Era III and a call for New Leadership!

[Fraunces]

I really like the discussions in this thread and feel like @Jeff of Clubs,  @Kwatchi and @Khorne all have some good ideas. I really agree on the map-issue, bc it is already so big and expanded, it feels empty in some places now. ERA III should be more like something they do in Fortnite all the time: changing the MAP a little bit and some new characters/options but not expanding it too much. Some cataclystic event like an earthquake, flood, vulcano's or meteor-rain after which some smaller nations dissapparead in the chaos, or reunite under Mardiers old banner or something. We should finetune what we have established indeed and maybe expand in quality, make it also a little easier for new players to join and not expand the rules from 100 to 150%. Let's keep the conversation going here so we can all add and contribute for some time. 

Before I forget, a BIG shoutout to current leadership!  I would like to help for ERA III but frankly really do not have any more time on my hands. Already struggling to make some MOCs and small stories sometimes to keep active.

[Khorne]

Excellent synopsis, @Fraunces. I concur!

12 hours ago, Fraunces said:

Before I forget, a BIG shoutout to current leadership!  I would like to help for ERA III but frankly really do not have any more time on my hands. Already struggling to make some MOCs and small stories sometimes to keep active.

This. I can't imagine the time needed to make everything go smooth, plus build MOCs on top of the leadership duties. 

[Ross Fisher]

Can I reiterate my request for more mainland availabililty? I feel like it would really help drive new ideas. That said, I rarely have time to build these days, so maybe don't do things just to make me happy. 

[Darnok]

I have been in some kind of mini Dark Ages lately, but things should be a bit more back to normal now. So this prospect of a new Era for BOBS sounds great to me! I think my life is a bit too volatile to be reliable enough for leadership here, but I am looking forward to what a change in the team will look like.

 

On 10/30/2023 at 3:59 PM, Kwatchi said:

May I suggest a massive tsunami caused by an exploding Bruhaha brewery?

Been there, done that.

Condensing the world map a bit would be a good idea in my opinion, including maybe removing some locations that were not settled so far. It has been years with literally no activities on some islands - maybe those can just disappear in whatever catastrophe might be about to happen?

I would also really appreciate the return of some meaningful economic system. The one we had and still have was great overall, but over the years it has made money almost pointless for long-time players, while still putting some serious barriers in front of new players. I have no brilliant solution here, but something that works for both new and old players alike and does not suffer with "inflation" too much over time would be great.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Darnok

[Kai NRG]

Thanks everybody for your input here, this is really all lining up with the direction leadership is hoping to take us--a more condensed map and a more exciting and fluctuating economic system.  I think you'll love what we're putting together! 

[Keymonus]

Hi guys!

On 11/15/2023 at 8:47 PM, Kai NRG said:

Thanks everybody for your input here, this is really all lining up with the direction leadership is hoping to take us--a more condensed map and a more exciting and fluctuating economic system.  I think you'll love what we're putting together! 

I totally agree about fixing some aspects of the EGS, even if I wouldn’t know in particular it could be nice finding a way to make sea trade necessary and promote activity in otherwise irrelevant areas… possibly a system of resources, in which e.g. building a factory or an artisan requires to state where you get the resources from? This should be relatively easy with mines, but in principle doable also with plantations and other things.

An idea could be having “trade routes” based on that (e.g. with 5 silver-related builds in Astrapi, you can create an Astrapi-Breshaun silver route) and giving bonuses only if ships run them in the MRCAs, or if you manage to get them connected to the motherland.

(edit: probably too complicated to implement. Could be a suggestion for Era IV, in case)

 

I also agree about not further expanding the world for a while, but making empty islands “disappear” would feel very wrong to me… having some empty islands nobody cares about, or uncharacterized NPCs nations to involve in future stories is IMHO useful for our game mechanics

Edited November 16, 2023 by Keymonus

[NOD]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:35 PM, Keymonus said:

Hi guys!

I totally agree about fixing some aspects of the EGS, even if I wouldn’t know in particular it could be nice finding a way to make sea trade necessary and promote activity in otherwise irrelevant areas… possibly a system of resources, in which e.g. building a factory or an artisan requires to state where you get the resources from? This should be relatively easy with mines, but in principle doable also with plantations and other things.

An idea could be having “trade routes” based on that (e.g. with 5 silver-related builds in Astrapi, you can create an Astrapi-Breshaun silver route) and giving bonuses only if ships run them in the MRCAs, or if you manage to get them connected to the motherland.

