Dev Blog 09/05/19

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_89_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>In the words of Omar Bradley, “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics”. So buckle up for some serious professional talk, because in this week’s blog we'll be covering supply in Bannerlord -- both how to get the food and other materials that you need, and how to deny them to your enemy!</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/109

 

[FBohler]

Considering that upping game difficulty will now do multipliers like increase their movement speed on world map. I don't think they are trying to simulate the real world with their influence mechanic, and thats a good thing. Real world stays in the real world, and games do what they are good at: being fun to play.

Where do I sign?

 

[SirMairaki]

The main problem I have is that it seems to be a currency you can literally spend rather than a value which changes over time. A king should never have zero influence, but in this game it seems like that can happen if you spend points all in one go. It means every influential action has to be accompanied by grinding, no matter your social, political, or military status.

The good thing about the honour system in warband was that it was your own honourable or dishonorable actions which changed it, so if you were honourable you would stay honourable until you did something dishonorable. If you could spend it like a currency and it fluctuated constantly, it would prevent there from being interesting passive benefits, such as other honourable lords liking you and people being less likely to refuse certain things.

Warband implemented most of its features quite poorly and there was definitely a lot of room for improvement, but adding sidequest mana is not one of them.

While I do share your concerns about the possible lack of depth of the influence system, and Rodrigo's point that a similar idea could be accomplished with the relationship system, I also think you're making an unfair assumption. Influence is not necessarily gained primarily through grinding for it, however likely that may be. It is entirely possible they've implemented believable and interesting ways of gaining it, and the gameplay value added by the influence system is simply choosing how much to focus on gaining it (hopefully without the grinding) and deciding on where and when to spend it (because, hopefully, you can't just grind for it and stockpile it).

I personal think adding the system is dangerous territory as it's far too easy to take the lazy route, but if implemented well, it could turn out fine. I don't expect it to be perfect, but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Scyrius]

Really enjoyed this weeks blog. This kind of stuff is what really excites me about Bannerlord

 

[BayBear]

I trust that the influence system will have enough relevant features and modifiers to make it reasonable and authentic, as for instance a regular income of influence for held titles, or modifiers to influence cost based on personal relationships or past events.

I do too. Taleworlds has had the time to prod and poke this feature, I believe the system they are crafting will be for the best.

The real issue I have with influence in a currency format is that it doesn’t make sense for a character to keep his earned influence once leaving the kingdom/region. Influence is too personal. I doubt a western lord would give a damn about the influence you’ve acquire in the far reaches of the steppes unless otherwise proven. In reality, the size of your army would command more influence in foreign regions than some favor curried with a region not known to the area.

 

[Chronissimo]

Very good blog in my opinion. I'm very pleased to see that campaign logistics takes a much more central role in Bannerlord. Can't wait to suffocate my foes' by the supply lines!

 

[HinSterkan]

Some meaty stuff at last!

I guess foraging/hunting will be abstract? If not, there's a great possibility to implement different styles of hunting for the different factions.

https://hautdesert.webnode.com/hunter-negotiator-lover-of-music/

The Khuzaits especially (if we consider them truly of the steppe) could live off their herd of horses (even drinking some of their blood while riding).

 

[vicwiz007]

With all this talk of Influence, I think we really need to see it in action, or perhaps this is a good question for the upcoming QA tester who has tons of experience with how the system actually feels and plays out.

I don't particularly want an entire blog on it but I can't think of anything I'd rather hear of aside from a beta/full game release date. So I would take it.

 

[RockinPotato]

Is there going to be thunderstorms?

 

[monoolho]

Good blog. Informative, but short. Interesting, to say the least.

Will bannerlord fix the problem where raiding is long term extremely unbeneficial for the player because of the relation decrease that eventually results in your ability to recruit troops being stalted?

I do believe that is the counter to actually raiding and pillaging non-stop, instead of a problem. Then again, recruiting is not being done fief-wise, but recruiter-wise, so it is possible that raiding fiefs may diminish relations with one recruiter, but not the others. And there is the thingy about forcing recruiting.

I hope they made the party supply system a nutrition mini-game that raises awareness.

YES. While thoughtful, entertaining and awesometacular, feeding your whole army with butter is very deteriorating to its health and capacity to fight. Yet, it is butter.

The main problem I have is that it seems to be a currency you can literally spend rather than a value which changes over time.
[...]

Influence is not necessarily gained primarily through grinding for it, [...] It is entirely possible they've implemented believable and interesting ways of gaining it [...] but if implemented well, it could turn out fine. I don't expect it to be perfect, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I share exactly the same fears. It looks as though influence may be used as a stamina/mana currency: you spend some on an emergency just to keep things up. Your army is bordering desertion, chaos and even mutiny? Well, pay compliments to every single soldier - by exhausting yourself (spending influence), you keep your army for a week longer, and don't incur the price of being bad at logistics, or suffering what great commanders have suffered: shattered reinforcement and supply lines.
I do honestly hope

tm

that they are implementing it in an intuitive manner, and I agree that the previous systems (honor, right to rule, renown) weren't sufficient to achieve what they say in bannerlord, not as they are in warband. I am not as hopeless towards it as BIGGER Kentucky James XXL has been for the past 3 years, yet I am very, very skeptical about it, and I fear I have to assume that it is a "cheap trick" for most problems in-game that is an easy/lazy route, and thus I can expect to eventually turn it off via options or mods, should it feel too unnatural for me. Again, we will have to hope

tm

.

roads pls

I couldn't agree more.

