Getting tired of no-win situations,

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Doofus

Sergeant
I have actually won the game once. But generally I play at easy level (not easiest). My plan with most games is to start easy, then when I win a couple times try harder settings, etc.. Problem is (In my opinion) this game is almost impossible to win without playing a homicidal maniac. I should clarify that I play with the goal of conquering the whole map. I try to play more or less as myself in an alternate setting. So....I play as I nice guy trying to rid the world of endless wars by unifying all the countries under one nation/empire/kingdom etc.

From a practical standpoint, I don't just routinely release prisoner lords after a battle. But I do release them if a reasonable ransom is offered (ie: over 1k denars). I don't execute them, although I'm very tempted at times. It doesn't fit my personality. So..my most recent game I decided to play a female, which I've done once or twice before. I decided she will be so upset with arrogant lords that just want war at the expense of the common people. She will be so upset with mercenaries who basically just do raids and harm the common people. She will be so upset with all of this that she will start executing them at some point in the game. This makes sense to me because, if I understand the start of the game, the player is a commoner that masquerades as a noble lord. So his/her feelings would tend more toward helping the common people than adopting the traits of the arrogant lords. Figured then I could play the game by executing lords, which would make the game winnable, and still play under my good-guy terms. Nope. When it came time to do the first execution I just couldn't do it. The game itself doesn't hep with this. I think it should at least allow mercenary executions with no negative consequences. Personally, I feel whenever a faction declares war on you (not you declaring on them), if you capture the faction leader, you should be able to execute them with no negative consequences.

Beyond executions though, the game has so many problems that just don't logically fit. Here's a few;

If you do the bannerlord quest and you give the banner to the leader of a kingdom, he says its the greatest thing anyone has ever done for him...but you get no reward. You don't get any sort of stat bonus. You don't get a physical reward from that leader (special sword, helm, armor etc). As far as I know you don't even gain relations with that lord. If you decide to start your own kingdom you also get no bonuses from being 'the Bannerlord'. It doesn't help your charm. You get no lords flocking to join 'the rightful ruler'. Nothing. The only thing you get by doing the main quest the game is named for is unending quests to try to stop kingdoms from warring you. You can't complete them all though because they are geographically all over the map and you probably already have wars to fight and fiefs to try to manage. So eventually the quest results in a mulitude of kingdoms declaring war on you all at once. The only 'benefit' to doing the quest is that it allows you to start your own kingdom one clan level earlier. But this isn't really a benefit. It just means you can start it earlier when you are less prepared for all the wars & stuff. So absolutely no one should do the Neretzes/Bannerlord quest. So why is it even in the game?

You can't eliminate factions. Not even temporarily. In the later stages of the game, or even what I would call the middle stages (when your kingdom controls maybe 50% of all territories), you are in endless war with every faction, even those that don't even border you. If you could eliminate factions, you could sacrifice land to some factions while systematically concentrating on eliminating others. Then you could go back and take back the land you lost. But if you fight on one border, you are losing land on your other border(s) and then when you go to take that back you will lose the land you just lost because you couldn't get rid of that enemy.

Peace declarations are pretty much useless. I think there's no time limit on them, so even if you get peace with another kingdom in the mid-to-later stages of the game they will just declare war on you again within one season. Does this make sense? In real life have there been ANY wars that have had peace declared and 3 months later war starts up again? I've never heard of a single one. There are occasionally temporary truces declared, but they are declared as temporary, not permanent peace declarations.

You have governors in castles and towns. You give them garrisons and you have them recruit militia to help them. But they are incapable of hunting down and removing hideouts? They can't send you messages advising you there's no funds for building things or asking what you'd like built next when the build que ends? They can't even advise there's a problem with security because of a hideout? You can't send them funds to keep assisting with building? They can't handle some of the routine taks that come up or ask how you'd like to handle them?

Speaking of communications, No other lords will EVER come to you asking to join you, even if their kingdom now has no holdings? Mercenaries will NEVER approach you and offer their services? You have to hunt down the mercenary leader someplace while (presumably) leading your forces in a war? You are supposed to recruit enemy lords to your faction, but you are always at war and usually leading an army, which makes you slower than a solo lord party so you can't catch them. And if they are part of an army they won't talk to you about defecting to you.

