Constant Warfare : Did Taleworld adress that ?

[Apocal]

If war exhaustion hit harder, would wars’ length get reduced as secondary effect too?

Yes. That was the point of suggesting it. A lot of players (I know not including you) report they get stuck in constant war and some of the streamers have similar things happen. It isn't fun because they are going back and defending the same settlement 3, 5, 10 times during the same war, which is ridiculous.

Reducing war declarations chance is the way to go IMO. The only problem with this when I have tried it, is that for some reason, some kingdoms are too passive while other kingdoms are ok.

Yeah, I tried that too, probably the same method too (halving the chance) but Aserai never have wars.

 

[Dabos37]

Yes, this happened to me only one time, when my own kingdom was pretty strong and able to face 3 enemies at the same time according to strength bar.

Anyway, I am in favor of simpler solutions which could probably fix this issue without making all wars shorter (because they are currently too short), something like: if current war length > 100 days, then war exhaustion gets dramatically increased. I know that it is not a perfect solution but I would prefer it over a change which could affect all wars making them shorter, when the current war average is 35 days or so (which is a pretty low value IMO).

Concerning Aserai example, yep, same happened to me. Aserai, Vlandia, and Sturgia were pretty passive in my play through when I reduced the war declarations chance in game files, while empire kingdoms, and Battania were usually fighting. Not sure about the reason for this, maybe something related to be surrounded or who knows. On the other hand, this issue related to endless war is probably fixed in 1.6.1 because my kingdom is always accepting the enemy king’s peace offers (this is probably something to check because offers are being always accepted as far I have seen).

 

[Shaxx]

It's basically like this now to stop 'snowballing'.

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/information-about-developments-at-snowballing-problem.434547/page-65

I've personally given up until someone makes a mod which adds proper diplomacy.

There is a mod called "Diplomacy" which has a lot of tunable features in regards to war duration via tuning war exhaustion, peace length via non aggression pacts and so on and so forth.

You can set the AI's tendency to accept non-aggression pacts way up and while not right away it can eventually lock them into near eternal peace, if you wanted to.

 

[Zorion_no]

Yes. That was the point of suggesting it. A lot of players (I know not including you) report they get stuck in constant war and some of the streamers have similar things happen. It isn't fun because they are going back and defending the same settlement 3, 5, 10 times during the same war, which is ridiculous.


Yeah, I tried that too, probably the same method too (halving the chance) but Aserai never have wars.

I'm one of the "eternal wars" players or you get peace with 1 but then 1 or 2 others declare war.

The problem imo is related to a few things :
*Power rating of the kingdome. Roughly each time I hit 10-12k this problem arise.
Basically since the starting factions power rating is what 4-5k roughly, it means you've gobbled up large chunks of either 1 kingdome(usually not) but large parts of 2-3 of them.
The AI puts too much emphasis on the power, and not accounting for how many actual lords there is and how much of said power they can use to muster armies.
Meaning most of that power is actually in settlements and not out and about, in that regard the factions actual power is equal to the others(generally its less, as the AI is better at recruiting more mercnaries).

*Mercenaries they actually are part of the problem, I did a test where I just removed them from the game, and then the game unfolded with normal peace/war more or less all the time.

The problem is that instead of admitting defeat, and paying tribute - kingdomes just keep on hireing mercenaries.
Specially when you come to that powerpoint I mentioned, then the AI in proximity to you will stop fighting amongs themselves and gank up on the player faction.
This is more so an issue when you are locked in a 1v1 with them, then you'll see them have 2-3 merc companies shy from haveing all of them in their employee.

Solution - limit the amount of companies a company can hire, maybe 3-5 tops(thats 3*4 lords more for them or 5*4 so thats kind of alot of parties/troop to bolster them).

This would also mean that the kingdomes should be more inclined to accept peace instead of dragging on a war that "never end".

*Lower threshold to want peace when more lords are imprisoned - when I have captured 30+ of the other sides lords and they still dont want peace it dont feel right(again this is also sort of caused by mercenary bolstering them too much).

