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Topics - Bedwyr

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1
Work in Progress / The Color Green - Chapter 3
« on: February 03, 2018, 10:03:35 PM »
With a stable source of wondrous Prime to balance her, Quaranis [Materialize: 1 Prime] felt better than she had since waking on this strange world.  After spending some time building up the lava flows between her home in the Keahi Archipelago and the source [Effect: Gain Influence +2 / Cost: 4 Prime] she returned to begin exploring the various islands her attempt to seize the air had wrought.

To her surprise, they were still growing.  When her lava met the ocean, it turned to various forms of Earth, and the lava kept flowing.  Apparently, when she had created it, she had made more than she realized in her desire to cocoon herself.  There was an almost limitless amount deep within the world, and it seemed to enjoy rising to the Air.  This made sense, of course, as it wanted to complete its elemental lack by joining with the Air.

After a time, though, Quaranis realized that the islands were...Dull.  There were a variety of fascinating shapes, plenty of eye-catching metals and gems, swirls of different Earths...But she already understood those, and within a short time could easily predict what would happen, when, and how.  Now that the glorious beauty of Prime had nearly removed all the pain the separation of the elements had brought, she found she was bored.

As she visited her pyramid one day to bask in the Prime Source, she realized that a wild profusion of something had grown around it.  At first she thought this was a strange gift from one of the others, but after investigating she realized they had arrived from nearby areas, and seemed to thrive in the volcanic soils.

This was delightful!  She had no idea how these small green, growing things worked!  She could not predict them at all, and that made them intriguing.  And when she happened to return shortly after this part of the world began warming again in one of its bizarre cycles, she was amazed at all the colours!  Why, here were shades that reminded her of the gemstones!  And they changed so frequently that she could come back at any time and see different ones.  She had to have them for her islands!

But, to her confusion, the things did not seem to like the waters of the ocean.  Ah, yes, too much salt, hm.  Well, she could simply transplant them...But they seemed to die too quickly when her attention moved to something else.  This was quite an interesting puzzle.

Perhaps if there were waters with less salt on the islands?  Ah, yes...That seemed to work.  Well, then why not have them across all the islands then?  If water was what they needed, then let there be water across them all [Create Aquifers: 3 Purity]!  Yes!  Now they survived!  And this...life...spread across the archipelago.  And Quaranis was pleased and exhausted, and lay back in the vast pool of lava in the central mountain of the central island, and watched.

(Well, Tom did say to ignore the numbers...heheh)

2
Work in Progress / The Seeker Council: Chapter 7
« on: January 19, 2018, 06:55:51 AM »
As the ruby-eyed mountain joined it's power with the avatar of Air and Quaranis, hope surged.  Yes, yes, yes, yes...!  And she felt it.  The glory was part of her again!  And the last scraps she had been hoarding, the last remnants of her strength, now she could spare a little.  Enough for...

This.

Lava surged over the crevasse, forming a great pyramid.  It slowly flows into sheer obsidian sides, save for grand steps of basalt.  And at the top, Quaranis pulled forth from herself a great diamond.  With a whisper, it swirled into an arch, the facets catching the light and blazing like a second sun.  [Create monument, 1 Prime]

She turned.

"Thank you.  Let this stand as a monument to my gratitude.  Let this arch crown our endeavour, and announce to this world that the Seekers claim this ground!"

(Unless someone has a better name, let's call this the Seeker Pyramid.)

3
Work in Progress / The Seeker Council: Chapter 4
« on: January 13, 2018, 06:54:51 AM »
Quaranis stood in her despair.  How?  How was she to survive in this awful world?  Nothing was as it should be, and-

Another?

Here?

Yes...Another like herself...And this one had Air!  Perhaps she could learn the trick of that from this other.

A question?  Speaking?  Yes, speaking.  And polite, at that.  Maybe, maybe between them they would have the strength to grasp the Prime...But no.  She could sense there was not enough.

A mouth was formed to speak in turn.

"No, it is not mine, though I wish it were otherwise.  I cannot even touch it, I spent too much strength, if only I had waited, but it hurt too much-"

Quaranis' form began shaking, quivering in remembered pain.  And shook more, and more, until she look around and saw a third, wreathed in Earth, a strong spine of the world come to rest nearby.

A third!

Three, three might be enough!

"Please...I am not strong enough alone, none of us are strong enough alone, but if we joined, if we reached together, perhaps we might drink our fill!"

