Reposting from this thread in general discussions. Posting here to see if other people have similar ideas we can compile here.
Villages, cities, castles, and keeps are beautiful. Unfortunately however, there isn't much reason to go in and appreciate all that apart from some quests for very narrow or limited interaction with these places.
To address this issue, so far and/or incoming we have:
- Culture-specific barbers found in cities
- Trade rumours to be collected from peasants
- Prison breaks
- Battles in the keep, resolving holdouts after sieges
- Something about gang development I think
- Voiceover for select individuals
These sound great because they sound player-initiated; that is, a player can choose to go bust their friend out of prison, and/or can go assist gangs maybe in a way other than the gang faction street fight quest. You don't have to wait for a quest to "let" you do it.
So further to this player-initiated interaction, here is a summary of ideas for adding more player-driven "life" to these scenes. Some might be better-suited to cities only, or anything but villages, etc. Loosely organized by their theme or most related game element.
Rogue-related:
- Ability for self or others to pick-pocket people, or even merchants/workshops, based on rogue skills in an rng fashion (which may necessitate fleeing town without Tab assistance on a critical failed check)
- Random, active thieves to be stopped for renown and/or relations? Sort of "catch them before they reach point X and disappear"
- Existing gang leaders could be contracted to carry out nefarious deeds such as the ones in this mod to lords and settlements within "range," with costs and outcomes considering the gang's influence (perhaps an extension of the continued development on gangs such as owning streets/territory), and the player's relationship with the leader. Examples include spreading rumours, sowing unrest, etc.
Relations-related:
- Charitable acts to be performed (donating food/money/goods/troops to particular individuals, maybe church or charity characters? maybe landless faction leaders?), for raising relation and/or renown
- Small, local charities (churches, poor houses, whatever) or charitable notables sort of like the antithesis of gangs (to facilitate the above actions)
- Perform actions unique to your own settlements, such as personally giving funds to entertainers (patron of the arts kind of thing) and the actions in the above points to improve loyalty in your settlements
- Feasts as in the past (see link to peonicus' post for ideas on depth), meeting a greeting nobles
- Parades and/or Festivals: Same function as feasts, but held outdoors in cities and villages. Meeting notables, and perhaps the odd noble
- Councils/meetings/votes: Declare wars, vote/use influence in person within keeps
- Family time: Small talk or little games with clan and/or family members for slight relation boosts
- Sports: horse racing, shooting range etc perhaps similar to tournaments, or like tablut, with a relations boost for participants (though maybe "cruel" characters or similar will drop relation if they lose)
Local Economy:
- dogu91 mentioned production, crafting, or management rolls etc for playing an active role in the local economy. Anyone with any specific ideas for this category?
- Found one example of the above here in "Xorberax's Honest Work" mod which lets you work in villages.
- In-workshop options to upgrade workshops (depositing materials directly, hiring people, etc)
- Workshop quests for temporary bonuses or penalty mitigations (eg. getting rid of racketeers, providing tools, etc)
Generic:
- Buying and/or building/outfitting your own house (think Skyrim maybe)
- Random combat encounters with bandits or other NPCs, such as people from enemy factions
- Companions to be found in the streets, instead of always/only in the tavern
- Drinking at the tavern, with effects for morale/weight capacity (decrease?) and/or bonuses or penalties on select settlement missions (eg. tavern brawl)
- Riot/revolt scenarios:
- Small in-settlement quests to be collected from peasants, to be completed in town, for small relationship bonuses with locals or minor dinar amounts/very minor goods
Culture-Focused:
- Festivals (see link to peonicus' post)
- Social quest interactions with culturally "better" dialogue responses
- Differentiated relationship gains/losses for settlement quests (or others?) based on a new relationship between mission type, outcome, and quest-giver's culture (eg. some cultures may favour individuals who start tavern brawls)
- Culture Ideas for the world in general (not necessarily related to settlements engagements)
What do you think?
I think anything like this would add a ton more depth to the whole social and roleplaying side of the game, in many cases without inventing too much in the way of new game mechanics (some ideas obviously requiring more rework or new elements than others).
Do you know any mods that fulfill functions like this/these? How do you bring cities to life?
If you share, I'll add new ideas or mod suggestions to this post and maybe we can help each other liven up the out-of-map interactions a bit more. I'll try to summarize your idea in one sentence though both for brevity, and to test its simplicity!
Villages, cities, castles, and keeps are beautiful. Unfortunately however, there isn't much reason to go in and appreciate all that apart from some quests for very narrow or limited interaction with these places.
To address this issue, so far and/or incoming we have:
- Culture-specific barbers found in cities
- Trade rumours to be collected from peasants
- Prison breaks
- Battles in the keep, resolving holdouts after sieges
- Something about gang development I think
- Voiceover for select individuals
These sound great because they sound player-initiated; that is, a player can choose to go bust their friend out of prison, and/or can go assist gangs maybe in a way other than the gang faction street fight quest. You don't have to wait for a quest to "let" you do it.
So further to this player-initiated interaction, here is a summary of ideas for adding more player-driven "life" to these scenes. Some might be better-suited to cities only, or anything but villages, etc. Loosely organized by their theme or most related game element.
