Hostile City Proximity

[TheDud]

Hey Guys,

First post but have been playing the M&B series for some time now, looking to clock 1000 hours soon in Warband. 

Always thought a really cool feature would be a danger zone around hostile cities/castles.

For instance it always kind of annoyed me that entire armies would be able to walk past castles in choke points with no repercussions whatsoever - I mean surely the whole point of this kind of castle is to at least slow the armies down?

My idea would be to have a certain proximity around castles and cities that if you were to enter it (assuming you were hostile to the faction) you would take attrition damage over time due to arrows and other ranged weapons being launched from the safety of the walls.

A possibility would be to take some time (preparation time) just outside this zone to construct mobile defences to lower the damage taken when going through the zone but that would of course mean that you would need to balance the value of your time and the value of your troops lives.

TLR make choke holds mean something when fortified.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Horik6697]

Well, it could be a moddable feature but I don't see  that happening in the game. About "no repercussion whatsoever", castles gives information about hostile parties ("medium-sized group of enemies spotted near Tellrog Castle, i.e.), and both player and AI can use this info; and castles/cities can shelter lords so they can regain their forces after a battle or to trap you when you get to close to a castle (happened to me sometimes).

You should not imagine the distance between the characters and the castles in the world-map as if they were in real life. What I mean is even if in the world-map the characters icon looks very close to a castle or city, in real life he just past close to it... Close enought for the castle's watchmen spot you, but not enought for the archers to hit you. The world-map is just a representation.

And beyond, I don't see how the game can become funnier with this feature, just more slow and annoying.

 

[CalenLoki]

For castles to actually protect open borders you'd need some supply line system. Something that foce parties to either go back to friendly settlement to resupply quite often (for small and fast parties) or send someone to bring supplies (for big and slow parties). Then castles could be used to spot and send riders against those supply groups.

For castles that are placed on choke-points (mountain passes, bridges) it's as simple as physically blocking the passage on the world map, thus forcing player to enter town on one side and exit on the other. And to teach AI lords to do the same (that's the tricky part). Or change world map pathfinding script to treat settlements as solid obstacle unless they are friendly.
And it's quite old idea. https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,72698.msg1887451.html#msg1887451

 

[jackalj]

The devs mentioned chokepoints, so maybe there is a new feature in place to actually make chokepoints viable.

 

[Balexander]

the only blog who had something about chokepoints is blog 12

"The topography of the map is not entirely consistent with Warband, in fact Bannerlord's map is somewhat more mountainous. The effect of this is an increase in the number of choke points. It will be hard to avoid conflict, for instance, when traversing narrow passes through mountain ranges that may be riddled with ambush spots or enemy patrols. Tactically, the map offers many more options for controlling areas that serve as trade routes. Battles are often fought in the game to contest key choke points with the goal of securing passage for trade caravans and other parties."

 

[TheDud]

the only blog who had something about chokepoints is blog 12

"The topography of the map is not entirely consistent with Warband, in fact Bannerlord's map is somewhat more mountainous. The effect of this is an increase in the number of choke points. It will be hard to avoid conflict, for instance, when traversing narrow passes through mountain ranges that may be riddled with ambush spots or enemy patrols. Tactically, the map offers many more options for controlling areas that serve as trade routes. Battles are often fought in the game to contest key choke points with the goal of securing passage for trade caravans and other parties."

Yeah I saw this but I believe this is more geared at just party ambushes, which is awesome but I just don't get how armies can completely bypass a castle that is in a tiny valley between two mountains (as an extreme example).

It would not need to apply to all castles and towns I guess but at least these ones.

For castles to actually protect open borders you'd need some supply line system. Something that foce parties to either go back to friendly settlement to resupply quite often (for small and fast parties) or send someone to bring supplies (for big and slow parties). Then castles could be used to spot and send riders against those supply groups.

For castles that are placed on choke-points (mountain passes, bridges) it's as simple as physically blocking the passage on the world map, thus forcing player to enter town on one side and exit on the other. And to teach AI lords to do the same (that's the tricky part). Or change world map pathfinding script to treat settlements as solid obstacle unless they are friendly.
And it's quite old idea. https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,72698.msg1887451.html#msg1887451

I really like what you have said here and it goes along with at least the basic principles of what I was thinking.