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Topics - anoobowner

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BM General Discussion / How did you earn your spot on the bounty board?
« on: January 25, 2014, 05:41:24 PM »
The Battlemaster players were gathered around a small table, sipping on mead and ciders in a dimly lit tavern in Hamburg. One tall and stalky player with short reddish hair and deeply set eyes puts down his hood and breaks the silence.

"We know why we are all here. We are all wanted men in Battlemaster. I had 50 gold on my head for calling the leader of another realm a weasel-skinned buffoon, but I am hardly the most notorious among us."

The stalky player takes a long gulp from his stein, looks towards you, and then continues,

"Tell me, why did you have such a large bounty placed on your head? There must be an interesting or funny story behind that."

The men and women around the table look to each other dramatically. First at each other, and then at you. You take off your hood, and then tell the story of your notoriety.

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Feature Requests / Update the Main Page to be more Attractive to Newcomers
« on: December 04, 2013, 04:49:29 AM »
Update the Main Page to be more attractive to Newcomers:

Summary:

There are just some things about the main page that leaves an impression on newcomers that really undervalues how awesome BM really is. I think some changes to the homepage could make it more interesting to players. I am going to spell out some things I think you could improve design wise.

Details:

1. The main page is a wall of text. While Battlemaster is essentially a glorified wall of text, making something look pedantic and dense on first view isn't sexy. I would move the second paragraph, and the bullets to another page, possibly 'game basics'. While the writing itself is also very clean, it also isn't very short. I think it would be well-to-do to make the text as tight and short as possible while still conveying the same meaning.

2. The 'Join' and 'Login' buttons should be the biggest, and most obvious buttons to click on any page. 'Login' is good, but Join is buried somewhere deeply on the page, and it isn't even the first option to click on. Also the 'sign up' button should really say 'join', to be consistent with the 'join' button on the sidebar.

3. The essential description for BM is good, but it's very fleshed out. You need to begin the webpage with a log line, like 'Battlemaster, an immersive sandbox of Realms and Heroes built by the players.' Maybe not that exactly, but something short and sexy would be good.

4. The amount of space on the page taken up by the credits is almost as big as the 'key points'. Both of these sections could fit better on different pages.

5. The default picture is super boring and tells me nothing about the game. I know this game isn't very visual, but if you are going to put an image there it should be interesting. At least pick one of the maps or throw in a Battle Report that shows the existence of player realms or something...the Beluaterra Daemon invasion maps look pretty badass!

6. The sidebar is functional, but a little old. I think it would be cool if you had a little modular graphic for all of the bars, and then the overall size of the sidebar would change spaces based on the number of items in that list naturally. At the moment, the 'join' and 'command' buttons look a little squashed in, especially if you have an 'infiltrator' menu.

7. 'Quotes from Players' is a cute section, but it isn't sexy. I would put something like "    It's fairly simple and straitforward yet generates a lot of depth. The name for that is art."
-- Mark Gerdes" on the front page! You are trying to sell (not literally) this community and this game to people who would randomly come across the side, so make it look and sound as exciting as it actually is!

Benefits:

The main page itself says BM isn't a boring grind, and that's the truth. But the main page looks like a boring grind. Make the main page a little more simple, with less text, and make it more obvious how and where you can sign up.

Possible Downsides/Exploits:

BM is trying to attract a very specific kind of player, and players who only care about graphics will obviously not belong here. I am also sure this page have been this way for a long time, and old players will grumble at little changes. The sensible way that Runescape's main page looked in 2007 compared to the colorful salesy mess it is today is a good metaphor for what has happened in the game, and I am sure everyone here is concerned about those same things...and obviously any changes to the look shouldn't be dishonest about how BM is as an experience. Right now, I think the main page is an honest reflection of the game, but it isn't showing off what is good about BM.

3
Helpline / Natural Death
« on: November 27, 2013, 04:31:06 PM »
I know that extremely old characters have less hours per turn, but is there ever a point at which a character dies of natural causes?

