One of the most interesting things I find about bannerlord is how cool yet often useless companions are. Companions currently suffer from three main problems I see holding them back for their true potential.
1) Companions lack depth
They all fall into a cookie cutter pre made archetype setup. Their skills are generally very good or near max for their archetype or class. However it leaves out the ability to mold a companion from scratch. To level up and grow the companion with a build we have in mind is something sorely missing from warband.
I'm not advocating getting rid of the highly skilled wanderer type companions. But maybe there should be some sort of gate to recruiting them. Perhaps a quest or a renown required. At any rate, getting a souped up companion for 500 denar is not too balanced which leads me to my next point...
2) Balance is horrible for companions all around.
Leveling combat skills on a companion is extremely difficult and time consuming and mostly not a thing. While other skills such as scouting easily raise by just walking around the map. Overall skill gain for companions is very inconsistent.
Companions like your brother, which are a free quest reward, are literally god tier and the best in the game. Companion mission requirements, to use them in place of you for quests.. is also inconsistent and unbalanced. For example one of the quest requiring drought animals brought to a village requires 90 trade and 115 weapon skill. Why??
3) Companions are not overly impactful in combat.
Companions even with high weapon skill and good equipment will rarely kill more than 1 or 2 troops during a major battle due to the current mechanics. A high weapon skill doesn't seem to make their AI routines noticeable better. A 150 1 hander will still fail to block basic attacks from tier 1 troops .. this is extremely noticeable in the arena while spectating. Armor doesnt help anyone either so the end result is companions in battle don't feel special or impactful at all infact they feel like a highly overpriced t3 unit. I know there's captain perks but without any feedback from the game its hard for the player to even notice if they do anything and in what situations they apply.
These are the three main issues with companions and I hope TW will consider our feedback in making companions as cool and badass as they were meant to be. What do you guys think?
1) Companions lack depth
They all fall into a cookie cutter pre made archetype setup. Their skills are generally very good or near max for their archetype or class. However it leaves out the ability to mold a companion from scratch. To level up and grow the companion with a build we have in mind is something sorely missing from warband.
I'm not advocating getting rid of the highly skilled wanderer type companions. But maybe there should be some sort of gate to recruiting them. Perhaps a quest or a renown required. At any rate, getting a souped up companion for 500 denar is not too balanced which leads me to my next point...
2) Balance is horrible for companions all around.
Leveling combat skills on a companion is extremely difficult and time consuming and mostly not a thing. While other skills such as scouting easily raise by just walking around the map. Overall skill gain for companions is very inconsistent.
Companions like your brother, which are a free quest reward, are literally god tier and the best in the game. Companion mission requirements, to use them in place of you for quests.. is also inconsistent and unbalanced. For example one of the quest requiring drought animals brought to a village requires 90 trade and 115 weapon skill. Why??
3) Companions are not overly impactful in combat.
Companions even with high weapon skill and good equipment will rarely kill more than 1 or 2 troops during a major battle due to the current mechanics. A high weapon skill doesn't seem to make their AI routines noticeable better. A 150 1 hander will still fail to block basic attacks from tier 1 troops .. this is extremely noticeable in the arena while spectating. Armor doesnt help anyone either so the end result is companions in battle don't feel special or impactful at all infact they feel like a highly overpriced t3 unit. I know there's captain perks but without any feedback from the game its hard for the player to even notice if they do anything and in what situations they apply.
These are the three main issues with companions and I hope TW will consider our feedback in making companions as cool and badass as they were meant to be. What do you guys think?