SP Native Freelancer Mod - Being a Regular Soldier

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Compatible version
e1.5.9
Added passive XProles

2831-1619817931-1776150445.jpeg

  • Version 1.2.0.4​

    • Changed passive XP gain system. Now you can request to be assigned to certain roles. Each role will have its own requirement and based on your role, each day, the system will randomly select one skill from the skill list of that role and give you a random XP. You can switch your role whenever you want.
    • Fixed renown reduce cheat
    • Added another cheat to locate your lord ( not tested properly yet )
    • Several small fixes
 
Added passive XProles

2831-1619817931-1776150445.jpeg

  • Version 1.2.0.4​

    • Changed passive XP gain system. Now you can request to be assigned to certain roles. Each role will have its own requirement and based on your role, each day, the system will randomly select one skill from the skill list of that role and give you a random XP. You can switch your role whenever you want.
    • Fixed renown reduce cheat
    • Added another cheat to locate your lord ( not tested properly yet )
    • Several small fixes
It was a good surprise to see you added the assistance system (y)
This mod is just pure butter!
 
I'm planning to spice bandit and caravan guard systems as well - if you guys have any suggestions/ideas let me know
(EDITED)
Okay, so I started a bandit playtrough and here are a few ideas.
Some may be difficult (impossible?) to be implemented, but I just list them and leave you the pleasure to evaluate the feasability.

Issue:
Having the possiblity to join the "dark side" negates the native bandit threath (some kind of "exploit").
Currently, there is no negative impact when we choose that path.
Solutions:
Once we decide to join a bandit party, we should suffer a huge crime rate increase (at least 30) with local kingdom.
Every attack on locals should result in a renown penalty (is it possible?).
High kill count should have more consequences. The more we kill people as a bandit, the more we should be considered as a criminal.
If we have a high crime rate and a high kill count, we become wanted by local authorities ==> in that case, it could trigger an encounter with a manhunter party. If we loose the fight, we get captured and put in jail.
I was thinking also about a relation penalty, but it may have too much impact in the mid-late game.

Issue:
We make easily a lot of money.
Solutions:
The more we make money as a bandit, the more we should be threaten by other bandits.
Once we reach a certain amount of money, it could trigger an encounter with a "rival" band wanting to rob us, or we may have to duel a bandit boss.

Random events:
Life is supposed to be hard as a bandit and full of unpredictable things.
A possible good way to spice up things is to add random events.
Becoming sick, other bandits want to fight with you, getting robbed during night, being injured after encountering a wolf pack, etc... It may be triggered depending of the time of the day, the environment, nearby settlements.
It makes sense as this kind of life should be far less stable than being a regular soldier.

Crime rate mechanic and actions in town:
BL has already a crime rating threshold system (mild-moderate-severe), so why not use it for additionnal actions in town?
First we need an option to leave the bandits party peacefully, something like "Leave me a few days, I have some business to do in town".

Mild level (>0 & <=30)
Add a submenu (availability based on fame) in tavern district with the following possible actions :
  • Better smuggler
  • Gamble-Drink
  • Thugs recruitment
  • Townsmen scam (takes 5 hours, with random success, we get gold based on town prosperity (20%))
Moderate level (>30 & <=65)
It is necessary to have a high roguery level (at least 100) because we have to sneak in. With the risk to be captured.
Expand the submenu in tavern district with:
  • Grand theft (takes 10 hours, success based on security(?), huge profit based on town gold or town prosperity)
  • High tier equipment robbery (similar to grand theft, but we get equipment instead)
Severe level (>65)
A this level, we are at war with the kingdom (actually it starts from >60)
Maybe it is time to add some political related content, impacting relations.
We may think about a spy in town, wanting to recruit some guys for dirty missions.
We get good amount of gold and relation increase with ennemies of current settlement owner.
  • Kill some guards to weaken the guarrison: trigger a mission by night where we have to fight several guards.
  • Wall sabotage to reduce the wall health
  • Unrest (thinking about your other mod)
Actions in towns may be done trough dialogues with gang leaders as well. So we could get relation increase.

The above actions will of course increase roguery level and other skills, depending of the action type.
For example:
Scam: charm and cunning
Grand theft: cunning
Wall sabotage: engineer

Action menu options:
Arm wrestling as a gamble option.
Have a drink to recover life, with the risk to get drunk.
Smuggler option should be available randomly. I know it is not possible on the menu, so it may be available trough pop-up event.

