Topics

1

Development / Realm size vs Potential gain

« on: September 16, 2012, 10:22:05 AM »

Some recent discussions on how to make wars more attractive made me think on the factors that make conflicts unattractive.

These are two of them:
1) Big boss in the region you don't want to anger, because there is simply zero chance of surviving his/their anger. This may be even the one you want to attack.
2) Lack of personal benefits in waging a war but with risks of concrete losses. Past certain point expansion is only done indirectly, making conservative rulers/dukes prefer peace.

Both refer to the fact that there is a point in where big realms and their rulers start profiting much less from wars than they do for enforcing peace and a status quo. I believe we could attack those problems with some changes of perspective.

First is not allowing incredibly large realms in their current implementation to be feasible, but such has to be balanced according to the island. For example: North-East Dwilight. The success of the Morek Empire has killed the fun of the region. The only war/event that broke the eternal stagnation was Summerdale's suicidal crusade. And it had a very predictable end.

Now this doesn't mean realms should not be allowed to be successful, or we'd solve the first point at the expense of the second one, returning to where we began. What I propose instead is that we change the focus from warfare between realms with either conquest and 100% direct rule or colonization and 100% indirect rule, to a more medieval vassal-liege system of indirect rule but with some game-mechanics ties.

The idea would be to allow realms to be vassals of other realms, but lowering the maximum size any of those can achieve by themselves only. Being realm B's vassal would cost realm A a % of its total tax income, its ruler income, or some other form of revenue. The point of this is to create a hierarchy between the small feuds in where several are in the less comfortable position of inferiority regarding the dominating realm, which should not be in itself excessively stronger than the individual dominated ones. But being careful not to allow the mechanically-imposed tribute to be so taxing as to effectively making eventual opposition of the center of power impossible.

This would work on two fronts:
First it would make the dominating center of power a more fluid one, less rock solid. A small realm cannot hope to take on a large one, and causing it to break from inside is almost impossible when the positions are directly appointed by the ruler, the game mechanics promote a realm-focused nationalism, and the message system completely benefits the intra-realm communication. But if instead of absolutist France we are talking about the Holy Roman Empire conflict with the Emperor is much more feasible.
Secondly it would avoid the other side of the coin: lack of motivation for the rulers of such large empires to keep expanding. Past certain point they would have the option to destroy a realm they cannot keep and start a colony, which mechanics-wise are largely independent. If they could keep that kind of vassal-liege relationship increasing their own gold income, even if only slightly, but at the same time not being able to have so much direct control of the immediate vassals forming their Empire I believe we would have the best of both worlds.

Thoughts?

2

Feature Requests / REJECTED: Food rationing

« on: August 10, 2012, 07:16:25 AM »

Title: Food rationing.
Summary: Give the option to Region Lords to (attempt to) change the rate of food consumption in the region, not unlike the Lords of the Realm series.
Details: The implementation may vary in the rationing options (in the cited game them being Quarter, Half, Normal, Double and Triple rations) and in their effects (possibilities are affecting of the variation in Morale, Loyalty, Control, Production and Migration). Needless to say that lower-than-normal rations would not be viable to maintain for too long but could be employed to temporarily decrease food consumption at the cost of region stats and income (lower tax tolerance).
Benefits: Makes the Region Maintenance and Food games more interesting and dynamic, increasing strategy. Makes starvation less absurdly quickly devastating, allowing a competent manager to have a slight advantage. Makes excess of food more useful, and if the regions' rate of consumption is not completely secret it creates possible attrition between realms (Realm A lacks food but ignores if realm B has extra available or not. Right now there is very little that can be done to figure that out, and uncertainty is not the best war-motivator. If realm B does have it in this proposal it can either abstain from its potential benefits hiding it from their neighbors or consume in excess not caring about making its "treasure" known.). A sense of control in negative situations such as lack of food is, even if relative, is known to increase satisfaction.
Possible Exploits: The more complex a feature is, the more likely the appearing and exploiting of bugs is, and this (the Food game) is no exception.

