Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Tom

Pages: 1 ... 12 13 [14] 15 16 17
196
Development / Feature Cut: Region Loyalty
« on: October 21, 2011, 06:19:24 PM »
This is a huge system that has been in the game for a very long time. It was added when regions switched hands rapidly, to make people consider holding them longer. It was also added to dissuade looting back when that was rampant. Both problems that we don't have anymore.

But my main interest in considering to remove it is not so much the complexity as that it doesn't fit to the vision of the game I have anymore. I would like to move closer to a "the peasants don't really care that much about which flag flies over the castle" vision. If the peasants have an opinion, it should be much more localized - they might like their lord or not. But I don't see why the peasants should care about realms.


197
Development / Feature Cut: Buying Regions
« on: October 21, 2011, 10:51:43 AM »
 This is the first of probably many such topics. Since the Dev Team is in the process of considerable overhauls, I think we should remove some features that add more complications than gameplay.

All ideas presented here have already been discussed very shortly within the Dev Team and we found no obvious reasons why we should keep that particular feature. However, we ask for feedback from all players for a reason: If it turns out that the feature is beloved by the players, we may keep it for that reason.


I'd like to remove buying regions. It is never played as intended (i.e. most players don't accept it as a legitimate title), and I don't think it really adds all that much to gameplay. I do believe that it can be replaced by something better, in the future. And for the moment, I don't think many will miss it all that much.
   

198
SM General Discussion / Concepts
« on: October 20, 2011, 01:50:26 PM »
I've got some doubts about the core game concept. Much of it is based on real time (XP gain, energy regeneration, etc.) but the game does not happen in real time.

That's a dissonance that needs to be resolved for everything to work out. Right now, things are awkward and there's a lot of "gaming the system" in there (e.g. wait an hour with your response until you've got enough energy again, etc.)

199
Helpline / How to write a helpful bug report
« on: September 27, 2011, 09:23:07 AM »
When you are posting to the bugtracker, there are two ways to do it. One is frustrating for us and unlikely to get you the help you want while the other is helpful for us and likely to get you a fix or an answer.

To make a helpful posting, no matter what it is about, always:
  • use the bugtracker, not the forum, not IRC, not a mail to someone, not the "all realm" channel in-game - use the bugtracker, that is what it's there for and it is the only place we actively monitor for new bug reports. If you don't have and don't want to create a bugtracker account, use "guest" for both login and password.
  • be as specific as possible - include the page or the action that you are talking about and describe exactly what's going on. Copying the URL from the browser address bar is an excellent way to let us know exactly. Don't assume that we are telepaths and know what you're talking about. Imagine that this is the first time we're hearing about whatever problem you have, including the fact that there is a problem at all.
  • check if someone else had this problem already, and what the answers were. Getting the same bug report twenty times doesn't make it one bit more urgent to us, it merely uses up time that we could spend actually fixing it. If you have something to add, add it to the existing report instead of creating a new one.
  • try to duplicate the problem, at least once. Sometimes, things just act up, and it works fine the second time around. And if it's a problem that happens only occasionally, it helps if we know that, because otherwise if we test and it works, we'll discard it.
  • testing or stable? That is an important difference. If you don't know, look into the URL of the page - it often contains either "testing" or "stable" after the "battlemaster.org" part. If it doesn't, then it's not important. But if it does, then it is important, so let us know.
  • please be factual and objective - that a bug made you angry and caused your realm some damage doesn't help us in finding it. If you need to express your feelings, do it seperate from the facts. We care, we want you to enjoy the game, but it simply doesn't help when it comes to finding and fixing the issue.

200
SM General Discussion / Spells categories feedback
« on: September 23, 2011, 09:47:59 AM »
With a bit of experience now, I'd like to collect some feedback on the strength of spells, i.e. Effect, Target, Duration values. What do you think?


I'll lead with a thought of my own - it seems to be too easy to hurt people seriously. Maybe instant death should be moved to 5, while 4 turns into mortally wounded, or something?


201
This Forum / update
« on: September 22, 2011, 12:32:43 PM »
I've updated the forum software to SMF 2.0.1 (the latest release).

