Messages

5431

BM General Discussion / Re: Looking for a Map Editor

« on: June 28, 2011, 05:05:05 PM »

That's what I was wondering, but reading up on Isometric projection it seems like it does have a viewpoint as well, and hence perspective would seem to kick in.  If I understand correctly, "isometric" just means a particular viewing angle.

A particular, fixed, viewing angle.  Which means that as you pan across the landscape, it doesn't change for the stuff you're going past.

5432

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 28, 2011, 04:09:44 PM »

Also a new map. Oh god a new map would be !@#$ing fantastic. And it would be something nice for new players to look at when they have no idea what's going on and they just wanna peruse the new world they'll soon be a part of.

I'm sorry but the maps we have now look they came out at the same time as windows 98. On the other hand I know toms been looking for new maps to work with for a while so I understand if it's a project thats easier said then done.

Go with civ 4 maps, or even civ 3!!! I would die if we could zoom in and out.... Wow I'm getting way to excited and off topic...

Just because Tom's looking for a new map editor, don't get your hopes up that that means there will be new maps in a week or two.  Or even a month or two.  Or even by this time next year. 

Redoing the existing maps in a new editor might be feasible in that time frame.  Creating a new continent takes vastly more than just drawing a new map, and is a huge undertaking.  I know it sounds really cool, but I don't want you to be expecting it just around the corner and feel disappointed when it doesn't come.

5433

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 28, 2011, 01:48:38 AM »

As for myself, I was close to leaving BM several times. I hate the ganging ups, but I think we're working on codes to improve this a bit, so I wouldn't leave because of that.

Well, we're trying to, but it's not trivial 

If you can think of anything specific that might help deal with this issue, please feel free to post it (in a separate thread, so as not to hijack this one).

5434

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 27, 2011, 10:15:14 PM »

I agree Word of Mouth and recruiting friends is probably one of the best ways to bring people in. Indeed, I came to think game because Vellos introduced it to me 3 or 4 years ago.

However, I've begun to doubt somewhat that relying on this method really is bringing in the numbers. I've introduced probably 5 or 6 people to the game, all of who lost interest after the first several days.

Essentially my questions is this: Word of Mouth is great, but what else do we have or can we do to bring in niche players?

I think we need more information to answer that question.

So let me ask you: why did those 5 or 6 people lose interest?  What were they expecting that BM did not provide?

If the answer is "WoW", then there's nothing we could do about it, and nor do we want to.

If the answer is more along the lines of, "People were rude, and nothing was actually happening," that's different.

5435

Development / Re: Retention Revisited

« on: June 27, 2011, 08:59:22 PM »

So, why is it that it's so hard for new players to get into the action on a good fight?

It couldn't have been so hard before, could it? I mean, I got seriously wounded in my first week.

It depends very heavily on what realm you start out in.

5436

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 27, 2011, 05:23:43 PM »

I followed Indirik, but that last phrase ruined your argumentation. You're not writing a letter, you're dictating it.

Not always. Many players roleplay their characters as personally writing some or all of their letters.

And furthermore, even if you're dictating the letter, someone's writing it.

5437

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 27, 2011, 04:12:07 PM »

Broken English normally doesn't bother me. What does bother me, though, are those people who insist in writing in intentionally broken English. You know, the one's that use excessive apostrophes to simulate mispronunciations, slang, etc. Like "dese 'ere enemys gotsta be gittin' da' golds outta' da pezents wit sum lashin's", and similar annoying things. I mostly ignore letters like that. If anyone asks me to comment on it, I claim to have been unable to make heads or tails of it, and thus tossed it in the trash. Writing "letters" in this manner makes absolutely no sense at all. An RP? Sure. A written letter? No way.

Agreed.

Tarajist Balewind is one of the worse offenders in this.

No one writes in a dialect or accent. In particular, no scribe would ever write in a dialect or accent.  However you pronounce your haitches or -ings, you still spell them out properly when writing.

And please ignore the fact that BM's setting predates standardized spelling.  BM's playing does not.

5438

Helpline / Re: A Question about Heroes.

« on: June 27, 2011, 02:33:38 PM »

True, only two conditions: Rogue or banned. Or have extremely low honor and be in prison.

So three conditions. Yep just three conditions: Banned, rogue, or low honor. Or in your own realms prisons.

Actually, you're only in danger of death in your own realm's prison because your Judge can ban you as a realm member (through the "kick someone" option), then execute you because you have a ban.  So that's still just three.

The fourth is "be an advy in prison."

5439

Helpline / Re: Getting the population to procreate faster (or move there or whatever)

« on: June 26, 2011, 07:01:45 PM »

Hey guys,

I noticed that many regions can't increase production more due to the lack of population.

One thing that I seem to have forgotten is how do you increase the population then in the fastest and most effective manner?

You show them dirty movies.

...There isn't any way to get your peasants to procreate faster.  On testing, they will migrate from well-populated regions to underpopulated regions, provided the underpopulated regions have a functional government and are well-fed.

Or I suppose you could try magic.

5440

Helpline / Re: Command Staff Settings

« on: June 26, 2011, 02:36:28 PM »

Delay and Wound should be removed. It exploited the weakness in the old combat system that was fixed by moving to the new one.

5441

Feature Requests / Re: Transfer Army Sponsorship to Any Noble

« on: June 25, 2011, 03:15:20 PM »

That is correct, and absolutely intended.

If you want someone else to be the sponsor of an army, they can sponsor their own.

Or, if they can't sponsor their own...then there's a reason for that.

Army sponsorship is not, and was never, intended to be passed around like a hot potato.  Once an army is created, sponsorship can only ever be transferred to the current Lord of its home region.

This feature request is rejected.

5442

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 24, 2011, 08:45:54 PM »

Like it or not, Glaumring, nobody has to pass a test to get into this game. Nobody is required to be a master roleplayer. Nobody is even required to be a good roleplayer.  There are plenty of people—even among those who write lots of long RP messages—who are, in fact, atrocious at roleplaying their characters.

That is the case, it has always been the case, and it will always be the case.  We cannot ignore it, change it, or pretend it is going to go away. 

What we can do is try to make the game as fun and accessible as possible to people at both extremes—those who primarily want to roleplay being a medieval noble, and find this a good place to do that, and those who primarily want to plan out medieval wars, and find this a good place to do that—as long as they aren't trying to prevent people who fall elsewhere on the spectrum from also having fun.

5443

Helpline / Re: new auto caravans

« on: June 24, 2011, 06:45:26 PM »

With auto buy you do not send out caravans, however will keep open purchase orders until that amount is reached.

If this is the case, that is a bug.

5444

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 24, 2011, 04:09:35 PM »

Would Dwilight stop being SMA if such an island were created? Or would we just call it SMA: Hardcore? 

As it's entirely speculative, and I just came up with it 10 minutes ago...I don't know.

5445

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 24, 2011, 04:06:23 PM »

This is a bad idea, and such an island would fail to attract the number of players that Dwilight has. Artemesia's concerns are correct: it is a lot of work to play out and maintain religion in such a strict manner (for very little payoff, at that), and few people would find it enjoyable. More realism does not always equal more fun.

That's why I said it would be smaller.

If we can't grow the playerbase significantly, I'm thinking maybe South Island-type small, maybe a little bit bigger than that.