T Minus 28 Days

[Foxglove]

On EC and FEI, South was chosen by the polls.

The north or south polls? But no-one was told what those polls were about, were they? It's more than a little bizarre to have based the direction of freezing on that.

[Anaris]

The north or south polls? But no-one was told what those polls were about, were they?

That's correct.

After discussion among the devs, it was decided that while we wanted a more-or-less random decision, it would be best to make sure that the process was public, so that no one could claim that the dev team had "rigged" it in their favour.

[Lubomirski]

The Devs speak of forcing a 'migration' to increase noble density but how do they expect us dispossessed nobles to migrate when as soon as we travel a little distance from our lands our men lose morale from being away from home?

Also if they want more nobles per region they will need to make playing a knight more interesting  and more self sufficient.  As it stands now only rich city regions can support Knights, most rural regions are too poor and any rural knights can not make enough money to be able to afford to raise a decent retinue to act as an effective warrior.

I have loved this game and have made a home for a character in Barca and will try to continue but I am afraid that in destroying the west continent the Devs will drive me away from the game.

[Anaris]

The Devs speak of forcing a 'migration' to increase noble density but how do they expect us dispossessed nobles to migrate when as soon as we travel a little distance from our lands our men lose morale from being away from home?

I've got some plans along these lines. Gotta refine them over the next few days, but I think it is a good idea to give the people being displaced a boost in ability to conquer new land for themselves.

Also if they want more nobles per region they will need to make playing a knight more interesting  and more self sufficient.  As it stands now only rich city regions can support Knights, most rural regions are too poor and any rural knights can not make enough money to be able to afford to raise a decent retinue to act as an effective warrior.

"More nobles per region" doesn't mean every region needs to have more knights. There's no reason you can't have a city with 10 knights, and then rural regions with a lord and maybe 1 knight.

The point is to make sure that, on average, a realm with 10 regions has more than 15-20 characters in it total.

I have loved this game and have made a home for a character in Barca and will try to continue but I am afraid that in destroying the west continent the Devs will drive me away from the game.

Well, I hope that doesn't happen. I'm always sad to see a player leave, whatever the reason.

But remember, the choice was never between doing this and doing nothing. The choice was between doing this and closing at least one entire continent. Even if it didn't end up being a continent you, personally, cared about, that would have made a lot more people a lot more angry.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I've got some plans along these lines. Gotta refine them over the next few days, but I think it is a good idea to give the people being displaced a boost in ability to conquer new land for themselves.

"More nobles per region" doesn't mean every region needs to have more knights. There's no reason you can't have a city with 10 knights, and then rural regions with a lord and maybe 1 knight.

The point is to make sure that, on average, a realm with 10 regions has more than 15-20 characters in it total.

Well, I hope that doesn't happen. I'm always sad to see a player leave, whatever the reason.

But remember, the choice was never between doing this and doing nothing. The choice was between doing this and closing at least one entire continent. Even if it didn't end up being a continent you, personally, cared about, that would have made a lot more people a lot more angry.

all the realms with 15-20 characters in total on Dwilight are in the central part of the continent. In fact, Barca has the second most of any realm on the whole of Dwilight, right after Asylon. If you wanted to get people into higher concentrations, you would have been much, MUCH better off doing the north and south of Dwilight. Those areas have the least density in population, meaning that closing them off would effect population density a lot more for the continent as a whole.

[Zakilevo]

I've got some plans along these lines. Gotta refine them over the next few days, but I think it is a good idea to give the people being displaced a boost in ability to conquer new land for themselves.

I think it would be nice to have that advantage Tom mentioned during the discussion. Having one region each in Eastern Dwilight for Asylon, Niselur, and Barca where they can invade the continent. Might be nice to not have to worry about morale and equipment damage while Western Dwilight gets overrun.

I am sure you have many plans :)

[jaune]

I hope people dont push too much dev's on this. I admit, i'm a bit uppsett too, but then again, not much have actually happened yet, atleast not Atamara.

Something needed to be done and if you look outside your own box, this is pretty good solution. It is definately not going to fix the problem, but helps a bit results of the problem.

I will comment only from AT, cause i dont play elsewhere where this has effected, well on BT there was some rogue popups...