Two molten hands, pulsing deep white with urgency, reach out to the others.

4
Work in Progress / The Seeker Council: Chapter 1
« on: January 11, 2018, 05:02:25 AM »
Gravity was an interesting phenomenon.  Quaranis could see possibilities in it, depending on exactly how it worked.  Were there natural elevations?  Something to do with the air?  She would have to experiment.  Maybe if she incorporated the air into her lava it could fly properly.

Her idle musings as her body re-knit itself were interrupted by a familiar sensation.  One she had not felt since awakening in this broken world.

Prime.

Prime flowing freely.

There was Prime in this world.

She flung her half-healed form through the newly-widened arteries of the archipelago, and into the still-expanding network deep within the world.  Pushing faster, faster, desperation surging through the capillaries...

Here!

It is here!

She started to rise, then remembered.  Gravity would cast her down, just as it had before.  But perhaps, if she changed the balance of her lava, a little more of earthen solidity, a little less liquid flowing...

A new form rose, half-molten magma taking awkward shape.  A head, to hold the eyes.  Arms, to reach and grasp.  A trunk to pull more and more of her self up, and out...

There!

Deep within a great gaping hole lay Prime!  It had a strange shape in this world, but what of it?  It could be all.  If it chose to look like the void, studded with stars in grand patterns, then so be it.

She reached...But could not grasp.

No, no, no no no no nononononononono...

This...Body she had built was constraining her.  Her essence was spread across too much of the world, she could not gather enough of it to meld with the Prime!

So near the eternal Prime, and yet unable, incapable of reaching it.

Black obsidian tears streamed from her woe, and her sorrow caused the very air to blacken and rise from her in grief.

5
Work in Progress / The Shapers of the First Continent - Chapter 3
« on: January 10, 2018, 05:32:02 AM »
Blood pumped.

Metals flowed out, molten rock poured back.  As Quaranis calmed, she began observing.  Considering.

Learning.

Her first conscious efforts were small, tentative.  The many-colored gemstones of her tears were beautiful, but...Isolated.  She could do better.  Combining the colors, swirling star-stuff into them, she brought forth diamonds.

She was so pleased with her success that she was took stock of what else she could do.  Her precious lava and glorious metals were much, much better than the pure earth that had existed before, and she wrapped it around every inch of herself.  But a nagging itch (she reveled in it only being an itch, rather than the grinding agony of before) presented itself.  She had gathered the flow of water, the heat of fire, and the solidity of earth...But had none of air.

She tried calling the air to her.  Cracks formed above her, but let in only water.  Air pockets and bubbles formed in the earth nearby, but were quickly consumed or befouled.  Bringing the air to her seemed doomed.

But what of bringing her creations to the air?

She gathered, and built.  Magma gathered around her in a vast flood.  And she pushed.

Up.

The sea boils.  Water and lava meet in a vast explosion of steam.  Rock hardens in vast tubes, blooming across the emptiness [Create archipelago: 3 Purity].  And for one grand moment Quaranis blossomed in fire and glory into the air, her blood reverberating with the near-Primal union of the elements once more.

And then...Quaranis learned of gravity.

And everything fell.

Thus the Keahi Archipelago was born.

6
Legends of the World / Bones of the World: Chapter 1
« on: January 09, 2018, 05:44:22 AM »
Had she been more capable of thought, perhaps a better solution might have been found.  Had she been less-crippled, perhaps her effort would have gathered together all four of the...Elements...and restored them.

Perhaps.

But the agony of imbalance flaring through her was too great, her mind reeling as she writhed deep beneath the...Earth...and only three were brought together, bound with her own blood.  It was not the beauty, the eternal truth of Prime, but it soothed like a balm.

Fire, melting earth.  Earth, running like water.  Water, burning like fire.  And thus did the bones and body of the world gain veins [Create Lava, 3 Purity]+[Create Ore Veins, 3 Purity].  Hidden deep, far from the air.  And Quaranis wept in relief at the diminishment of her pain.  Her tears scattered throughout the veins [Create Gemstones, 1 Purity] as she wept for an unguessable time, lending their brittle beauty to the new blood of the world.

For a time, that was enough.

For a time.

7
Work in Progress / Creation Myth Chapter 2: Veins of the World
« on: December 28, 2017, 08:30:37 PM »
Heya all, I've put chapter 2 in but this can obviously be slotted in wherever.  Not sure what the cost of this would be, but happy to pay all 10 Purity if needed.