Fame related:
Having a high fame allows more and higher tier troops for recruitment.
Unlock submenu in towns.
 
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I'm planning to spice bandit and caravan guard systems as well - if you guys have any suggestions/ideas let me know0
I'll give it some thought.

I think these things work best when you're helping where the early game hurts: giving needed skill XP + personality traits + NPC relation + equipment.

Joining an army should be about leveling army skills and valor + getting that sweet sweet endgame armor.

Joining a caravan should be about making tons of money and leveling Mercantile/Stewardship + Calculating.

Joining bandits should be about leveling Roguery and valor and getting GP + bandit troops... maybe getting relationship with gangstas?

UNRELATED ?BUG? REPORT:
I was a soldier in Unquid's army and then he got beat.

Since then - roughly 200 days - he's been chilling in Quyaz with no army and I have no idea why. In the meantime, I've leveled up the clan rank to 2 despite my best efforts (apparently doesn't remove the rejoin army option, thankfully), made about a million gp, had a baby and served as a caravan guard for weeks.
 
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Currently, there is no negative impact when we choose that path.
There is. When you kill villagers, after each battle your crime rating goes up.
We make easily a lot of money.
I'm not entirely sure if this is correct for the bandit option. You are earning very low compared to normal freelancing. So you are actually not earning much in my opinion. It's balanced by default - but it's raising your roguery quite fine
The rest of the suggestions are good but they are like, well require to rewrite a completely new system which is something I don't want to do at the moment.

I think these things work best when you're helping where the early game hurts: giving needed skill XP + personality traits + NPC relation + equipment.
I think currently I'm helping with all those based on sub-roles ( bandit, caravan guard etc ) but still adding some things might be better.

I will probably add a feature which after a certain level, will make bandits neutral to you and will grant you access to some random units from hideouts + smuggler feature as well. However, I need to balance things a bit since this can cause a lot of issues in late game ( imagine not being able to farm looters = always recruit army ) so it will be based on your fame within bandits and it will go down gradually and will increase if you kill "peasants" etc.


Since then - roughly 200 days - he's been chilling in Quyaz with no army and I have no idea why. In the meantime, I've leveled up the clan rank to 2 despite my best efforts (apparently doesn't remove the rejoin army option, thankfully), made about a million gp, had a baby and served as a caravan guard for weeks.
200 days is too much. I'm not sure if this is possible. Because he is faction leader and within 200 days they definitely went into war with multiple factions and as faction leader, he should lead an army at least once. However yes, for some reason lords started to chill longer in their castles and towns. I think they are declaring themselves as governor and that's why they are staying too long in those cities. And they are still teleporting ( i.e. from X castle to Y town, without travelling ) which also shows that AI isn't playing fair. I will check if this is related to governor or not - if it is, perhaps I can unassign them forcefully so that they can assemble an army
 
There is. When you kill villagers, after each battle your crime rating goes up.
You are right but my point was when we decide to join the bandits.
Anyway, I noticed that the rate increases in some kind of exponantial curve, so we reach a high level after a few days of locals attack.
I'm not entirely sure if this is correct for the bandit option. You are earning very low compared to normal freelancing. So you are actually not earning much in my opinion. It's balanced by default - but it's raising your roguery quite fine
Indeed roguery levels up fast.
But I was quite worrying to see how we can make such money while partying with basic looters.
The rest of the suggestions are good but they are like, well require to rewrite a completely new system which is something I don't want to do at the moment.
Of course, I was just throwing away some ideas and gameplay possibilities.
Actually I created a mod for personnal use (and learning) with a submenu in tavern district, but I couldn't figure out how to connect it with bannerlord world.
And your bandit system and the fame mechanic is exactly what I was looking for.
I will probably add a feature which after a certain level, will make bandits neutral to you and will grant you access to some random units from hideouts + smuggler feature as well. However, I need to balance things a bit since this can cause a lot of issues in late game ( imagine not being able to farm looters = always recruit army ) so it will be based on your fame within bandits and it will go down gradually and will increase if you kill "peasants" etc.
Being able to interact with hideouts or even create its own hideout would be nice as well.
 
But I was quite worrying to see how we can make such money while partying with basic looters.
But again, you are not making too much money anyway, aren't you? Your daily earning is super low anyways.

