Hello butterlords,
So i ended up creating my own kingdom for the second time, after they implemented a bunch of the changes, like lowering enemy lord prisoner escape chance, truce time after peace etc., and as far as I can tell, end game feel worse now? It cost a whole lot more to barter for peace, (im seeing usually around 250k, not much of a drop for a long time, with Sturgia, who i've captured 3 towns and 3 castles from, and they still demand a crap ton although they are like being steamrolled by me.) Also, lords escape chance may be lowered, but there are automatic random barters that cause the lords to be ransomed and released (in relatively short time after their capture), rather than having me actually agree/disagree to the barter. I'm like at war with every kingdom, and i only have 3 towns and 3 castles. Money is easy to come by, but not when I have to constantly barter for peace at 250k a pop, to prevent myself from getting buttfu**** from every direction.
I thought we actually had a chance at end game, without having to chop every enemy lord's head off, but I guess it's still the only viable way to play at the moment? Or am i playing it the wrong way?
P.S.: I do know that it's likely i'm getting declared war upon because i own all the fiefs myself, and there aren't any other clans in my kingdom at the moment (i avoided persuading other lords in this play through, cause in my first playthrough they just kept defecting to other kingdoms after i pay them a bunch of money to join mine... kinda pointless), but i don't think that correlates to the underlying problem that lords are still being released/way too easy off the hook for being captured.
The whole system needs to consider warmongering better, and not just a truce period after peace. Enemy kingdom needs to consider that if their lord is getting captured continuously, they should start considering offering peace, (should be some sort of a measurement on them getting their asses handed to them) and not just magically have ransoms accepted.
Please let me know if yall have some different strategy or i'm just playing this game in absolutely the worst way possible.
(I am on all realistic mode so i can't really just go around 100 vs 500 even with elite units.)