Could the Reinforcements perk work outside Captain mode?

[flashn00b]

I figured this is a question worth asking because it seems to me that TaleWorlds insists on having some units be actually bad, possibly to convey the message that some factions have more soldiers in their army than they have the resources to adequately train and equip them. In the context of singleplayer, that's perfectly fine but we're talking about an environment where two opposing forces are expected to have even headcounts for game balance purposes.

Yeah, I'm pretty much calling out the Imperial Recruit at this point, but still. I wonder if being in command of a singular AI companion would be a good way to balance certain unit types where their inadequacy is an intentional design decision. Perhaps a non-captain version of Reinforcements could have the following:

-AI Companion will wear clothes that you actually can't wear yourself on the Armory screen. This will help differentiate the AI companion from their player-controlled leader
-AI Companion will unconditionally have items independent of the perk opposite from the Reinforcement perk (i.e: if Reinforcements is on Perk 2, it will be equipped with a weapon that won't be modified by Perk 1)
-Companion will have a passive -20% damage penalty with melee weapons/-30% with ranged until controlled by the player. Even if certain units are intended to be weak from the get go, it might still be important to rein in the damage output of AI-controlled units so as to keep the leader/companion duo on par with other units
-(TDM only) Killing a player with the Reinforcements perk will only net 10 points for your team. To get the full 20, you must kill both the leader and companion.

EDIT: I know this will probably end with some weird situations where some players will have decimal points in their kill/death count (i.e: having 1.5 deaths because you survived the previous skirmish round as a unit with Reinforcements)

 

[flashn00b]

bump cuz i think certain units can benefit from having an AI follower in Skirmish

 

[flashn00b]

Right, what's it gonna be? Battanians bringing their bears, empire recruits taking their dog out on a walk? A+1 humanoid AI would pretty much hinder the team, getting in front of blows in groupfights and such

Thing with the recruit is that TaleWorlds wants to convey the message that the Calradian Empire has more soldiers in their armies than they have the means to adequately train and equip them. Having Strong Arm + Reinforcements in Skirmish could mean that the Recruit player can still have a source of ranged damage via AI-thrown javelins, even if it's to be a smaller quiver than the Rapid Throws perk while also lacking the damage of the Specialist perk.

in a 1v1 scenario, the recruit will most likely die to most enemies including the Vlandian Peasant Levy and Khuzait Rabble, while having both a player and AI-controlled Recruit could help even the odds when fighting against 110-120 cost infantry. I'm not entirely too sure what other units could benefit from having AI partners outside Captain mode, though I feel like the issue with groupfights could be resolved if the leading player can command his AI partner to be directly behind everyone else. If Captain mode is of any indication, they rarely ever teamwound allies directly in front of them in melee combat (ranged is another issue entirely)

I wonder if other units could work with having AI partners in Skirmish, cuz the Recruit is the only one that really stands out to me as a "strength in numbers" guy. Meanwhile, Rabble seems to be a strong peasant unit regardless of your perk combinations and the Peasant Levy is an okay-ish pick if you restrict yourself to either Hammer/Village Militia or Improved Armor/Village Militia. I suppose having Peasant Levy players be the leader of a small angry mob would be fun to see if painfully difficult to balance.

 

[flashn00b]

No, just no. It'd wouldn't even be a fun RP for casual skirmish like taking rocks for the funs of it. The minuses of having a retarded AI among irl players outweighs its plusses imo. If you're so eager about it mod it when private servers come out, but i certainly don't want to see this in native

How would you balance a unit that the dev team expects to rely on superior numbers in a game typically played in a 6v6 setting? To me, it seems to make sense to give the "strength in numbers" unit the actual advantage of having strength in numbers.

 

[flashn00b]

minuses outweigh the plusses, ai would be a hindering effect, already wrote it up there

And i'm saying that certain units will be bad on purpose because TaleWorlds wants to paint a very specific picture with certain unit types despite the expectation that both teams will have even headcounts. You sound like you have a better idea on how to balance a "swarmer" unit type in a 6v6 skirmish game, so i'm all ears on what you'd suggest instead.

 

[Hans 77]

bump cuz i think certain units can benefit from having an AI follower in Skirmish

Right, what's it gonna be? Battanians bringing their bears, empire recruits taking their dog out on a walk? (Cool for casual rp, make it a mod).
A+1 humanoid AI would pretty much hinder the team, getting in front of blows in groupfights and such

lmfao

To be fair, there's already quite a few players who have the awareness of bots, so if they added an AI follower you probably wouldn't be able to tell the two apart.