Messages

7501

Dwilight / Re: The Crusade against SA

« on: June 22, 2011, 03:57:00 AM »

Not right now it isn't. It's actually deathly boring, apart from the routine battles against rogue forces. Of course, I fully expect that *something* is going to happen to break up the monotony, but until it does I don't recommend BT as a way to escape boredom.

As I said, still licking its wounds. The current situation is extremely unusual.

Personally, I blame character mortality. We'd totally have bashed back on Riombara for all their foul play if the invasion hadn't totally crippled us... They still owe us a royal's head, after all.

7502

Dwilight / Re: Civil war in Madina

« on: June 22, 2011, 03:55:26 AM »

If they convert, the stars will protect them. 

The stars are far and busy.

7503

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 22, 2011, 03:55:06 AM »

"I believe you are annoying me by asking something that I have no need to answer to you because you obviously do not share my faith. Begone."

Hehe, this is basically what SA gets every time they try to start "theological discussions" with VE.

7504

Dwilight / Re: Civil war in Madina

« on: June 22, 2011, 03:53:24 AM »

Throw in Madina being threatened by Barca, Terran, D'Hara, Aurvandil, and Fissoa. . .and well.   We might have a few positions in our roster of friends opening up

This could easily backfire if Madina makes itself look like a potential threat to Southern sovereignty.

7505

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 21, 2011, 01:08:55 PM »

Well, taxes were "normal" in the sense that the one being taxed would agree upon the amount of tax. Otherwise unrest would eventually grow. Taxes came with privileges.

Besides, I'm all for taxing and then putting it to use for the state, but what Riombara does is just re-distributing the gold automatically. A really, really socialist inspired idea. The main reason is "everyone an equal share". Mind you this is not a comment on socialism or whatnot, just that it has no place in Battlemaster.

The values of shared realm taxes for gameplay purposes has been preached on these forums, though. Unmedieval, but not completely unfun. I like it being a possibility to debate within realms.

7506

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 21, 2011, 12:58:26 PM »

I disliked the situation in Riombara from a different point of view: there where the game says "this duchy tax is a punishment", the players just seemed to ignore it and felt quite comfortable with a modern day socialist system of taxation and redistribution.

That disgusted me.

Taxes were *normal*, though, as far as I know. Mind you, they were small and went directly to the superior's pockets, but still.

Also, the game says "*probably* a punishment".

7507

BM General Discussion / Re: Too large realms (possibility of penalizing bigger realms more?)

« on: June 21, 2011, 12:55:58 PM »

Just relooked at the forum after months upon months, and reading through this thread, I find it odd that it wasn't mentioned that larger realms also tend to get the vast majority of new nobles from newer players from my own personal experience at least. I'm a part of large and small realms but nobles almost always seem to be joining new into large realms while not as much in small realms. I think that is likely one reason large realms stay large. They get more nobles to join them, then smaller realms some times. Yes, sometimes good small realms can retain their nobles more for reasons, but there are other times that realms just start falling apart because the lack of nobility prevents them from doing anything else compared to the large realms around them. My example here is Coria, although it may not be considered a small realm by other continent standards, it certainly is in Atamara, at least by number of nobles.

This is absolutely true. New players are attracted by the power of large realms. If they are anything like I was, they seek powerful realms to be able to do a lot of things collectively, without consideration of personal advancement opportunities. People like winning battles, and you suspect you'll win more by joining the large realms.

The game should perhaps give a brief intro to newcommers to describe general trends on social mobility, and present the good aspects of small realms that they might have not otherwise thought of. Encouraging new players to small realms would likely be a good idea, because I don't think the idea of joining a tiny struggling realm to sound very alluring to them, despite the great opportunities for advancement they present.

I think the political progression system depends on the realm.  Some realms are inherantly more anarchistic then others so progression is easier.

Political identity is a hard thing to get, as it is historically more religious and racial then regional.  I'll use Chenier and myself as modern examples.  Compared to other nations we are Canadian, except in reference to our "home" (say, France and Ireland) countries, to whom we are provincial (Quebecois or Avalonian), however, while we are clearly from different areas, the term RoC (Rest of Canada) is a shared concept.