-----

Had she been more capable of thought, perhaps a better solution might have been found.  Had she been less-crippled, perhaps her effort would have gathered together all four of the...Elements...and restored them.

Perhaps.

But the agony of imbalance flaring through her was too great, her mind reeling as she writhed deep beneath the...Earth...and only three were brought together, bound with her own blood.  It was not the beauty, the eternal truth of Prime, but it soothed like a balm.

Fire, melting earth.  Earth, running like water.  Water, burning like fire.  And thus did the bones and body of the world gain veins [Create Lava, 3 Purity]+[Create Ore Veins, 3 Purity].  Hidden deep, far from the air.  And Quaranis wept in relief at the diminishment of her pain.  Her tears scattered throughout the veins [Create Gemstones, 1 Purity] as she wept for an unguessable time, lending their brittle beauty to the new blood of the world.

For a time, that was enough.

For a time.

8
Characters / Quaranis
« on: December 28, 2017, 08:14:42 PM »
Quaranis woke in dismay.  She knew not why, but the balance was wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.

Wrong

Her senses flailed, desperate.  And recoiled in horror as they saw.  Prime had been split.  These...Elements were in disarray, with no unity.  No connection.  No balance.

Half-crippled in agony, Quaranis fitfully began reaching out, blindly groping to reform the balance...

9
Helpline / Auto da fe on pagan lord?
« on: September 08, 2015, 09:33:11 PM »
I'm certain I'm missing something here, but I would expect to be able to Auto da fe a Pagan who has an estate in a region with 95% of the population faithful to my religion.  Somehow, I am not, and the only two things I can think of are:

1. Can't Auto da fe Pagans (which seems unintended, I would imagine you should be able to do anything to Pagans that you could do to those you found evil).
2. Can't Auto da fe Lords (which I could possibly see, but the wiki is ambiguous, as it says that the noble will lose "any landed titles they may have").

Region is Arempos, character Elcalyn, desired target is Anastasia Von Borghoff (who does have an estate in the region).

Thoughts?

10
Feature Requests / Set Battle-Width by Region Type
« on: March 06, 2013, 06:34:31 AM »
    Title: Set Battle-Width by Region Type

    Summary: Limit number of soldiers per side in the front line (by region type)

    Details: Code would need to be added to prevent more troops from entering a line once it was occupied by X-(number of men in your unit).  Rules for who got to enter in cramped situations might need to be developed, but could presumably work the same way assaulting fortifications does when determining who enters the siege engines in what order.

    Benefits: Create greater tactical and strategic complexity in the game by providing real and significant differences to how battles have to be fought in different region types.

    Possible Exploits: The same exploits that come with any additional complexity.  I imagine there are going to be any number of ways for clever saboteurs to spike battles with inappropriate troop mixes, for instance, but I think they will be self-limiting, as their troops will get quickly slaughtered and the battlefield would have the same width the whole way.  This will also increase the importance of niche recruitment centers, and thus increase the effectiveness of that kind of sabotage.

Exploits of the new battle code will be harder, as drawing a line between innovative tactics and gaming the system may prove difficult, but I think a suitable period of tweaking will mostly ameliorate this.

11
Development / All main classes having abilities to help takeovers
« on: March 03, 2013, 03:14:04 AM »
First, this is part of a broader effort designed to make war more interesting with minimal changes, see here http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3933.msg97163.html#msg97163

So: This is pretty straightforward.  I want every main class to be able to help with takeovers.  I want Priests to be able to call for peaceful submission to the righteous liberators, or scream for defiance against the filthy infidels.  I want Courtiers to be able to help find all the old officials and talk them into joining the new regime, or burn all the old paperwork to make it harder.

The idea is you might be able to win a battle, leave a token force to hold it militarily, then have the Priests and Courtiers work on bringing the region into the fold while your troops don't have to sit for a week with their thumbs up their butts and can go earn their pay.  Or, if you prefer, you can throw your entire realm into frantically working on a new conquest to get it up and running in a much shorter time than before.

Best part of this is it should be easy enough to take the existing options, give them new flavour text, and set them to work off of skill percentage rather than troops (should, should, hopefully, maybe!).  This would help give everyone something to do, which is never a bad thing, while not making it required by any means.  More options, without taking anything away that we already had.

