BattleMaster
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| BattleMaster {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tom Vogt, Szymon Trapp, Philippe Veillette, Tom Struik, and Kristian Thy {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | January 1, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Multiplayer roleplaying strategy |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | Web {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
BattleMaster is a free browser based massive multiplayer online role-playing game (BBMMORPG) which also features heavy elements of a turn-based strategy wargame.
The major difference between BattleMaster and other average BBMMORPGs is that, one cannot win this game. Game mechanics and playing worlds in BattleMaster are purposely designed to let total domination impossible. The game therefore has no need to reset, and as a result, some player realms have existed for more than 5 real years while other realms be formed and destroyed by players, virtually giving the game its own developing history as lived and written all by the players.
Contents |
Mechanics
The quasi-medieval fictional world of BattleMaster is consisting of several playable continents of different sizes. Every continent is further divided into numerous regions and cities, with different climates, productions, resources and populations. A city and several regions form a duchy, and several duchies form a realm.
The main theme of the game is on the warfare between realms rivalling each other over the control of more regions. These realms have various government types, including Democracy, Republic, Monarchy, Theocracy, and Tyranny.
The player is in control of an aristocratic family which in turn could contain a maximum of three controllable characters, called "Troop Leaders". Each Troop Leader can choose a career at one time, called "Class", including Soldier, Cavalier, Hero, Bureaucrat, Mentor, Trader, Infiltrator, and Priest, which brings different traits and abilities to the character. Troop Leaders inside a realm also own diffent "Ranks" according to the hierarchy. There are Freemen, the lowest class reachable only by a ruler diputing nobility, Nobles, the lowest rank usual; Knights, who have sworn fealty to a liege; Lords, who command a region; Dukes, who command a city; and Council Members, the government officials, being the Ruler, General, Judge, and Banker.
Aside from Class and Rank, other important attributes Troop Leaders possess are "Prestige" points and "Honour" points, which can only be accumulated mainly through the battles. There are certain game options only available for Troop Leaders with higher Prestige or Honour points.
Each week in every region and city, gold is generated in the form of taxes to be handed to Troop Leaders for financial usage, hence the more regions a realm could control, the more gold a realm can receive on each tax day. Gold in the tax pool is then distributed to each Troop Leader in different amounts by various measures in the form of bonds, which need to be transferred into gold in banks inside cities before can be spent on various activities.
There are also a few attributes not connected with the characters but the player's family, for instance family fame, family wealth, and family origin, each can trigger special game options as well when certain conditions are fulfilled.
Each turn in game lasts 12 real hours. At the beginning of every turn, each character will receive 8 new "Hours" (much like action points) inside the time pool, which can be spent onto a variety of actions requiring different Hours to complete. A maximum of 12 Hours can be stored inside the time pool, while more unused Hours will be wasted and cannot be brought into next turn.
Communication with other Troop Leaders is an important part of the game. While sending a message to another Troop Leader in the same realm is fairly easy, trying to contact Troop Leaders in other realms are much more difficult. Joining a guild or a religion will help establishing connections in other realms.
Gameplay
The game has been designed to be low-impact, a player can usually read messages, and do all their character's actions, in a few minutes. But as there is more information available towards the end of a turn, there is some advantage to logging in later.
There are many options for each class, and a certain number of some classes are required to manage a realm, a degree of co-operation is required among the Troop Leaders in order to maintain, defend or enlarge a realm. As the game was created as a role-playing platform, this co-operation is the key to a successful realm. There are also many in-game mechanisms that prevent a realm from growing too large, and monopolising a continent, ensuring constant flux in the number and size of realms.
The players actions are "resolved" at the end of each turn, which takes place at 05:00 and 17:00 GMT. After the turn, each character receives messages regarding the results of battles, region moves, local events and status reports. The player can then use this turns allocation of "hours" to direct their Troop Leaders actions, such as Training troops, repairing equipment and doing region maintenance.
The game has been declared a "permanent beta test" as new features are added constantly and it will likely evolve as long as it exists. This is a feature that many players find enjoyable, as there is an active mailing list and wiki, so it allows the players to contribute ideas and features into the game.
The game uses a community approach to fend off cheaters and other abusive people. The system works on two levels: At the automated level, the game server tries to identify cheaters, and assigns rating indicating the amount of cheater-typical behaviour seen in each player. At the community level, players record how much they trust or how well they know other players, and can vote abusive players out of the game to protect themselves.
History
The project was created in 2000, originally as an add-on to the game SpellMaster by Tom Vogt. BattleMaster is still active in 2006 and has more than 1000 players.