Prolly cap it at 15-25 and they should want peace, that many lords would be about 1-2 fairly big armies on their own, and if that many had been defeated well, they usually want to have peace to regroup.

The issue is more frequent I think to certain playerstyle, where we are "in the thick of it" all the time, instead of just be *meh you lot can burn*
So the kingdome "wins" too much and thus see no need to stop, dial down the warmongering lust, add more fatigue/exhaustion from war.

*Bring back from Warband peace duration and tribute aswell.
Tribute, cause well then they arent "forced" to declare war, cause they feel they pay to much tribute now vs what was needed.
Peace duration, cause after decimating an army after army, and getting them to submit..
2 days later guess who declares war again - they are all out of the dungeon, have gathered up all the parties again, and we got a war declaration from another kingdome.

Too put it this way, when this "chain of endless war started" my oldest kid was 4 yrs old and had 1 sibling.
He is now 14, and have 5 more siblings.
10 yrs + of endless/chain wars.
Just tanks the fun out of the game.

Started with Battania, we conqured alot of their lands, after they had a long war with Vlandia(I'm Sturgia).
In the midst of this Khuzait on the opposite of the map declared war, I went there, crushed ther armies hard - Khuzait got declared war upon by Norther Empire - > peace with Khuzait.
Battania still at war with us.
Now Vlandia declares war on us, which leads to us conquering the lands they had taken from Battania.
Battania then declares war on Vlandia. Vlandia now wants peace with us, we're still at war with Battnia.
Western Empire declares war on us(one of the holdings we took from Vlandia was Lageta which they had taken from WE)(Fair enough).
We have peace with Battania now.
Western Empire war drags on and on and on and on back and forth.
Vlandia declares war, 2-3 big battles with them, Battania declares war on Vlandia - peace with Vlandia, still in war with WE.
Battania declares war on us(while still at war with Vlandia, that they are looseing..).
WE accepts peace.
We take more of Battania, Vlandia declares war on us.
We get peace with Battania, but still at war with Vlandia.

I dont want there to be peace all the time once you hit that threshold, but ffs(pardon my french) atleast some time in between.
Once you hit that threshold you got 2 choices either let it all burn and loose all progress so to speak in days, or be locked in the cycle of endless wars.
Now if this is how its intended to be designed, then this is not a design I think is good.
Tbh this is one of the issues which makes me want to stop playing the game without mods, as it just tanks the fun.

Also to some degree it undermines the need for "legacy play" as within 1st characters death you have conqured the whole map, cause the other side never ever wants to submit.

Ideally it would rather have unfolded with some peace, and that the others reclaim a few of their lands again, then peace. we take it back etc.
Not cause we're so sucessfull it will jsut never end - warmongering.

I know its wall of text, ranty, but its sadly how I experience the game and for my playstyle it tanks the fun once you hit that lvl.

 

[WeiKaiXuan]

I'm one of the "eternal wars" players or you get peace with 1 but then 1 or 2 others declare war.

The problem imo is related to a few things :
*Power rating of the kingdome. Roughly each time I hit 10-12k this problem arise.
Basically since the starting factions power rating is what 4-5k roughly, it means you've gobbled up large chunks of either 1 kingdome(usually not) but large parts of 2-3 of them.
The AI puts too much emphasis on the power, and not accounting for how many actual lords there is and how much of said power they can use to muster armies.
Meaning most of that power is actually in settlements and not out and about, in that regard the factions actual power is equal to the others(generally its less, as the AI is better at recruiting more mercnaries).

*Mercenaries they actually are part of the problem, I did a test where I just removed them from the game, and then the game unfolded with normal peace/war more or less all the time.

The problem is that instead of admitting defeat, and paying tribute - kingdomes just keep on hireing mercenaries.
Specially when you come to that powerpoint I mentioned, then the AI in proximity to you will stop fighting amongs themselves and gank up on the player faction.
This is more so an issue when you are locked in a 1v1 with them, then you'll see them have 2-3 merc companies shy from haveing all of them in their employee.

