Tops and Flops

[Tom]

This is a feedback request. I'd like to know what you like most and least about BattleMaster. List your top three features and your three most disliked things below:

[wraith]

Top: flexibility and freedom to play as you like
Top: depth and history
Top: quality and passion of players and devs

Flop: interface on android is fiddly
Flop: um..
Flop: nope, can't think of another flop.

[LilWolf]

The good

• Continuity of the game. No resets save for Beluaterra.
• New features get added fairly often
• The player base is generally quite nice

The bad

• Increased complexity has made the game more difficult for new players to get into
• The estate system has become a hindrance with the lowered player base
• The continual erosion of the council positions in favor of exceedingly powerful dukes. Leads to all the realms being from essentially the same mold.

[Sacha]

Tops:

1. Depth of the game: No matter the role you pick for your character, there is tons of stuff to do and ways to advance. Military, political, economical, religious, ...
2. Continuity: It's one long game with no end, nations rise and fall, nobles come and go.
3. Variety of realms and islands: If one particular corner of the game doesn't interest you, there's lots of other places to try your luck.

Flops:

1. Lack of player creativity: A lot of realms have no identity, they're pretty much just a bunch of players grouping together for the sake of having a realm. Alternatively, they are just carbon copies of existing game realms, or historical realms.
2. OOC unfairness: A LOT of realms are OOC cliques that are hard to break into unless you conform to the OOC-ness. Unless you're 'part of the group, your chances of advancement decrease dramatically. Other realms are just blatantly led by a bunch of RL friends who take over every position with a handful of people.
3. More OOC unfairness: A lot of the politics in the game are decided by a handful of players outside of the game (on IRC for example). Players who don't go to IRC often have little or nothing to say in their realm councils.

[Stien Family]

top -  the game is not winnable
top -  the game goes on and on and on and on.............. much like the energizer bunny!
top -  the players are the best i have come across in any other game with a very few exceptions.

flop - estates making the upkeep of region very difficult to manage
flop - banker position has no power over the food distribution or the taxes like he or she should.
flop - travel time in dwilight but that is more a person issue really with me

[Peri]

Flops:
2. OOC unfairness: A LOT of realms are OOC cliques that are hard to break into unless you conform to the OOC-ness. Unless you're 'part of the group, your chances of advancement decrease dramatically. Other realms are just blatantly led by a bunch of RL friends who take over every position with a handful of people.
3. More OOC unfairness: A lot of the politics in the game are decided by a handful of players outside of the game (on IRC for example). Players who don't go to IRC often have little or nothing to say in their realm councils.

I agree very much. The problem is that very often success or failure depend heavily on the different activity (and I intend also potential activity on irc or other means) of the two sides, and this in turn pushes nobles who are very active in and out the game up the hierarchy way more easily than they should deserve. But well, I guess there is no solution to this.

[Foundation]

I agree very much. The problem is that very often success or failure depend heavily on the different activity (and I intend also potential activity on irc or other means) of the two sides, and this in turn pushes nobles who are very active in and out the game up the hierarchy way more easily than they should deserve. But well, I guess there is no solution to this.

I believe that Sacha was referring to the fact that in certain realms, even if you are active, in game and out you cannot advance because you're not part of the "OOC clique" that you cannot join unless you're already part of it.

[Fleugs]

3. More OOC unfairness: A lot of the politics in the game are decided by a handful of players outside of the game (on IRC for example). Players who don't go to IRC often have little or nothing to say in their realm councils.

Meh - I use it to troll everyone!

[Igelfeld]

Tops:
The unique characters some players create
The ability to play the game any way you want to
The chance to practice writing and persuasion

Flops:
The silence of some realms
the low retention level of new players (seriously how do we fix this?)
The difficulty I am currently having trying to create a new flag. (I guess this has nothing to do with the game however)

 

[Revan]

Tops

• Rebellion - Probably one of my favourite bits of BattleMaster. I love all the wheeling, dealing and skulduggery of a rebellion!
• The Hierarchy system - The move to greater fluidity and power all through the hierarchy is good and makes me really excited for the future.
• Armies - They completely revolutionised the game.

