Hello everyone, in this thread i tried to form a critique of Bannerlord. I have been playing video-games for something like 20 years now, and Warband was probably the biggest inspiration, joy of my gaming life. So i wanted to think of a few ways to improve the singleplayer part of it.
The Feel
Cities
It’s nice to have more depth to cities with different inhabitants, like a trader, or a forge, a winemaker etc. But their structure is always the same. Why does every city have a gang circle with a gangleader not one of them have a proper police, especially empire?
It is also somewhat difficult to be friends with city members, and it feels a little unrewarding because it more or less, only gives you more recruitment. I would like to have a relationship where i continuously make an effort on a city, make a choice between letting crime thrive, or fighting against it, maybe forming relationships with other cities and making deals with other merchants. Becoming the official governor(unlike the owner, the lord of it, the role which you can give to your companions) or the unofficial one if the lord does not desire. Maybe cooperating with other governors to keep trade routes safe, establishing security patrols and such.
Or on the other hand why can’t you just join a gang? You should be able to make robberies, steal from shops, take protection money with fellow gangsters. What does even crime do? Why is the gangleader who’s called ’softhearted’ is the same with every other one? Why can’t you provide gangs in enemy cities with resources, so they make a commotion? Or perhaps an assassination?
Another idea: Maybe the city folk would get upset if you did too many favors for merchants, which could result in low rate in army recruitment or general production, which also mean low militia or food in turn would be a trouble in case of a siege. Or maybe they could just decide to overthrow you, make attempts on your life if things got serious.
Maybe a quest could involve tanking a product’s price for the merchants.
There should be monopolies, towns with one rich merchant taking the whole market for himself, there should be communism, a town where everyone is utmostly poor and they should collaboratory hate you if you help someone out too much. You could work out a lot of small interesting things in this current structure of a city, but they are all too similar.
Tournaments
Their only purpose is to provide a safe route in early game. The fame you gain through it does not mean anything. You do not get a quest chain triggered over it, although it would be a great introduction to lords or ladies. You do not get other competitions like jousting, archery or horseback archery, or simple duels which would compliment your playstyle. They’re only mindless fights with a safety net. Your fame gained through it, should gain you some importance along nobility, or in opposition you should get a rivalry going with a champion of the arena, which could also affect your relationship with a faction or city. That rivalry should be able to turn into a friendship or turn you hostile according to your actions.
Quests
I think, even though it’s sandbox nature is very cool, what this game lacks most is indivuality. Like how i was mentioning the city structure is always the same for every city, I feel like different government types, feudalism, a clan system, democracy whatever it is, do not feel much different than each other. Being a merchant is similar, it is nice to have caravans and such, but you never really have to care for them after you bought them. Or tournaments which i’ve talked about already.
I think building individual quests on companions, lords or specific NPCs like ‘the rich merchant in Sargot’ or the ‘bandit governed village at the north of khuzait’ instead of same 20 quests appearing randomly on the map is the way to go, without requiring too many new mechanics or programming.
Have an Aserai Lord yearn ‘i am in love with this lady’ and make them star-crossed lovers. Have a Sturgian one tell you ‘I hate that Battanian prick who stole my pure-bred horse during a battle, and claimed he found it when he was looting Empire.’ Small stories like that would liven up the game a lot without too much effort. Then maybe they could ask you to find that lady, or steal the horse back... Or go bigger, have an Imperial lord complain about their ‘democracy’ (or senate?) because they can’t decide how to deal with a feudal Vlandian lord ruling his land with an iron fist.
Their only downside is the players might miss them if the sandbox messes with their scripted triggers, which would also bring a lot of replayibility.
The Technicality
Character stats
In Warband you could spend points and that was it, this Skyrim-like progression system is too harsh.
It does not make sense to spend points to unlock the ability to progress your stats. Why not simply progress them with points? It also makes spending points on Attributes like strength/cunning/charisma seem pointless even though they play one of the biggest roles in making your character. At least giving an attribute point should let you give 10-15 points into their respective smaller skills(For instance: Str should let you spread your points between 1-handed, 2-handed or polearms)
It also makes the early game grind meaningless, just wait for the late game to grind your stats from behind the safety of your soldiers.