Solution - limit the amount of companies a company can hire, maybe 3-5 tops(thats 3*4 lords more for them or 5*4 so thats kind of alot of parties/troop to bolster them).

This would also mean that the kingdomes should be more inclined to accept peace instead of dragging on a war that "never end".

*Lower threshold to want peace when more lords are imprisoned - when I have captured 30+ of the other sides lords and they still dont want peace it dont feel right(again this is also sort of caused by mercenary bolstering them too much).

Prolly cap it at 15-25 and they should want peace, that many lords would be about 1-2 fairly big armies on their own, and if that many had been defeated well, they usually want to have peace to regroup.

The issue is more frequent I think to certain playerstyle, where we are "in the thick of it" all the time, instead of just be *meh you lot can burn*
So the kingdome "wins" too much and thus see no need to stop, dial down the warmongering lust, add more fatigue/exhaustion from war.

*Bring back from Warband peace duration and tribute aswell.
Tribute, cause well then they arent "forced" to declare war, cause they feel they pay to much tribute now vs what was needed.
Peace duration, cause after decimating an army after army, and getting them to submit..
2 days later guess who declares war again - they are all out of the dungeon, have gathered up all the parties again, and we got a war declaration from another kingdome.

Too put it this way, when this "chain of endless war started" my oldest kid was 4 yrs old and had 1 sibling.
He is now 14, and have 5 more siblings.
10 yrs + of endless/chain wars.
Just tanks the fun out of the game.

Started with Battania, we conqured alot of their lands, after they had a long war with Vlandia(I'm Sturgia).
In the midst of this Khuzait on the opposite of the map declared war, I went there, crushed ther armies hard - Khuzait got declared war upon by Norther Empire - > peace with Khuzait.
Battania still at war with us.
Now Vlandia declares war on us, which leads to us conquering the lands they had taken from Battania.
Battania then declares war on Vlandia. Vlandia now wants peace with us, we're still at war with Battnia.
Western Empire declares war on us(one of the holdings we took from Vlandia was Lageta which they had taken from WE)(Fair enough).
We have peace with Battania now.
Western Empire war drags on and on and on and on back and forth.
Vlandia declares war, 2-3 big battles with them, Battania declares war on Vlandia - peace with Vlandia, still in war with WE.
Battania declares war on us(while still at war with Vlandia, that they are looseing..).
WE accepts peace.
We take more of Battania, Vlandia declares war on us.
We get peace with Battania, but still at war with Vlandia.

I dont want there to be peace all the time once you hit that threshold, but ffs(pardon my french) atleast some time in between.
Once you hit that threshold you got 2 choices either let it all burn and loose all progress so to speak in days, or be locked in the cycle of endless wars.
Now if this is how its intended to be designed, then this is not a design I think is good.
Tbh this is one of the issues which makes me want to stop playing the game without mods, as it just tanks the fun.

Also to some degree it undermines the need for "legacy play" as within 1st characters death you have conqured the whole map, cause the other side never ever wants to submit.

Ideally it would rather have unfolded with some peace, and that the others reclaim a few of their lands again, then peace. we take it back etc.
Not cause we're so sucessfull it will jsut never end - warmongering.

I know its wall of text, ranty, but its sadly how I experience the game and for my playstyle it tanks the fun once you hit that lvl.

Incredible post. Thanks for taking the time to break it down for us. Makes alot more sense now.

 

[Doofus]

So...I'm fighting the Western Empire and Aserai. Aserai are wiping our butts because I've concentrated on the western Empire and the rest of my faction isn't sure where those nose is, let alone how to defeat the enemy. So far my faction has lost Hubyar, Rizah, and Tamnuh Castle to them and danustica is under siege. Meanwhile, I've taken Ataconia castle, Thorios Castle twice (& they've taken it back twice), I've taken Morenia Castle back, taken Vostrum, & am besieging Poros. As I'm about to start the battle at Poros I get a peace request from the Western Empire. they will give us 70 per day. I decide to play it out & see if its still valid after the battle.

