Companion party prisoners question.

[Doofus]

I have a question. When companions and other family member parties have prisoners...Do I get any benefit?

First, I've noticed a lot of times they just dump them in whatever town/castle they are in, even if the dungeon is overfull. Do I get any influence from this? (Not that I care since in my current game I have almost 27k influence anyways.

Second, I think at towns they 'sometimes' sell prisoners to the ransom broker. I'm not sure about this & even if they do I don't think they do that with all their prisoners. Do I get any money from them selling prisoners?

I do see the benefit if they are dumping them at MY town and I am there. I can immediately pull them from the dungeon (if I think of it) and sell them to the ransom broker (although even that isn't much benefit currently since I have well over 7.5 million denars). But I'm curious if there is any other benefit. I take the time to spread my extra prisoners over the companion/family member parties in my army, but I kind of wonder if its just a waste of time.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

You get influence if they dump prisoners into prisons if they're of you faction, strangely including your own. It also seem to give a lot more then if you were to donate these prisoners yourself AND they can overflow a prison where you cannot. I'm not sure you get influence from them putting them into non-faction prisons, or if they will do this. I don't think they put lords into prisons unless you own the fief, but I'm not sure, I try to keep them all in my party.

I think the town consumes the town consumes the excess prisoners in some way over time, but it does not actually give money to the owner (at least not the player?), it's unclear if the town actually gets anything or if they're just deleted over time.

 

[Doofus]

I think they get deleted over time. Also, I don't think they even put lords into your own towns (except while visiting, then when they leave they take them with them). Good to know you at least get influence though.

 

[Hammerhi99]

I really don´t know what they do with their prisoners since full release. Around patch 1.7 somewhat I could level my clan members in roguery when I transfered my prisoners to their party via the "let me inspect your troops" dialogue. When they entered a town shorty after that, they sold their prisoners right away and made some levels in roguery.
Now they seem to transmute their prisoners into thin air or something like that, because the game gives you no feedback at all about what happens. They just seem to vanish as soon as the companions party enters a town.
The whole prisoner mechanics seem to be bugged atm, as hardly any noble prisoners can be found in prisons either.

 

[Doofus]

I think your companions keep your noble prisoners until they are either ransomed or escape. Regarding other prisoners, I can confirm you get influence for them, even though it doesn't give you any sort of message. Check your influence total before and after entering a town with your companions parties and you will see that. The prisoner mechanic does seem at least somewhat bugged or exploitable though. I believe that if your companions enter a town you own they will get influence for donating their prisoners, but then you could always pull them out of prison & give them back to your companions (not sure, but I think so). If you enter a town (or castle) thats not yours, you can ransom your prisoners in the town for cash, but usually the prison says its full and you can't actually deposit your prisoners for influence (although you could leave the town, give them to your companions, then re-enter the town and get the influence through your companions).

 

[VVL99]

My army of family members sent the prisoners to the castle and they are no longer there, only mine remained.

 

[Doofus]

The '# of prisoners' listing on the campaign map has never worked right. I think it takes prisoners that are added to the dungeon and keeps adding to it as more are deposited. But it doesn't take into account that prisoners disappear when the amount in the prison exceeds the max. So...if the prison has a maximum of 40 prisoners, it will take as many as the NPC lords want to deposit, but then it slowly loses prisoners until it gets back down to the 40 max. I think the campaign map total either doesn't track the loss of prisoners or is slow in catching up to it.