Recent content by 84Slashes

Big +1, I would add to the suggestion by expanding to include settlement garrison and militia numbers. It's kind of silly that I can just mouse over a settlement and know exactly the quantity and quality of troops inside!

different skills and traits could influence the likelihood of engaging.

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This would be a wonderful way to also make traits matter and make lords feel more alive.

Edward the Bastard said:

Thank you!

I posted this in another thread yesterday and got a suggestive dev response! You can check it out here

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check end of page 4 through top of 5.

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Nice!

I've experienced the frustration of joining a fight and delegating command of my troops, only to have them execute an entirely different strategy than my allies (my troops rush in and get slaughtered, while my allies sit back in circle of suicide), way too many times. So a big +1 to your suggestion.

At minimum if ability to choose / delegate commanders from AI lords is not an option, at least update F6 - delegate command to AI troops so that in a large fight with multiple parties, they are aware of the actions of their allies!

Problem is that the only meaningful activities in towns -- trade, recruit troops and companions, and sell prisoners -- all have shortcuts now, reducing the need to ever walk through a town.

Even if you want to immerse yourself or RP a bit, what can one do in towns? Talking to townspeople yields bits of gossip, but nothing worthwhile. You can hear about prices, but trade perks and visiting towns yourself is more effective; you can hear about the personality traits of various lords or notables, but NPC personality traits don't matter much if at all -- generous, kind lords seem to have no problem pillaging, looting, and raping enemy villages just as much as cruel lords.

I imagine a world where interactions with NPCs in towns could change dynamically based on what quality of civilian clothing you wear -- e.g. approaching a notable in fine town boots, or imperial robes, would make a better impression, giving you higher chance of persuasion, than if you walk around in rags. Or imagine if wearing clothes from a different culture, e.g. Imperial clothes in a Sturgian town, led to NPCs remarking on the difference and reacting differently depending on whether they liked or disliked foreigners.

But alas no such feature has ever been spoken of so I personally don't have any reason to ever walk around a town -- some of them are beautifully realized, especially the Imperial towns, but they are skin-deep with nothing to do.

Shik said:

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/the-siege-of-gallianum-a-play-through-of-a-campaign-with-screenshots.53887/

Is this what you're referring to?

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Oh wow, the thought and detail put into that post is striking, exactly the kind of depth I would love to see in a game like Bannerlord. It would be wonderful if we could hear from some of the devs working on the campaign logic about the challenges they found and if/why they decided to abandon that level of depth.

In my opinion having terrain effects, raiding parties, foraging, scouting, etc. would be huge improvements over the current simplified parties/armies system, so if that direction wasn't feasible for TW would be nice to know why.

Tryvenyal said:

Overall +1. But I don't know if I support you pick at will. A sturgian lord owning a Sturgian fief building an Aserai/Vlandian quarter does not at all makes sense. But an Kuzhait lord holding a Sturgian city founding a kuzhait enclave does make sense. Maybe a Vlandian lord serving Sturgia could build a Vlandian quarter. I don't know , I want some connection!

I would like to expand it though! I want different types of enclaves.

The lord can build a military quarter, drafting freemen(recruits) and smithing artisans to the city.
Adding 1-2 weak smithowning artisans of lords or faction's culture. When an artisan dies, of another culture than the enclave dies, a enclave cultured artisan spawns besides a native one.
When implemented, this works quite as OP suggested.

Spawning merchants should have chanse to be of a different culture depending on trade infuences.
Ex, if 75% of trade in a battanian city is done by Vlandian merchants, there should be a decent chanse of a spawning weak merchant of Vlandian culture, besides a random battanian one. He offers Vlandian caravan recruits, mixed with Battanian Volunteers if he becomes powerful. Caravans prefer trading with same-culture merchants so a vlandian merchant gets an extra share of influence provided from Vlandian caravans(Could always be true. In homogenous towns it would not matter)

Spawning criminal gangleaders should have a chanse of beeing of an enemy culture if prosperity is low.
Thinking this could be a cool feature. He spawns besides a native gangleader. If gangleaders becomes strong, they could offer troops of the bandit faction assosiated with his culture mixed with native recruits.

Villiger Landowners I need to think more about.

