1.6.1 Villages and Modding

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stevepine

Sergeant Knight at Arms
So to our surprise and delight 1.6.1 dropped today and I realised that with it come lots of new village scenes.

This got me thinking (again) , what could modding realistically do to make villages actually mean something?

I talked before to @mexxico about this on the forum (many months ago) and he said that basically the 'code structure' or 'code architecture' means that it just isn't possible to add watch towers and other enhancements to villages - as we used to back in Warband.

So modders, what COULD we do to make use of these beautifully scened villages ..... and to give them some functionality and added purpose?

Right now they seem to just be quest locations and that's about all.

Ideas?
 
Some things that seem possible, (I do not have modding experience besides editing xml files)
- increase militia size
- station small garrison or set up armed guards for village parties
- increase raiding time
- increase productivity
- make the village part of a caravan trade route

it would be nice if above options are available through NPC interaction instead of menu’s. It would be even better if these options change the village scene, but reading your post this seems very unlikely.
 
Some things that seem possible, (I do not have modding experience besides editing xml files)
- increase militia size
- station small garrison or set up armed guards for village parties
- increase raiding time
- increase productivity
- make the village part of a caravan trade route

it would be nice if above options are available through NPC interaction instead of menu’s. It would be even better if these options change the village scene, but reading your post this seems very unlikely.

Yes, agreed. NPC interaction is something that too often is missed out in bannerlord. Too much easy access menu clicking. I suspect we will have to wait for mods to change that though. For those of us who value immersion.
 
Still sad , the feature that was planned when you could update villages was removed before the EA release.
(id be interesting to be able to upgrade villages to some limit to make them less vulnerable to raids)
(like - upgrading walls , watch towers , gates , etc)
 
Yes, some way to make change the stats of an upgraded village which could hold out for longer against a raid would be a start.

Surely that is mostly just a statistical change? So not too hard for a mod to do?
 
Nothing besides tweaking some values to make villages slightly more valuable.

Strictly the only reason I visit them is for recruits and because the village scenes are cozy to be in. So much in-scene potential wasted.
 
Assassins: This was a feature present in Warband. Lords who hate you will hire Assassins, who ambush you at night when you enter towns/villages (can only happen once per season to avoid getting repetitive). The battle happens instantly in the settlement scene (increasing the usage of settlement scenes), with the player using their civilian outfit (making that game mechanic more relevant too).

Special wanderers: An NPC marked as "Retired Adventurer" can be found in town/village scenes. These are wanderers with better stats than the ones you can find in taverns. Retired Adventurers do not show up on the world map town menu (encouraging you to explore the scene). You can do this once per season in each settlement.

Collect Taxes / Riot: A similar quest existed in Warband. Nobles can give you a quest to collect tax in a particular town/village. You wait there for a while as you gather money; the larger your party is, the quicker you gather (making this quest worth doing in the vassal phase). There is a chance the citizens will complain about being taxed too much, with the option to tax them less (lowers Honor and relation with lord, but increases Generosity and relations with fief), or force them to pay the remaining taxes, which will cause a riot fight inside the town/village scene, with the citizens attacking you and a handful of your troops in a fight using blunt weapons and civilian outfits.

Charity: An NPC marked as a "Beggar" can be found in towns/villages, asking for charity. You can choose to give them denars for a reward of Generous trait gain and relations with the settlement (reward scales with your clan tier, making it worthwhile to do even in the mid/late game). Once you have paid the Beggar, none will spawn in that settlement for 10 days (encouraging you to explore other locations). A similar feature was present in Warband.

Bargain: An NPC marked "Bargain Trader" can be found in towns/villages. They will offer a trade good for cheaper than the market price. The amount of goods available scales with your Trade level, making this worthwhile even in the mid-late game. You can do this once every 10 days in each settlement.

Arbitrate a Dispute: Two NPCs marked as "Quarrelers", who are having a dispute, can be found in towns/villages. You can use dialogue to persuade them to compromise, gaining Charm and Leadership XP which scale with your clan tier, and relations with the settlement. You can do this once every 10 days in each settlement.

Duel: An NPC named "Belligerent Duelist" can be found in towns/villages, and will challenge you to a duel. If you accept, both of you duel right there using civilian weapons (making civilian outfits more relevant) until one of you is knocked out. Winning gives a good amount of XP scaled with your level. You can do this once every 10 days in each settlement.