We knock down the front door and I call for the attack. I take out 18 enemies before they take me down . At that time both sides have lost about 200 troops each. Once I fall, of course, my army decides not to use the front door because they want more of a challenge. the proceed to use the towers and the rest of the battle O lose another 550 before we take out about 375 of theirs (yes, I've complained about this issue in the technical forums). Soooo...finally win the battle and there's about 20 left in the keep to my 400+ troops. I click the attack button and it pops up that NOW, what is basically the middle of a battle, I have to resolve the peace request. Total stupidity. You don't want it valid after I take the town, either tell me when i start the battle or just plain withdraw it after the battle. In reality, do you really think that someone's going to go up to you as you are inside the enemy keep fighting the enemy and say "Sorry, my emperor. You need to resolve this peace request in the next 5 minutes". My response would be "Where's my executioner!".

Anyways, at this point I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Western Empire keep Poros when 10 seconds later I will own it. I figure there will be a slight adjustment after I win it...maybe 1k per day from us or something & at this point I'm ready to pay it.

When the battle ends 10 seconds later, I go to propose the peace declaration. Understand that the Western Empire has just lost a major piece of territory and I have captured 5 more of their lords. They are hurting a lot more now than 10 seconds ago. In reality. a kingdom would want to get out of the war to avoid more suffering. What do they want? 3600 tribute per day. Here's the status sheet. http://prntscr.com/1xwn26b

I have almost 3 times the military they do, I've inflicted about 50% more casualties. I have 11 lords prisoner to their 1. I have about 5 times the holdings they do. Oh..they've proven they can be bigger scumbags by raiding more villages, probably because of more mercs. I decided to go ahead and get the peace anyways so I can go kick the aserai butt and get our stuff back. Yeah, so instead of letting them have Poros when they have less than 20 troops left it now cost me about 1500 influence (in addition to the tribute) to push peace through. Although probably within a day or two the Vlandians and/or Northern Empire will declare on us. Even though we have no territories next to the Vlandians, they've already declared on us 3 times and ask outlandish amounts to end it until all there lords have been defeated by me at least once (usually while attacking Diathma).

I wonder why I hate this game so much sometimes. I wish Taleworlds had a clue about reality.

Incidentally, here's another little ditty. I haven't taken this to the technical forums yet, but...I'm pretty sure the casualties inflicted on me includes troops who were wounded but not killed or captured. Yeah, they recovered and fought again. Looking at casualties as lost troops my faction has probably actually only lost about 1k-1500 this war, with about 5k recovered.

Edit: I was wrong. It took 2 days for the Vlandians to declare on us. Still, I haven't even reached the Aserai yet & have to decide whether to say 'screw it' and head back toward Diathma, or continue onwards to work over the Aserai, then take back the territory we'll lose to the Vlandians after getting the Aserai back to a stalemate (and paying through the nose for peace). Of course technically, it would make more sense for the Vlandians to declare against the western Empire who I have weakened and who are next to them, but i kind of knew common sense wouldn't come into play here.

 

[Zorion_no]

So...I'm fighting the Western Empire and Aserai. Aserai are wiping our butts because I've concentrated on the western Empire and the rest of my faction isn't sure where those nose is, let alone how to defeat the enemy. So far my faction has lost Hubyar, Rizah, and Tamnuh Castle to them and danustica is under siege. Meanwhile, I've taken Ataconia castle, Thorios Castle twice (& they've taken it back twice), I've taken Morenia Castle back, taken Vostrum, & am besieging Poros. As I'm about to start the battle at Poros I get a peace request from the Western Empire. they will give us 70 per day. I decide to play it out & see if its still valid after the battle.

We knock down the front door and I call for the attack. I take out 18 enemies before they take me down . At that time both sides have lost about 200 troops each. Once I fall, of course, my army decides not to use the front door because they want more of a challenge. the proceed to use the towers and the rest of the battle O lose another 550 before we take out about 375 of theirs (yes, I've complained about this issue in the technical forums). Soooo...finally win the battle and there's about 20 left in the keep to my 400+ troops. I click the attack button and it pops up that NOW, what is basically the middle of a battle, I have to resolve the peace request. Total stupidity. You don't want it valid after I take the town, either tell me when i start the battle or just plain withdraw it after the battle. In reality, do you really think that someone's going to go up to you as you are inside the enemy keep fighting the enemy and say "Sorry, my emperor. You need to resolve this peace request in the next 5 minutes". My response would be "Where's my executioner!".

