DJPenguin
Veteran
To start off, I've been playing this since launch and have mostly been melee oriented in my play style which i feel is hurting and broken in multiplayer but I'll get to that later. So far I've accumulated 180 hours in this game, and 200 hours in Warband (From this March to May). So thanks to you guys, i've lost 380 hours being immersed in this simple masterpiece of a series. Also during the Steam sale i bought 5 copies for my friends and family, i just had to spread the goodness around. But as for this post, this is a compilation of suggestions, issues, personal feeling, and (constructive) criticism which have been bothering me for this long.
If i may get this one bug out of the way first.. the feature for talking to a slave trader (at least the one in the crimean zone) will keep you locked in that menu screen. selecting a response will not advance to the next dialogue and there's no way of exiting it.
A. Single Player. Having loads of fun with more hours dumped into this than multiplayer. this is addictive.
1. The start of the game is rough and unforgiving, and the learning curve certainly doesn't help. My friends whom i bought the game for complained about losing their fights, being captured, losing their starting money, not able to get an effective fighting group etc etc. In short, they gave up on the single player fairly quickly. Perhaps a way of better scaling the enemies you initially come in contact with would prove to be more efficient. No 30 man Tatar raiders, 40 man deserter mobs, etc. The start of the game could use more looters and bandits, most of whom on foot with melee weapons. As the player learns the game from those enemies, then it would be appropriate to introduce the harder bandit groups with guns, armor, and horses.
2. The trading system still feels a bit lacking. limited to where i can send caravans. the user interface not telling me information as to what i need to do in order to send more than small shipments (as that's all I've been able to do since the update). the caravan guards could use reworking, as the most i can buy is 20 which still gets ambushed and destroyed constantly. buying 2 guards and escorting the caravan myself wields a profit so small that it's more time efficient to simply pick a fight with someone and gain money that way. while it may not have made a lot of sense, my preference was the first trading system, although lowering the profits would balance it out.
3. Owning property. In one of my games, i own a castle with a town and my income isn't that great. The automatic soldier spawn puts me in debt. They spawn so fast that needing to constantly enlist and disband is just a chore. I'd like to request a way to halt automatic production of certain units in castles/cities. Perhaps by talking to the mayor you can specify which units the commander will/will not train and maybe a limit (100,200, infinite). Could also be used to personalize armies (All bow army anyone?). Also, as a rebel faction i can't recruit villagers from my towns. Bug or working as intended? If the latter, please allow us!
4. Prisoners. A thought that came to me while looking at the dozens of prisoners just sitting in my castle's dungeon.. what if there was a mechanic that allowed the city/castle owner to use prisoners for manual labor? Like the prisoners who make license plates for cars, only in the 17th century. Could also be another feature tacked onto the prisoner management skill. Each point increasing production value of those chained up in your dungeon.
B. Multiplayer. As i previously stated, I'm much more on the melee side of things both foot and horse so my views may look biased. Warning, criticisms ahead!
1. The way the factions have "perks" throws the game's balance out the window. For instance, who wants to be the Cossacks when Sweden is defending on a siege server? I'm no masochist myself. Shooting for the stars with this request, but I'd like to see a server option to homogenize the factions to make them identical. Or, scratching that, what about 2 "bandit" type factions that are used to specifically fight against each other, with different looking gear but all have access to the same weapons. ie. the first chestpieces of both factions gives the same armor value with the same cost, as does the second, third, etc etc.
2. Ranged combat feels incredibly cheap after the latest buffs. It was hard enough for someone who didn't have a gun to compete and it became that much harder. It's frustrating enough being one of the few infantry/cavalry players in a dominated musket server.
3. The pricing in my opinion needs an overhaul.
Musket troops, what do they need to compete? A good gun. Can that be bought with the default starting cash? Yes.
Infantry, what do they need to compete? A good melee weapon and good armor. Can that be bought with the starting cash? Depending on faction, yes and no.
And Cavalry? A good melee weapon and/or ranged weapon, good armor, and a good horse. Can that be bought with the starting cash? Nope.
There's the problem. Melee cav in particular, who is probably the hardest to use in multiplayer right now, demands so much and can't be acquired as easily as the other classes. It's common for a musketman to get the best gear available. It's rare for a Cavalryman to get the best gear. and even then, the best gear for them doesn't do much when all it takes is a couple musket shots to put them down. Which brings me to my next point..
4. Cavalry need love. Not the horse archer type who i despise greatly, but the melee kind. You'd think melee cav would be great at taking out lone musketeers. Not so much when they can easily dismount you by taking out the horse. Or literally dance around the horse if you try to turn to get in some swings of the saber. Don't forget Tommy Two guns who has no trouble dealing with Cav. Horse maneuverability needs a buff. It's infuriating to have people dance around the horse, even sometimes while reloading. You know something's flawed when it's easier to dismount to kill someone than it is trying to turn the horse and hack away.
5. Captain Co-op. the way enemies scale on 8 player servers is great. however, higher player cap servers are ridiculously easy to play on now. the 22 player server for instance, on waves 1 and 2 for there's only like 20 more enemies than there are players, not including the player's soldiers. there's something wonky about the way enemies scale. And the types of enemies that appear in later waves should be addressed. What's militia pikemen doing showing up on wave 30? The bots in this game mode have a really fast melee attack. minus the ranged troops, it's impossible to parry an attack and follow it up with a swing before they can swing themselves. Horses need a little fix, dismounted friendlies aren't re-mounted after a fight. It's quite annoying having an all cavalry force dismounted for the next fight. Also, please disable friendly fire on the official servers!
