Number of Players Lost Since Glacier?

[Buffalkill]

It's a roleplaying game, yes, but there's also a competitive element. It's natural for realms to strive to expand and conquer new lands, but the fact that most stable realms are able to hold nearly 1 region for every noble means that it's too easy to hold a region. Yes, we want realms to strive for world domination, and it's up to the game to make it hard enough that it's not boring, and easy enough that players are not discouraged. It's a delicate balance.

[Penchant]

It's a roleplaying game, yes, but there's also a competitive element. It's natural for realms to strive to expand and conquer new lands, but the fact that most stable realms are able to hold nearly 1 region for every noble means that it's too easy to hold a region. Yes, we want realms to strive for world domination, and it's up to the game to make it hard enough that it's not boring, and easy enough that players are not discouraged. It's a delicate balance.

I feel like you don't understand the problem. It's not bad that realms can have 1 noble hold a region by himself, it's that their aren't enough nobles for all these lands, hence the freezing and rogue invasion.

 When realms have more nobles than regions, they aren't telling knights to screw off nor are knights going I need a lordship, I am out. We just don't have as many players so we don't have as many nobles. The increased density should end boosting fun in a variety of ways that can't always be seen by some immediately but some I talk with are understanding. It's not the end all, perfect fix, but helps a lot and more is constantly being developed to aid the game, but it takes time.

[Buffalkill]

I feel like you don't understand the problem. It's not bad that realms can have 1 noble hold a region by himself, it's that their aren't enough nobles for all these lands, hence the freezing and rogue invasion.

 When realms have more nobles than regions, they aren't telling knights to screw off nor are knights going I need a lordship, I am out. We just don't have as many players so we don't have as many nobles. The increased density should end boosting fun in a variety of ways that can't always be seen by some immediately but some I talk with are understanding. It's not the end all, perfect fix, but helps a lot and more is constantly being developed to aid the game, but it takes time.

I do understand. But one problem is density, another is recruitment and retention. Eliminating regions will certainly increase the density in the short term (it already has) but it's far from certain that this will stick in the long term, and we could potentially be right back where we started in a few months but on a smaller scale. Requiring more nobles to hold a region doesn't address the retention problem, but it would address the density problem in a more sustainable and player-driven way.


As for the retention problem, my personal view is that the game doesn't do enough to hold the attention of new players. It's not that they're shouting "give me a title or I'll quit," it's that apathy sets more quickly for new players and they simply don't feel the same motivation to log in every day or every week the way older players do. For old players, logging into the game is already part of their daily or weekly routine and they'll keep playing for some time even when the game becomes stagnant. New players, on the other hand, will have far less tolerance for boredom. And I think the easiest way to address this is by giving new players more to do.

[Zakilevo]

Technically their lords or other higher ups supposed to give those knights more to do but they themselves fall into apathy as well. If you feel you are going to be quiet and less active, you should probably step down so younger and more active players can hold those positions.

The coming War Island should give new players a lot more to do. Let's hope they will branch out from there.

[bofeng]

Seriously, what's the purpose of the huge army of Ice Deamons on Far East? Some regions are not marked to be frozen on the original map. Has the glacier thing stopped at all?

Battlemaster is a very very slow game. Players have to play a very long time in order to really build up anything, fame, prestige, titles, more lands etc. I wish development team could give more thoughts into this in making critical decisions. Again, I think long term problems should only be solved by a long term plan.

[Zakilevo]

Ice is almost done advancing. Once the noble density reaches a certain point, it will stop.

[Jens Namtrah]

I don't think the density solutions are going to fix the game problems you are talking about.

In Darka, unless I'm misunderstanding something, about 1 in 4 nobles do not even bother to have an estate. There is a central Treasury and if you need gold you just ask and then sit and wait until they send you some.

Several regions have no estates or a minimum number, but no one seems to be very worried about it. I haven't heard much at all about trying to push south and take new regions. We are the largest realm on the island, by the way, and while we are technically "at war" with a large group of realms, it's really a very minor affair with one other realm.

I thought when I joined that the ice was supposed to push the northern regions south so they were forced to conquer lands to have a place to live, but all that seems to be happening is the realm got squished a little thinner. The realm to the south of us has about 1:1 noble to region. The realm south of THAT, that we are at war with,  is half as dense as we are, and when I went down there to loot I saw many empty estates.

