Final version improvement checklist.

[Incognita]

just a small thing:

whenever you would spawn in the city on your horse, a message says, "You arrive in [town] and hitch your horse at the local stables."  You then spawn at the unmounted city centre spawn point.

How about you spawn in as normal but as you enter a city an NPC walks up to you, asks you to dismount and leads the horse away.
The guards could get annoyed and arrest you if you galloped into town without an urgent message etc. etc.

(Sorry if this has been said already, 14 pages was too daunting to read through...)

 

[FrisianDude]

Aww. I usually gallop in with my lance couched.

 

[Sevilla]

I been playing Warband (just started) don't know if this is the right place to post this but i have some ideas they could use and i would love for them to implement:
1.- They should aloud macro/micro management of towns and cities, allowing to set the tax rates on towns and cities (depending on what type of rate the villagers will be happy or mad about it, if they go to mad there's a chance of revolt.
2.-They also should have more buildings to build, like stables, smith houses, etc. but you can only decide between one type of building having like that a town or city that provides horses while the other town or city provide armor and weapons. Also allowing the build of production buildings: Iron, Gold, Salt, etc, etc. like this you will have a entire economic system and market. (If you play Lords of the Realm, you'll understand).
3.- They also should aloud you to issue orders to your Generals, having them defend a town, castle or city while you dealing with something else.
4.- I think they should aloud also the improvement of castles...which will force you and the AI to get wood and stone, which you can get by building those types of buildings at your towns or cityes (but not all the towns or cityes can provide with those resources) that will force the war and combat.

 

[Werhmact]

don't know if that already been pointed out on this topic but a choice of map icons would be nice

 

[Gillan]

Couple of imporements I would like to see.

1) more difficult to infiltrate an enemy settlement along with more option you can do once in there, like perhaps attemp to assassinate the lookouts on the wall so when you assualt the walls during a siege your opponent has a delay before their troops are on the wall.

2) ability to accompany another lord.  this get very annoiying to me, tey had it in fire arrow mod and was very useful you dont have to walk then stop and wait fr the party so you dont get too far ahead.

3) make parrying more effective like for example longer pause between next attack or make it stackable (the more you parry their attack the longer the pause gets) mabby even make it part of a skill.

 

[helmesjo]

Just bought the game and so far i love it! But as always, there is a few things I would like to see in the future:

• 
  Checkpoints in Siege mode for the attackers, so that when you are holding one point, this is where you spawn. It can be really annoying to fight in the Castle, then when you die spawn far, faaaar, away. This way there will be more fighting and less running
  
• 
  There should be more interactive stuff besides doors and ladders. I know this can be hard to implement if it hasn't been thought of from the beginning, but if you see a big catapult in front off you, you sure ass hell want to fire it.
  
• 
  The game itself should be speeded up a notch to make it feel more realistic. When you are in the middle of a fight things should go a little faster. Swinging the sword is really slow, and sometimes your not even sure if it did swing at all. The spears are also really slow, especially when you "poke".
  
• 
  You should also add some indicator/headbob/blood to let you know that you got hit. Sometimes there is to much happening at once and then suddenly you die without knowing that someone is swinging at you.
  
• 
  Staminabar! It can be a little bit frustrating with everybody constantly hiding behind shields, so some sort of stamina loss while you shield and get hit would be very nice to see.
  

 

[vette_fiets]

short and simple: multiple ladders, siege towers during sieges

 

[Diavolo]

short and simple: multiple ladders, siege towers during sieges

there is a mod that exists for this that is very good. Not sure if its ported to warband though.

EDIT: ooh, almost forgot: awesome thread! agree with all changes mentioned on initial post, though the inventory management stuff isnt that important to me.

 

[Hellsbain]

first my own idea. (sorry if it was already covered)

i think you should have the option to build ladder or towers and also as sead above the ladder should be just that ladder"s" at least 2 or 3 as no one in there right mind (1000 years ago) would try to take a wall with one ladder. sure i get it smaller scale but keep it to scale aka 2 or 3 not 20-30.

Projectiles while running
The penalty for throwing, archery, and crossbows while running is ridiculously overstated.  For reference, see the game of "Baseball".  In reality, it would be easier to compensate for the movement of your own body than it would be to compensate for being on a moving horse.  I suggest that the penalty be a doubling of the reticule size, perhaps +50% for throwing.  Bad aim becomes wild, but good aim is only slightly less accurate.

Back-slung shields. (Eogan)
Still way too high.  the top of the shield should be about shoulder height, not higher than the person's head.  This is especially noticable with the lowered 3rd-person camera.  They block an annoyingly large portion of the screen.

