(Long post, beware.)
Castles in the game are so underrated, it's like a town but being useless with less people and less tax and no influence.
Currently the only thing stand out about castles in Bannerlord is that castles are designed to be more easily defended than towns so it is a slightly more secure fief, but most of the time sieges happen when you are away so if you wish to utilize its defensive ability you will have to break in and lose 1/3 of your troops first, and usually the attackers abandon the siege afterward so you lose your troops for nothing.
And since there is nothing to do in the castle, no tavern, no traders, no arena, not even townsmen and npcs to talk to, not even soldiers to recruit like towns, so there are basically no reason to stop by and visit a castle what so ever.
Me as a castle geek who watched almost every single video of Shadiversity hate it when this happens.
Back in the medieval days castles were:
1.) strategically located and functioned fortresses, usually on important passages to control traffic;
2.) military operation center for soldiers to reorganize, train, store weapons, and a bunker to take refuge from much larger invading force;
3.) A fortified settlement for a lord or important figure, a symbol of power, and an office to govern the given land.
Castles in Bannerlord currently serve none of those functions. In my opinion, castles and towns should be made to be equally important, with castles giving the player more military and strategic value, while towns give more economical value. To make castles serve such purposes, here are a few suggestions to improve castles into something useful, from basic tweaks that can easily made in a few patches to some advances ideas for long term.
Basic gameplay tweaks
1. Increase training field garrison experience bonus for castle, at least double that of town garrison exp bonus, so that castle will be better at training soldiers than towns, serving its purpose as a military operation center
2. Give extra party troops healing bonus to castles when entered (e.g. from +5 to +10 per day). As an operation center, castle should be a better place for an army to reorganize and rest. It should be made so that player can stop by at a castle to better heal and reorganize his army in the middle of a conquest.
3. Castle dungeons should have longer minimum imprisonment time than that of towns, as the dungeons of a castle should be expected to be heavily guarded. Hell, some castle were even built specifically to be a prison. Minimum imprisonment time in castles should be at least double of that of towns.
4. Allow troop recruiting in castles, same as towns. Being a fortified office to govern a given area of lands, it makes sense for castles to conscript peasants with able bodies from villages to serve the kingdom and to protect the land, assembling the recruits in castles.
5. Let castles generate daily influence gain. Being the symbol of one's noble status, a fortified castle with armed forces is a great demonstration of power, it makes sense for castle owners to generate at least some degree of influence, if not as much as what towns give.
6. Lords and parties running away from bigger pursuing armies should have smart enough AI to seek refuge in nearby friendly castles, same goes for villagers when villages are being raided, serving the function of castles as a fortified bunker.
Basic NPCs and Castle scene immersion improvements
Castles are so empty, there is nothing to do when walking around except enjoying the scenery and the building aesthetics (which I gotta say, taleworld had done an amazing job). But when there are no one to talk to and nothing to do, that gets bored quickly. Here are what can be done to make castles feel more alive.
1. More npcs! I never found a castle with more than 3 townsmen or 5 garrisoned soliders, and where the hell are the 100 militia stationed? In most movies when a castle is shown there are at least two soldiers towering threateningly on top of the gatehouse (usually holding a spear vertically each), the game should at least add this, so that I know it is a secure stronghold. There should also be soldiers walking around on the wall patrolling. I think I've seen soldiers do that in towns (there are also much more soldiers in towns), I am not sure why castles, supposedly military strongholds have little of that compared with towns.
2. Militia should appear in castles along with garrisons as well, with proportion to how much are stationed. Soldiers in the castle should walk around or sitting and drinking or doing their own things like villagers (I think the immersion of villages in this game was done quite well with everyone doing there own thing, I hope the same can goes for soldiers in castles). It makes no sense to walk around and see a empty courtyard when the castle was said to be stationed by 500 garrison and militia. For what I know, medieval castles are very crowded buildings.
3. There should be more tents and campsites inside or outside the castle for garrisoned troops and militia. The what little buildings there are in castles do not look like they can house more than 50 man, and the fact that little to no npcs walk in castles make them seem unmanned.
4. Soldiers of parties and armies that stops by should appear in the castle as npcs in proportion to army size as well, as the problem of an empty yard becomes much more so when an army of 1000 visits the castle.
5. There should also be some castle staff NPCs. While there are always things to add in this game, some basic ones are castle steward, servants, stockpile workers. They do not have to have actual functions, just being there and doing their things like villagers in villages is good enough. You can ask the steward for some basic opinions on the state of the castle as well. I remember reading an idea in another similar thread about the trainer of castle training field NPC, which can give opinion on the state of the garrisoned troop, this can be a great idea as well.
Further Castle scene immersion improvement
Having more gameplay bonus NPCs as mentioned above should be quite suffice in providing more functions and immersion for castles, so the following suggestions are merely bonus, especially when they may be more time to design and that some of the suggestions requires more space in the castle. The following suggestions can be done after more important patches and updates were made.
