Good post, oRGy. It's similar to what I posted in the
Basic ideas to better add personality to your troops thread started by jpgray. The only major disagreement we have is whether you should be able to assign someone a role when they're unequipped for it. Copied from that thread:
First of all, I'd like to say that this is a great idea. The only thing I disagree with is the idea of "ranks". Units already HAVE ranks, and "Swadian Sergeant Sergeant" would be really dumb.
Personally, I'd like it if ALL NPCs in the game were hero NPC's, or at least part way between Hero and Generic. Being able to call someone "Swadian Infantry" or "Vaegir Horseman" should depend on their actual rank, just like the one you have. Here's how the system would work:
Equipping Troops: Instead of the direct micromanagement used now, you would only have to control your troops' weaponry and stats as much as you wished to. You
could micromanage all your troops if you so choose, or you could allow the game to automatically handle weapon and armour disposition.
The party screen would need to be changed so that you could select multiple troops and give them assignments, or this WILL be annoyingly time consuming once you have a sizable force. It would also be nice if when you're looking at a unit's inventory, if there was a scrollable list of all your troops so you could jump between units quickly. Troops would be listed as "Name, Title", with the title being divided into ranks and roles; eg. "Marnid, Dangerously-Poor Archer" or "Kradus, Lancer Extraordinaire".
Titles: Roles/Assignments: Troops are given generic roles, such as "Infantry", "Pikeman", "Archer", "Crossbowman", "Rider", "Lancer", etc., as well as specialized roles such as "Scout", "Medic/Physician", or "Farrier". When you assign a role to a unit or units, you get a report telling you what equipment is required to change their assignment. From there, you will have three options:
1. Tell the units that they are responsible for their own equipment. This option is cheaper for you coffers, but they will not be able to afford the quality of equipment you could provide, and morale will take a hit, as your troops will be grumbling about you behind your back. The troops will not be able to buy new equipment until you arrive in the next town. Until you arrive at the next town, they will keep their current role; in the party screen they will appear as "Name, Rank Role (Pending Role)".
2. Give your troops enough money so that they can purchase the equipment at the next town you visit.
3. Give your troops the required equipment from your inventory. This will change their title immediately.
Titles: Ranks: Within each unit type, troops get modifiers which denote their "rank". Troops with higher modifiers will require better equipment, so if a Novice Axeman has only a hatchet, he may require a hand axe before you can upgrade his rank to 'Experienecd', or whatever the next rank is, and a shield or two-handed axe to upgrade to 'Veteran'. Troop promotions will also have requirements for both level and weapon proficiency in the appropriate weapon(s), as well as Skill level requirements for certain troop types: a troop with no levels in scouting could not become a Scout, a troop without any Riding, Power Draw, or Horse Archery could not become a Mounted Archer, and a troop with no ranks in the surgical skills could not become a Field Medic.
To become a Horse Archer, a unit may need to first spend time as both an archer and a Horseman to get all his weapons proficiencies high enough.
The "title trees" could have unique and specific modifiers. For instance, mounted troops would attain various levels of Knighthood, whereas Infantry become Guards, Sergeants, or Warriors, and archers and crossbowmen become Sharpshooters. The title trees used for the various nations could also be distinct. If you are neutral, and do not have the backing of a Feudal lord, your troops would only get the most generic of titles, eg. "Expert Lancer" rather than "Swadian Knight Lancer". Rank and title is given out through the feudal system, not on a whim.
National titles: In order for troops to have national titles, they will need to be in the employ of a nation. For example, if you are neutral and rescue some Swadian Men-at-Arms, and they choose(!) to join your army, they would become plain "Veteran Cavalry", or whatever class corresponds with that rank. If you join a faction, all your troops will be migrated to the appropriate rank. As a side note, certain nations may not support certain troop types, and these troops would become "Mercenary". Examples may be Vaegir not having crossbowmen and Swadians not having Javelineers or Axe-throwers.
Rescuing Prisoners: You know, as grateful as that Vaegir Master-Knight may be that you rescued him from the Sea Raiders, he may not wish to join you as a Swadian vassal. He may not even want to join a neutral party, keeping loyalty to his Lord and King. You should have four options with any rescued prisoner, or any defeated enemy:
1. Offer to allow him to join you. Troops of your nationality (and lower rank than you) will always accept, but enemy or neutral troops may not be so fast to take up your cause, and troops that out-rank you may not want to serve under you. If the troop refuses this offer, this option will simply disappear and you will be left with the other three. If you have a national alignment, some troops may choose to follow you as Mercenaries, and will retain a neutral status. Some troops, such as Sea Raiders, will almost always choose this option.
2. Release him. Simply set him free (perhaps with the option to give him his equipment or not) to go on his way.
3. Take him prisoner. So the Sea Raiders defeated the Nobleman's party and took him prisoner... at the moment, your only option is to "rescue" him and take him into your party. Ain't that a *****? There need to be more options for unloading prisoners, but that's the subject for another thread.
