Topics

16

Development / 15 Nobles! 15!!!!

« on: March 06, 2019, 08:00:41 PM »

I've just been informed there is a new rule that requires 15 nobles to form a new realm. Is this for real? Part of the fun of this game is the ability to form new realms and make new in-game history. This bar is absurdly high. 8 would be reasonable, 10 maybe, but 15! Nearly half the realms on Dwilight have fewer than 15 nobles.

17

Feature Requests / Rejected: Infiltrator Ability: Spy on Noble

« on: February 11, 2019, 01:00:02 AM »

Title: Infiltrator Ability, Spy on Noble,

Summary: Infiltrators gain the ability to use their skills to learn otherwise privileged information about their target.

Description: An infiltrator when in the same region as another noble, or in a lord's region, or the region of a knight's estate, can attempt to spy on them to obtain confidential information. This information can include how much gold and bonds they have, scribe notes, whether or not they are members of the realm's underground or even messages they've sent. This ability could work as part of the "visit estate" option (if that's still a thing).

Imprisonment should be unlikely, in most cases the flavor text should read that the infiltrator was confronted by guards but managed to convince them he was just lost and was escorted off the premises. A failure could also result in the guards notifying the noble being surveilled about the incident. Only in a critical failure should the noble be imprisoned. In this scenario the infiltrator is presumably caught red handed rifling through sensitive documents or the noble's personal treasure chest.

Likewise successes should only give the infiltrator a small amount of information with a tendency for more useless and uninteresting information to be more likely than incriminating information or access to letters and scribe notes.

Benefits: Creates new potential for intrigue and conflict. Can be a good low risk, low reward ability to help new infiltrators train their skills.

Potential abuses: The ability needs to be limited. Being able to easily find out everything about a noble in a short time would be too powerful. Proper balance should make this a low risk, low reward ability.

18

Development / Re-thinking peasant mobs

« on: December 12, 2018, 05:19:46 PM »

Peasant mobs were first introduced to discourage the tendency for realms to just depopulate every enemy region they take. This was a reasonable change but they've gone way too far. I recently tried to do a simple advanced scouting, and possibly a small raid and was instantly attacked and seriously wounded by a horde of peasants. It would be one thing if I had looted, triggered a militia and was foolish enough to stick around until they attacked me, but being seriously wounded just for entering the region is just aggravating and undermines the PvP nature of the game with a very frustrating and unpredictable PvE element.

Some have suggested getting rid of peasant militias all together. I'm not sure about that because we don't want to go back to the "every war is total war" "two realms enter one realm leave" dynamic we had before.

I think another, better option would be to make this an infiltrator ability. That way it becomes a character action. An infiltrator must enter a region either of their realm or of an ally and "organize peasant militia". Once they've done this the militia will be triggered by any enemy approach so long as the infiltrator remains in the region.

At minimum, some way to find out if a region is poised to kill you would be nice. How closely does the region's stance towards your realm correspond to the risk of a militia attack? If it's a pretty direct relationship updating the flavor texts would be nice. Or maybe this could be something adventurers can figure out by mixing with locals e.g. "This region has a well organized peasant militia prepared to defend their homes if [realm] attacks".

19

Development / Ideas for bringing back the black market

« on: December 02, 2018, 07:14:01 PM »

I was never entirely sure how black market food worked originally but I remember once the illicit food we bought turned out to have been subtracted from one of our own regions. Regardless there are plenty of options for a new system.

My first thought is simply make a check box for all buy and sell offers that will make its source hidden. These deals are restricted by range just like regular trade, so the trader will have an edge in black market dealings and will possibly be able to use that to get a sense of where the illegal sales are coming from.

I haven't been a banker in a while so I don't know if the job gives you enough information to be able to figure out if such black market dealing was going on. If not perhaps some sort of investigatory ability can be added. If the banker in fact gets so much information such deals are obvious perhaps there are other measures that can make black market dealing more secretive.

20

East Island / Building an in Game Pantheon or Who wants to play god?

