A Kings Sorrow or Why Does Everybody Hate Me

[Floh]

After 600 days of being the enforcer of King Ragnar's will and basically keeping his little empire together all on my own, I just couldn't take it anymore. Everyone in Calradia has gone mad! The Kings kick out a vassal at least once a week, sometimes more if they haven't had breakfast that morning. Those that aren't thrown out defect on their own. Meanwhile every Count was a Boyar a Jarl or a Emir at least once and is probably already having another title engraved on his possesions right now. Who knows who he'll be working for next week. I don't know who to trust anymore or who to build friendship with. It's insane, is this supposed to happen? Is there no loyalty in this world?
So after i took Suno for my king and he, in his divine wisdom and after only 3 days of contemplation during which I had to defend it on my own, gave it to one of his vassals who then promptly made of with it to the Rhodoks, I decided to start my own kingdom. But now I'm facing the same problems as my former king. All my lords hate me. I give a castle to one, all others like me less. I give a city to one and I lose so many points with the others that I wonder how I'm supposed to keep this up. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to give cities and its villages to different lords? The NPC kings can do it, why can't I? It really kills my relations with my other vassals when I'm forced to give one of them a city and 4 or 5 villages.

In short:

1: Is the counts mad switching of kingdoms late in the game intended?
2: Is it normal that NPC kings need days to finally give a captured fief to someone? And afterwards I still have to wait untill the new owner arrives to defend it.
3: Are my vassals supposed to hate me or is there any way to keep a good standing with all or most of them?
4: Is there a way to give a city to one vassal and it's villages to others?

And while I'm at it:

5: There are literally dozens of sea raiders and tundra bandits in the north. I hunted them for hours, burned their hideouts, killed so many, I could have build a new castle with their skulls to scare them off, and probably half a village too, but somehow the bandits are not getting fewer. Honestly, I can ride along the coast and at least 10 bands of raiders and bandits will be running from me like cattle. Is the sheer mass of them normal?
6: That is until they grow some balls and start going kamikaze on me. Suddenly all those small raiding bands turn around an throw themselves against me one after another. 45 raiders attacking my 150 trained soldiers. "I will drink from your skull, I will drink from you skull, I will drink..." again and again, like barbarian lemmings. Is this intended? 

Looking forward to some answers or clarifications. Or even if it's only me who's so annoyed by this. 

 

[socks]

I haven't noticed many of the problems you posted, but I must say you wrote in a very entertaining manner

 

[Brynhildr]

I wonder if they know how hard it is to drink from a skull...

 

[blink180heights]

everyone hates me in multiplayer so feel better?

 

[kahael]

1. I'm not too sure, but it doesn't bother me 0-o
2.Yes, I usually have to wait a while to get a reply as well.
3. I'm having a hard time getting them all to have pretty good relations with me as well :\
4. Not that I know of.
5. Are they really that bothersome if they don't attack you?
6. I would just think of it as good training. and yeah I wish they'd have something else to say

 

[Floh]

I wonder if they know how hard it is to drink from a skull...

Well you'd certainly have to stuff some towels in some of the openings or maybe block them with your fingers while drinking if you're flexible. Or maybe ask someone else to...oh well you may add this as question 7: Do those sea raiders know drinking from skulls is actually pretty stupid and terribly unhygienic?

everyone hates me in multiplayer so feel better?

Well not really but I'm not one to turn down offered help. I'll just focus my hate on you, too and see if it gets better. 

1. I'm not too sure, but it doesn't bother me 0-o
2.Yes, I usually have to wait a while to get a reply as well.
3. I'm having a hard time getting them all to have pretty good relations with me as well :\
4. Not that I know of.
5. Are they really that bothersome if they don't attack you?
6. I would just think of it as good training. and yeah I wish they'd have something else to say

Hmm well thanks for the answers. Something just occured to me: Do the promises you make when convincing the Counts to join your kingdom actually have an impact? Maybe I shouldn't have promised them land, fortune and naked women? Or maybe I'm just not a people person.

