The TattleMaster

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Revision as of 15:12, 16 April 2010 by Indirik (talk | contribs) (bug fixes)
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The TattleMaster is BattleMaster's first, and only, OOC newspaper dedicated to discussions about the game of BattleMaster itself. Here you will find information regarding bugfixes, new features, changes in game mechanics, and probably even a few FAQs and interviews.
Developer Sneak Peak: Treaty SystemApril 13, 2010
This is the first installment of a new semi-regular feature on the TattleMaster: a peek behind the scenes at the development of some of our big new features. Today's topic is the new Treaty System.

This system has already been semi-public for some months now, with treaties being available to draft, sign, and propose for a little over a year, and the Treay System Previews showing their effects first going live to the testing continents late last year. Another piece of the system was committed yesterday, as can be seen in blue on the right, to aid in maintaining treaties. There are only a few pieces left to finish: the mechanism by which treaties will start needing maintenance, a few checks to make sure that you can't have insane treaty/declaration combinations, such as a war against someone you are allied with, a treaty-based diplomacy chart to replace the existing one, and a system by which multiple treaties can be drafted and then linked together, and proposed to the other realm and signed as one.

Once all this is done, the existing treaties will all be deleted, and there will be a new setup period wherein everyone will be expected to set up the "real" treaties and declarations they want to match the old-style diplomacy status. That will likely last a month or two, to give everyone plenty of time to send their Ambassadors and Diplomats around to propose the treaties to their partners, and then the old diplomacy system will be completely deactivated and everything will be done through the treaty system.

We as devs expect and hope that this will drive more dynamic diplomacy, as each treaty will require a certain amount of maintenance, so it will no longer be "free" to maintain an alliance with large numbers of other realms. It should also provide more nuanced diplomacy, as you could, for instance, have a trade agreement and facilities sharing treaty with someone, but not actually be allied to them.

If you have any comments on this, or suggestions, the best place for them is the Treaty System's talk page.
Danaris
Changes Sent to StableApril 12, 2010
Several features and fixes that have been on testing for a little while now were sent to stable today, to appear in the next update. These include:
  • The Daily Referendum Summary
  • Random tiebreakers for referenda that result in a tie
  • Guild ranks in message signatures
  • The Ruler's ability to define how Lords are selected in his realm
  • The Realm Government page, showing various information about the realm's government settings
Danaris
Good and Bad Marks for DukesApril 8, 2010
Rulers can now give good marks and bad marks to the dukes and imperial lords of the realm, just like region lords can give good and bad marks to their knights. As with knights, Dukes and Lords with +3 or higher marks cannot be fined or banned. At this time, negative marks have no effect other than erasing good marks. One possibility being discussed is that if a duke reaches -3 marks, the ruler could force the duchy out of the realm in a forced secession. Feel free to offer other suggestions for the consequences of negative marks for dukes on the Discussion List.
Two New Feature Requests ImplementedApril 8, 2010
Two Feature Requests will go live with the next server update. These are:
  • No New Realm Restrictions for Secessions - Characters in realms formed by secession will no longer receive the "You're too new to the realm..." messages when trying to perform time-in-realm restrictive activities such as emigrating, protesting, etc.
  • Unit Line Settings and Unit Status - The line settings for the character's unit will now be display in an abbreviated form on the character status page, and in the information footer at the bottom of the page.
Indirik
Major Combat Change Goes LiveMarch 10, 2010
As briefly described 2 months ago, a significant change to the combat system has gone live today. The core of the change is that rather than one whole line of troops fighting another whole line of troops in close combat, every individual unit will pick a specific other unit to fight against. Some consequences of this are:
  • If there is an overcrowded melee in one line, units behind it will no longer be stuck; they will be able to come into the same line as the melee, and just not join in.
  • This means that it will no longer be possible to have a unit jump off a fortification and hold up the entire attacking army while the archers on the walls rain arrows down from safety.
  • You will always know who your unit fought, and if you get wounded, captured, or killed, you will know exactly who did it—and conversely, you will know if you kill, capture, or wound anyone.
  • This will result in some changes to combat balance (some of which have been mentioned on the discussion list), but you'll have to work most of those out for yourselves...
Danaris
Penalties for Lack of BannerFebruary 23, 2010
A long-standing bug has been fixed which was blocking actual penalties for realms and the rulers of realms with no set banner. Any realm without a banner needs to set one ASAP or risk serious penalties.
Danaris
Ruler-Definable Lord SelectionFebruary 23, 2010
The method of selecting Lords in a realm is now part of the Government Settings on testing islands. This means that rulers on Beluaterra and Dwilight can now determine whether vacant Lordships are filled by election among all nobles of the realm, election among all lords of the realm, or solely by appointment by Ruler or Duke. This new setting defaults to appointment for everyone, so all Rulers should check their Government Settings as soon as possible to make sure that any Lordship referenda you want to have run will run properly.
Danaris
Monster Movement ChangeFebruary 23, 2010
Monsters and undead have been changed slightly on testing islands. They will no longer travel every route in one turn; instead, they will have to use hours to travel exactly like regular units, and will thus take time on long routes.
Danaris
Graphical Food Movement MapsFebruary 3, 2010
A new feature will soon be available on testing islands that should be very helpful to dukes and bankers trying to feed their cities: A dynamic map showing food status of regions, including food surplus/deficit status and automatic food shipments and levels. Dukes will be able to see a map showing their entire duchy. Bankers will have a map showing their entire realm. A sample map (using fictional data) is shown below.

