[Development] - Suggestions, Brainstorming Thread for V5

I hope You all enjoy V4. A month passed since the release. While You are now rich with game experience and probably have many new ideas how to improve Sword of Damocles it is probably a good time to start brainstorming for V5.

Using the occasion I wanted to thank FleshyStarfish and jasonxfri13th for maintaining a forum (I don't have much time to do that).



Please use this topic to post Your ideas. Everything You can think of. But please elaborate your suggestions!

SCENE MAKER NEEDED BADLY 


Modelers I have one excellent IM(not)HO idea. It is not directly connected to Sod. (As I was informed it was already done on the small scale in TLD) But I'm sure it will be real revolution in Fantasy mods for MnB.
Among some other more technical improvements there are 2 MAIN Features V5 will focus on.

New strategic experience:
- Caladria will be expanded. New oversea continent will appear.
- On this continent there will be Your Motherland conquered by The Legion.
- The basic idea is that Player comes from his Motherland with a task from his King to gather forces abroad (in Caladria) and come back some day to strike back.
- Meanwhile Motherland is Occupied. Still some of the loyal Lords are hiding in mountains and forests and fighting with The Legion.
- Legate Gaius Marius sees the threat and decides to build a fleet to invade Caladria.
- Sea battles will be added on very large scale.
- First Invasion wave will be huge but the Centurions will NOT respawn. Instead of that Legate will launch more and more Invasion waves (significantly smaller).
- The player will have a task not only to repel an invasion but also to build a fleet, and capture ports in Motherland to stop new invasion waves to come.
- Then The player will have to fight not only with the strong Legion forces that occupy Motherland but also with treacherous Lords from his own Motherland.

   
I wonder...
Should the Motherland continent have only chosen motherland kingdom (ie. only Antarians) or should it be constructed like Caladria?
How to construct the invasion?
How to make resistance that still fights with legion in motherland? Should it be a faction that still possesses some castles?
Should the traitors be separate faction from the Legion?

A story
- Storyline will be added.
- As suggested by FleshyStarfish the player will have a chance to find new clues in defeated Centurion's papers that will lead him further into the story.
- Also each defeated Centurion can have special items in his possesion.

   
I wonder...
Should it be linear or nonlinear story? Answer is NOT obvious. Linear give less freedom but allows to construct logic and good story.
While posting suggestions for the story put it in Spoiler  A good story must be constructed by one person but some interesting parts of the story and maybe some twists could be suggested separately.


Once again I appeal for Your ideas. What would make SoD better?

My discussion with FleshyStarfish about storyline:

[quote author=FleshyStarfish]
I've also been thinking about the storyline.  We could create one per civilization.  After every time they defeat a centurian commander they would receive a special "scroll" that would explain a little bit about what's going on in their homeland.  The scroll would be messages that this particular centurian was carrying and would contain information from the point of view of the Legion.  This would encourage players to take on the Legion and to help for its destruction.  After a while of destroying enough centurian parties, the player would receive a full story of what's going on in his homeland.  Then, upon the desctruction of the Legion he would receive the rights to sail back to his homeland and free it from the oppression that we speak about in reference to the companion characters.

Some things that would be of interest for the player would be having special items (swords, armor, scrolls, etc.) that would boost his capabilities.  Even better would be if the player could give these to his NPCs (including books).  This would be most useful after destroying the Legion and conquering the homeland.

Anyway, see what you think.[/quote]
[quote author=vonmistont]
Thats great Idea, the one about story! I'm not sure if it would be wise to make 5 different stories in the beginning. Let's stick to one at first and make it really good. The idea with clues and special items for defeating Centurions is excellent. I think it would be good to make Centurion capture chance 100%. And Legate himself will always run away unless all centurions are captured
[/quote]

Very good ideas you have there! I not experienced in modding but next week I have some kind of vacation so I will try to learn some stuff to help you.

First of all I appreciate all the work you did and I certainly enjoy your mod. I'm advancing quickly in the game and I am preparing myself for invasion, great mod.
For the moment I don't have any ideas what I would like to see in V5 but I will certainly think about it!

Thanks Papamje.

But please keep this thread for brainstorming only. I will be delighted to recieve praise in SoD main thread

To make this post productive I want also to list few other things for V5.

- Long avaited formations, morale, shieldbash etc. will be added. There will be ability to turn them off/on from within game menu.

- Strategic map will be much better in means of graphic and functionality.

- Lords will be probably made more obidient, jsut like patrols.

- I want to make lords specific for each faction. Possibly recrutation will be handled through storyline. You will have to advance in the storyline to recruit more lords.

