Before i get into these i'd just like to open with that despite the (many) grievances i have with multiplayer as a whole in Bannerlord, i'm still finding siege to be a lot of fun. Can't say anything about its balance - fresh mechanics and lots of new players and all that, but it's enjoyable to play because of the atmosphere and the flow of the battle and all the little things you can do in the meantime - so hats off to taleworlds on surpassing my expectations there.
- First thing i'd like to suggest (for the future, when we get dedicated hosted servers) is a customizable player limit per team. I don't know if this is planned already - but eventually we'll get the scening tools and people will start hosting their own custom maps. Some of these might not be balanced for 60v60 so having that option would be wise, i think.
- My second suggestion is somewhat inspired by titanfall 2. I don't know if they did it first, but they have a wonderful mechanic in their matches where when you lose a game, people stop respawning and the losers have the option of trying to get to an evac transport and escaping for a little extra excitement.
I think something like this would work great in siege (and perhaps other modes with flags)
- So it's a last stand mechanic. When your team loses all its morale (and you suddenly find out you've won or lost... it can be quite abrupt) respawns stop happening, and the match goes down to a 1-2 minute timer. As the defenders your objective could be to survive these 1-2 minutes till the match is really over, and kill at least 1 other player in that time - and as attackers it would be to escape the map boundaries, and kill at least one player in that time. Since we've got this whole badge and multiplayer level system in game now, could give it extra "xp" or some fancy badge or something. I just think it would help bring the battles to a more satisfying end, and make people feel like they can achieve something even after they've lost.
- Thirdly - i'd suggest some kind of warhorn mechanic. This would be purely auditory in nature - no text "pings" or voice lines or whatever, maybe not even an animation. Just a warhorn sound you can activate on a long cooldown (once every minute or two) that people on both teams can hear from moderately far away. Let the players use it for whatever they want. Could be to bring attention that one part of the castle is doing badly, to indicate intruders in the backline, as a signal for previously discussed plans that you can't type about in the moment, or just to intimidate the enemy during a charge or for the hell of it. I'd say give each faction a distinct blowing pattern or different horn sound/pitch to make them somewhat distinct and something you can learn. If worried about spam, you could again lock it behind certain badges or player level or whatever. It would be a long cooldown, but i get that even 1 minute means potentially 2 horns a second in a 60v60.
- My fourth and final suggestion - and this one i'm not even sure about, would be to remove player deaths from being displayed in the leaderboard in siege. I think i saw something similar in... red orchestra? Not sure of the game. It either got rid of kills or deaths in the leaderboard to encourage playing for the objective.
I think that is something we should... discuss here. Sometimes in siege you just have to throw bodies at a problem, yknow? Climb those ladders, swarm that breach in the wall - and sometimes somebodies gotta do the stuff that aint necessarily glorious or safe, but the team needs. Push that tower, operate that catapult, raise those ladders.
I find myself k/d whoring more than i'd like (and though in a way that may be a good thing - it adds some aspect of caring about not dying. Something i find immersive and fun) - in the long run it might be good to not discourage dying as much as other modes. Again, i'm not sure about this one - but i do think it's a discussion we should have.
The games combat and class system still has a lot of issues (in my opinion) and i know TW ain't big on changing them yet, but the one thing i've been able to at least consistently enjoy is siege, so i'm putting my attention there for now.
TLDR: Remove kill or death counter, add a battlehorn, add a last stand mechanic after "morale depletion", and ensure player limit is customizable per team in future for server hosts.
- First thing i'd like to suggest (for the future, when we get dedicated hosted servers) is a customizable player limit per team. I don't know if this is planned already - but eventually we'll get the scening tools and people will start hosting their own custom maps. Some of these might not be balanced for 60v60 so having that option would be wise, i think.
- My second suggestion is somewhat inspired by titanfall 2. I don't know if they did it first, but they have a wonderful mechanic in their matches where when you lose a game, people stop respawning and the losers have the option of trying to get to an evac transport and escaping for a little extra excitement.
I think something like this would work great in siege (and perhaps other modes with flags)
- So it's a last stand mechanic. When your team loses all its morale (and you suddenly find out you've won or lost... it can be quite abrupt) respawns stop happening, and the match goes down to a 1-2 minute timer. As the defenders your objective could be to survive these 1-2 minutes till the match is really over, and kill at least 1 other player in that time - and as attackers it would be to escape the map boundaries, and kill at least one player in that time. Since we've got this whole badge and multiplayer level system in game now, could give it extra "xp" or some fancy badge or something. I just think it would help bring the battles to a more satisfying end, and make people feel like they can achieve something even after they've lost.
- Thirdly - i'd suggest some kind of warhorn mechanic. This would be purely auditory in nature - no text "pings" or voice lines or whatever, maybe not even an animation. Just a warhorn sound you can activate on a long cooldown (once every minute or two) that people on both teams can hear from moderately far away. Let the players use it for whatever they want. Could be to bring attention that one part of the castle is doing badly, to indicate intruders in the backline, as a signal for previously discussed plans that you can't type about in the moment, or just to intimidate the enemy during a charge or for the hell of it. I'd say give each faction a distinct blowing pattern or different horn sound/pitch to make them somewhat distinct and something you can learn. If worried about spam, you could again lock it behind certain badges or player level or whatever. It would be a long cooldown, but i get that even 1 minute means potentially 2 horns a second in a 60v60.
- My fourth and final suggestion - and this one i'm not even sure about, would be to remove player deaths from being displayed in the leaderboard in siege. I think i saw something similar in... red orchestra? Not sure of the game. It either got rid of kills or deaths in the leaderboard to encourage playing for the objective.
I think that is something we should... discuss here. Sometimes in siege you just have to throw bodies at a problem, yknow? Climb those ladders, swarm that breach in the wall - and sometimes somebodies gotta do the stuff that aint necessarily glorious or safe, but the team needs. Push that tower, operate that catapult, raise those ladders.
I find myself k/d whoring more than i'd like (and though in a way that may be a good thing - it adds some aspect of caring about not dying. Something i find immersive and fun) - in the long run it might be good to not discourage dying as much as other modes. Again, i'm not sure about this one - but i do think it's a discussion we should have.
The games combat and class system still has a lot of issues (in my opinion) and i know TW ain't big on changing them yet, but the one thing i've been able to at least consistently enjoy is siege, so i'm putting my attention there for now.
TLDR: Remove kill or death counter, add a battlehorn, add a last stand mechanic after "morale depletion", and ensure player limit is customizable per team in future for server hosts.
