In my current playthrough I'm having serious balance of power issues. At day 300 or so, three of the 5 factions are down to only 1~2 settlements. Fierdsvain owns 8 cities and fields 200-300 man armies, Ravenstern is doing absolutely nothing, Empire loses every war, Sarleon holds feasts while at the brink of collapse, and D'shar camped out in front of Torbah for the past 90 days and will likely be swatted by the first faction that dow's them sooner or later. These three struggling factions, from the looks of it, will be out of the game by the time I get my first castle.
Of course it sort of slipped my attention to try to do things to prevent faction collapse, like rescuing lords or mercing out to weak factions, which I'm trying desperately to make up as of right now. But I wasn't expecting the balance of power to shift SO early. Most of the time I was minding my business without realizing how inept those losing factions were. Now I've tried three times to get Ravenstern and D'shar to declare war on the green fever, but each time King Valdis ignores the provocation. I feel so dirty. And then Raven goes on an declares war on weak Sarleon, which is getting reamed by 2 other factions already! Give me a break!
It's disappointing to see the troop tree diversity to disappear this way as most villages on the map only offer fierdsvain troops. I don't have anything against the fierdsvain troop tree, out of which I only need the huscarls (yes I know they also get berserkers, but I don't use them) but the presence of d'shar bladesmen and halberdiers in my army is really something I can't do without. On top of that you know, I prefer to see Pendor neatly divided until I come along! If I have to spend the rest of the game fighting solely the fierdsvain and ravenstern it would seriously affect my enjoyment of the campaign.
I never saw factions go this fast in vanilla. Yes, factions would wax and wane, but on their own it was rare until very late in the game. For instance playing as a Khergit vassal for over 500 days, I never really got to the point where any faction dominated more than half of the map, or where any one faction was at the verge of destruction. Admittedly I was taking it slow, relishing battles and trying to siege fairly without the use of exploits, but that's my playstyle. Since Pendor is a particularly slow paced mod, where the player must take his time to build his character and party before taking on the world, it's very strange to see the balance of power shifting to one side (without even assistance from the player) earlier than it would in vanilla Warband. Other mods I've played, such as Floris, it was unusual too see one faction dominating over the rest until well over 700 days in the game. And it's not just me, I've noticed other people on the forum also having the same problem.
With this in view, I would like to offer a couple of suggestions.
-If a faction has less than 2 settlements other factions would not declare war on it for the first 500 days. Although by itself, it can still declare war on another. This is to prevent two struggling factions from destroying one another, while a neighboring big one moves in to stealthily blitz their weakly defended holdings.
-If a faction has more than say 6 settlements, other factions would likely make peace with each other and declare war on it. This would also make it more challenging for the player to unify Pendor.
-If a faction is way too weak it should receive some sort of reinforcement to prevent it from being knocked out too soon.
-Villages ought to train the troops they game started them with no matter who owns them, instead of instantly changing to that of a different culture. Either that, or there should be some alternative way to gather recruits from all 5 factions.
-Faction capitals should be extra well defended, with many more troops than regular cities. This is to prevent capital gank which I saw early on in the game, with the D'Shar losing Singal and quickly withering away since. I believe this mechanic was also present in Floris.
-After a faction is vanquished and all its lords are in exile, I envision a kind of "return of the king" mechanic where the vanquished faction leader and his vassals spawn on the map to re-start the faction. "For instance, King X assembled a giant army and returned to Pendor to retake his lost possessions!". Perhaps a bit too big of a thing to ask, especially since I don't know what the hardcoded limitations are. This, if possible, would also provide a great new challenge in the late game.
as a maul lover I would love to see some of the amazing medieval designs available.