-->How about the ability of killing lords but at the cost of several things like honor, etc.?
-->The ability to make a city the capital of your kingdom with some bonuses and stuff?
-->Family in his Motherland?
-->Ability to bribe other lords or centurions for joining your kingdom?
-->Spies? I once played a mod (can't remember very well) where you had the ability to assassinate other lords or infiltrate a castle and sabotage the food stocks.
-->More ideas coming up

well this might sound stupid but 
bout the recruiting lords... why not just make em cost money? like 2000 a month and if u give em fievs u get an discount ^^ and if ur broke u can fire em for time being (and rehire later) 

- Make Lord's Courage and Aggressiveness levels adjust to your reknown.
- Use the other unique factions (Atarian,Marian etc) that are'nt players have their own Kingdoms and loyalties. Perhaps also overseas.
-Imperials start out trying to 'persuade' factions to join them or submit with by first sending Emmissaries and Scout parties which increase in numbers and quality of troops  throughout the game. If their influence gets strong enough (like faith), they could convert your villages and/or lure away your lords.
-Give bios for all the Lords with known personality traits and include the possibilty of treachery
- Possible alliances that would have repercussions with other factions who may decide to go Jihad on you.

One thing I liked from older versions of mount and blade was that each Kingdom's info screen told you how many men they had overall. Can we find a way to bring that back, and include a similar feature for our own kingdom? If we wanted to tweak things so the armies were larger, it would be a good quick way to tell if the changes worked.

I noticed you talked about "special items" These special items should be availiable from ALL lords, like in native expansion. You should have around a 5% chance of finding one, (even just a glove would count) per lord defeated. Each faction (including the orginal ones) should have unique items based off of their faction and what they wear, so for the swadians a special swadian plate armor. And when you meet the rebels maybe they should give you a set of their factions unique armor either when you meet them or defeat the Legion as a award, before would be better so you can use it.
Also, a better looting system would be nice but that requires a lot of coding, maybe native expanion will help.
I also saw daedlus's mod and I liked how you could see the info of all lords and fiefs which should be added.

Dear all,

When making suggestions, please do not make them towards including mods that change graphics (not including banners, armors, etc.), sound, or things like custom settlements.

Please gear your suggestions towards what could make SOD a great mod.  Note: Suggestions of incorporating other mods' ideas is fine, however, again we're looking at game play instead of look/sound/etc. at the moment.

Thanks,

FS

I'd like to have the ability to choose (or even change) my kingdom's name without recurring to TXT editiing..

some castles would result in very lame names for kingdoms =D (Kingdom of Derchios isnt much menacing =P)

as for ideas for the mainland, make it so like, 90% of the land is occupied by the Imperials, Legate Marius shouldnt be the faction leader, but instead one of the lords to a emperor (which would lead to an idea of how those dozens of centurions were the troops of just ONE lord, truly menacing) and the other 10% is divided by the nations you can choose at start (not just antarians, or adenians, all of them)

Several new buildings would be cool, but there should be some sort of script that allows some of the enemy lords to take advantage of the benefits, this could be based on health and wealth factors of AI-controlled fiefs

And also, if possible

MERGE UNDEAD AN LEGION INVASION! xD

On the homeland: I think it should combine all the Kingdoms, dominated  by the Legion (led by an Emperor). It would be really great to eventually to head an alliance of Anatarian, Villianese and Adenian troops against the Emperor!

On Calradia: I'd love to help with the map, but unfortunately I have no experience in such things, and I have a tiny thing called a degree to be getting on with. I might try drawing up some concepts though!
                         
I also think tweaking the troop trees of some Kingdoms and tweaking money making (a major gripe for people playing SoD it seems!) would be good, although I'm sure you're on this one already.

Sieges: This is my only major idea actually, as I think SoD is very good already. I know sieges are a native issue, but I feel so restricted in them. the option to choose the number & type of ladders/towers is fundamental I think. Also (as mentioned above) alternatives to besieging, such as treachery, starvation and bribery would be wonderful.

-----

Finally, I'd like to add my thanks to vonmistont for continuing to update this mod! Thank you!

-Sobric

I think that the homeland should include all five player factions together, like a quasi-Calradia across the sea. That way, when you return home, you not only have the option to liberate your homeland, but you can create an alliance of Adenians, Villianese, Marinians, etc. to defeat the Empire once and for all.

I also think that formations (and maybe the Shield Bash and Spear Wall options) would be a nice addition to combat. It would help make pike-wielding foot soldiers more useful by stopping a cavalry charge, allow units to be grouped closer together or to form wedges, and it could allow a number other nifty strategies. One of things I like best about formations when applied to some of M&B's other mods is that the AI actually knows how to use 'em properly. Time and again, while playing Native Expansion, my enemy has used clever tactics in the middle of a fight to complicate or even defeat my own strategy. Unfortunately, I don't know how to code it in any shape or fashion. 