3

Other Games / Faery Tale Online

« on: July 14, 2012, 03:07:23 AM »

The concept reminds me of this game, I've recently learned about: http://www.faerytaleonline.com/faq.html

4

Feature Requests / See Sent Messages with dead characters

« on: July 06, 2012, 05:36:23 AM »

Title: See Sent Messages with dead characters
Summary: Be able to access the Messages in playchar.php, and the Sent Messages with unburied dead characters.
Details: The idea is for unburied dead characters to be able to click on Messages in playchar.php and have the options to read them (and obviously not to send new messages). In there you would be able to access the received ones (which you can only see if you have an unread one or if you access them directly typing the URL), and the sent ones (currently not accessible at all).
Benefits: If there is one time in which players feel more the need of immortalizing their characters in the wiki it is right after their deaths. Retrieving the sent RPs and letters (specially if those led to his death) would help in that.
Possible Exploits: None unless there is a bug.

5

Feature Requests / Priest options providing Honor and Prestige

« on: June 15, 2012, 12:04:40 AM »

Title: Priest options providing Honor and Prestige
Summary: Have preaching or other Priest options give H/P, not unlike the Courtier options.
Details: Currently you have a H/P requirement to become a Priest, but after you turn into one you lose most options to gain them. Doing civil or bureaucrat work and even looting gives honor (lol) and prestige. From a game mechanics point of view it would make sense that also preaching, building shrines and the rest of the Religion options gave them. From a RP perspective there is comparable (if not higher) honor and prestige in converting pagans/heretics/lost souls to your religion (specially nobles through private sermons, though that could be exploited) than KBRing, having your soldiers repair the infrastructure or supervising the administration of a region.
Benefits: Priest is a RP-oriented class, but becoming and staying one is severely limited by game mechanics. One has to fight in order to acquire H/P before being able to take up the robes, and if one steps down from a position, gets protested or does anything that costs H/P, well, regaining it is usually a pain. It would make the class somewhat less unattractive. The sacrifices to become a Priest seem a little bit too heavy nowadays.
Possible Exploits: It could be used as a way to raise the H/P in times of peace, but that would be easily solved by having the amount of H/P provided not be superior to the one a Courtier gets. Extra hours per day of Priests over Courtiers considered.

6

Dwilight / The Zuma are Evil

« on: May 11, 2012, 05:06:26 AM »

They raped my goats and stole my money. Now I'm indebted, paying therapy for the goats.

This is a thread for you all to share the evil deeds the Zuma have done against you, so you stop contaminating other threads with it.

7

Feature Requests / Wiki links in temple boards

« on: May 04, 2012, 04:38:58 AM »

Title: Wiki links in temple boards
Summary: Right now we can add a [[wiki link]] in messages, but not in the different boards of the religion.
Details: Simply have the [[wiki links]] work in the religion boards, and perhaps region description if it doesn't already.
Benefits: It basically helps by providing a little more accessibility. There are already links in some boards, so it would simply make them easier to reach. It would also promote the use of the wiki and help in the RP immersion (avoiding the wiki address in the message, to be copypasted).
Possible Exploits: I am not aware of any.

8

BM General Discussion / Closing Topics

« on: April 07, 2012, 08:49:00 PM »

I understand the point of closing topics in the Feature Request section, as you want simple and complete requests instead of abstract an everchanging discussions that produce nothing, but I though BM General Discussion was a sub-forum about, well, general discussion.

Just like in many real life idle conversations, threads usually begin with one topic and end with a totally different one. It's natural and not sure if it is so undesirable when we are not focused on a single task (like making a proper feature request).

I personally seek in a game a good and welcoming environment/community. Telling people they cannot chat about BM-related matters seems to me that sends the wrong message to new players. Or to any player.

Please take note that I am attempting a constructive critic, not to just complain for the sake of it.