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Very interesting points! I like the idea of further distinguishing quarters into military vs. trade vs. artisans, and that choice opening up either troop recruitment, or trade goods, or arms/armor from the foreign culture. In that case I wonder if limiting the number of quarters is still necessary
?

Agree also with the chance to spawn merchants and gang leaders of different cultures, especially if there are many caravans coming from that culture. Chance to spawn criminal notables should probably increase briefly if a district is demolished (to represent the foreigners pushed into crime thru the harsh laws of the the town)!

Let me get out my soapbox, now is my time!

I too would like to see some form of cultural change in game. Wholesale changing of an entire town (or village)'s culture seems a bit too much in a few years in the pseudo-early middle age setting of Bannerlord, but a neat solution might be to represent ethnic enclaves in game.

Many cities in history have had ethnic enclaves -- the Venetian quarter in Constantinople, the Jewish ghetto in Rome, the European district in Shanghai. In some cases these quarters even had their own rules administered by a local police of the same ethnicity -- i.e. Venetian arms and laws would apply to Venetians even in Constantinople.

In-game, this could be represented by letting town owners choose to build a cultural district distinct from the settlement culture. E.g. I own Amprela which is Imperial culture, but I choose to build a Vlandian quarter. This could add 1-2 Vlandian notables to the settlement (enabling recruitment of Vlandian troops), and perhaps also add some Vlandian arms and armor to the settlement markets. As a downside, cultural districts should probably decrease settlement loyalty and/or security, to reflect xenophobia and ethnic tension (and for balance reasons, otherwise there's no reason not to build a district everywhere).

In the long term, I wish TW would enable town-specific policies. This would open up e.g. rules about how different culture notables are treated in the town vs. the same culture, tax policies in specific towns, and generally deepen town management to make it more interesting and give players options.

Yes! Caravans are criminally underused right now. A simple example: let town owners build a new settlement building: the caravanserai, which will reduce the trade penalty for arriving caravans and add +1 to the prosperity of the settlement, but decreases security and adds 1 merchant notable from a random culture.

Terco_Viejo said:

So, new neighborhoods - districs or the whole city changing (culture change / architecture evolution-change) - I don't see it, mostly because it would take a lot of work to implement it. However, just as there are settlement projects, perhaps player could enable one with a bonus and possible penalty.

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Good point, I was assuming any such enclave/ghetto wouldn't be accompanied by any actual scene changes or visible difference in the city -- besides the addition of notables, which I assume can be spawned at random in the city -- players would only interact with this option thru the Manage Settlement menu. I don't think other town projects lead to visible scene changes, do they?

Terco_Viejo said:

I refer to a settlement project consisting of ghettos. They could only be carried out in non-native conquered cities (f.e. Vlandia conquers Car Banseth). Together with the OP's main idea and the various 2cents that have been added, this idea and what we are commenting now; would generate an availability of troops of Battanian origin in the villages Geunat Nal, Tor Leiad, and Bog Beth despite the Vlandian domination and at the same time with time flowing obtaining availability of basic units of Vlandian troops in a mixed compendium.

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This could work as well, definitely. The auxiliary idea makes so much sense to me, and would be great for immersion -- really hope that TW considers that.

Terco_Viejo said:

As you well say, the negative but interesting (imo) part would be that its construction (in a virtual way like Aquaducts, Fairgrounds, Training Fields..etc) could cause a deterioration of the loyalty and therefore some eventual rebellions.

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I appreciate the feedback. IMO settlements could be so much more than they are currently, and present interesting choices with payoffs and penalties. If it is the complexity of adding scenes that prevents TW from considering this, I would love to understand that more. Maybe there is a low-scope way to present the choice to players.

I've posted this in 2 other threads already, hopefully not crossing some spammy line but I have a suggestion on this front.

Town owners should be able to build ethnic enclaves that unlock troop recruitment from different cultures than the settlement, and provide trade goods from that culture.

