Bottom line upfront: traits require too much grinding.
So, I'm typing this on my phone so excuse the typos and brevity but traits in BL are sorta bad. The concept makes perfect sense, but the way they are implemented brings out how artificial relationships are handled and feel in Bannerlord.
Right now you complete like twenty quests without doing anything that breaks your word to get the Honorable trait. I can only speak with certainty for myself but if I ask a guy to do something like nineteen goddamned times and he delivers every single one of those tines, when the twentieth time comes around I'm NOT thinking, "Hmm, dunno, he might be a little shifty..." That's paranoid as hell.
Instead there should be a presumption based on current "trajectory" for lack of a better term, countered by the expectation that trait brigs you. For example: A guy who does something exceptionally brave one time (from a neutral position) gets the Daring trait, off-rip, until he does something counter to that trait .that might be fleeing a battle, avoiding a gang fight, refusing to duel, what have you, doesn't matter. What matters is that holding a trait should create an assumption of future behavior, with the "gallant" title being reserved for player characters willing to go out of their way to be paragons of calradric virtue. If you're already consistently (let's say three or more times consecutively) acting in line with a trait, then you should gain it. Maintaining that trait should be the difficult part, not just gaining it. Meanwhile, conscioius violation of the trait should tank your trajectory: the brave guy who pisses his pants and flees in terror can't just rely on a bank of stockpiled goodwill; people will call him out for it, right then and there. Maybe he gets a mulligan one time, sure. That means Daring drops off, yet he isnt being penalized. But if he does it again? Coward, plain and simple. Trajectory in action.
At the same time, matching traits should give much more than a simple +1 or +2 to relations. Boosting you straight to friendship is probably too much for one trait, but matching three or more might as well given how few NPCs that will triple match and the effort involved in seeking them out.
What do you guys think?
So, I'm typing this on my phone so excuse the typos and brevity but traits in BL are sorta bad. The concept makes perfect sense, but the way they are implemented brings out how artificial relationships are handled and feel in Bannerlord.
Right now you complete like twenty quests without doing anything that breaks your word to get the Honorable trait. I can only speak with certainty for myself but if I ask a guy to do something like nineteen goddamned times and he delivers every single one of those tines, when the twentieth time comes around I'm NOT thinking, "Hmm, dunno, he might be a little shifty..." That's paranoid as hell.
Instead there should be a presumption based on current "trajectory" for lack of a better term, countered by the expectation that trait brigs you. For example: A guy who does something exceptionally brave one time (from a neutral position) gets the Daring trait, off-rip, until he does something counter to that trait .that might be fleeing a battle, avoiding a gang fight, refusing to duel, what have you, doesn't matter. What matters is that holding a trait should create an assumption of future behavior, with the "gallant" title being reserved for player characters willing to go out of their way to be paragons of calradric virtue. If you're already consistently (let's say three or more times consecutively) acting in line with a trait, then you should gain it. Maintaining that trait should be the difficult part, not just gaining it. Meanwhile, conscioius violation of the trait should tank your trajectory: the brave guy who pisses his pants and flees in terror can't just rely on a bank of stockpiled goodwill; people will call him out for it, right then and there. Maybe he gets a mulligan one time, sure. That means Daring drops off, yet he isnt being penalized. But if he does it again? Coward, plain and simple. Trajectory in action.
At the same time, matching traits should give much more than a simple +1 or +2 to relations. Boosting you straight to friendship is probably too much for one trait, but matching three or more might as well given how few NPCs that will triple match and the effort involved in seeking them out.
What do you guys think?