Never liked the character progression. Leveling up is way too slow, the perks often offer unsatisfying and conflicting bonuses, and it is overall too much busywork identifing the right ones for each different type of character/companion type.
Just picking the bottom perks of a skill, for example, is never 100% the right way to level up a specialized char, it would make things a bit easier tbh, if that could be the case.
Just to name a few specializations you might want to lvl up:
Town or castle goveneur, you can't have both, bow or crossbow archer, 2handed axe fighter, 2handed Sword Rider... I think there are too many paths without using actual paths, making the process super murky. Just look at all the hidden loyalty bonuses hidden across different skills. I would have prefered them to be all in the Steward tree. Maybe even just +1 for every 50 Points to offer more room for more situational, and less "must have" perks. But perk rebalance, if we ever get another one is not my main topic.
Thought about a new design, maybe a tree like progression, but I think the ship has sailed when it comes to revamping the system, so instead I came up with a different idea that might solve some of the major issues, without throwing too much out the window.
If Focus Points would get removed, all xp modifiers should be at 100%, forever, regardless of lvl and experience in that skill.
The experience gains might need some adjustments but what now the max x10 multiplier is could be a starting point. Maybe x15 is better. Needs testing. (should be a game setting anyway)
I think it would spice things up if game mechanics could influence these skill xp modifiers, positively or negatively.
Eating good food could improve athletics xp +25%, winning a battle could improve all weapon skills until the next battle.
Loosing on the other hand could give your heroes a debuff until they win another one.
Winning a tournament increases charm xp for 2 days, special armor could do it permanently, as well as traits.
Traits in general should get more love. I think there is potential to give your companions and yourself more character, like they do in Rimworld with the colonists. (Cannibal companion? )
Attribute Points would be the only points you spend every level. They don't affect the xp multiplier, but they should have secondary bonuses. Probably best if it is hero/companion or player only.
I really like what the Better Attributes mod is doing with them: https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3434
These are the effects from the mod, an alternative could be a combination of general bonuses, some from the skills and their perks related to them.
For example Intelligence would add each rank:
+ 0.5 loyalty (steward)
+ chance for combat bandage on hit (medicine, new autoheal mechanic, like an evade, just with the damage delayed after combat.)
+ Siege engine and wall health (engineer)
Attributes could also unlock Waymark Perks, that you only get with a certain amount of points spend. So there is an incentive to level them alongside the auto xp gained from using skills, but it is not 100% necessary.
Edit: These extra bonuses could have additional requirements, for example 4 Int, 125 Steward and 75 Medicine, basically a skill-combination perk, allowing the removal of those thematically scattered perks on more foreign skills.
Again, +loyalty comes to mind, or +health. In this case these would be either on Steward/Medicine, or on their shared attribute, Intelligence and no longer in athletics, smithing, onehanded and so on. I wouldn't say hp is strictly intelligence related, so making it an endurance or vigor waymark would also make sense thematically.
More freedom!
Edit: I can't stop thinking about other effects for attributes, so here is the rest:
Vigor:
+ 2% chance to shrug off blows (resist stagger effect)
+ 0.5 tough skin (natural armor, but the cut through chance from the mod is also a good idea tbh)
+ 0.5% chance to disarm enemy
Control:
+0.2% chance to catch arrow (range evade and refill if quiver equipped)
+0.5% chance for bullseye hit (extra damage)
+0.5% chance to find an extra javelin after throwing one
Endurance:
+ 2% chance to resist horse stagger
+ 1% sprint increase (new mechanic with extra keybind, 15% base sprint bonus)
+ % Smithing Stamina regen while traveling
Cunning:
+ 1% pursue speed (only enemy parties)
+ 1% flagbearer effect (flag attached to the back of some units, boosting morale and maybe dmg, potential for extra/reworked perks)
+ 5% better sneak effect (into besieged ally or enemy settlements in general)
Social:
+1% dialogue retry (adds to a 5% base, helps with savescumming)
-2% army influence cost
-2% weight reduction for trade goods
Many of these effects should affect every hero, not just the player character, some are more for a party leader thing. I tried not to make one that only affects the player/clan leader.
The individual skills like Steward (+party size) already have similar effects, so I tried to come up with new, interesting ones. My goal was to affect the gameplay in a positive way, without making things overpowered, but obviously this needs to be tested in the end.
Some effects are not yet implemented, but most of these new mechanics have been added by mods at least once, so my guess is they won't be that complicated to program into vanilla.
