It`s 15 days since the map stuttering and menue lag has been mentioned by quite a few players. 1.5.6 is totally unplayable for me because of this. Can we at least agree finally that there is a problem?
Yes, there is a problem, yes they know about it, there have been plenty of reports in the bugfix section.
Oh, believe me, I'm aware. But this suggestion, specifically, would have even more harmful effects because without garrisons being somewhat potent the AI is wholly capable of rolling over settlements very quickly. In comparison, defeating field armies does not hurt factions nearly as much.
AI parties replenish understrength garrisons, if they see a settlement with few troops they leave some of their own. It would make them spend more time recruiting and possibly reduce the overall strength on the other hand. Castles don't have much of a purpose for the AI now, sure they provide some source of income, but I don't think it is nearly enough to maintain multiple parties, unless the AI cheats. It does provide a troop storage for the player, but I don't see a point of leaving it as is if only the player makes use of it.
If the AI
has to use cheats, maybe making them trade recruits for higher tier troops at castles would make castles more valuable. It would mean more recruits and lower tier troops at castles, but it would also make the fresh spawns more capable.
I don't disagree. But I don't think that means they should deliberately introduce unbalanced mechanics either. Especially not when those mechanics can invalidate other parts of the game.
To be honest I think we are way past the point of TW looking at suggestions for things that have a risk of not working out, unlike UI suggestions like settlement icons for quests and tournaments.
If they, for some reason, decided to pick up a more complex suggestion, it would still require plenty of time validating the possible implications and what system it could affect before even going into the programming part. At least this is the way things tend to happen in my case, some things that look good as far as the suggestion provided don't really work out when you take a deeper look and the suggestion gets dropped.
Yes, I had fun with 200 archers. No, I wouldn't put a party troop type cap in Bannerlord; at risk of igniting a months' old debate for
nth time, my opinion is that ranged power should be heavily nerfed and largely restricted to morale damage, with only melee being decisive.
I don't want Swadian Knights to make a return in Bannerlord. I think battles should hinge more upon managing morale, positioning and smart use of terrain rather than unit-by-unit killing power contests. Yes, a mixed force should be able to stop a full army of heavy cavalry. The utility would come from the morale shock sending large numbers of units fleeing, rather than slaughtering so many dudes the enemy army physically stops existing.
Yes, I agree that battles shouldn't end with one side completely decimated, there should be an increased number of routed units but this should also be accompanied by post battle mechanics like forming parties from the remainder of the troops, like some being deserters/bandits and others running away towards a settlement and joining the garrison or looking for heroes and bolstering their party if capacity allows, maybe even base the disposition on tier, so lower tier troops are more likely to end as deserters/bandits or just run away back to their homes (not existing as a unit anymore). The idea of forming multiple smaller parties is to avoid allowing them to be caught right after the battle.
The AI would have to be redone if TW wanted to change the kill count focus to morale management, heroes would have to be much more careful, cavalry would have to avoid charging through whatever is in front of them, AI troops in general would have to be much more defensive than they currently are. More complex AI also mean higher CPU usage, so it is not just a matter of programming skills.
I also don't have a problem with them nerfing ranged, reduce accuracy, speed of nock-draw-release, aiming time and so on. I enjoy the infantry fights a lot more than everything else.
The easiest way to balance armies better is adding equipment and horse requirements for upgrading troops both by the player and AI.
Edit: or even easier rising upgrade cost to reflect equipment cost.
This hits the AI a lot harder than it does the player. We can make money much easier/faster than the AI, we fight more battles, sell more loot, trade, buy workshops. The AI would have to cheat more than it currently does to keep up.