Messages

5836

Feature Requests / Re: Clear explanation of the difference between nobles and commoners.

« on: March 11, 2011, 05:32:27 PM »

Noble families start from somewhere, and BM has lots of new noble families.  Some people play those new noble families as just being minor families now being more prominent, but others RP it as the founding of a new noble line, usually for notable actions.  That nobility did not extend backwards (as far as I know) to your mom/pop, grand-dad/grand-mum, great-grand-dad, etc.  So it's quite conceivable your mum might be a commoner (also see above about wealthy merchants).

Whatever people state in their RP, the official game explanation for all "new" noble families is that they just weren't prominent before.

Adventurers become nobles all the time.

Adventurers prove their pre-existing noble heritage all the time.  They do not change from being commoners to being nobles: they change from being unrecognized nobles to being recognized nobles.

Nobility was recognized by blood and by deeds.  They key thing is that you either have inherent or demonstrated Superiority, which explains why you are fit to lead commoners.

The key thing is that you have noble blood.  It doesn't matter how stirring a speech a commoner is able to deliver: he's still a commoner.

5837

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 10, 2011, 08:06:01 PM »

Now, on-topic:

28-year-old computer programmer, systems administrator and general technology man-of-all-work for the Psychology department at Colgate University in Update NY.  Married, no kids, 2 cats.

5838

General Talk / OT: English Grammar Interlude

« on: March 10, 2011, 08:04:19 PM »

27, male, married with a 2 year old. I work maintaining 200 Windows Servers in the Dallas, Texas, USA area.

omg, you perv I hope that's a typo

This may be a native vs non-native English speaker thing, but that's actually quite correct usage.  He would only be a perv if he'd said he was married to a 2-year-old, or was getting married with one.

...Of course if you mean he's perverted because he manages 200 Windows servers, that's a different matter...

5839

Feature Requests / Re: Better Maps

« on: March 10, 2011, 04:35:17 PM »

To be clear: this is a cool idea Tom has had, that may or may not come to fruition within a reasonable time frame.

Do not expect it to happen any time soon.

Estates, though, are underway

5840

BM General Discussion / Re: Exotic realm cultures

« on: March 09, 2011, 01:41:02 PM »

I seem to recall this disapproval was stated in the context of Dwilight's SMA, though.

No, it predated that.

He may very well have re-stated it for SMA, though.

5841

Feature Requests / Re: Lower the rate at which unique items degrade

« on: March 08, 2011, 05:37:09 PM »

Some items have lasted for a few RL years.  I'm not at all sure the degradation rate needs to be changed.

5842

Colonies / Re: Best kept secret in BM?

« on: March 08, 2011, 05:07:51 PM »

Precisely. They do "evil" things for the laughs... In a way akin to trolls on the internet do things for the "lulz". I have no doubt at all it used to be glorious, in the early days, but my multiple experiences with it revealed to me a rather stale realm where nobody takes anything seriously, and where every "RP" is nothing but a series of absurdities.

Personally, that's the result I've seen in everyone professing themselves to be "evil". Though I personally find the concept of "good" and "evil" to be rather silly, evil just won't consider itself evil. Evil is the marginal. They are the ones who consider themselves to be pure, and everyone else is be inferior to them and that it is therefore alright to do whatever they want to them. The only kind of evil people who can work together are those with strong (if twisted) codes of ethics and morals, allowing them to bind themselves together in order to complete common aspirations. The result is then basically like every other realm.

Outer Tilog has changed a great deal from its early days.  At one time, it was a place where evil was daily bread.  Things were often amusing from an OOC perspective, due to RL references and such, but overall, it was played as an actually evil realm.

Since around the time of EricSP's rather spectacular self-destruction, it has turned into more of a "backwards land," or at least that's what it was like when I was last there.  Rather than "evil is what we do," it's more "bad is good," with "bad" not just meaning "evil" but also "incompetent."