« on: November 24, 2018, 08:28:17 PM »

So for a while now I've been trying to get an in-game pantheon off the ground on East Continent. The idea will work entirely with the current religious system, the only problem is I need three (possibly four) other players to get on board. You see each deity in the pantheon gets their own religion and all five religions will start out with a "variant" stance towards each other.

I've took the first step by establishing the Church of Aaron. Aaron is a Hermes type figure, he's a messenger and mediator between the other four gods. The four of them are constantly in conflict with one another but all are friends to Aaron. For more information about Aaronism check out the wiki page http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Church_of_Aaron. The first Avatar of Aaron, Sigurd is dead and a new one will not be seen until 17 in game years have passed.

The other gods are roT the slain, Reina the Huntress, Solomon Lord of Plenty and Mariana of the Abyss. Right now I have a candidate for the Avatar of roT but I'm open to this particular god requiring a mortal to prove themselves in combat before he will name them his Avatar. Each god has a personality and a set of domains. These domains are based on region types and certain gods are supposed to be represented in certain regions. On top of that certain actions can be considered an "affront" to a deity, and certain in game events considered a sign that they are displeased and the "pax deourm" has been disrupted.

The domains are organized as follows:

Exclusive domain- all other gods forbidden, Aaron may have a lesser temple.

Supreme domain- their temple must be largest in the region other gods may be welcome

Claimed domain- deity has a right to a presence in this region, though may be subject to another god's supremacy

Disputed domain- circumstances mean that this region may be in dispute and thus its status must be settled through deliberation with Aaron


Aaron:
claim on all regions,
no exclusive domain

Solomon:
exclusive- Townslands
supreme- central rurals
claim- on cities and coastal rurals
disputed- coastal towns (Mariana), fortified towns (roT), rurals with hunting as a major industry (Reina)

Reina:
Exclusive- forrest, badlands, mountains, rurals where hunting is a major industry (Montauban)
Disputed- coastal badlands, mountains or forests (Mariana), rurals with hunting as a major industry (Solomon), regions with militia (roT).

roT:
Exclusive- Strongholds
Supreme- cities with a fortress
Claim- any region with militia or fortifications present
Disputed- coastal strongholds (Mariana), coastal cities (for supremacy with Mariana), towns with fortifications or militia (Solomon), forests with militia (Reina).

Mariana
Exclusive- none
Supreme- any coastal region
Claim- none
Disputed- coastal strongholds (roT), coastal badlands, mountains and rurals (Reina), coastal towns (Solomon)

Aaron has no land domains but diplomatic agreements are supposed to be blessed by a priest of Aaron and disputes between the Avatars must be mediated by the Avatar of Aaron if one is manifest. Since Sigurd is dead the highest ranking priest of Aaron may observe disputes only.

The head of each religion will be called "Avatar" signifying that they are their patron god's living representative on Earth. There is only ever one Avatar for each god at a given time. So when an Avatar dies a new one is born that very moment. The priest holding their place is not considered an Avatar but essentially a steward until enough time has passed that a new Avatar can arise (17 in game years). When a religion is without an Avatar they cannot take part in mediations between Avatars, renegotiate any of the guiding laws of the gods, or claim, for certain, that anything is a sign of divine displeasure (because only an Avatar actually knows if their god is angry). They can however intervene in direct attacks on their temples, shrines, priests and followers and respond to standard affronts to their god.

Signs of displeasure are as follows:
roT- Undead
Solomon- food rotting, droughts, famine
Reina- monster attack
Mariana- pirates (do we have this for the ferry lanes in East Continent?), monster attacks on coastal regions (sea monsters), characters "dying" at sea.

I had a list of ways to settle disputes but I lost it. I'm open to suggestions but here are the two I remember:
-Disputes with roT can be settled by duels
-Disputes with Solomon can be settled through a marriage to a priest of Solomon

This is my general plan but I can be somewhat flexible about it. So who wants to play god with me?

