Topics

1

Work in Progress / The Color Green

« on: December 24, 2017, 10:49:48 AM »

When the earth had separated itself from the water, and the air from them both to fly high in the sky, and above them all the fires of the heavens, the oceans were dark and hard with white capped waves that crashed against the dull grey and brown mottled rocks of the earth. The air would sometimes dance with the fires in the sky and create fantastic yellows and reds and purples that would streak across the wondrous blue that reflected the color of the ocean. Yet there was no green in all the world for it had yet to know it could exist.

Riding down a pillar of fire to a place where the sea and the earth meet came the Nameless Wanderer. Now where the pillar touched down, there happened to be a reddish brown metal baked into the rocks and so hot was the flame of the heavens that bore the wanderer to the new world that it caused the rock to catch alight with newfound flame. But unlike any other flame in all of existence, this one burned green!

So great was the delight of the wanderer at this spectacle that he leaped for joy into the air in great bounds, bringing with him the spray of the sea, and the burning rocks of the land into the sky with him for all the world to see. With outstretched arm he plucked from the heavens the yellows and oranges and reds, and created the first of all rainbows. However, now that it existed the color green had no place to go and this deeply saddened the wanderer, and so he swept up as much of this first green that he could and he packed it tightly, smaller than any mortal eye could ever see and spread it down upon the surface of the earth wherever the sea, the earth, and the sky met. And there did it grow and multiply, spreading across the lands as a blanket of verdant color, and so too did it slip into the shallows of the seas where light still trickles down to the sandy bottom. For this was the first combination of the elements and there was nothing to hold back its exuberance, save the need for the warmth of the fires of heaven, the nourishing water of the seas, and the stable bedrock of the earth.

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Characters / Nameless Wanderer

« on: December 24, 2017, 10:20:45 AM »

"It is said that the man-of-the-thousand-faces doesn't know their own true identity, and that none of the mortal kin have never nor will ever hear sweet words of the true knowledge of their being part lips and bring wonder to beknighted ears that. As such man-of-the-thousand-faces is the Nameless, a hopeless wanderer who is the truest of all Makers. While others seek to name all that is, the Nameless knows that this is a work of evil. For in so naming a thing it puts constraints on its potential to be and to become; to forever close off the potential of it's yet becoming something greater than it already is. With endless possibility the nameless does not fetter themselves with constraints of time or place, they can be many things at once. The tree on the nearby hill, the man who sits in its shade, and the sun in the sky bringing warmth to the world. But men cannot speak to the tree on a hill, or the sun in the sky, and so they must content themselves to seeing the vision of the man-of-the-thousand-faces in themselves and in eachother. For wherever there is the vision to create new what has never been seen nor done before, there is the power of the awesome truth that the nameless one has brought to the people, and so too is there the nameless' blessing. So go into the world and bring with you his mark of the open circle, and incorporate it into all that you do for the unfinished work will always leave open possibilities for the future," the man in a plain tan cassock finishes saying as he steps off the rock and waves to the trees in a wilderness populated only by the beasts of the land, for men have yet to step foot in these lands. But, when they do, the trees will whisper this truth to the young boys who play in their shade, the stream shall gurgle its message to the girls who fetch water for their mother's, and the old shall come to know it in its entirety when they are laid to rest in its soil.

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BM General Discussion / Provisions.php moving to stable?

« on: July 05, 2013, 04:28:05 PM »

So it has been on testing for some time now, and I've finally hit a situation where I had to look on the stable branch for the order and lo and behold its not there.  Any idea as to when it's going to be added to stable?

4

BM General Discussion / Google glass!

« on: April 01, 2013, 02:17:03 AM »

Who else is excited about this!  I knew Tom was under an NDA before for some secret project, but with the Dev package in the mail he can finally tell us all what it is!  I don't think this post can have enough exclamation points!

5

Newbie Board / Economy.php and Workshops

« on: December 13, 2012, 11:56:50 PM »

This may seem a bit silly coming from me, but I have  region where when I was first appointed I could build all the different workshops (it's a city).  A bit rashly I built a tournament grounds, an academy, and a granary.

Well my region had a population of 10 and as you can imagine they all fell apart.  Now however, when I try to build I am only given the option of building a cart builder.  (I rebuilt the granary after it fell apart, it's now at 25% damage though it doesn't seem to be increasing much anymore now that pop is up to >2000).

Any ideas why I can't build more things, should I just wait for more peasants to come to the city?

6

BM General Discussion / At Peace? - Crown a champion!

« on: October 03, 2012, 05:59:46 AM »

Well nearly all my realms are at peace or my characters are away from battle for various reasons, I suspect some on the EC have this same problem if not elsewhere.  So rather than get bored I figured I would have my intrepid firecracker stir up some fun in Sirion.

The first ever Champion of Sirion will be determined through a series of training matches to be held by each respective army of the realm such that the Champion of the Legion, the Dragons, and the AoS will compete for the glory of their army, the victor to be crowned the Champion of Sirion.

Should be tons of fun, hoping that at least some people will take it upon themselves to describe their bouts in a region roleplay.

7

Feature Requests / APPROVED: Sorting by Rank should sort by hierarchy rank, not alphabetically

« on: August 09, 2012, 03:10:40 AM »

    Summary: Fix ranks so that a hidden number reflects position in the hierarchy so that sorting the /leaderlist.php table doesn't do so alphabetically.  Ie. Royal, Noble, Lord Knight will be come Royal, Duke, Lord, Knight, Noble.
    Details:  Each rank gets a value from 1-5 so that they can be properly sorted.  The value can then be reflected with the text call from a table of names.
    Benefits: Trying to see who has what rank in the realm and who is above or below whom is tough.
    Possible Exploits: None.