6. A recommendation for some variety in the official servers as they all seem to be captain co-op. North America is in a rough spot as far as servers go. There's only official captain co-op and a few battle servers. We could really use an official siege server at the least.
Sorry about the long post!
If i may get this one bug out of the way first.. the feature for talking to a slave trader (at least the one in the crimean zone) will keep you locked in that menu screen. selecting a response will not advance to the next dialogue and there's no way of exiting it.
A. Single Player. Having loads of fun with more hours dumped into this than multiplayer. this is addictive.
1. The start of the game is rough and unforgiving, and the learning curve certainly doesn't help. My friends whom i bought the game for complained about losing their fights, being captured, losing their starting money, not able to get an effective fighting group etc etc. In short, they gave up on the single player fairly quickly. Perhaps a way of better scaling the enemies you initially come in contact with would prove to be more efficient. No 30 man Tatar raiders, 40 man deserter mobs, etc. The start of the game could use more looters and bandits, most of whom on foot with melee weapons. As the player learns the game from those enemies, then it would be appropriate to introduce the harder bandit groups with guns, armor, and horses.
2. The trading system still feels a bit lacking. limited to where i can send caravans. the user interface not telling me information as to what i need to do in order to send more than small shipments (as that's all I've been able to do since the update). the caravan guards could use reworking, as the most i can buy is 20 which still gets ambushed and destroyed constantly. buying 2 guards and escorting the caravan myself wields a profit so small that it's more time efficient to simply pick a fight with someone and gain money that way. while it may not have made a lot of sense, my preference was the first trading system, although lowering the profits would balance it out.
3. Owning property. In one of my games, i own a castle with a town and my income isn't that great. The automatic soldier spawn puts me in debt. They spawn so fast that needing to constantly enlist and disband is just a chore. I'd like to request a way to halt automatic production of certain units in castles/cities. Perhaps by talking to the mayor you can specify which units the commander will/will not train and maybe a limit (100,200, infinite). Could also be used to personalize armies (All bow army anyone?). Also, as a rebel faction i can't recruit villagers from my towns. Bug or working as intended? If the latter, please allow us!
4. Prisoners. A thought that came to me while looking at the dozens of prisoners just sitting in my castle's dungeon.. what if there was a mechanic that allowed the city/castle owner to use prisoners for manual labor? Like the prisoners who make license plates for cars, only in the 17th century. Could also be another feature tacked onto the prisoner management skill. Each point increasing production value of those chained up in your dungeon.
B. Multiplayer. As i previously stated, I'm much more on the melee side of things both foot and horse so my views may look biased. Warning, criticisms ahead!
1. The way the factions have "perks" throws the game's balance out the window. For instance, who wants to be the Cossacks when Sweden is defending on a siege server? I'm no masochist myself. Shooting for the stars with this request, but I'd like to see a server option to homogenize the factions to make them identical. Or, scratching that, what about 2 "bandit" type factions that are used to specifically fight against each other, with different looking gear but all have access to the same weapons. ie. the first chestpieces of both factions gives the same armor value with the same cost, as does the second, third, etc etc.
2. Ranged combat feels incredibly cheap after the latest buffs. It was hard enough for someone who didn't have a gun to compete and it became that much harder. It's frustrating enough being one of the few infantry/cavalry players in a dominated musket server.
3. The pricing in my opinion needs an overhaul.
Musket troops, what do they need to compete? A good gun. Can that be bought with the default starting cash? Yes.
Infantry, what do they need to compete? A good melee weapon and good armor. Can that be bought with the starting cash? Depending on faction, yes and no.
And Cavalry? A good melee weapon and/or ranged weapon, good armor, and a good horse. Can that be bought with the starting cash? Nope.
There's the problem. Melee cav in particular, who is probably the hardest to use in multiplayer right now, demands so much and can't be acquired as easily as the other classes. It's common for a musketman to get the best gear available. It's rare for a Cavalryman to get the best gear. and even then, the best gear for them doesn't do much when all it takes is a couple musket shots to put them down. Which brings me to my next point..
4. Cavalry need love. Not the horse archer type who i despise greatly, but the melee kind. You'd think melee cav would be great at taking out lone musketeers. Not so much when they can easily dismount you by taking out the horse. Or literally dance around the horse if you try to turn to get in some swings of the saber. Don't forget Tommy Two guns who has no trouble dealing with Cav. Horse maneuverability needs a buff. It's infuriating to have people dance around the horse, even sometimes while reloading. You know something's flawed when it's easier to dismount to kill someone than it is trying to turn the horse and hack away.
5. Captain Co-op. the way enemies scale on 8 player servers is great. however, higher player cap servers are ridiculously easy to play on now. the 22 player server for instance, on waves 1 and 2 for there's only like 20 more enemies than there are players, not including the player's soldiers. there's something wonky about the way enemies scale. And the types of enemies that appear in later waves should be addressed. What's militia pikemen doing showing up on wave 30? The bots in this game mode have a really fast melee attack. minus the ranged troops, it's impossible to parry an attack and follow it up with a swing before they can swing themselves. Horses need a little fix, dismounted friendlies aren't re-mounted after a fight. It's quite annoying having an all cavalry force dismounted for the next fight. Also, please disable friendly fire on the official servers!
6. A recommendation for some variety in the official servers as they all seem to be captain co-op. North America is in a rough spot as far as servers go. There's only official captain co-op and a few battle servers. We could really use an official siege server at the least.
Sorry about the long post!
