Messages

46

BM General Discussion / Re: Character Count

« on: September 01, 2013, 06:50:23 AM »

It's not about that. It's about keeping the game at a level where the casual players don't feel left out and utterly dominated by those who have more time.

This would only be a problem if those character slots could be translated into multiple characters in the same realm. At present that is limited to 2 on most islands.

Someone else made a good point also - the game already gives more character slots to the long time players. Shouldn't that have the effect that you're worrying about more so than implementing one character slot per island?

47

Questions & Answers / Re: Roleplaying events

« on: August 31, 2013, 03:22:33 PM »

Yes, refer to the guidelines Vita posted.

The Magistrates don't generally police roleplay etiquette.

48

BM General Discussion / Re: The Way Forward

« on: August 31, 2013, 03:19:28 PM »

Post an announcement like you did for the forum moderator crackdown. Say that reading the forums is NOT mandatory, or even recommended, to play the game.

Or remove the direct link from the game to the forum. As it is, it's right up there at the top of the screen whenever you're playing. Put it somewhere out of the way. Or get rid of it altogether. Then maybe people won't feel like they have to visit it.

49

BM General Discussion / Re: The Way Forward

« on: August 29, 2013, 09:52:08 PM »

Because of the impression that if you don't read the forums, you are missing something important for your in-game play. See any of the other 10 topics on this, this has all been discussed extensively.

I recall you mentioning it more than once. The problem is, as Anaris alluded to, I don't recall anyone else doing so.

If, as you have also repeatedly pointed out, only a minority of the player base actually uses the forum, then clearly this feeling is neither universal nor accurate. I know plenty of famous, successful families who have no forum presence at all that I am aware of. I know many more who do have forum accounts but very rarely post (though I can't say how often they read).

It just irks me to see people come to the forum and complain about how miserable it is, and then just keep coming back. Seriously, the forum is completely optional. Don't like it? Delete your forum account and just play the game. Or put all the boards you don't like on Ignore. If I didn't like the forum, I wouldn't read it, just like if I didn't like the game, I wouldn't play it.

50

BM General Discussion / Re: The Way Forward

« on: August 29, 2013, 03:08:59 AM »

Why do you read it at all if that's how you feel about it?

That's one part of this that always got me; if people can't stand the forums, why don't they just stay away? No one has to come here, any more than they have to play the game. If I stopped enjoying Battlemaster, I wouldn't play anymore. Likewise, if I couldn't stand the forum, I wouldn't bother with it.

51

BM General Discussion / Re: New Player Retention - how do we engage their interest?

« on: August 28, 2013, 03:49:00 PM »

Hasn't that been on the Devs to-do list for months or years already? I thought there were already plans, just not enough time to implement them along with all the other priority items.

52

BM General Discussion / Re: The Way Forward

« on: August 28, 2013, 02:05:19 PM »

No, because every constructive discussion always gets hijacked by some pet issue. If you didn't share my opinion on forums before, maybe you do now. ;-)

I think we're now waiting for the Mods to develop and publish their new set of rules, which are purportedly similar to the ones I wrote up. Once those are established, I was thinking that the Locals could make a come back on a trial basis to see how the new rules and improved moderation work out.

53

BM General Discussion / Re: New Player Retention - how do we engage their interest?

« on: August 28, 2013, 04:49:54 AM »

Indeed. I think BM lacks what it takes to force us 21st century players to think like those who lived in the dark ages. BM doesn't have as many fortifications as Europe did back in the era as well. On top of that siege battles in BM are rather short. No time for relief forces to break the siege or economic damage to take a toll on both the besieger and the besieged.

Part of it is that the game design encourages players to behave in certain ways. I'd say modern culture has somewhat less to do with the issue of not enough wars than do simple game mechanics. The mechanics make it so that wars can be devastating, and so they usually are unless the winning side chooses to exercise restraint, an option with few incentives.

54

BM General Discussion / Re: New Player Retention - how do we engage their interest?

« on: August 28, 2013, 12:24:01 AM »

You are missing the third option. If people had some friends, some enemies, and lots of neutrals, that would be cool.

But most realms have tons of friends, and almost no enemies. Basically, players have successfully rebuilt Europe in-game. Unfortunately, it's the European Union of the 21st century and not the feudal Europe of the dark ages.

What do you expect? Humans are social creatures, naturally inclined to work together. Plus, and this is a huge issue, wars in Battlemaster tend to have devastating consequences for the losing side; this strongly discourages realms from taking risks on a war where victory isn't a sure thing, with all of the negative consequences this implies - less competitive wars, and less war over all.

Think about it, when the consequences of war were comparatively limited (because armies were smaller and could not be kept in the field for long without significant economic consequences), European nations fought each other all the time. When the consequences of war eventually became devastating thanks to technological advancement, you got the European Union.

55

BM General Discussion / Re: Character Count

« on: August 27, 2013, 12:33:09 AM »

A lot of people have been saying the same thing. I am inclined to agree with them.

56

BM General Discussion / Re: New Player Retention - how do we engage their interest?

« on: August 27, 2013, 12:32:07 AM »

Doesn't pass a fact check. We had no noticeable drop in player numbers when the war islands were closed.

I was not around for long before the war islands were closed, so the status quo seems relatively normal to me in terms of the number of wars going on. Was it really much more intense before?

57

BM General Discussion / Re: The Way Forward

« on: August 26, 2013, 06:28:28 AM »

And that is precisely why I won't allow hotmail. It's full of retards like that. There's a reason it was blocked once, you know? It's not like it has always been blocked, right from the go.

Eh, as others said, it probably hurts us more than it helps. I mean, we're talking about doing drastic things like shutting down islands just to increase player density, so we're not exactly in a position to be picky about who we let sign up for the game, are we? At this point I can only imagine that it hurts more than it helps.

If you can see it in your heart to allow confessed multi-cheaters to return to the game after you've gone to the purportedly extensive trouble of catching them I'm sure you can give Hotmail users a chance. Even if they are using a benighted and horrible email service that belongs in some sort of forbidden land of justifiably forgotten technology.

58

BM General Discussion / Re: stopping ForumMaster from destroying BattleMaster

« on: August 25, 2013, 12:20:14 AM »

It's nice to see that the basic rules that we've come up with are basically a match for what you came up with--that shows that we're on the right track and that the rules make sense.

The only point we're still discussing is what sort of policy to have around IG messages being posted to the forums. Should we allow island-wide messages to be posted? What about messages that your character sent? What about death roleplays? etc.

As I already responded to Anaris, I think there is value in having an all-encompassing restriction. Roughly, here are the reasons:

1. Black and white rules are much easier to enforce than rules with exceptions and gray areas that are open to interpretation.

2. There is no positive argument I can think of the permit it.

3. Banning all such quotations helps to emphasize and enforce the separation between the forum and the game.

4. It helps to prevent people using the forum as a way to spread propaganda that should remain IC, and whose spread should be bound by the restrictions on communication in the game.

59

BM General Discussion / Re: stopping ForumMaster from destroying BattleMaster

« on: August 24, 2013, 03:16:21 PM »

If the Mods are working on their own set of rules, there's not much we need to be talking about. More discussion about what rules would be good and why will probably benefit the Mods just so they can see a range of ideas and feedback, but that's about it.

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BM General Discussion / Re: stopping ForumMaster from destroying BattleMaster

« on: August 24, 2013, 02:35:32 AM »

Thus speaks someone with an Astroist bias, methinks

Guilty as charged