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Messages - Anaris

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61
The flip of bruck was by a player/character who was bored, which is fine, but growing discontent was never known outside of discord. The player actively asked for someone to give their character IC motivation so they could flip a region. That level of planning occuring outside of BM, if I recall, was always forbidden or at least highly discouraged but occurs.

If the player had already decided "this is what I am going to do, I just need a motivation", then they were going to find the motivation whether someone else deliberately gave it to them or not.

I have also heard from other players in Eponllyn that the player in question had been telling them—in-character, in-game—long before Bruck was handed to Eponllyn that they were unhappy with the direction Eponllyn was taking.

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The entire Alexandria colony attempt has been planned OOC on discord to fit meta-game concepts, that Nivemus isn't dense enough so we should put a colony there and enliven it. This is also an example of the close-minded echo bubble I encountered. I asked why did they demand two cities from a realm when they could have subverted Nivemus, they could found their realm and actually fight for their lands, so many options but I was decried as "the problem" and "protecting bad players".

Well, first of all, the idea that Nivemus is spread too thin is hardly something you have to be on Discord to see. The fact that many people on Discord talk about this is not evidence of some Discord conspiracy against Nivemus: It is because it is true, and it does create problems.

Second of all, and following closely on that, the idea that the colony was decided upon in order to reduce Nivemus is silly; Perdan is bursting at the seams with young, ambitious nobles, and they have no easy means of expansion. A colony is an obvious solution to that, and the realm that's practically more regions than nobles is the obvious choice for a location.

And as for Ketchum, I'm sorry, but as Ruler, he is the one to be held responsible for the situation Nivemus is in. I don't know the full story—not the way I know about the situation that unfolded in Wetham—but as nobles fled Nivemus, and those few who remained just sat there collecting gold, he enabled that behaviour, which is a cancer on the game and always has been.

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Those are three, specific, current examples. There are less tenuous ones and older ones - ooc spreading of IC information being used IC, highly active players have always had the ears of admins etc when Indirik no less asked for West dwilight rogue spawn to be dialled down after astrum moved into the north west coast. I won't go down a rabbit hole of what has always been apparent, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but you can put a survey link or more obvious contact options on our account pages.

I'm afraid I don't recall the specifics of the end of the Dwilight monster rampage, but I'm deeply skeptical of your claim that we deliberately did so to enable Astrum to expand into the coastal areas there—simply because that doesn't sound like something either Vita or I would do. It doesn't fit our goals or our principles, and frankly, I'm pretty sick of being told that my actions are somehow caused by "squeaky wheels" influencing me all the time, rather than thinking for myself, analyzing the situation, and making my own damn decisions.

And ultimately, that's what this comes down to: If you don't like something I do, take it up with me, because I'm the one who made that decision. Don't blame it on "Discord", don't blame it on "OOC play". Talk to me and tell me, to my face, what you don't like and why, and do it with the respect you'd expect if you were in my position, and I'll treat you the same.

Accuse me of being either cozy with a small group of players and out to benefit them at everyone else's expense, or easily manipulated and used by said players, and I'll tell you to shove it, because that's really insulting, and I'm not going to put up with it anymore.

62
I have heard the same complaints about every single out-of-game communication method since I joined the game in January 2004.

"The discussion list is ruining the game!"

"IRC is ruining the game!"

"The forum is ruining the game!"

I have always, categorically, disagreed, and frankly, never moreso than now.

More than any of the other out-of-game channels, Discord provides a way to create a genuine community around BattleMaster like never before. The people who come on there regularly are vastly more likely to stay engaged with the game and their fellow players, because they become much more real to them.

If you have had bad experiences on Discord, then I am truly sorry. I, personally, didn't notice you come on, or didn't know it because you used different names there than here. But I assure you, the rules of the Social Contract apply just as strongly on Discord as they do within the game, and when we see toxic interactions happening, we do our best to step in and stop them—as you yourself noted, the people who were insulting you were muted.

I also absolutely agree that Discord is not, should never be, and will never be, a requirement for playing the game, any more than IRC, the discussion list, or the forum were. It is a way to participate in the BattleMaster community and get to know your fellow players better as players. It is, frankly, something that I would recommend to any player with the available time to poke at it, and an open enough mind to come to it without expecting it to be a hive of scum and villainy—but I promise you, I will fight for every player's right to play the game purely by playing the game, if that is their preferred style.