(edit: probably too complicated to implement. Could be a suggestion for Era IV, in case)

 

I also agree about not further expanding the world for a while, but making empty islands “disappear” would feel very wrong to me… having some empty islands nobody cares about, or uncharacterized NPCs nations to involve in future stories is IMHO useful for our game mechanics

I like your view and ideas. Under no circumstances should the empty islands disappear! The maps should remain as they are now. The economic system should definitely be improved.

For long-term gaming fun, the account summary should be maintained and continued! Starting over at 0 gives new members (this is only a short-term success) but existing members may no longer be there.

This was one of the best and funniest competitions in which many participants took part:

 

 

At Era III, the goal should be to retain existing members and attract new members.

Edited November 18, 2023 by NOD

[Khorne]

On 11/15/2023 at 8:47 PM, Kai NRG said:

Thanks everybody for your input here, this is really all lining up with the direction leadership is hoping to take us--a more condensed map and a more exciting and fluctuating economic system.  I think you'll love what we're putting together! 

Looking forward to see the new system changes and what the Court has come up with! Any estimate on launch date? Q1 2024?

[Yperio_Bricks]

One thing that could spice up the game would be different climate zones in conjunction with different architecture styles. For example:

• northern climate zone with New England/French architecture
• desert climate zone with North African/Arabic architecture (Barbary Coast pirates)
• tropical/Caribbean climate zone with Spanish/Portuguese architecture
• tropical/South East Asia or humid/subtropical (Southeast China) climate zones with East Asian and Southeast Asian architecture

[Ross Fisher]

45 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

One thing that could spice up the game would be different climate zones in conjunction with different architecture styles

Love this

[Kai NRG]

4 hours ago, Khorne said:

Looking forward to see the new system changes and what the Court has come up with! Any estimate on launch date? Q1 2024?

Goal is mid-2024.  We want to be completely automated at launch so there will be no more waiting for MRCA results or account summaries.

In the meantime we'll have some fun challenges and stuff to wrap up the Era!

[Khorne]

On 11/25/2023 at 9:58 PM, Kai NRG said:

Goal is mid-2024.  We want to be completely automated at launch so there will be no more waiting for MRCA results or account summaries.

In the meantime we'll have some fun challenges and stuff to wrap up the Era!

Cool! Looking forward to seeing everything unwrap.

[Jeff of Clubs]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:38 PM, Khorne said:

Security forces are hard at work at mitigating that threat though!

... or perhaps a conservative reactionary revolution that turns the kingdom into an empire, with even more power to the emperor. Napoléon III meets Roman Empire. However, it wouldn't fit with the current king's more benevolent character. He's a good guy. The conniving underlings are to blame for any shade on Oleon's shining reputation! 

Sounds like we have our first Royalist. The good king Phillip doesn't need to perish, simply becomes embattled to retain his Divine Right to Rule against the forces of 'mob rule'.

[Tezclatipoca]

This is excellent news ! 

I would (re) join the game for a new character and probably within the Sea Rats.

I enjoyed playing Felipe de la Manzana in Eslandola during the first shot of the game but got bored in Era II because of many complications. 

I would suggest less rules. Less complexity. Less virtual builds. And please ! no more NPC factions. It was too heavy to follow...

Please, consider less is more for a better Era in the future.

That was my 2 cents and it's been a while...

 

[Professor Thaum]

 

The return of Faladrin...

[Garmadon]

3 hours ago, Tezclatipoca said:

I would suggest less rules. Less complexity. Less virtual builds. And please ! no more NPC factions. It was too heavy to follow...

Please, consider less is more for a better Era in the future.

I think you will like it   That's just along the lines of what we've been looking at in court - can't wait til we get to start sharing some more of it with y'all! 

[Keymonus]

22 hours ago, Tezclatipoca said:

This is excellent news! 

I would (re) join the game for a new character and probably within the Sea Rats.

I enjoyed playing Felipe de la Manzana in Eslandola during the first shot of the game but got bored in Era II because of many complications. 

I would suggest less rules. Less complexity. Less virtual builds. And please! no more NPC factions. It was too heavy to follow...

Please, consider less is more for a better Era in the future.

That was my 2 cents and it's been a while...

 

I really hope to see you back! Your apple-based stories were nice to follow when I first joined BoBS...

About the rules: they have become very complicated in the last few years and, while they allow good management of a variety of scenarios we didn't have before (land wars, putting some rules to settlement development and troop recruitment...), they can get discouraging for newcomers.