For example if I own Tyal but decide I'd like some Khuzait flavor in the town, I can spend denars to build a 'Khuzait quarter' which once completed could have the following effects:

• Adds 1-2 new Khuzait notables providing Khuzait troops for recruitment
• Adds a small selection of Khuzait armor, weapons, and trade goods (e.g. steppe horses) to the town's inventory

Further considerations to flesh this idea out:

• A town can only have 1 ethnic enclave -- so players have to choose carefully if they value Imperial armor and trade goods, or Vlandian soldiers, in their decision of whether to build an Imperial quarter or a Vlandian district
• Adding an ethnic enclave should reduce settlement loyalty and security, both to make it a meaningful trade-off (otherwise no reason not to build one in every town) and to reflect the sad historical reality that xenophobia and ethnic conflict was (and remains) a thing
• Town owners should also be able to demolish or change the culture an ethnic enclave if they decide they must -- but it should come at a severe temporary malus to settlement security and loyalty. Effectively you are purging an entire community that was previously invited to the town. This may be a choice particularly when a town changes hands and the new owners (including the player) prefer one culture over another.

I think this would give players a meaningful new way to invest in their towns, and enable them to unlock access to non-settlement culture troops in towns within reasonable limits.

Agree with this suggestion. Getting elite troops should be the payoff of rising through the ranks of a faction, not something trivial to accomplish within a week of in-game time. To me it breaks my immersion to be clothed in bandit rags, riding a sumpter horse, while hiring and equipping elite palatine guards to accompany me as I roam the map.

Having access to elite troops be locked behind some marker of progression - whether clan tier, or ownership of a castle/town (e.g. only notables in castles you own can offer noble troops), or some other constraint would be important to add to the satisfaction of mid-game: when you are finally able to hire your first cataphract, it should be a big deal! And the same should apply to all AI nobles, of course (in line with TaleWorlds' design approach).

Terco_Viejo said:

...For me, it would be interesting if the recruitment panel of each settlement showed up:

Villages	Castles	Towns
Common troop / Minor faction trees by regular notable Criminal troop trees by mafia notable	Noble troop tree by sargeant-castellar	Militia / Guards / Mercenary / Minor faction (only those native in settlement origin) troop tree by regular notable Criminal troop trees by mafia notable

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Adding my two cents to say I love this suggestion.

Regarding ability to recruit different troops from a different culture than the settlement culture -- I've had this idea for a while that it should be possible to unlock this via settlement projects. The city owner should be able to build ethnic enclaves, for example if I own Tyal but decide I'd like some Khuzait flavor in the town, I can build a 'Khuzait quarter' which over time could have the following effects:

• Adds 1-2 new Khuzait notables (maybe one merchant, one mafia). If combined with Terco's suggestion above, these would provide militia/guards/mercenary troops and criminal troops respectively
• Adds a small selection of Khuzait armor, weapons, and trade goods (e.g. steppe horses) to the town's inventory

To make it a more interesting choice, a town can only have 1 ethnic enclave -- so players have to choose carefully if they value Imperial armor and trade goods, or Vlandian soldiers, for instance.

For balance reasons, adding an ethnic enclave should probably reduce settlement loyalty and security, both to give them trade-offs (otherwise no reason not to build one) and to reflect the sad historical reality that xenophobia and ethnic conflict was (and remains) a thing.

This would give players a meaningful new way to invest in their towns, and enable them to unlock access to non-settlement culture troops in towns (within limits).

@mexxico really appreciate the effort to share your work with us -- taking the time to post all this adds up, but it's great to see! Also, your English is good so don't feel that you need to apologize

Questions that you may be able to answer:
- Is it programmed that some factions find it more difficult to create and maintain armies than others? if not, should it be so? I am thinking of the Khuzaits in particular, and how to balance their tendency to snowball. Like their inspiration the Mongols or the Huns, IF the Khuzaits are able to get a large army going into a war, they should be near-unstoppable. BUT, it should be very difficult for them to make that happen -- tribal politics / factionalism / grudges / blood feuds should prevent the lords from uniting, instead they should all be acting independently. In the absence of a feature to let lords within a faction fight each other, at minimum you could make the influence cost for Khuzait armies to be called and maintained much higher than it is for e.g. imperial factions, which are much more centralized.

- Is it possible or planned to have different types of wars, small and large, and change lord behavior based on the type of war?
This occurred to me when you wrote about the 'small wars' to stop tribute -- maybe there should be war aims/goals to allow for such situations. That would let factions declare smaller wars, e.g. 'to avenge an insult', 'to punish a particular lord', 'to stop paying tribute/ to impose tribute', etc. Lords would be able to prioritize different behaviors depending on the war goals -- if it's not a war of conquest, they wouldn't bother with sieges but would prefer to hunt down the offending lord, for instance.