Messages

16

Announcements / Server Transition Delay

« on: December 28, 2020, 11:31:02 PM »

Update on the previous: Unfortunately, as Tom has not yet been able to get the final transfer authorization code to me for taking ownership of the battlemaster.org domain, the transition must be delayed until such time as he can find it and send it to me. As such, there will not be a server move on the 1st.

I will be sure to post an update here when I have more information.

17

Announcements / BattleMaster Turns 20

« on: December 14, 2020, 09:14:12 PM »

On January 1st, 2021, BattleMaster will turn 20 years old.

On that same day, we will be completing the transition of ownership and control from Tom Vogt to the current admins, Vita and me.

Short-Term Changes

• Today, I will be transferring control of the battlemaster.org domain to my account. This may involve some slight disruption as the changes propagate through the DNS system, so please be patient.
• Between now and January 1st, Vita and I will be finalizing the setup of the game and its ancillary pieces (wiki, forum, bugtracker, email) on a new server we own and control. This will be mostly transparent from the outside, but it does mean that aside from emergencies, other code changes will be more or less suspended between now and then.
• On the 1st, at a specific time we will decide on and announce soon, we will switch over from the old server to the new, putting the old server in maintenance mode and copying the up-to-the-minute current database to the new server. During the switchover, which shouldn't take more than a few hours at most to propagate the DNS changes, the only game-related space that will be reliably available for everyone is the Discord.

Medium-Term Code-Related Changes

• Most things will not change. BattleMaster will be the same game, and Vita and I have been running it for several years now. The biggest changes will be for our convenience, which we hope you will see in the form of a slightly faster progression of code updates.
• We are taking this opportunity to make a fairly significant behind-the-scenes change that should further improve the ease of updating BattleMaster (warning: dev-speak ahead): On the new server, the game will be set up within a Symfony framework, using a LegacyBridge in order to be able to access parts of the game that are still set up entirely in the current, non-framework, scripts. Over time, we will be able to convert pages from the old format to the new—by and large, you should not notice much difference in them except the URLs.
• The PayPal donations will be directed to me, and continue to be used primarily to defray the monthly costs of running the server.

Non-Code-Related Changes

This winter, Vita and I will be working out some principles and practicalities for expanding the community's say in how the game is run. Details and timing on this are still very much TBD, but we are interested in community governance and what it can bring to the game and its players.

There will also be some additional announcements in the coming days and weeks, as we have some other somewhat-related projects to kick off.

18

BM General Discussion / Re: Grand Melees

« on: December 08, 2020, 06:07:45 PM »

That won't reasonably approximate a Grand Melee, because in BattleMaster battles there's always exactly two sides.

If you get 6 individual nobles from different realms into a region and have them all set to murderous, you'll have one of three outcomes:

1) The game doesn't find a defender. No battle takes place.
2) The game recognizes one of the nobles as either owning the region or controlling the battlefield, and designates them the defender. They fight alone against all the attackers.
3) The game selects a defender as in #2, but they have one or more allies present, who join in defending; all others attack them.

19

Development / Re: Priest game

« on: November 18, 2020, 02:56:52 AM »

The other thing I've often wondered about this is whether nobles being priests actually makes sense...Or rather nobles being something like Bishops and such would make more sense, having charge over NPC priests.  Bishops and such often did fight and all...

I mean, "priest" is the general term. "Bishop" is specific to Christianity, so we're not going to use that.

There very much are NPC priests of every religion—they're the ones running the temples, etc. PC priests are just much more effective, because when you've got a noble of the highest order preaching, it carries more weight than just any other random commoner.

20

Development / Re: Priest game

« on: November 16, 2020, 03:39:27 PM »

The trouble is, it's not an easy change, because the character limits are quite complex, and priests are full nobles, with all the rights and privileges they enjoy—including the ability to change class.

I'm not fundamentally against the idea—the nobility sending second sons into the priesthood was definitely A Thing, and having priests be not "normal nobles" makes some sense—but "easy", it's not, I'm afraid.

21

Development / Re: Diplomat's military restrictions

« on: November 15, 2020, 01:03:53 AM »

Can you explain what you mean? Maybe I'm missing something.
The only new options I see are influencing region's sympathy to this or that realm and drafting/signing treaties.I agree with the reduced size.

Influencing sympathy is pretty much the entire key to takeovers. Do it well enough, and you can sometimes get regions to flip all on their own.

But why police designation? It's weird to take the local police on diplomatic missions.

Because the sympathy abilities are also incredibly useful within your own realm, to make sure your regions are in top shape.

22

Development / Re: Diplomat's military restrictions

« on: November 14, 2020, 02:57:45 PM »

Diplomats have some of the most powerful abilities in the game. I don't know why you're classifying it as "RP-heavy".

Furthermore, even if you look at it primarily as a class whose purpose is to visit other realms and interact with them, such interactions are supposed to be peaceful. A Diplomat shouldn't have more than a basic personal guard; they wouldn't be leading around a whole legion, as that would likely lead to an international incident.