Anyways, at this point I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Western Empire keep Poros when 10 seconds later I will own it. I figure there will be a slight adjustment after I win it...maybe 1k per day from us or something & at this point I'm ready to pay it.

When the battle ends 10 seconds later, I go to propose the peace declaration. Understand that the Western Empire has just lost a major piece of territory and I have captured 5 more of their lords. They are hurting a lot more now than 10 seconds ago. In reality. a kingdom would want to get out of the war to avoid more suffering. What do they want? 3600 tribute per day. Here's the status sheet. http://prntscr.com/1xwn26b

I have almost 3 times the military they do, I've inflicted about 50% more casualties. I have 11 lords prisoner to their 1. I have about 5 times the holdings they do. Oh..they've proven they can be bigger scumbags by raiding more villages, probably because of more mercs. I decided to go ahead and get the peace anyways so I can go kick the aserai butt and get our stuff back. Yeah, so instead of letting them have Poros when they have less than 20 troops left it now cost me about 1500 influence (in addition to the tribute) to push peace through. Although probably within a day or two the Vlandians and/or Northern Empire will declare on us. Even though we have no territories next to the Vlandians, they've already declared on us 3 times and ask outlandish amounts to end it until all there lords have been defeated by me at least once (usually while attacking Diathma).

I wonder why I hate this game so much sometimes. I wish Taleworlds had a clue about reality.

Incidentally, here's another little ditty. I haven't taken this to the technical forums yet, but...I'm pretty sure the casualties inflicted on me includes troops who were wounded but not killed or captured. Yeah, they recovered and fought again. Looking at casualties as lost troops my faction has probably actually only lost about 1k-1500 this war, with about 5k recovered.

Edit: I was wrong. It took 2 days for the Vlandians to declare on us. Still, I haven't even reached the Aserai yet & have to decide whether to say 'screw it' and head back toward Diathma, or continue onwards to work over the Aserai, then take back the territory we'll lose to the Vlandians after getting the Aserai back to a stalemate (and paying through the nose for peace). Of course technically, it would make more sense for the Vlandians to declare against the western Empire who I have weakened and who are next to them, but i kind of knew common sense wouldn't come into play here.

Imo, the 2 things I've cornered it down to that makes wars "go on for long" for those of us players who struggle with it ->
1. "Too much emphasis" on raids in terms of tribute calculation.

2. "Too little emphasis" on amount of lords in prison, Although 11 is imo abit low for it to be "enough".
14 clans in your enemy and each will have between 2-4 lords pr house that can lead armies.
Most clans have 4-6 lords, so it takes "alot" for them to really want peace based on this (read soon as you capture enough, they will hire all the merc companies aswell.)(need to put a cap on how many companies can be hired at one time by a kingdome.

Although you didnt state which version you played this on.
I've not tested it on 1.65 yet read I've not hit that threshold as of yet.
Took a break from Bannerlord tbh.

The problem is that the AI is programmed to gank the playerfaction if they are too big as an anti-snowball mechanisme, but in the end it kind of dont work, and actually make it be like the snowball.

The best way tbh for you to avoid this is by "not be on the frontlines" and just let it cave in, and not have "progress on the map" sadly.
The more of your lords are in prison and the more lands lost, the more keen they are on peace.
Basically atm the lords are "we are winning why give up".

 

[Doofus]

The problem is my faction, no matter which it is, looks at it the opposite of the enemy. When we are winning the enemy wants a lot of tribute or they won't make peace. If they are winning they are willing to pay you a decent amount of tribute to keep what they have taken and end it. But when it comes to the voting, my faction is never happy when we are winning and they vote against peace, supposedly because they feel if we are winning we can win even more. But if we are losing my faction is quite content with having lost and will vote to end it.

