Messages

5491

Dwilight / Re: What is and what should be SMA?

« on: June 08, 2011, 03:54:22 PM »

Hmhm, I don't mind the current copy-pasting system. Allows for some tampering on the way.

That's right.  I knew there was an important reason not to allow attachment/forwarding for messages, but I couldn't remember it offhand while trying to set up 2 new lab computers for my faculty

5492

Dwilight / Re: What is and what should be SMA?

« on: June 08, 2011, 03:38:41 PM »

I would love that Perhaps something like the regular scout reports, only custom made?

I cannot think of any way around the copy-pasting myself either. :/ Indirik is right.

Well, something we've had in mind for some time is a way to get scout reports out of the message body: instead, they'd show up as separate links below the message.

We'd need to evaluate whether it's a) worth it and b) not abusable, but it might be worthwhile to do something similar with actual messages, as well.

Obviously this wouldn't solve the problem of copying & pasting unit reports (ick) or the results of actions ("Your men work for X hours", etc), but it would at least start to address the problems.

5493

Dwilight / Re: What is and what should be SMA?

« on: June 08, 2011, 02:55:44 PM »

Oh, and what I hate (though I've done so myself - a rule would help me not to), is hope people copy and paste parts of letters to comment on. As if they're using quotes on a forum! (I can live with copy paste for scout reports and unit info, though. Personally I always make it an "attachment" to the letter)

Part of what we need for this is an actual "attachment" mechanic for letters...

5494

BM General Discussion / Re: Sharing lords gold, whats up with that?

« on: June 08, 2011, 01:36:20 PM »

If I remember correctly, bankers get informed of large trader-initiated transactions within their own realm.  Thus, if a trader goes and buys 1000 bushels in Shoka or someplace, Terran's banker will hear about it...but won't know where that food gets sold.  When the 1000 food gets sold in Paisly, D'Hara's banker will hear about it, but I doubt he'll be inclined to tell Terran's...

Also, I think that the 50 gold/100 bushel limit is a thing of the past.  Not 100% sure, though; you might try it out.

5495

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 08, 2011, 03:54:43 AM »

I completely agree. Our characters should react to what they see and experience, as if they were medieval nobles. But the medieval european atmosphere is not just a jumping-off point, after which anything goes. We are supposed to maintain that atmosphere. If we don't do that, then SMA is worthless. We might as well just rename it Serious Noble Atmosphere, and be done with it.

I guess it just sounds to me like you're almost saying "our characters should retcon the world around them to be more like Medieval Europe."

If something influences our characters strongly that isn't something that could happen in Medieval Europe, that will produce results that cannot have analogues in Medieval Europe.  There's no getting around that.

If you want a continent that's totally free of those influences, then it has to be a continent with no monsters and undead, and no contact with continents that do.

5496

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 08, 2011, 03:38:17 AM »

The "underlying principles"on which these actions are based include several guidelines on time period and locale. BattleMaster is inherently based on the real world in which we live. A specific time period in history, and a specific location on the earth. That is the framework in which we play.

But it does not in any way state that our characters are in that time and place on Earth, nor that they ever were there or have any way of referencing it.

The milieu is simply supposed to have the same atmosphere.

If our characters experience a BT invasion, then by the principles of SMA, our characters should be expected to react to the events of that invasion, and remember them, and think about them later—not simply forget the invasion happened because it wasn't the kind of thing that would happen in medieval Europe.

5497

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 07, 2011, 04:08:54 PM »

That's quite possibly true. But we have to start somewhere. The players are supposed to be the guardians of what is and is not acceptable in the game, especially on Dwilight. The players are the only ones able to maintain and police SMA. (And with this debate, we're seeing how completely, and totally, player policing fails in a large-scale environment.) The Titans can't do it, and will not act on anything other than most obvious and blatant cases of SMA abuse. And on many of those, the answer you usually get back is "Handle it IC."