A French Catholic is Quebec has more in common with a Catholic Avalonian then a Protestant Avalonian has with that same Catholic Avalonian who grew up two blocks away.  Eastern Canada is vastly more progressive then any state represented in battlemaster and while I wouldn't want mechanical forces put in play, I'm really of the mind that there should be a mental pecking order for many nobles.

1.  Same religion
2.  Political advantage
3.  Regional allies

This will solve the "big realm" issue as say, Dutchy #1 in the north will constantly be trying to keep Dutchy #2 in the sotuh from gaining position and power, which will eventually lead to either a political or scessionistic throwdown.  I'd love to see more Dukes pushing "their guy", rather then "who's the best".

I've found it quite fun to grow my ducal power bases whenver I got them. I am slowly building Iato, a tiny remote ravaged border-city, into a powerful regional entity. I brought the duchy of Paisly a long way as well, from a brand new pack of ruins into D'Hara's most prosperous city and duchy (it now has full population). Fun stuff. Dukeships are something you can easily build upon, I find, through a wide variety of means.

7508

Dwilight / Re: The Crusade against SA

« on: June 21, 2011, 12:44:09 PM »

Beluaterra is still licking its wounds from the last invasion, but that's a place you can always count on for action.

7509

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 21, 2011, 12:43:12 PM »

Fissoa with its advy guild looks sketchy on many levels.

But I agree that the whole SMA aspect of Dwilight seemed to have died off. I don't think anyone really bothers with making new oaths such big deals, for example. The zealotry of the start is no longer, and it feels like most other continents now. Minus the more obvious offenses, though, which in itself isn't a bad thing.

7510

Helpline / Re: Questions about Region Statistics

« on: June 21, 2011, 05:48:13 AM »

The "extra" tax option never really worked, and has been removed.

I could swear it did at some point in time...

7511

Feature Requests / Re: Unit Terrain Modifier

« on: June 21, 2011, 05:46:57 AM »

All I see for all these changes is a lot of time spent coding, potential for a lot of bugs, likely poor balancing, and all this for very little gameplay improvement.

Would this really make things more fun, or would this just make avoidance a more common tactic whenver marshals see that certain regions are not fit for their unit types, so it'd be better for them to retreat and perhaps fight elsewhere.

7512

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 21, 2011, 05:43:19 AM »

I have never found a realm where the "equilibrium" (or, rather, the "nearest to equilibrium") price that would even income was less than 50 gold per 100 bushels. And yet most realms (D'Hara excluded perhaps) pay 20-40 for their food in internal trades.

(...)

I'll tell you what would make rural regions able to offer sizable oaths. If the game prohibited sales of food for less than 30 gold per 100 bushels.

D'Hara does indeed sell internally to 50 gold per unit. I'd set a preferential rate too, if I could.

I don't like the idea of capping it at 30. It kinda destroys the potential to demand a regular shipment of food for dirt cheap as part of an armistice.

I think the fact that ox carts waste so much food is good enough incentive. I mean, I saw a transfer yesterday by ox carts, where 6 bushels made it and 94 were stolen by brigands. Kinda makes you want to use the caravans. Then since caravans cost gold, you want to ask a little at least in return. And since you are asking for gold, you don't feel as bad for asking for enough to make a profit.

It must be noted, though, that some regions are just crap. They neither produce enough gold nor enough food to cover the manpower they require for full estates. Most badlands are like this, but some rurals as well, my old region of Nemeno coming to mind. Selling food still wouldn't have been enough to sustain two nobles at decent income levels.

7513

BM General Discussion / Re: Too large realms (possibility of penalizing bigger realms more?)

« on: June 21, 2011, 05:36:14 AM »

Which perhaps explains why your characters are compulsively annoying.

Something I have also generally assumed; but I wonder: is it actually true? With enough data we could test it. Get the account IDs for every position (lord, marshal, council) in every realm on a continent, and find their distributions within and across realms.

Yeah... I have a lot of free time... but not THAT much free time.

Neither do I, but quick checks at time in realm of the people with government positions offers a good hint. Many/most realms have a "next in line" mentality, and it just happens that there are a lot more people in line when your realm has 200 nobles than when it has 15.

