What I dislike about the monster situation is the randomness of it. Having constant pressure against expanding too far is fine as long as there's something meaningful realms can do to push at that limit if they're active or their armies are commanded well or they're well-served with adventurers. At least give the damn things some intelligence.
Prior to this latest influx BT was a busy continent with PvP wars in the aftermath of the last Invasion and several realms working in alliance on PvE around the Vales. Now what do we have? Widely separated realms with little contact hanging on by the skin of their teeth. IT IS NOT AN IMPROVEMENT. Just dial down the damn settings and let people get back to what they were working on beforehand.
Frankly this whole issue annoys me. I've watched a decade of devs and vocal players here on the forum trying to dictate how this game should be played and during that time player numbers have crashed. I personally think the two things are quite strongly correlated and as one of those with an atypical style of play (ie who does things which broadly annoy the vocal forces on here) I sometimes feel unwelcome myself.
Yes BM's a text-based web game, yes there are prettier alternatives out there, yes it's developed part-time by enthusiasts, and yes there are players happy to sit on their privileges and not risk them. But it's also a solid strategy game with a strong player-generated background and there are plenty of us who look on power as an excuse to make the game fun for our fellow players rather than enrich ourselves.
Players invest emotionally in their realms. They care about them. Having a realm destroyed hurts and it should do because that means there was something worthwhile about the effort that went in to creating it. The hurt is acceptable when it's caused by another player faction or a GM-controlled event like an Invasion, and it sets up interesting long-term feuds and motivations. It's possible that soon I'll get my revenge for Fontan and perhaps I'll even get payback for Minas Thalion and Alowca in time. I can think of no other game where events from seven years ago have that kind of itch factor to them.
But when a realm is destroyed purely as a result of mechanics designed to enforce a particular view of how the game should be played that frankly sucks. Solve these supposed problems in a way that encourages players, not one which punishes.