So what the players need to do is somehow define what is and is not acceptable. Which is what we're trying to do here. What is acceptable in a religion? Is it enough to simple say "We believe something, therefore we're an official religion."? Even if the belief is "god suck and you shouldn't worship them"?

This type of thing needs resolved, or Dwilight is at risk of being overtaken by the same type of non-religious-religions that infest many of the other islands.

If you asked me when Sanguis Astroism started up whether it was SMA compliant, I would have told you, "Hell no."  And I would have backed it up with many of the same complaints you have about the MP.

Don't try and tell me you can't see the parallels.

It seems to me that when you boil it down, the important thing is the atmosphere that any given religion helps to foster.  I think that the atmosphere the MP will foster will be a good one, very apt for BM, for Dwilight, and, yes, for SMA.

5498

Helpline / Re: Stable vs. testing islands

« on: June 07, 2011, 03:28:28 PM »

My advy Anders is sitting in Lugagun with:

Nobles:
Abbot, Warren, Coturnix, Luan, Jacques

Advy:
Mei

 and all I can see is the Description tab. I'm outside of my realm - perhaps this is restricted (or a bug)?

Can you please clarify?

You say you are "with" these people, but you also say you can only see the Description tab.  So how/where do you see these people?

5499

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 07, 2011, 02:36:21 PM »

Religion has always been more complex then just a simple worship or servitude to a divine power.

I think this right here is really the key.

Indirik, you're trying to oversimplify.  You're trying to define "religion" as "worship of one or more divine powers," when it's quite plain that that's not the case.  It's a nice, easy, simple way to think about it, but in the words of H. L. Mencken, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." 

I think you've found that answer here.

Religion isn't that simple, however much you might want it to be.

5500

Helpline / Re: Possible lost bonds

« on: June 07, 2011, 01:37:09 PM »

So did they go to Westmoor as taxes?

I believe it should show up in the old realm's "other taxes".

No, and no.

Like I said, they go *poof*.  They vanish into thin air.  They are gone.  Unrecoverable.  Claimed by the NPC bankers to pad their own pockets.

5501

Helpline / Re: Possible lost bonds

« on: June 07, 2011, 04:14:48 AM »

Ah well, it's too bad that all nobles, no matter what, must immediately destroy all their bonds whenever they change realms for some reason. Or maybe the bonds are magically linked to their allegiance, and can telepathically tell when to self destruct. lololol

The bankers (NPCs) keep track of the allegiances of nobles, and as soon as one leaves the realm, they immediately (and with great relish) order all his bonds forfeit, and confiscated by the bank.

5502

Helpline / Re: Possible lost bonds

« on: June 07, 2011, 03:32:32 AM »

Any time you change realms, your bonds go *poof*.

Bonds are issued by the government of a particular realm.  Anywhere else, they're nothing but pieces of paper.

5503

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 07, 2011, 01:01:43 AM »

If I remember correctly, this was not the case. It really was that he wanted european-inspired religions and cultures. At least, if it was only about the names, then I was never told, and that's not really something I was inflexible about.

Hmm.  It's also possible that he was more adamant about it at the time...but at this point, SMA in practice is really quite a lot less strict than SMA in theory before and in the early stages of Dwilight was.

5504

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 07, 2011, 12:22:46 AM »

So would have the Blood Cult. It was dead-serious, promoted a system closer to british feudalism than many european systems, was from about the same time period, and was all about giving religion the role it deserved in the societies of the days.

I don't see how MP is any more SMA than the Blood Cult would have been. Mind you, I never favoured the euro-centric SMA tenant, and have always believed it made the experience poorer instead of richer.

If I remember and understand Tom's issues with the Blood Cult correctly, his objection was to the names, not the substance.

Change the names in the BC to be more medieval-fantasy and less Mesoamerica, and I'd say there'd be no problem with putting it on Dwilight.

5505

Feature Requests / Re: Independent Regions

« on: June 06, 2011, 07:40:47 PM »

Surprise!

(At least, I hope so. I'm pretty sure that change went live many moons ago...)

Yep, if you're rogue, you will still fight monsters and undead.