Party size at just the wrong number

[mypal]

Maybe it just seems this way to me. But at the beginning of the game, coming straight from native M&B, i was thinking 100-105 was a big number to start the party limit at. So i quickly filled up my party with mercenaries. After a few minutes i realized that just over 100 is too big to catch or bait small bands of raiders even in the 40s. And its too small to take on party's of lords with 100-120. So I'm either stuck with recruits or if i even win against a lord i take heavy Losses. Anyone else feel the same way? And maybe just my tactics.

 

[Queue]

If I have that many men I can usually beat up to 150 party size minimum. Must be your tactics.

 

[wannyboy]

Only 150... Lol :p

 

[Afterstar]

Play smart.In this game you need to become a merchant before you become a Fighter.

Read my strategy post here and follow the preparation period.Make sure to check the link I posted in there as well.
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,168529.60.html

 

[nox]

I've mentioned this before but I'm really considering making the party size a soft cap.  I want the player to have to worry about managing their morale, food and pay - not some arbitrary limit that prevents them from making those mistakes.

Thoughts?

 

[Cerlin]

I think a soft limit is a good idea.  The smaller army will have stronger morale, cost less, travel faster, but the big one will have its usefulness too.  It would be nice if morale effected the player more when they choose to go over the soft cap, but when they are under it the morale will be pretty easy to keep high if you win. 

 

[nox]

Basically my idea at this point would be - game operates normally so long as you are under your soft cap which would be listed in the party size report.

Over the cap, you would have an effect that scaled up somehow which would
- penalize tactics bonus
- not give tactics bonus for troops > soft cap
- incur morale penalty
- incur overworld movement bonus penalty

so you can have more troops, and it might even be situationally beneficial but what it really does is lets you move large #s of troops from one place to another, and to bulk up to throw bodies at an enemy for big sieges.

 

[mypal]

If I have that many men I can usually beat up to 150 party size minimum. Must be your tactics.

With all of the mercenaries being recruits? And its not that i cant beat them, its just annoying taking that many losses. And I'm sure we all have different standards of how big a loss is to us.

 

[nox]

If I have that many men I can usually beat up to 150 party size minimum. Must be your tactics.

With all of the mercenaries being recruits? And its not that i cant beat them, its just annoying taking that many losses. And I'm sure we all have different standards of how big a loss is to us.

I find in the early game that surgery becomes one of the most important skills to have. 

I generally pick up a low-level NPC and create a group called 'aides de camp', and jack his int and use him as a surgery / pathfinding mule.

 

[Baron Conrad]

I like your idea of a party size softcap. As it is I find myself tweaking the party size to be unlimited but I would like to have some penalties for having that many men.

 

[Afterstar]

Basically my idea at this point would be - game operates normally so long as you are under your soft cap which would be listed in the party size report.

Over the cap, you would have an effect that scaled up somehow which would
- penalize tactics bonus
- not give tactics bonus for troops > soft cap
- incur morale penalty
- incur overworld movement bonus penalty

so you can have more troops, and it might even be situationally beneficial but what it really does is lets you move large #s of troops from one place to another, and to bulk up to throw bodies at an enemy for big sieges.

I assume the original developers balanced the game with the hard cap in mind.
Wouldn't removing the hard cap affect the balance of the game?
If you remove the hard cap,does that mean that one would be able to gather an army as big as he wishes?
Wouldn't that allow someone to gather a massive army from all the mercenary camps and conquer the entire map with ease?

Also something else Nox.
Isn't it possible to put a system in place that evaluates the current situation of the player and accordingly decide the strength of the bandit groups to spawn.The system could potentially take into account, your current army value and amount of total gold you have, how many castles/cities you own, AI difficulty setting set in the options and more.
This will make it,so that a player has a fair chance against bandits at the beginning and later on in the game, they would provide a challenge and a nice way to fight and acquire experience.

 

[StinkyMcGirk]

Basically my idea at this point would be - game operates normally so long as you are under your soft cap which would be listed in the party size report.

Over the cap, you would have an effect that scaled up somehow which would
- penalize tactics bonus
- not give tactics bonus for troops > soft cap
- incur morale penalty
- incur overworld movement bonus penalty

so you can have more troops, and it might even be situationally beneficial but what it really does is lets you move large #s of troops from one place to another, and to bulk up to throw bodies at an enemy for big sieges.

My only qualm here is that tactics is already nearly irrelevant.  Penalizing it is, of course, intuitive, but I'd argue that it makes an already trivial skill absolutely pointless.

Also, currently the biggest reward to the player for fighting against tough odds is gaining renown, which in turn grants the player greater power in sieges against larger cities or talking on larger armies.  Why not just do a simple tweak to grant a flat bonus to party size related to player level...  or improve the benefits of the leadership skill to promote charisma builds?

 

[wannyboy]

If I have that many men I can usually beat up to 150 party size minimum. Must be your tactics.

With all of the mercenaries being recruits? And its not that i cant beat them, its just annoying taking that many losses. And I'm sure we all have different standards of how big a loss is to us.

Training and surgery are 2 magical skills

 

[Assassin123]

Mine was low because I think I changed the Campaign AI so I put it to normal and my party skill was down by 120, more fun