For virtual builds, I'm a little split. Personally, I always build with physical bricks, as I don't really like the way they are rendered; moreover, my feeling is that they "pollute" a little the game dynamics, as it's definitely easier reaching a very large property size. On the other end, they allow people with smaller collections to get creative and join the game.

About the NPCs, I'm definitely against this. Introducing too many other nations seems impractical, but having them in the game was nice IMO. My builds are mostly army-based, and in the very few instances in which the main nations fought one another, we always had trouble handling things and often also grudges and bad feelings. The NPCs offer a good enemy/ally/element to introduce in the stories...

[Jeff of Clubs]

As to digital builds, I don't use them as it defeats the point of playing with Legos, in my opinion. That said, the economics of them are plain to see. I'd hate to put a 'paywall' between interested parties and the game itself. There is of course, potential for abuse but these can and should be handled on a per case basis. Never having used Studio, I don't believe that they are necessarily 'easier'. I'm sure they come with their own challenges. I can only see digital builds becoming more common in the future.

NPC factions tend to add a lot of building options for players and fleshes out the world. @Tezclatipoca, could you clarify a bit here? Was it that there was too much EGS interaction? Too much lore that caused upsets in builds? NPC factions have been used a lot to drive various narratives and not everyone wants to read a background page but as in any RPG, awareness of the world in which one is playing seems to be a prerequisite to participating in said world. 

To me, as a newer player, they crux of the issue with BoBS was the patch-work organization of lore and rules. This was a natural consequence of years of various hands participating without any single person responsible for coalating information. A more rigidly maintained Master Index would be quite useful. Many things should be linked there but simply aren't. Any and all Cannon and rules must be accessible from a single page and a clear 1, 2, 3 process for starting would help keep new people engaged. These responsibilities cannot fall to individual players for a litany of reasons; absences, mistaken understandings etc. In short we all need to be on the same page at all times. A single, accessible, and clearly written and prioretised page. The Master Index.

The index should be posted and overseen by a forum moderator so that regular updates may be performed. Quarterly, ideally.

Players who wish to be faction leaders need to understand that they have obligations to help their faction's, new and old. If they need a break, then they need to delegate these tasks to another temporarily and to frenquently be checking their PMs regardless. ie, get newbies into the faction chats asap, give them tasks if they ask for them that help them advance and learn the rules. Tutorial missions and the like. For all I can tell, Oleon alone has lost 3 new players this year alone. It could be anything that caused this but it could also easily be percieved apathy from the faction.

Long running events, such as the Lotus War, have a way of draining energy from leadership persons as their faction wants to do one thing but the ongoing narrative requires more of their time for another thing. Events should NEVER exceed 3-6 months, regardless of how that is brought about. Keep it fresh.

As to pvp type scenarios, well nothing risked nothing gained. A mechanic that states something like, "yes your actions can damage others work but it is 'bad karma' and will cost you as much or more" would be a good rule mechanic.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Jeff of Clubs

[Yperio_Bricks]

10 hours ago, Jeff of Clubs said:

To me, as a newer player, they crux of the issue with BoBS was the patch-work organization of lore and rules. This was a natural consequence of years of various hands participating without any single person responsible for coalating information. A more rigidly maintained Master Index would be quite useful. Many things should be linked there but simply aren't. Any and all Cannon and rules must be accessible from a single page and a clear 1, 2, 3 process for starting would help keep new people engaged. These responsibilities cannot fall to individual players for a litany of reasons; absences, mistaken understandings etc. In short we all need to be on the same page at all times. A single, accessible, and clearly written and prioretised page. The Master Index.

The index should be posted and overseen by a forum moderator so that regular updates may be performed. Quarterly, ideally.

I am not a game manager but i was thinking of forum organization too. Imo it is best to transfer all the existing BOBS stuff into a archive (sub-)forum and start with a fresh forum for era III. Thus forum navigation won't be overwhelming already at the start. Think of all the pinned topics etc. I imagine it was a challenge for new players. At least that is what i often felt. What do you guys think?

 

[Jeff of Clubs]

We also need picture resources to be propperly backed up. @evancelt has offered to do this but this cannot fall to one person alone. Maps, npc photos of kings, flags, pendants and family crests need to be accessible on more than one photo hosting sight and they also need to be vouchsafed against rampant tech company flipantry (see flickr) by way of USB flash drives. Stored these with your legos, so we always have backups.