Actually I created a mod for personnal use (and learning) with a submenu in tavern district, but I couldn't figure out how to connect it with bannerlord world.
Check the exact key for settlements in their menu. You can search for one of the strings in the dll and see if it's there. Then you can use same menu name for your extra options.

Being able to interact with hideouts or even create its own hideout would be nice as well.
Yeah all depends on my free time tho - and technical possibility. Since not everything is easy to mod and tweak in current game code
 
But again, you are not making too much money anyway, aren't you? Your daily earning is super low anyways.
After 60 days, I'm level 11, have 25K gold, decent armour and my roguery is 111.
In the beginning, I left the game running, hoping for the bandits to catch some villagers.
But then I started to use the "attack locals" on every tick.
Looters could catch-up some caravans as well.
I'm at war with Vlandia with a criminal rate of 100... Knowing that the decrease of criminal rate is 0,5 per days when at war, it looks like I will have to be captured and punished to get back to some decent levels.
Check the exact key for settlements in their menu. You can search for one of the strings in the dll and see if it's there. Then you can use same menu name for your extra options.
Thank you for the advice. :smile:
But by "connect with world" I mean make the tavern district submenu available under specific conditions, be a consequence of specific actions done by the player ==> Bandit fame is the key!
Because, as you already said, there is no vanilla features for a real roguery-bandit gameplay, unfortunately...
 
200 days is too much. I'm not sure if this is possible. Because he is faction leader and within 200 days they definitely went into war with multiple factions and as faction leader, he should lead an army at least once. However yes, for some reason lords started to chill longer in their castles and towns. I think they are declaring themselves as governor and that's why they are staying too long in those cities. And they are still teleporting ( i.e. from X castle to Y town, without travelling ) which also shows that AI isn't playing fair. I will check if this is related to governor or not - if it is, perhaps I can unassign them forcefully so that they can assemble an army
Yeah you called it. I'm not 100% sure he's serving as governor, but he has absolutely gone through several wars without reconstituting his army.

It's a bug but I really don't mind it: I've taken to just asking to rejoin him a dozen times so the timer stacks because he hasn't moved from Quyaz at all in ages.

Food for thought: it's very difficult for an entry-level soldier to refresh that 7-day timer considering that lords in keeps require a bribe to reach (I have Diplomacy Fixes - thank God - so it only costs me 100 each time for a messenger). Is there a way for service as a soldier to waive those bribes despite having low clan level?

Also would it help if I posted my save?
 
Food for thought: it's very difficult for an entry-level soldier to refresh that 7-day timer considering that lords in keeps require a bribe to reach (I have Diplomacy Fixes - thank God - so it only costs me 100 each time for a messenger). Is there a way for service as a soldier to waive those bribes despite having low clan level?
I think it's not necessary. I mean you are earning A LOT very quickly while in the army - which might even something I have to check. 800 or something similar shouldn't impact your purse - if you are new starter, you shouldn't chase after your lord anyway because you have nothing to lose.

I can try to check if I can eliminate that bribe penalty perhaps in the future. Diplomacy Fixes or Telepathy's talk function is actually not fair and somewhat against what I designed at the first place - but yes it can bu used.

Save game is not required since you are not crashing or not encountering something too strange. It's AI being AI, that's all. I will take a look what I can do in my free time.
 
  • Version 1.2.0.5​

    • Now if the lord waits more than 10 days in their city after defeat, the system will force him to regroup and create a new party. No need to wait for ages for lord to form a new party
    • Fixed an issue that was causing troops under your command not to get healed up while being a bandit
    • Fixed an issue that was causing a crash when you try to rejoin when you talk with the "Request to see someone" option in castles
    • Fixed an issue that was causing free if you sworn oath not to attack a faction but still bandits engage action
    • Fixed an issue that was crashing in 1.5.9 hotfix
 
Great mod. I just keep it running while watching youtube or something and then go into battle lol. Is there any chance you would add option to buy your own equipment? Maybe after reaching highest tier of noble troop or something? I'm pretty sure nobles would just buy fancy stuff for themselves, just to show off if anything (even wealthy Roman officers had some nice engraved Gladius or whatever).

I'm saying this mostly because the troop trees are very limiting. For example I prefer using 2h axe over any other weapon, but only non noble infantry with crap gear use those. Also I'm acquiring quite a lot of gold, I don't really plan on playing the campaign normally, so there is nothing to spend the $ on, but I know shops have really good items worth hundreds of thousands.

Anyway great work, cheers.
 
