the conflict looming

[Bedwyr]

I think once people understand exactly how powerful diplomats can be, the rebuilding period will dramatically diminish.  The most difficult part of stabilizing a region is getting it to the point where the Lord can hold court.  Used to take weeks, sometimes months if you were unlucky.  Now?  Week, tops, so long as you have a good diplomat.  And the Priest/Diplomat synergy is such that you'll have plenty of good diplomats running around, so I personally see rebuilding periods dropping to a month at most, and aggressive realms could probably manage in two weeks even with multiple regions with terrible stats.

[Lorgan]

I'm saying you can wage small-scale war while rebuilding your regions, instead of being 100% one thing for months and months, then switching the other way 100%.

The thing that took the most time was trying to rebuild infrastructure. You can have a sufficient amount of RCs ready in say 2 weeks, but most of them won't be worth the ground they're standing on.
It has taken months and thousands upon thousands of gold to get some decent RCs ready where the recruits have learned to use steel swords and chain mail in stead of wooden sticks and rags. You also need your regions to recover up to 75% of their population unless you want drafting to be the only source of recruits. And in between you need to rebuild the entire army that was destroyed during the invasion.

That means a period of peace and rebuilding on BT but on other continents, destruction is a good tactic that doesn't stop all conflicts as it isn't so widespread as on BT.

[Anaris]

I'm saying you can wage small-scale war while rebuilding your regions, instead of being 100% one thing for months and months, then switching the other way 100%.

That's actually very rarely true.  Especially on BT.  I don't know how much experience you have with it, but it's a very all-or-nothing place.

[Chenier]

Not in the least.

I'm saying you can wage small-scale war while rebuilding your regions, instead of being 100% one thing for months and months, then switching the other way 100%.

Nor did I say "do this or the game will die". I am pointing out another part of this game I think is very unattractive to newer players and saying I think you should consider this when discussing your "player retention" campaign.

Putting hyperbolic words into my mouth that I never said or hinted at is also deeply unhelpful, Timothy.

Conflict escalates, and always very quickly. There is no such thing as "small-scale war while rebuilding your regions", as both parties always want to win these conflicts, and will dedicate more and more of their resources to the fight, mutually forcing each other to quickly use full force. Because, after all, if you let troops pass by, then they will destroy your reconstruction efforts.

And you clearly haven't seen the undead spawns of the South. The North didn't get those. We needed our full military strength just to deal with these.

As for rebuilding, if you only take half the forces you otherwise would have, it takes you about 4 times the time to fix the region, if not more.

I too wonder why you joined the realm who hasn't been in a war since 2005 if battle is what you seek, though.

[Vellos]

Conflict escalates, and always very quickly. There is no such thing as "small-scale war while rebuilding your regions", as both parties always want to win these conflicts, and will dedicate more and more of their resources to the fight, mutually forcing each other to quickly use full force.

Some of this is also a Beluaterran ethos wherein the destruction of a realm is not as big a deal. Beluaterran realms come and go. Very rarely are Beluaterran wars fought for limited objectives. It's all about weakening the enemy to the point that an Invasion will destroy them.

[Chenier]

Some of this is also a Beluaterran ethos wherein the destruction of a realm is not as big a deal. Beluaterran realms come and go. Very rarely are Beluaterran wars fought for limited objectives. It's all about weakening the enemy to the point that an Invasion will destroy them.

Partially. But let's not forget that estates mean wars of conquest are just no longer even an option anyways.

[Jens Namtrah]

I too wonder why you joined the realm who hasn't been in a war since 2005 if battle is what you seek, though.

Probably because, as I said, I didn't join Melhed as a noble. I have an advy is all.

[Jens Namtrah]

The thing that took the most time was trying to rebuild infrastructure. You can have a sufficient amount of RCs ready in say 2 weeks, but most of them won't be worth the ground they're standing on.
It has taken months and thousands upon thousands of gold to get some decent RCs ready where the recruits have learned to use steel swords and chain mail in stead of wooden sticks and rags. You also need your regions to recover up to 75% of their population unless you want drafting to be the only source of recruits. And in between you need to rebuild the entire army that was destroyed during the invasion.

That means a period of peace and rebuilding on BT but on other continents, destruction is a good tactic that doesn't stop all conflicts as it isn't so widespread as on BT.

I think this is a part of the BM myth - that you must have everything at top level all the time.

Regions don't have to be at core or 100% in all three categories.  You can fight a war with crappy troops in small numbers (as long as the other guy has the same issue).

---

My point is that new players are not going to be attracted to a game where there is very little realm-wide communication (as attested to by psymann and others) and where any time a large war ends, the players in charge shut everything down for 3-6 months so they can rebuild.

I think if you are really worried about player retention you should also look at that problem, and be a bit open-minded about finding other ways to deal with the in-between war periods that will ensure the game is fun for those new players who join during times of peace. This problem goes beyond BT.


 

[Bedwyr]

I think this is a part of the BM myth - that you must have everything at top level all the time.

Regions don't have to be at core or 100% in all three categories.

No, you don't need max stats.  You do need good enough stats that things won't spiral if you leave them alone, which in my experience means you need them at least in the seventies and at main, and even that will collapse quickly if looted whereas a region in the nineties and core will take a lot longer to fall apart even with looting.  As I said earlier though, I think the advent of diplomats (especially once the new estates get going) will make rebuilding periods much, much shorter.

[Chenier]

No, you don't need max stats.  You do need good enough stats that things won't spiral if you leave them alone, which in my experience means you need them at least in the seventies and at main, and even that will collapse quickly if looted whereas a region in the nineties and core will take a lot longer to fall apart even with looting.  As I said earlier though, I think the advent of diplomats (especially once the new estates get going) will make rebuilding periods much, much shorter.

They help somewhat, depending on your size, number of them, and problems you are facing. They will help you get a region under control, but they won't help you get any decent production on them.

Also, yes, you do basically need near-optimal stats. Why? Because the devastation levels are varying, and if you declare war with sub-optimal stats you may very well get a realm at 100% stats come down and crush you like a bug. Most of the old rivals came out of the invasion with radically different strength levels.