Messages

1666

Feature Requests / Re: Donate food

« on: October 04, 2011, 07:03:01 AM »

Definitely support this. With the loss of banker powers, it is simply difficult to feed regions in election realms.

However, the main use is the ability to feed an army on the go by giving food to a region. This would happen realisitically.

If I'm the Duke of a neighboring duchy and seeking to take over a region, i want it fed and its peasants to like me as well as they will soon be "my" peasants. That makes sense. Sure a lord may not care, but a Duke would, and those higher up would certainly. The lower nobles just follow the orders that their Duke sends them, so it could make sense.

There is no reason a soldier with food in caravans has to wait for the abiliyt to "sell" food for 1 gold per 100 bushels. That is essentially giving away food anyway. No one would accept 1 gold for food, so if you are saying that is realistic it is not. Might as well have option to give it away. Without being a trader too.

1667

Helpline / Re: Massive negative trade Balance

« on: October 03, 2011, 08:35:15 PM »

Indeed. Considering TMP can be just as paralyzing as a huge monster horde, I'm not impressed. The Lurians aren't pioneer realms anymore, they have established cities with great gold outputs, many RCs, and all the equipment they need.

Not to mention that they conveniently split in half, increasing tax tolerance and reducing travel times.

So yea, no pity for the Lurians. They don't have it handed over on a silver plate, but this is Dwilight, and as such they are having it pretty good. If you wanted a realm where you don't have to worry about rogues, don't play on Dwilight.

Pity? We don't need or want pity really. I think we were just using it as an example of how bugs can really mess up some realms but we've all learned to deal with it as we are playing in a testing island.

Plus, the Lurians are having a great time. I mean we've got to have some free time off between all of the civil wars and rebellions which seem to be rampant here.

1668

Helpline / Re: Massive negative trade Balance

« on: October 03, 2011, 05:55:12 AM »

I'm not saying it should get treatment, I said it will likely fix itself next tax.

However, I do think that it's a very risky spot to be in, way more dangerous than what anyone else is facing right now.

It may be a risky spot to be in, and I understand that, but it doesn't mean that it can't be fixed and dealt with. I mean, shouldn't your troop leaders already have enough money on hand to pay their men for a week or two anyway in the field? Also, if they are at home in the defensive they can stay for a long time with a very low morale and still defend well enough. Pian en Luries may have a lot of regions but it literally fights for survival (usually) against the monsters. If every single battle isn't always won, it is a guaranteed starvation in the cities during winter which means the next year we are weaker and will lose more regions. It isn't about expansion because we have simply been trying to hold onto our lands during and after winter. Our expansion outside of winter is simply to try and hopefully offset all of our winter losses.

Madina is defending a choke point which is a lot easier than being surrounded.

Feel free to come lend us a sword or two

What? My cavalry sitting in the capitol doing nothing isn't helpful?

1669

Helpline / Re: Massive negative trade Balance

« on: October 02, 2011, 11:00:04 PM »

The rest of the Island isn't fighting a war - a few missed bonds isn't going to destroy D'Hara.

3000gp missing from Madina Coffers?   That's a whole nother issue especially when you consider that Madina supports 1/3 of our nobles - they lose their units because of having -150 gp in bonds cause we can't send them money to pay. . . significantly different outcome than if we were bumming around fighting monsters like the rest of the Continent.

While I empathize with the whole problem that negative bonds are causing as a bug that you can't send them gold, I think that this whole thing isn't game mechanics fault. The Duke of Madina made a bad choice by trying to purchase more food than their city could conceivably pay for. Also, unless the caravans aren't more bugged when returning, all of the gold should be returned to Madina for a very large income in the next tax so I see this mostly working itself out.

Also, I believe it is understood by most players of this game that we are playing a game in constant beta, and bugs happen. Unless they are so severe to extremely cause adverse gameplay it usually isn't reset or modified as far as I am aware.

As far as fighting a war goes, in the end if this causes 5 days of not having gold on hand for troops at max you're going to lose what, a single region? maybe two, but very slim chance in the short term. Then, since they'll have likely overextended then you just push in and take back a region or two in response. For the most part, I don't see a single missed tax causing downright devastation of a realm at least in most wars I've been a part of.