 

[CharlesR220]

Looks neat, my grandkids would enjoy this feature.

 

[Do not look here]

The renown, relationships and whatnot in Warband weren't the ideal system, but instead of improving it they decided to implement worldwide band-aid in form of influence. That's my issue with it.

And yeah, it may end up better, but so far it looks like it will be some diluted mana, you earn it from everything, you spend it on everything, but having it gives you nothing. Hardly influential, especially if it's a global thing.

 

[fadohacolu]

This sounds interesting. I hope the AI is able to handle the decision making with this and doesn't open itself up to exploits.

Even more, I REALLY hope something differently is done with village relations. As things stand, there are almost no situations in which raiding is beneficial in WB. Which is even more infuriating as fellow lords spend 50% of their campaign time raiding villages, but the player can't do so without making everyone angry, ruining relations with lords, settlements and ladies alike.

Every time this influence system pops up it's completely out of place and nonsensical. It's like a mana system from a bad paradox game.

So, any Paradox game, in that case. 

 

[The_BlackThorn]

Good blog! I’m glad supplies  are being fleshed out and and that there will be some strategy in terms of getting your armies around the map. It’s great to see a gud gam getting gudderer.

 

[orgrinrt]

I, for one, am very keen on the prospect of the influence system. Of course it depends on how it's implemented, but so far I haven't seen anything definite that'd give cause to be alerted.

There's clearly room for a new variable. Influence as a concept seems right, because the systems it'd fuel are the kingdom's internal campaigns, both political and militaristic. This way you can retain your relationships, friends and enemies, while still getting things done. Storylines develop in a logical way and you can get emotionally invested in people and relationships without worrying about needlessly and arbitrarily grinding relations just to be able to do things within your faction. I think it sounds like a great addition.

 

[FBohler]

It means every influential action has to be accompanied by grinding, no matter your social, political, or military status.

You're totally wrong. Grinding for influence is just early game, when you build up enough, you're going to spend influence to hire people to work for you and if your mission is successful you're going to be rewarded with more influence, meaning you won't grind anymore if you take the right risks.

Seems 100% fair and fun for me.

 

[~Kamina~]

Good blog but I have a few questions 

Are the foraging and raiding parties going to be text/concept based (kind of like they were in m&b mods such as ASOIAF) or are they going to be visually/gameplay adapted to the game and hence susceptible to attack by enemy parties.

Either way, if we were to send a raiding party to the village; would that mean that even though we didn't 'personally' raid the village, we would lose relation with the villagers?

With all of this in mind, how do the defenses of the villages deal with raiders? Are they able to?

 

[NPC99]

The renown, relationships and whatnot in Warband weren't the ideal system, but instead of improving it they decided to implement worldwide band-aid in form of influence. That's my issue with it.

And yeah, it may end up better, but so far it looks like it will be some diluted mana, you earn it from everything, you spend it on everything, but having it gives you nothing. Hardly influential, especially if it's a global thing.

Influence is not worldwide. Influence only operates within your adopted faction. Its not like Warband’s currency as you can become overdrawn in it, which exposes your clan to being ejected from your faction for failing to pull its weight. Effectively it’s a deeper layer of inter-clan faction only politics.

A new concept in Bannerlord is influence, which acts a bit like a currency, alongside gold and relation, but more directly affects our interactions with other characters in our faction. Influence is held for each lady and lord as a value to represent their contribution to their faction's war effort. Vassals can maintain their influence by joining military campaigns and the more troops they provide, the more influence they gain. What this does is form a system, where being part of a faction actually comes with a measurable level of responsibility. Keep your influence positive and the leader of your faction will be pleased, raising your chance of being awarded more fiefs; let your influence slip into the negative too far and you'll risk expulsion from the faction and your fiefs being seized.
https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/15

 

[Mad Vader]

So, the closest thing is the (similarly nebulous) relation to your faction, or more realistically, your relations with the faction ruler. Clearly, the faction war effort benefits the king the most.
Why not use relations with the ruler instead of influence?
What is supposed to mean that you have negative influence, but are best pals with the king? That he likes scroungers?
Or when you built up your influence by helping in the king's campaigns, but for some reason he hates your guts? That he's still mad about you seducing his daughter?

How do you reconcile influence and your relations with the ruler being unrelated and sometimes going opposite ways, when they are clearly strongly correlated?

Spoiler: Kludge

Wait, I know. You cap minimum and maximum influence depending on your relations with the king. This is clearly artificial, but kind of inevitable. Or you can remove influence and give more focus to the rulers.

 

[burybrzetyslaw]

Would it be possible that the army's request caravans from their home cities to supply them?
Of course, those caravans can be attacked by enemy forces.
This would make small raiding parties, especially the light cavalry variant more valuable.

Just an Idea.

I second this, although medieval logistic were no good army like roman had supply lines (and this game has romna empire like faction) so why not implement that in gaem.

 

[kalarhan]

interesting, this should help improve the campaign events and make wars more interesting for both sides (attack and defense)

even a weaker player can participate on defense by attacking the raiding parties. Guerrilla war style.

same goes for AI parties around the target. If you ignore a castle and go to siege a town, later when your raiding/foraging parties are going for food that castle can send their troops to stop you hehe.

on villages we should have a few options tho: buy food, force them to give you food (no combat, but loss of reputation with locals), raiding and steal, raiding and destroying the village (burn it down), etc.