SP - General Suggestions on skill progression

[Zerfsack]

I have read through quite a few threads talking about skill progression, with ideas such as unlimited skill levels and other ideas. But I also wanted to add a few points which I believe are also important.

Whilst playing Bannerlord I felt that my character wasn't exactly getting stronger each level up. After over 20 hours on a character, I decided to run some tests. I made two saves one with a new base character with low combat stats and one character with cheated max combat stats. Then I tested both in a few battles and I found that if I used good equipment my characters were both just as good at fighting. With my hundreds of hours in Warband, I found that there was no sense of character progression in the levels. Whilst even after all this time Warband still had a feeling of progression. It was difficult to beat a tournament in Warband at level 1 but I have yet to lose a single 1v1 duel or tournament in Bannerlord, and I used to always play with autoblock. (Just to clarify I made sure to be on "realistic" difficulty, no 1/3 damage and such)

With this in mind, I have a few suggestions:

1. Have skills passively increase your ability to use there respective weapons and equipment and by using weapons out of your skill "difficult" for the character. Maybe tie it into the tier the equipment is. If I try to swing a tier 6 2H sword at low lvl skill decrease the swing speed and handling. Have the animation be of the unskilled type. Lower damage and such due to slower wing speed.
2. Have perks add more damage and bonuses. When I 1v1 a companion I kitted out in the best gear even if they have 3x the skills I do it's still super easy to defeat them.
3. Adding more minimum skill requirements. This ties into the second point a bit and might be an alternative. By having a weapon needing a certain skill to even be equipped also helps keep players improving there skills. Such as bows or riding requirements on horses.
4. Having perks be more powerful and levels more important the ingame heroes will actually be more powerful. I fought a few at lvl 3 in tournaments and they felt so week even with there higher stats. Having them swing faster or knowing new abilities would make them an actual challenge.

I'm not a game designer, and I know some of these things may not be noob friendly. Having this type of skill progression might make the game more difficult, but at the moment I feel there is next to no character progression and these suggestions are just what I believe could help improve this.

 

[TrashMan]

1. Have skills passively increase your ability to use there respective weapons and equipment and by using weapons out of your skill "difficult" for the character. Maybe tie it into the tier the equipment is. If I try to swing a tier 6 2H sword at low lvl skill decrease the swing speed and handling. Have the animation be of the unskilled type. Lower damage and such due to slower wing speed.
2. Have perks add more damage and bonuses. When I 1v1 a companion I kitted out in the best gear even if they have 3x the skills I do it's still super easy to defeat them.
3. Adding more minimum skill requirements. This ties into the second point a bit and might be an alternative. By having a weapon needing a certain skill to even be equipped also helps keep players improving there skills. Such as bows or riding requirements on horses.
4. Having perks be more powerful and levels more important the ingame heroes will actually be more powerful. I fought a few at lvl 3 in tournaments and they felt so week even with there higher stats. Having them swing faster or knowing new abilities would make them an actual challenge.

No. F*** no.
This is the most cancerous mechanics in history.

I don't want to be a god of destruction on the battlefield, nor do I want stupid artificial restrictions.

 

[Zerfsack]

Wow I was just voicing my opinions, I never said I was a game designer no need to explode. And this was a mechanic used in Warband and worked quite well to help players get a feeling of progression.

If you have a better solution of your own or believe it isnt a problem at all (progression) in Bannerlord I would enjoy hearing your opinion.

 

[Ranger243]

I don't really feel like it is a problem, maybe its just the weapons I use or my play style but I can definitely tell a difference as I am leveling up my skills. Early game it seems like the enemies are crazy fast on the counter-attack and you have to be careful because you can get into a 30 second attack-block-counterattack-block match with people that will eventually just overpower you from a sheer skill level, whereas once you have leveled your skills a bit more you can more easily take them on.

My experience may be different thoug since most of my experience is with fighting in the fields rather than 1v1s so its almost always pitched battle with struggling masses around and I'm trying to dodge and dive between enemies and allies to keep myself alive and lose the aggro of the guys that come at me like they caught me with their mom.