Hello everyone and sorry for the long read, but here it goes...
1. Bandits
a) Steppe ones are too fast. No matter how long you chase them for, they don`t seem to run out of food. Same goes for all bandits on the food matter.
b) If they surrender, you don`t get the prisoners they had
c) 5 looters absolutely murder 30+ parties of villagers... mind boggling. Even more of a mind boggle, same 2 steppe bandits seem to pretty much bring armaggedon to absolutely any party of villagers, no matter how big, 50, 40, don`t matter, get 2 steppe bandits to attack them and they`ll be gone faster than warm bread in Yemen... And the fight takes like 2 seconds, you`ve literally got no time to intervene.
d) Bandits capture lord + prisoners. Game message log confirms that. I`m standing by next to the fight, as soon as it`s over I jump on the bandits and crush them. No lord, no relation boost, nothing. Just the lord`s former soldiers as prisoners. God forbid the bandits surrender or you won`t even get those.
e) an option to permanently disable them in the end game should be available for those who wanna concentrate on the big fights rather than chase the average 20ish party of looters, like permanently destroy caves or something. Or make them band up and form big raiding armies which run out of food and are forced to raid a city and that way you can attack them and clear the entire region for like at least 6 in game months or something... Also the amount of bandit parties late game is huge and causes economic wrecks of global proportions if you own more than half the map.
f) cave system is idiotic and old news. Bandit bases should be more like small strongholds, maybe with some wooden ramparts or palisades. The option to bring all your troops should be available and only those who want to take the whole encampment with the starting 8 troops should be able to do that instead of forcing us all to do it. Also, not being able to pick out the troops I`m about to start a bandit raid with is equally moronic. I`m the boss, the chief, I pay the bloody wages, my will be done, so on so forth etc.
2. Cities, castles and villages.
a) Garrisons should be fed by the leading liege. Option to stockpile food if you own the settlement your garrisoning needs to be there. Make villages able to have garrisons as well. A 10 garrisoned troops per village, 25 per castle and 50 per town that isn`t affected by food shortages should be doable. The amount of said food shortages is mind boggling, there`s too much of it.
b) Villages should be manageable and given as fiefs as well. Option of a palisade reinforcement wall being built, along with food fields upgrades and such. Militia range should be increased and an active party on the map should be seen engaging bandits that pray on said village`s people (same goes for castle and city militia).
c) Sturgians having metric tones of grain next to icy and snowy climate, that pretty much seem to run all year round, should not be the case. Fish yeah, but not grain. A lot of mountain side villages produce grain. Try that in real life, see how long it takes you to go bankrupt and starve. Also, grain in steppe lands as well and in some desert lands. Desert villages (one or two) have olives (need hills to grow) and grapes - aserai villages next to Quayaz (in case I`m mistaken about the name, the closest city of aserai natives to the Vlandian Kingdom).
Maybe add some fruit producing villages? No one seems to like fruits for some reason...
d) there should be more villages supporting the cities (in real life medieval ages you had maybe 10 villages for every town, if not more, not just 2 or 3).
e) Some if not most of the castles should start with wooden walls and we should upgrade them from there. which was also the case in medieval times, as opposed to the greek ancient period that seems to be going on in the game (loads of castles and citadels with stone walls before 200 A.D., not so much later). Same should be for cities. Outer walls of cities should be palisades, inner walls should be protecting a keep somewhere in the middle of the city (battanians for instance and kuzhaits should definitely have much less walled settlements - not fewer, but less walled, more palisade, or earth motts). Also, there seems to be an abundance of castles inside the kingdoms, which doesn`t really make any sense strategically wise, as castles generally protected borders and mountain or river passes again, on the border of a kingdom, not in the middle of it.
