Very nice patch, here are some feedback and requests.
Ambience changes for taverns etc.
Ok, that's nice. But the problem is that it's more of the same "wax cabinet" style content where an animation or behaviour is repeated indefinitely on the same place. I still feel like I'm in a museum rather than a town/tavern/village and so forth. People should come and go in the tavern, the barmaid should actually go and get my drink and bring it, it should feel like people have lives that they live, things should be happening. I was hoping this type of stuff was a placeholder and that civilians would become more dynamic and interactive down the line, but when more in the same style is added it seems like it's gonna be the same just with more "dolls" added doing some more loops. It's a little disappointing.
Battle system
Like it a lot. Needs some quality of life improvements but very promising.
Requests
One thing I'd really like to be able to do is prioritise the groups by troop tier, so I can put elite units in one group and rookies of the same type in another. It would also be nice to be able to access it outside of battles to set up the formations and captains and save it whenever you like.
I really want to be able to tell my units which enemy unit to attack or fire at (or maybe already possible but I missed how?). Another nice thing would be the ability to tell your captains/formations what general approach they should use when I delegate command to them, like aggressive/defensive/skirmish/flank or something like that. Another small request is that infantry with bracable spears should brace for incoming cavalry even if not set to hold fire.
Sieges
Great fixes. Looking forward to further improvements here.
My biggest issue with sieges was actually not the dysfunctional towers but rather the weird AI behaviour where units look like they are magnetically pulled towards their destinations in a really strange way. Of course they should go to reinforce different positions but if a soldier gets close to enemies they should stop and fight back or help friends in combat before moving on. In regular battles if I attack an enemy on it's way to form up it will react individually and fight me in a way that feels pretty natural, you need to replicate that in sieges. Things just feel a bit too scripted and like soldiers don't stop to consider the situation around them at all.
Speaking of that, another issue that happens in both battles and sieges but more in sieges is the way soldiers behave when getting crowded, and this was the same in warband. It just breaks apart and doesn't look real anymore when they start wobbling and bouncing around like crazy. There needs to be a more believable interaction and behaviour between bodies that get crowded, and ideally they should try to make a bit more space for each other before rushing in rather than everyone looking like they don't even know the others are in the way.
I'm glad archery is being looked at a bit, high tier archers are still very overpowered compared to other elite units but yeah. I still feel like I need to use RBM or Drastic battle to make the balance, armours, encumbrance etc make sense.
Addressing the broken smithing economy and overpriced equipment is nice. The rest of the economy is still very much in need of work though, workshops, caravans, trading and fief economy still seem very weak compared to just fighting, selling loot and ransoming prisoners which doesn't make sense. Getting your first fief should be a paradigmatic shift in your clans economy, it should be the gateway to another level of warfare and involvement in the kingdom but it doesn't feel that way at all.