21

Dwilight / The So Called Prophet Severina

« on: November 23, 2018, 08:51:58 AM »

Mathurin's been gone a long time and Sanguis Astroism has definitely suffered. The great thing about having him around was he generally treated the church with a light touch, but now and then would step in and make an unequivocal ruling.

Well I've introduced an as of yet roleplayed-only character claiming to be the second prophet. At this point she wont technically be a playable character for about three more years. So that gives us plenty of time to discuss the idea of a new prophet of Sanguis Astrosim. Will she be accepted by the old church or by ESA? Or will she be forced to found a new sect. I'd love to hear thoughts and suggestions.

I'm especially interested in thoughts on her "first prophecy". It got a little overlooked seeing as there was a lot of strife over other events in SA. I actually have a very specific interpretation in mind for it but would love to hear people take a stab at what it means before I spill the beans.

For anyone who needs to be brought up to speed:

https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,8198.0.html

22

Feature Requests / Rejected: Banditry option for adventurers

« on: November 23, 2018, 07:47:18 AM »

Title: Banditry option for adventurers

Summary: Give adventurers the option to act as bandits stealing from people by brute force.

Details: Why hunt monsters and undead when people are so much less formidable? Adventurers gain a new option "Commit Robbery". Mechanically it works like hunting, only instead of finding monsters and killing them you find people and rob them, only killing them if they resist. In this way we can just put new flavor texts onto the existing template. The act generates the same average amount of gold, silver and items, but is slightly less dangerous than hunting monsters and undead. If we wanted to go into more detail there could be two options "Rob Peasants" (low risk low reward) and "Rob Merchants and lower gentry" (high risk high reward). The other difference is instead of affecting the region's monster and undead spawn rate it has a chance of reducing morale, production, realm control or loyalty and of course you may kill a few people that refuse to part with their valuables. This act could also occasionally result in loss of honor and prestige. In addition the lord's daily region report will include "peasants report that a bandit has been robbing peasants (or merchants and lower gentry)". Banditry could even include the same hunting report feature as regular hunting, allowing groups of adventurers to operate as a bandit gang.

Benefits: Drives player to player interaction particularly between adventurers and nobles but also between adventurers and other adventurers and nobles and other nobles. Imagine for example two adventures are in a region. One is hunting monsters and undead like a good freeman, the other, a nasty outlaw is acting as a common highway robber. The lord is away at war, so he asks for his knight to find and arrest this troublesome bandit. Unfortunately he grabs the wrong one! The poor commoner pleads his case to the realm's judge. The judge tortures him and discovers he's telling the truth so he lets him go. Now that adventurer is furious. He finds the outlaw who got him into this mess and challenges him to a duel. The good freedman wins and the wicked bandit is slain, his body is left to rot by the wayside on the very road where he used to commit his banditry.

This could also drive intra and extra realm conflict. Rival regions or duchies might encourage bandits to harass their hated neighbors. Wandering bandits crossing realm boarders could provoke wars.  During a war the realm might intentionally send its adventurers to act as brigands in enemy lands.

Potential Drawbacks: The impact will need to be carefully adjusted so as not to be over powered. Catching a bandit will be a challenge since adventurers move differently from nobles. The act of hunting them down could be a lot of fun, but they can't be destroying a whole region in the meantime as this would ruin the fun, be unrealistic and be potentially game breaking.

23

Development / We should prioritize additions to the "knight game"

« on: November 23, 2018, 07:19:50 AM »

Knights are important. They're the foundation of the game in a way, and they're the rank at which new players enter the game. We need to make that experience unique and enjoyable enough to keep them around. If our intention is for player density to be a minimum of two knights per region but with a goal of three that means three quarters of all characters will be knights.

I understand the devs are busy and there are a million ideas floating around and changes that need to be made along with things that are broken that need fixing. Still I would highly encourage them to find some upgrades they can make for knights in the near future.

Two suggestions I had were allowing them to build a single shrine on their estate and creating a "unit discipline" system (although the later is not technically restricted to knights). I don't know coding but it seems to me these would be easier to implement than a lot of the more elaborate suggestions out there. Really just about any new feature would be an improvement.