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BM General Discussion / At what age do you typically retire/kill off characters?

« on: July 04, 2012, 07:06:44 PM »

I was idly curious how other people deal with their characters aging, especially when they get so few hours in their later years.

9

Development / Implementing flanking in 1-D combat

« on: July 02, 2012, 03:09:18 PM »

So I started doing the whole military side of things for the first time in a long while (gulp two years?) and I started to wonder how combat might be made much more interesting.  It's been a problem for a while now that the main goal has been to try and bring the biggest units to the fore and just charge at eachother with infantry and calvary meeting at different places along the line and archers just shooting at anything that moves.

What if we fiddled with the code a bit so that if there is already a melee and units are coming up to join the fray they can gain a flanking bonus on a unit that is already engaged in combat?  ie. Unit A and B are fighting in the very middle.  Unit C is friends with B and was one line behind, if they pass the unit A is not too wide (already in the code as I recall) they gain a flanking bonus that is reported in the attack report.  After unit A retreats or if unit C is engaged by another friend of unit A then it loses its flanking bonus against A.

This could I imagine really open up combat and make it more inherently unpredictable and as a result fun =).  It'd also make archers more useful b/c commanders would be more inclined to keep units staggered and give them something to shoot at.

10

BM General Discussion / Best Estate Names

« on: June 05, 2012, 02:56:26 PM »

What all are the best *edit* Unique */edit* estate names that you've seen?

My personal favorite so far is:

Grotto of the Underworld in Oligarch city.  A really nice very old tie in to the original SpellMaster.

11

Other Games / The Secret World

« on: May 02, 2012, 11:30:03 PM »

Anyone thinking of playing the Funcom MMO?

thesecretworld.com

They started a Facebook game to drum up excitement

http://secretwar.thesecretworld.com/en_US/share/mission/recruit/471185  (You know you want to be Illuminati)

12

Development / Toning Down Looting - War Rebalancing

« on: April 22, 2012, 07:44:52 AM »

I personally think it's time that the effects of looting on realm control be seriously reconsidered.  It greatly bothered me when I observed on the outside the war between Ibladesh and Perdan/Caligus (and to a lesser extent Carelia v CE) that it appeared that realms simply didn't care about gaining lands directly anymore, they would instead just put to the torch everything of their enemies.  As it stands, this tactic seems to have disproportionately gained adherents simply because it is so effective.  This is amplified even more by the fact that many realms have difficulty simply getting enough characters to hold on to what they already have.  Why bother taking over a region you know you won't be able to control if you can just deny its use to your enemy with much greater ease.

If you look at this type of warfare you see that its actually much more in line with the incredibly modern ideas of asymmetric warfare and scorched earth warfare of Sherman (yes yes the Romans et al would salt the earth of Carthage etc, but that is something much more permanent than what BM simulates).  So the question becomes then, should the game mechanics push you towards trying to deny your enemy the use of lands, rather than taking them over for yourself from the outset.  I've heard people say in the past that it is ultimately harder in the end to actually control lands that you've really done some hurt to, and that may be true, but (and it's a big one) people have rightly figured out that if you simply beat your opponents into submission and destroy their ability to fight, you can take your time assimilating new regions into your realm. Hell it actually works in your favor given the scarcity of characters to fill estates.  By taking your time you can slowly accumulate new characters to fill the spaces as your gold/noble increases.

In summary, the paucity of people to fill estates, and the overbalanced effects of looting have changed the nature of BM warfare away from outright territorial gain to one of area denial.  I find this change to make the game quite a bit less fun, and actually damaging to the spirit of the game.  Whereas before new nobles might hope to prove themselves in battle and be rewarded with the acquisition of new functioning lands, they must instead grind away at their foes, and then grind away at repairing the damage they have caused to the lands they desired.

13

BM General Discussion / 100 years old

« on: April 15, 2012, 06:46:17 PM »

That's right everyone, the oldest character in the game just turned 100.  Its just sad that the EC won't be able to celebrate both Doc and Gregor with tournament upon tournament across all the lands.

So lets lift a glass to Gregor Relak former Prime Minister of Ibladesh, Chancellor of Fontan, Duke of Ibladesh, Barad Riel, Fontan and Westmoor, Lord of Oporto and Morshes, General of Ibladesh, Judge of Ibladesh, Falasan and Westmoor, Banker of Fontan, Founder of the first guild The Vault Keepers Compact, and the new-born Lich-King of the East!

14

Development / Assasinations

« on: January 25, 2012, 06:58:37 PM »

So I'm curious.  Do people think that it'd be better if an infiltrator attack had the ability to critically wound the person automatically?  Does it already?  I've got an old man who couldn't put up a defense against a good one and he was only seriously wounded, his age put him out of his office.  What do people think?  Would it make assassinations more useful as a game mechanic of politics and money?

15

Development / Character Login Double Logging in and Setting Messages to Read

« on: January 19, 2012, 03:56:12 AM »

Has anyone else clicked play for a character only to see no messages even though you have 48 unread when you click play?  You can also see that sometimes it thinks you've tried to set your destination twice in a row to the same region.