Or, are there a few 150 year olds running around from the time of Battlemaster's conception.

My characters all have an unfortunate habit of dying at ages that would have seemed pretty normal during the 13th century, so I have little experience in playing older characters.

4
Roleplaying / The game-generated roleplay ever
« on: November 17, 2013, 02:23:45 PM »
Quote
Unit Status Report (9 minutes ago)
Badly damaged equipment has caused an accident. 1 men were wounded. Unit cohesion drops as the men argue and fight for undamaged armour. Wear and tear causes 4 % damage to your unit's equipment. Morale of your troops rises by 3 points. Your men seem to be getting along better. Unit cohesion rises

This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen in BM. It's a full narrative story with three acts, a clear conflict, a climax, and a resolution.

I don't have time right now to write out a roleplay, but in an odd mechanical way I think this speaks for itself.

5
Feature Requests / Embed 'Scout Ahead' to Travel.php?Destination=[int]
« on: November 10, 2013, 06:56:58 AM »
Embed 'Scout Ahead' to Travel.php?Destination=(number):

Summary:
Add the 'scout ahead' option after you have made the decision to travel to a region.

Details:
It just seems natural. It saves you from having to click on your 'travel' tab in order to access this feature. Plus, isn't it sort of logical that you would send a scout once you have made the decision to travel ahead, if not before.

Benefits:
Saves a button click, and a logical inclusion in the interface.

Possible Downsides/Exploits:
Might take 15 minutes to put in.

6
Newbie Board / Beluaterra Noob Questions
« on: September 26, 2013, 01:18:08 PM »
Hello! I recently made a character on Beluaterra, and while I am not new to Battlemaster I am new to Beluaterra, and I have noticed a few quirks that I am sure can be answered here.

Why are there some cities that are underwater?
Why are there a few territories that have slightly opaque subdivisions in Riombara? It looks as if there was more land there, but some sank?
Don't GMs or something fiddle around there with things? I remember a few years ago some mention of an invasion or something.

Thanks!

7
Feature Requests / Embedding Realm Diplomacy in the RealmDetails.php
« on: September 12, 2013, 08:22:03 AM »
Title: Embedding Realm Diplomacy in RealmDetails.php

Summary: I think the continent diplomacy chart with the peace/war/federated/etc. should be embedded on the RealmDetails.php page. It seems to me to be extremely relevant information to the realm's details.

Details: When one realm takes another's land, the text comes up.
"Astrum has taken control of Forguthrie. The region used to belong to Niselur."
It seems strange that I can't learn about what their diplomatic relations are when I click the link text on the realms names, since they are really related.

Benefits: It saves a mouse click, and gives the realmDetails link more use.
Possible Exploits: None that I can imagine.

Or, add at the least add a link on RealmDetails.php to the diplomacy page. Just saving a couple mouse clicks.

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Feature Requests / Daily Local Reports
« on: May 22, 2013, 01:18:02 PM »
I apologize in advance if this has been suggested before and shot down.

Expanded Daily Locale Roleplay Reports:

Summary:

In the manner of a Lord's Regional Report, I believe a shorter similar daily report containing minor details about the region a character is currently in or traveling through would enrich Battlemasteria and add both roleplay opportunities and flavor to the events therein.

Details:

Specifically, I believe events that ARE NOT important in mechanical terms ought to be reported so as to add a dimension of 'the world exists beyond the features the players touch'.

Events that could be present in my interpretation: Overall events such as the weather, the phase of the moon, farm descriptions not pertaining to bushels harvested that day, whether a peasant market is being held that day, church being held that day etc.

Events that DO NOT fit in my interpretation: Battle reports, peasants complaining about taxes, anything your strange uncle who hangs out with rebels would tell you, monster presence, anything that would be in a Regional Report, anything that only reports an economic.