Here's another thing that I've never seen anyone actually suggest. As you know, if you take over a town of a culture different from yours, there's a good chance it will rebel against you unless you put a governor in it of the same culture (even then it could easily happen, but not as routinely). My suggestion, that will never happen, is that when you vote who gets a fief it should tell you what cultures the clans being suggested for the fief have within their clan. Example: You are with an Empire faction. You just took a Sturgian town (Omor?). 2 of the clans have only empire culture lords/ladies within them, but the third one just had their leader marry a Sturgian lady and one of the younger members of the clan married a Sturgian lady as well. If I knew this I would definitely be voting for the third clan to get Omor. But unless I'm doing accountant level paperwork at my computer desk, I'm not going to know this. The game should give a small flag for each culture represented by the clan when presenting the fief for voting. Also, make sure the game puts the lord/lady of that culture in as governor (unless they are already governing a different town of that culture).

When I capture an enemy lord/lady I can 'sell' them to a ransom broker or wait for a ransom offer. They may escape before I get a ransom offer or I may refuse the ransom offer. But when I get captured, I never get the chance to do a ransom offer. I might escape or I may bribe my way out, but I can never send a ransom offer or have one sent on my behalf. I think in the over 4000 hours I've played this game I've only had one ransom offer over 10k and that was just over 10k. But bribes are typically between 100k to 500k, depending how rich I am. Why? The king of a nation isn't worth over 10k (usually not even 5k) but I'm worth 100s of thousands, even when I'm not the ruler? I might be able to afford it, but basically I'm getting screwed and no one can argue that I'm not. I hate paying these bribes on principal and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Also...When I get away, whether its escaping or bribing someone, I have to be real careful or I'm going to be recaptured. So I just paid a 300k bribe, I get recaptured again, now I'm expected to pay another huge bribe? Have you ever seen another lord/lady recaptured after escaping or paying a ransom? If they can't be recaptured then I shouldn't be recaptured. I should have a free pass until I reach a town/castle that I, or my faction, controls. Does this make sense?

There's a hell of a lot of technical problems with the game & anyone can go look at those forums, but I wanted to express some of the problems with the game that just plain fall under the category of 'Illogical' and unrealistic. I truly believe that absolutely none of the Devs (or managers) have played the game and I feel that if they did they would understand the frustrations and problems with the game much better. I continue to play the game because I love the play style with both a campaign map and a battle map and controlling both your own character and the troops under you. But they really need to give the game an overhaul. I typically play about 1/2 way through the game then give up on it. They have improved some of the visuals adding new maps for battles & such and a wider variety of equipment. But its the basics of the game itself they should be concentrating on.
 
You can clear the map without executing people, but you have to go very hard and efficiently and it's very grindy, especially post 1.1.0 as the AI vassals will barely help you at all. This isn't how most people seem to want to play though and they get butthurt when they ask for help and are told all thier troops are trash and everything they do in the game is bad. But that's the game, you must cross a threshold of overt power and campaign time efficiency to take the map, if you don't then it's just wack-a-mole forever in the same fiefs. If you waste time (smithing, finding lords, quests) during war you fall behind. If you use troops that die more then almost never you fall behind. The AI can rebuild and recover so fast and has so much hidden money that you have to be constantly on the attack to make progress.

Most of the people who buy this game only play into the middle of that game, if that.
 
There is only my clan in my faction, I captured almost all the cities, I lose very few people in battles, if you understand how to play, the game becomes not difficult. I play on hard difficulty.

At the end of the game, I will have to face a new task, when all the lords on the map are left without possessions, maybe I can solve it, but this is a little later.
 
VVL99 said:
There is only my clan in my faction, I captured almost all the cities, I lose very few people in battles, if you understand how to play, the game becomes not difficult. I play on hard difficulty.

At the end of the game, I will have to face a new task, when all the lords on the map are left without possessions, maybe I can solve it, but this is a little later.
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everything has a price.... that how it call's i believe
it is doable but takes a lot of time, in-real also, so who got to that stage, as Ananda_The_Destroyer said...???
 