f) Geography is a bit wrong. If Pravend was the empire`s capital, it should still be in imperial hands? I think? Maybe? Vlandiands should not be starting with the entire western side of the map conquered. A lot of the settlements should be made neutral in certain areas and sturgians should be pushing the vlandians more to the west and south west, consequently making the vlandiands capture more neutral settlements there or like an imperial faction settlements that also control Pravend, to make it historically accurate as far as game lore goes. Some neutral city states should also be present in other parts of the map. Like between Northern empire and Khuzaits or southern empire and the Aserai on the east side and Vlandiands and aserai on the west side. Also pretty sure the Battanians and the vlandians should swap places in some areas on the south west and batanians shouldn`t really be bordering nords/sturgya as far as warband world map is concerned...
g) I am guilty of exploiting this but can I please be stopped from being able to recruit troops from enemy villages? Also, if I`m the village`s lord, you`d think I`d be able to recruit all the troops available in that village? Me being the supreme leader and all that? Normally I`d say the same should apply to the AI but as far as I`ve seen, the AI isn`t cheesing enemy settlements for troops...
h) Cities should be bigger on the map, not roughly the same size as castles or as each other, also, coastal cities should be bigger and more prosperous than mountain and inland cities. There also seems to be an abundance of rivers and mountains... if the continent is somewhat similar to medieval Europe + Asia Minor and North Africa, there are way too many mountains...
i) Certain castles and cities on the map that are surrounded by mountains, like Myzea for instance, or Quyaz, should prevent enemy parties larger than 100 men from passing next to them without forcing said parties to engage with militia troops or besiege the city... It would make strategical sense...
3) Battles, renown, diplomacy and military campaigns.
a) troops should turn in the spot they`re on (at least archers anyway). Maybe make AI stop attacking one target if more than 2:1 proportion of attackers is met, 4:1 for archers, 1:1 spearmen vs cav, etc. Play a bit with that as well!
b) players should be able to issue formation vs formation orders and so should the AI. Maybe try introducing, for infantry only, a group of ten lead by a sergeant or corporal (like a designated agent leader) both for player armies and AI, and try having them engage each other like that along the infantry line, test it out.
c) battle scenario speed for infantry should be reduced slightly, more for armored infantry, but all infantry in general, even when the charge order is given.
d) cavalry charges should be a lot more like hit and run and much less like solo fighting or charging once and then stick around to try and finish the enemy. Like the horse archers do (spot on with them lot, maybe a slight reduction in accuracy might go a long way in making people stop using them as an exploit of decimating armies 10 times their size)
e) if you lose a battle, lose renown, - 1 tier of your clan? Test it out. And a bit of influence as well. That should work for all AI lords as well (maybe that way, in order to get their renown back and be able to recruit more troops, they`ll sort out the bandit problem more often). It should limit the steam rolling effect as well. Lose a battle as a big army leader, lose 2 tiers of your clan. If you win the battle but get knocked out during it, you should not gain renown or influence.
Also, if you recruit 10 troops from a village/city and kill them all in 2-3 in game months, you should not be albe to recruit from that village/city again for another 2-3 in game months.
f) AI lords should take longer to recover from injuries from the battle field. They should also not be able to escape prisons so quickly (even after the update), especially if the dungeon is maxed out (which by the way, you should make that available).
g) If I release lords after battle, I should get some valour/honor as well, not just charm. If I win battles with no casualties tactics and leadership skills should get bigger buffs (leadership is a pain to raise).
h) military campaigns on national level should revolve on conquering enemy territory that`s closest to your kingdom`s border, that should go especially for the AI. Loads of AI lords siege castles right smack in the middle of the enemy kingdom, only to have their aOs handed to them or just lose the conquered castle/city within days in game. After a couple of castle/city losses there should be a sue for peace and a financial settlement and a very long truce. Not like right now where AI declares war on one another, makes peace, one week later, back at war, same factions. Also, Sturgya should not have any business declaring war on the Aserai when they`re miles apart. Same goes for Vlandians and Khuzaits and so on.
i) Some factions should have cultural affinity (make it less likely to go to war with one another, I`m thinking battania - sturgya, khuzaits - aserai, maybe northern empire and the western one).
