Break up the major factions

[Reiksmarshal]

TW should seriously break up most of the factions to minor factions with the current faction leaders maybe having a few clans loyal to them to justify the title of king or emperor. The rest of the clans would become baronies and dukedoms with appropriate titles like Baron,Count, and Duke.

That way the first objective would be to unite the clans first with your faction rather than going to all out war with the other major factions. I think this would improve things considerably and keep major factions around longer because they would be mostly dealing with internal politics rather than attacking other major factions.

 

[TheGrainMan]

Or/and have actual meaningful wars instead of the RNG nonsense that hasn't changed since 2007

 

[Reiksmarshal]

Once Total war went with more minor factions it was a huge improvement. The thing is they already have a system in place with clans now that could operate as independent factions. Just give them a different color and the clan leader a title and you are set.

Titles could be based on culture, but I think this would be a major improvement and slow down snowballing as well since you won't be at war with an entire culture.

 

[Staal]

+1 great idea, exactly what I've been saying.

 

[Odin boarhelm]

+1

 

[Reiksmarshal]

This could introduce some interesting internal politics for example if your clan is Battanian culture and your clan gains enough influence your character could get the title of High King and you would become the faction leader of the Battanians.

 

[Orbit-]

This could introduce some interesting internal politics for example if your clan is Battanian culture and your clan gains enough influence your character could get the title of High King and you would become the faction leader of the Battanians.

Thats not how the monarchies work though. Very high influence would take the attention of the king and maybe he would try to assasinate you or accuse of you of treason and you could rebel for the crown. But not suddenly becoming a king because you have influence. It would be interesting for imperials though because high popularity is important for imperial senate and politics would be interesting.

 

[Reiksmarshal]

I agree I just used the Battanians as an example because of how the current king came to power and their lore is loosely based off of the clans of Ireland. If you look at somebody like Brian Boru and how he became the High King of Ireland your clan power and influence would most definitely play a part in that.

 

[Al'extérieur]

I think that's a really interesting idea, +1!
That would also gives the players even more time to get the hang of the early-mid game without having to constantly reset their campaigns, because you can really shoot yourself in the foot hard when you have no clue what you're doing.

e.g: I was level 9 on my 1rst campaign on day 364, I had weak stats in everything, I didn't know anything about making an army with your faction parties, didn't know anything about marriage (which seems important since I read somewhere you can be locked out of marriage if you get to 40 years old), didn't know you could create your own groups in the party tab with the small roman icons (I, II, etc.) a lot of mechanics like that. Making caravans even, I had to google 80% of the time to know what I was supposed to do to thrive. Now I'm like level 15 on day 160 on my current campaign with the Khuzaits,(which is probably not that great from a min-maxer perspective, but it's 300% better than what I was previously doing) we took 5 territories and we're rolling on the sturgians: but it took me maybe 6 different campaigns to get to that point where I had enough experience to know what to do on my own.

So yes, I love your idea, I'd also like to add to it: we know how to move a character:W-A-S-D is not a necessary tutorial. But while we'd be uniting our clans, it would be pretty cool to get some meaningful tutorials about the different mechanics of the game. Not just: Move, recruit, buy food, F1+F3. There's so many tutorials they could make JUST with the battle order mechanic itself. Like, show us how to make a circular shield wall, show us how to line up our archers on high ground, show us how to do a Skein formation with our Cavalry. Things like these + your idea would go a long way to not make casual players rage and come in forums to complain about how "bad" the game is. What do you guys think?

 

[Vespa]

I don't mind there being large factions - What I would like is for the factions to actually be dynamic. If the system is created, then you could set options to control how each game begins - For example, 5 large random factions and 15 smaller ones. Over the course of the game, the factions could grow larger or smaller (becoming minor factions). Several levels, along with appropriate criteria and functionality (e.g., there are pros and cons for being a larger or smaller faction (things they can and cannot do, bonuses, etc.) - and the behavior of other agents in the game changes according to this (and other) factors), could exist (so that there are faction levels - not just minor and major factions).

As it stands, it seems like everything is predetermined. Even when you whittle down a faction to have a "power" of 7 (whatever that represents), as far as I can tell, it's still considered a major faction. In addition, it's impossible to eliminate factions. They also bounce back magically.

On a related tangent, the "friend" system doesn't exist as such. Outside of my spouse's father who became my friend and my first companion (I've no idea why or how they became my friend), all of my friends are enemies that I let go after battles.

I hope all of this is addressed.

 

[Al'extérieur]

On a related tangent, the "friend" system doesn't exist as such. Outside of my spouse's father who became my friend and my first companion (I've no idea why or how they became my friend), all of my friends are enemies that I let go after battles.

I hope all of this is addressed.

Totally agree with you on that! The only way I got friends with my companions was when I retreated a battle: she told me it was not her type to flee battles and everything, when I told her I would take her concerns into consideration, it went +15.