How about a option that makes you have a conversation with lord and kings.
The conversation will add like 5+ relation or if you start talking about something the lord/king doesn't like it will go -2.
It will depend on your char and pressure skills.
I have something like this in taught.

King Harlus:Well player what is is?

Options:
-Surrender or die.
-I wish to make peace to the Kingdom of Swardia.
-Have a conversation.      <----
-Leave.

Player:How about we have a little talk about the...

Options:
-War. <----
-Peace.
-Women. 
-Never mind.

(You start talking about the war and both agree that nords are a bunch of wildman)

King Harlus:Well Player it was nice to talk to you.

5+ relation.

King Harlus:Is there anything else?

Options:
-Surrender or die.
-I wish to make peace to the Kingdom of Swardia.
-Leave. <----


(You will be only able to have a conversation for like 2 times a day.)

ADD MORE LADDERS TO SIEGES

The Lords and Realms mod is currently adding extra ladders to every castle and town. So far they are done with the swadians and 50% done with the rhodoks in two days, I expect them to be done in one week, a max of 2 weeks.

THIS SHOULD BE ADDED TO V4 and V5
It is a major add-on, and would make lots more people play it, and I know you work on Lords and Realms with Nick so you should be able to get this tweak.

- Lords will be probably be made more obedient, just like patrols.

Click to expand...

This would be great!...however, I wouldn't want to see them behave exactly like patrols...because patrols don't  seem to attack anyone at all...at least I haven't seen them do that yet. If your patrol is patrolling around one of your fiefs, and a band of sea raiders ride by, your patrol SHOULD attack them...because they are a threat to your farmers and commerce. So I wouldn't want to see Lords brain dead like the current patrols are...but I would like to have the same control over Lords as we have with the patrols. But also...there are times when I don't mind Lords having a mind of their own either. It can be fun to sit back and see what kind of mischief they can get into.

So here's what I'd like to see...

A function like this...  "Do exactly what I say/Do what you want to do". But at all times they should have enough sense to attack bandit parties that ride right past one of your properties. And if we are still going to have patrols we need to tweak their AI somehow to make them react in a more sensible way toward enemies.

#2 suggestion...I'd like to see some way to influence the health of your fiefs other than just waiting for the event prompt to show up. I have fiefs with poor health and can't do anything about it. I'm sure that's been suggested somewhere but just thought I'd mention it here.

As they currently act, I actually find Lords to be more useful than Patrols. I would rather have an ADD aggressive Lord's party than an obedient passive patrol that only goes into combat when I give it the "Follow Me" command. At least Lords take initiative, fight on their own, and even capture castles. So, if it's possible to make them less easily distracted, that's cool, but not at the expense of their own initiative to take actions without you telling them to.

Basically, if it's possible to give them two orders:
Order 1) Follow me, but feel free to take initiative by chasing caravans, armies, villagers, butterflies, etc.
Order 2) Follow me, and only do what I tell to without getting distracted by caravans, armies, villagers, butterflies, etc.

1. Formations would be nice to have.

2. The ability to garrison troops (guards) in a village - may require a structure. This adds a little to the prosperity of the village and these troops join the fight in case of an attack together with the peasants. I think one of the mods have something along these these lines (Calradia Rising?).

3. Neutral caravans. Will travel between cities regardless of war state. Better defended that regular caravans (mercs, not only caravan guards).

4. Improve the manhunters troop tree. They are pathetic now (and in native). This would make them worthy of recruiting.

5. Bridge-castles: bridges can be made settlements, like castles, where troops can be garrisoned. This will require a new scene. It will offer a tiny income from "tolls" and block the advancement of enemy troops (or yours). You cannot built structures (maybe specific ones?) or hold prisoners there. A "siege" will require no time and the best of all - we get to fight on a bridge! armies spawn on opposite sides, the defenders side may have a wooden guard tower or some sort of barricades. The biggest problem is how to prevent troops from walking across the water to the other side instead of across the bridge (transparent fence?).

Bridge battles would be cool but it would be nice if there were more bridges.
Neutral caravans is a very good idea...
Garrisoning villages is a maybe... I think eventually there will be workers (like tax payers, so not a real unit) so adding units for more prosperity would not work out, plus you would pay to garrison and get prosperity which is cheap.
Formations are always nice

Bridge battles would be awesome.
And as I mentioned earlier, I think formations would be a good addition.
Can't say I like garrisoning villages though. I sort of like the idea of rich settlements with no standing army. Gives a good reason for patrolling and coming to the rescue of the villages. If they had garrisons I might be tempted to not visit 'em anymore...