FoodMapSample.png
  • Green and red values show the status of the regions current stored food in relation to the amount needed to get to the next harvest day.
    • A green number shows that the region has enough food to be fully fed through the next harvest day. The number is the number of extra bushels stored in that region's warehouse.
    • A red number indicates that the region does not have enough food to be fully fed through to the next harvest day. The number shows the number of additional bushels needed.
  • Yellow arrows show an automatic food transfer in progress, with the yellow number showing how much food is in the shipment.
  • White arrows show that an automatic transfer value is set, but the stored food is not over the threshold so no shipment will take place. The white number shows the threshold value.
Hopefully these changes will help bankers and dukes better understand the system, and be able to manage food more effectively.
Indirik
More Enhanced Diplomacy Previews for TestingFebruary 3, 2010
In order to help players understand how the effects of the treaties of the proposed Enhanced Diplomacy, the "preview" messages have been extended into the battle system. You will be able to see these new preview messages on testing islands when the next server update goes live. In battle reports, below the listing of the forces, and above the normal messages where each realm picks a side for the battle, there will be a new section that shows sides as they would have been picked under the proposed treaty system. This will enable realms to see how these treaties affect the behavior of their forces, and better understand the types of treaties they will need.
Indirik
Upcoming Changes to Priest/Adventurer HoursJanuary 21, 2010
A new feature that will be added to testing servers at the next update: Elderly priests and adventurers will start getting fewer hours. Just as the regular character classes get fewer and fewer hours as they get older, so, too, will priests and adventurers.
Indirik
Server UpdateJanuary 21, 2010
A bit late on this, but the live servers were updated January 11. The anticipated changes to long distance priest travel via ferry and new temple guard functions have bee implemented on the Test severs only. Check the archives for more details on either of these changes. Also, all bug fixes resolved up through Jan 11 have been sent to the live servers.
Indirik
Temple Guard Changes Coming SoonJanuary 6, 2010
At the next server update, a change involving temple guards will go live on testing servers. Temple guards will now actively resist efforts by the region lord to sack or close the temple.
Indirik
Quick Glimpse of Proposed Combat System ChangesJanuary 6, 2010
The devs are working on some new changes to the combat system to overcome some limitations of the current overcrowding system. In addition, these changes will bring more intuitive combat behavior, exciting new features, and allows for great new aide for roleplaying opportunities.