 

[rapier17]

I wonder if they know how hard it is to drink from a skull...

Well you'd certainly have to stuff some towels in some of the openings or maybe block them with your fingers while drinking if you're flexible. Or maybe ask someone else to...oh well you may add this as question 7: Do those sea raiders know drinking from skulls is actually pretty stupid and terribly unhygienic?

I would imagine that charging an enemy and declaring "We shall use your skulls as decorative garden ornaments" would not have quite the same effect.

Very entertaining read. Not encountered what you have, but it was an entertaining read.

 

[Whiteout]

I wonder if they know how hard it is to drink from a skull...

VERY HARD INDEED!

 

[Jiggle]

Haha oh man, that made me laugh 

I haven't played quite as long as you, but at about 200 days I began noticing some problems when it came to loyalty, as in it didn't really exist. I think they need to remove the negative affects to giving a lord a fief, maybe instead make a loyalty number that will go up and down by participating in fights, defending said lord, or whatever. This would require the king to be active and not just sit on his arse.

 

[VampLena]

I've noticed all those things, but for some odd reason while the npc lords do jump around ALOT, its a pain to get them to join the player. Moreover Lords hate you almost no matter what you do, you give land to someone, even though the other lords have fiefs, they get upset. You make someone a Marshall, they get upset. It seems way too easy for their relations to drop.

I think thats probably the root of the problem, Relations drop way too fast.

 

[Brynhildr]

I wonder if they know how hard it is to drink from a skull...

VERY HARD INDEED!

The exact comic I was referencing.

I wasn't posting it because the majority of the rest of the comic is...rather adult.

 

[Dimez]

If you want to lessen the blow of castles just give it to yourself and then you gain control of every village that comes with it then you can give the villages and castles separately to each lord how you want, I don't know if theres a way to ask them who they want to give it to though

 

[itay]

In my game, day 100, people are already starting to defect but it's not in the massive manner you just described.
A few pointers:

1. From what I've heared so far, the best way to keep those idiots, I mean nobles, happy - is to ask all of them who do THEY think should get the fief. Put it in a spreadsheet or something. Then give it to guy most of them said should get it - then he's happy, and the people who supported him don't hate you. The people who didn't support him still hate you, but at least it's more balanced this way.

2. Don't keep lords at all, have leadership score of 30 and run the kingdom by yourself. Throw every single noble you find in your dungeon and rule like a true despot.

3. Bandits do seem to pop up more alot in latter stages of the game. Getting their hideouts SHOULD reduce their number, but keep in mind that their hideouts respawn in time... hmmm... I guess the really weird thing is that even when my force outnumbered and outforced theirs, the bandits never yielded, even when I was charging with Knights against 5 looters, they always stand and fight me. Sounds pretty dumb, and should be fixed imo.

 

[Kurt Zibling]

Many of these problems are not present in mods like Native Expansion on M&B -
Hence why I am sticking with that for the foreseeable future...It is enjoyable!

Seems like the devs have just set the game to increase the frequency of
certain aspects as game-time continues...Not necessarily a good idea...

 

[Topper]

2: Is it normal that NPC kings need days to finally give a captured fief to someone? And afterwards I still have to wait untill the new owner arrives to defend it.
3: Are my vassals supposed to hate me or is there any way to keep a good standing with all or most of them?

2) The time it takes for a king to assign a fief is random, so it takes a few days generally. In M&B I never had to guard a castle myself, it seemed like it was flagged "forbidden" by other factions until a lord was assigned to it. But I don't know if it is still true in Warband, I haven't played long enough to tell.

3) Keeping good relations with lords is very difficult in this game. In general the whole diplomacy in M&B needs to be adjusted. Being a developer myself, I know that it is one of the hardest thing to implement, but NPCs seem to lack a lot of human reasoning and memory. I understand that in real life too, when you do something, you generally please someone, while piss other ones off, although there is balance in all that.

