Overhaul of villages (long)

[Bismarck]

Fiefs need a large overhaul.
There should be much more upgrades and consequences.
The villages should have these upgrades for example:

Housing -> Allows more people to live in your town
Church -> People will be happier

Smith -> Two smiths forge weapons and armors

Farms -> Village produces wheat and cabbage
Ranches -> Village produces animals and horses
Slaughterhouse -> Animals are turned into dry meat, chicken, pork and sausages
Well -> Produces water, better hygiene
Irrigation -> Farms and ranches become more productive

Mill -> Wheat can be turned into flour
Bakery -> Flour and water is turned into bread

Training ground -> Units fight better (What about an experience system? The more experience a unit has, the better it uses its weapons and shields)
Barracks -> Trains a city guard you can hire
Palisades -> Village can't be looted easily

Maybe wood and stone would be needed to build one of these upgrades. These materials could be produced in a village near a forest/mountains or you have to buy them.

[Dyre Ironwill]

*clipped*

Yeah, something like that would be awesome.  Of course, each upgrade would involve time and money.  And a looted town could lose upgrades or be destroyed entirely.

Assuming a player is upgrading a town, it might be a wise decision for them to remain there while upgrading it to defend it, and their engineering skill could have an impact on how long it takes + man power and money involved.  It could be a good way to add a bit of life to the game.

[Ingolifs]

Hey balor, long time no see.

Said transitions from village --> castle should ideally take a long time. Not as long as real life (~10 years), but at least several months. After all, it seems most other processes are speeded up arbitrarily (population growth, the time it takes to heal from a significant licking), so I don't think changing a village into a small keep over a 3 month perood is unreasonable.

[EasyCo]

You know, I thought about sending this topic in a PM to Armagan.

Because I think these are just plain incredible ideas.

Ingolifs, with all the thought you put in to this, I can't believe you have not been asked to join their team.

I also read, and loved, your ideas.

It's like all the ideas I've had, but could never explain properly.

Anyway, in the tavern, I'd like to see a lot of people around talking to each other. You know, make it seem more, alive, for lack of a better word.

I also agree with the other thing you said. I do hate when I take time to post a well thought idea, only for it to get ignored because people are too lazy to read. 

Edit: I had some ideas, how do these sound? Though I know a lot are mainly wishful thinking.

Hello everyone.

I think going out to kill people is great and all, but it gets dull very fast.

Here's my general game experience:
1) Go to town
2) Get equipment, most of which still sucks badly
3) Go fight a party
4) Rest
5) Repeat first 4 steps until you die.

So this is what I think would be great.

1) More things in cities, other than getting rather bad equipment from a trader, and getting supplies, there is nothing to do.

2) Have people doing things in taverns. Maybe have some people with props on the table they are sitting at, and people standing around talking. (Talking when there are more voices in game)

3) Lets hope I word this right. More things going on while walking through town, see people doing random things.

4) Let the arena have an impact on the locals view on you. Say you win 20 fights in a row, and then people you talk to would say how cool that last fight was.

5) Better equipment in towns.

I know a lot of this is just wishful thinking for now, but I don't know how people can get into the game fully, when it gets dull after doing the same thing, and seeing the same thing, for the 1000 time.

Any comments on things that will make the game world feel more alive?

I thought of something.

In the beginning when it is hard to get an army and fight battles, why not join an existing army?
I would not mind being a part of an NPCs army until I can get my own troops. Imagine this:

You can ask someone if you can join their party for awhile, maybe four days, and fight battles with them. They would give you commands, and you would follow them. As you gain in rank you can start to help them with tactics, and even stay with them more, if you want. Then you could lead your own army, or stay with a friends party to help them. You would get paid, get specific equipment of the faction they belong to, and be able to choose what class you would be.

This is a raw idea, please leave tips to improve it, or just call me insane.

EDIT 2: An idea (mostly ramble) from the food topic.

"Yea, and start your own faction!

Get good cooking skill, ask a fellow noble to camp with you (his party joins yours for a bit) cook a good meal, and talk to the guy. Maybe ask how he thinks his king treats him, and, if influence is enough, and also when city's and fiefs can be taken, ask him to help you take a city, and start a new faction! With him as a general.

Then you can try to get more people to join your cause, and have an all out war!

Or just ask him to help you overthrow the king, giving you control of the faction, while giving the one that helped something as thanks. Battle for Sicily had this, and it was awesome. "

Don't worry, I'll hush now.

[Dyre Ironwill]

You know what would also be cool for future versions?  Going along with the idea of more interaction between NPC's, it would be really great if you could initiate a tavern brawl, or even be pulled into one on rare occasions.  Also, where do all your soldiers go when you enter town?  It would be nice to see a few footman tossing back an ale in the tavern, or throwing dice on occasion.

[Ingolifs]

You know, I thought about sending this topic in a PM to Armagan.

Because I think these are just plain incredible ideas.

Ingolifs, with all the thought you put in to this, I can't believe you have not been asked to join their team.

Wow. What a compliment, thanks.
Armagan already knows about this thread. I saw him taking a good read yesterday. If he needs any help, all he has to do is ask

In regards to your other ideas:
I've always wanted a bit more immersion when entering a town. Although these random walkers are pretty cool, I would like to see more animation and more thought put into them.