1. There should be tents and camps in and out of castles for soldiers (best to be proportion to the garrisoned troop). With what little buildings there are in current castles, they don't look like they have enough room to house more than 50 soldiers. This alone with the fact that there are little NPCs walking around the castle make it feel much more empty than it should be. Most soldiers don't have the luxury to sleep inside stone barracks in a castle, especially temporarily stationed troops ready to be on the move, so they just sleep in tents. Again, medieval castles are very crowded places. If the inside of the castles are too crowded the tents can be put outside, it happens a lot.
2. Visiting parties and armies should have their tents set up at the castle as well, again with proportion to the army size. But it would make more sense to put such tents outside in this case, especially if it's a large army.
3. I've read an interesting idea on another tread (the same tread mentioned above) on having castle projects actually appear in castles such as training field and gardens, I think this is a great idea as well so I just mention it again here, especially the part about the training field where the player can actually practice archery and arms. However, I understand that there aren't too much spaces left without redesigning existing castle maps (which are very beautifully designed already), so this feature isn't a priority, but would be a great bonus and great reason to visit castles.
Advanced gameplay feature: Castle partol
Castles should have their active patrol parties for the following reasons.
1. Being strategically located and functioned fortresses and an office to govern the land, an important feature for castle is to be the base of a governing force, as without a governing force there are no means for an office to govern anything. For a start, to rule a land there should be an armed force ready to go if some villages refuse to pay taxes or having a riot, this is actually the first reason I believe that castles were built for in medieval times.
2. More importantly, to govern a land and collect their taxes, in exchange a ruler is also promising to keep the land safe, therefore the standing army of castles should be ready to be sent when villages are under attack and raids as well, it makes no sense for a castle garrisoned with 500 troops and militia to sit and watch their villages being burned by a small party of 60 and does nothing (if you think about it, usually half of the militia of the castle came from the village under raid, and in the current game they would just sit and watch their wives getting raped and does nothing). This does not only makes more sense, it also provides a logical solution for constant village raid and food shortage being a pain in the ass.
3. Being strategically located fortress to control traffic, the castle patrol does much more than protecting the land. Upon entering enemy territory, one does not simply bypass an enemy castle with no consequence (I believe this was also mentioned in one steam community post), for the standing army of a castle would send out raiding parties to sabotage supply lines, or doing hit and run skirmishes. Such mechanics may be too complicated for the game, but at least the castle patrol should be able to be actively sent out to attack bypassing armies, at least when being numerically superior. At the start of the game when seeing an enemy castle with more garrison than I have troops, I tend to keep the distance to avoid a pursuing army being sent out as they logically should. But when I find out the game never does that, it feels off, it even feels like cheating when bypassing a castle into enemy territory.
The castle patrol can either be the garrison plus militia, or a specific army appointed by player, with the former being more simple in mechanics and makes more sense. The amount of garrison and militia to take part in the patrol should be able to be determined by the player as well.
Being the garrison of a castle, the patrol should be more defensive and normally stationing in the castle, and only be sent out when needed, in order to avoid leaving the castle empty or ill-manned for besiege.
To prevent disastrous result of losing garrisons, the force can also be sent only under the approval of the player. A notification for the player can appear under certain triggers (e.g. villages being raided, enemy party passing by), the player can then decide whether sending out a patrol to deal with the threat or remain defending the castle. The player may also decide the amount of garrison and militia to be send in the notification as well.
Advanced gameplay feature: Castle spotting ability
To let the player make a more informed choice in sending out garrisons, castles (and probably towns too) should have spotting ability on the map, where nearby parties and enemies should be shown even when the player is away, so that when making the choice of sending out a castle patrol while being far away, the player can check the nearby surrounding of the castle (and probably town) to make an informed decision (e.g. if a large enemy force is spotted nearby, it is obviously a better idea to sacrifice an under-raid village and keep the garrison in the castle to prepare for siege defence).
It also makes much more sense so that enemy would not get into or across your kingdom's territory undetected, any army large enough to be a threat should make a lousy appearance to nearby settlements, words of the threat always travel much quicker than the enemy army, unless concealed with special tactics, which should be left to special perks.
TL;DR
Simple things that can be patched:
1. Increase troop exp bonus,
2. Increase settlement healing bonus,
3. Increase dungeon minimum imprisonment time
4. Generate influence gains
5. Allows troop recruiting
6. Parties' AI seek refuge in nearby friendly castles from pursuing forces
7. More Npcs (garrisons, militia, visiting parties, castle staffs)
Further castle scene ideas:
1. Tents in (or outside of) castles for garrison and visiting parties
2. Castle building projects shown in castles (and intractable like training field)
Advanced features:
1. Castle patrol to be send under player's order
2. Castle (and town) spotting ability on overworld map
With this I believe castles in bannerlord can be as important as towns, so that players don't have to abandon castles in order to get towns, and that there are actual reasons to stop by and visit.
But all in all, thank you to all of the devs to make such an awesome game!
I hope my suggestions are considered, and make castles as great as they should be!
