Messages

31

Feature Requests / Re: Religious Map Mode

« on: March 23, 2019, 02:16:44 PM »

I fully agree that listing temples would be a bad idea.  It is why I no longer list temples on the Daishi page.  I did before certain individuals used that as a hit list to go and destroy every single temple on that list.  The only reason Daishi survived is that I managed to get to Old Grehk days ahead of the last temple burning and got the lord of their capital to convert for the explicit reason of building a new temple in secret.  That is how close the Daimons got to wiping out Daishi.  One temple.  In secret.

So...yeah.  No listing temples on the map.

Something I might be interested in adding though is an added layer to the dynamic map showing the dominant religion in each region.

It would still leave the elders able to create the detailed religion maps and statistics, for their own use, but none of those are easily shareable with the other players.  Having a simple overlay on the dynamic map would allow all members of a religion to see the spread of their faith and where other faiths are standing against it.

32

Feature Requests / Re: Training Center Militias

« on: March 21, 2019, 01:43:44 AM »

The idea is a fundamental transformation of how militias work in the game.

It may not work as well as I think it would.  Another idea may be better.

The main reason I proposed this is to get the mental gears moving.  Right now we've been mostly thinking about how to limit the militia game because it is too powerful.

If we were to CHANGE the militia game instead, it could result in a better militia game. 

33

Feature Requests / Re: Training Center Militias

« on: March 20, 2019, 07:07:47 PM »

That would absolutely be one of the potential downsides. 

I personally think it might be worth it, but I could definitely see region lords thinking that is a downside.  hehehe.

34

Feature Requests / Training Center Militias

« on: March 20, 2019, 11:41:54 AM »

Training Center Militias:

Summary:
Use the trained soldiers in the Training Centers as the militias for each region.

Details:
The militia defending each region would be those soldiers trained in the training centers of that region.  A region lord could not recruit militia as they do now.  The only way for a lord to add more militia would be to build another training center.  And then the militia would be those men currently trained at the center and waiting to be picked up by a noble.  A unit abandoned by a noble as militia would disappear each week by 10%, 25%, or 50% of it's size until it is less than 10 men when it would disband entirely.  Militia units killed in battle would be removed from the training center, thereby reducing the size of the militia.

Benefits:
The amounts of militia defending cities has long been a major issue that we've been trying to fix.  Rich cities are basically impossible to break for a single nation.  Even the current fix doesn't fully fix that.  This would reduce the size of militias to only the amount of trained men in each center, setting an upper limit to how many militia you could have in any region.

Possible Downsides/Exploits:
A successful raiding campaign that attacks rural regions could reduce the recruiting prospects of nobles in the cities.  Though that would force realms to defend their rural regions, so maybe not a downside/exploit?
Skilled infiltrators could blow up recruitment centers and reduce militia sizes.
Numerous raids could kill the trained militia in a city, making it difficult for defending nobles to recruit any new units.
Training centers in high demand and often drained would not of course be available to defend their home region, reducing the militia guarding their home region.
The in universe lore of men defending their distant frontier region and then suddenly arriving in the capital when they are recruited to follow a lord could be...complicated. 

35

BM General Discussion / Re: 1 Ruler Per account

« on: March 19, 2019, 02:12:42 AM »

A funny thing.

I was just looking at the list of realms with double rulers.  Or people who rule realms on multiple continents.

In almost every case, I am a member of the government of a realm bitterly at war with them on one continent.  And then I'm a member of a government that is bosum allies with them on another continent.

That makes me chuckle. 

I think it is a very good thing that this game emphasizes first names all the time, because it allows for some very interesting mixes across the continents that would otherwise be much harder to maintain.

36

BM General Discussion / Re: 1 Ruler Per account

« on: March 19, 2019, 02:06:16 AM »

Yao Ling did not form Nothoi.  She has been the banker there for most of its history, but she wasn't even a founding member of the realm.  And she only ruled it for a short time during a Daimon Invasion when the previous ruler disappeared.  Once the invasion was over, it was no longer the right time for a priest to lead a nation and she did not run in the next election.

Also, I was tired of being a ruler.

The thing that would stop people from having multiple rulers naturally is that running realms takes a lot of work.

I will note once again that I have ruled numerous realms over the years.  And each time it has been a great honor that the people elected me to do so.  I've never once taken power through a rebellion or a secession.  Every single time I was elected by my fellow realm mates to represent them.

In one case, the realm was destroyed not long after by the Daimons.  And that character was captured and deported to another island.  In the other cases, I got to a point where things were running well, I was getting tired of all the work, and there were other people who wanted to do it.  So I could hand the leadership over to someone else and I did.  Because running a realm takes a long time, and the more people there are in a realm the more time it takes.  I would prefer not to do that for a long time.  So after a time, election time comes, I announce that I'm not running this time, and someone else steps up to take over.  And I'm happy.