Also, fighting monsters on Dwilight, if you haven't had to deal with it for a while is very very difficult at times and can be more devestating than a war when you are overrun on multiple sides by huge monsters. While this isn't "currently" the case for my realm on Dwilight it has been in the past, and I can definitely see that tehre are realms out there that monster fighting can be very difficult.

1670

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 27, 2011, 07:07:36 PM »

when's the last time you saw a duke talk to another duke about food. or for that matter a duke talking to a lord about food aside from "send me everything, for free"?

All the time in Coria....Seeing as my character is a duke and not only talks with the other duke about sending me food, but also about buying food from my lords...

1671

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 27, 2011, 06:59:27 PM »

Question: How will the new estate system change the way that election of rulers that are currently Dukes work in Republics for instance?

ie. Right now if you are a Duke and you are elected as ruler in a republic, you automatically abdicate your lordship position of the city and become Ruler. Will this change under the new system, or would you still lose your position as Duke and lord?

1672

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 27, 2011, 06:57:19 PM »

Have you ever tried to manage the food situation of 6 duchies, when you can only see the food situation of 1 of them? Or none? The banker's bird's eye view is critical in keeping things organized. Sure, you *could* do it by trying to exchange messages back and forth. But that would be ridiculously cumbersome and error-prone. Especially if one of those dukes is just not interested in dealing with it.

I think if one of the dukes isn't interested in dealing with it, and a lot of lords are also not interested in dealing with it because they view the food game as simply cumbersome and a responsibility not worth dealing with then you're screwed anyway. So, No I haven't been Banker of CE on Atamara for instance, but I think the entire situation is just more easily solved if lords were given the "option" to let the banker directly manage their food stores if they don't want to deal with it. Then, the banker can work with those lords that actually want to manage their food, and personally handle the food of those that simply don't want to waste their time that they don't have.

and sure a vacation sounds just fine,

1673

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 27, 2011, 06:35:12 PM »

Correction: A banker can see a composite of all the information that is available to all the dukes put together. No offense meant here, but as the banker of Pian en Luries, you have the small city of Poryatown and the medium city of Askileon to feed. Not exactly a difficult task, especially when your realm has a 150-160% food supply. In such a case I can see how the banker's job would seem to be a bit... superfluous.

However, when your realm grows a bit bigger, you will appreciate the overall view that the banker has. Try feeding a realm of 5 or 6 duchies on a food supply of just over break-even, and you will see how vitally important that banker's overview is.

I understand, that, but what I mean is that if the banker's data is just combined data that dukes could get by simply sending messages to each other, then the use of a banker is simply to not make dukes have to talk to each other, but him to just send the exact same messages to them each anyway. The job is thus just a relating of data comparisons to each other, but when the data isn't that hard to relate it is simply a messaging job. I realize that these changes aren't fully implemented yet, but I know before at least banker's had a fit niche to take and I am just hoping we once again reach that situation.

As far as my being banker of Pian en Luries when we have a large surplus, I was also banker of Pian en Luries when we had a 90% food production rate and 3 cities and it was a lot more difficult of a job, but still manageable when the banker could move food around. Right now, I don't mind that we have a lot of excess food and thus can make my job easy, but it isn't even much of a job if it is only sending messages from one person to another based upon things they can already know by talking to each other instead of me.

Please understand, I'm not griping or complaining, just making sure that this just wasn't overlooked necessarily in any of the changes just on happenstance. I understand now that it wasn't overlooked and is just continuing to be implemented so will wait, but I look forward to seeing what new roles can be adapted here.

1674

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 27, 2011, 05:35:51 AM »

So, one of my characters is on Dwilight, and is the Banker of a realm. As far as I can tell from the advent of the New Estate System, I am officially out of a job. I don't actually do anything anymore. I don't have access to any actual ability to change anything related to taxes, as usually suits what a banker is supposed to do. This is on top of the fact, that we already have reduced duties for the banker because their involvement in the food process right now is minimal right now anyway. A banker's access to food data isn't anymore than a Duke already has, and since banker's can't actually move food around any more I'm essentially a scapegoat which people can blame when things go bad, but I can't actually do anything at all.

