M&B: Realism

[cfnz]

Sounds good, looking forward to see how it plays.

[SPISPOPD]

This will be so awesome.

[Zaro]

In case anyone is wondering, this is far from the planning & ideas stage. Much, perhaps even most of what I talked about has been implemented, along with many other smaller things. I would need to release a guide if I didn't have advisors in the mod . The political system and sub-factions could be a huge job, so for the moment no promises on whether that will make the first release.

[Zaro]

Hopefully. It's really no more complicated than the mercenary system, except that you're given some troops and equipment. The problem with doing mercenary service is while you have more freedom as you can simply serve someone else after the contract expires (or before it expires ) but you have to supply your own force and your own gear. If you lose a battle, you lose both of those and then have to pay a ransom. If you lose as part of the militia, you will suffer relation penalties etc, but you will be given some new equipment and some more men.

The loss of equipment and paying ransom after a battle is a killer. The ransom may be for most of your treasury, unlike when you get stripped of about 20% or so in native, and occasionally lose a valuable item. The good news is that bandits are cowards in small numbers that can be paid off (much cheaper than a ransom) and aren't a threat to a lord anyway. Your real risk of being captured and ransomed is during war. It's probably actually better to spend your money on improving your fief and political relationships than saving it, since you'll recover the ransom amount more quickly and the ransom itself will be lower, due to your lower net worth. The whole aim is to make losing battles punishing, partly to deter soloing but also to increase the importance of whether to fight or not. Months ago when I was working on a version of this mod for .903 I had included permanent death, but I think that would be too much in this version .

[Zaro]

_{BTW, death? Death please? Pleeeaaase?}

So in addition to losing your equipment, suffering shorterm/longterm or permanent injury, losing your troops and then paying as much as your entire treasury as ransom, you want a chance to die as well? Realistically the only way you would die is if you really pissed off the enemy (ah, maybe add a taunting feature!), apart from bad luck of course.

Edit, I should point out that if you're not knocked out in the fight, retreat (for you anyway) is always an option. The rules for leaving the battlefield would be quite complicated (they're not implemented yet) and have to consider party strengths, and whether you are the defender or the attacker should have little to do with it. If your party is significantly stronger then the opposition will let you leave, but if you're weaker, the only way to leave would be to retreat, perhaps at the cost of most of your army.

[froggyluv]

 
 This seems like my kind of mod ! And yes, Death please

[Zaro]

I'm just thinking add an option at the beginning of the game that allows you to turn on death of some sort, for the truly masochistic. It's wouldn't be hard to do.

No, and I'm going to implement a tutorial type guide anyway. He could toggle death, losing items after battle and the ransom amounts to make things easier, and the mod more accessible I suppose. Advisors in general are going to play a large role:
- Your steward (comes with fief) to help you deal with fief management ranging from requesting info such as revenue from rent, relations, your military expenditure and perform actions like improvements, various financial arrangements (such as buying your way out of campaigning) and recruitment. He may also be used for financial and political advice, or that may be handed to other npcs.
- There will be a veteran warrior npc who will advise you on combat and warfare.
- There will be a start-of-game guide to give newcomers an idea of what to do first, what to watch out for, how to progress (maybe saved for a companion?), and perhaps to toggle some settings such as death, ransom amounts and the extent of loss of equipment.

[Howlinator]

Execellent Idea, I've been attempting my skills at Empires, I like the sounds of this. if you want to join forces, i'd be happy to help.

[Khuran]

Some questions.

1) It seems to me to have read something about it. but: The amount of men you can take with yourself will be as in Native (with a max. number) or without limit but with greater morale penalities for large parties?

2) When you are knocked out in battle, will the battle finish with the retreat of your men? (I really HATE that thing -.-)

[Luisrah]

WOnderful mod! Keep up the good work.

And do the milita service thing. (Or atleast make it an option when you start)

[Zaro]

if you want to join forces, i'd be happy to help.

I'm not at the stage where I'm looking for help as I can handle everything that needs to be done for the first release. Thanks for the offer though .

Some questions

There is no hard restriction on your party limit. It all comes down to how many troops are available and whether you can afford to pay them. Morale won't be much of an issue if they're paid.

Do you mean do we leave the battlefield and go to the menu, or are you asking about whether the menu options have been changed?

[Khuran]

I mean "if you get knocked unconscious in battle, does the battle stop or you're implementing some observer mode?" 

[gutekfiutek]

Hi Zaro
I'm (with a lot help from Tul) thinking about adding helmets in fpp mode.
So when you wuold wear Great helmet you could see only through small hole. With lighter and more "open" helmets field of view would be bigger.
Reason to do this is that there is no penalty when you're using best helmets - additional 1 kg is just funny.
I need to test some things, but maybe you could include this in your mod?
It adds a lot realism - when playing in fpp - great helmet is good enough on horse back/in sieges, but on foot (when you have to see what's going on) other helmets are better.

[Sidus Preclarum]

Hi Zaro
I'm (with a lot help from Tul) thinking about adding helmets in fpp mode.
So when you wuold wear Great helmet you could see only through small hole. With lighter and more "open" helmets field of view would be bigger.
Reason to do this is that there is no penalty when you're using best helmets - additional 1 kg is just funny.
I need to test some things, but maybe you could include this in your mod?
It adds a lot realism - when playing in fpp - great helmet is good enough on horse back/in sieges, but on foot (when you have to see what's going on) other helmets are better.

I was wishing somebody did something along the lines...

[Cloud Breaker]

To be honest I really only need help with the more advanced scripting, mainly AI for diplomacy and campaigning.

I can help with mission_templates. Arena, tutorials, battles/sieges.

If you need some coding done, tell me what to do, and I will tell you if I figured the way out. If I'm successful, I'll post the changed codes here.