Flops

• Estates - Thought they were punitive even when we did have a larger player base. Now estate management has become a meta game. Trying to manage an insufficient number of nobles into various problem regions and finding that a traditional war is out of the question.
• BM hates mobile devices  - The severity of the experiences differs from device to device, browser to browser, but generally I've struggled to use BM on anything other than a computer.
• Religion - Too many faiths are just realms by another name and used as a bureaucratic device to keep peasants happy. Too many players either join faiths simply not to upset that status quo (and so don't engage with the faith at all) or aren't joining religions full stop. I suppose it's a player problem as much as anything else, but religions appear much more peripheral and unimportant now, since being firmly established, than they were a few years ago whilst battling for position and dominance across many realms.

[Iltaran]

Good
- Deep strategy, combined with multiplayer nature. I've never come across a game that does this.
- Open ended game. Especially noticeable with realms that have years of history (and attending grudges)
- Variety of play styles available.

Bad
- Can devolve into a "numbers game". Whoever has the most income has the most CS and usually the most knights. Unless you have major geographical advantages, this is extraordinarily hard to beat.
- Lack of community. IRC and (so far) the forums are inhabited by the same 20-30 veteran players. When you consider we have about 500 players logging in daily and 900 every three days...
- Problems with recruitment and retention. I'm comfortable with being a niche game, but without new blood, we'll die eventually.

[Zann]

Tops:

• Wiki: I use it every day. It’s highly informative and well-written. Very encouraging.
• Message system: There is a gossipy feel to it, and it has good options.
• Civil work: It’s simple but has interesting stuff to explore.

Flops:

• Government: It’s too authoritarian and not much participatory.
• Religion: The role of religion and priests seems very vague.
• War: It's repetitive and creates an overly militaristic society.

   

[Vellos]

Tops:
1. Dwilight- lack of nobles, starvation, monsters, fiendishly long travel times, constant struggle against the wild... this is my ideal Battlemaster experience. I could not ask for more.

2. Strong lords- I really like having strong lords and dukes. It dilutes power to more players, restricting the control of the old elites (like myself)

3. Armies- armies open up lots of leadership potential for newer players, and a valuable dynamism, and extra layer of culture. This was a very, very positive addition.

Flops:
1. Religion- I love the religion feature. But it just isn't versatile enough and doesn't compel dynamism. Some kind of game-mechanics doctrine feature would be interesting, compelling religions to commit to beliefs rather than just declaring other religions evil or not. Overall, religion is underused and generally stagnant.

2. Claims- I love the idea of claims, but there is no rhyme or reason to them. My duke of several years now isn't listed as having a claim on his own city? What? These should be reworked.

3. Rebellions- I would like to see these reworked some, I don't feel like rebellions work well. But that's just a general impression.

[DoctorHarte]

Tops:
1) The game is unbeatable
2) Many options in all aspects of the game minus the Banker and Trader
3) Friendly environment

Flops:
1) Estates limit a realm by far
2) OOC involvement. As mentioned before, but I have been screwed out of lordships due to OOC excuses, it ruins the environment.
3) Empires are all too common, there needs to be more features to counter an overpowerful realm.

[Zakilevo]

Tops
1.There are some really awesome realms to play in where people are active and actually follow orders!
2.You can play your character as you like.
3.Infiltrators are awesome (maybe they should be able to poison someone!)

Flops
1.Many cities are the same. There is no characteristic or distinctiveness. (May be many of medieval cities were the same?)
2.There is nothing you can do while being a rogue. It would be interesting if you can turn into a bandit.
3.Battles always happen on an open plane I think. I know people back in the days fought on an open plan. (and that is why they lost a big time in Poland against Mongols) But maybe they should have some altitude difference? Like if you are defending against enemies, should have your army set camps on a high hill so cavalry charges become more effective + archers being able to shoot farther + exhausting for enemy infantries to run up the hill?