Separate post for general impressions of 1.5.7. There is probably a lot more if I were to think about it- just a few things that jump out to me.
- I've been searching for a companion with medical training the whole game. I'm probably 8-10 hours in. Still have not found one. The one scout that I did find promptly died on the battlefield. Most of the companions that are available are very lackluster and there is little you can do to grow them into what you need. This worked so much better in Warband.
- Arming my brother or any other companion with a nice army still seems futile. There seems to be no point in doing so when they're simply going to get captured and lose them all. We really need better controls. E.g. It would be nice to tell them to patrol a fief and flee to it when faced with a superior force. Ditto with caravans.
- Main quest really needs to be thought out and redone. It's tedious, trite and terrible. The only reason I play it is to have my brother as a Quartermaster. If there were other companions with nice talents and/or if the develop system allowed me to train them into what I want for my party, I would say scrap it all. It doesn't fit.
- Economy does seem to be working better although it does seem like the money made from shops is too low, especially when compared to the money can be made against a single band of looters.
- Overall balance of fighting, war, peace seems to be doing much better. I'm playing Sturgia and we're holding our own.
- Quality of life:
- Can we please, for the love of god, get a total number of party members, with a breakdown by type, that is always visible?
- Can we get the ability to sort party members by type/level?
- I'm playing with the "Leveling Balancing" mod. It makes leveling feel much more reasonable and less painfully grindy. You should look at it.
Bugs:
- Still seeing some naked lords/ladies.
- The deliver troops to garrison quest doesn't seem to work. No success after giving them to the garrison and no option in conversation to finish the quest.
- I'm seeing more crashes now than in any other release.
Why are these things still missing:
- Why does armor still have little to no effect? I don't get why this has not been tuned to something closer to reality.
- Still no meaningful relationship building with lords or potential spouses.
- Feasts. How are we supposed to meet potential spouses? Speaking of which, why are we pretending that half of the warlords running around in heavy armor killing each other were female?