The primary emphasis would be to have a pseudo-random extended dictionary of potential events or situations that are indexed on a daily basis. This is a super rough idea of what such a report could look like:

Local Report for Laraibina

  • Overcast skies cause sporadic rains to fall.
  • There is a new moon in the sky.
  • There are many people traveling on the roads today.
  • The local sheriff is hosting an archery tournament for the peasants.
  • Many houses lay derelict due to a small population.
  • Some small distance away from the road, a large patch of burned trees scars the landscape.


If implemented in a way that such events are not 'hard coded', expansion of this system could be relatively easy. Categorically, purely local events ought to be linked to their region type while global things such as the phase of the moon ought to work similar to the season's ticker. Weather could be thought of in larger bunches, such as rain could descent an entire part of the continent. Perhaps the northern and southern parts of the world are more prone to snow, hale, and rain than equatorial continents? Maybe it always is cold in Beluaterra?

Benefits:

1. A report like this would be sent to all players. This could especially enhance the experience for newer players with less to do and people who like to roleplay.

2. This would make Battlemasteria feel more alive and real. In my experiences, players tend to be somewhat selfish when it comes to what they roleplay about. This would be the Battlemaster equivalent of public highways or utilities: the community and developers would contribute to the roleplaying and believability of the world in places where it is not exciting for players to do so.

Possible Exploits:

In once sense there are no exploits, but there are certainly a few issues to contend with in this feature request.

1. The elements of the Local Report ought not to interfere with events players are better off roleplaying. For example, a note that is specific about a religion's daily rituals or practices ought to be avoided. However, if the region has a place of worship a note about peasants in attendance or the smell of a free loaf of bread is acceptable because it is a universal feeling or experience.

2. I naively assume implementing it would not be difficult in technical terms because it is only a report, but this would be extremely demanding on the coders in terms of getting a large enough library of possible events to where the report doesn't just seem like a stagnant random set of 3 things with 3 possible outcomes. Also, if any report is dependent on the information of a region (as in a badlands would have fundamentally different things happen in it than a city as is true in real life) nasty conceptual complexities would have to be sorted.

3. "Local Report" is a bad name for this thing, but I can't think of another at the moment. Someone would need to think of another.

4. Actually gathering all of the possible report types would require a lot of suggestion and vote from the community and creative thought from the developers. Everyone here is a volunteer of this wonderful game, and coming up with a resource bank of events is conceptually challenging for anybody.

Thank you for reading!  :)

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BM General Discussion / Infiltrator Day 1: Already Imprisoned
« on: April 27, 2013, 02:27:20 AM »
Basically today I learned that I am a giant noob when it comes to infiltration. Getting bored of the realm one of my characters play, I decided to stray from the light and take the dark path. Excited at this I thought, "hmm, why not try something greedy and different as opposed to academy sitting today?" I decided my character would try to steal a little tax gold at the least-risky settings in the capital city. I was caught and imprisoned, and now I think I stand to lose my lordship and be banished.

No complaints; I think this is an awesome opportunity to be cast off from the comfortable and to roleplay anger, poverty, and vengeance. It also gives me a good excuse to join wars against my own former realm. But, I want to ask the BM forum what a completely poor, imprisoned noob like myself ought to do and think about when infiltrating with low stats.

I checked the wiki for this sort of thing, and while it is generally helpful it lacks a conception of how difficult or risky something truly is.

Again, in no way am I complaining about what happened to me or the infiltrator class. I think it is awesome that Battlemaster has a good variety of classes that are both noble, useful, or nihilistic and greedy.

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BM General Discussion / Daylight Savings Time?
« on: March 11, 2013, 05:33:14 AM »
Everybody's clocks seemed to move forward one hour, but I don't think Battlemaster's time changed. At least it did not today. Should it? Or are we going to be very medieval about time and say 'there was no daylight savings back in the 13th century' and leave it at that? Or is daylight savings not internationally recognized enough to be put into an international game?

It's not a big deal, just a little inconvenient to change the times I look at Battlemaster during the day.

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