Seasons

[De-Legro]

In my opinion Battlemaster has over the years become a mish mash of idea's and half implemented features. In order to make the game more approachable, and more robust I plan to start a series of discussions that focus on some of the game mechanics that perhaps do not add enough to the game to warrant their existence. First up is the season system.

Seasons were added for realism and only affect Dwilight and the FEI. Over the years many people have expressed that seasons are more of a nuisance and frustration then a feature that adds excitement to the game. In the most part they make the food aspect of the game, which is already a chore for many, just that little bit more complicated in terms of securing a surplus for the low production months. They also affect war in that travel times during winter are slowed. It is just my opinion that things like this, while appealing for a small group of people, mostly just hinder war and other interesting interaction. I want to canvas other peoples opinions and thoughts to see if seasons are something useful to retain in the game, and if they are if they should be rolled out to the rest of the continents.

[vonGenf]

I like seasons.

I like that travel is different from time to time. I don't necessarily like that it consistently longer everywhere, especially with the lower density and larger realms we have now this can be hindrance. But I like for example that mountain regions are passable in summer become impassable in winter. It makes the game-play change on a slower time scale and allows for better strategy ("we can't spare an army as our flank would be exposed, but we'll never be invaded in winter from that side so we can prepare an attack then!").

I think it would be better if there were some things to balance game-play options in winter. For example, rivers could be easier to cross when frozen, or looting options could be different as there are no fields to burn.

I like that the food consumption becomes cyclic. This means that realms with a small food deficit only have to figure out a way through that small amount of time in the spring. If you can manage to get food during this 1-2 week where your stores are empty through buying or looting, you'll be fine when summer comes and you'll have a full 3-month in RL to find a solution before hunger appears again. When there are no seasons, the deficit is smaller but it will eat consistently at your stores until you have to let a city starve.

[Zakilevo]

I don't think seasons have enough of impact at the moment.

Seasons impacting just food and travel feel somewhat silly. If it is to be more important, it should affect more things. Like recruits - less people showing up during spring and fall to work on their fields and more during winter or something.

Also, it would be nice if it allowed soldiers to cross rivers and lakes during winter. That would probably change how the game is played quite a bit.

To be honest, the current design is somewhat disappointing and unless it is planning to be improved, it should probably be removed.

[Indirik]

I only ever paid attention to seasons when my character was lord of a city, our a banker. My character on fei never knows what season it is. Personally, i don't really care about it either way. And maybe that says a lot right there.


As far as looting goes, there are two options that only show up in summer and fall that do extra food damage.

[De-Legro]

I only ever paid attention to seasons when my character was lord of a city, our a banker. My character on fei never knows what season it is. Personally, i don't really care about it either way. And maybe that says a lot right there.


As far as looting goes, there are two options that only show up in summer and fall that do extra food damage.

It was most certainly a bane to most bankers when I was in Arcaea.

[Chamberlain]

It's one of the few purposes for the banker and traders games.  Like it or not there are those who like that aspect of play.  Seasons are a good addition in my opinion, though the suggestions of Lapllanach would be good additions too.

[vonGenf]

As far as looting goes, there are two options that only show up in summer and fall that do extra food damage.

So that's why they appear and disappear! I never linked the two.

[Sypher]

I like seasons, but on Dwilight the travel times become too much.

I wouldn't mind different seasonal effects based on region type. Deserts for instance might not be affected the same way as other regions ...

[De-Legro]

It's one of the few purposes for the banker and traders games.  Like it or not there are those who like that aspect of play.  Seasons are a good addition in my opinion, though the suggestions of Lapllanach would be good additions too.

One of the questions I will get to soon is about the current classes and if all of them are required and add significantly to the game. Keeping something because it adds a marginal interest into a rarely used class is in my opinion not reason enough to keep it in the code base. We keep so many things because there are plan to flesh them out "eventually" and the end result is disappointment from those players who haven't travelled this journey for years (and often disappointment from those that have). I'm not saying it is the case with this, but keeping a feature that 80% of the players find annoying or worse, is hardly worth it to maintain a small point of interest for the smaller group that like to engage in that feature.

No game can be all things to all people, nor appeal to all game play preferences. BM needs some focus in exactly what it is catering to for so many reasons, like cleaning up the code base so it is more manageable, cleaning up the user interface so it less overwhelming to new players, making new feature easier to implement, and so that the small Dev team can focus on the parts of the game that mean the most to the majority of players.

[Zakilevo]

I think it is good to start by listing all the classes first.

Main Classes:
Warrior
Courtier
Priest

Sub Classes:
Trader
Diplomat
Hero
Cavalier
Infiltrator

[Indirik]

I think it is good to start by listing all the classes first.

I think you jumped the gun. This thread is still about seasons. He hasn't posted the classes thread yet,

[Zakilevo]

I think you jumped the gun. This thread is still about seasons. He hasn't posted the classes thread yet,

Oh...   

[Eldargard]

I like the seasons though additional effects and careful review of travel time penalties would be nice. At the same time, I rarely know when the season is unless I am a Region Lord or Martial/General. For most people I doubt is plays much of a role aside from the lull that sometimes occurs in winter. Though some might dislike it, I enjoy the quiet time that winter brings and think it is a great way for players to spend a little time working on personal goals while not having to enter a dreaded peace-with-all state. In this respect I could almost wish that war during winter was even more challenging!

[Chenier]

I don't really hate seasons, but I don't think it contributes to the game in any meaningful way, either. Except for writing Dwi's history, where I guess it's kind of nice to be able to say "In the spring of year 23".

[De-Legro]

Keeping things on track, remember we don't have the resources to go and seriously revamp seasons. Things like rivers freezing just aren't going to happen. It requires new code, and then you have to start considering, which rivers etc though I suppose that since travel times all increase we generally assume that all continents are located such that they have European style winters.

Perhaps seasons could remain as a time feature only, as Chénier points out they have long been used on Dwilight. It would also be feasible to tweak the existing penalties. My main though about seasons is that they make part of the game which is already not really enjoyed by many player, that is the food aspect, that much more troublesome. Personally I would prefer to see realms concentrate on power struggles and wars rather then sit idle because they know they will have troubles over winter and spend much of the rest of the year trying to repair regions.