Weapon animations.
It's been said plenty of times before, but the swings in-game are ridiculous.  Every shot swings from the shoulder, when they should be a lot more economical and compact.  Poles can use a counter-levered attack.  Two-handers should combine a counter-lever motion with a short swing.  One-handed blows should be closer to a punch than a tennis swing:  it's more powerful, more accurate, and much faster.

Carts & Wagons (Kelpo)
This is my most ambitious suggestion here (and perhaps over the line for this thread), but I still think that if you're going to make the player watch over the mundanities of collecting & selling loot, babysitting upset NPC's, and manually controlling the party's food supply, that the "baggage train" shouldn't be abstracted.  A player should get:

• 1 inventory slot for every infantry member of their party (every footman has a back-pack).  Putting a horse in one of these slots makes that infantry act as a mounted unit for travel.
• 1 horse slot below the party inventory.  When you put a horse in the open horse slot, it creates a cart/wagon slot beside the horse, the inventory slots for the horse below it, and a new empty horse slot below that.
• When you put a multiple-horse-drawn cart in the cart slot, it should create slots equal to the maximum number of horses that can be hitched to it.

Reference image

Fatigue and Camping (AvaRice)
Long marches w/o sleep should have a drastic effect on morale.  AI parties should also camp at night.

OK i agree with the rest but want to say a few things about these.

Projectiles while running.

stirups make a huge difference and it is much easier to fire a bow or cross Bow (whale standing) from the saddle. throwing is different because you use your body's momentum and should be easier wile running than riding

Back-slung shields

yes your right but i think they did it to protect the back of your head from head shots

Weapon animations

have you ever swung a sword? how about a hammer? bat? anything with the intention of building power or doing damage?
i can guaranty you swing from the shoulder and the closest thing to a punch that would be effective is a really wild round house (thees aren't fencing swords). think chopping fire wood with a hatchet and you have the right motion for a downword swing with a onehanded sword.

Carts & Wagons

cool idea but i think its assumed that you have them and are taken car of for you. but i agree with the larger army's should get a bonus to how much they can carry

Fatigue and Camping

not sure but i think this is why you move at have speed at night. it would be more realistic to cave to camp every night but it would also be very annoying to the less "hardcore" players. i would suggest making it an option

OK that's it cor my critiquing right now.

 

[Dest45]

I think they should add in Zendar as a neutral town. it could be a trading and hunting outpost and have jobs for mercanaries that dont have a leige or their own kingdom, like defending a village or bounty hunter missions which lords offer anyway but it would be cool to go to one place and get them.

 

[Amman d Stazia]

Weapon animations

have you ever swung a sword? how about a hammer? bat? anything with the intention of building power or doing damage?
i can guaranty you swing from the shoulder and the closest thing to a punch that would be effective is a really wild round house (thees aren't fencing swords). think chopping fire wood with a hatchet and you have the right motion for a downword swing with a onehanded sword.

are you serious? 

 

[sumguy720]

Weapon animations

have you ever swung a sword? how about a hammer? bat? anything with the intention of building power or doing damage?
i can guaranty you swing from the shoulder and the closest thing to a punch that would be effective is a really wild round house (thees aren't fencing swords). think chopping fire wood with a hatchet and you have the right motion for a downword swing with a onehanded sword.

I've trained with one handed weapons, and the connections between punching and swinging are very apparent. I've also been warned many times not to swing my weapons like baseball bats. You need to use all muscles in your arm effectively and efficiently. I can't say anything about axes, as I have never been trained with them, but I'm sure that domestic tools/sports/martial arts all have different requirements for swinging things well.

Peasants probably swing swords like baseball bats.

 

[Incognita]

fechtbuchs <-------- modern man's guide to medieval man's combat

 

[Gareth Tacitus]

Projectiles while running
[...] In reality, it would be easier to compensate for the movement of your own body than it would be to compensate for being on a moving horse. [...]

It's definitely the other way around: On a horse you have a medium between the uneven ground and your body with shoulders. The effect is that you are commonly "standing" (not sitting) on a horse. While you have your feets fixed in the steps and standing on them you are able to compensate every up-and-down-movement of around 20 cm.
That sounds not much, but it is - comparing to a walking person on the ground whose muscles are currently to move the legs for running. Meanwhile you would need to hunker down !while! running to get the effect of compensating ground waves AND anatomic movement. And because this is not realizable, so it's impossible.
Summary: On a moving horse you can aim better than on foot running.

