1. A Sanctuary can now be built by using Order #455, a sole order for the Ruler. This replaces the previous idea of an encampment. A Sanctuary allows a kingdom to survive without controlling any PC's, but it must be built prior to losing the last PC, or before there is no PC that the capital can be relocated to due to a non-allied group blocking potential relocation of the capital.
2. In the past, any non-allied group with a single brigade or greater at a PC would block the relocation of a capital to that PC. Effective April 16, 2015, only a group capable of laying siege to the PC, i.e., the group has a value vs. PC > the PC defense, may block relocation of a capital to that PC, whether through order #355 Relocate Capital, or by the capital falling through combat.
3. Sea Power and drowning.
Up until late 2014, and possibly for some aspects into 2015, there was code in place that resulted in loss of brigades and characters if the number of fleets in a given sea was below the number of brigades in a group in that sea. For example, if the Ancient Ones had 3 fleets in the Sea of Mystery, and had a group at its capital at sea area PA with 3 brigades, it could not receive reinforcements, it could not recruit, and if a fleet was sabatoged, it would lose a brigade and potentially characters. These effects were collectively called "drowning". All of that has been eliminated at this point.
Now, all of the above has been eliminated. The only consequence of not having sufficient fleets is that a group cannot move if it has insufficient fleets (fleets < brigades) to transport it. The group can receive reinforcements, recruit, and the sabotage of a fleet does not result in casualties to brigades or characters.
Players are reminded that a battle at sea is decided by the navies. Specifically, the number of fleets, the quality of fleets, and leadership - but brigades have no effect on naval battles. Brigades are lost when fleets are destroyed in naval battles, and characters may be lost. So a kingdom with a capital at sea must be on guard against having a weak navy vs. a potential enemy. If a naval power learns of your capital, it could move there via order #710 or #715 and force a naval battle that could result in the destruction of all brigades and characters. Ouch. There are advantages of having a capital in a sea area, but there is a danger if groups remain there without a strong navy.
4. Leader death in combat independent of spells or weapon artifacts is based on the percentage of casualties to the group. The base chance is 100% of group casualty percentage for captains, 70% of group casualties for Generals, 30% for Marshals, 15% for Marshal II, and 10% for Warlords. Example: a group takes 40% casualties. A captain in that group faces a 40% chance of death, a Marshal a 12% chance of death. This is modified by kingdom, such that Ranger leaders, for example, have a further modifier to reduce their base chance of death. Again, this is independent of spells and artifacts.
06-26-2015, 03:32 AM (This post was last modified: 06-26-2015, 04:19 AM by Ry Vor.)
Hadn't posted anything here in awhile.
Main reason is Uncle Mike has automated most processes as our players have experienced, so instead of me trying to get games out at 9pm, they are basically handled by the code and are out by about five minutes after noon, and I don't think we have had a setback. So we haven't needed to post on which games go out.
Lest that by construed as anything negative for everything Cipher did, let me assure everyone we would never have gotten to this point without Cipher resurrecting the Clipper code that we inherited and put in fantastic and hard work to get us up and running and make the changes we did pre-2015. Cipher is presently not active in development, but whether he comes back or not on that front, his contributions will never be forgotten, and meanwhile we are pleased Thalion continues as a player.
We generally have been running about 20 active games over at least the last year. That's been pretty steady, although we miss some of our players that have dropped for reasons, from early on before we had the order checker utility or player aids for it being too complex/confusing or easy to make mistakes, or too quick for the players that were used to in the mail days to two weeks between turns, or occasionally a personal spat on the forum which never ends well, or the bumps from moving from Clipper to Java.
So we are now at the point where some marketing can begin, but again, our best chances to increase the player base is from the existing players, i.e., word of mouth.
This week we started Titans game #226 Warlords and #178 Steel Anonymous. We have started over 130 Alamaze games of various varieties since we started The Resurgence, so about exactly one a week on average. We, I'm pretty sure are carrying the PBEM flag for the world. Just sayin'.
I am still working on The Choosing which is almost like a new game with all the advancements, and its been awhile since I had to dig down that deep on so many areas and so much detail. I hope players appreciate that with how Alamaze exists in present form, the complexities and the attention to detail. So all of that, or much of it, has to be recaptured with 3rd Cycle, which will have The Choosing as the first scenario. This time requirement / delay is all on the designer, it has had nothing to do with Uncle Mike who actually has been ahead of me just on notes being coded instead of a full design doc. I've not had a good past two weeks, but think I'm getting back on track.
We appreciate that players are loyal to Alamaze and that they are pleased it is running better than ever. Tell your old rivals and allies how far we have come and get them to come back. That will allow games to start faster, some more money for development, and to move to Kingdoms of Arcania in 2016.
Oh, and if that cranky guy Rick in support gets testy, just blow it off as he is in the wrong job in support, and wasn't taught how to be more amiable.
Regarding server processing turns October 6, I checked with Soft Layer (server host), and they had this message:
Event Details
View Recent Unplanned Events
View All Unplanned Events
ID: 22519341
Type: Unplanned Event
Subject: SSL VPN authentication issues
Start Date: 06-Oct-2015 19:36 UTC (Oct 06, 2015 02:36PM CDT)
Latest Update
06-Oct-2015 19:42 UTC (Oct 06, 2015 02:42PM CDT)
As of 05-Oct-2015 21:51 UTC Customer may experience SSL VPN authentication failures due to an update released on 30-Sep-2015 to our VPN management systems. During frequent updates to SSL VPN configuration via various automated interactions, one or more users on an account can be prevented from authenticating.
If you have a SSL VPN user affected by this issue, please contact our Support staff via ticket, chat, or phone. As an immediate workaround Support Staff may manually initiate an update to the SSL VPN configuration to rectify the issue.
An update to address this issue is in progress, but no estimated completion time is available.
I have initiated a reboot of our main game server and hope that helps, but I think the scheduled processes are all, well, scheduled, not checking for later actions not exectuted.
Just a note, I did have a fun time with my friend of 30 years that I hadn't seen in about 4 that was in the very first Alamaze game (and was his best man at his wedding), so have been "away" for about 3 days. Back tomorrow. Have looked at the postings on the recently completed games - some good stuff.
I'm also about to turn over to Mike about 75% of what he needs for The Choosing in the next couple days.
So sorry to not have access to support and some other stuff, but its been a long time (a year I believe) since I've been away for a few days. Just sort of saying hello I guess and have gotten a couple ideas on how to fix that support / signup issue. Again, I am proud of our community enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to The Choosing: getting first in Mike's hands, and then out to you. I really think this will be our best work.
I don't relish this, but it seems a reminder is called for: invoices are due the day they are issued. We normally have 90% of players doing so, but lately there has been a drop off. Again, we are not getting rich, don't worry, its not that we are greedy, but we do have bills to pay.
We made some updates to the website today. We're drafting a news release for Suspense & Decision Magazine.
Today was the first day in memory there weren't various deadlines. Kind of refreshing.
One player in The Choosing beta has had difficulty logging in to enter orders. Please be sure you can do that asap. Don't wait until Sunday. You should have the same login you had in 2nd Cycle.