Is there any chance you would add option to buy your own equipment? Maybe after reaching highest tier of noble troop or something? I'm pretty sure nobles would just buy fancy stuff for themselves, just to show off if anything (even wealthy Roman officers had some nice engraved Gladius or whatever)
I'm not planning to add this since some of the mechanics are relying on this ( as well as some exploit measurements)

And it's not historically true that they buy their own equipment. After Marian Reforms, all the equipment was given to soldier by the army - and while leaving the army they have to bring back assigned equipment. During the service, they were in charge of maintaining the equipment though - which isn't something we should consider because BL doesn't have this. However, in your case of gladius, for example, is also given by the army and manufactured by Roman official weaponsmiths as a standard weapon. You can surely get another type of weapons from somewhere, perhaps you use Kopis that you looted from Greek soldiers etc but in the end, as an army, you should have some type of weapons with the same durability to avoid heterogeneous strength-defence distribution on your unit/cohort.

And this historical fact and technical reasoning aside, overall it wouldn't make much sense to give you the ability to use your own equipment while doing freelancing because the main idea is making you feel like a "regular" soldier. And if you use a bow and arrow while you were supposed to be a normal lancer, it wouldn't just look weird but also would make you feel less like a "regular" soldier but more like a mercenary contract with no soldiers under your command
 
I'm not planning to add this since some of the mechanics are relying on this ( as well as some exploit measurements)

And it's not historically true that they buy their own equipment. After Marian Reforms, all the equipment was given to soldier by the army - and while leaving the army they have to bring back assigned equipment. During the service, they were in charge of maintaining the equipment though - which isn't something we should consider because BL doesn't have this. However, in your case of gladius, for example, is also given by the army and manufactured by Roman official weaponsmiths as a standard weapon. You can surely get another type of weapons from somewhere, perhaps you use Kopis that you looted from Greek soldiers etc but in the end, as an army, you should have some type of weapons with the same durability to avoid heterogeneous strength-defence distribution on your unit/cohort.

And this historical fact and technical reasoning aside, overall it wouldn't make much sense to give you the ability to use your own equipment while doing freelancing because the main idea is making you feel like a "regular" soldier. And if you use a bow and arrow while you were supposed to be a normal lancer, it wouldn't just look weird but also would make you feel less like a "regular" soldier but more like a mercenary contract with no soldiers under your command
Well I agree with the soldiers, but a noble in early/mid medieval Europe could just bring his own stuff and who is going to complain lol. Even the individual soldiers have randomized equipment in the xml files. With Romans you are very right, but this seems to be more of a early medieval setting, and I mean if you are a killing machine with 100 fame and 2000 kills, I don't think anyone cares anymore about what you do as long as you show up.

Strangely enough - I was reading about some ww2 stuff just before I found this mod, and soviet ace pilot Ivan Kozhedub mentioned how he was allowed to fly on his own and basically do what he wants, after he got some kills and demonstrated his ability, and this is kinda how it worked for aces in all armies, so I figured it would fit a mod like this, at least the "end game" of it.

Well anyway agree to disagree I guess, I'll try to look into the mod to see if I can code something for myself lol, maybe option to choose if you want want the issued equipment or want to use your own, after you accept the noble troop line.
 
Well I agree with the soldiers, but a noble in early/mid medieval Europe could just bring his own stuff and who is going to complain lol. Even the individual soldiers have randomized equipment in the xml files. With Romans you are very right, but this seems to be more of a early medieval setting, and I mean if you are a killing machine with 100 fame and 2000 kills, I don't think anyone cares anymore about what you do as long as you show up.
I'm not saying this wasn't the case in Medieval Europe. But it wasn't the case in Late Antiquity which is the period where Bannerlord based from. In-game you have different equipment but they are not completely different and more or less always in the same range. The reason for this is again historically accurate. You can't always produce armour and such with the same quality while you are marching. Some things will be different and some will be reused for that purpose.

You normally can't have 2000 kills unless you have some other weird mods that are highly unbalancing the game or if you are cheating. So that scenario is not possible anyways. If you are able to kill 2000 people you wouldn't waste your time with freelancing as well, since you are basically unstoppable.

You can't code anything inside the mod directly but you don't need to anyway. Open the cheat menu and add whatever the equipment you want in the Inventory section - problem solved.
 
