Topics

16

Development / Remaking the Maps

« on: March 11, 2012, 10:30:37 AM »

I'm responding to this thread:
http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,2109.0.html

I do have the AoW2 Editor, and gave it a try. Remaking the current maps while maintaining the same topography will be rather difficult and time consuming. However, I believe it will be possible, if we accept that it won't look the same pixel-for-pixel like the old maps. Some of the cities might have to look drastically different, for example. Then again, maybe different can mean better rather than worse.

So I'll be spending an hour or two every weekend on this. I'll try to make progress reports here, but please do not expect anything vaguely resembling a schedule. It will get done when it gets done. :p

17

Other Games / Echo Bazaar

« on: January 09, 2012, 10:13:30 AM »

"Three decades ago, London was stolen by bats. Dragged deep into the earth by the Echo Bazaar. The sun is gone. All we have is the gas-light of Mr Fires. But Londoners can get used to anything. And it's quiet down here with the devils and the darkness and the mushroom wine. Peaceful.

"But then YOU arrived."

Echo Bazaar is an online game set in late Victorian era post-mini-apocalypse London.

http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com

18

Feature Requests / Let's go viral

« on: January 09, 2012, 09:49:15 AM »

We need links on the front page that lets users share the glorious goodness that is BattleMaster via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

Even better would be to let us directly invite our friends on Facebook and Google+.

Because, let's face it, BM appeals to a rather small subset of human beings. Word of mouth is not enough. We need to spam all of our contacts in order to maybe grab a few new players.

19

Helpline / Question on how FTOs work

« on: December 25, 2011, 09:51:53 AM »

Currently, on Atamara, Eston is running a friendly takover of Meneriel. However, the situation does not conform with my understanding of how FTOs work.

Here is the context: The Cagilan Empire recently took Meneriel from Eston via a BTO. There were still some retreated Estonite peasant militia around after Cagilan and allied Talerium forces retreated. A single Estonite knight entered Meneriel afterward, and was defeated by a straggler Talerium knight still in the region.

So the troops in Meneriel are:

25 Eston peasant militia, retreated
15 Eston infantry, led by a knight, retreated
45 Talerium infantry, led by a knight, stationary

The region is currently owned by Cagilan Empire.

However, scout reports now show an Estonite FTO running on Meneriel. This seems strange to me because:

1. 15 troops should not be enough to start a TO. I know that FTOs require fewer troops to start, but 15 men seems way too low.

2. I thought scattered/retreated units cannot start TOs.

Assuming that this is not a new bug, what's the trick to doing this? How do you start a FTO in a region with just 15 retreated troops?

20

Questions & Answers / Can the Magistrates assist?

« on: December 09, 2011, 07:13:43 AM »

New Knight   (24 minutes ago)
A new knight has emerged from the ranks of the Cagilan Empire nobles. Kasallo Arminius is starting his career today.
He originates from Oyonniarre. He comes from a new noble family (OOC: 0 days in the game) and he might need some assistance to get started. Mentors, take note. You can check the background of this family or send a welcome message.

Out-of-Character from Kasallo Arminius   (23 minutes ago)
Message sent to everyone in your realm (76 recipients)
was thinking of playing again to get revenge on CE, read this http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Kinsey_Family/Enri/First_Crusade , realize you were cheating the whole time ("but we had our ears inside BoM" aka ooc spying), !@#$ all of you.

Noble has left   (22 minutes ago)
The player of Kasallo has deleted the character.

Noble has left   (22 minutes ago)
The player of Kasallo has left the game, the character is therefore deleted.

This player created an account and then deleted it, just so that he can cuss us out (breaking the Social Contract) without fear of punishment.

Is there anything that we can do about this? Can we check to see if he created another account on the same IP since then?

21

Helpline / Estate changes leaking to stable?

« on: November 07, 2011, 12:35:47 AM »

I guess I'm just looking for reassurances here. We're seeing estate bugs crop up on stable islands. Are the bugs/features of the new estate system somehow breaking out of the quarantine of the test islands?

http://bugs.battlemaster.org/view.php?id=6356
http://bugs.battlemaster.org/view.php?id=6360

22

Feature Requests / Transfer Army Sponsorship to Any Noble

« on: June 25, 2011, 10:15:46 AM »

Right now, if you click on the "Transfer" link on the army sponsorship page, it automatically assumes that you want to transfer the army sponsorship to the Duke owning city where the army HQ is located.

I would like to be able to transfer the army sponsorship to any noble within my realm, via a drop-down list.

23

Feature Requests / Starvation with Teeth

« on: June 12, 2011, 04:24:45 AM »

Currently, if your troops start starving due to being in a starving region, a few of them will get wounded. Most of these wounds will heal by the next turn. If you have a healer with you, you might take one or two casualties per turn at most, from sitting in a starving region for days.

This doesn't make sense. A healer should not be any help against starvation. A unit sitting in a starving region for a week should take significant casualties.

I propose a new status for troops: "starving". This status will be similar to the wounded status, but not completely.

How they are different:

1. Wounds are only inflicted during battles, or special events like "battling peasants when trying to arrest a priest" or "ambushed while hunting". Starvation is only caused by being in a starving region. So if this feature were to be implemented, each time one of your troops would get wounded due to being in a starving region, he would become "starving" instead.

2. Healers can help your troops in recovering from the "wounded" status instead of dying, but is no help against the "starving" status.

3. Each wounded troop has a chance of recovering each turn, healer or no healer. However, starving troops will NOT recover if the unit remains in a starving region. If you stay in a starving region for a long time, expect a large percentage of your troops to be starving.

4. For realism, the "starving" status may kill troops slower than the "wounded" status. (Or is just less likely to kill each turn.)

How they are similar:

1. Just like wounded troops, starving troops do not participate in battles. Starving troops are not just hungry. They are too famished to walk, much less pick up their weapons and fight.

2. Just like wounded troops, many starving troops will slow down your travel, especially if you do not have carts with you.

3. Just like the "wounded" status, there are two ways to exit the "starving" status. Dying is one way. The other way is recovering normally, which will only happen if the unit is in a region that is not starving. In other words, if the unit is in a region that is not starving, then the starving troops will start recovering normally, just like wounded troops. A few may still die on you though, again, just like wounded troops.

What do you guys think?

Food for thought: Should these statuses stack? I'm thinking no. For simplicity's sake, maybe a wounded troop just dies if he starts starving as well. That sounds realistic to me. Also, we might want to add more fun statuses in the future. (Maybe SF units that can poison enemy troops?) Figuring out the effects of different combinations of statuses would just make it overly complicated for a game. I say if your troop is unfortunate enough to pick up more than one status, he's just dead.

24

Feature Requests / Judicial Punishments with Teeth

« on: March 20, 2011, 01:53:37 AM »

Right now, a Judge can fine a noble for misbehaving. This isn't actually a punishment on the noble, as he can then just turn around and ask for funds, so that he can keep his men paid. If he doesn't get the money, he'll probably lose his unit and have to wait for next tax day. So either the Lords and Dukes end up footing the bill for him, or the General gets punished instead with a slightly smaller army. Either way, it's not a big deal to anyone involved, and the offender's biggest punishment is possibly a few days of boredom.

I'd like to see the Judge being able to hand down punishments that players would actually want to avoid. Maybe this means making you pay for fines out of your family gold. Maybe this means the Judge can make you lose honor/prestige as well.

Thoughts?