j) clans should not be switching sides so often. Especially to factions that took their lands. Should a clan lose it`s lands in wars and it should also lose tiers from its strength and should their kingdom eventually be defetead they should join any other kingdom than the one they were at war with. By losing tiers from their clan power and thus, the ability to recruit larger armies, they won`t overbuff the faction they join.
k) Marrying the daughter of a faction leader should only be possible if you already own a settlement and have big renown (minimum tier 5 maybe? at least?). Also, maybe nerf down their equipment? Have them wear tier 6 civilian clothes, not top armor that I`m gonna be stealing. Also, number of women leading armies is quite high. It looks like a 50% 50% proportion or close to that. Especially feels weird in a Vlandian, Aserai or Khuzait kingdom, maybe not so much in Sturgya. Number of real life women that lead armies in medieval ages are probably down to 20 in total, across the planet, throughout the entire period, accounting for indian (Asian) an Chinese cultures as well.
l) Trample damage for cavalry units, especially heavy ones, infantry that gets trampled over now will magically step right up as if nothing happened and immediately start fighting again... and if the bruce lees of the mounted archer community could get some stagger damage when knocked off their horses instead of immediately being able to shoot an arrow right in my face, that`d be nice too...
m) Also, in sieges, if defending troops run out of food and sally forth to attack, I should have a defensive bonus if my siege camp is done; their morale should be very weak as well ? Them being hungry and desperate and under immediate danger of losing their lives and all that...
n)
Upgrading troops from cloth armor to chainmail or even padded armor should cost way more than 25 or 50 gold per troop.
Upgrading buildings in your settlements should also cost gold, not just bricks. It should as well take longer, far longer. Most castles and cities I conquer past the first year are either maxed out or have barely 2 or 3 buildings left to build up with just one level. Buffs of the buildings developed should be bigger and more integrated with the battle scenario (have for instance in a village a ditch upgrade as step 1 that provide a -20% attacks from bandits, 20% longer range of radius for militia to intervene on the world map and helps out in all battles close to the village, step 2 earth mott and again +20% range for militia, - 20% bandit party chance to appear, step 3 palisade, - 20% less bandits + 20% radius for militia etc).
o)
At the beginning of the game, rock throwing looters do between 6 and 12 damage if they hit you in your head. Makes a bit of sense since you`re not exactly wearing any head armor at that time. But if you do wear like a 35 head armor helmet and you still get hit with 6-12 damage from the same rock throwing looter, you might have a problem with head armors? There`s a small problem in that regard with expensive tier 5 or 6 armors, again, (on realistic difficulty) you seem to take quite a lot of damage from a pathetic falchion while wearing heavy imperial lammellar armor. Also, hitting looters with swords doesn`t seem to do much damage even though they don`t have any armor at all? I get that they`re ****ty swords, beginning of the game and suchs, but you reckon metal would still cut meat pretty brutally if used from horseback while galloping...
p) during melee`s a lot of fighters should be knocked on their backs every now an then, especially if a big guy like me meets a little looter guy twice as small... it makes no sense him being able to just take all my attacks and not fall at all, under any circumstance, never. Same for heavy armored vs unarmoured units...
q) Food for horses would be a nice addition and more of an encumberrance and financial problem for cavalry only army.
r)
getting an arrow in the proverbial knee, or anywhere on your leg for that matter should definitely make you limp and slow you down considerably. Having 50 arrows on your shield should definitely make it heavier... not by a lot, but still... heavier, make blocking take more time with an encumberred shield.