Now, as I said, I have heard the cries of "Discord is ruining the game" for some time, but very rarely in reference to specific instances (and on the occasions when it was in reference to specific instances, they have almost invariably been provably false). Could you articulate for me some specific incidents that you believe were caused or exacerbated by Discord, and why?

63
Based on the best information I have, Perdan doesn't even care about Eponllyn, let alone Caligus. They just want to found a colony, and one of the regions either slated to be in it or on the way flipped from Nivemus to Eponllyn partway through.

Perdan is not interfering in the Shadowdale/Caligus war. Eponllyn is choosing to be distracted by Perdan from aiding Caligus.

64
For most of its
How it seems to be happening now: It is lucrative to play a certain way, but people are pressured ooc to not play that way.

It is lucrative for a store to secretly charge your credit card an extra $100 every time you visit.

It is lucrative to invite people to invest with you and promise them a huge return on their investment, then run off with the money.

But we have rules against these things, because they are not good for society as a whole.

Similarly, based on our own observations of player behaviour, we have decided that certain things are not good for the BattleMaster game and community as a whole, and are, through various means, including but not limited to new rules, working on preventing, disincentivizing, and banning them.

I would love to find more good ways to mechanically incentivize these things, and I'm working on some in the background. But there's no simple way for the game to detect, for instance, that a realm declared war with a goal of making their target ban a Royal Duke—an impossibility, and it carries a massive risk of an open-ended war where the targeted realm has no way to say "look, we give up, you win, we just want out" beyond dissolving the realm entirely.

Throughout BattleMaster's history, there has been a tension between two basic forces among its players: the desire for strong roleplaying, and the desire for strong strategic combat.

Over the past few years, Vita and I have been coming to the conclusion that we really need a third force, that stands above both of those. You speak of BattleMaster as a "political and strategic simulator", and to some extent it is; it is a number of different things, in varying degrees, but the one thing it absolutely is, 100%, to all the people involved, is a game, and the one thing a game must have to succeed is fun for all the people playing it.

The changes we've been making have been aimed at that goal, and we know we've been far from perfect about it. Even designing a brand-new game from scratch, it's hard to make things fun for such different groups of players, and when we're changing things on the fly, that's 100% guaranteed to make some people mad—mostly the people who have benefited most from the status quo. We appreciate and invite constructive criticism and, especially, more ideas on how to actually create incentives that lead to the goals we've articulated (smaller wars; smaller, more temporary alliances, etc) without hard rules.

65
It has been a long time since I visited the forum, but I think this occasion warrants it.

A couple of my characters have been part of some annihilated realms, and each one was a unique experience. A realm could be destroyed by many realms at once, by great calamities, or by a single powerful empire, as long as its enemies have a valid casus belli. The annihilated realms are fertilizer for new ones, or potentiometer for small realms that become powerful by feeding on the noble refugees. It can be said that I have lost more times than I have won in BM. However, it does not seem unfair to me, these adversities are what create good RP material.

This was a feature of BM for a long time, and is now being censored. An important path of the game is being lost.

There is no prohibition on destroying realms.

There is no prohibition on uneven wars.

There is no desire to remove adversity from the game.

For any war to be won, someone must lose.

All we are trying to do is remove the pointless gangbangs and unbreakable island-controlling alliances that destroy people's fun—as they destroyed Atamara.

66
Roleplaying / Re: The Alchemists' Portal
« on: July 29, 2020, 10:26:10 PM »
I wanted to add these onto this thread to be saved for everyone to see, since they are highly relevant and provide the in-character explanation for why portal stones no longer function reliably:

Concurrent with the Rising Tension post:
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As the hours pass, the flickers of light become more intense, more urgent. The crackles of violet energy become more frequent. The air in the city becomes oppressive, as if a terrible storm were coming, but there isn't a cloud in the sky. Around the city, animals become restless—dogs whine to go out, then immediately want to get back in and hide under beds; tomcats set up a caterwauling like the city has never heard; rats begin scampering away from the Basilica; birds take to the air en masse and begin circling the column of light unceasingly.

Within the Solarium of the Basilica, the violet lightning is flashing nearly once every second or so now, and it is beginning to outline a shape in the air like a cat's slitted pupil, twice the height of a man, with its bottom point around knee height.

At the time of the ritual:

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A Violet Calamity

As the Oracle watches the flickering of the lightning, nearly continuous now, she begins to feel a growing sense of wrongness from it. The center of the shape outlined in violet in the air is now beginning to ripple with colors, and every so often it almost seems to be a window on some other place, but then fades to transparency again.

