Troop payment warning prior to joining tournaments.

[egamma]

BM is a game that doesn't do handholding. I know the current trend in gaming is to tell you "press space to jump" for the first 10 hours of gameplay and then forever in loading-screen "hints", but I'm not joining that trend.

The basic principle of BM is the Unix principle: The game assumes that you know what you are doing and are aware of the consequences.

Funny how that isn't posted on the front page. What it does say is:

BattleMaster is a light-weight game that can be played alongside your other activities

New features are being added and gameplay and balance are constantly tweaked to improve the game further.

currently being redesigned with accessibility in mind (for our disabled players) and XHTML 1.0 transitional compliance.

How, exactly, is not reminding players that their troops won't autopay, fall in line with those three statements? Is requiring players to think about paying their troops a light-weight thing? Is adding a troop pay reminder not going to improve the game? Is keeping the reminder text out going to make it more accessible, whether you have a disability or not?

Tom, we don't expect a ton of hand-holding. But the page does not explicitly state that autopay will not function while at tournament and you cannot expect every player of a light-weight game to go read the wiki to find out that your character not being able to do anything else while at the tournament, actually means that your entire staff will be unable to pay your soldiers.

It's a simple text change. Adding a link to the pay page would be nice, too. Fixing autopay would be even better.

[Tom]

Yeah, that's probably best. We'll also almost always be displaying it, since most tournaments are 7 days, and when you add in the aftertour and return, it comes to 8, which is long enough that any unit will at least be complaining.

But if you are close by, you can join late.

I'd say we check for the autopay setting and pop up a warning if absence > autopay, and if no autopay is set, we pop up a warning if it's more than 8 or 9 days.

[Tom]

You misrepresent what "accessibility" means in this context.

And I'm not saying it's not happening. I am discussing what to do about it, am I not?

Tom, we don't expect a ton of hand-holding. But the page does not explicitly state that autopay will not function while at tournament

It also doesn't explicitly stay 100 other things you can't do at a tournament. I'm just trying to find a solution that will not lead to the next "but I also can't do X at tourneys".

Adding some more intelligence than adding a link seems proper to me. At the very least, it should check if you even have a unit.

[vonGenf]

Fixing autopay would be even better.

Is it intended to work that way or is it a bug?

[Indirik]

I'd say we check for the autopay setting and pop up a warning if absence > autopay, and if no autopay is set, we pop up a warning if it's more than 8 or 9 days.

Can't we just let autopay continue to work while you're at the tournament?

[Tom]

Can't we just let autopay continue to work while you're at the tournament?

Yeah, I think that's the easiest solution. Tournament yes, but not prison.

[JPierreD]

Can't we just let autopay continue to work while you're at the tournament?

Someone complained people near the place the tournament is hosted might abuse arriving early and training for free. I personally don't think that "free training" is all that good, but I guess it's worth mentioning.

[Indirik]

How is that an abuse? Sheesh.... people will complain about *anything*....

Tell them if they want more "free training" they can host their own tournament.

[Tom]

It's not an abuse because it is absolutely intentional that you can get free training at a tournament. It's one of the things that draws people towards a tournament who don't have a realistic chance of winning.

[Zakilevo]

And I think training in the tournament is the only way to train over 80%?

[egamma]

And I think training in the tournament is the only way to train over 80%?

or actual combat...and duels.

[Zakilevo]

I havent seen combat increasing my skill other than leadership for so long I am starting to wonder if it only increases skill at the beginning.

[Tom]

And I think training in the tournament is the only way to train over 80%?

The only training. A lot of people get their skill raises from actually using a skill. If you fight a lot, you will see your swordfighting and leadership rise quite nicely without spending any time on training.