Forage

[Lord Barrett]

Have the devs, or even some users considered the use of forage?

You have to feed your troops, why not their horses?

You would have to buy or loot it just like regular food. In addition, higher quality and diversity of forage could infer bonuses just like high quality foods. E.g. there could be bonuses for more expensive forage like oats versus cheap stuff like hay. Obviously, horses don't need morale bonuses, so the effect would be on speed, both on the world and battle maps. As another option, there could be a camp action to go find forage. You couldn't get the better forage items, but you could get the very basic, so your horses don't starve.

I think this would be a good addition to the game, giving just a little disadvantage to having lots of mounted troops. I realize it would be a pain in the ass compared to the system now, but it would make it more realistic.

So what do you think? Does this sound like a good idea or is the system fine as it is with the increased wage costs of mounted troops?

 

[Ringwraith #5]

Nah, just another needless complication. You want more speed, buy a faster horse.

 

[Kellick]

Yeah, needless complication. It is enough tedium as it is feeding the troops, I have all these food items clogging my inventory and yet somehow I still manage to run out when I am building a siegetower if I don't think to check beforehand.
Why do you think the mounted troops cost 166% of normal wages?
I assume that is the care and feeding of mounts abstracted.

 

[Askorti]

I think that it's good idea. I remember same thing from XIII mod and it was fine. I made mod a bit harder because on the beginning I weren't able to find any forage in towns

 

[Dent]

Have the devs, or even some users considered the use of forage?

You have to feed your troops, why not their horses?

You would have to buy or loot it just like regular food. In addition, higher quality and diversity of forage could infer bonuses just like high quality foods. E.g. there could be bonuses for more expensive forage like oats versus cheap stuff like hay. Obviously, horses don't need morale bonuses, so the effect would be on speed, both on the world and battle maps. As another option, there could be a camp action to go find forage. You couldn't get the better forage items, but you could get the very basic, so your horses don't starve.

I think this would be a good addition to the game, giving just a little disadvantage to having lots of mounted troops. I realize it would be a pain in the ass compared to the system now, but it would make it more realistic.

So what do you think? Does this sound like a good idea or is the system fine as it is with the increased wage costs of mounted troops?

NOTE: I realize this should be in the suggestions forum, but to be honest, I like you guys better  . So I brought it here first.

There's a mod that does this. I believe it is Rus XIII Century, but I could be wrong. Either way, you need to buy food for your horses or you travel at a turtle's pace on the world map as long as there is a single horse in your party.
Wait for the Warband version and then you can ask what they changed in the txt to make it so.

 

[CorSelinke]

Why do you think the mounted troops cost 166% of normal wages?
I assume that is the care and feeding of mounts abstracted.

Thats what I thought as well.

 

[Lord Barrett]

Nah, just another needless complication. You want more speed, buy a faster horse.

But in Native, there is no way to increase the speed of your horse on the world map (not talking about pathfinding, obviously). This would give you that option.

Yeah, needless complication. It is enough tedium as it is feeding the troops, I have all these food items clogging my inventory and yet somehow I still manage to run out when I am building a siegetower if I don't think to check beforehand.
Why do you think the mounted troops cost 166% of normal wages?
I assume that is the care and feeding of mounts abstracted.

You really think that having to buy one more food type is all that complicated?

 

[nijis]

Forage is important, as it is one factor that makes it more difficult for agrarian armies to campaign on the steppes. Big but delicate warhorses need to supplement grazing with oats or other high-quality food, whereas steppe ponies can survive on grass alone, iirc.

However, it's an extra complication at this point, and as M&B campaigns are fairly short in duration, forage requirements can as the others point out be considered part of the higher cavalry maintenance costs.

A more important logistical factor would be the need to camp by an ample supply of water, which affects horse-heavy armies much more than foot-bound ones. However, I don't think we're planning anything on these lines for this stage in the development of the game system.

 

[Velax]

I realize it would be a pain in the ass compared to the system now....

Your own statement should have been an indicator as to why this is not a good idea.

 

[Kellick]

You really think that having to buy one more food type is all that complicated?

Yes, you aren't talking about adding 1 more food item, you are talking about adding another category.
It is extra tedium and management. It would not add anything useful to the game. It certainly would not add fun.

 

[Ringwraith #5]

I don't think we're planning anything on these lines for this stage in the development of the game system.

What development? I thought you guys were done with M&B and just patching bugs. Sure, there's going to be a M&B2 sometime in the future, but that's going to be on an entirely new engine and system... right?

 

[Lord Barrett]

Forage is important, as it is one factor that makes it more difficult for agrarian armies to campaign on the steppes. Big but delicate warhorses need to supplement grazing with oats or other high-quality food, whereas steppe ponies can survive on grass alone, iirc.

However, it's an extra complication at this point, and as M&B campaigns are fairly short in duration, forage requirements can as the others point out be considered part of the higher cavalry maintenance costs.

A more important logistical factor would be the need to camp by an ample supply of water, which affects horse-heavy armies much more than foot-bound ones. However, I don't think we're planning anything on these lines for this stage in the development of the game system.

A dev? In my thread? Man, I feel special.

So do you think some system like forage or your water system you managed will make it's way into M&B2?

I realize it would be a pain in the ass compared to the system now....

Your own statement should have been an indicator as to why this is not a good idea.

Just because something is a pain in the ass doesn't mean it makes the game worse.

I think we could all agree that manual blocking w/ 2 handers is a pain in the ass at times, but in my opinion at least, it makes the game much more challenging and fun. I prefer challenge over automation, but that's just me.

You really think that having to buy one more food type is all that complicated?

Yes, you aren't talking about adding 1 more food item, you are talking about adding another category.
It is extra tedium and management. It would not add anything useful to the game. It certainly would not add fun.

Touche, good sir. (sorry, I don't have the ability to use accent marks)

 

[zumbum]

Touche, good sir. (sorry, I don't have the ability to use accent marks)

You'll unlock it when you reach level 10.

 

[Lord Barrett]

Touche, good sir. (sorry, I don't have the ability to use accent marks)

You'll unlock it when you reach level 10.

I personally thought it would happen when my power level was over 9000.

 

[CryoNomad]

I don't think we're planning anything on these lines for this stage in the development of the game system.

What development? I thought you guys were done with M&B and just patching bugs. Sure, there's going to be a M&B2 sometime in the future, but that's going to be on an entirely new engine and system... right?

You know as well as I that they are skipping 2 and labeling the next one 3.

 

[Falcon Critical]

Just buy extra 'grain' and assume that its fed to the horses instead of being made into porridge.

 

[Sh4d0wbl4d3]

My answer is yes and no. Yes because this adds an overhaul to the entire gameplay, and no because it's pointless. If by feeding them oats can improve their status (lame, swaybacked, normal, etc) then I might agree more to it, but this is mostly pointless, as if you only have 1 cav and about 50 infantries there's no way your movement speed would increase with just ONE horse. And since horses revive after battle there's no need on making horses more vulnerable than they already are.