For everyday-comparement: See ducks swimming on the water with light waves. The duck's head [archer's shoulder] is on a fixed height every time and every wave. But the body of the duck [the horse] is moving over every wave up and down. The medium "body" gets the duck a perfect calm observation moment.

Gareth

 

[villois]

what if you implement a slider or a box like in the party interface so that the player can easily transfer the amount of troops he need without having to click a lot, you just put in the box the number of troops you want to give  to  a city, a castle, or a lord, and click give or take.

 

[Kamamura]

Ad animations - I have practiced extensively with realistically weighted metal replicas 15 years ago, it has a great tradition here in Czech.

My teachers always emphasized not to do excessive backswings ( "zápřah" in Czech ), because you can't transfer to a block or feint, nothing. And yes, we are talking about 14th - 15th century sword replicas (they were actually quite well balanced, and the technique more subtle than you would think. In the backswing the farthest position that is still acceptable is where the blade is in a horizontal position, but the standard form is with the sword in 45 degrees angle, pointing upwards, hand high above head, but flexed. What we see in the game (extreme backswing with the sword almost touching the backside of the user) is absolutely overblown and out of proportion.

The cut itself (and that applies to any cut) should reach outwards, with feet following into a forward step or a lunge of varying depth, according to the situation. Prior to hitting the target, the hand should be almost stretched to maximize the reach of the attack. If the attack misses, the swordsman must be able to stop the cut in a controlled manner and without delay return to the basic stance (with a proper parry, if necessary).

Regarding the thrust, the overblown backwards movement before stabbing is absolutely unnecessary - the arm should only stretch, followed by a lunge. The blade should travel only forward, no matter which thrust (position) is performed. But I understand the backward motion is there to signal the attack for balance in gameplay terms (real combatants on the other hand strived to remove all attack signalling, and that made thrusts so deadly).

I will try to scan some pictures, I still have a fechtbook at home.

 

[sharptooth]

the dev's are in the process of redoing the swing animations don't worry. i saw a video on this a  couple weeks ago.

 

[ramonb]

I agree with all original and added suggestions.

My personal one about NPC AI  and Marshal target selection/prioritize and options,

If Player is Marshal and he is travelling to a target or doing a Siege, he, enable him to:

1. Instruct 1 or more accompanying Lords to break formation and pursue a nearby enemy party. (Not caravans, looters, villagers or farmers).

2.Instruct accompanying Lords to continue to target or continue siege. Then NPC or player character can decide if it is worth pursuing a nearby enemy party or go and save his village.

3. Assign a new marshal on the field and instruct him to continue to target/siege.

4. While doing a Siege, give Player character the possibility to instruct 1 accompanying Lord to procure food/meat or hunt while the army is sieging a castle/town.
As it stands out right now it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to maintain a siege for 30 to 100 days without starving your own army first. Either that or lower the food stocks for garrisoned fiefs.

Here is the complete post I made earlier. Sorry it is rather long, but I think it is important.

Spoiler

Sorry but this is rather long, let me explain:

As it stands right now, in SP:

In Warband when an enemy AI Marshal fixes a target, he summons his Lords and proceeds to target (a Raid, a Castle or a Town). If, on their way to target they encounter an enemy party or complete army, they won’t attack, they disregard and just continue to target.
Best example I can give you is: I can stand with my 122 troop’s right in front of a 1200+ Khergit army and they won’t attack.

[quote author= Qumil]
I have seen 2 1200+ army groups pass through each other completely ignoring opponent army.

Also seems stupid when waiting at castle or city to siege and just ignore enemy armys who ride in to reinforce the garrison.

Worst is they will ignore a single passing army often, but some marshalls will abandon a siege to go protect a far away village that is being raided.

Many us have seen that many times, and have saved games to prove it.

[quote author= Vornne]
I don't think this is a bug, simply a possibly unintended consequence of an intentional change: that lords following a campaign or waiting for a siege to start do not scatter to the winds every time an enemy caravan, group farmers, or pretty butterfly goes past; particularly when they have no chance of catching up. I have seen it requested on the forums many times, and seem to vaguely remember posts being made about it in the warband singleplayer beta section by the developers.
[/quote]

And I totally agree with him, I don’t want friend or foe Lords following a Marshal to scatter and pursue caravans, farmers, raid villages etc. But I do want Lords or Marshals to attack ENEMIES, as in real life.

On the other hand if Player is Marshal and he is travelling to a target or doing a Siege, he:

1. Can’t instruct 1 or more accompanying Lords to break formation and pursue a nearby enemy party. (Not caravans, looters, villagers or farmers).

