The idea I'd like to suggest is pretty simple, but has some implications that can reach pretty far: Add "Arms and armor" (A&A for short for the purpose of the thread) as a trade good.
General idea: The arms and armor would be a culture-specific trade good(each culture would have a separate one) produced in towns, especially ones with the access to smithies and tanneries. It would be a trade good just like all the other ones, with the possibility of buying and selling it for profit, however it would also have several uses, akin to foodstuffs and horses.
1. Maintenance. Your A&A stocks go down at a very slow rate at all times, but they would especially be depleted after battles, especially when healing wounded units, to represent them losing some of their gear in battle, as well as patching holes in their armor and shields, restocking their arrows, sharpening blades etc. Higher tier units would put more of a burden on this resource than lower tier ones. A prolonged lack of this resource would cause a debuff (exact numbers up for balance) for your (or AI lord's) units during battle, to represent poorer equipment condition. (Just because you have an expensive coat of plates, or a good sword doesn't mean it's always in perfect condition/sharpness). Some Stewardship perks could be added that would make your maintenance efforts more efficient. (just like the one that lowers food consumption)
2. Troop upgrades. Getting top tier units is, in my opinion, a bit too easy. As such, I believe that aside from the absolutely meager amount of gold you have to pay for upgrades, you should also need to use culture-appropriate A&A to upgrade your units. What's more, the higher the tier of the unit, the more you need to use. (Again, exact numbers would be up for balance, and could also be used to balance different troop trees and factions) Upgrades from tier 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 for example should require negligible amounts of it, while upgrades from 4 to 5, or 5 to 6 should require significantly more. The idea is that both you and the lords should be able to fairly easily equip troops of tier 3, but struggle a bit to get top tiers.
My initial idea was to have tiers of A&A, with higher tier units requiring higher tier A&A good, but I realized that that would add too much clutter, so instead simply more of the good would be used for this purpose for better units, even if it makes a bit less sense.
This also means that lords would have a harder time upgrading troops that are not of their own culture, which I believe makes a lot of sense. Especially when it comes to war enemies. It would also make fielding multicultural armies a bit more difficult for the player, which I believe makes sense and adds more challenge to go with the benefit that comes from assembling the best of various cultures.
One caveat, mercenaries would be able to use A&A of any culture, regarless of what unit they are. I know it doesn't make perfect sense, but I believe it would be an interesting benefit of fielding mercenary units, and a choice for the player to consider strategically.
3. Town Supplies and Trade. A&A would also affect the selection of weapons and armors you can buy in towns. If a city has a lot of the A&A goods, the next time the shop inventory changes, the town will get more of the high tier stuff for the player to buy. Conversely, if the town doesn't have much, it will only stock poorer equipment for you. This would represent town governments restricting better equipment to their garrison and militia or monopolizing the purchase of arms from the blacksmiths and armorers in times when supplies are more scarce, so that the shops can't just sell them freely to the player. It would also control the spread of different culture equipment around the map. It would make it so that foreign weapons can find their way onto a town's market if they actually get imported there via trade, instead of just appearing somewhat randomly.
And this would be it for now. I'm sure there is still be a lot that could be added to refine this idea, but that's all I got at present.
I would like to point out however, that this idea is not for now, or anytime soon really. If this is ever considered, it is for far, far later in the game's development, perhaps even after the EA ends and the game is properly developed.
General idea: The arms and armor would be a culture-specific trade good(each culture would have a separate one) produced in towns, especially ones with the access to smithies and tanneries. It would be a trade good just like all the other ones, with the possibility of buying and selling it for profit, however it would also have several uses, akin to foodstuffs and horses.
1. Maintenance. Your A&A stocks go down at a very slow rate at all times, but they would especially be depleted after battles, especially when healing wounded units, to represent them losing some of their gear in battle, as well as patching holes in their armor and shields, restocking their arrows, sharpening blades etc. Higher tier units would put more of a burden on this resource than lower tier ones. A prolonged lack of this resource would cause a debuff (exact numbers up for balance) for your (or AI lord's) units during battle, to represent poorer equipment condition. (Just because you have an expensive coat of plates, or a good sword doesn't mean it's always in perfect condition/sharpness). Some Stewardship perks could be added that would make your maintenance efforts more efficient. (just like the one that lowers food consumption)
2. Troop upgrades. Getting top tier units is, in my opinion, a bit too easy. As such, I believe that aside from the absolutely meager amount of gold you have to pay for upgrades, you should also need to use culture-appropriate A&A to upgrade your units. What's more, the higher the tier of the unit, the more you need to use. (Again, exact numbers would be up for balance, and could also be used to balance different troop trees and factions) Upgrades from tier 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 for example should require negligible amounts of it, while upgrades from 4 to 5, or 5 to 6 should require significantly more. The idea is that both you and the lords should be able to fairly easily equip troops of tier 3, but struggle a bit to get top tiers.
My initial idea was to have tiers of A&A, with higher tier units requiring higher tier A&A good, but I realized that that would add too much clutter, so instead simply more of the good would be used for this purpose for better units, even if it makes a bit less sense.
This also means that lords would have a harder time upgrading troops that are not of their own culture, which I believe makes a lot of sense. Especially when it comes to war enemies. It would also make fielding multicultural armies a bit more difficult for the player, which I believe makes sense and adds more challenge to go with the benefit that comes from assembling the best of various cultures.
One caveat, mercenaries would be able to use A&A of any culture, regarless of what unit they are. I know it doesn't make perfect sense, but I believe it would be an interesting benefit of fielding mercenary units, and a choice for the player to consider strategically.
3. Town Supplies and Trade. A&A would also affect the selection of weapons and armors you can buy in towns. If a city has a lot of the A&A goods, the next time the shop inventory changes, the town will get more of the high tier stuff for the player to buy. Conversely, if the town doesn't have much, it will only stock poorer equipment for you. This would represent town governments restricting better equipment to their garrison and militia or monopolizing the purchase of arms from the blacksmiths and armorers in times when supplies are more scarce, so that the shops can't just sell them freely to the player. It would also control the spread of different culture equipment around the map. It would make it so that foreign weapons can find their way onto a town's market if they actually get imported there via trade, instead of just appearing somewhat randomly.
And this would be it for now. I'm sure there is still be a lot that could be added to refine this idea, but that's all I got at present.
I would like to point out however, that this idea is not for now, or anytime soon really. If this is ever considered, it is for far, far later in the game's development, perhaps even after the EA ends and the game is properly developed.