I'm not saying this wasn't the case in Medieval Europe. But it wasn't the case in Late Antiquity which is the period where Bannerlord based from. In-game you have different equipment but they are not completely different and more or less always in the same range. The reason for this is again historically accurate. You can't always produce armour and such with the same quality while you are marching. Some things will be different and some will be reused for that purpose.

You normally can't have 2000 kills unless you have some other weird mods that are highly unbalancing the game or if you are cheating. So that scenario is not possible anyways. If you are able to kill 2000 people you wouldn't waste your time with freelancing as well, since you are basically unstoppable.

You can't code anything inside the mod directly but you don't need to anyway. Open the cheat menu and add whatever the equipment you want in the Inventory section - problem solved.
Yeah but it has viking style helmets in the game, and a Kievan sort of style faction, so I think crazy stuff like 2h axe wielding crazy Varangian guard mercenaries fit right in. Pretty much a fantasy setting anyway.

As for kills - a bit exaggerated, but probably racked close to a 1000 or so in total to get 1h skill to 260~ lol. I should be able at that point to just ask the general to let me carry a big axe for fighting shielded infantry, or at least a mace for enemy elites etc, because I still lose battles sometimes. Cataphract sword is pretty good, but not the best tool for every situation.

Either way, I thought I might be able to do some things with dnspy, but looks like nope, the cheat menu will have to do, thanks.
 
Version 1.2.1.0

- Added war/peace indicator. Now when you enlisted as a soldier, you will know who is at war with who. And whenever they declare war, you will also see the indicators on the main map immediately. This doesn't mean that you will be at war with them as a clan, but it's only a temporary indicator while you are fighting. Once you leave your service, everything will go back to how it used to be ( i.e. if your Clan is at war with Battania, you won't get free peace )
- Now you can't join all bandit troops right off the bat. There is a 20% chance that they won't ask you for this option.
- Tweaked some purchase options for bandits and caravans
- Polished some stuff and crushed some minor bugs

Bandit Career Expansion
Now you can form your own bandit organization in Calradia. Own a hideout - get offers from lords who want you to do the dirty work and much more.
i7MtE.jpg

To form your own gang, you need at least 95 fame among bandits and 40 kills. Once you are eligible, you will see the "Form your own gang" option changes. If for some reason menu is not changing, simply open Trade with smuggler screen and exit, it should show.

kEHUD.jpg

Once you click, the following happens:
- You become hostile to all kingdoms.
- You become an ally to all bandit type units - desert bandits, looters etc. This doesn't mean that you can't backstab them. I mean, you are a bandit, right? You can still approach them and kill them.
- You own an available hideout nearby. This "nearby" can be a bit far away - this is solely related to availability. So don't surprise if you have to go a bit further to settle in your new hideout.
- You will be asked to add a name for your gang/bandit organization. This will also show on the nameplate of your hideout as X's Inn.
- You will be recognized as a leader. Hideout will be under your control. You can recruit new people from hideouts as well.

AKIOK.jpg

Hideout Management
In your hideout, you can manage several things and interact with your followers.
- You can trade with a smuggler: This is basically the same as how you do while at a bandit party. However, this smuggler brings more goods and have more money. He also smuggles better items based on availability. Each day items changes.
- You can set ON or OFF to criminal activities. Criminal activities will decide how much you will earn and how much your criminal activity will hurt other factions. The current version is tested loosely but currently, values are 5 and 2 per week. ie. if you allowed criminal activities, you will have -5 criminal rate with factions and -2 if you turned it OFF. This happens weekly and revenue also comes weekly. That revenue is completely based on how many units you added inside your hideout and their tiers.
- You can sell your prisoners. You can also keep your prisoners inside the troop screen if you don't want to sell them.
- Each day random amount of locals will come and request joining. You can choose to ignore this if you have enough amount of soldiers.

gMwht.jpg

Dirty Business
When two factions go into war, the weakest side can decide to pay some money to you in order to balance things out for their own good. You will get a notification, giving you information about who is asking where to attack and how much they are offering. This is pretty a sweet deal if you are a bandit. They will still attack and chase you - because what you are doing won't be an official faction agreement. So don't think the faction that you are helping won't attack you. Try to avoid their armies.

Things to note
- You can leave banditry whenever you want. This will take hideout out of your control and you will lose soldiers inside there. However, you won't be hunted down by other factions anymore. If you have criminal records on those factions, you still need to pay up though.
- If you go away more than 65 days, hideout will find a new leader and will be taken out of your control. So try to visit your people from time to time.
 
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