Practice Medicine: An NPC marked as "Sick Person" can be found in towns/villages. They tell you they are ill in some way. You can guess a good treatment suggestion from 3 dialogue options, and if you guess correctly, gain Medicine XP for an amount scaled to your existing Medicine skill, providing an alternate way of leveling Medicine. You can do this once per day in each settlement.

Book Seller: An NPC marked as "Book Seller" can be found in town squares, and sells book items which can be read to benefit your skills. Warband had a similar feature.

Battle for the Streets: This feature was present in Warband. Once you had captured the walls of a town in a siege, the siege would move to the streets section of the town scene, and some of the remaining defenders would attempt to hold you off in the streets in a brief smaller-scale fight.
 
Dynamic fights meaning not just that same tired old "Your in a new scene -its an ambush!!" -lame. Have the ambush take place in the normal scene so that you never know what civilians might actually be the killers. Stuff like this should have already been in the game -its not that big technological advancement..
 
There is actually one mode - more settlement actions. I used to play with this mod and it makes difference. Yet, it still does not add any use to the village scenes. They are menus to work on some village projects like building houses, work in mine/farms or train militia but those are just menus which does not have anything related to village scene. Maybe if the mod would change these projects in the way that you would need to go to specific NPCs for each village project. But still you would just sit on the main map scene during "work in progress" of projects.
My biggest problem with all scenes (village, castle, town) is the disconnectedness from the main map timeline. These scenes are in their own universe where the time is stopped. For me it's total immersion breaking. But it is what it is.

Once, I experimented with one mod where I created my own village and for every level of the village I created a separate scene. Something like MyVillage1 to MyVillage10. MyVillage1 was a simple village with few houses and MyVillage10 was a full level village. Then when I worked on some projects in the village I manually changed the village scene in the settlements.xml to the higher version. However I had to restart the game to have the upgraded village. Still it was a more immersive experience...
 
Add additional individuals to interact with who must be found in scene as opposed to contacted via menus. For example:
1. Doctor - purchase healing to recover from wounds (for player and troops).
2. Blacksmith/Farrier - have a lame horse treated and re-shod at a cost.
3. Fortuneteller/Augur - pay for a prediction/sacrifice about future success in battle that will randomly increase or decrease party moral by a significant amount (high risk high reward gamble).
4. Witch - pay for a love potion to increase your chance of success during marriage negotiations.
5. Priest - pay for a blessing to improve troop morale (no risk limited gain certainty).
6. Trainer - pay for troop experience gains (recruit level only).

Close down the menu options to find and interact with notables/quest-givers so they must also be found in scene and spoken to in scene.

An option to woo a village woman, creating a local mistress and bastard offspring who need to be funded, visited and trained in future. They will be at risk if their village is looted burned and plundered, giving the player additional protection commitments. Obviously, this can only be done once in a village but can be repeated in other villages. Will result in reduced relationship rating with your wife.
 
Add additional individuals to interact with who must be found in scene as opposed to contacted via menus. For example:
1. Doctor - purchase healing to recover from wounds (for player and troops).
2. Blacksmith/Farrier - have a lame horse treated and re-shod at a cost.
3. Fortuneteller/Augur - pay for a prediction/sacrifice about future success in battle that will randomly increase or decrease party moral by a significant amount (high risk high reward gamble).
4. Witch - pay for a love potion to increase your chance of success during marriage negotiations.
5. Priest - pay for a blessing to improve troop morale (no risk limited gain certainty).
6. Trainer - pay for troop experience gains (recruit level only).

Close down the menu options to find and interact with notables/quest-givers so they must also be found in scene and spoken to in scene.

An option to woo a village woman, creating a local mistress and bastard offspring who need to be funded, visited and trained in future. They will be at risk if their village is looted burned and plundered, giving the player additional protection commitments. Obviously, this can only be done once in a village but can be repeated in other villages. Will result in reduced relationship rating with your wife.

Great ideas. Would make SUCH a massive difference
 
One thing I love about CIV 5 is that all the data is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server Database, so if you want to mod all you need to do is write SQL Query scripts - " Select * from FactionTable where FactionName = "Roman" " etc etc etc fairly simple and quick to change. Of course CIV 5 is a 2D game without the complexities of 3D terrain, meshes and animations etc.

Still would nice if BL was a generic game (no hard coding) using all database stats to build the game.