What is the point of even having a banker any more right now? Unless, we create like a realm bank system where all of the "ruler's share" goes into a bank vault that a banker can distribute and use in place of the ruler or something, there is no point in having a banker. Or if lords are given the option to let the banker have control once again of their food stores directly, I don't see why we have this council position.

1675

Helpline / Re: SF range 6?

« on: September 15, 2011, 01:04:29 AM »

Yes, I thought everyone knew that?

There are a lot of features that people don't know about because they haven't been playing for the full 10 years to see as things change. I personally knew about this one, but I know for sure that there are a ton of things that I don't know about SF capabilities. and other things of course.

1676

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 11, 2011, 09:13:10 AM »

Honestly? What sort of idiot rulers are getting appointed in this game where this would even be a possibility?

Well we usually don't intend to elect rulers that would do such a thing. Most rulers are elected when they are doing good for the realm or seem convincing or have a large following. However, as the saying goes: Power Corrupts, and absolute power....well you know the rest.

Anyway, I could definitely see where this may have been done against me in my personal past if it were an option. If a Ruler dislikes a Duke enough they'll go to any means possible to get them out of their office or to lose their support.

1677

Helpline / Re: New Estate System

« on: September 10, 2011, 11:26:41 PM »

Possible Abuse Worry: Couldn't this system be very heavily abused by a ruler to prevent any regions from being in a duchy of his choice?

Ex: Say the Ruler dislikes Duke A, and Duke A has lords B, C, and D who are all very loyal to Duke A, more so than they are to the Ruler. The ruler decides to ruin Duke A's duchy and does so by appointing Lords B, C, and D as Dukes of their own right. This would destroy Duke A's duchy and reduce it to a single region (assuming Duke A is also a lord).

1. Would this prevent Lords B,C, and D from leaving their new duchies and once again joining Duke A's duchy since they now have the title of "Duke?"

2. If 1 is NOT true, then couldn't this lead to just a dumb see-saw where the lords choose to rejoin Duchy A, only to have the Ruler immeadiately kick them out of the duchy?

This seems like a horrible situation to be in, and I think has a lot of balance issues with regards to what Rulers will now be capable of. Perhaps a capability to choose: "refuse to become Duke" option could be available for lords to be secure in their current duchies without interference from the ruler? (I know there is a similar system currently in place, but I didn't know if this would have some problems since the meaning of duke is changing completely)

1678

SM General Discussion / Re: Spells Feedback

« on: September 03, 2011, 01:37:49 AM »

Not nearly enough for my purposes.  I'm actually considering using a ritual to do a mass mind-control spell to gather in enough people to power my real ritual...But, the problem is, I'd need a whole council defending my ass while this went on as everyone panicked at the tens of thousands of components I was using in a ritual...

Have you been using mind-reading spells on my character? My character has had a very similar idea himself as a means to a very awesome ritual. (however, very very powerful)

1679

SM General Discussion / Re: Rise of the Engine

« on: September 02, 2011, 03:50:45 PM »

actually, spontaneous magic and rituals use the same calculations for concentration and energy as spells do.

I agree they should use less, but not nothing. you can't really relax during a ritual.

I agree with this, but what I'm saying is there a way for it to say calculate how long it will take to complete the spell, for a ritual for instance, and then just subtract all additional concentration hours youw ould receive over that time period and stop them from being added. If based upon your calculations for casting rituals, I wanted to cast a 100 power ritual and it was to take lets say 200 hours to cast, there is no way I have enough concentration from "20" concentration.  However, if you take the concentration used over the course of the 200 hour casting period it should be enough. Thus, the casting should work, you just won't have any concentration available for a long time.

1680

SM General Discussion / Re: Rise of the Engine

« on: September 02, 2011, 05:48:10 AM »

Tried to cast a ritual, parser recognized it as a ritual but told me I had insufficient concentration to cast it, so there's something wonky unless I completely misunderstand ritual casting.

I've had the same problem. I don't htink the parser realizes that you intend to use the ritual over a vrey long casting time and as such your concentration at the time shouldn't be taken into account.