Ambushes

[Ancientwanker]

It would be cool if enemy warbands could ambush you. Certain units like bandits would have an AI that made them stop periodicallly and go into ambush mode. It becomes very difficult to spot them and if you trip over them without spotting them they successfully ambush you. They get a large tactical advantage number for the first round. You are then placed in the center of the map and they setup close to you on either side or maybe surrounding you. Maybe their proximity would depend on the terrain so in a forest they would be right on you.

You could even include a stealth skill to allow the Player to try to create ambushes and rate every unit for its innate stealthiness. A player with high stealth skill and a bunch of bandits would be much more likely to spring an ambush than a player with low skill and a force of mounted knights. This would also create more diversity between units and increase the range of playing styles.

Even without player generated ambushes though, i really like the idea of the computer springing them. It would take away the horses charge advantage and really put the crimp on all missile armies. All and all a good fun bloodletting.

 

[Camus]

Really great ideas, the risk of getting ambushed would make riding around the map a bit more interesting.
And there are forest bandits, so it makes sense that travling trough wood areas would be dangerous.

And a stealth skill would be nice, if it was displayed like party speed is now.
It would increase or decrease the distanse an enemy party can spot you.
This should also depend on party size, so if you ride alone you will be harder to see, especially at night.

 

[Blackspirit]

rate every unit for its innate stealthiness

The player waits in secrecy, with his band of stealthy warriors hiding in the undergrowth, a band of evil bandits appear and..........instantly see Marnid charging towards them screaming something about german sausages.

Good idea, laying a trap would be good, but you'd have to know that somebody was going to pass by. Maybe roads would need to be added for ambushes to work well.

 

[Pantsy]

Perhaps roads could work in a way where if you are on a road, you get a certain bonus to your map speed. Most non-military traffic would move along the roads, as well as units patrolling their territory. Bandits and army patrols would roam the countryside.

Then you could yourself place points into a theoretical ambushing skill so you could have a better chance do the same thing yourself to other folks.

 

[Ancientwanker]

A stealth/waylay/ambush skill could also increase the threat range, in miles, of your ambush. Normally a unit would have to be very unlucky to just stumble across you (especially without roads) on the worldmap but the stealth skill could increase your contact range by a certain amount per level.

Terrain and the stealthiness average of the units you are leading might also influence the size of your contact range.

I dont know if roads are in the cards or not but they would make it much easier to use the ambush or be ambushed. Forest roads would become real robin hood territory.

 

[Worbah]

Stealth could also be used in the battles, further encouraging the use of lighter armor. It would only be realistic at night time though. You can't really sneak effectively upon a group of ten men in day time, and the chances of it happening during the night are slim also.

 

[catsoup]

I like the idea. It would make noble hunting easier.

 

[GonZ]

Totally agree the ability to ambush and be ambushed would add so much to the game. And this does seem like a fairly simple way of implementing it.

Hope it appears soon

 

[Ancientwanker]

Its a good idea, I second it. This guy is on to something! heh.

Talk about back from the dead, I posted this thread within my first week playing mount and blade.

 

[catsoup]

I just used the search function to check if somebody already posted what I wanted to say. You did, and I couldnt keep silent about that its a great idea.
That is what the suggestions forum should be about I guess. Usually people discuss only the new idea even if they aint new really.

 

[ThVaz]

This is a good suggest, but I think won´t work this way (like ambushes work in Rome:Total War). It´s very difficult to ambush in Rome because there are very few places when you could bet someone will pass for it. I suggest instead that you (and enemies) could have a chance of ambushing based on their Tactics skill. The Message " You army got ambushed!" or " You ambushed the enemy!" will appear, and the ambushed victims should not receive reinforcements and will start the battle in the middle of the map with enemies very close.

 

[catsoup]

This is a good suggest, but I think won´t work this way (like ambushes work in Rome:Total War). It´s very difficult to ambush in Rome because there are very few places when you could bet someone will pass for it. I suggest instead that you (and enemies) could have a chance of ambushing based on their Tactics skill. The Message " You army got ambushed!" or " You ambushed the enemy!" will appear, and the ambushed victims should not receive reinforcements and will start the battle in the middle of the map with enemies very close.

How do you mean this? An army or yourself wouldn't have to tap directly on an enemy but would be randomly ambushed like during the Travels in Bioware games? Or how?

 

[ThVaz]

No...In Hearts of Iron (Paradox Games) there was a similar system...let's say, you character have Tactics 8. This will give him 20% percent of ambushing a enemy (for example). Every time you fight, you will ambushing the enemy 20% of the time. This number can be a bit high, but it is only a example.
I think otherwise would be difficult to implement, because you can't guess where a enemy will pass...most of the time.
In the same way, everytime a enemy attacks you he will have a chance of ambush you.
I hope I made this clear (my english is a bit rusty)

 

[Orion]

How many more "OMG LET MEE AMBOOSCH JOO PLZPLZ!!!" threads do we need? I bet it's already set on Armagan's "To-Do" list. Right above the "Not To-Do" list.

 

[GonZ]

It's an old and worthy thread leave it alone yoot.

Hopefully ambushing is high on the developers list - as it would be a lot of fun. A lot more fun than dare I say... hunting!

 

[Orion]

Hunting would be much more usefull than ambushing a bunch of poorly armed, poverty-ridden bandits, who would maybe give up 200 denars worth of loot.

 

[ThVaz]

ROFL Gonz
I am really tired of this smart asses who always complain about the threads...even if the people did it right and used the search function before posting.
Ohhh yes, hunting little innocent deers would be more useful and fun than bandits...they are so menacing the lil bastards...

 

[Big J Money]

Why would ambushing not be implemented in a game about Medieval war-band combat? Only unless it would require too much work, that's why. Otherwise, this game so far gives no indication that aspects like hunting, fishing or crafting could be found "on the list". Man, talk about a strange perception of priorities! Anyway, I agree with Vaz that you don't need a new skill (Stealth) for ambushes. If you think about it, it doesn't make sense that one man's skill in being stealthy would even apply to everyone in his group. Rather, it's his skill in small-group tactics that allows him to set up (and recover from) ambushes, in the first place.

Here is my proposed Synthesis of what we've got so far:

• For anyone to ambush anyone else, their Tactics skill must be higher than the victim's Spot skill. This allows the designer to easily determine how NPCs will use/react to ambushes.
• Once the Ambush strikes, Tactics skills are compared as usual, except that the ambusher gets a temporary bonus in this comparison. (+2?,+3?)
• All other effects that AncientWalker proposed take place. I think armagan stated elsewhere that he also liked the idea that victims of an ambush get caught missing pieces of their armor . Maybe this can also be prevented if the victim has a high enough Tactics skill?
• If a player's tactics skill is higher than an NPC army's spot skill, it means that there is a % chance that those armies won't even SEE the player on the map. Maybe a little tag can appear with their info? Anyway, if you attack an army in this state, you have ambushed them. Obviously they won't run away, since they can't see you.

=$= Big J Money =$=

 

[Amman d Stazia]

I'm working on an ambush scene that is triggered by one of the bandit conversation options and marnid.  its in the players favour.

 

[reen]

Maybe