You come through the gates, trotting on your horse. The guard looks at you and gives a nod. You pass an old lady washing clothes in a basin. She looks up at you. You pass two teenage girls gossiping as they give their grandad a bath. Kids playing on the street with wooden swords stop what they are doing to look at your shiny armour. You see a scallywag in the background eating an apple. As you near the castle, you are approached by a young guard, obviously new to the job, who tells you in a pompous and self-righteous tone that the Count is expecting your company.

That'd be sweet.

I've thought about being able to join an allied army for some time, trying to figure out how you'd put it in. Problem is, it's not particularly fun being led around on the world map, not being able to control where you go. And given the world map AI, you could be meandering around in useless areas for weeks before you meet any action.  

[EasyCo]

I came up with a solution for that.

Maybe you could have some control, like you would click where you want to go, and, if he likes the plan, he we will go there.

But I agree with you, standing around in some useless area sounds boring. (But with all the raiding these people do...)

[PIL313]

I like the idea's in the first post, but i also think there shuld be a "lazymans" option were the village would run itself and the lord would not have to do anything to it. This option is more for those people who don't want this stuff in the game and prefer to just hack and slash and not worrie so much about the managing side of it.

[Ingolifs]

The whole point of the suggestion is that sort of thing doesn't happen. If you don't want to manage a village, you still have the ability to plunder the countryside with a small band of loyal knights and mercenaries. You just forego the capability of fielding a large peasant army and the possibility of getting involved higher up in the nobility. As I said before, greater power should come with greater responsibility.

On the other hand, the player shouldn't have to babysit the village. Most of its functions (working on housing or food, etc) should be automatic, and performed with a reasonable level of competence automatically. There will be some situations though where you might need to help out on a trade deal, or use them to get rich through hte market. What you do have to do, though, is protect them. With those large war parties roaming the map, they're not going to have much success protecting themselves.

[Llew]

Yes! Good! Perfect!

[Winter]

Wow. What a compliment, thanks.
Armagan already knows about this thread. I saw him taking a good read yesterday. If he needs any help, all he has to do is ask

I could code most, if not all, of your ideas. Would you be interested in joining the Chapter 2 team to make them happen? I'd quite like to expand Storymod's current village functionality with many of these concepts, as well as (for example) the ability to resettle villages elsewhere and the ability to recruit refugee parties to refill abandoned villages.

I've thought about being able to join an allied army for some time, trying to figure out how you'd put it in. Problem is, it's not particularly fun being led around on the world map, not being able to control where you go. And given the world map AI, you could be meandering around in useless areas for weeks before you meet any action.  

This wouldn't be a problem for Storymod, no party gets stuck in useless areas and action is plentiful. Hiring on with neutral armies wouldn't be a difficult thing to code at all.

Cunningly,
Winter

[Ingolifs]

Cunningly,
Winter

Very cunningly, indeed.

I'm afraid i'll have to refuse. Not only am I very busy (I don't even have time to work on towns for Khalid's LL mod), but the sum of my modding capabilities is a crossbow that can shoot more than once. In short, i'm an ideas man, not a coder.

If you do have any questions or problems though, that need to be sorted out in a conceptual capacity (not a coding one), don't hesitate to ask.

[borispavlovgrozny]

I like the idea's in the first post, but i also think there shuld be a "lazymans" option were the village would run itself and the lord would not have to do anything to it. This option is more for those people who don't want this stuff in the game and prefer to just hack and slash and not worrie so much about the managing side of it.

Or just don't get a village

[Winter]

Very cunningly, indeed.

I'm afraid i'll have to refuse. Not only am I very busy (I don't even have time to work on towns for Khalid's LL mod), but the sum of my modding capabilities is a crossbow that can shoot more than once. In short, i'm an ideas man, not a coder.

If you do have any questions or problems though, that need to be sorted out in a conceptual capacity (not a coding one), don't hesitate to ask.

Mainly I just want someone to help out with the grunt work, to save time so that I can concentrate on the complex stuff. Oh well. I guess it'll have to wait.

Impoverisedhly,
Winter

[Rahzahm]

Very nice...

What are your thoughts on controlling all the burning and pillaging? A real campaign wouldn't have all this scorched earth bullshit going on everywhere. Within a few game days most of the factions have over 50% of their villages completely burned and looted. That's just ridiculous, no conflict can sustain that kind of wild damage to their civilian infrastructure.

I think this would be fairly easy to fix. If a couple heroes from each faction actually did their job and stuck around to defend the villages, looting wouldn't be such an easy prospect. As it is, it seems like all the heroes are gung ho about finding a country to pillage, leaving no one to guard the roost.

The use of borders (seen or unseen), and an inclination to stay within them would make a kingdom much tougher to ransack. If heroes desire for conquest is unquenchable, perhaps there could be smaller, non hero, parties that stayed withing the borders as "guards". Or, if a village is looted, the king might dispatch troops to guard said village for a week.

In the games current state, there's no way I would live in a village. Paying all those taxes, only to be pillaged on a weekly basis?