As the sun sinks below the western horizon, the crackles of violet lightning that have been flickering up the pillar of light extending from the Basilica into the sky begin to drift and bend oddly toward the west...and strangely, in that direction, with the sunlight no longer washing it out, an answering violet glow can be seen. It looks like it might be from somewhere in the Shattered Vales.

Eventually, after hours of watching the outline of the...portal? in the air, something new begins to happen. Over the course of a minute or so, the center of the outline of violet lightning begins to darken. When it has been entirely black and opaque for several seconds, forks of the lightning reach inward from several points around the rim and strike toward the center at once. Almost as if they are pulling back a veil, they then draw back toward the edges, and the blackness parts from the center outward to reveal a strange landscape.

On the other side of the portal can be seen a wooden scaffold, and a view over a vast plain. Standing just to either side of the portal are Daimons bearing glowing staffs. Standing directly in front of the portal is a Daimon with three eyes and a large gemstone on a chain around its neck. No sound passes through the portal, but it appears to be chanting.

Suddenly, the three visible Daimons lurch and spread their limbs to keep their balance as the entire wooden scaffold rocks. The chanting Daimon breaks off and turns to look behind at the sudden storm of violet lightning radiating upward from somewhere over the horizon. Then it turns back to the portal and begins chanting again, but its expression is unmistakable: terror. Though the scene beyond the portal is still silent, somehow words come to the Oracle's mind: *The Aether roils! Too many portals have made it unstable! The backlash will—*

The gemstone around the Daimon's neck flares brightly for an instant, then explodes, hurling the three-eyed Daimon backward off the scaffold with most of its chest missing. The portal itself suddenly becomes spiderwebbed with violet lines, as if it were a pane of glass cracking.

Then the portal shatters, and the world seems to shatter with it.

The portal stones explode, sending splinters of stone flying in all directions. Shards of the portal itself streak outward, leaving destruction in their wake. One slices through the Oracle's cheek as it passes, and though the cut it leaves is shallow, the pain is as excruciating as if her skin had been flayed off. Where the portal was, a vortex of violet energy twists and shrieks. It quickly rises through the roof—oddly, it does no damage to the structure, unlike the shards of stone and portal—and becomes a tornado, writhing above the city, touching down here and there. It still does nothing to the buildings, but anywhere it touches, the people caught within it shriek, distort, and vanish, being replaced by muscular Daimon soldiers with imposing pikes and hammers. The vortex seems to spend extra time around the Templar Nexus, almost as if seeking something there...

This lasts for another quarter-hour or so, with the violent violet whirlwind gradually fading to nothingness. When it finally disappears, everything seems normal again...save for the people who have vanished, the Daimons who have replaced them, the ravaged Solarium, and the Oracle, unconscious from the pain.

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The oval outlined in violet lightning is starting to show strange shapes within, faintly traced in the thinnest of violet lightnings. The shapes seem to be similar to the alchemical symbols for the basic elements and the cardinal metals...

Behind them, though, something else slowly begins to take shape: a strange landscape, with a barren land, a dark sky, and a faint glow around the horizon, as if it were just past sunset or almost dawn...

As the sun sinks into the west and the sky darkens from blue to black, another light grows in the east. As it has been for over a month now, the column of light emanating from Rines is just visible over the horizon. Tonight, though, it seems...different. A little more...violet, perhaps?

Just as the last sliver of the sun disappears below the horizon, there is a sudden crackBOOM as the lightning flashes all the way up the column of light for one moment, then steadies. The portal it surrounds now appears to be open. On the other side, in the distance, it is possible to make out a tall structure with multicolored energies playing about its top. Of the various colors, violet seems to be growing more dominant. Closer to the portal, twisted humanoid shapes move about. Daimons, only just becoming aware that the portal is here.

Now they are aware, though, and several of them come toward it. Though no sound crosses the veil between worlds, it is clear that one of them has also called for help, as more begin to come running. A half-dozen of them now stand around the portal, eagerness clear on their inhuman faces.

One steps forward, reaching out. He hesitates, then turns to his fellows, who nod and gesture him forward.

He strides confidently into the portal.

At the same moment, the face of the portal is once again marred by an alchemical symbol—the symbol for "Gold"—traced in violet lightning.

The Daimon shrieks momentarily in terror and pain as his body is rent asunder by terrible energies.

