I have made a post about banners. Others have made a post about rebellions. Countless others about the lacking battles, sieges, and so on.
But I have yet to come across constructive criticism about the lack of a royal Court. In Warband, setting up your court was the first thing you'd do when founding a Kingdom. It would give you something that being a vassal would not give, a real sense of mechanical and physical authority. In there you would have your minister, to whom you'd say your wishes, and it was even more so expanded in the Diplomacy mod (inclusion of this mod was the bare minimum for diplomacy expectations of BL for me, and to see it so undone really hurts). By installing it you'd get a Constable, a Chamberlain etc.. In that sense, you could go to your capital to discuss matters of finance, taxes, recruitment, strategy, alliances, marshallship, feasting, fief-conferring and war. There you would recieve nobles indicted for treason or ones crossing over because they have lost their fiefs. There would also be ladies whom you could court if you didnt have a wife already. It was most of all a tool of immersiveness, something to do other than war.
What do we have in Bannerlord? You are a "king". It doesnt matter where you stay, your siblings or children are scattered about. Finances are non-existent. Recruitment tasks are non-existent. The title of the royal marshall is non-existent, and so is the political struggle behind it. Fief votes are done in a menu. Votes on policy are done in a menu too, both using the "Influence" as a currency rather than something you actually do and project. You have no ministers, no titles you could appoint your companions to such as constables. You dont manage alliances and engage in any diplomacy whatsoever because they don't exist, and if they did you would do it in a menu. You recruit people yourself, and your vassals also manage garrisons and castles horribly. For courting ladies you pass artificial and overly mechanical checks, you don't court them. No poetry to learn, no tourneys to dedicate. You don't ever hold a feast and meet heads of clans and their families because the design director apparently doesn't find it useful. No estranged nobles reside in your court in search of a new liege lord, you instead find the clan head somewhere in the woods and buy his loyalty by giving him 4 very long javelins.
So, here is my suggestion, so some TW employee cannot say I didn't communicate what I want. 1) Slow down the pace of the war/peace declarations to make time for feasts, ruling and relation-building, 2) introduce the concept of the court as described above, preferrably using the Warband Diplomacy Mod as a guide, so we have time to actually enjoy the things in the game. The pace of time itself, as in 80 days a year, I don't find problematic. So what if years pass? This is actually good.
BL focused too much on the wrong things. These aren't surface issues. These things imply a deep conceptual misunderstanding of the success of the previous game by the design decision-makers. For it to be fixed there needs to be a fundamental fix in understanding of the game. A compromise can sadly not be done on such things, as it would not include anything of value of the either side of the arguement.
But I have yet to come across constructive criticism about the lack of a royal Court. In Warband, setting up your court was the first thing you'd do when founding a Kingdom. It would give you something that being a vassal would not give, a real sense of mechanical and physical authority. In there you would have your minister, to whom you'd say your wishes, and it was even more so expanded in the Diplomacy mod (inclusion of this mod was the bare minimum for diplomacy expectations of BL for me, and to see it so undone really hurts). By installing it you'd get a Constable, a Chamberlain etc.. In that sense, you could go to your capital to discuss matters of finance, taxes, recruitment, strategy, alliances, marshallship, feasting, fief-conferring and war. There you would recieve nobles indicted for treason or ones crossing over because they have lost their fiefs. There would also be ladies whom you could court if you didnt have a wife already. It was most of all a tool of immersiveness, something to do other than war.
What do we have in Bannerlord? You are a "king". It doesnt matter where you stay, your siblings or children are scattered about. Finances are non-existent. Recruitment tasks are non-existent. The title of the royal marshall is non-existent, and so is the political struggle behind it. Fief votes are done in a menu. Votes on policy are done in a menu too, both using the "Influence" as a currency rather than something you actually do and project. You have no ministers, no titles you could appoint your companions to such as constables. You dont manage alliances and engage in any diplomacy whatsoever because they don't exist, and if they did you would do it in a menu. You recruit people yourself, and your vassals also manage garrisons and castles horribly. For courting ladies you pass artificial and overly mechanical checks, you don't court them. No poetry to learn, no tourneys to dedicate. You don't ever hold a feast and meet heads of clans and their families because the design director apparently doesn't find it useful. No estranged nobles reside in your court in search of a new liege lord, you instead find the clan head somewhere in the woods and buy his loyalty by giving him 4 very long javelins.
So, here is my suggestion, so some TW employee cannot say I didn't communicate what I want. 1) Slow down the pace of the war/peace declarations to make time for feasts, ruling and relation-building, 2) introduce the concept of the court as described above, preferrably using the Warband Diplomacy Mod as a guide, so we have time to actually enjoy the things in the game. The pace of time itself, as in 80 days a year, I don't find problematic. So what if years pass? This is actually good.
BL focused too much on the wrong things. These aren't surface issues. These things imply a deep conceptual misunderstanding of the success of the previous game by the design decision-makers. For it to be fixed there needs to be a fundamental fix in understanding of the game. A compromise can sadly not be done on such things, as it would not include anything of value of the either side of the arguement.