24

Helpline / killing your hero

« on: October 09, 2018, 06:16:09 AM »

If you kill your hero by deletion does the game still send out a "hero's funeral" message?

25

Helpline / Rules regarding out of character recruiting

« on: September 25, 2018, 07:22:23 AM »

I have an idea for a pantheon which would function using five separate religions which all consider each other "variants". I've  started one of the five and it's pretty healthy so far but I've had no success finding anyone in character who is willing to start one of the remaining four. Is it permissible for me to just ask people out of character or possibly start a thread to see if they want to play the other "Avatars" of the other cults that make up the pantheon?

26

Development / Can we cut Dwilight some slack now?

« on: August 04, 2018, 10:47:30 PM »

I just did the math and Dwilight is at 2.6 players per region, well above the recommended minimum of 2, yet we're still getting ravaged by monsters and undead. It's at the point where only three realms even share a country border. This will eventually become a huge problem as p2p interaction is severely hindered.

27

Feature Requests / Under Debate: Allow knights to build shrines

« on: May 17, 2018, 02:15:34 AM »

Summary: Allow landed knights to build a shrine on their estate.

Details: A knight who is a full member of a religion may build a shrine to that religion on their estate. In all respects this shrine functions just like the shrine a priest might build and is counted on the list of total shrines in the region. Should the knight leave the estate the next occupant may tear down the shrine if they wish and build a new one. Estates should be limited in the number of shrines they can build either with a set number of allowed shrines (perhaps just one or one for every 10% of the region allocated) or with the same escalating cost system that keeps priests from spamming shrines. My preference goes to having a set limited number of shrines and a low number at that since that increases the possibility of a knight having to decide if they want to tear down an old shrine of a different faith in order to build one of their own, thus creating more opportunity for player decisions.

Benefits: Allows knights, especially knights played by new players to customize their estates and be more actively involved in the game. Encourages participation in religion. Creates the potential for player to player interaction and conflict (e.g. a player may tear down a shrine on his new estate, angering the religion to which it belongs)

Downsides: Nothing comes to mind. Maybe priests don't want to share one of their abilities?

28

Feature Requests / Under Debate: Unit Disipline

« on: May 17, 2018, 01:44:48 AM »

I'm not sure if this has been proposed before so I wanted to ask about it before going to feature requests.

I think it would be interesting to add a mechanic for unit discipline to the unit settings. Much like looting this level of discipline ranges from strict to lenient. A unit with low discipline will maintain higher moral but will cause a moral loss to the region they are in. This could take the form of specific mishaps which would be reported to both the troop leader and region lord ranging from a drunken brawl to a murder. Perhaps fights could even escalate to the point of triggering a battle with local militia or peasant mobs. Or for simplicity the lord could simply get the message "peasants are angry due to conflicts with rowdy soldiers" which the players could roleplay as specific incidents. To avoid this trouble a knight could keep their troops strictly disciplined, but as a result the unit moral will degrade more quickly. There could be other consequences as well, for example a unit with lax discipline may be less likely to stop an infiltrator or suffer from faster equipment damage.

A system like this would create new potential for both inter and intra-realm conflict even for mere knights as well as give them greater freedom to tailor their own play style.

29

Helpline / Can you die from wounds now?

« on: February 10, 2018, 07:54:51 AM »

My character has gone from "seriously wounded", to "critically wounded" to "nearly dying". Is it now possible for him to actually die from wounds? Should I start putting my affairs in order? (note my character is a priest in case that matters).

30

Helpline / How to add a religion to the wiki

« on: February 03, 2018, 01:00:15 AM »

I'm trying to create a page for "The Church of Aaron". I don't see how the list of religions is edited.

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Religion_Pages

When I click edit all I see is:

==[[East Continent]]==
{{Template:Religions of East Island}}

where is the list itself stored? Or is there some tag I put when I make the religion page?