[V0.11] Custom settlements Beta testers

Before I go very deep into the new custom settlement system, I would like to have feedback about it, so I am looking for a few dedicated Beta testers. The goal would be to DL V0.11, focus on custom settlements, using cheats if necessary, and give me some feedback about it. Any volunteers ?

Sure, why not, I'll do it.

Me too. I really want to see your mod succeed.

Thanks a lot guys, you will find a dl here
http://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/3611/?

Nothing great, just tell me if you like the new ystem, and if yes, how you who like me to expand it. Increase complexity, decrease...

If you can try the treasure hunt feature, it would be nice too.

Thanks! I downloaded it.


Town recruitment

Special Parties


Buying Resources

I'll add to this when I do more testing. Something that's made it difficult to play legit is that the towns don't have much gold to sell all the stuff I steal. I'm also really slow with the failed skill checks so it takes a pretty long time to build up the money.

I want to say you did very, very, very good work on the new search for resources thing. My guy doesn't have the skill to harvest from them yet, but it's great to know that I can instantly pull up anything in the surrounding area that I might have the mastery to harvest. It took ages in the old version to find a spot to use my skills, and now it's better than ever.

I like your mod a lot.

Still in testing... -  BUT New bug: Hunting will cause the inventory screen to pop up, with the "results" on the left side. But screen can't be left, instead, new results (and xp bonus) appear on the left.

Old bug? Recruiting bandits seems to have no limits, despite what the screen says.
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Treasure Hunt: Very nice feature! I love it!  The reward seems too little though, it's like spending denars for a bit of xp only, and with luck finding the "treasure", you get maybe 60% of what you spent to buy the map.

One thing...there is always a "quest cancelled" message, after either "quest succeeded" or "quest failed".

Custom Settlements: Seems to work fine so far, though explorable options are too little at the moment and besides taxes, makes little sense.
I still wish there was a little more to do with existing settlements, and maybe build some connection between custom and existing fiefs.
Peasants...don't upgrade into anything?

Overall, I find that custom settlements are a nice fresh idea, but not too interesting, as they only seem to generate some denars and knowledge.
It would be more interesting for settlements to play a role, like s.o. already suggested, "be attackable by AI lords", or give out special quests, special shops, and a tavern to recruit troops (and bandits with low honor).
It would be nice to be able to build guildhouses.

And building a settlement seems too easy and cheap at the moment, and it's like no neighboring faction cares that a mercenary simply builds a new city, without paying taxes.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to play an d feedback
Considering my knowledge of the game, and Scripting capacities, I can hardly imagine having the capacity to fully implement the custom settlements into the whole calradian biosphere. So they are very limited in this prospect. Maybe making them into a new player faction could help resolve this. But I am very pessimist about this integration.
I can see about transfering troops to the settlement, but I don't think they will be usefull, because the settlement won't be attacked. Maybe find other use for it, providing other types of benefits.
I already added settlers transefers between settlements, did you guys try this little feature already ?

I don't have any stone or wood yet

Click to expand...

Sadly, a bug. You should have some. Any wooden area or stone outcrop would be helpfull. I also plan to be able to transfer specialists, either to the settlement or special gathering spots, to increase ressource gathering. Also some special buildings to construct, depending on your tech/knowledges.
Hunting bug screen, I will check, this is something I started working on at the start of V0.11, instead of a blend game menu, I would like the gathering process to give its resuslts in UI similar to looting, for example. Thanks for reminding.
I will check the bandit recruiting, too. This is exactly the kind of bugs reports I need. It is impossible for me to test all features, because :
1/ there are many
2/ they span over a long period of time
3/ occurrence can be very rare.
This si why I need feedback

Treasure hunt: It is really a basic feature. It can be easily tweaked to give more loots, special items, spawn bandits, and so on. I will increase the loot output. But the amount of money you gain is tied to the length of the hunt. The more steps, the better the loot. So when you start this treasure hunt, you really have no idea what is going on (neither do I, because it is randomized ^^). However, I will increase treasure.
And glad you like it, it was pretty hard to code, but fun ^^
The quest is cancelled, so that you can find a new map, and start again. You can only have one hunt going on at a time.

Custom settlements:
Yeah, I wish there was more to do. I planned to add crafting stations, guilds, just like in towns. However, before increasing the amount of available options, I would like to set the basic systems right.
Peasants don't upgrade (or I should check...) But according to your discoveries and knowledges, there are many troops types to recruit: numid cavalry, zulus, hoplites, legionnaries, varegues, heavy horses, light horses..... However, this is definitely tied to your knowledges. If you tend to go for an economy focused civilisation, you will make a lot of money, but won't have access to that many different troops. And thoses special civilifaction(tm) troops are upgradeable.

Overall, I find that custom settlements are a nice fresh idea, but not too interesting, as they only seem to generate some denars and knowledge.
It would be more interesting for settlements to play a role, like s.o. already suggested, "be attackable by AI lords", or give out special quests, special shops, and a tavern to recruit troops (and bandits with low honor).
It would be nice to be able to build guildhouses.