I wish we could get AT LEAST a +1 relation with everyone we help in battle. I must have saved my clan buddies 16 times each by now, they always tell me things like "Oh, thank goodness you came in here to save us!", but my relation with them always stays the same. If I try to vote to get a fief for myself though, everyone thinks I'm a devil... -5 with the whole clan. So many ways to lose relation but not enough to gain.

 

[JurgenJuggernaut]

+1

 

[JurgenJuggernaut]

TW should seriously break up most of the factions to minor factions with the current faction leaders maybe having a few clans loyal to them to justify the title of king or emperor. The rest of the clans would become baronies and dukedoms with appropriate titles like Baron,Count, and Duke.

That way the first objective would be to unite the clans first with your faction rather than going to all out war with the other major factions. I think this would improve things considerably and keep major factions around longer because they would be mostly dealing with internal politics rather than attacking other major factions.

Several people me included made posts that spoke of this and clan ranks, unfortunately seems we didn't get much attention.

This is highly needed, a hierachy. And I take the moment to comment about cities and capitals.

Because it's seems there isn't a distinction between them yet, where there should be. Like having more villages than normal cities, etc.

 

[Midnitewolf]

Or/and have actual meaningful wars instead of the RNG nonsense that hasn't changed since 2007

Yeah I agree on this. I just logged off for the night in my campaign with the AI doing stupid things. I am part of the Southern Empire and just got done taking his 2nd to last city and last castle. Do you know what he does? He declares war on the Aserai because getting destroyed by the Southern Empire just isn't enough and he just needs that last nail in the coffin.

I really wish they would code it so that Factions wouldn't declare war on another faction if they were already at war with someone. I also wish they would code it so that if someone declared war on them while they were at war with another faction, they would actually try to sue for piece with the faction they were at war with in the first place. I mean they might not always be successful, but they should try. Lastly, I really wish they would code it so that faction who didn't have a common border with each other wouldn't declare war on each other, I mean why the hell would the Khurzait declare war on Vlandia? There is no border tension, the have to move an army though like 3 other factions to get there and even if they conquered territory, they aren't going to likely be able to hold it all the way on the other side of the map. It is just stupid that the AI does this.

 

[RubberStroodle]

+1

 

[Vespa]

I really wish they would code it so that Factions wouldn't declare war on another faction if they were already at war with someone. I also wish they would code it so that if someone declared war on them while they were at war with another faction, they would actually try to sue for piece with the faction they were at war with in the first place. I mean they might not always be successful, but they should try. Lastly, I really wish they would code it so that faction who didn't have a common border with each other wouldn't declare war on each other, I mean why the hell would the Khurzait declare war on Vlandia? There is no border tension, the have to move an army though like 3 other factions to get there and even if they conquered territory, they aren't going to likely be able to hold it all the way on the other side of the map. It is just stupid that the AI does this.

To piggyback on these thoughts, you'd think that if a faction is going down the toilet, that factions they're allied with (well, if that were a thing - and it should be a thing) would either help or abandon them. Along the same lines, on the other side of the fence, if you have a faction already at war with someone - and they're not doing well - Hmm, well, other factions may jump on the bandwagon to take them down. Then perhaps the factions would war among themselves for the spoils. That'd be engaging and fun. I mean, it seems like the main allure of both this and the original title is emergent gameplay.

 

[SimonDoesntSay]

Only way two factions that are far away from each other end up at war should be some sort of quest. As Midnitewolf said above, there is no logical reason why the Khuzait would declare war on Vlandia. A quest to start a war could be a thing, perhaps for political gain or another reason, however I'm not sure how deeply TW wants to delve into making new complex web-like political quests.

Supply lines could be a new mechanic if you're at war across the map that could send troops and food to you from afar that takes a few days to arrive would be interesting.

 

[Vindet_Skygge_or_Skov]

Only way two factions that are far away from each other end up at war should be some sort of quest. As Midnitewolf said above, there is no logical reason why the Khuzait would declare war on Vlandia. A quest to start a war could be a thing, perhaps for political gain or another reason, however I'm not sure how deeply TW wants to delve into making new complex web-like political quests.

Supply lines could be a new mechanic if you're at war across the map that could send troops and food to you from afar that takes a few days to arrive would be interesting.

there already were quests to start and stop wars in previous games, like loot villages and caravans from that faction, given by the warthirsty kind of lords, and quests to stop them from merchants. So that wouldnt be a problem to implement.

 

[Delinard]

+1 Makes things so much more realistic.

 

[Benjamin Bones]

I wish we could get AT LEAST a +1 relation with everyone we help in battle. I must have saved my clan buddies 16 times each by now, they always tell me things like "Oh, thank goodness you came in here to save us!", but my relation with them always stays the same. If I try to vote to get a fief for myself though, everyone thinks I'm a devil... -5 with the whole clan. So many ways to lose relation but not enough to gain.

Yes. You do actually get a +1 to relation when you help a lord in battle... The only thing is, it only happens if you help a lord that's not a member of your faction. So... if you're a Battanian and you help some Sturgian lord finish off 15 looters you get a +1... But if you help a lord within your own faction defeat an enemy they would've otherwise been destroyed by.... Nothing.

I guess they just expect it.