4) Prisoners, Caravans and loot.
a) You should be forced to leave out some troops to guard the prisoners during battles. Double that if locked in a dark whole and key is thrown away for a couple of months.
b) Prisoners should be more eager to join forces with you if you keep them for longer than an in game month.
c) You should be allowed to have prisoners do forced labour, especially in villages that make iron ore for instance.
d) some slave trading would be nice, some slaves fighting in the arena as well, as a way to make you money and whatnot...
e) Caravans should have a more set in routine, not wander all over the map, into every faction`s territory. The needs of one kingdom should be supplied by maybe 70-75% of its own caravans and another 25% should be foreign caravans, but from the bordering kingdoms.
f) loot should be according to the person I`m targeting. Right now I`m annihilating steppe bandits (just barely but I am managing it), I haven`t received a bow as loot in like 15 fights against them. Say I fight a lord and defeat him in battle, makes no sense why I shouldn`t get his armor. If it`s a ''you shouldn`t be walking around in tier 6 stuff in the first 150 days'' or something like that, just keep the tier 6 armors to royalty, not nobles. Simple as.
g)
I get that when I upgrade my troops from infantry to horsemen I have to buy them horses. But when I upgrade them and require war horses, I should get my normal horse back, because at the moment, loot went from loads of horses, which kind of made sense when engaging large armies (don`t get why that was nerfed down, it was realistic) to like no horses or barely a sumpter horse every now and then (and yeah, I`m still talking about steppe bandit parties mostly).
h) An army of 500 or more besieges a settlement. Another one comes to defend the settlement. They fight and one of them wins but remains with under 100 troops. I swoop in and crush the remaining force, as a non member of any of the 2 factions. I get a moderate amount of loot, no lords released (again, game message log says loads were taken prisoners), very little loot for the amount of fighting that was going on. What I should have gotten was loads of loot, especially since one of the big armies got wiped out, the ability to keep the captured lords as prisoners or release them (in this case I absolutely wanted them just as dead as the lords of the army that took them prisoners), stuff like that.
5) Some historical facts that should`ve been taken into account for the game.
a) medieval villagers didn`t roam the lands being capitalists and selling their stuff to the cities markets. They were tied down to the land, most of them never left their settlements their entire lives. Lords owned villages and castles, not so much cities which tended to be owned by royalty. The way things worked was opposite with what happens in game. Lords sent armed militia and clerks to collect taxes and produce owed by the villagers tied to the lord`s land.
b)
Bandits didn`t attack villagers, most of the time they WERE the villagers... they attacked the armed militia and clerks of local nobles for the taxes and produce they collected and gave a lot back to the villagers, that`s why there`s loads of legends and songs praising banditry virtually all over the world. They also attacked caravans, to quite little success though. Most of the time, the villagers were helping the bandits. Bandits rarely hid in caves, they were mostly hiding in the closest village to their place of birth or in forest settlements of small proportions, also very near of their birth place.
c) most medieval wars were fought by mercenary companies, not by national militias or the likes. Most knights, when not nobles, were actually mercenaries. Loads of pike using mercenaries, crossbowmen as well. Usually the wars started with a fight between the noble`s supporters, those usually died out quite quick and mercs were brought in to fill in the ranks. Usually the richest guy won.
d)
murders in medieval world were common and, especially during wars, not frowned upon.
e) looting villages only happened when armies ran out of food, the real targets were the cities. Some 50% wars also ended up being I raise army, raid a region, get a financial settlement, f.. off home once I got paid, regardless of the stated reasons for which those wars started.
f)
Caravans/merchants weren`t roaming the land, they usually had a set pattern of point A to point B, with some minor stops on their way, not f.. off way to the south of their route for some weird trade deal.
His majesty, the simulator!
Simulator should go on 3 basic principles of medieval combat: tactics of commanders, numbers of troops (general, and also per type) and type of equipment for the troops (armored heavily, medium armored and unarmoured, spears, infantry, archers, cavalry, horse archers, mixed).
Fight calculation should develop in stages and should oppose troops of the same type.
First stage should always be calculating the number of troops engaging according to the opposing commanders level of tactics and their type (ranged, infantry, cavalry). This should translate into a bonus per troops engaging each other like, an increase of 10% in damage (incremental with the more one force is disatvantaged from a number`s perspective) for infantry for the guy with more troops, or same for archers, depending on the proportion of troops used and which commander has more of them. Lack of archers on one side for instance should provide a significant disadvantage if the enemy has them and even more so if the enemy has a lot of them and they can`t be counterd by a lack of cavalry or very few cavalry units compared to the number of archers. Same for lots of cavalry vs spears.