23

Helpline / Re: Population growth

« on: October 30, 2020, 03:07:32 AM »

I've been watching the region for a while.
There was a week-long peace from 29 to 22 days ago. Still nothing.

Battle in Jorradith - 27 days, 8 hours, 55 minutes ago
message to all realms participating in the battle in Jorradith
(rogue) vs. Westgard
Estimated strengths: 10 men vs. 120 men

Defender Victory!

Battle in Jorradith - 25 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes ago
message to all realms participating in the battle in Jorradith
(rogue) vs. Westgard
Estimated strengths: 10 men vs. 100 men

Defender Victory!

Battle in Jorradith - 24 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes ago
message to all realms participating in the battle in Jorradith
(rogue) vs. Westgard
Estimated strengths: 10 men vs. 80 men

Defender Victory!

Battle in Jorradith - 22 days, 20 hours, 47 minutes ago
message to all realms participating in the battle in Jorradith
(rogue) vs. Westgard
Estimated strengths: 10 men vs. 160 men

Defender Victory!

Doesn't look so peaceful to me.

How long does it have to be at peace to start growing?

IIRC, in order to be considered "peaceful", there have to be no battles, no looting, no monster/undead activity, for at least 1 full day.

24

Helpline / Re: Population growth

« on: October 30, 2020, 02:45:57 AM »

I didn't say anything about stats. It needs peace.

25

Helpline / Re: Population growth

« on: October 30, 2020, 02:25:58 AM »

Population only grows when things are safe and peaceful. Looks like Jorradith has had a rough time recently.

26

Helpline / Re: Population growth

« on: October 30, 2020, 02:04:05 AM »

What's the region? This is not nearly sufficient information to diagnose the cause of this.

27

Announcements / New Religion Founding Requirements

« on: October 12, 2020, 03:52:07 AM »

We're pleased to announce that we have introduced a new path to founding a religion, that does not require the founder to themselves be a Lord. It does, however, require some significant work on the part of the would-be founder:

• A document (~500 words at least) describing the basic beliefs of your religion: what do its followers actually worship? What do its teaching say about their day-to-day life? What meaning does it give to noble followers? How does it affect the decisions made by noble player characters? Is there a creation myth? What does it have to say about nobles vs peasants? The afterlife? Our purpose in the world? Some resources if you need inspiration:
  
  • https://wondrousworldbuilding.tumblr.com/post/160264871673/creating-belief-systems-and-religions-in-your
  • https://medium.com/the-worldbuilding-forge/how-to-worldbuild-believable-religions-8b92eb777bc7
  • http://inkwellideas.com/worldbuilding/worldbuilding-religion-design/
• A basic layout of what the religion's ranks will be, and what their purposes are
• Commitments from at least 10 nobles to join your religion once it is founded. At least two of these must be committing to be priests, and at least one must be a Lord, approving the founding temple to be built in their region.

It is our hope that this will allow those who have good ideas for religions to see them founded without requiring steps that are largely irrelevant to the successful founding of a religion, while also ensuring that we are not overwhelmed with a glut of empty religions.

If you wish to found a religion following this path, once you have met the requirements, please contact us at community@battlemaster.org, or message Delvin Anaris on Discord.

28

Feature Requests / Re: Hyperlinks on names

« on: October 06, 2020, 02:24:05 PM »

Certainly, many more places than are now should be. I'm not sure about every instance, but broadly speaking, I approve.

29

Feature Requests / Re: More options for Stewards

« on: October 05, 2020, 11:08:08 PM »

I think there's a line to be drawn between buttons the Lord can press that require authority and those that merely maintain the administration.

Managing estates is not something that can be delegated. Period. That is part of the Lord's feudal duty to and authority over his vassal knights, and needs to remain something that only the Lord can do.

Controlling food distribution is merely a part of how the region is managed. It clearly falls into the same category as existing tasks the Steward can perform, and should be opened up to Stewards.

Others of these fall in the middle between these two; personally, off the top of my head, I would say that building infrastructure and holding courts both require the Lord's authority, while setting taxes probably falls just this side of the "administration" line.

I'm ambivalent about the militia ones.

30

Feature Requests / Re: More options for Stewards

« on: October 05, 2020, 05:24:09 PM »

That's a strange take. I don't think that administrative chores were ever the main attraction of being a landed noble.
I mean, wasn't actual medieval steward's job literally what I desribed?

While I am sure there were, in fact, plenty of medieval Lords who delegated every last one of their responsibilities to stewards, heirs, or whoever they found who would take them on, and spent all day hunting and drinking, there are a number of good reasons that I don't feel it best fits BattleMaster's needs to emulate that model.

One of the foremost of these is that it is intentional in BattleMaster for positions of power to come with increased levels of responsibility. If you are not interested in performing any of the responsibilities of a region Lord, you should not accept the position—and this goes for every level of the hierarchy.

I think it might make sense to expand the abilities of stewards somewhat, but there is definitely a line to be drawn, and that line is well before "every button a Lord can push".