12
Development / Make overkill count for more
« on: March 03, 2013, 03:05:27 AM »
First, this is part of a broader effort designed to make war more interesting with minimal changes, see here http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3933.msg97163.html#msg97163

So: This goes hand-in-hand with my first suggestion about limiting the size of the front line of battles.  What if overkill had a much greater impact on combat?  What if when you have room (i.e. have not hit the maximum line width of the battle) the game assumes you flank and can have your troops fighting three to one?  Then even your crappy conscripts will cut down armored footmen (while taking horrendous losses, of course, but they are cheap, armored footmen are not).  What if we say the game does not artificially need to help the smaller army, because the smaller army should be fighting in the woods and hills, in the mountains and badlands, not the rurals?

What if when you have hit the line-width, the game assumes you can only fight one to one, maybe one and a half to one with crowding?  Then your conscripts can charge the armored footmen for the whole day and barely make a dent.

This could be done, in theory, in a number of different ways.  Maybe have each region type have a set overcrowding percentage, just like battle-width percentages.  Maybe the game can check to see if your troop can move forward, and if not, then the overcrowding kicks in.  It really doesn't matter, even if it's somewhat less realistic one way or the other.  Heck, if the battle-width idea doesn't work, maybe just do this, and set the overcrowding percentage per region type and assume the smaller army is smart enough to find choke points.  As long as it is consistent, I don't care (and I doubt many others will) how "realistic" it is so long as it introduces real strategy to where you fight, and what troops you send.

13
Development / Maximum battle width depends on region type
« on: March 03, 2013, 02:54:55 AM »
First, this is part of a broader effort designed to make war more interesting with minimal changes, see here http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3933.msg97163.html#msg97163

So: This is something that I've considered for a while, and I think would make a big difference, especially if overcrowding were tweaked to make a bigger difference: Set maximum battle-widths that depend on region type.

Rurals, as one extreme, would have the currently very large (is there a max?) line widths, allowing thousands of troops to fight side by side if they so choose.

Mountains, to pick the other extreme, would have much smaller battle-widths, perhaps only a hundred (number chosen for ease of thought in this example rather than an actual suggestion, that would need to be considered) soldiers wide.  What that would mean is you can't go around them, you just have a hundred of their troops fight a hundred of their troops at a time.  So you can have a small, elite army hold off a much larger army of crap troops with very lopsided casualties in a mountain pass.  But, your small elite army would get cut to shreds by the ravaging hordes in an open field.

The other regions would fall somewhere in between.  Depending on the complexity of coding there are a number of options, but if we say that rurals can have a line ten thousand men long (again, chosen for easy thinking, not realism) and mountains can have only a hundred, with forests only having five hundred, maybe a thousand in hills, badlands at eight hundred, etc.

You then have situations where you have to consider where you are going to fight.  You have to pick the right troops to fight in a mountain vs a rural.  The idea of having one army for your realm would be laughable for anything except the smallest city states, because you would need different troops in different places.  And you would have to use your troops differently in those circumstances.

This would basically make geography much, much more relevant than it is now, with (hopefully) only one small change to the code that sets up battles.

14
Very first thing: The idea is to come up with something that would be as easy as possible to code that would help combat require more thought.  This is absolutely not the place to add "ooh, wouldn't it be cool if we could have sea battles?" or "man, we should totally be able to upgrade the armour and weapons of our troops!", this is the place to say "yes, that would be awesome, but it would still be pretty good if we did this, and that would be a much smaller change."

Now, I have a few ideas that I think could work.  I may well be wrong, as my coding knowledge is seriously limited, and I know the combat code is a snarled mess in places, but I think these will work.  I am going to create specific threads for each idea, and use this thread as a master list and for people to suggest other simple things that would work, which we can then actually discuss in their own thread.

Current list:

1. Maximum battle width depends on region type http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3934.0.html

2. Make overkill count for more http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3935.0.html

3. All main classes having abilities to help takeovers http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,3936.0.html

15
Far East Island / The Return of House Kindon-Bedwyr
« on: February 08, 2013, 06:05:02 AM »
For those who have yet to hear, Jenred has regained his full faculties and returned to public life in Arcaea...And his daughter, Ashkeyana Aerywyn Kindon Bedwyr has moved from being the squire of King Galiard of Cathay to the newest Cathayan noble.

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