Not to mention, it makes leveling your companions up very difficult.
Maybe you should even be able to find teachers who make you or you companions level some things up to a certain extent, they would be expensive, so you would be able to chose one or two of them at most in the early game, but at one point (like 50 points) they wouldn’t be able to teach you more, so you wouldn’t be able to abuse them in the late game.
The AI
The AI could use some work on a few points:
-The Archers sometimes stop shooting even though they’re in range.
-In sieges, AI (controlled by other commanders) leave the main doors immediately after breaking the first door. Also their pathfinding/ fighting on the walls use too much processing power, I am usually watching a slide show unless a wall or the second door is somehow broken.
-The horsemen are useless, they just wander away the battle chasing around other cavalry, what’s the point unless they cant form a wedge, couched lance through the infantry, mowing the enemy lines.
-Spear infantry should be able to keep a distance and shield bash anyone who comes close.
-Infantry fails to form a shield wall when sometimes unshielded ones stand in front of the wall.
Prosperity, Workshops and Caravans
In high prosperity metropols, workshops should cost a lot more to buy. It should be more of a question if it is really worth it to open a shop, or if it would rather close your loses gap fast enough.
In low prosperity, it should be cheap but risky business. Risky because you don’t know how profitable it really is, but also risky because it is a shady town with gangs running around.
Currently a cheap workshop is 14,5k-15k when an expensive one is 15k-15,5k. That’s the only difference which doesn’t really matter.
You also don’t have an idea how the workshops work, do they require tools? Would they have enough customers? Does the market need more of that product? Noone even lets you know which raw materials a particular city has to process, you have to check the surrounding villages yourself.
Caravans are similar, you don’t even have an idea of their route, the distance they have to travel, what they’re carrying, who you struck a deal with, or if you have any competitors in the caravan business, or enough customers.
Prosperity UI
It is very difficult to tell if a city is doing well. Even after a war, the management screen of a city fails to tell you ‘we just had a fricking siege, in the war our people died, we’re now occupied so we’re unhappy’ instead it shows things like ‘not enough food, governors culture is different’. It should tell you ‘these people hate your guts because you’re now using their children for your battles’ or ‘this merchant hates you on a personal level, because you stole his herd now the city’s facing the consequences’ or ‘this merchant can’t make any money due to famine our biggest export is grain/ their caravans are cut by the enemy faction’. I don’t know if the prosperity system works correctly from the start, but it seems like a city’s prosperity goes down when bad things happen, goes up when good things happen but it doesn’t tell you what really happened, or why it happened.
Other Smaller points
Faction starting points
There should be other training areas for you to start the game. It would make starting building relationships with your desired faction a lot easier.
Killing Lords
They come with nearly no consequences. I’ve upset some enemy lords? Who cares? I think even my allied Lords should be afraid of me, because by executing Lords i am breaking boundaries, i am shaking their comfortable thrones, reminding them they’re human as well. I’ve killed a king and an empress in my playthrough but noone even asked me what i had done. There is not even a single person who told me ‘you killed my father/mother you psycho’ or ‘you did well i hated them’.
Cutscenes and other notifications
I do not mean to say ‘this game needs cutscenes’.
Except the executions you commit, the game doesn’t show you anything else as something of importance.
It does not play a cutscene for when you become a lord.
It does not tell you when lords you knew died.
It does not tell who lost the war, or a huge battle.
I mean it does, but it’s easy to miss through the feed.
The [lord’s name] formed an army, and city captured notifications are cool, but i feel like there could be smaller notifications like them, which requires a little more attention than a text feed.
Religion
I will just go over this lightly because devs could’ve been avoiding this so it wouldn’t be an “edgy” feature or a sensitive topic. It also might be a whole new mechanic they couldn’t have handled. But having quests or trying to convert settlements could result in very fun interactions. Religion was a great unifying force in medieval times.
