Recent content by Smokeyjoewood

Good update. That final Empire song...awesome stuff!  It feels like you're walking into a packed coliseum.

It's interesting to look through the new book to see what settlements are considered "towns", since this caused some debate when 1.0 came out. For example, in the Reach, Tumbleton is referred to as a castle while Bitterbridge is considered a town.  In Dorne, Godsgrace and Vaith are towns in the book.  Though, adding two towns to Dorne probably overpowers them a bit in the game.  I think the balance in the current mod is good so I'm not advocating any changes, just food for thought.

Sold.

Admiral Nelson said:

The game probably isn't even in an Alpha state yet. Give them a chance.

Click to expand...

I guess I need to clarify; that was just my opinion on some features that might be nice to prioritize over graphics.  I wasn't criticizing Bannerlord, since it's quite possible that some of these features are added already.  I'll be purchasing the game on release day, regardless.  Even if the final product turns out to be just a prettier version of Warband, it would still be the best PC game available. 

Great work on the facial expressions.

I guess my concern is the amount of resources this sort of feature might require, and if that would make it more difficult to include actual gameplay improvements (like unique NPCs in towns instead of clones with no dialogue variety, killable lords, more political options, loot variety, etc.).  Facial expressions are a "nice to have" type of feature, rather than a "must have".

Also, having a kid and having him / her take over your house when you die would be a nice feature.  The time issue is a problem, yes, but this can be fixed my making time go by in a more realistic way.  For example: when you are "knocked unconscious" in battle, maybe a few months fly by while you heal (instead of 2 days of bed rest). If you are imprisoned, maybe a year or two goes by.  The system used by Sid Meier's Pirates would work.

The tavern looks promising.  Looking forward to hearing more about the gameplay.

The main thing on my wishlist is some sort of aging / death mechanic. Fighting immortal lords with an immortal hero took away from the replay value of Warband (though it still has far more replay value than most games out there). Add inheritance, reproduction, etc.  Maybe you pick a successor in your army, and have that person be a playable character when you die.

I'm hoping single-player campaign mode includes mortality, both for the player character and for the NPC lords. The possibility of a Game Over event when you get knocked out of battle (even if it's only a 10% chance or so) would make things interesting. Also, some sort of dynasty / inheritance mechanism would make the whole marriage thing worth the effort.  I.e. if you are killed in battle, you can play as your heir. Like Crusader Kings II, I guess.

I seem to be having an issue with the Ramsay quest. If this was addressed earlier, my apologies...I searched for the answer but couldn't find it. I defeated him and his band of thugs, and he appears to be dead since he's no longer hanging out in the Dreadfort. However, when I go to collect my award from Ser Rodrick, he says something like "Can I help you?" and my character opts to not press the issue, maybe intimidated by Rod's gruffness.  I did become a vassal of the North before completing the quest, could that be the cause?

Also, just a few lore-related critiques, and I only mention them because you're put a ton of work in making the lore near perfect:

- Crannogmen robbing and killing random travelers (especially those friendly with the North) seems out of character. In the books they seem more like they wish to be left alone and only attack enemies of the North (the Ironborn, for example).
- Saltpans should be accessible by boat.
- Not sure if this is a bug because this problem didn't exist in 0.94, but Gulltown and White Harbor are major ports and sea routes from places like King's Landing should be possible (maybe not as fast as in 0.94, but possible).

Of course all of that is just my opinion and you may see the lore differently.

Anyway, this mod is incredible and may actually result in my wife divorcing me.  Really great stuff...an example of how modding can turn a good game into a phenomenal one.