4. "Release" him. From his mortal coils, that is.
Why should you leave an enemy alive on the battlefield to come back and kill your countrymen later? Sometimes in war, no mercy can be shown. Obviously, killing or even taking prisoner a member of your own faction should have extreme effects on morale, and may even lead to desertion of revolt. Your Lord and King, at the very least, will take great exception to it.
Another idea for a possible option is enslavement. Slaves or Thralls are free to maintain, but you must provide them with their weapons. If you engage in a battle with their faction, they will not participate, since they would be locked up so they couldn't join their brothers and fight against you. Slaves will ALWAYS side against you in case of a troop revolt.
Upgrading & Levelling: When an NPC levels, you should be given two options: the game can automatically distribute their points, based on an ideal template for that unit-type, or you can choose to distribute the points manually. When you distribute points manually, there should be an "auto-distribute" button beside "Ok" and "Reset", so if you wanted to give that archer 1 point of Intelligence and 2 points in Riding so that he can become a mounted archer, you could then have the computer distribute the weapon points automatically.
Goals: To assist the auto-distributor, you should be able to set goals for your troops. For example, you could set the "goal" of your Archer to become a mounted archer, and the game would automatically start allocating points into the required fields. In-game, you would instruct the archer to study the art of mounted archery, and in a couple levels, he would approach you and say that he is now ready to take on that role, having put points in Riding and Horse Archery. Similarly, you could instruct an Infantryman that you wanted him to ultimately become a Pikeman, and he would allocate points into Pole weapons, rather than 1- and 2- handed weapons, and put skill points in Ironskin rather than Shield; or instruct a Pikeman to work towards being a Lancer and he would start investing points in Riding and Shield; and so forth.
Fealty and Feudalism: When you join a faction, your rank should permit you to command a certain number of a certain type of units on the King's coin. Troops above and beyond this allotment will, of course, still be paid from your own purse. Troops that you upgrade to fill these positions should be upgraded free of charge when you're in an allied city and telling troops to supply their own equipment for these positions would have no negative repurcussions. Mercenaries are never paid on the King's coin: you always hire and pay for them yourself.
Furthermore, you should not be able to upgrade troops beyond your own "Rank". "Rank" is different that the titles listed above; as a commander in the King's army, you have one of four ranks:
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Award of Arms. The king gives you the right to bear arms and fight in his name. You are a minor nobility and the King grants you small stipends to field troops for him. At this rank, you can only promote troops to modest ranks.
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Grant of Arms. Higher than the AoA, you are given funds to field a modest force. The only thing you cannot do is raise Knights, but the highest level foot-soldiers are available to you.
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Patent of Arms. This is the rank given with Knighthood. As a knight, you are now able to knight other soldiers in the king's name. You may field a large force, but are still subject to the whims and demands of the Landed Nobility across the lands; ie., city rulers.
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Royal Peerage. You are granted land and a Noble title and direct Fealty to the King. You may now address the city rulers as equal, and all their quests are optional to you. All troops and weapons (besides Mercenaries, which you ALWAYS pay for) are maintained and upgraded free of charge, but the King requires you to pay HIM a regular stipend based on the force you control, so you'd best be productive with those troops.
World Map Party Info: On the world map, instead of a list of NPCs, units would be grouped by type; so looking at an enemy force you will still see "9 Infantry, 5 Archers, 5 Horsemen, 2 Knights". Specific troop types will be generalized, so that 9 Infantry could be 3 Swordsman, 2 Great-Swordsman, and 4 Pikeman of varying proficiencies- how would YOU know whether that Infantryman was Veteran, a Master, or a complete noob? Perhaps when you get closer, right-clicking on the party would bring up a more detailed analasys, with indications as to how well-armed the troops are to help you guess how experienced they are.
There are other benefits to this system as well:
- Certain Party skills could be cumulative, such as Spotting and First Aid, while others could give diminishing returns for redundancy like Tracking and Pathfinding, and still others could use the current "best only" system, such as Trade, since you never send a committee to the marketplace.
- Troop trees are now more fluid and realistic. At the moment, there's no way to tell that Crossbowman that you want him to become an infantryman. You're stuck with the "model" that you happened to get. Troops that "cross-class" in this way will have perfectly natural deficiencies in their new field, and if you later change your mind, they will still have the skills that they learned earlier.
- Similarly, troop trees can now be much more expansive. Trying to develop a system where you could have specifically out-fitted troops (swords, shields, pikes, bows, x-bows, etc.) was always a pain.
- Marnid and Borcha can now die.
They could even be carried away after a defeat and join an enemy faction! Of course, if you should ever face them on the field of battle, you will have a lot of pent-up anger from that time you experimented with giving them a bag of Jarid to unleash on them.