Unit customization
Not something as complex as weaponsmithing, but as a way to improve your playstyle, something like the perk system from the multiplayer, which would change how a unit acts. Something else to spend your money on, so your units feel more elite, more special.
The Feel
Cities
It’s nice to have more depth to cities with different inhabitants, like a trader, or a forge, a winemaker etc. But their structure is always the same. Why does every city have a gang circle with a gangleader not one of them have a proper police, especially empire?
It is also somewhat difficult to be friends with city members, and it feels a little unrewarding because it more or less, only gives you more recruitment. I would like to have a relationship where i continuously make an effort on a city, make a choice between letting crime thrive, or fighting against it, maybe forming relationships with other cities and making deals with other merchants. Becoming the official governor(unlike the owner, the lord of it, the role which you can give to your companions) or the unofficial one if the lord does not desire. Maybe cooperating with other governors to keep trade routes safe, establishing security patrols and such.
Or on the other hand why can’t you just join a gang? You should be able to make robberies, steal from shops, take protection money with fellow gangsters. What does even crime do? Why is the gangleader who’s called ’softhearted’ is the same with every other one? Why can’t you provide gangs in enemy cities with resources, so they make a commotion? Or perhaps an assassination?
Another idea: Maybe the city folk would get upset if you did too many favors for merchants, which could result in low rate in army recruitment or general production, which also mean low militia or food in turn would be a trouble in case of a siege. Or maybe they could just decide to overthrow you, make attempts on your life if things got serious.
Maybe a quest could involve tanking a product’s price for the merchants.
There should be monopolies, towns with one rich merchant taking the whole market for himself, there should be communism, a town where everyone is utmostly poor and they should collaboratory hate you if you help someone out too much. You could work out a lot of small interesting things in this current structure of a city, but they are all too similar.
Their only purpose is to provide a safe route in early game. The fame you gain through it does not mean anything. You do not get a quest chain triggered over it, although it would be a great introduction to lords or ladies. You do not get other competitions like jousting, archery or horseback archery, or simple duels which would compliment your playstyle. They’re only mindless fights with a safety net. Your fame gained through it, should gain you some importance along nobility, or in opposition you should get a rivalry going with a champion of the arena, which could also affect your relationship with a faction or city. That rivalry should be able to turn into a friendship or turn you hostile according to your actions.
Quests
I think, even though it’s sandbox nature is very cool, what this game lacks most is indivuality. Like how i was mentioning the city structure is always the same for every city, I feel like different government types, feudalism, a clan system, democracy whatever it is, do not feel much different than each other. Being a merchant is similar, it is nice to have caravans and such, but you never really have to care for them after you bought them. Or tournaments which i’ve talked about already.
I think building individual quests on companions, lords or specific NPCs like ‘the rich merchant in Sargot’ or the ‘bandit governed village at the north of khuzait’ instead of same 20 quests appearing randomly on the map is the way to go, without requiring too many new mechanics or programming.
Have an Aserai Lord yearn ‘i am in love with this lady’ and make them star-crossed lovers. Have a Sturgian one tell you ‘I hate that Battanian prick who stole my pure-bred horse during a battle, and claimed he found it when he was looting Empire.’ Small stories like that would liven up the game a lot without too much effort. Then maybe they could ask you to find that lady, or steal the horse back... Or go bigger, have an Imperial lord complain about their ‘democracy’ (or senate?) because they can’t decide how to deal with a feudal Vlandian lord ruling his land with an iron fist.
Their only downside is the players might miss them if the sandbox messes with their scripted triggers, which would also bring a lot of replayibility.
The Technicality
Character stats
In Warband you could spend points and that was it, this Skyrim-like progression system is too harsh.
It does not make sense to spend points to unlock the ability to progress your stats. Why not simply progress them with points? It also makes spending points on Attributes like strength/cunning/charisma seem pointless even though they play one of the biggest roles in making your character. At least giving an attribute point should let you give 10-15 points into their respective smaller skills(For instance: Str should let you spread your points between 1-handed, 2-handed or polearms)
It also makes the early game grind meaningless, just wait for the late game to grind your stats from behind the safety of your soldiers.