The portal blazes with unearthly violet light. Energies crackle from it in all directions.

The lines of metal on the ground suddenly glow white-hot, energy racing outward from the portal through them to the portal stones. The stones smoke for just a few seconds, then explode, shards of rock flying everywhere. The symbol overlaying the portal flickers and changes between all the alchemical symbols in turn again, but finally comes to rest on a little-used symbol, one any learned alchemist would view with the greatest trepidation: the symbol for "Void".

Suddenly, a screaming vortex begins drawing everything nearby in toward the portal—but as soon as anything touches it, it bursts into violet flame and disintegrates. Each time this happens, the glow of the portal intensifies.

Paul finds himself being dragged in, too, and though he scrabbles frantically to keep himself away, he is soon struck by something large and heavy—was that a cow?!—and knows no more.

This lasts for only a few minutes, though, the hellish violet light growing ever brighter, until it finally bursts, bolts of violet lightning shooting into the sky from the spot where the portal had been. The bolts strike again and again, lashing outward, upward, and at any person who comes close. The people of Iato are in a panic, and just starting to riot when as suddenly as it began, the eldritch tempest ceases.

A moment later, there is a flash of brilliant violet light from the east, then a paler glow for about a quarter hour, then the light from that direction dies entirely.

Where the portal stones had lain in Iato, now there is nothing but a scorched and blackened crater in the ground. Nearby, blocked from falling into the portal by a tree with all its leaves and most of its branches stripped away, lies the slightly charred, extremely unconscious body of Paul.

67
Announcements / Archer Targeting Bugfix
« on: July 28, 2020, 10:17:14 PM »
Several months ago, some tweaks were made to how archers chose their targets in battle, to avoid over-prioritizing the front row (and thus enabling certain exploitative formations).

Unfortunately, the fix created new problems with archers spreading their fire out far too much. Today, I have pushed a fix for that live, which should result in archers targeting their first choice as long as it hasn't received too many ranged hits already.

This should significantly improve archers' efficiency, and I will be attempting to monitor the effects of it over the next little while to make sure it won't need further tweaks one way or another.

68
Announcements / War Declaration Questions & Answers Thread
« on: July 19, 2020, 02:56:08 PM »
In order to help clarify matters somewhat, the Titans and the Admins have put together the beginnings of a Q&A thread on the new feature of War Declaration reasons & goals, and the requirements around them. Please join in at https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,9113.0.html.

69
Questions & Answers / War Declaration Questions & Answers
« on: July 16, 2020, 04:59:32 PM »
The Titan team and the Admins would like to take a moment to clarify some issues regarding the War Declaration system and the recent political situation on Beluaterra.
Regarding the War Declarations, we want to clear up some misconceptions.

  • The purpose of the War Dec is not for us to control wars. The Titans are notified when a war is declared, but there is no approval process. The purpose is for realms to officially state why they are going to war and what is their objective. The main purpose of this is to help keep wars on track. If a war has been going on for a year, and the cause is no longer relevant, it might be time to explore peace or otherwise re-evaluate the war.
  • The ONLY time the Titans will intervene on a War Dec is if a war is for a reason that breaks the spirit of the game, seriously damages the fun of MANY players, or is a “bandwagon” war. “Just for Fun” wars are not the point of BattleMaster. There needs to be some sort of risk/reward and realistic politics involved.
  • Regarding fun, obviously some people are not going to have fun losing a war or having their realm destroyed. That is part of the game, and we will never intervene to save a realm from destruction if it deserves to be destroyed. We WILL intervene if a realm is being so overwhelmingly ganged up on that they can do nothing but sit there and take it. There is a big difference between losing and being utterly steamrolled.
  • A “bandwagon” war is when you involve your realm in a war that is already going on for no or weak reasons. BattleMaster works best when there are two or three realms of proportionate strength fighting. Large continental wars have a tendency to stall out, and this is not ideal. Jumping into an ally’s defensive war is a point of an alliance and is completely acceptable. Having three allies jump in when only one is needed for a real advantage or to even the odds is not alright because it leads to stagnation. “Bandwagon” wars have become increasingly common and they very often deteriorate the fun between the two original warring realms. Please discuss with your realm before jumping into an existing war whether you should be doing this or not.
  • The War Dec system is not meant to replace in-game Treaties. Any war conditions agreed upon by the warring parties should be made into a Treaty. If either party wants the other bound by anything, they must agree to it in a treaty of some kind. War declarations are entirely one-sided. Please remember, Treaties are completely player driven. Just because you sign a Treaty does not mean you have to honour it.

