I am happy to report first and foremost that the game is slightly more playable than it was pre 1.7.0.
Unfortunately, it's still not playable and requires modding to make it so. I will grant that perhaps some of my mods conflicted with the vanilla changes: I'm running RBM, Diplomacy, Kaoses Tweaks and Arena Expanded. Also AutoTrader and Autoresolve Rebalanced for QOL.
Here are the things I noticed after playing 1.7.0 after not playing for several months:
Summary of my mental breakdown after playing for ~40 hours on the new patch:
I gained 1 point of Honor. I leveled up my One Handed and Bow skills to about 150. Riding and Athletics are about 100 each. Smithing stands at 225 (I only used Kaoses Tweaks to increase out-of-settlement stamina regen to 50% instead of 0% - no other tweaks to Smithing). Charm is at 262 and Trade is at 182 with 5 focus each and 9 SOC. Leadership is at 29 despite constantly walking around with all consumables. Tactics is at 37.
My surgeon's med skill is 87. My Steward's is at 185. My Scout is at 101.
This was after using Kaoses Tweaks to triple XP for Leadership, Roguery, Tactics, Medicine and Engineering. No mods to anything else.
AND FORTY ****ING HOURS OF PLAY. (OK maybe I fell asleep once or twice with the game open)
The "Everything Has a Price" Trade skill perk is set at 300 Trade rather than 225 Trade like it used to be. Even at max Focus and 9 SOC, my green bar doesn't go anywhere near there.
I shudder to think what ungodly amounts of money I'd have to make trading in order to get up there. This is a character who has been doing NOTHING but trading, tournaments, smithing and quests.
For reference, every IRL denarius had silver value equal to roughly $5 USD - so just 200 mil would make you an ancient billionaire.
VERDICT:
Get Tweaks. Turn global XP mod to 200%. Set the worst-to-level non-combat skills to 300% on top of that. The game is unplayably stupid otherwise.
Also **** everything (SNIPPY SNIP SNIP I WAS TOO MEAN).
This isn't a game. This is a torture device for anyone but the most brain-dead simpleton who loves nothing more than grinding looters as a full-time profession. And whoever is making these terrible design decisions is completely insane.
Unfortunately, it's still not playable and requires modding to make it so. I will grant that perhaps some of my mods conflicted with the vanilla changes: I'm running RBM, Diplomacy, Kaoses Tweaks and Arena Expanded. Also AutoTrader and Autoresolve Rebalanced for QOL.
Here are the things I noticed after playing 1.7.0 after not playing for several months:
- XP seems to be ramped up at the beginning, but slowed down WAY WORSE at higher levels (like a trap where fun goes to die)
- Combat AI seems to be slightly more functional, but will throw up errors on a regular basis
- It seems like the per-woman pregnancy limit is now being applied per-clan (or at least one female's pregnancies reduce the chances of other women in the same clan getting pregnant)
- Regional bandits seem to have mostly or completely disappeared, replaced by many more bands of looters
- Smithing is now vaguely viable, even if it seems kind of glitchy: "orders" for gear sometimes give only half-rewards despite meeting all requirements (sometimes I caught myself accidentally making a slashing + piercing spear instead of JUST piercing like they asked - that might be most of it?)
Summary of my mental breakdown after playing for ~40 hours on the new patch:
I gained 1 point of Honor. I leveled up my One Handed and Bow skills to about 150. Riding and Athletics are about 100 each. Smithing stands at 225 (I only used Kaoses Tweaks to increase out-of-settlement stamina regen to 50% instead of 0% - no other tweaks to Smithing). Charm is at 262 and Trade is at 182 with 5 focus each and 9 SOC. Leadership is at 29 despite constantly walking around with all consumables. Tactics is at 37.
My surgeon's med skill is 87. My Steward's is at 185. My Scout is at 101.
This was after using Kaoses Tweaks to triple XP for Leadership, Roguery, Tactics, Medicine and Engineering. No mods to anything else.
AND FORTY ****ING HOURS OF PLAY. (OK maybe I fell asleep once or twice with the game open)
The "Everything Has a Price" Trade skill perk is set at 300 Trade rather than 225 Trade like it used to be. Even at max Focus and 9 SOC, my green bar doesn't go anywhere near there.
I shudder to think what ungodly amounts of money I'd have to make trading in order to get up there. This is a character who has been doing NOTHING but trading, tournaments, smithing and quests.
For reference, every IRL denarius had silver value equal to roughly $5 USD - so just 200 mil would make you an ancient billionaire.
VERDICT:
Get Tweaks. Turn global XP mod to 200%. Set the worst-to-level non-combat skills to 300% on top of that. The game is unplayably stupid otherwise.
Also **** everything (SNIPPY SNIP SNIP I WAS TOO MEAN).
This isn't a game. This is a torture device for anyone but the most brain-dead simpleton who loves nothing more than grinding looters as a full-time profession. And whoever is making these terrible design decisions is completely insane.
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