 ones where at least minimal communication exists.

 Messages within many realms are so rare - even with char who is member
of most of message groups - that for many realms it would be
 impossible to function if there were no other means of communication.


This is what I sent to Tom some days ago, and he advised me to share it to the forum. As I developed strong repulsion toward forums, I was quite reluctant to do so, but now seeing that something is going on, with this lock of locals, I have decided to go with it.

I would add few more simple points:

- If people that spend much effort to elaborate thoughts, give comments about characters and situations on forums would add minimal effort to shape it into in-character style and post it in-game, current game would be largely improved as well as player's interest.
- It seems that many players have forgotten, some new maybe did not learn as well - that all of us are friends, not only those with whom you are chatting on forums or those whom you know in real-world.
- No matter which level of rp-ing we want to run into, as a minimum, it is completely normal that you have enemies in-game, betray or backstab your ooc friends, have good friendship with one in-game character but hate the other, change your stance toward some family, use any kind of in-character tricks and plots. In times when I was playing chess, I used many tricks to win, but never remember that anyone hated me outside the game. I believe it should be absolutely the same in BM, without that most of thrill is lost.
- Personally I see no any single reason why any day-to-day operation of realm functioning should be moved to different channels, like forums, irc. There are so many options within game - armies, guilds, standing orders, stewards, automatic orders etc. that I cannot imagine what should be done more efficiently by ooc means.

10

Helpline / Are Inalienable Rights Modified

« on: February 25, 2013, 11:51:45 PM »

As I do not participate in forum chats, I find it the only way to find out about such an issue without pushing on OOC channel.

So, currently, in three out of four realms where I have nobles there are constant reminders for nobles that they have to be more active, and promotions, regards, lauds are often publicly related to activity.

So I have to ask whether rules are policies are shifted in the meantime? I do not see any change in Wiki.

11

BM General Discussion / "Fair" aspect of takovers

« on: November 10, 2011, 03:03:08 PM »

I rally had enough of discussions where personal attack replace exchange of arguments, but as I already received number of questions related to some current aspects of fair play, I would bring the case here just to receive feedback.

If you are prone to attack me for what I am (though you don't actually know me), please skip this subject, while if you are interested in impersonal discussion about game issues, you are more than welcome.

So we have situation where our realm declared hatred to other, which bring many limitations for near of far future, but that also make some increased troubles to our enemies to take our region. From what I see (I do not claim that my observation is referrent), they decided to take easier path by way of systematically taking our regions by "third party", means they bring all their army to destroy our defenses, than allied army brings often one single troop to take our region.

If that happened once, I would not probably bother much, but now it is becoming apparent that it is systematic approach, applied to all our regions and implemented for RL months.

For me it looks pretty much as sort of circumventing game mechanics, and disrespecting spirit of in-game world. Takeover is taking region for yourself, and you can always use in-game options of region exchange to gift such region to your ally, but this bypass approach mostly looks like sort of exploit.

Of course, takeover mechanics could be improved in way that only largerst army in the region can conduct takeover, but it is not the case now.  I believe we are here to respect game spirit, not to use things to make it easier for ourselves  just because game mechanics allowys it.

Of course, that is just my personal opinon, comments are welcome.

12

Helpline / Looting Error Reappeared?

« on: October 24, 2011, 05:47:23 PM »

On Dwilight again the same story, looting in one region worked two turns, than "fatal error" reappeared, the same as before.

What I do not know is whether "fixed" in BugTracker) means it is fixed instantly or game update needs to be waited for.

13

Helpline / Courts

« on: September 28, 2011, 12:14:03 AM »

I don't know whether I should post it to bugtracker, but it is third day already that holding just courts in region do not give loyalty increase, morale is raising one or two percents, but loyalty is not even mentioned.

Courts sometimes affect more than one parameters, but i don't remember to see that the targeted one is not affected at all, at multiple occasions. It is also very strange for me that courts bring so little when stats are around 30-40%, I could expect reduced effectiveness at 90%, but not here.

Am i missing something?

14

Helpline / Determining attacker-defender in a battle

« on: September 13, 2011, 10:07:04 PM »

I would rather post it here than to BugTracker, as I am unsure whether that is something that just needs fixing or story is wider.

Currently, on Atamara, we sent the army to enemy region, not a single our troop was present in the region, while several troops of realm who owns the region was there. How to imagine that in battle we appeared as defenders? I could not find any logic behind...

15

Helpline / ruler as a knight

« on: September 07, 2011, 02:44:40 PM »

ruler was holding estate in one region which is lost, and now he cannot offer oath to new lord as he "cannot change allegiance being a ruler".

how that works? can region lord offer ruler an oath and can he accept it?