I wanted to wait until I had about 200 hours in the game before posting this, but I have been taking notes and consider myself an avid gamer. Between Warband and Skyrim I clocked in over 5800 hours and have experienced about every major Warband mod. I am also an experienced modder with projects that spans almost 20 years and have been invited to studios like the Creative Assemble that does the Total War Series. I have a lot experience and believe Bannerlord is THE game, but I feel it is missing the mark even for EA. I have BETA tested 7-10 major projects and I feel I may have something to contribute. While I recognize and appreciate the love and passion the devs have it is easy to get overwhelmed in an extensive and complex project like Bannerlord. That said with the greatest respect to the devs here are some suggestions and feedback for Bannerlord.
The Faction dilemma
Where to start with all the possibilities in Bannerlord? This is truly an epic game so I will start with the factions. The factions are nice but I believe you should break up the factions first and foremost. What I mean by that is not every culture should be a single faction. The way the Empire currently is fine, but factions like the Battanians should mostly be smaller separate clans with the main Battanian faction having a few clans sworn to them because that is the High Kings faction. Now this would be a little different for each faction for example the Vladians could have a couple of independent Duchies (duke as a leader) that are not part of their Kingdom and so on and so forth.
Why this would make superior game play?
This could provide a much more diverse experience within a faction that would allow the player to experience low level conflicts while the King’s faction struggles to unite the clans or even form alliances with them. The current system while it was cool in Warband has ran its course and needs to evolve to where every culture is not a united faction. The good news is with the clans you already have a system in place which make this a viable option and would transform the continental massive wars to low level conflicts in the early stages of the game. This would be the single biggest improvement to Banner lord and buy the player some time to develop before the major culture vs culture wars kick off.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is pretty important to portraying and presenting a believable experience. War should not be taken lightly and major wars should have some escalating events that take place that maybe could give the player the option to push for war or deescalate the situation. These events would grant possible Casus belli which would give your faction the right to wage war without consequence. To go to war for no reason would cause a major hit to diplomacy with the possibility of factions forming a coalition against your faction. The current all war system that appears to have to rhyme or reason and feels pretty gamey. It needs some dress to make things a little more interesting.
Faction Structure and Titles/Peerage
Faction structure needs serious work and titles should be a HUGE part of Bannerlord. Titles could even be tied to your clan rank. For example for the Vlandians you could have something like this:
Clan Tier 0 – Gentry
Clan Tier 1 – Esquire
Clan Tier 2 – Knight (Knighted when you join the faction with maybe a small ceremony of being knighted)
Clan Tier 3 - Barron
Clan Tier 4 - Count
Clan Tier 5 - Duke
Clan Tier 6 - Archduke
*Robber Knight and Robber Barron could be used for independent land grabs if your tier does not allow you to be a Kingdom. The faction leader would get the title of King regardless of clan rank. Also titles would vary for each culture for example the Battanian king would have the title of “High King”.
Secret societies and mercenaries
Mercenaries should function more like the companions in Skyrim where they have a base in a town and you can join them and be part of their faction and recruit troops from their troop tree. Maybe even becoming a free lancer in one of their armies. It would be cool to have more options with Secret societies like being an assassin and doing contract kills for them and eventually lead up to bigger jobs.
Scrap defecting Lords to other cultures
This is one of the worst features in the series and should be scrapped for the most part as it ruins late game immersion when your see factions full of defeated lords from other cultures. If a faction needs a new lord for conquered lands then they should simple recruit from within the faction and have some randomly generated noble of the same culture raise a banner. Defecting lords should be very rare from other cultures and only if they have a certain trait. The current system ruins late game and destroys faction hegemony.
Economy
While there is some really cool progress that has been made, there is not a kitchen sink to throw all that wealth at once you buy up the best weapons, armor, and enterprises. There needs to be a way to buy influence with money to be able to leverage wealth. Some other options could include a banking system that allows you to place money in a guild and earn interest kind of like the Iron Bank in game of thrones.
Trading is way too easy and you should have to join a guild to obtain a trading charter or you will be subject to tolls. However there could be a black market if you are in with the right people and there is already a pretty cool quest that is in the game that could tie into the rogue aspect. Maybe some of the Looter hideouts could act as a black market.
Player Homes (Not castles or Towns)
Player should have the option to buy a house in a settlement where they can store things, as a merchant character you probably won’t be taking a castle any time soon so player homes should be an option. With maybe a average house and a mansion option for rich merchant type characters. What these homes could use to make them interesting and to add to immersion.
Chest – make an interactive chest that the player can interact with from in the house
Bed – Be able to lay down on bed to pass time and heal
Servants – These could be part of the mansion
Book case – These are where the books would be stored
Weapon rack – A place to display a few weapons
Not everybody wants to own land and these would fill that role for traders and rogue type characters.
Castle Storage
A place to store things is a must, I can’t tell you how many horses I have lost from being caught after a battle but it is probably 500-700 so far. You should be able to store horses in your stables because you don’t want to go to war with 80 horses as a baggage train. Also castles have no stash either which sucks because once again stuff in your inventory gets lost if you lose a battle, it would be nice to be able to store them somewhere safe. Maybe it is just a missing feature but it would be nice to be able interact with the chest that is in your bedroom.
