Feasts are a controversial part of warband; many infamous jokes point to Swadia's constant feasting as a contributing factor to their difficulties in aquiring and holding territory as it took lords and particularly generals attention away from leading campaigns.
However I think their absence leaves a great void and that is in the need to at least "pretend" or play along with going to events or tournaments, and increase ones standing with lords and ladies through displays of wealth and festivities.
Moreover, at least in viking conquest (Forgive me, I cannot remember if it was in native warband) you suffer a relationship loss or penalty from ignoring invitations and not attending a lords feast.
However I think their absence leaves a great void and that is in the need to at least "pretend" or play along with going to events or tournaments, and increase ones standing with lords and ladies through displays of wealth and festivities.
Moreover, at least in viking conquest (Forgive me, I cannot remember if it was in native warband) you suffer a relationship loss or penalty from ignoring invitations and not attending a lords feast.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE FIRST:
Diplomacy:
These additions and changes would of course require some groundwork to implement; first and foremost being adding diplomacy changes like the mod 'Diplomacy'.. that is war weariness, and other factors that encourage periods of peace long enough that there might be some room for the player to go about to festivals and feasts and the like rather than fighting armies.Calendar Changes:
Secondly, and to a degree this is a lesser need; would be changing the calendar system to a 12 month warband calendar. Now this need not be strictly speaking "30-day-months", but having calendars that are capable of having 3-sections per season, with any number of days within those subsections."Twelve Months?.. But it already takes to long for my kids to age into adulthood"
The Solution to this is to add a x6 or x10 "Fast-Forward" mode in addition to the presently existing fast-foward modes; understand that this might not be entirely feasible and might present additional issues however.
THE ACTUAL IDEAS:
Feasts:
I'm not sure I really need to go into feasts so much, but they should resemble at least in some respect, those feasts in warband and it's derivatives. Basically you get relationship bonuses from doing the meet-and-greet and gladhanding with nobles,
Festivals:
There should not only be Feasts at fancy castles you should be encouraged to attend, local festivals in your towns or villages should also be something the player-character might see fit to attend, especially as a new nobleman attempting to court his subjects. This could offset some of the "from a different culture" negative modifiers, and help the player to integrate into their new holdings through popular support of the local population;
Fashion:
If you show up to a fancy ball wearing dirty rags, this should not endear you to your host or the other guest. While there might be some room for tolerating such a careless act there should in general be some manner of discouraging such indifference towards these events and instead you should be encouraged to actually spend the vast quantities of cash you're making.
How Would This Be Done?:
this could be done through having an additional set of stats on every item of clothing: simply two to maybe at most four values that indicate things like "How Formal is this?" or "Is this too flashy", additionally there might be things that are seen as either "foreign" or "outdated". this would all be tied to a score that npc's would read that in turn would effect how they might react/percieve the player (or his companions).
LONGSHOT 'Strech' Suggestion:
Additional Minigames:
Part of feasts and festivities was drinking, dancing, etc. So call it crazy but I think that there should be room for some kind of "rhythm" minigame of dancing, (culturally unique to the different cultures of course)..
Maypoles and other popular Ren-Faire gimmicks would be encouraged, archery competitions.
Drinking would be nice, especially if it meant that the player would have to slow down going through dialogue trees with NPC's as their speech would either get impaired or they'd risk blurting out something that would offend the person they were talking to, would also perhaps add an additional layer of challenge to dances.
All of this is of course, not something I see realistically happening