9

Development / Not being able to kick out priests of a religion

« on: March 29, 2012, 04:44:05 PM »

From a Dwilight topic:

You say, thinking of how many times this might have happened to Allison.

But, what about griefers? We had a priest in SA at one point who was fairly obviously working with enemies of the Church, but we couldn't touch him just because of his class. Heck, we still can't touch him now that he's resurfaced. We can and have banned him from the theocratic realms, but it annoys me that he is essentially an untouchable spy in the full membership. If he wanted to make life unpleasant for us by haranguing or mocking us constantly, he could and we couldn't do anything about it. IMO a religion needs to be able to control who represents it; when someone is obviously not aligned with the goals of the religion, or even aligned directly against them, religions need a recourse to be able to simply kick him out. The Vatican sure as hell can defrock people; why can't we?

This is a serious problem whose current solution is quite unsatisfactory, at least in my opinion. Considering the issue is about not forcing someone else to change his Class, an IR, there could be several things we could do about it:

a) Pagan Priest: Can only use the options to Preach (Paganism), Pray for Signs, Look for other priests and Estimate religions. Cannot influence followers through any meanings for, though his teaching are pagan beliefs, pagans in general don't necessarily share his teachings, nor can he build shrines for he has no church. You would only be able to become a Pagan Priest by being expelled, and it is clearly not something you'd want to be.

This idea has been shot down before, but I felt I had to post it since I was not the only one who saw it as a natural solution.

b) Excommunication: Give the option to the Elders to silence any member, meaning they cannot use the message options under "Guilds/Orders" of the religion, nor they can receive from them. This would solve part of the problem Dustole addressed, though it would be a complication of the current system, which has certain limitations whose purpose I don't really understand. Perhaps creating a category below applicants for rejected ones, who would not even be listed when you click on messaging "all / some members", would be an easy fix.

c) Make an expelled Priest have the same fate as when his religion's last temple crumbles. He turns then into a Warrior, does he not? Of course you have the Class IR problem, but it steams out of not being able to be a non-religiously-aligned Priest.

d) Allow an expelled Priest to be part of his own religion to which he cannot convert any noble before having a temple, but otherwise functioning as a normal cult.

10

Helpline / Republic Ruler appointing himself as Duke and Lord?

« on: February 27, 2012, 07:03:08 AM »

In Riombara the Duke and Lord of Fwuvoghor recently left the realm and sailed to another island. Being the realm a Republic elections opened. I was under the impression only Tyrannies and Theocracies could have their Rulers appointing themselves as Dukes, but ours did it as well, appearing this message:

Ambassador of Riombara has appointed Hvrek Psyche to the vacant duke position of Fwuvoghor.

And after that, we received this message:

The winning choice therefore is Gregorian, with 4 votes. A simple majority was required, i.e. 1 vote. Due to the tie, a random draw decided the winning choice.
Unfortunately, the lordship is already taken by Hvrek Psyche, High Chancellor of Riombara, Duke of Fwuvoghor, Marquess of Fwuvoghor, Marshal of the Army of the Sun, Ambassador of Riombara. Therefore, Gregorian can not be proclaimed. The successful referendum does create a minor claim, though.

Is this all intended behavior?

11

Feature Requests / Troop payment warning prior to joining tournaments.

« on: February 13, 2012, 04:58:56 AM »

I made the noob mistake of joining my first tournament not knowing I would not be able to do anything in it, including paying the troops. Luckily while I was still on my way my troops complained about not being paid in some time, so I had time to return, pay them and go back to the tournament, only losing a few turns, coins and one point of honor.

It would be nice if there was either a small text warning you to pay your troops if you have them before joining the tournament, for you will not be able to pay them there, or gave you the options to pay them and join it or leave without having payed them.

12

Helpline / Advy far from home

« on: December 02, 2011, 06:59:00 PM »

In Dwilight my adventurer was part of the Libero Empire, but now he has very recently changed allegiance to Terran. Even having done so, I keep getting the "Due to being so far from home and familiar ground, you are cornered in an unexpected dead end!" message, even though I am hunting in Terran.