We understand wars are fluid, and there have been discussions to have some sort of amendment option so that realms can update the purpose and objective of their war if it changes.


A War Dec should have a clear reason and objective. Some simple examples include:

“The realm of Riombara has declared war on Old Grehk for their continued looting of lands to which we hold claim. We aim to take over their regions of Avengmil and Rines as compensation.”

“The realm of Fontan has declared war on Westmoor for executing our Banker. We will not stop until we have reduced their realm to the regions of Oligarch, Akesh Temple, and Tabost OR the nobles of Westmoor remove Judge Vita from his position and subsequently banish him.”

"The Barony of Makar has declared war on the Ash Sea Islands for their continued attempts to conquest and enslave. They can not be trusted in any diplomacy efforts, and we will continue to fight them until the Ash Sea Islands have been destroyed.”

War Decs must not require approval from the defender. Any sort of “war conditions” (such as no TOs, only armies of 5kCS, etc…) should not be included in a War Dec.
To help clarify, we want to explain our views on the recent political situation on Beluaterra.

  • Obia and VS enter into a war. They have reason and objective. No issues.
  • SV enters the war against VS. This is something we scrutinize. They have an Alliance, but do they need to be in this war? VS and Obia have almost the same noble count, but Obia is in the process of moving their realm, meaning they have no income, no RCs, and could easily be outclassed by their enemy. A reason exists for SV to join the war to help their ally. The noble count is now 2:1 against VS. Still a fightable war, but more difficult.
  • Hypothetically, moving forward, say Nova and Thalmarkin each join the war against VS. Let’s pretend Nova shares an alliance with SV and Obia, so they are using the same reason to join the war as SV did. Say Thalmarkin is upset that VS attacked them in the past, so they are declaring a retaliatory war. These are legitimate reasons to declare war, but THIS is the exact point where we are asking Rulers to step back and look at things from an OOC perspective. VS already has the odds against them. Is it completely necessary to initiate a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio? Absolutely not. Will you teach those pesky VS nobles a lesson? Sure. Will anyone on the losing side of a steamroll have any fun? Very doubtful.
  • Now, let’s say VS is fighting SV and Obia, and they start winning, and are taking over SV regions. That is a good point to write to your ally Nova and ask for help, because you can no longer achieve victory (or stave off defeat) without assistance.
  • Eventually, the war ends in whatever manner. Once wars are concluded, it is only natural for new ones to begin. If Thalmarkin isn’t engaged, there is no reason why they can’t then pursue their retaliatory war.

In the end, we want players (especially Rulers) to take a moment to consider the OOC implications of declaring war. We are all responsible for making this game fun. Winning/losing wars and having realms destroyed is part of that fun. Ganging up and bullying a realm is not.

Hopefully this clarifies the intent behind the War Dec system. We very much encourage any questions or discussions on the topic here.

70
Helpline / Re: Number of men/women in unit
« on: July 15, 2020, 04:38:20 PM »
The Captain is something of an abstraction—to the extent that they exist in-game as a person, they count as one of your soldiers, and will always be the last one left.

71
Feature Requests / Re: Non-combat Activities Overhaul
« on: July 14, 2020, 08:35:16 PM »
I'm strongly in favour of various things of this nature, though the details would need to be hashed out.

72
Helpline / Re: Religion Est. Followers?
« on: July 13, 2020, 08:30:54 PM »
Just from a very quick skim of the code of the two pages, I believe the difference is that the former is showing you only follower counts in regions with temples, while the latter shows you followers in all regions.

73
BM General Discussion / Re: Prophet Fame Points
« on: July 13, 2020, 03:38:20 AM »
I am pretty sure it can't be just how many regions your religion has spread to. I just counted it at 56. I am suspecting it is how many regions have reached a certain threshold of followers. Perhaps something like 20 regions at at least 25% or 10 regions at 50% or something. I am keeping track of this now as well.

Eeeeven warmer!

74
BM General Discussion / Re: Prophet Fame Points
« on: July 13, 2020, 02:26:24 AM »
Or perhaps the number of regions your religion has touched?

Getting warmer...

75
Helpline / Re: Road Repair?
« on: July 10, 2020, 03:13:43 PM »
Exactly as you said: when production is high, they repair themselves slowly automatically.

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