Bottom line is my faction will only accept losing and the enemy will only be happy if its winning. Maybe I'm looking at the goals of the game wrong. I feel like the goal is supposed to be 'Control a faction and take over the world". But if I do that my faction is unhappy and so are the losing factions. Maybe the actual goal of the game is to make all the factions happy and what you are supposed to do is join the largest faction and do whatever you can to destroy it. That way the losing faction (yours) is happy and all the other factions are happy as well.

That kind of explains why my faction wanted to go to war with the Southern Empire a day or so ago when they owned no territories. My faction wanted to give them some. Because obviously the only thing to be gained by going to war with them was their happiness. We couldn't conquer their territories since they had none. We couldn't get a large tribute from them since they had no territories to draw money from to pay it. So obviously we wanted to go to war with them to give them territories and make them happy. Maybe next game I'll name my character Santa and start a clan named Claus. Then I'll go from faction to faction helping them lose.

 

[Zorion_no]

The problem is my faction, no matter which it is, looks at it the opposite of the enemy. When we are winning the enemy wants a lot of tribute or they won't make peace. If they are winning they are willing to pay you a decent amount of tribute to keep what they have taken and end it. But when it comes to the voting, my faction is never happy when we are winning and they vote against peace, supposedly because they feel if we are winning we can win even more. But if we are losing my faction is quite content with having lost and will vote to end it.

Bottom line is my faction will only accept losing and the enemy will only be happy if its winning. Maybe I'm looking at the goals of the game wrong. I feel like the goal is supposed to be 'Control a faction and take over the world". But if I do that my faction is unhappy and so are the losing factions. Maybe the actual goal of the game is to make all the factions happy and what you are supposed to do is join the largest faction and do whatever you can to destroy it. That way the losing faction (yours) is happy and all the other factions are happy as well.

That kind of explains why my faction wanted to go to war with the Southern Empire a day or so ago when they owned no territories. My faction wanted to give them some. Because obviously the only thing to be gained by going to war with them was their happiness. We couldn't conquer their territories since they had none. We couldn't get a large tribute from them since they had no territories to draw money from to pay it. So obviously we wanted to go to war with them to give them territories and make them happy. Maybe next game I'll name my character Santa and start a clan named Claus. Then I'll go from faction to faction helping them lose.

Too be blunt the way the AI decide on the tribute is bit messed up imo.

Next time take a look at how many mercenary companies the AI have vs your faction if yours even have any.

Basically for each of theese mercenary factions they employ they "think" they are entitled to tribute(while they are on the loosing side).

I tested some games without Merc-companies and the result was so much better, no more endless wars, enemies went for peace much quicker.
This kind of also counter snowballing abit aswell on its own, or at the very least slow it down.

Bottomline the merc companies screw with the whole balance of the game, and atm shouldnt be in it.
Or it should be changed, capped on how many they can employ etc.

Just think of it when you are faceing a "full faction" read one of the other that cannibalized the nearby neigbours and are a dominant faction like the one you are in, but they also have 10+ merc companies thats 40 more warparties they can command than you can!

Then add in how raiding also messes with the tribute/peace system.
Or atleast from how I've observed it.

As for defeated factions(landless) they should be "defeated" and the lords should be absorbed into other kingdomes.
They should defect much quicker than they do.

But overall they need to do something about the "will to wage war" big defeats should hit their morale alot, and same should wins.

So lets say there is 100 morale for the war for either side.
Big defeat would hit -20 (armies of 500+ being defeated)
Huge defeat woult hit -40 (armies of 800+)
Skirmish so lord vs lord -1 so it wont have that much of an impact.
Numbers is just tossed out there to show, and not perhaps what I'd choose.

So as the battle goes back and forth the factions would get + and - but if one side is getting hammered hard all the time, they should want to get peace.
That way you'd ensure that you never would get those steamrolling/snowball, as there is peace quicker.

Ideally bring in a causes belli aswell, to quell abit of warmongering, so there would be a claim for some territory, but not endless wars.