Not to mention, it makes leveling your companions up very difficult.
Maybe you should even be able to find teachers who make you or you companions level some things up to a certain extent, they would be expensive, so you would be able to chose one or two of them at most in the early game, but at one point (like 50 points) they wouldn’t be able to teach you more, so you wouldn’t be able to abuse them in the late game.
The AI
The AI could use some work on a few points:
-The Archers sometimes stop shooting even though they’re in range.
-In sieges, AI (controlled by other commanders) leave the main doors immediately after breaking the first door. Also their pathfinding/ fighting on the walls use too much processing power, I am usually watching a slide show unless a wall or the second door is somehow broken.
-The horsemen are useless, they just wander away the battle chasing around other cavalry, what’s the point unless they cant form a wedge, couched lance through the infantry, mowing the enemy lines.
-Spear infantry should be able to keep a distance and shield bash anyone who comes close.
-Infantry fails to form a shield wall when sometimes unshielded ones stand in front of the wall.
Prosperity, Workshops and Caravans
In high prosperity metropols, workshops should cost a lot more to buy. It should be more of a question if it is really worth it to open a shop, or if it would rather close your loses gap fast enough.
In low prosperity, it should be cheap but risky business. Risky because you don’t know how profitable it really is, but also risky because it is a shady town with gangs running around.
Currently a cheap workshop is 14,5k-15k when an expensive one is 15k-15,5k. That’s the only difference which doesn’t really matter.
You also don’t have an idea how the workshops work, do they require tools? Would they have enough customers? Does the market need more of that product? Noone even lets you know which raw materials a particular city has to process, you have to check the surrounding villages yourself.
Caravans are similar, you don’t even have an idea of their route, the distance they have to travel, what they’re carrying, who you struck a deal with, or if you have any competitors in the caravan business, or enough customers.
Prosperity UI
It is very difficult to tell if a city is doing well. Even after a war, the management screen of a city fails to tell you ‘we just had a fricking siege, in the war our people died, we’re now occupied so we’re unhappy’ instead it shows things like ‘not enough food, governors culture is different’. It should tell you ‘these people hate your guts because you’re now using their children for your battles’ or ‘this merchant hates you on a personal level, because you stole his herd now the city’s facing the consequences’ or ‘this merchant can’t make any money due to famine our biggest export is grain/ their caravans are cut by the enemy faction’. I don’t know if the prosperity system works correctly from the start, but it seems like a city’s prosperity goes down when bad things happen, goes up when good things happen but it doesn’t tell you what really happened, or why it happened.
Other Smaller points
Faction starting points
There should be other training areas for you to start the game. It would make starting building relationships with your desired faction a lot easier.
Killing Lords
They come with nearly no consequences. I’ve upset some enemy lords? Who cares? I think even my allied Lords should be afraid of me, because by executing Lords i am breaking boundaries, i am shaking their comfortable thrones, reminding them they’re human as well. I’ve killed a king and an empress in my playthrough but noone even asked me what i had done. There is not even a single person who told me ‘you killed my father/mother you psycho’ or ‘you did well i hated them’.
Cutscenes and other notifications
I do not mean to say ‘this game needs cutscenes’.
Except the executions you commit, the game doesn’t show you anything else as something of importance.
It does not play a cutscene for when you become a lord.
It does not tell you when lords you knew died.
It does not tell who lost the war, or a huge battle.
I mean it does, but it’s easy to miss through the feed.
The [lord’s name] formed an army, and city captured notifications are cool, but i feel like there could be smaller notifications like them, which requires a little more attention than a text feed.
Religion
I will just go over this lightly because devs could’ve been avoiding this so it wouldn’t be an “edgy” feature or a sensitive topic. It also might be a whole new mechanic they couldn’t have handled. But having quests or trying to convert settlements could result in very fun interactions. Religion was a great unifying force in medieval times.
Unit customization
Not something as complex as weaponsmithing, but as a way to improve your playstyle, something like the perk system from the multiplayer, which would change how a unit acts. Something else to spend your money on, so your units feel more elite, more special.
Last edited:
