Pentagathoos
Squire
So sea travel and battles have already been implemented in warband mods and VC, and they're no doubt going to be implemented in some form in BL mods too.
As impressive and extensive as the sea travel systems were in WB mods, the major issue I had was that there was no restriction on the AI sea travel (other than having to launch from and beach at specific sites), meaning that there could be a real tactical disadvantage for the player in certain maps since we couldn't carry ships around in our pockets like the lords, but more importantly IMO there was little if any tactical advantage for nations which should be seafaring experts.
For example, if this was implemented into BL then you would expect the Sturgians to have more access to ships, and therefore a major mobility advantage regarding sea travel compared with the Khuzaits. Obviously this wouldn't be too important in the BL map because it's built for a game without sea travel, but in some areas it might. And in many mods I'm sure it would.
Now I imagine you could give them speed bonuses at sea as a cultural effect, and advantages in sea battle simulations too. But would it actually be possible to restrict access to sea by ship ownership without breaking the AI and seriously unbalancing the game?
I expect you could make ships an ownable item, and script it so that lords/clans who own fiefs with ports might invest money into ship ownership rather than in troops or in town improvement or whatever it is they are meant to spend their money on in the game. And you could then say that only lords/clans with ownership of ships can travel by sea. But would it realistically be possible to update AI behaviour and pathfinding to recognise when they did or did not have access to sea travel, because otherwise it would presumably just result in AI parties spazzing out and trying to ride into the sea to catch hostile sea travellers and suchlike. I'm guessing that this is something which is theoretically possible to do but in reality would be way too complicated to actually implement effectively, but I know nothing and I'm really just curious what people who do know something think of such an idea.
As impressive and extensive as the sea travel systems were in WB mods, the major issue I had was that there was no restriction on the AI sea travel (other than having to launch from and beach at specific sites), meaning that there could be a real tactical disadvantage for the player in certain maps since we couldn't carry ships around in our pockets like the lords, but more importantly IMO there was little if any tactical advantage for nations which should be seafaring experts.
For example, if this was implemented into BL then you would expect the Sturgians to have more access to ships, and therefore a major mobility advantage regarding sea travel compared with the Khuzaits. Obviously this wouldn't be too important in the BL map because it's built for a game without sea travel, but in some areas it might. And in many mods I'm sure it would.
Now I imagine you could give them speed bonuses at sea as a cultural effect, and advantages in sea battle simulations too. But would it actually be possible to restrict access to sea by ship ownership without breaking the AI and seriously unbalancing the game?
I expect you could make ships an ownable item, and script it so that lords/clans who own fiefs with ports might invest money into ship ownership rather than in troops or in town improvement or whatever it is they are meant to spend their money on in the game. And you could then say that only lords/clans with ownership of ships can travel by sea. But would it realistically be possible to update AI behaviour and pathfinding to recognise when they did or did not have access to sea travel, because otherwise it would presumably just result in AI parties spazzing out and trying to ride into the sea to catch hostile sea travellers and suchlike. I'm guessing that this is something which is theoretically possible to do but in reality would be way too complicated to actually implement effectively, but I know nothing and I'm really just curious what people who do know something think of such an idea.