If you notice anything missing or broken, let me know.


202
SM General Discussion / Dev News
« on: September 20, 2011, 07:46:11 PM »
I'll post about changes you should know here, and continue posting, so you can subscribe to this thread or whatever.


Anyways, I have reworked the parser a little. It will now link to the spells that you use, in a way that lets other players check what exactly the spell does, but without telling them the code, so they can not learn the spell from that.


203
SM General Discussion / Power Boost coming up
« on: September 20, 2011, 10:44:22 AM »
I'll be adding something like 1000 XP to every character. Yes, you read that right.

You see, we need to test all the power levels of the game, and right now we're pretty low. And it's given me better ideas on how to start characters. For example, if you create a new character today, he will get 100 XP to start with and there's a button to get an initial selection of spells, guaranteed to be from bases and intents that you know (i.e. learnt with your initial 100 XP).

But I need to know if all values scale up. So there will be a power boost, and probably a 2nd and 3rd one. Have fun. :-)


204
General Talk / PA idea
« on: September 20, 2011, 09:19:40 AM »
Hm, check this out:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/09/19


I liked it immediately. Now I wonder if it would work to get a large enough number of BattleMaster Characters set up as facebook accounts... *grin*



205
SM General Discussion / Test Roleplaying Thread - JOIN IN HERE
« on: September 14, 2011, 01:44:34 AM »
Someone posted correctly that it's hard to start in a vacuum. So for the test run, here is the setting:


Mahrstadt, a small town of maybe 5000 people, located on a small island within the colonies. Aside from the town, there are a dozen or so villages on the island, and an old, abandoned fortress that is rumoured to be haunted.

All of you have arrived during the past few days on ships from whatever places you want to hail from. After an unusually strong and sudden storm last night, many of the ships in port are damaged, two of them beyond repair. The remainder of the harbour hasn't fared much better. Fortunately, Mahrstadt does not rely on imports by sea and the island is self-sufficient except for luxury goods. Unfortunately, your onwards journeys if you had planned any, will be delayed for a week at best.

Some say that the storm was not entirely natural. Others tell of an old folk tale, that storms will ravage the island every night, and on the 3rd night, strange flying, man-like creatures will start to pick unwary people off the streets. Many of the supersitious locals are boarding up their windows and staying at home at night...


Take it from here. Use your current characters with whatever skills and spells you have, put them into the parser.

[update: commit is now there.]


Suggested workflow: Write out your roleplay in the parser, get it parsed, post the result here, copy&paste the result header (with the energy, etc. used) here as well.


206
Other Games / Zombie Lane
« on: September 13, 2011, 05:28:14 PM »
Anyone else playing Zombie Lane on G+ ?

It's one of those social media games that practically require you to recruit friends, and/or spend money, but it goes very nicely with die2nite. :-)


207
SM General Discussion / Test Run Launched
« on: September 13, 2011, 09:16:39 AM »
Ok everyone, the engine is running, meaning you will get your regular fixes of experience points and energy. And you can start playing. This is still a test run, so nothing that happens is "official".

I am looking for feedback, especially when you try getting into actual spellcasting - just how much is possible, too much too little? Does the parser work for you, etc?


208
Helpline / New Estate System
« on: September 08, 2011, 07:31:41 PM »
BattleMaster is getting a New Estate System. Also read the page described changes to the tax system (with a nice flowchart).

Ask any questions not answered on the wiki page linked above here:

210
SM General Discussion / Test Run
« on: September 07, 2011, 10:25:24 AM »
I'd like to make a test run of the system, incomplete as it is.

That means:
  • Enabling XP and energy/concentration gains for everyone.
  • Starting another "practice" storyline, this time with the actual engine in use
  • Checking how it all works
  • At the end, resetting everything to 0
In order for this to work, I will be changing the spell code calculation when we're done, so feel free to trade spell codes during this test, they will be useless afterwards.

Give me some feedback and questions/thoughts, and then we'll start in a day or two.


Pages: 1 ... 12 13 [14] 15 16 17