And building a settlement seems too easy and cheap at the moment

Click to expand...

I agree with you 100% (beside the troops, you should have access to proper troops if you have proper knowledge)
Quests, shops, recruit troops, guilds, crafting, bandits, are definitely on my todo list for custom settlements.
What cost should be paid to set up a custom settlement ? 10 000 ? 20 000 ? More ? You know, I must admit I barely played Native ^^ I jumped into modding because I so much wanted to increase world interactions and things to do beside recruiting troops and doing (boring imho) battles.

Again, I released this very alpha build, because I would like to set the basics right. Should the settlement management be made more complex ? I must not forget what happens when the player is away. I think the settlement could have a life by itself, but if the player is here, he can manage it better (order the construction of proper buildings, set settlement focus, and so on).

And what else could the settlement do, beside giving money, troops, knowledge ? Better rest, better Healing.... You know, on of the issues is that there are not many game variables that I know to work with about this, so I have to create the variables to be able to impact them, and so do the settlement be interesting or specific.

Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks a lot for feedback. Some nice ideas, not all of them are easy to add, especially adding the custom settlements to the calradian biotope.

Cheers.

I don't mind the cost of the settlement as it is since I have to babysit it or else it'll be destroyed. A cost of 10K per settlement would be fair if I could hire protectors or mercenaries to keep my places safe. It would make sense then to run multiple settlements.

The best thing about settlements, in my opinion, is the "free" troops they generate. You can war with factions and not have to worry about going to villages. But really, anything you do to settlements will make it more fun.

Maybe the settlement could eventually spawn a merchant who buys stuff? Provide food items to the player? Perhaps it could provide EXP while resting.

I'm just glad you're still working on this mod.

Morrowind Mod Man, are you absolutely positive you use V0.11? I thought the new system removed the pain to really babysit the settlement, that it would grow "naturally", but only if you take care of it would it grow quite large (this is the idea, at least... )
All you mention can be easily done.
I want to fine tune the basics, so the player can still have choices to make, and then will start adding features to the settlements, that will really give all the meaning to the "civilifaction" system.
Custom Settlements and bug fixes, are my main goals for V0.11 release. And tweaking what already exists on the feedback I have...

Perhaps it could provide EXP while resting.

Click to expand...

I like this concept. A lot. Maybe building a training ground could provide that to the player and party that rest in the settlement. Very basic, but more with the "training" knowledge.
ok thanks

I added this training stuff to V0.11 (a party resting in a settlement with training grounds will gain some XPs.)

Hey, glad one of my suggestions made it in.

Yeah I unzipped the file you provided from the nexus on top of the old version. I must have just been used to having to guard the settlement so I was afraid to leave. Good to know that I'll get EXP now for mothering my people. 

Ok, seeing as GSanders is working diligently on merging Rigales with Diplomacy, things do not seem as abysmal as I thought 

As things stand, Cernunos is considering joining Perisno and discontinuing Rigales, at least for the moment.
....................
I for one, would like Rigales to continue however, in a different direction than Perisno. I do believe, that if Rigales changed its philosophy from supercustomizing the warband sandbox, it'd do better and with less work as a story-driven RPG (I believe the crafting and knowledge system suits an RPG better).

Comparing Rigales with the "bigger" mods like PoP, Brytenwalda, Perisno, etc...I think Rigales has a far way to go, but with less focus on high-res graphics and more on gameplay, I believe it's doable.

Now, I would like to call out topeople, who like Rigales and can contribute a in-depth opinion about its future.
......................
In any case, unless I am mistaken, no release date for Bannerlord has been announced yet, and I doubt it will come out this year and at earliest Summer 2016.

So people, before things are decided on a whim, let's give Cernunos a supportive push, in any direction.

Cernunos seems like a great fellow.

  I recognize a certain amount of me in him (whether that's good or bad I don't know)
  so perhaps he follows his bubbles of inspiration like a lung patient gasping for oxygen 
    but I keep seeing new stuff coming from him and he's done much/most of it solo
    and with remarkably little moral support.

  I have a reputation already so this is the quiet place for me.
  I think if we had another 6 or 8 people presenting ideas he could cherry pick the ones he likes
and when enough people post to feel some sort of "wind" his inspiration could bloom.  I sometimes
look at the PC and say hmm, another day huh, but I don't *feel* anything.  I need to "feel* the
things I want to write, then it flows quickly.  So with enough muses our man Cernunos can sail
away on his inspirations.

  As for what this mod is best at, its best at being a starting place for RPG games. 
  To really do that it needs a tune up.

  I noticed the multiplayer scripts seem to be old, and so far I'm going slow updating them.  They probably came from a much older native
than 1.158.  I focus on 1.158 because I don't really think the newer ones added anything I need and the newer versions seem to be worse than 1.158
but that's maybe my unwillingness to change.