Just picking the bottom perks of a skill, for example, is never 100% the right way to level up a specialized char, it would make things a bit easier tbh, if that could be the case.
Just to name a few specializations you might want to lvl up:
Town or castle goveneur, you can't have both, bow or crossbow archer, 2handed axe fighter, 2handed Sword Rider... I think there are too many paths without using actual paths, making the process super murky. Just look at all the hidden loyalty bonuses hidden across different skills. I would have prefered them to be all in the Steward tree. Maybe even just +1 for every 50 Points to offer more room for more situational, and less "must have" perks. But perk rebalance, if we ever get another one is not my main topic.
Thought about a new design, maybe a tree like progression, but I think the ship has sailed when it comes to revamping the system, so instead I came up with a different idea that might solve some of the major issues, without throwing too much out the window.
If Focus Points would get removed, all xp modifiers should be at 100%, forever, regardless of lvl and experience in that skill.
The experience gains might need some adjustments but what now the max x10 multiplier is could be a starting point. Maybe x15 is better. Needs testing. (should be a game setting anyway)
I think it would spice things up if game mechanics could influence these skill xp modifiers, positively or negatively.
Eating good food could improve athletics xp +25%, winning a battle could improve all weapon skills until the next battle.
Loosing on the other hand could give your heroes a debuff until they win another one.
Winning a tournament increases charm xp for 2 days, special armor could do it permanently, as well as traits.
Traits in general should get more love. I think there is potential to give your companions and yourself more character, like they do in Rimworld with the colonists. (Cannibal companion? )
Attribute Points would be the only points you spend every level. They don't affect the xp multiplier, but they should have secondary bonuses. Probably best if it is hero/companion or player only.
I really like what the Better Attributes mod is doing with them: https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3434
- Vigor - Cut Through (+Slice Through Chance)
- Control - Morale Increase
- Endurance - Health Increase
- Cunning - Increase effectiveness of other bonuses (I think critical chance could be an alternative here)
- Social - Party wage decrease
- Intelligence - XP rate increase
These are the effects from the mod, an alternative could be a combination of general bonuses, some from the skills and their perks related to them.
For example Intelligence would add each rank:
+ 0.5 loyalty (steward)
+ chance for combat bandage on hit (medicine, new autoheal mechanic, like an evade, just with the damage delayed after combat.)
+ Siege engine and wall health (engineer)
Attributes could also unlock Waymark Perks, that you only get with a certain amount of points spend. So there is an incentive to level them alongside the auto xp gained from using skills, but it is not 100% necessary.
Edit: These extra bonuses could have additional requirements, for example 4 Int, 125 Steward and 75 Medicine, basically a skill-combination perk, allowing the removal of those thematically scattered perks on more foreign skills.
Again, +loyalty comes to mind, or +health. In this case these would be either on Steward/Medicine, or on their shared attribute, Intelligence and no longer in athletics, smithing, onehanded and so on. I wouldn't say hp is strictly intelligence related, so making it an endurance or vigor waymark would also make sense thematically.
More freedom!
Edit: I can't stop thinking about other effects for attributes, so here is the rest:
Vigor:
+ 2% chance to shrug off blows (resist stagger effect)
+ 0.5 tough skin (natural armor, but the cut through chance from the mod is also a good idea tbh)
+ 0.5% chance to disarm enemy
Control:
+0.2% chance to catch arrow (range evade and refill if quiver equipped)
+0.5% chance for bullseye hit (extra damage)
+0.5% chance to find an extra javelin after throwing one
Endurance:
+ 2% chance to resist horse stagger
+ 1% sprint increase (new mechanic with extra keybind, 15% base sprint bonus)
+ % Smithing Stamina regen while traveling
Cunning:
+ 1% pursue speed (only enemy parties)
+ 1% flagbearer effect (flag attached to the back of some units, boosting morale and maybe dmg, potential for extra/reworked perks)
+ 5% better sneak effect (into besieged ally or enemy settlements in general)
Social:
+1% dialogue retry (adds to a 5% base, helps with savescumming)
-2% army influence cost
-2% weight reduction for trade goods
Many of these effects should affect every hero, not just the player character, some are more for a party leader thing. I tried not to make one that only affects the player/clan leader.
The individual skills like Steward (+party size) already have similar effects, so I tried to come up with new, interesting ones. My goal was to affect the gameplay in a positive way, without making things overpowered, but obviously this needs to be tested in the end.
Some effects are not yet implemented, but most of these new mechanics have been added by mods at least once, so my guess is they won't be that complicated to program into vanilla.
Last edited: