Roach
Sergeant at Arms

I've been working on a mod based off the (in)famous 16th C. reivers on the England/Scotland border, and I've come to the experts for a few ideas 
I have a few nice features so far:
Your own fully customisible (with the in-game editor
) keep, where you can hire new troop types, rest for free, buy fast horses and strong ale and flog prisoners to your local tenant farmers. You get a weekly income from the rents, and the more prisoners you sell here the more money you can squeeze in taxes..
Attackable peasants/refugees/farmers (naturally), also you can attack manhunters (who've been boosted with the addition of slave hunters/chiefs/what have you), and if your rep with them goes down enough they'll come gunning for you.
New war parties, made up of sword sisters, mercenaries, hired blades and caravan guards, these guys will also attack you if you have a rep for preying on the weak and feeble.
The biggie is your 'infamy' rating: this goes up for performing dastardly deeds like attacking innocents, caravans and Swadian and Vaegir soldiers. (More for suicidal bravery, such as hitting war parties and Dark Hunters). My personal fave is agreeing to escort a Vaegir/Swadian caravan, then attacking them en-route. Big boost for that
You can get an idea of how notorious you are by asking the merchants about gossip. Paying off the Vaegirs or Swadians to stop them attacking you will lower your rating (no-one is impressed by a coward), and so will performing mundane missions for the merchants (yawn).
Oh, and loads of new conversations and opportunities for trash-talking your opponents before grinding their bones into dust.
Working on:
The infamy rating is the lynchpin really, you can't join either faction in the war, but the more notorious you are the more chance they'll ask you to perform dirty jobs for them. (probably the usual kidnap the noble, but I'll work some more interesting quests in as well). If you're rating is high enough you'll be able to extort protection money from caravans and innocents (and then probably attack them anyway, meh) as well as blackmail various counts and kings (trying to do this with too low a rating will see you at best laughed out of the room, at worst spawning a hostile war party next to the town you're in
)
Your steward will have missions for you at the keep, again based on your notoriety (low levels will see you being sent to capture a few peasants, as you rise in renown you'll have to attack stronger foes, obviously. Maybe buffed up prison trains to rescue your men, or NPCs)
Ah, NPCs. There'll be a few high-powered ones dotted around, but of course they won't be interested in joining you unless you're a bandit king of some note. And there'll be enemy NPCs who you'll have to hunt down, probably with the option of either turning them in for ransom, killing them outright, or throwing them in your dungeon so you can taunt them whenever you feel like it
And if I'm not dead after all that, I'll try to fit in some fun things like attackable villages and enemy bandit keeps, and maybe the ability to buy new towers around the map, something for highbie characters to spend their ludicrous amounts of money on.
So.. ideas? (Constructive) criticisms? Should I leave all this as a new faction to join so people can still fight a bit of the war first? Should I throw in some buffed up sea-raiders and let you hire them? Should I make it so you can become friendly with innocents/manhunters/sword sisters again by paying off some neutral like Harek? What kind of **** do people want to see in a bad-guy mod?
Oh, and if there's any 3d modellers out there looking for a project, some 16th century armour meshes would be greatly appreciated (morions, burgonets, breast- and back-plates.) Hell, even flintlocks and wheellocks if you're feeling ambitious enough
Finally let me paraphrase one of the all-time greatest baddies, Skeletor himself: 'Good guys have to win every time. I only have to win once (cackle maniacally for 5 minutes)'
I have a few nice features so far:
Your own fully customisible (with the in-game editor
Attackable peasants/refugees/farmers (naturally), also you can attack manhunters (who've been boosted with the addition of slave hunters/chiefs/what have you), and if your rep with them goes down enough they'll come gunning for you.
New war parties, made up of sword sisters, mercenaries, hired blades and caravan guards, these guys will also attack you if you have a rep for preying on the weak and feeble.
The biggie is your 'infamy' rating: this goes up for performing dastardly deeds like attacking innocents, caravans and Swadian and Vaegir soldiers. (More for suicidal bravery, such as hitting war parties and Dark Hunters). My personal fave is agreeing to escort a Vaegir/Swadian caravan, then attacking them en-route. Big boost for that
Oh, and loads of new conversations and opportunities for trash-talking your opponents before grinding their bones into dust.
Working on:
The infamy rating is the lynchpin really, you can't join either faction in the war, but the more notorious you are the more chance they'll ask you to perform dirty jobs for them. (probably the usual kidnap the noble, but I'll work some more interesting quests in as well). If you're rating is high enough you'll be able to extort protection money from caravans and innocents (and then probably attack them anyway, meh) as well as blackmail various counts and kings (trying to do this with too low a rating will see you at best laughed out of the room, at worst spawning a hostile war party next to the town you're in
Your steward will have missions for you at the keep, again based on your notoriety (low levels will see you being sent to capture a few peasants, as you rise in renown you'll have to attack stronger foes, obviously. Maybe buffed up prison trains to rescue your men, or NPCs)
Ah, NPCs. There'll be a few high-powered ones dotted around, but of course they won't be interested in joining you unless you're a bandit king of some note. And there'll be enemy NPCs who you'll have to hunt down, probably with the option of either turning them in for ransom, killing them outright, or throwing them in your dungeon so you can taunt them whenever you feel like it
And if I'm not dead after all that, I'll try to fit in some fun things like attackable villages and enemy bandit keeps, and maybe the ability to buy new towers around the map, something for highbie characters to spend their ludicrous amounts of money on.
So.. ideas? (Constructive) criticisms? Should I leave all this as a new faction to join so people can still fight a bit of the war first? Should I throw in some buffed up sea-raiders and let you hire them? Should I make it so you can become friendly with innocents/manhunters/sword sisters again by paying off some neutral like Harek? What kind of **** do people want to see in a bad-guy mod?
Oh, and if there's any 3d modellers out there looking for a project, some 16th century armour meshes would be greatly appreciated (morions, burgonets, breast- and back-plates.) Hell, even flintlocks and wheellocks if you're feeling ambitious enough
Finally let me paraphrase one of the all-time greatest baddies, Skeletor himself: 'Good guys have to win every time. I only have to win once (cackle maniacally for 5 minutes)'