Anyway, when the module system will be out for Warband, we will be able to tweak the diplomacy as we please (more or less): can't wait to do it. 

 

[Floh]

Well thanks for all the answers. Seems I'm stuck with this disloyal bunch of traitors for now. I'll just have to ride them down like traitors deserve and steal their castles and women.
And I recently discovered the Tweak MB tool which I use to lower the maximum allowed number of raiders on the map. They still fling themselves into my blade as soon as they're bored of running away, though.

2) The time it takes for a king to assign a fief is random, so it takes a few days generally. In M&B I never had to guard a castle myself, it seemed like it was flagged "forbidden" by other factions until a lord was assigned to it. But I don't know if it is still true in Warband, I haven't played long enough to tell.

Well it seems it's also flagged in Warband. But the flag says "Help me, omg help, I'm burning, waaaaah, help please" and the former owner comes rushing to take it back. If it's a city usually the enemy host breaks of all it's sieges, burning and looting to stop by and make a visit. And since the castle has no garrisson basically every lord who happens to stumble upon the castle during a hunting trip will besiege it in passing. So after capturing anything I'm basically forced to sit around there for a few days and slap greedy little fingers, going "No, no. Bad Boyar, bad!"

 

[Krald]

The fief-assigning system when you're a king is well and truly flawed.

See, there are two areas where it strongly lacks:

1. There is no ability to assign a city to one lord, and it's villages to other lords, without assigning it to yourself and then going to your minister (which in my case was praven - the other side of the map from said city halmar, therefore I'd often lose the city before I had it assigned because I couldn't defend it due to the travel time).

2. There's no "deliberation" system in a sense, when you get a fief which is un-owned because it's a village you gained by a lord who owned a city defecting, you can go around and ask all your lords who should get it, and if you give the village to someone they like, you gain reputation with them. So in giving a fief, you gain reputation with perhaps half your lords, and lose reputation with the other half, instead of gaining 10 for one lord, and losing it from every other lord. This is how it should be for *every* fief handing out in my eyes.

So basically, it should let you wait and ask people who it should go to, so you can strategically give it to someone who pleases the other lords and gain a load of reputation with them. Also there should be no "give a city, and the villages go to that person" either. It should be a decision you can delay for say three days while you ask your lords who should get it, and it should be one settlement at a time.

Edit: I mean, when you capture a city yourself it should work more like the un-assigned fief system. Or heck, just let me pick "I'll assign it later to the proper lord" and that'll do me fine. As long as you also add an option to move the minister to another city, going to praven from halmar is a pain in the arse.

 

[Pode]

I never made it to the point of taking towns myself, but others who had this sort of problem found a workaround by assigning the villages first and the town last.

 

[GJScarritt]

2. There's no "deliberation" system in a sense, when you get a fief which is un-owned because it's a village you gained by a lord who owned a city defecting, you can go around and ask all your lords who should get it, and if you give the village to someone they like, you gain reputation with them. So in giving a fief, you gain reputation with perhaps half your lords, and lose reputation with the other half, instead of gaining 10 for one lord, and losing it from every other lord. This is how it should be for *every* fief handing out in my eyes.

So far, I don't have the option showing up, to ask my Lords who should get a Fief.  Is it one of the following reasons?
1.  Because I'm still not a recognized King yet (by any of the other Kings - every emissary comes back saying King so-and-so thinks you're a swell egg, but he didn't say King X is a swell egg) even with RtR over 60.
2.  I'm still at war, and it's something that can only be done at a Feast?
3.  Or does that dialog only work for fiefs that come to you because they were tied to a particular Castle/City,  and you manage to snag the Lord of that Castle/City?  (The way you phrased it, that is how I'm reading it).
4.  None of the above, you just fail at being your own King. 

 

[Endre Fodstad]

The exact comic I was referencing.

I wasn't posting it because the majority of the rest of the comic is...rather adult.

I am Krogar, son of Man

Because drinking from the skullcaps of people you've butchered is SO kid-friendly