Revverie
As I only play a male characters I'll only refer to how it works in ladies, I will not speak about ladies courting lords because I simply dont know how it works, havent even tried it in Warband.
There are two parts in which ladies take a major role in M&B: Courtship and Married life, so let's start talking about courtship.
Right now ladies just dont feel human. When you approach a lady and confess you're admire her, her reaction is quite robotic, and they mostly talk about it like if it was some sort of transaction and not actual confession. It's not that this is wrong, but it should depend on what lady you're speaking to. Some should react positively, some negatively, some should blush, some should get mad at you for attempting such thing. But that single part aside, courtship goes quite fast and it marrying a lady happens in a single snap (last time I just talked once with the lady, proposed marriage and I got approved by the leader for 4k even though I had just met the leader and I had a 50 men army without a single fief). There are no obstacles, no progression and no story development.
Dwelling more into it courtship can be easily solved by bringing back poems, visits without the approval or knowledge of the clan's leader
, more suitors wishing her hand that could result in duels or an exchange of fiefs/money/valuable or dialog checks to convince the other suitor to cease the courtship, tournament dedications and bringing new feats depending on the character's attitude. If she's devious in a certain time she could ask you to execute a certain lord to prove your love, if she's honorable she would ask you to free a certain lord or rescue another. Also, gifts should give relation points too based on her attitude too, for example if she's a commander or a fighter, gifting her an expensive sword should improve relations while gifting her a fancy dress should decrease relations, it goes vice versa if she was a Keep Lady. After a certain time has passed and you have built a good relation with her clan and herself then the marriage option should become available, allowing you to move further your story. A marriage scene that required a feast would be a great feature to bring back here, since doing a simple money arrangement makes it feel like a money transaction and not an actual marriage, a marriage scene is where all your previous effort conveys so sitting back and relax while the scene of you marrying your wife should be the perfect pat in the back (I would propose allowing to be in your wedding yourself like in Skyrim, it was a nice touch)
Now married life presents issues too in the current state: Your wife doesnt feels quite like your wife. When you speak to her, there is nothing to talk about and it feels like any other NPC but with a special goodbye dialog, which is quite poor in my opinion. The second problem is pregnancy in general. For starters I'm not a big fan of having babies without choosing to do so... but it's really not my biggest concern, since having a baby in real life is sometimes randomish, more in such a period yet there are counter arguments to this I agree with. My concern is having no knowledge about the status of the baby, and your wife doesnt even make a comment about it nor she looks pregnant, its almost as if she wasn't pregnant at all and your children didnt existed as they grow up.
How would I solve these? First of all, more dialog: having your wife greeting you in a pleasant way when you visit, having her acknowledge you were imprisoned and showing her worryness, or having her getting angry if you havent talked to her in a long time would all give a better impression of an actual relationship. Moving to the children side, I would add more dialog too: if you speak to her after she gets pregnant she should give dialog showing her happiness about it, like if she actually was looking forward to it, you could also talk with her and ask her how is the baby doing, she then could say how much time approximately is left for the baby to be born, so you're informed about it. She could ask for you to fetch her a nurse or an special item to keep her needs satisfied. You could also choose a name for the baby beforehand (x if its male, y if its female).
Now on actually having children: they should spawn in the clan's fief as they grow up, you should be able to interact with them and push them to do a certain activity so they level up certain things, for example hiring a scholar to teach your child about leadership, stewardship or medicine should level up that part, hiring a trainer should level up his combat abilities (and going even further I would spawn the child doing those activities when you go to the castle, for example you could find the child riding a horse alongside his trainer in the outsides of the castle). Another idea I have is making them squires for another lords (I already suggested these quite a bit but I might as well put it here), that would raise relationships with those lords and would raise your child's abilities too. It would feel quite dynamic and if for example another lord handed you his child and you lose it after being captured you would have to take care of him personally or suffer the consequences (trading money to ransom them or freeing them via combat). Just not to leave your wife out of this process, make her do comments about their age, how they grow up from or how cute they are from time to time would be a great touch and it wouldnt feel like the child's mother is careless about them.