Dont get me wrong I dont think players like you and I apperantly are playing the game "as Taleworlds" intended and we'll just take it for what it is for now, there is already mods out that fixes alot of theese issues(I'm just not playing with mods until the game is out of EA).

But yah the mechanics from how I observe it is your side will only go for peace if they are getting hammered, and thus any progress you've made to conquer land, will be washed away, and it kind of dont feel "rewarding".(for some players)

Overall though I've noticed that in 1.64 and 1.65 Beta the will for peace is generally much higher than before, so its getting better "until you hit that point" where its just chain wars/endless wars.(unless you just loose out all the progress, and are gimped back to starting lands) then they will leave you, but that dont really feel so great either..

 

[Doofus]

Playing 1.6.3 its much better in the early stages, but now I'm to the point where its constant, multiple wars. Recently I have had a lot of family members (I think 5) growing old enough to participate, but since I can't increase the party capacity (maxed at 4, until I get that perk to 5) this really doesn't change much in the game. For a long time because wars weren't constant I was having companions and family members last a long time. I think I've only lost one family member. But in the last 2 or 3 months I think I've lost 5 companions where I only lost 1 or 2 the whole rest of the game. Fortunately, I haven't lost my healer companion yet, who I think is currently at 238 healing skill or something. Once she goes things will probably get even worse. They are dying fast now because if I am not constantly fighting we are losing everything we've gained for the rest of the campaign. I think I've probably taken about 40-50% of the total map. When you don't rest between battles your companions don't have time to recover much and they are much more vulnerable in the next battle.

I'll probably be quitting this game soon because its getting to the point of becoming unwinnable again without changing my traits from merciful to executioner.

 

[Doofus]

Regarding mercenaries, yeah, its hard to enlist any. I don't have time to go looking for them and they don't keep emissaries in your towns or anything. Most of the time I actually find a neutral merc and ask if he'll join us he either says 'go talk to the boss' or he says I'm unreliable (probably because I've been constantly whipping their butts in other wars).

 

[Zorion_no]

Playing 1.6.3 its much better in the early stages, but now I'm to the point where its constant, multiple wars. Recently I have had a lot of family members (I think 5) growing old enough to participate, but since I can't increase the party capacity (maxed at 4, until I get that perk to 5) this really doesn't change much in the game. For a long time because wars weren't constant I was having companions and family members last a long time. I think I've only lost one family member. But in the last 2 or 3 months I think I've lost 5 companions where I only lost 1 or 2 the whole rest of the game. Fortunately, I haven't lost my healer companion yet, who I think is currently at 238 healing skill or something. Once she goes things will probably get even worse. They are dying fast now because if I am not constantly fighting we are losing everything we've gained for the rest of the campaign. I think I've probably taken about 40-50% of the total map. When you don't rest between battles your companions don't have time to recover much and they are much more vulnerable in the next battle.

I'll probably be quitting this game soon because its getting to the point of becoming unwinnable again without changing my traits from merciful to executioner.

The last line though, thats the really ****ty part about the game in the current state for ppl who suffer from the endless wars and or dont enjoy that style(like legit cant ppl who enjoy that just use the skirmish, and let the sandbox/story be abit more peaceful(I mean instigating war isnt hard to put it that way).

And yah if you go executioner style, the game is suddenly more or less easy mode..
Which kind of isnt what I'd imagine it should be.

I'm hopeing they have it like this to "have more combat etc" during Ea and that it will be more peaceful on release(if not as I've said mods already have this sorted out).

 

[Zorion_no]

Regarding mercenaries, yeah, its hard to enlist any. I don't have time to go looking for them and they don't keep emissaries in your towns or anything. Most of the time I actually find a neutral merc and ask if he'll join us he either says 'go talk to the boss' or he says I'm unreliable (probably because I've been constantly whipping their butts in other wars).

The problem though isnt that you cant or struggle to recruit them, but that the AI recruit them excessively, like legit 10+ merc clans each with 4 lords leading armies..
They need to "tank" the bank of the kingdomes so the kingdomes cant hire as many, or see that peace is more cost beneficial.