Feedback on Ustokol Castle - Villagers cannot reach the market at Revyl - Patrols needed?

[Woopzilla]

Stickied thread pointed me here to post feedback, so here goes:

Ustokol Castle and its garrison prove a huge problem for the villagers of Zhemyan and Ustokol.

I think this image should explain the issue:

The narrow terrain and placement of Ustokol Castle causes a huge pileup of bandits on the villager's side. This is because the bandits are scared of the garrison in Ustokol Castle and then forever stay in the valleys, completely blocking off both villages.

This results in the situation where the villagers can never ever trade with Revyl, because they run away in fear or get killed by the bandits.

Sometimes, you don't even need the bandits to actually spawn on that side as they sometimes get pushed past the castle when a lord appears, and run away in fear, ignoring the garrison force for once.

It requires the player to regularly 'unplug' this area of else it just becomes a permanent bandit infestation.

Such a situation is almost non-existent for almost every other town, but the terrain is so narrow here, that it becomes extremely difficult for villagers to ever reach the market.

Solution? Apart from actually editing the terrain, the only way I see the problem could be helped is by making castles send out patrols if too many bandits are within its sphere of influence. Other than that? I'm not entirely sure what can be done except for making hideouts unable to spawn there.

 

[archaicwarrior]

That's funny because the Sturgian AI keep sending armies to Revyl and beyond . I never understood why ? These armies were needed elsewhere - defending castles etc.

Maybe these armies are "cleaning out" bandits ???? ... or more likely, recruiting troops from villages .... errrr UG!

hmmm

 

[Bluko88]

Stickied thread pointed me here to post feedback, so here goes:

Ustokol Castle and its garrison prove a huge problem for the villagers of Zhemyan and Ustokol.

I think this image should explain the issue:

The narrow terrain and placement of Ustokol Castle causes a huge pileup of bandits on the villager's side. This is because the bandits are scared of the garrison in Ustokol Castle and then forever stay in the valleys, completely blocking off both villages.

This results in the situation where the villagers can never ever trade with Revyl, because they run away in fear or get killed by the bandits.

Sometimes, you don't even need the bandits to actually spawn on that side as they sometimes get pushed past the castle when a lord appears, and run away in fear, ignoring the garrison force for once.

It requires the player to regularly 'unplug' this area of else it just becomes a permanent bandit infestation.

Such a situation is almost non-existent for almost every other town, but the terrain is so narrow here, that it becomes extremely difficult for villagers to ever reach the market.

Solution? Apart from actually editing the terrain, the only way I see the problem could be helped is by making castles send out patrols if too many bandits are within its sphere of influence. Other than that? I'm not entirely sure what can be done except for making hideouts unable to spawn there.

Yeah this area in particular is really really bad. Basically ruins part of Revyl's economy, though it's usually does well enough despite.

I think this is a very good case for Castles/Towns to send out Manhunters/Bounty Hunters to hunt down outlaws. Be nice if their end objective was to actually destroy the hideout as well due it's negative effects. Would add a bit of life to the game. Also areas like this can be sort of nasty to new players with unusually large concentrations of small parties clumping up.

Manhunters should chase down any outlaws in sight and continue to do so, til they are defeated, or if they are lucky enough to survive - reach the region hideout and dismantle it.

Steppe Bandits can get out of control too, but at least they aren't strictly bottled up.

 

[Woopzilla]

Basically ruins part of Revyl's economy, though it's usually does well enough despite.

Yea, Revyl does seem to fairly fine despite this. It only gets worse though if the approach to Revyl, which is also a narrow pass, gets a forest bandit encampment or sea raider encampment. Caravans then have to dare to rush through a horde of bandits clogging up the pass (much more dangerous for the player's small Caravans). All it takes to ruin the villages is a band of randomly spawned looters, and they can be fairly big in the late game. Or one of the bandits get chased into that area and live.

I think one of the issues of the Bannerlord map compared to the Warband map is that it feels a lot more claustrophobic in a lot of places. But the AI still uses the same pathing logic of: "Let's run towards my target via the shortest path. Oh, a bad guy, let's run away. Ok, I'm safe, let's run towards my target via the shortest path." And then repeat. But sometimes, like in Revyl's case, there's no alternative path unfortunately, even if they were made smarter.

I think this is a very good case for Castles/Towns to send out Manhunters/Bounty Hunters to hunt down outlaws.

The return of Manhunters would definitely be welcome for cases such as these.