This is all I can write for now please forgive the lack of visual examples like those beautiful Tercosketches that make the posts fluid more lightly, I simply dont have the time to do them, also do forgive the poor English, my mind doesnt writes well in English after 6am. Have a gn
There are two parts in which ladies take a major role in M&B: Courtship and Married life, so let's start talking about courtship.
Right now ladies just dont feel human. When you approach a lady and confess you're admire her, her reaction is quite robotic, and they mostly talk about it like if it was some sort of transaction and not actual confession. It's not that this is wrong, but it should depend on what lady you're speaking to. Some should react positively, some negatively, some should blush, some should get mad at you for attempting such thing. But that single part aside, courtship goes quite fast and it marrying a lady happens in a single snap (last time I just talked once with the lady, proposed marriage and I got approved by the leader for 4k even though I had just met the leader and I had a 50 men army without a single fief). There are no obstacles, no progression and no story development.
Dwelling more into it courtship can be easily solved by bringing back poems, visits without the approval or knowledge of the clan's leader
I would expand this even further than how it worked in Warbnad, for example I visited Safiya without Lakhem's knowledge, he got mad at me when he found out and refused to give her hand, in an expanded version you should be able to marry her anyways and cause a big revolt against you, that could get you kicked out of the faction or even jailed, depending on how many people like you in the faction
Now married life presents issues too in the current state: Your wife doesnt feels quite like your wife. When you speak to her, there is nothing to talk about and it feels like any other NPC but with a special goodbye dialog, which is quite poor in my opinion. The second problem is pregnancy in general. For starters I'm not a big fan of having babies without choosing to do so... but it's really not my biggest concern, since having a baby in real life is sometimes randomish, more in such a period yet there are counter arguments to this I agree with. My concern is having no knowledge about the status of the baby, and your wife doesnt even make a comment about it nor she looks pregnant, its almost as if she wasn't pregnant at all and your children didnt existed as they grow up.
How would I solve these? First of all, more dialog: having your wife greeting you in a pleasant way when you visit, having her acknowledge you were imprisoned and showing her worryness, or having her getting angry if you havent talked to her in a long time would all give a better impression of an actual relationship. Moving to the children side, I would add more dialog too: if you speak to her after she gets pregnant she should give dialog showing her happiness about it, like if she actually was looking forward to it, you could also talk with her and ask her how is the baby doing, she then could say how much time approximately is left for the baby to be born, so you're informed about it. She could ask for you to fetch her a nurse or an special item to keep her needs satisfied. You could also choose a name for the baby beforehand (x if its male, y if its female).
Now on actually having children: they should spawn in the clan's fief as they grow up, you should be able to interact with them and push them to do a certain activity so they level up certain things, for example hiring a scholar to teach your child about leadership, stewardship or medicine should level up that part, hiring a trainer should level up his combat abilities (and going even further I would spawn the child doing those activities when you go to the castle, for example you could find the child riding a horse alongside his trainer in the outsides of the castle). Another idea I have is making them squires for another lords (I already suggested these quite a bit but I might as well put it here), that would raise relationships with those lords and would raise your child's abilities too. It would feel quite dynamic and if for example another lord handed you his child and you lose it after being captured you would have to take care of him personally or suffer the consequences (trading money to ransom them or freeing them via combat). Just not to leave your wife out of this process, make her do comments about their age, how they grow up from or how cute they are from time to time would be a great touch and it wouldnt feel like the child's mother is careless about them.
This is all I can write for now please forgive the lack of visual examples like those beautiful Tercosketches that make the posts fluid more lightly, I simply dont have the time to do them, also do forgive the poor English, my mind doesnt writes well in English after 6am. Have a gn