You'll need to cut the size of the island in half to force any sort of noticeable change in the way people play, I feel.

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On  a side note, despite being the largest realm on Atamara, there is hardly any interaction between players and it is dull as mud. Any recommendations for a realm with lots of fighting and role-playing about it?

[Zakilevo]

Any realm on EC except Obsidian Islands will offer you a lot of battles. FEI is pretty much done with their war. I think they are pretty much close to unifying the entire continent under one alliance. Dwilight has some interesting realms. Most of them are fighting and they do have some responsive people in each realm.

[jaune]

I think you have a bit misunderstood Darka a bit. REalm south of Darka is Talerium, ally of Darka and Ally of our enemy. Darka prolly would take Talerium's lands in few weeks if there would not be over half of the continent helping them. We are at war with 3 biggest realms on island, we would only speed up our death by going war against TAlerium for now, our enemy cant take our land, cause they dont border with us.

-Jaune

[Jens Namtrah]

EDIT: I misread you completely.

No, I don't think we should go to war with Talerium. However, it might be nice if there was some in-game discussion of what is going on.

[Zakilevo]

I don't think Talerium even knows how to war anymore. That realm hasn't fought in ages.

Should just crush them. 

[Foxglove]

On  a side note, despite being the largest realm on Atamara, there is hardly any interaction between players and it is dull as mud. Any recommendations for a realm with lots of fighting and role-playing about it?

The EC, as Lapallanch said. Every realm except Ol and Caligus is currently fighting. Pre-glacier FEI was really good for hard fought wars and RP, but  the island's now virtually dead to anything interesting, and is likely to stay that way for a long time. Suville in Atamara is good for wars at the moment (lots of fighting and massive amounts of gold available), but I don't know about any of the other AT realms.

[Jens Namtrah]

I think you have a bit misunderstood Darka a bit. REalm south of Darka is Talerium, ally of Darka and Ally of our enemy. Darka prolly would take Talerium's lands in few weeks if there would not be over half of the continent helping them. We are at war with 3 biggest realms on island, we would only speed up our death by going war against TAlerium for now, our enemy cant take our land, cause they dont border with us.

-Jaune

I'm sorry, I really don't believe any of that.

The other realms are at war on paper only. Cagilians have marched north once in a month - I have no idea what they are doing.

As I explained in my first post, the Darkan lords are still quite comfortable, and so there's no need to do anything different in the near future. I think the Ice was a good idea, but I don't think it went nearly far enough to have any actual effect on the game on Atamara, at least. Perhaps other changes are occurring in other parts of the island.

[jaune]

Only reason why CE has not marched on us earlier was prolly to secure Eston and/or monsters infestions on their own lands.

Darka is silent, has been past few years, occasionally some talks happen.

I dont know what you mean by Darkan Lords are comfortable? Most of the lords are experienced and long timer Darkans who  dont get shocked or panic very easily. Some have given up already and waiting just end to come one way or another. We could have a chance without glacier, but for now, no way we can match with CE army, even thought our pockets are still quite full of gold, we dont have recruits to build up big enough army fast enough after defending CE's attacks. And they are able to make rogue 2-3 regions every visit they make. So, i guess leadership is now pondering what to do? Fight back? Give up? Start new war? Darka doenst have much of good options left.

[Chenier]

I think that density, limited to nobles/region, is a poor indicator. Increased competition for lordships is a good thing, as it got way too low, but what is really wanted is more nobles per realm.

Which the glaciers will do nothing about unless they provoke total realm collapses. If the border realms lose half of their regions, and can't expand to compensate, then the net result is 0 impact for most of that continent's realms and 0 increased competition for all government titles in the targeted realm. And as targeted realms tend to lose players, who find it unfair, you really end up with decreased nobles/realm ratio on that continent.

The impacts on Dwi might be different, because you've overrun half of the regions and the most populous realms, but you should be really careful about looking at density as being purely nobles/regions, without considering nobles/realm. Most of the issues brought up in the last few pages relate to nobles/realm, and have little to do with nobles/region. A realm with 40 nobles over 40 regions is just as able to secede and form new realms as one with 40 nobles over 20 regions, even if the "density" is half in the former. A realm with 15 nobles over 5 regions is not able to split up into multiple viable realms, despite having a density three times greater than the ones with 40:40, and it has nothing to do with lack of regions on the latter's part (realms can always expand).