Some highlights:

  • Units can bypass overcrowded lines and move into combat with units in the next line.
  • All units will battle specific other units, so you'll know who you're attacking, and who's attacking you!
Indirik
April 16, 2010
Bug 5578 Temple guards will now require regular payment. If they are not paid they will quit. If money must be drawn from the global treasury to pay them instead of the local treasury, then there is a reduced chance they will quit. Shrines will now also properly deduct maintenance fees from the local treasury when needed.
April 16, 2010
Bug 5363 Repair of 5% should be possible if the hours in timepool are less than the hours required to repair 10% damage.
April 14, 2010
Automatic caravan offers set by the Lord will now buy and sell food from caravans, even if there is no explicit offer set up. The money for this will come out of and go into the trade balance.
April 14, 2010
The last two pieces of temple and religion maintenance that were not implemented have been finished: namely, shrines and temple guards requiring money to maintain, and collapsing or deserting if they are not paid.
April 12, 2010
Diplomats and Ambassadors now actually have some class abilities on testing.
April 8, 2010
Nobles who can vote in open referendums will now receive a daily summary listing the open referendums, and their current vote selections.
April 8, 2010
Guild elders can now demote themselves.
April 8, 2010
The settings for automatic food trading with regional warehouses have been expanded from a maximum of 1000 bushels all the way to 5,000 bushels.
April 8, 2010
Bug 5535 Only non-paused characters can be emergency promoted to Elder status in guilds and religions.
April 8, 2010
Rulers can now give good and bad marks to dukes.
April 8, 2010
Testing islands: The new, progressive method of priest and adventurer travel for sea routes has been expanded to also cover long land route travel.
April 8, 2010
Bug 5572 Guards will no longer be doubled if no infiltrator action is detected.
April 8, 2010
Bug 5552 Testing islands: Nobles captured during battle should correctly be sent to prison.
April 8, 2010
Bug 5574 Temples in regions with no followers should now be correctly displayed on the upkeep reports.
April 8, 2010
Bug 5575 Takeovers should no longer fail without a message when a lord is appointed or elected for the region.
April 8, 2010
Region lords can now buy additional warehouses to store more food. Food stored in a warehouse will be subjected to a reduced rate of loss due to rotting.
April 8, 2010
When a unit is misdirecting, the unit status in the informational footer will show "misdirecting" instead of "traveling".
April 8, 2010
Bug 5568 Testing islands: Some randomness has been added to the allocation of damage in combat.
April 8, 2010
Testing islands: More Enhanced Diplomacy preview messages have been added. Certain treaty types will now be announced tot he island when they are signed.
March 10, 2010
Bug 3719 When sending messages through a guild, religion, or secret society, your rank will appear in your message's signature.
March 10, 2010
Bug 3611 Adventurers can now see nobles and commoners in the same region as them.
March 10, 2010
Referendum elections now will not accept infiltrators or nobles with family members in government positions elsewhere on the continent as candidates for government positions.
March 10, 2010
Bug 4960 When a referendum ends in a tie, it is now explicitly broken by a random selection among the winners.
March 10, 2010
Bug 5324 Unique items now more clearly indicate their rate of decay.
February 23, 2010
Feature Request granted: Allow placing an arbitrary part of your unit as militia.
February 23, 2010
Bug 5491 Several fame bugs exposed by some recent underlying changes to the fame system have been fixed.
February 23, 2010
A bug preventing rulers deposed in rebellions from actually being kicked from the realm has been fixed.
February 23, 2010
Bug 5482 The bug preventing battles with rogues (among others) on testing has been fixed.
February 23, 2010
Testing servers only: new Realm Government page shows all government settings; available from Information.
January 20, 2010
Bug 5453 Fixed display of paused character count for guilds and religions.
January 20, 2010
Bug 5444 Do not count paused characters when determining if a guild rank can be edited.
January 20, 2010
Bug 5464 Fixed URL manipulation bug allowing adventurers to select a subclass.
January 14, 2010
Testing servers only: Older adventurers and priests will start getting fewer hours per day.
January 13, 2010
Adventurers will no longer be counted when determining the thresholds for penalties due to protests.


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