Rogue-related:
- Ability for self or others to pick-pocket people, or even merchants/workshops, based on rogue skills in an rng fashion (which may necessitate fleeing town without Tab assistance on a critical failed check)
- Random, active thieves to be stopped for renown and/or relations? Sort of "catch them before they reach point X and disappear"
- Existing gang leaders could be contracted to carry out nefarious deeds such as the ones in this mod to lords and settlements within "range," with costs and outcomes considering the gang's influence (perhaps an extension of the continued development on gangs such as owning streets/territory), and the player's relationship with the leader. Examples include spreading rumours, sowing unrest, etc.
Relations-related:
- Charitable acts to be performed (donating food/money/goods/troops to particular individuals, maybe church or charity characters? maybe landless faction leaders?), for raising relation and/or renown
- Small, local charities (churches, poor houses, whatever) or charitable notables sort of like the antithesis of gangs (to facilitate the above actions)
- Perform actions unique to your own settlements, such as personally giving funds to entertainers (patron of the arts kind of thing) and the actions in the above points to improve loyalty in your settlements
- Feasts as in the past (see link to peonicus' post for ideas on depth), meeting a greeting nobles
- Parades and/or Festivals: Same function as feasts, but held outdoors in cities and villages. Meeting notables, and perhaps the odd noble
- Councils/meetings/votes: Declare wars, vote/use influence in person within keeps
- Family time: Small talk or little games with clan and/or family members for slight relation boosts
- Sports: horse racing, shooting range etc perhaps similar to tournaments, or like tablut, with a relations boost for participants (though maybe "cruel" characters or similar will drop relation if they lose)
Local Economy:
- dogu91 mentioned production, crafting, or management rolls etc for playing an active role in the local economy. Anyone with any specific ideas for this category?
- Found one example of the above here in "Xorberax's Honest Work" mod which lets you work in villages.
- In-workshop options to upgrade workshops (depositing materials directly, hiring people, etc)
- Workshop quests for temporary bonuses or penalty mitigations (eg. getting rid of racketeers, providing tools, etc)
Generic:
- Buying and/or building/outfitting your own house (think Skyrim maybe)
- Random combat encounters with bandits or other NPCs, such as people from enemy factions
- Companions to be found in the streets, instead of always/only in the tavern
- Drinking at the tavern, with effects for morale/weight capacity (decrease?) and/or bonuses or penalties on select settlement missions (eg. tavern brawl)
- Riot/revolt scenarios:
- Enter the affected settlement for an altered experience.
- Keep/tavern must be manually navigated to, at risk of harm or capture;
- kill or knock out peasants for related relationship gain/loss;
- quell the riot for yourself or for another lord, with greater relation loss for peasants killed;
- give the revolt a leader or several, whose defeat impacts rioter morale
- Keep/tavern must be manually navigated to, at risk of harm or capture;
- kill or knock out peasants for related relationship gain/loss;
- quell the riot for yourself or for another lord, with greater relation loss for peasants killed;
- give the revolt a leader or several, whose defeat impacts rioter morale
- Peasants asking to use your medicine (or other) skills
- Practice fights with town militia, perhaps some of whom may join you
- Settling arguments based on skills eg. charm
- Tavern brawl
- Persons of interest: skill- and/or knowledge- based conversations that may lead to gaining faction troops or faction relation gain/loss
- Fetch quests (deliver a letter or a new law, find a hidden cache for a criminal, find X number of items and deliver, etc)
- Practice fights with town militia, perhaps some of whom may join you
- Settling arguments based on skills eg. charm
- Tavern brawl
- Persons of interest: skill- and/or knowledge- based conversations that may lead to gaining faction troops or faction relation gain/loss
- Fetch quests (deliver a letter or a new law, find a hidden cache for a criminal, find X number of items and deliver, etc)
Culture-Focused:
- Festivals (see link to peonicus' post)
- Social quest interactions with culturally "better" dialogue responses
- Differentiated relationship gains/losses for settlement quests (or others?) based on a new relationship between mission type, outcome, and quest-giver's culture (eg. some cultures may favour individuals who start tavern brawls)
- Culture Ideas for the world in general (not necessarily related to settlements engagements)
- Slave trade banned in Vlandia and the Northern Empire, maybe you cannot trade slaves here except to gang leaders
- Raiding is worth more relation to Sturigia, you get a relationship boost to all lords for every village raided.
- You get more renown and relation in tournaments you win in Empire territory.
- Raiding is worth more relation to Sturigia, you get a relationship boost to all lords for every village raided.
- You get more renown and relation in tournaments you win in Empire territory.
What do you think?
I think anything like this would add a ton more depth to the whole social and roleplaying side of the game, in many cases without inventing too much in the way of new game mechanics (some ideas obviously requiring more rework or new elements than others).
Do you know any mods that fulfill functions like this/these? How do you bring cities to life?
If you share, I'll add new ideas or mod suggestions to this post and maybe we can help each other liven up the out-of-map interactions a bit more. I'll try to summarize your idea in one sentence though both for brevity, and to test its simplicity!
dogu91
peonicus
Sphere69
Pensaci
Warlord123123
Magello
peonicus
Sphere69
Pensaci
Warlord123123
Magello
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