Ai Battle Tactics
Currently they pretty much suicide charge, I would take a page out of the historical writing of De re military for inspiration on how armies fight. The attacks should always start off with the skirmishers/archers engaging, and then followed with infantry with the cavalry held in reserve to be use as flankers or to take out the other factions’ cavalry.
Infantry Formations Marching
First thing I would like to see is when infantry is in formations like shieldwall they march like they do in siege battles which looks amazing. Infantry formations need some work and need to stop cavalry a little better.
Spear Formations
A phalanx/spear wall formation should be added that allows multiple ranks of spears to fight! At least 2 would be a good start where the second rank uses the overhand attack to attack over the first rank.
Infantry Collision
Melees currently are a spastic blob of instant death, it looks like a combination of troops moving too fast and lack of collision. I would look at Wolin festival Viking battles for inspiration on shieldwall clashes and improve formation vs formation battles to where melee stalemates can occur creating a no man’s land between formations making flanking a more viable tactic.
Ai Companions
I would be nice if at least Ai faction leaders had a few companions in their ranks, or at least a champion/hero in their army to flesh out Ai parties a bit more. It feels weird that only the player can get companions and gives the player an advantage.
Perks
From what I understand perks is something that is being done, I looking forward to see what you guys do but it would be nice to see some perks in the leaderships or tactics line the improves your troops fighting in formation . Viking conquest have some pretty cool traits that you could unlock at level 13 like berserker, warcry, and tough. Here are some perks I would like to see added:
Rally – Be able to rally routing troops if you are close to them (leadership)
Infantry Commander – Infantry fighting in formation are 10% more effective in melee (tactics)
Sweeping Attack – Can hit multiple targets with two handed weapons (two handed)
Riposte – get an attack speed bonus after success blocking an attack with a one handed sword (one hand no shield)
Culture traits
While they seem nice they could use a little spice, the Battanian one seems pretty useless maybe it could be a bonus to combat in the woods instead or both movement and combat bonus in the woods.
Trainers (for the player)
Skill trainers are a must in this game and would add to the immersion of the system. It would be cool if you could find a few masters around the map that can train with to boost up you skills. Skyrim had this this feature and it fits well with how skills upgrade.
Legendary Smiths
It could be nice if you could commission weapons from these artisans for a large amount of coin.
Famous weapons and armor
Bannerlord needs some weapons of legend like Excalibur or Gungnir that are shrouded in Calradian lore.
Books
I haven’t seen any yet, but they were a cool feature I hope they make a return. These are novelty pieces I like to collect for my wealthy characters.
Roads
The campaign map is beautiful and roads to would be a nice addition for at least the Empire factions.
Looters/Bandits
There are too many of them and there needs to be a better way to implement them and control them. For example a group of bandits should be connected to a hideout (even looters), if the hideout gets destroyed then they stop respawning for a while. Hiring militia patrols should be an option to make the roads safer in your area. Looter should be tied to certain conditions like food shortage and low security. So once you resolve those issues they become less of a problem.
War horns and banners
Banners and war horns add a lot of immersion to the battle, it would be cool if one of the troops in your cavalry, infantry, or archer groups blew a war horn when you give them an order. It would also be nice if it applied to the Ai as well. As for banners they are not in the game without mods but it would be nice to see them back in as they look pretty cool.
Tournaments
Tournaments have always been a pretty popular feature in the series, but I think these three areas need to be addressed:
Prizes – Maybe some better gear can be offered once in a while depending on the prosperity of the town or something. Seems like I’m mostly getting the same mediocre mid-level prizes, also the cash prize diminishes as the game progresses.
Tournament Champions – There should be a few legendary champions that show up from time to time that are really good and who you truly compete with for the number 1 rank.
Ranking system – It would be nice to show how many opponents you have beat as well and maybe the total amount of tournament you have competed in as well.
Training troops
It would be nice if training troops was expanded a bit so that there are a few companions that you can recruit to help speed up the process the character Lezalit from Warband. One could be a veteran officer from the Empire, one could be a Vlandian mercenary captain, and maybe one could be a slave master that trained mamelukes. These would be some of the best companions in the game and would help the player get more T3+ troops. Also it would be nice to train them like you could in Warband to speed up the process to T2 units.
Future Content
Nord Incursion – This is the obvious candidate for future content that adds the invasion of the Nords at some point in the campaign. It could add a new culture to join, new weapons, new companions, and ships with naval combat added. This would also be a good opportunity to add sea trading where the player can own trading ships that act like caravans. Own ships in general was a very cool feature IN Viking Conquest and I hope it is add to the main campaign of Bannerlord at some point.
Hunting – The ability to hunt bears, boar, and deer. This could also provide a way to harvest furs and meat and maybe some rare claws and teeth trophies. This could also add dangerous animal encounters like bears, wolves, and leopards that attack the players party if it is small. There could also be quest from the villages to hunt wolves that are attacking live stock from one of the notables.
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[U]armagan[/U] I don't know if you will ever see this thread but if you do thank you and your team for all your hard work!
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