.
 
Close down the menu options to find and interact with
walking in scene most likely is just a waste of time thats why shortcuts exist in the first place

The better way is to perform hostile actions on scene, sack untill reinforcement arrive, loot untill full, raze to the ground, capturing human stocks, lure defenders out before sieges and other other events based on time progression. These goal driven acts with player participation would be better than wandering mindlessly or waiting in global map which should be part of the game made by taleworlds not a mod created by some nobody
 
walking in scene most likely is just a waste of time thats why shortcuts exist in the first place

The better way is to perform hostile actions on scene, sack untill reinforcement arrive, loot untill full, raze to the ground, capturing human stocks, lure defenders out before sieges and other other events based on time progression. These goal driven acts with player participation would be better than wandering mindlessly or waiting in global map which should be part of the game made by taleworlds not a mod created by some nobody

Not everyone wants to play the game like that... because bannerlord is about much more than just combat. Many people want to take more time to appreciate the 'game world'.

So yeah, if there is a mod in the future that removes the short-cuts then I will be one of the first to use it.
 
walking in scene most likely is just a waste of time thats why shortcuts exist in the first place

The better way is to perform hostile actions on scene, sack untill reinforcement arrive, loot untill full, raze to the ground, capturing human stocks, lure defenders out before sieges and other other events based on time progression. These goal driven acts with player participation would be better than wandering mindlessly or waiting in global map which should be part of the game made by taleworlds not a mod created by some nobody
Yes I agree to a certain amount, as I have stated in an other tread, I would keep returning actions to the menu’s as to not waste time(buying/ selling, recruiting) but have special actions excluded from menu’s and only accessible in scene
 
Not everyone wants to play the game like that... because bannerlord is about much more than just combat. Many people want to take more time to appreciate the 'game world'.

So yeah, if there is a mod in the future that removes the short-cuts then I will be one of the first to use it.
i did not oppose those non-combat feature but time wasting action that forbit player to actually play the game. "walking in scene" is purely a waste of time gameplay wise as it could and should be replaced by a shortcut in menu. Did you acutally go into scene everytime you want to interact with the merchant? 4 times a row because they don't have sufficient funds? it sound like those stupid missions design form GTA but worse.

you could still enjoy the world in samller scene like traven or hold that require less time to move with, but not forcing people to waste a minute walk around everytime just because of one npc they want to interact with.

the things i mentioned is just some example of non-time wasting action that utilize rarly used scene that players can play with, previous title have similar feature such as ambush and infiltration


have special actions excluded from menu’s and only accessible in scene

it is excatly what i am talking, actions that could not be replaced by shortcuts that players could enjoy/play with while using the scene
 
i did not oppose those non-combat feature but time wasting action that forbit player to actually play the game. "walking in scene" is purely a waste of time gameplay wise as it could and should be replaced by a shortcut in menu. Did you acutally go into scene everytime you want to interact with the merchant? 4 times a row because they don't have sufficient funds? it sound like those stupid missions design form GTA but worse.
At no point was this suggested for Native Bannerlord. This was discussed in the context of mods that players could choose to implement or avoid. Everyone's preferences are different. I understand yours, however they aren't universal.
 
Oh also forgot to mention , few mods that made the Villages much more fun for my playrough.
Honest Work
Agriculture Estate
This mods are great , id be fun to have quests in Villages that requires some real actions from players , for example -

Quest 1 - Manual Labor - Need help to sow the ground
Help the Village with Grain, (similar to MB online the early game) let us help the village sowing.

Quest 2 - We need hardwood - Cut down some trees in the village.

Quest 3 - Wolfs are attacking our Sheep. (Hunt the Forest near the Village)

Quest 4 - Village has no water (this could be a series of quests) (final goal being build a well for the Village)
Part 1 - find needed materials
Part 2 - Find an engineer
Part 3 - Help asemble the resoruces in the Village and build the Well.

(Doing such quest could reward player with Charisma/Leadership/Engineer points and relation with near villages)

(To make player visit the villages , we need the locations of the Quest to be in the Village so we should actually go there , and not just talk to random guy in the village , like if we have quests to cut trees in the Village , we should go to a specific tree area in the village and cut the trees over there , if we need to bring the resources we should do the same , and the same with other actions we have to do)
This said , i belive most of the Quest in game and actions could really benefit from real Phyisical Interactions instead of just text selection.
 
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