Now that the message system update is live and (most of) the bugs resulting from it are fixed, I'd like to outline some of the plans I have for near-to-medium-term future development of BattleMaster. Of course, throughout all of this, we will be continuing to fix bugs, both old ones and the ones that crop up along the way.
My next top priority is going to be the resetting of the South Island. It is egregious that we have allowed it to sit in limbo for this long, and I apologize most sincerely to those who have been frustrated by this. We will be working to make quite sure that as we go through the process, we not only document it, but automate as many parts as possible, to ensure that this kind of delay isn't necessary in the future.
After that, I have some changes in mind that, while they will require far less new code than the message system update did, should have much broader effects on the game. In summary, I believe that these changes will allow players to play in ways that provide for much more fun conflict even with the current lowered player count.
First of all, we plan to add a few temporary stop-gap measures that we hope will improve the situation while we work on getting the longer-term solutions to player density in place. Foremost among these will be limitations on the ability to take over new regions based on density—it will be harder to take over regions as your density drops, and will become impossible past a certain threshold. However, taking regions from a high-density realm will also become somewhat harder.
For the long term, the first change is one that will encourage more compact realms. It will change the bonuses and penalties for regions such that it is most optimal to have all the regions closest to the capital have both a Lord and at least one Knight. It will allow the game to recognize concentric "rings" of regions based on their distance (in region count) from the capital, and each such ring that has every region with a lord and a knight will gain bonuses. Beyond the outermost such ring, regions will begin to suffer from red tape penalties.
The second change introduces a new level of region control, which I am provisionally calling "hinterland". A hinterland region either has never had a lord, or has not had one for more than a certain amount of time. Hinterland regions provide significantly reduced resources to the realm, but also require less attention, and it is much easier to convert a region from rogue to hinterland than takeovers in the current system. Of course, it's easier for enemies to take them from you, as well.
It is my hope and intention that with these two changes, first, we will be able to do away with the density-linked rogue spawns, as we will no longer have to force realms to stay small—they will be able to take as much hinterland as they want, and the bonuses granted by keeping their realm compact should be sufficient to ensure that they don't commonly spread themselves too thin over the non-hinterland regions they hold. Second, I hope that wars will be more dynamic, with hinterland regions able to change hands very rapidly (thus removing the old expectation of sitting in a border region for a week just to take it over) and allowing the realms to maneuver around each other and get to more interesting battles more frequently.
I do have some changes in mind for the farther future (which may or may not come to pass) that would allow for a return to true sieges, interdicting the flow of food and other trade goods, and possibly adding more strategic and tactical options for both the besieged and the besiegers. Anything more concrete on those will definitely have to wait until later, though.