Ananda_The_Destroyer said:
You can clear the map without executing people, but you have to go very hard and efficiently and it's very grindy, especially post 1.1.0 as the AI vassals will barely help you at all. This isn't how most people seem to want to play though and they get butthurt when they ask for help and are told all thier troops are trash and everything they do in the game is bad. But that's the game, you must cross a threshold of overt power and campaign time efficiency to take the map, if you don't then it's just wack-a-mole forever in the same fiefs. If you waste time (smithing, finding lords, quests) during war you fall behind. If you use troops that die more then almost never you fall behind. The AI can rebuild and recover so fast and has so much hidden money that you have to be constantly on the attack to make progress.

Most of the people who buy this game only play into the middle of that game, if that.
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Games should be fun, not frustrating. It´s not even difficult, it´s just frustrating doing the same over and over. I call that bad game design
 
It just does not have to be so difficult or tedious. As soon as you get over the natural gag reflex of having to pay off your weaker opponents, then you can really start to appreciate the strategic possibilites that the diplomatic system offer.
 
I don't play the game as a diplomatic game. I play it as a war game and use diplomacy when necessary. I don't mind diplomacy in the game & if peace agreements worked longer it would even make some sense. But I'm not playing a game that just happens to have wars in it so that I can enjoy a diplomatic game.
 
Regarding Ananda's question, I kind of wonder about that too. I've won a total of one time. I believe that was in February of this year and the game didn't even acknowledge that I owned all of Caladria. There was no Steam achievement. Sort of wonder if this is a mod.

The stats seem odd too. No issues solved? Thats how I earn money in the early stages. Only 30 tournaments won? Granted, you don't have to play a lot of tournaments, but through the early to middle stages thats how I get the best gear for me and my companions, as well as additional cash. Depending how long I play the game before giving up, I usually end up at the top of the tournament board by 20-50 wins. Also, the tournament takes no in-game time, so you don't have to worry about losing territories while doing it. I guess the other thing I would wonder is what difficulty level VVL plays at.
 
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Doofus said:
I don't play the game as a diplomatic game. I play it as a war game and use diplomacy when necessary. I don't mind diplomacy in the game & if peace agreements worked longer it would even make some sense. But I'm not playing a game that just happens to have wars in it so that I can enjoy a diplomatic game.
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It is not a diplomatic game. You are just following a time honored tradtion of paying off one neighbor, to keep his swords at home, while you deal with another neighbor.
 
Doofus said:
The stats seem odd too. No issues solved? Thats how I earn money in the early stages. Only 30 tournaments won? Granted, you don't have to play a lot of tournaments, but through the early to middle stages thats how I get the best gear for me and my companions, as well as additional cash. Depending how long I play the game before giving up, I usually end up at the top of the tournament board by 20-50 wins. Also, the tournament takes no in-game time, so you don't have to worry about losing territories while doing it.
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Nahh, I dont get to do many tournaments either so that is hardly surprising. Tournaments are cancelled when you take a town so, at the end of the day, you just dont get that many opportunities to participate in them.
Doofus said:
I guess the other thing I would wonder is what difficulty level VVL plays at.
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He already said (Hard).


But holy crap. 10 hours of real world time! I probably spend more than that just fiddling with my companions gear. That is some serious dedication to time efficiency.
Edit: ok, after long and hard deliberation, with a lifetime income of 90k influence, it seems somewhat unlikely that you would have an average influence income of 150 per minute of game time. It might just be possible that it doesnt do a very good job calculating how much time is actually spend.
 
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This is the completion screen for the main quest - The Destruction of the Empire.
Game version 1.1.3, 1.1.4, vanilla version, I play on a difficult level.
When you write about pleasure, you are confusing a story game with a strategy game, strategy is a puzzle, i.e. solving complex problems, but there are solutions and they are different.
I have used every possible option. 10 h. played, I loaded and saved a lot, replayed and chose the best options, i.e. In fact, I played for at least a week. 10h. perhaps the game takes into account only the movement on the map.
Now about the possibilities, tournaments - few people know, but if your clan member wins the tournament and he is not in the squad, i.e. you left him in the city during the tournament, then he receives money, not a prize, for example, for a commander’s helmet, he will receive 170,000, etc.
I played without new clans, their efficiency is very low for passing and I did not spend influence on making the necessary decisions, laws, and also did not spend money on persuasion.
These are just some of the possibilities.

Daily income 232 000.


At the time of the game's completion, I made peace with all factions.


After this message, a video appears stating that the empire has been destroyed, followed by the statistics that you have already seen.