In summary, BoBS didn't become a Byzantine jumble overnight, it happened because proper fail-safes against natural entropy were not implemented. 

@Yperio_Bricks, agreed. A top down overhaul of the subforum is pretty much a necessity at this juncture.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Jeff of Clubs

[Jeff of Clubs]

Members of the Court could benefit from being subforum moderators, answerable to the general EB moderators.

It is worth noting that I am willing to assist with a lot of these things and haven't formally put my foot forward though, as I am not sure what my life will look like two months from now. When I know, I will let you all know.

Thanks, ♧

[Khorne]

4 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I am not a game manager but i was thinking of forum organization too. Imo it is best to transfer all the existing BOBS stuff into a archive (sub-)forum and start with a fresh forum for era III. Thus forum navigation won't be overwhelming already at the start. Think of all the pinne topics etc. I imagine it was a challenge for new players. At least that is what i often felt. What do you guys think?

3 hours ago, Jeff of Clubs said:

We also need picture resources to be propperly backed up. @evancelt has offered to do this but this cannot fall to one person alone. Maps, npc photos of kings, flags, pendants and family crests need to be accessible on more than one photo hosting sight and they also need to be vouchsafed against rampant tech company flipantry (see flickr) by way of USB flash drives. Stored these with your legos, so we always have backups.

In summary, BoBS didn't become a Byzantine jumble overnight, it happened because proper fail-safes against natural entropy were not implemented. 

@Yperio_Bricks, agreed. A top down overhaul of the subforum is pretty much a necessity at this juncture.

Yes, definitely both of the above. There are too many pinned topics right now, with all of the starting information all over the place. There needs to be a clear starting point. Now you have the Quick Start Guide, the Intro Thread, the Master Index, ... Off the top of my head, perhaps there can be a general Lore Starter Guide and a Gameplay Starter Guide. The Lore explains the factions, story and world while the Gameplay guide explains how to build a character, choose a faction, settle land, etc.

Regarding the centralization of the pictures: I started doing this with @Ayrlego when we were working on the updated NPC factions. I made a central Flickr account that housed most of the pictures, but as you've pointed out: it's not an ideal solution as it is subject to the rules of Flickr.

Having the members of the Court be moderators here could help spread the workload as well, since now only a handful have the power to edit and lock topics and such.

[Tezclatipoca]

On 12/23/2023 at 10:15 PM, Professor Thaum said:

 

The return of Faladrin...

Maybe ... yes ...

On 12/23/2023 at 11:42 PM, Garmadon said:

I think you will like it   That's just along the lines of what we've been looking at in court - can't wait til we get to start sharing some more of it with y'all! 

I hope so ! I'll look forward to read what you've prepared for us all !

A sure thing : I will not be involved as I was by the past.

It will be, as a humble player, a post of this; and a post of that... from time to time.

@Jeff of Clubs : I could clarify my thoughts yes of course : The game lost me with the Terraversa war against Mardier... the lore was too complex finally and not really cohesive some times. As I said, I was an "old" player and I had been involved in Terraversa before this event. It bothered me to see what this little island had become after that. I thought I wasn't at my place anymore. so I stopped playing. That's it !

[Kai NRG]

6 hours ago, Khorne said:

Having the members of the Court be moderators here could help spread the workload as well, since now only a handful have the power to edit and lock topics and such.

Even without the moderation tag we generally have that power.  It's just that updating links and first pages is always hard to stay on top of.  We are going to try to be coding a system that will automatically collect links of things like builds in a settlement, etc., which should hopefully help a lot with organization.  Rules and stuff should all be one-time posts, so those should be easy to have in a master index as well.  We are doing our best to make this low-maintenance so the court can have fun with the game too!

Good point about the photos, we'll have to keep that in mind as we build the site where forms and such will be hosted.

[Khorne]

8 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

Even without the moderation tag we generally have that power.  It's just that updating links and first pages is always hard to stay on top of.  We are going to try to be coding a system that will automatically collect links of things like builds in a settlement, etc., which should hopefully help a lot with organization.  Rules and stuff should all be one-time posts, so those should be easy to have in a master index as well.  We are doing our best to make this low-maintenance so the court can have fun with the game too!

Good point about the photos, we'll have to keep that in mind as we build the site where forms and such will be hosted.

I did not you were already able to edit posts. I can only imagine the amount of time it takes to stay on top of things here . The automated system sounds hopeful!

For the photos, I can make a zip-file/WeTransfer with all the icons and stuff I have stored on my computer, so you can upload it to the new website?