5843

Beluaterra / Re: Undead

« on: March 08, 2011, 05:05:29 PM »

Anyone ever wonder whether the spawning of monsters and undead is basically the same system as always, just supercharged? I have a hunch that adventurers are still going to be useful.

Y'know, this guy just might be onto something...

5844

BM General Discussion / Re: Exotic realm cultures

« on: March 08, 2011, 05:01:46 PM »

This is a shame, because there was plenty of piracy in all historical periods, including the middle ages.  Of course, the culture and flavor of any group of pirates varied depending upon their origin and time period, and pirates in the ancient Mediterranean were different than late medieval pirates in the north sea, who were different than 1600s/1700s pirates in the Caribbean (which is practically all anyone thinks of when they think 'pirates').

I'm hoping that perhaps some of a medieval piracy feel can be revived in Batesaor, though of course my character disapproves of this as the Duke of the city.

Piracy was certainly prevalent.  However, it wasn't so much practiced by nobles.

Tom has explicitly voiced his disapproval of anyone attempting to play their nobles as pirates.

5845

Helpline / Re: Cavalry charges

« on: March 08, 2011, 04:59:52 PM »

There's a big difference between charging across the field at a line of enemies and crashing into them, and standing and fighting against enemies all around you.

However, it's possible that the distribution could be looked at a little.

5846

This Forum / Re: Opt-In Advertisement

« on: March 08, 2011, 01:38:09 PM »

After a good start, ad revenue has dropped to almost nothing after I moved it to the forum. That is probably because only about 10% of the players even visit the forum.

So, my choices right now are to bring it back into the game, or remove it because it simply isn't worth it.

...Or wait a little while and see if more players get interested in the forum?

I strongly suspect, by the way, that there's a second reason revenue dropped way off: At first, people were like, "Hey, cool!", turned on ads, and clicked on a few so they could support you.  Once they'd done that, though, the ads started to recede into the background, as ads tend to for most people online today.

5847

Feature Requests / Re: Dwilight Character Limit

« on: March 06, 2011, 06:55:20 PM »

One reason we lose people is they expect instant action—or instant chat.  I've seen new people send a message and leave 5 minutes later.

5848

Feature Requests / Re: Dwilight Character Limit

« on: March 06, 2011, 04:51:51 PM »

There are 6 continents, and the max number of characters is 5. I get that one doesn't have the right to play where he wants, but at least it seems a bit more reasonable to provide the option of doubling up somewhere. I think the discussion list has exhausted many angles already, and I'm not interested in debating the kaleidoscope of issues involved.

As for Dwilight, we already got the new ability to play a noble and an adventurer. Before it was just one character. Surely we should celebrate the small gains we make rather than make wishes for things that might cause unintended consequences like open talks about restricting other continents?

The suggestion has been to make all continents like Dwilight, if I've read it correctly.  One noble, one advy active max per continent.

And very few people can have 5 characters.

5849

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

« on: March 06, 2011, 04:49:23 PM »

This precisely. And you can't ban priests unless they are caught in the act of doing something nasty. SA priests had nothing to do there, it was clear they were just setting up the grounds for an invasion, as all leaked messages from SA clearly paint.

Notably SA's will to have it illegal for any realm to banish SA priest preaching, lest all the SA realms invade. Obviously, non-SA realms don't like this.

Did you read Indirik's post? Or just ignore it because it didn't support your preconceptions?

I mean, I'm hardly the biggest fan of SA, but come on...

5850

Feature Requests / Re: Dwilight Character Limit

« on: March 06, 2011, 04:30:08 PM »

It's worth noting that there is precedent for this.

There was a time when most islands had no character limit, and you could have all three of your characters on a single continent.  This was changed, with a period where you couldn't create new characters there if you already had two, and finally a date where everyone had to move their third characters or delete them.

It wouldn't be popular, to be sure, but it could be done.  Indeed, with the new family system you wouldn't even have to move or delete: you could move or pause, and if you wanted to switch back and forth between characters every so often, and keep them on the same continent, you could do that.