ceprast
Recruit
Took a break at 1.5.6 and recently came back. Its nice to see it has improved a decent bit hope it keeps up.
Now that I said something nice time to tear into it. Battles get repetitive and boring as ****. This is because it still uses the same system from the original M&B where there was like a hundred dudes max in basically a skirmish. You could get away with **** then that just doesn't hold up now with thousand man battles. Battles basically just turn into blob fests and the best strategy is to basically just try and out blob the enemy, anything beyond rudimentary tactics is not possible here is a breakdown of why with some proposed fixes.
To start with before battles even begin the load order mechanic just does not work. Taking troops in their order from the screen just results unbalanced armies even if you take the trouble to try and recruit balanced forces, it also severely limits options since there is no way to organize your forces in any but the most basic categories. A new system is needed where the player can organize forces by division in the party screen, assign a commander to the division (and the player should be able to command a division too), and troop types need to be able to split into separate divisions (EG you can have 2 or more divs of legionnaires). When a battle starts where not all troops can spawn due to number limitations it should spawn all divisions then assign troops to those divisions in direct proportion to troops assigned to those divisions in party screen. When fighting with armies the troops from the army should be assigned in proportion by type to the players divisions, this should include the lords so that you don't get a lord on horseback charging ahead of a division of infantry and dying. Lords should also not usurp a players assigned commander of a division. There should also be a division that does not enter combat at all for any reason for non-combat companions or if you just want to reassign companions temporarily for a siege assault or something risky.
There needs to be a pause function and rts camera to give orders in. real time orders worked okay back when M&B first came out but it doesn't in battles with thousands of troops. Players can't do much beyond extremely basic orders as it is.
Armor needs to actually do something. A major limiting factor to using tactics is that proper troops die way too quickly. This is especially problematic on realistic settings because armor effectiveness does not scale properly with increased damage numbers. Armored troops should not be on par with unarmored troops, I recently had a battle where my Battanian recruits had the same KDR as the fully upgraded Battanian wildlings. This is just silly and also means there is basically no reason to fully upgrade troops.
Missile troops need to be changed, there needs to be a difference between Piercing ammo (bodkin/bolts) which should have reduced damage (from status quo) but good against armor. And Cutting Ammo (broadhead arrows/barbed arrows) which should have same damage but do cutting instead of piercing making them good against lightly armored troops. All damage should come from ammo, not weapon. The weapon should simply determine ROF and projectile speed. This will reduce overall ranged effectiveness which should help with archer spam, but for balance consideration shields may need to have reduced Area of effect for blocking.
Division cohesion on the battlefield. I have seen way to much scattering when giving attack or charge commands which completely destroys all cohesion, it is a real problem when you order an infantry division to charge then they all turn around and run after a single cav unit behind them while exposing their asses to archers. It also makes fighting Khuzait a nightmare basically impossible to control anything. all divisions need to have a reference point, a "guide-on" of sorts which all troops form themselves off of for its given formation. commands should be issued to the "guide-ons" and then the members behave in a manner to comply with the order to the best of its ability. The commander if assigned should be in the guide on position roughly front and center. There should be separate "formation charge/attack/retreat/skirmish" commands and "Pursue/flee" commands where formation is prioritized or not respectively. This also adds a possibility of moral and banner mechanics where a units distance from the guide on affects its morale possibly causing it to flee and a banner equipped troop that provides a moral boost to its division (mounted and unmounted versions, banner should take up the off hand slot). Loss of div commander should create a morale penalty which should be enough to cause low morale troops to flee making morale relevant. Also troops in certain formation should be spaced farther apart slightly so they can actually swing weapons, it is silly that loose formation is best for infantry in basically any scenario.
Spears need a rework, not just bracing they need to have collision with friendlies reduced so that they can actually be used in formations. Again it is silly that loose formation is the only way to get spears to work.
In sieges player divisions should be kept, when assigned to a piece of siege equipment all units simply do their best to comply. EG units assigned to ladders/towers will all do their best to place ladders and go up prioritizing melee over ranged. All units assigned to rams operate it prioritizing melee with ranged units providing cover fire. Units assigned to mantlets (and all units not otherwise engaged basically) prioritize protecting themselves and if equipped with range weapon use it.
Aesthetics, for gods sake hide the polearms and bows/xbows when not in use! and fix the female models for shoulder armor. It looks just silly, having a bunch of dudes running about with two meter poles on their backs not using them because they are ineffective anyway. And bows were never carried with string around a person like a sling, actually trying that is ridiculously painful and it also looks stupid as hell.
I realize there are many individual mods that do some of these things, but it would be nice to improve on the base game and not be reliant on mods. Also isn't critiquing what EA is for? To change things before launch. The game is pretty good overall, and I think some of this is only minor tweaking.