From my experiences, mobility really is greater in smaller realms. Not saying that there is no mobility at all in big realms, as that depends on various circumstances (it wouldn't be too hard to become a lord in Enweil, for example, because of the amount of nobles killed off in the invasion and the number of adjacent rogue regions). But generally-speaking, the smaller the realm, the easier it is to go up. Something that may factor in this is the low maintenance of small realms and their greater ease to expand, whereas large realms face harsher and harsher penalties for growing and therefore a lower and lower desire to actually do so.

7514

BM General Discussion / Re: Government system misleading?

« on: June 21, 2011, 05:31:54 AM »

There should be penalties, like capital-move penalties, for moving away from the base settings for a given realm type, with the greater the change, the more problems the change causes. A monarchy where the judge is elected by region lords quarterly should have only minor trouble, where a tyranny with a monthly ruler election should be almost impossible to maintain.

Or, make it a one-time penalty, and not a continuing one.

There are control issues generated as a one-time hit when government system settings are changed. I never felt they were too imposing, though, and I don't agree that they are the best path to follow either. I'm actually surprised that no would-be rebel has yet succeeded in taking power and then changed the government settings ten times in a row to destroy the realm.

7515

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 21, 2011, 01:53:54 AM »

Regarding gold...

That is highly realm and situation dependent.  I've had precisely three characters who at any point in their life really had "surplus" gold.  One of them was expressly created as an attempt to fill the coffers of House Bedwyr, and made a lot of money as a spy.  One of them made it to a lordship in a completely peaceful realm with nothing going on, and the last is the Duke of a large city on Dwilight who only occasionally has surplus funds and those tend to get plowed into his religion or infrastructure improvements.

That's mostly because I've ended up playing in realms that are constantly fighting important wars where every piece of gold counted or on frontiers where there was jack-all gold to go around    Consequently, House Bedwyr has the highest fame/family gold ratio that I'm aware of.

So, gold is one of those things that can depend on the place and time.  It only annoys me when I see (for instance) the handful of people at the top of the realm leading 100 man units while most of the army is fielding fifteen or twenty.  IC, I love seeing that in my enemies as it means I have a good shot at finding disaffected elements and it's incredibly inefficient. OOC, it bugs me, because that's the kind of thing that drives people away.  Fifty vs thirty men is one thing, being a Duke has its perks.  But 100 vs 15 is just silliness.

I can't speak for everywhere, but in Enweil I've often led 100+ men units while others had tiny units. But hey, the dukes were giving me gold to spread out to my army, and when I made offers for gold to the army hardly anyone ever replied. So I just dumped most of it on my own unit. Sometimes, people are really to blame.

And really, some of these people were often directly given cash, and we never saw their units grow, and as far as I know everyone in Enweil has a good enough oath to recruit at least a respectful amount of men. So meh. Ducal handouts were really just a plus, mostly to help whoever wanted to lead a TO unit (anyone could, they just had to ask), or to replenish units decimated in battle. And while I didn't have the gold to recruit such huge units by myself, my income as lord of a rural was enough to pay for their salary without need for supplements. And those were highly-trained archers from the best available RCs.

Hm, hey, remember when Chenier said that bankers were useless? We could give them some sort of option that could assign a portion of realm income first to priority recipients.

Like, the banker could have the comprehensive list of all nobles in the realm (except, maybe, the council, dukes, and lords, to prevent abuse). The judge and ruler already have similar lists in bans for the former and ooc bans and exiles for the latter. This would just have different mechanics and intent.

Basically the banker is notified of who needs financial aid. The banker selects a % of real income to be sent to those people, before all other calculations for realm income (or after, this is just rough idea). This information is public and can be checked under some page in the Information page, both to make sure it's happening, and because, well, this stuff should be public since it is the realm's stuff.

Yeah, it's unrealistic. But you know, I think I'd rather play a slightly unrealistic game than one that I do not like due to mechanics conflicting with realism.

There is no option you could give the banker that you couldn't give someone else. I also deeply dislike the welfare tax idea, but would not oppose a capped class-based tax from coming back.

"Welfare" tax is just so damn abusable. It's one thing to cheat yourself out of the property tax to avoid giving your gold away, but to then grab the gold of other more needy nobles? It'd be cheap. Needy nobles would get ripped off by the malign.