2. Can’t instruct accompanying Lords to continue to target or continue siege. Then NPC or player character can decide if it is worth pursuing a nearby enemy party or go and save his village.

3. Can’t assign a new marshal on the field and instruct him to continue to target/siege.

Solutions might be:

1. In game "General Options" give the User the possibility to select old Mount & Blade or new Warband campaign AI behavior (just like the Lance Control option).

2. While doing a Siege, give Player character the possibility to instruct 1 accompanying Lord to procure food/meat or hunt while the army is sieging a castle/town.
As it stands out right now it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to maintain a siege for 30 to 100 days without starving your own army first. Either that or lower the food stocks for garrisoned fiefs.

I seriously doubt anybody, NPC or Players have ever done a 30-100 day siege.

Some answers I have received from BugTracker.

[quote author= Mexxico]
Player gives a decision, for example going and besieging "X Castle". He starts a campaign and some lords join and when player see number of lords are enought he starts travelling "Castle X" Then if your wishes implemented, some lords will break of group and act independently attack some enemy lords then you will have to join battle or continue without that lord and his party. This is not wanted by most of players. If you want to attack that lord and continue travelling then you can attack that enemy lord by yourself and other parties will join. So decision is yours you are the marshal you can start battle or go without interaction. This is not bug.
[/quote]

[quote author= Mexxico]
this report is not a bug too. But currently I did not changed it to false alarm too to wait others ideas on this topic.
These things have their special reasons. If we allow parties to attack small groups while they are going an important siege/mission, this damages most things.

Qumil said :

Worst is they will ignore a single passing army often, but some marshalls will abandon a siege to go protect a far away village that is being raided.

These leaving marshals are owners of these far away villages and for them it can be more important to protect firstly their owned lands.

Maybe some things can be developed and big armies can start a battle when they see each other but on the other hand this is not advantageous for both factions = joining a large battle and losing thousands of men.

They are doing what is most advantageous for them. Winning a center is more important than attacking your poor party in most cases.
[/quote]

Then also winning a Castle or Town would be more important than protecting his far away village from being looted, so that should be no reason for the marshal to break his campaign.

Thankfully Mexxico did not change this to false alarm, and he left the topic as New or open.

Again I don’t want Lords to scatter, but give AI or Player Marshals options as to how to conduct a Campaign.

So If you have some ideas please post them here.
[/quote]

 

[Hellsbain]

I've trained with one handed weapons, and the connections between punching and swinging are very apparent. I've also been warned many times not to swing my weapons like baseball bats. You need to use all muscles in your arm effectively and efficiently. I can't say anything about axes, as I have never been trained with them, but I'm sure that domestic tools/sports/martial arts all have different requirements for swinging things well.

Peasants probably swing swords like baseball bats.

ok i was a lil tired when i rote it and didn't describe it perfectly. i didnt mean to say it was prefect or that they should swing swords like a bat only that you "swing" a sword its not a thrust your hand forward thing (thrust excepted) also the sword i have (and use) in a hand and a hald bastard sword and it takes a bit of efort to move it correctly one handed. so my view is a lil slanted twords more powerful swings. still fast and controled just with a bit more wined. sorry for any confusion

 

[bearKing]

C'mon now lets stop being perfectionist pricks, i think the sword combat is just fine, i will say the tournaments could do with some touching up...

- Instead of 1 huge melee event there could be separate events with a different prize for each one, and i mean cmon 200 denar is effing pathetic for beating like 63 other dudes in combat...

- A jousting event with a rail to separate the riders and forces a direct charge every time, instead of all this running around in circles trying to stab each other with blunt sticks, there should be the ability to knock some1 off their horse even if it doesnt kill them, and each jouster should have a sword for backup in case of being dehorsed (the honorable thing would be to get down off your horse and face him with your own blade)

- A mounted melee, everyone starts on horses in a total Free For All. (any weapons)
. A non mounted melee...

- you could take out that rain b.s. and add in wind effect instead, which would then add the needed challenge to make for a good archery contest.. haha

- Outside of tournaments... i was thinking you should be able to challenge any sort of lord to single combat, rather than duking it out on the battlefield. Maybe you dont have enough troops, maybe theyre not trained, whatever reason, but if hes not honorable and/or your persuasion is really low he might reject you, and even if hes honorable his troops might not be and will charge you after you win. Just a few thoughts...

P.S. im really tired of running around in circles with a lance doing 5 damage to his horse every 5 minutes, please PLEASE at least polish up the jousting..