Now that I said something nice time to tear into it. Battles get repetitive and boring as ****. This is because it still uses the same system from the original M&B where there was like a hundred dudes max in basically a skirmish. You could get away with **** then that just doesn't hold up now with thousand man battles. Battles basically just turn into blob fests and the best strategy is to basically just try and out blob the enemy, anything beyond rudimentary tactics is not possible here is a breakdown of why with some proposed fixes.
To start with before battles even begin the load order mechanic just does not work. Taking troops in their order from the screen just results unbalanced armies even if you take the trouble to try and recruit balanced forces, it also severely limits options since there is no way to organize your forces in any but the most basic categories. A new system is needed where the player can organize forces by division in the party screen, assign a commander to the division (and the player should be able to command a division too), and troop types need to be able to split into separate divisions (EG you can have 2 or more divs of legionnaires). When a battle starts where not all troops can spawn due to number limitations it should spawn all divisions then assign troops to those divisions in direct proportion to troops assigned to those divisions in party screen. When fighting with armies the troops from the army should be assigned in proportion by type to the players divisions, this should include the lords so that you don't get a lord on horseback charging ahead of a division of infantry and dying. Lords should also not usurp a players assigned commander of a division. There should also be a division that does not enter combat at all for any reason for non-combat companions or if you just want to reassign companions temporarily for a siege assault or something risky.
There needs to be a pause function and rts camera to give orders in. real time orders worked okay back when M&B first came out but it doesn't in battles with thousands of troops. Players can't do much beyond extremely basic orders as it is.
Armor needs to actually do something. A major limiting factor to using tactics is that proper troops die way too quickly. This is especially problematic on realistic settings because armor effectiveness does not scale properly with increased damage numbers. Armored troops should not be on par with unarmored troops, I recently had a battle where my Battanian recruits had the same KDR as the fully upgraded Battanian wildlings. This is just silly and also means there is basically no reason to fully upgrade troops.
Missile troops need to be changed, there needs to be a difference between Piercing ammo (bodkin/bolts) which should have reduced damage (from status quo) but good against armor. And Cutting Ammo (broadhead arrows/barbed arrows) which should have same damage but do cutting instead of piercing making them good against lightly armored troops. All damage should come from ammo, not weapon. The weapon should simply determine ROF and projectile speed. This will reduce overall ranged effectiveness which should help with archer spam, but for balance consideration shields may need to have reduced Area of effect for blocking.
Division cohesion on the battlefield. I have seen way to much scattering when giving attack or charge commands which completely destroys all cohesion, it is a real problem when you order an infantry division to charge then they all turn around and run after a single cav unit behind them while exposing their asses to archers. It also makes fighting Khuzait a nightmare basically impossible to control anything. all divisions need to have a reference point, a "guide-on" of sorts which all troops form themselves off of for its given formation. commands should be issued to the "guide-ons" and then the members behave in a manner to comply with the order to the best of its ability. The commander if assigned should be in the guide on position roughly front and center. There should be separate "formation charge/attack/retreat/skirmish" commands and "Pursue/flee" commands where formation is prioritized or not respectively. This also adds a possibility of moral and banner mechanics where a units distance from the guide on affects its morale possibly causing it to flee and a banner equipped troop that provides a moral boost to its division (mounted and unmounted versions, banner should take up the off hand slot). Loss of div commander should create a morale penalty which should be enough to cause low morale troops to flee making morale relevant. Also troops in certain formation should be spaced farther apart slightly so they can actually swing weapons, it is silly that loose formation is best for infantry in basically any scenario.
Spears need a rework, not just bracing they need to have collision with friendlies reduced so that they can actually be used in formations. Again it is silly that loose formation is the only way to get spears to work.
In sieges player divisions should be kept, when assigned to a piece of siege equipment all units simply do their best to comply. EG units assigned to ladders/towers will all do their best to place ladders and go up prioritizing melee over ranged. All units assigned to rams operate it prioritizing melee with ranged units providing cover fire. Units assigned to mantlets (and all units not otherwise engaged basically) prioritize protecting themselves and if equipped with range weapon use it.
Aesthetics, for gods sake hide the polearms and bows/xbows when not in use! and fix the female models for shoulder armor. It looks just silly, having a bunch of dudes running about with two meter poles on their backs not using them because they are ineffective anyway. And bows were never carried with string around a person like a sling, actually trying that is ridiculously painful and it also looks stupid as hell.
I realize there are many individual mods that do some of these things, but it would be nice to improve on the base game and not be reliant on mods. Also isn't critiquing what EA is for? To change things before launch. The game is pretty good overall, and I think some of this is only minor tweaking.