As long as its not major scale ice age, that it wont eat like 1/3 of the continent, example Darka should be ok. It weakens it, but i guess nothing dramatic. I know it hurts many players there, we have been fighting war for our survival for over 2 years and doing decently agains pretty massive alliance and now if we die something we cant as players/characters do nothing, it sucks.... but i bet ice age finns thought same thing, "Dammit, this sucks!" and they moved south.  I do hope this ace age doesnt go forward very fast to give realms time to adapt situation, and i hope rogue infestions as well dont bee too harsh, unless it effects whole continent and keeps central fellows busy as well. These are my small hopes for my little poor realm which i love... 10+ years.

[sharkattack]

I have loved this game and have made a home for a character in Barca and will try to continue but I am afraid that in destroying the west continent the Devs will drive me away from the game.

Same here, i dont like any of the eastern realms and i think ill just quit the game when the inevitable happens.

[Faulcon_deLacy]

I've got some plans along these lines. Gotta refine them over the next few days, but I think it is a good idea to give the people being displaced a boost in ability to conquer new land for themselves.

I'm going to have to wait and see these plans then because right now I can see no way that my most directly affected character (Asylon/Dwilight) is going to be able to march to the Eastern side of dwilight traversing the entire monster infested western side and then sitting on ships for a week and land in shape for battle (I hardly think the eastern realms will be giving their land away).

[Bael]

I'm going to have to wait and see these plans then because right now I can see no way that my most directly affected character (Asylon/Dwilight) is going to be able to march to the Eastern side of dwilight traversing the entire monster infested western side and then sitting on ships for a week and land in shape for battle (I hardly think the eastern realms will be giving their land away).

Same here, i dont like any of the eastern realms and i think ill just quit the game when the inevitable happens.

Or we could join a realm, stomp another nearby realm, take their land and create a colony. What is not given shall be taken! The misery that is felt by western Dwilight shall certainly be felt by all who dwell on dwilight, both east and west. Western Dwilight shall live again.

[Disturbedyang]

Look on the different side guys. IF the wipeout happens in the east of Dwilight instead of the west, the inactive players will remain inactive and they won't plan any invasion whatsoever to the west making it more stagnant. Having it happening to the west will cause a lot of fresh ideas to pop out and more scheme to take over the east. It is the better choice.

On another note, why is there nothing happening to Beluaterra!!! It is going stagnant and reduced in number of players.

[Tom]

Same here, i dont like any of the eastern realms and i think ill just quit the game when the inevitable happens.

They are not god-given, you know? They are players just like you. You can change them, invade them or destroy them.

[Fleugs]

All these people claiming they'll quit the game after everything happened are outright selfish. What is happening is happening to improve gameplay for all. It is true that sacrifices have to be made, but it is wrong to get bitter if you are the one affected by it. I would once again like to applaud the devs for what they did. I truly believe it'll help Battlemaster get more vivid again, and I love how they brought it to the players (with the Ice Age). It's only fair to say that I am not directly affected by this yet, as all my characters are not in the parts of Battlemaster that are affected - but it does feel like my plan to recreate Ibladesh in its old lands will be hard once it's covered in ice. Ah, I'll spin a cult out of it some day!

I'm actually wishing I was in a part that was affected. There are plenty of realms which will remain unaffected but are poorly organized and thus ripe for invasion.

[Solari]

I made this comment in another thread, but it bears repeating. There are no unaffected regions or continents. The effects will be felt most immediately by characters in realms where the freeze and monsters are the worst. The potential impact on your neighbors is, IMHO, just as bad. It's just different.

[Myrosh]

As a developer myself I can say this is a very bad idea on the developer's side. Those who say this is selfish are unjust in there cause. These lands that the developers are just wiping out are built in history and player creation. By wiping these out you are removing all that has been achieved which is a real shame.

I play in Dwilight and I can say by forcing the west east, you are removing all the great cities and homes they have worked upon. This is a real shame as the game was truly developing in this continent and I can say as a new player how active and alive it felt. But this new idea will not make the game more exciting but will force people away. Your idea of trying to bring more players  is only pushing players out. If this is what you want the end Battlemaster itself is near, as word of mouth is a powerful force positively and negatively. 

Perhaps a better plan would be to reboot the game and give people an even footing to reclaim smaller lands, rather then crushing all that has been achieved. A game called Utopia used to do this and made it fair and just for all.