The game can be completed a few years earlier, initially I did not plan to capture the map, I hoped that others would destroy the Empire, but after several years of waiting, I realized that other factions would not do this.
Although Vlandia quickly took over the map and she could take everything, I had to fight them for a long time, I will have to check this option. I will just watch how Calradia develops and will only help destroy the Empire, but I will not capture the settlements.

Day 626, I just started to capture the cities of the Western Empire, Vlandia had already swallowed Battania and began to approach my cities.

I captured the rest of the map in 727 days.
 
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VVL99 said:
This is the completion screen for the main quest - The Destruction of the Empire.
Game version 1.1.3, 1.1.4, vanilla version, I play on a difficult level.
When you write about pleasure, you are confusing a story game with a strategy game, strategy is a puzzle, i.e. solving complex problems, but there are solutions and they are different.
I have used every possible option. 10 h. played, I loaded and saved a lot, replayed and chose the best options, i.e. In fact, I played for at least a week. 10h. perhaps the game takes into account only the movement on the map.
Now about the possibilities, tournaments - few people know, but if your clan member wins the tournament and he is not in the squad, i.e. you left him in the city during the tournament, then he receives money, not a prize, for example, for a commander’s helmet, he will receive 170,000, etc.
I played without new clans, their efficiency is very low for passing and I did not spend influence on making the necessary decisions, laws, and also did not spend money on persuasion.
These are just some of the possibilities.

Daily income 232 000.


At the time of the game's completion, I made peace with all factions.


After this message, a video appears stating that the empire has been destroyed, followed by the statistics that you have already seen.


The game can be completed a few years earlier, initially I did not plan to capture the map, I hoped that others would destroy the Empire, but after several years of waiting, I realized that other factions would not do this.
Although Vlandia quickly took over the map and she could take everything, I had to fight them for a long time, I will have to check this option. I will just watch how Calradia develops and will only help destroy the Empire, but I will not capture the settlements.

Day 626, I just started to capture the cities of the Western Empire, Vlandia had already swallowed Battania and began to approach my cities.

I captured the rest of the map in 727 days.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I took the map last night and only got the achievement for Supreme Emperor but no message.
my campaign was 720 days which was the longest in a while, I think there are some bugs causing AI to not help as much as in past versions and also something wrong with auto calc so they fail sieges that she should finish easily. By contrast the previous one was 647 day and that was on a sandbox, so it should have been slightly slower then campaign because you don't have your brother.
 
Ananda_The_Destroyer said:
Interesting, I took the map last night and only got the achievement for Supreme Emperor but no message.
my campaign was 720 days which was the longest in a while, I think there are some bugs causing AI to not help as much as in past versions and also something wrong with auto calc so they fail sieges that she should finish easily. By contrast the previous one was 647 day and that was on a sandbox, so it should have been slightly slower then campaign because you don't have your brother.
Click to expand...
Ehh, 700 days should still be survivable for your average OCD completionist.:smile:
 
That explains some of it I suppose. Its just the completion of the Neretzes quest, not the game. Basically, you are just defeating the empire kingdoms. I'll admit I could do that. My goal is to own the whole map and doing the Neretzes quest just makes that harder. So I occasionally do the quest to see if they fixed it, but mostly avoid it totally.

As to tournaments though, I don't make special trips to do tournaments, but every time I pass close to a town I stop in to see if there is a tournament. And while I understand that if a companion who is not with your party/army wins a tournament you get cash instead of gear; as I stated above, I get my best gear (except perhaps at clan level 6) from doing tournaments. And I get my companions/family members gear that way too. Even before reaching clan level 1 I probably win about 75% of the tournaments I'm in, so why not do them? I will say though that I prefer a sword and shield, so usually I try to stay in the empire territories in the early stages because the finals are always sword/shield and about 50-75% of the other rounds I have sword/shield too. I look at it as free loot and good leveling of abilities in the earlier stages of the game.

Sweynfokbeard, regarding diplomacy, as I stated, I don't mind paying off the neighbor, but to pay them of just to have them declare war again 20 days later is stupid. Maybe the game should add an option to pay them extra to assure the peace lasts at least a year or something. I wouldn't always want to, but when you have 6 empires at war with you, paying one off to go away for 20 days to get his armies revitalized seems rather stupid to me. You'll still be warring at least 3 or 4 of the empires you are currently warring when he returns.
 
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