  I'm happy when new stuff I want comes along and otherwise slow to appreciate change for change's sake, heh.
  This mod has enough stuff done differently than Native that its a slow different trip just to tune the crafting, knowledge trees, and so on.
  Anxious to add things but I want to know whose bugs I see if strange things happen, so first to clean Rigale then I'll hand it back and maybe we can
test whatever Cerunos makes, or my hybrid if its finished sooner, or whatever is behind door #3 that I haven't considered...

    Pity this mod is so neglected by the audience at large -- I think the flow needs to be automated to make it easier to do things,
but I'm not sure how to set that up.  I think I could automate ambushes as a function of comparison of AI calculated strengths as to whether or not the weaker one felt obliged to attempt an ambush.  In Brytenwalda it seemed a large force is better off trying for a shield wall or working formations, and a small force
more likely can get some damage in by ambush better than trying to use formations and suffer ranged weapons.  But "ambush" could also affect distances,
type of battleground, something at night, or other currently unexpected behavior.  So whatever assumptions we have now don't have to be Rigale next month; everything can be changed IF it becomes the general consensus AND it happens to "feel" right when Cernunos considers it.

  So we need to think outside the box, not so much doing whatever we did years ago or saw in an OSP but just "what do I want it to do?"  and then build the support layer by layer until it does just that.

  An opinion, anyway.

  - GS

Soo, it's not realy a settlement problem, and because i am not able to find any discussion about it anyway it seem more a recent addittion, i am posting here because i think that its from the new version (started to play that mod today, and so far i realy like it!) sometime, when i collect resources or i have a random event (like the inuried man) and i get to see what items i have gained, if i press "return" it will only reroll the items, and will consume the tool again and again and again, it may be just my problem, but just in case here is my savegame whit me stucked onto that infinite cycle:
https://www.mediafire.com/?poa9jyidzy1hot2

(I am sorry for my bad english, and if this is the wrong place to put it, but as this is one of the only two topics from the new version i don't know where tu put it, and if it's important i am playng whit warband updated to 1.15

This could take a few days to a week to get an answer, as Cernunos has a problem with his account for Taleworlds Forum for today.
I don't really know the details but that type of problem, and looking at the settings for his profile,  usually needs 1 day to clear.

It is possible someone else might answer before then.  I say this so you don't think Cernunos is not answering because he does not care.  He cares maybe more deeply than anyone save poets and bards can feel, which I suspect is *exactly* how he got his
mute. 

  This is a quiet board so other people are few so a little time is needed.

  - GS

it was more something lke "hey, be carefull, i don't know why, but this is happening to me, you could need to watch onto this!"
But, i am the only one whit that problem? that may be another feedback that could help him and me too.

(from http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,315055.240.html)

Melanie adds:
My only question regarding forts would be: How do they defend anything?

That is, what is to stop the AI from simply riding past them?  Will there be code that directs AI to select forts as a target?  Could they somehow prevent parties with negative relations to the fort owner from moving into an area around the fort without triggering a battle encounter?

Otherwise they'd have little value to me.  In that case, I'd rather see forts be a village improvement, functioning exactly as presented, but internal on the map to a village. 

Another idea is to add a new type of village -- call it a Hamlet -- which would function exactly like a village, except that it would not belong to a city.  Ownership would be determined by 'Conquer the Hamlet' which would replace the normal pillage option for a village.  If the Hamlet had a Fort improvement, selecting Conquer would trigger a battle.

Such Hamlets could be placed at strategic points on the map to add a real sense of terrain value, too.  It would not be necessary to allow building new Hamlets, if that were done.  And of course, Kings would grant those as the starting fief.  Such hamlets could never be plundered (only conquered), and would have a fixed economic income (small, of course).  But they'd be hard to hold and easy to conquer.

  The lack of gathering any wood or stone is a bit of an issue.

  Is there any info on how to manage health and happiness, or is nothing I can do and it is all random?  I know I can lower taxes and that helps happiness a little.

  Even if the settlement can't be attacked, it would still be nice to be able to garrison troops there.  Even if it requires a particular building to be built.

  As someone else mentioned, maybe a way to drop off some food (after a particular building is built, like a warehouse) to help my people make it through a harsh winter or some such.

picard65 said:

Soo, it's not realy a settlement problem, and because i am not able to find any discussion about it anyway it seem more a recent addittion, i am posting here because i think that its from the new version (started to play that mod today, and so far i realy like it!) sometime, when i collect resources or i have a random event (like the inuried man) and i get to see what items i have gained, if i press "return" it will only reroll the items, and will consume the tool again and again and again, it may be just my problem, but just in case here is my savegame whit me stucked onto that infinite cycle:
https://www.mediafire.com/?poa9jyidzy1hot2

(I am sorry for my bad english, and if this is the wrong place to put it, but as this is one of the only two topics from the new version i don't know where tu put it, and if it's important i am playng whit warband updated to 1.15

Click to expand...

Litle update, warband 1.166 don't resolve the problem, i have made a short video of the problem, in case it was no clear:
http://youtu.be/Bs3EIDbW_0Q