status report

I am playing through a vanilla game of M&B right now, to get a real feel for how it plays so I know what the context of gameplay changes would be like.  I believe deeply that great game design can only come from the hand of someone who understands the game experience as a whole.

For example, I had modded it so that the player could swell his own army size to much larger than he could reasonably operate for long (due to morale and cohesion) , and playing the game reminds me why - because it sucks to have to throw away a whole army of released prisoners when capturing a town or large stack. 

Also, the tax collection system that requires the player to visit every fief breaks down really badly later in the game, for those of you who have ever gotten that far.  You would end up doing nothing but running from fief to fief while running out of money.

In my game, I'm supporting the vaegir claimant in a 'bid', just to screw the vaegir and increase my own holdings and glory.  I put myself in a slight bind by pissing off the lord's vassals by claiming reyvadin.  I didn't expect to win it, so I had claimed a nearer fortress.  I wish there were a way to give back claimed domains...

So I am at the point where I have a couple of castles and a city, and my army size is about 100.  This is where I generally feel that 'mid-game' begins, after level 20. 

I'm running into the issues I generally run into now.  Some minor annoyances and some major ones. 

I don't know about others, but tax collection and troop replenishment become big issues for me in Native.  Once I am fighting stacks of 100 guys vs stacks of 100-200 back to back, things get pretty ugly fast.  I can ride around like an idiot recruiting 1-15 recruits from villages, but if I do that I am not doing other stuff that's actually fun.

I also don't like having to go to the villages to get cash - I really miss my income screen =)  Native also seems to be bugged and isn't reducing cost for troops that are stationed.

I feel like the incomes from villages, castles and towns are very low.  So low that you barely get enough money to pay for the garrison, much less to invest.

I'm reminded again that I want to have a way to convert troops to 'recruits' that will become generic soldiers.  Not overpowered, just something where I can group them reasonably and know what skills I have available.

This was my idea for castles - that they would be a place where you would replenish troops.  Castles are a military version of a city.  Cities are income/recreation/population and castles are training/equipment and garrison.

One of the things I did in my mod was to associate villages with the nearest castle.  That way, whoever controlled a castle, got the income from the villages around it.  I think I would expand that now, and spawn little parties of civilians that would travel to the castle to be in the pool of recruitable soldiers.  Have to think about that one.

I definitely want to be able to send my 'companions' into the field and give them troops.  I'd do that with the most troublesome ones without a doubt =)

I also need to consider the AI for allowing NPCs to upgrade their own gear with their own funds, or allow the player to have a 'loot box' they can pull stuff from.  I hate having to diddle with 11 npcs and upgrading their armor etc.  Need to give that one a lot of thought.

hmmmm

nox said:

I definitely want to be able to send my 'companions' into the field and give them troops.  I'd do that with the most troublesome ones without a doubt =)

I also need to consider the AI for allowing NPCs to upgrade their own gear with their own funds, or allow the player to have a 'loot box' they can pull stuff from.  I hate having to diddle with 11 npcs and upgrading their armor etc.  Need to give that one a lot of thought.

Click to expand...

To start with the last.. autoloot has become pretty much a standard feature in any mod. It was made by fisheye and you're free to use it. It's absolutely awesome.

The first one is also possible in many mods, I think that comes from the Kingdom Management mod, may be Highlander or HardCode who did the original for that, I'm not sure. Either way, if you don't want to spend days puzzling that stuff out for yourself, instead spending it on something new and different, have a look for those option.

I'm currently playing warband, with an intent to extend it with the concepts from Bandit King that were not already incorporated into the base game. 

I am sure that most of you who played Bandit King are aware that many of the changes we did to the base game, and which were requested by many have found their way into Warband.  This is very gratifying to us, since it was the explicit goal of the mod.

Improving playability of mount and blade was and is the main goal of Bandit King.  It doesn't tell a story, so much as it permits you to tell your own.

The current plan is to play M&B and identify shortfalls and flat spots in the gameplay, and address those as needed.

I remember playing Bandit King for .9xx for a while and found it very enjoyable. I'm glad to see you planning improvements for Warband, nox.

Marry Christmas and have fun!

Bandit King sounds a great, I hope you can do it for wb too.