Second stage should take into account equipment (armored percentages, types of armor and lack of, shields or lack of). Again, bonuses, like 10% or whatever, up to the developers, should apply at this stage as well. As an example, lack of armor, -20%, lack of armor and shield -35%, lack of armor, shield and you`re a tier 1 recruit or peasant, -50%.
Third stage should take into account tiers of the troops engaging (bonus for experienice 5% or -5%, developers should play with that, maybe a 20% or more bonus for tier 6 vs tier 1 or peasant).
Fourth stage should be the first part of a battle, like the starting skirmish, where only archers, javelin troops and horse archers do damage, like a 5% or 10% and maybe light cavalry as well.
Fifth stage should be the main combat operations where all troops should do damage according to the aforementioned calculations in the first 3 stages.
Sixth stage should be the chasing down of the losing force where only cavalry and archers do damage and take very little if on the winning side.
Some historical considerations of medieval battles that should be taken into account:
Medieval lords were rarely caught when a field battle was fought. If they felt like they were losing, most of the time they just fled the field with their bodyguards. An example is the English king at Banockburn 1314, against the scots. Still had numerical superiority but managed to waste most of his cavalry. His generals decided to send him back south to safety. All the troops panicked at the sight and went on to lose the battle to an underequipped but numerically rather equal force of scots.
As a counterpart to that, when their fiefs were attacked lords were almost always forced to come and fight to defend them and they almost always got caught in such situations. Kings even more so.
So what you can do in game is... maybe have most of the lords escape even when defeated but force them to come defend their castles or cities when under siege.
Throughout all ages, ancient, medieval, all the way up to modern times, when the leader of an army fled the field of battle, his army lost regardless if it had numerical superiority (Darius and Xerxes from persians, huge numerical superiority over the greeks, lost their battles for fleeing the field even thought they still outnumbered their enemies by 3 or even 5 to 1, the english lords vs vikings, vs scots, the French lords vs the English, vs the germans - 1870, not ww2, etc).
Stupid things that happen with the current simulator:
Difficulty realistic, tactics skill between 60 and 90 for most fights
- party of about 70 (20-25 horse archers, 20-25 crossbowmen and archers, 20-25 infantry) attacks 5-6 looters. They manage to kill either a tier 5 saergent crossbowman or a tier 5 horse archer
- same party vs 30-35 loters, they kill anywhere between 5 and even 10 of my troops
- 60 horse archers, 15 imperial elite cataphracts vs 5 looters, 1 tier 6 cataphract dies!!! He f..cking dies!!! HOW? On what planet?
- I meet an enemy khuzait army. 150 me, 450 (give or take 10 troops) the enemy. My troops, mostly horse archers top tier, some imperial elite cataphracts (about 14-15), enemy has 50 horse archers, 20-25 cavalry, not all top tier, some spears and archers (about 160-170 of them, tiers 2-5) and some 200+ recruits of all kinds. I win with more than 50 horse archers and some 10 heavy cavalry still standing. I`m not even gonna bother bringing that on easy difficulty, it`s probably the end of times for any faction.
- my party of 150-170 recruits (of which maybe 25-30 are tier 2) fight with enemy parties ranging from 250-320. I win. Every time. Sometimes I even get very little dead and loads of just injured upgradeble recruits.
Desired effects
- No looter revenge for all the thousand simulated battles I exploited to level my troops up before patch 1.1.0. No, no, triple f..ck no! Looters should never be able to kill any kind of high armored unit or archers for that matter, even less so if they`re mounted.
- have a result as accurate as it can get based on the number and type of troops doing battle.
- no Leonidas and the 300 results for anyone, not even on easy mode all around, more than 4 to 1 proportion should result in defeat every time (unless it`s 1 mounted elite cataphract against 5 looters, then the horsie must win please).
Anyway, generally that`s what I have, I`ll probably remember more and add it, right now I`m bored with writing.
Cheers!