Might it be that even after the adventurer switched allegiance, the game has not changed his "home" location?

13

Feature Requests / Emigration Code and Population Cap

« on: November 13, 2011, 08:37:39 AM »

The overpopulation/hunger cycles are typical of the medieval ages, but there should be more to it than just having people in large cap cities starve hurting region stats. I'll try to make a proposal for a system to make those cycles more interesting and less demanding regarding monkey-tasks for the players.

The first idea is a Population Cap, much like the one it already exists for each region, but that its Lord could lower (say he decides these woods are his hunting spot, and that large region of the city will be a plaza). This would cause some slight region stats penalties, but would make cities like Port Nebel and Darfix more manageable (instead of having the players have to exploit the hunger code, sending half the required food each turn, or sending one turn food, and not the next).

The second idea is to make the starvation cycles more interesting, and real in the process, by modifying the Emigration Code. The explanation might make the proposal look complex, but its effects would require very little more effort for the players to understand, or to manage its consequences (though its implementation would be certainly for the future).

Right now regions grow until they reach the population cap, when they magically stop growing (planned parenthood is implemented I suppose), instead of starting to have overpopulation issues. Only if some of the peasants emigrate there is further growth. My idea would be to create a region stat parallel to Population, or as a complement to it under brackets, perhaps called Outlaws. It would mark all the pariah of society (homeless, rogues), and those serfs that lost the Lord's protection and were expelled from their/his lands (Jewish persecuted and expelled in Portugal, Moors in Spain), which would live off consuming whatever resources they had, banditry, mendicancy or illegal hunting in the wild. They would seek to emigrate from the region that does not welcome them, and seek a region to colonize, to become Freemen/Population.

Let's put it in terms of game mechanics. Consider three regions having the following stats: Current Population/Population Cap/Outlaws. Consider a growth rate of exactly 1%, for simplification.
At turn 1 Region A has 8000/8000/80, Region B has 6000/6000/60 and Region C has 5000/1500/0.
Region A borders B, which also borders C (A and C do not share borders).
This way, at the start of turn 2 we will have 80 outlaws in Region A which will seek to emigrate, in this case to Region B, its only option, and 80 new outlaws will be made from population growth (births).
In Region B we will have 60 outlaws emigrating to Region C, where there is space, but it will create 60 more due to births, and receive 80 immigrants from Region A.
Region C's will grow 15 from births and 60 from immigration.
So, at turn 2 Region A has 8000/8000/80, Region B has 6000/6000/140 and Region C has 5000/1575/0, and at turn 3 Region A stays the same, Region B too, and region gains 140 immigrants, besides growing 1%. And so on.

This would create some interesting situations: in densely populated areas overpopulation could be an issue. After the Outlaws reach a certain % of the population you there would be a small chance they will form an armed militia in desperation. There would be two ways to combat that: police work (hanging outlaws should have minimal, if any, effect on the region stats, as they are legally out of the laws) or warring the neighbor to find space for your growing population.

This can nicely blend with the ideas of personalized knight estates (which can promote the hunt and hanging of outlaws, or simply patrolling the streets minimizing the chance of a Peasant Militia being formed), and the Fear/Loyalty region stats (in my mind hanging outlaws would rise the Fear, and either rise or lower the Loyalty, depending if the peasants are grateful you eliminate the foreign bandits or if they resent you for killing their cousins who fell in disgrace).

Thoughts?

14

Background / On nobility and piracy

« on: November 08, 2011, 05:31:04 AM »

A medieval time in which they were more entwined than we usually hear:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Slavic_piracy

15

Helpline / Generous taxes from newly TOed regions

« on: October 15, 2011, 06:51:25 AM »

Luria Nova recently TOed some regions, among them Aveston. With 725 peasants out of 8300 possible, almost starving, at 'Stopped' production with no knights nor lord, it produced 488 gold for the Duke. A little too good to be true, right?