The point is that as we reduce the number of realms by getting smaller realms to join larger ones, we will concentrate the number of people willing to spend the time to rule in a smaller number of realms with more players that takes more time to run.   Assuming we hit that happy medium, I will probably not lead another realm again, and I will be very happy indeed. 

37

BM General Discussion / Re: 1 Ruler Per account

« on: March 17, 2019, 07:56:27 AM »

I only rule one realm.

Though I HAVE ruled at least five different realms on three continents.

38

Feature Requests / Re: Scout from map

« on: March 16, 2019, 08:36:00 AM »

You don't mean to offensive, and then you go total offensive.

I cut my teeth doing computer programming when both java and javascript were being implemented.

I remember well the introduction of both and what they made it possible to do across the computer landscape.  Mindblowing options across every computer platform that changed computing.

I also know very well how inefficient and insecure both can be when it comes to computer resources and computer security.  Javascript is one of the primary ways of distributing viruses, for example.

Hence why I do not install java on most of the computers in my network, and why I install javascript blockers to keep scripts from running unless I specifically enable them.

I have strong opinions on anything that uses the name java in any way.  Yes, I recognize that they are amazingly powerful, and I recognize that they can do things nothing else can do.  But they are my last resort when it comes to doing things, not my first.  Because I care about the system resources and security of the people who visit my websites.

As for the political map...yeah.  That's exactly the point I've been making.  The political map is an excellent example of a page that uses minimal system resources and gets maximal benefit out of it.  It runs perfectly on any machine built in the last twenty years without any hiccups.

The dynamic map when it first came out worked well on systems that were modern at the time, but brought five or ten year old systems to their knees because they didn't have enough memory or processing power.  Most of those older machines have now been retired, even by computer professionals who know how to keep them working, because computers built in the 20teens are generally superior.  Or because the spare parts to keep the older machines working are getting harder to find.  Take your pick.

The dynamic map no longer bothers my current computer systems like it did when it first came out.  Because I've upgraded over the years and newer machines just don't slog down on it.  But I remember well when it did, and continue to use the political map as my goto resource because it works well and does what I need.

39

Feature Requests / Re: Rejected: First fight for new player!

« on: March 15, 2019, 08:26:34 PM »

And that is exactly what I suggested.

A place where newbies could speak with veterans and instantly have something to do...an ongoing war with lots of fights.

40

Feature Requests / Re: Randomizing movement of Sages and Wizards

« on: March 15, 2019, 12:07:32 PM »

I would like to see the sages made more common again as I think they are too rare right now.  Or make them not walk away as quickly as they do now.

But I do like this idea and think it would be an improvement.

41

Feature Requests / Re: Title System - Achievement System

« on: March 15, 2019, 12:03:51 PM »

I like this idea.

42

Feature Requests / Re: First fight for new player!

« on: March 15, 2019, 12:01:04 PM »

IF we were to do a kind of Tutorial Island, my suggestion would be to make it SMALL.  Say two cities with four townslands between them and some grasslands around all of that.  Maybe two dozen regions at most.  Have a couple nations that are always at war.  No militia allowed at all, so it is just nobles moving around and getting into fights.  We could do a very brief story post from each realm's perspective so people get in a with a brief roleplay that they can jump into.

And let any player have a free character there, with the understanding that they be interacting and helping new players that ask questions.

43

Feature Requests / Re: Marriage Diplomacy

« on: March 15, 2019, 11:49:00 AM »

The interesting thing about computer games is that it actually takes MORE code and makes the game MORE complicated to insist on male/female only marriages.

I remember back in the day that Sims got in some hot water over that because they just had an "attraction" setup based on character attributes but sex was not one of them.  They ended up having to add a brute force no same sex code to the game after launch because of the outrage over that.

From a computer programmer point of view, I found that to be highly amusing.

My dear old mother was not nearly so amused about the fact that I found that amusing. 

44

Feature Requests / Re: Scout from map

« on: March 15, 2019, 11:44:26 AM »

And that's why I avoid 90% of the websites out there that are resource hogs and information scarce.

Oh sure, now that I've updated machines, the dynamic map doesn't drag my machine to its knees like it did my old netbooks.  And the less said about what it did to my older android devices the better.

But the political map is still just easier and quicker to open.  The dynamic isn't as annoying as it used to be, but I shouldn't have to upgrade a computer to play a text-based game because it relies on sloppy java code.  Not saying YOUR coding is sloppy.  Saying that java is sloppy, and there just isn't much you can do about that.  Other than stay the hell away from it.

But that's my Old Man Website Coder fingers doing the talking.

45

Feature Requests / Re: Monikers / Nicknames / Callsigns

« on: March 15, 2019, 11:38:41 AM »

Medron "The Kegsmasher" Pryde.