Instantaneous Message Petition/Reasons

Tom is thinking of making messages sent in-game no longer arrive instantly, but delayed depending on how far away the recipient is. Many of us feel this would affect the game fundamentally and profoundly negatively.

We are fully against the proposal, and would be pushed to the brink of leaving the game if it were implemented. Here is why.

Reasons

• The game is a world wide game, which means problems of log-in because of different time variations. This means that if the general needs a scout to give orders; first he has to sent a message to ask for the scout, afterwards receiving the scout report, then send orders and at least the TLs reading and following these orders. As you can see there are four messages received. If each of them is delayed because of this new option... it's very probable that when finally the Tl receives the orders he won't be online, because he won't stay there for hours. Generals have the "duty" to be quite active so to be able to give orders as soon in the turn as possible. But if they need some scout (which is mostly common) things will get quite complicated. On the other hand, if you want to make things more real, because in history the messages really came sometimes too late in battles or whatever, the main difference is that they were knights 24 hours and we're players just a while every day. That's why i think the idea is actually a good one but is actually not that good if we think on the aspect that we're not 24 hours-players. If implemented it'll reduce much more the fun. Normally as general you have always to count on people being not able to log in in time for strategies so to be conscient on not counting on having the whole army power.... If this implemented the army will reduce it's power the half. Plus, realms who have two fronts for example, receive orders later then one who has one front. Because the general can't be on both fronts at the same time so one of the fronts will receive orders later than the others. - Shoenaemaeh 2 May 2006 18:55 (CEST)
• Not everyone plays battlemaster because they want a realistic medieval game, they play it because it is fun, challenging, and has great interaction with other players and an atmosphere that makes one feel quickly at home. Making delays in messages changes that.
• It encourages using Out of Game communications instead, such as IM, IRC and e-mail. --The1exile 2 May 2006 18:59 (CEST)
• This is a game, and a game has to accomidate the spirit and nature of the game itself. To delay messages in BM, would act to also delay interest in the matters concerning the game. You can argue that the delay will force people to act more strategically, but I dare say, the delay will force people to get more easily annoyed and leave. Will Battlemaster be a better place with or without the delay? My vote is for the status qou: Keep it the Same and don't mess up the Roleplaying/OOC community that exists in BM! Primus Family 2 May 2006
• I'm tired of seeing a small group of players push Tom to change the game consantly. Hundreds of people play this game and I'm sick of watching this small group constantly put pressure on Tom so it can be "more realistic" for them.
• This makes roleplaying extremely difficult. For those of you who pointed out the RPG Dicussion List, thats BS. A player should not be forced to roleplay over email because of in-game messaging issues.
• Last semester, I could only log on for the first 45 minutes of the full turn and wouldn't be able to log in for another 14 hours; without instant messaging I would never recieve an order in time. --Neoro May 2, 2006 19:14 (CEST)
• I like to see some changes, it keeps the game fresh, however changes that drastically disrupt the gameplay are not good, it would seriously hurt both the RP players and the Stategy players.
• Keep the game "lightweight" please --Dopido 2 May 20.08 (CEST)
• The main reason for BM is fun. Combining realism with a fun game is great, but there are just some things that need to remain in order for the game to remain fun. Can you imagine trying to go through pages of messages trying to figure out which messages go in what order just to attempt to read a conversation between a few troop leaders? - Laoch
• This would be a drastic change to both code and players. So drastic that it's not needed. Possibly parts of this idea, but the whole package is too different and complicated to apply. ~ Marc J. May 2, 2006 20:22 (CEST)
• This would ruin the game. If this is added, I will pause my characters until it is removed again. More realistic? maybe so, but realism isn't all. BM is to be FUN too. This would also encurage OOC contact like mIRC and MSN etc. too. Eirik felde 2 May 2006 21:07 (CEST)
• This "feature" has nothing good to add. People will be forced to log in in a shorter timeframe, People in different timezones are getting a certain advantages (in being elected) by this "radiosilence" in orders. Also before this "realistic" thing can even be considered, alot of different far more important "realistic" things should have been implemented. Like wood for example. This game doesnt need and doesnt want delays in messaging. Paradigm 3 May 2006 00:18 (CEST)