A question for all of the Battle Runners.

[Tarrot]

Preface: This isn't meant to be a criticism thread, this is meant to be an investigation/inquiry thread.

Ok, so in the latest turn, it took a week to get a battle that featured some action, and only roughly 3 turns of action before it was interrupted by an ad-hoc duel. This is becoming much, much more the norm rather than the exception to the rule with battles, and I could certainly cite a ton of examples from this version to prove the point. On a semi-frequent basis, one in-game month will take as long, if not longer, than one real month. I feel, in many ways, this hurts the flow of the sim, especially if you're not one who has a vested interest in these battles. What I want to do is come up with ideas for a new battle system that aren't pretty much rejected immediately (either my/Kent's idea of inputing our actions with a map updating software in semi-real time, or my idea of tactics after each turn with the idea of each turn being ran within 24 hours, any battle runner being able to pick up the tactics and go with it) as some examples. Additionally, as many of the dedicated tactics writers could attest to (I know Kent and Xeni have both complained about this, I have as well), doing tactics is a pain, especially if you're in a case like I'm in where if you aren't lucky when tactics are due, you're dealing with super long days and little time to write tactics, and the other people in the kingdoms are, well, afraid to even try to do it. Basically, I want a better system, and I want to know what goes on behind the scenes with the battles so I can at least propose ideas to improve it. Basically, I want to know this:

(short version) What takes so long to run the battles?

(long version) When going through with the battles, what are the issues. How long does it take to interpret the tactics, to set up the battle in the battle calc, to run a turn without action, to run a turn with action. For a 5 turn battle, how much is done in separate parts? Is it the number of units on a battlefield which slows it down (since I noticed that going from 5 to 10 units has increase the battle times), or implementing the tactics, or dealing with the battle calc? What is the most time consuming part of running battles? What's the most annoying part of running battles? What would you like to change most about how the battles are run, as a battle runner?

Thanks in advance to any who answer my questions, short or long version.

[Patricoo]

You should know you can't just make threads in this place. If you want to take your question to the suggestion thread, you can.

[Gjallar]

Preface: This isn't meant to shut down your inquiry so much as it is meant to shut down extra threads >.>


For this turn we have had a number of things happen. First off I'll cover the Jian Ye battle a bit. The actual battle of Jian Ye was run rather quickly and there was much debating over the ensuing three, or was it four, days. The decision on the battle wasn't reached quickly or without a lot of thought. The battle of Xiao Pei probably would have been posted three days ago too but heres what happened. Someone rolled a 99 and we could not be sure if that was actually a maxed out roll. We truthfully spent a few hours searching around for where the 100's went. So that ended up killing that battle for a few days. Because running the sim is our spare time hobbies even little things like this, as silly as it sounds, end up derailing the battles. For Xia Pi, no one really did much yet besides ninja around.

As for inputting tactics into some battle thing and running them semi live, my mind instantly wonders how is that going to actually be secure? Also, creating new threads is not the thing to do to discuss or suggest new ideas. You know that.

On running battles. How long does it take to interpret tactics? For Kent's tactics usually a long time. (and other all encompassing tactics writers like him) For other people's tactics usually not too long for each order. The set up for the battle calc usually can be done quickly. Most people don't manage to belt out a whole battle in just one sitting if it is complex. The most annoying part of running battles? Absurdly long and repeated conditional tactics. What would I change about battle tactics? Place a character limit on them. (You may see more on this later )

In any case, this thread is now Locked.