Firstly, the dynamic and systemic approach TaleWorlds has taken to the campaign should be praised and encouraged! It will allow the game to feel alive and fresh over many playthroughs, and create unique situations in every campaign. Not enough games do this, and Bannerlord has the potential to be the best one to do so!
Games with highly-simulated dynamic systemic worlds and economies in which the NPCs are on similar footing with the player have all suffered from teething issues around faction balancing. From The Guild 2, to X4, and now Bannerlord, there is an art to balancing the different actors in these games. Bannerlord’s development can be aided by examining how similar games balanced different factions and actors.
In Egosoft's X4, another recent game besides Bannerlord to have a dynamic highly-simulated systemic world, many measures are in place to ensure that conflicts between factions do not snowball too quickly. These include things such as enabling factions to build up defences on their borders, softly limiting the scope of any one incursion, giving factions whose military has been beaten a priority to rebuild their forces, and missions for players and NPCs that can improve the odds of winning for a faction via systemic elements (such as the player being tasked with patrolling a contested area, or killing off persistent enemies).
It might even be worthwhile for TaleWorlds and Egosoft to consider discussing this subject together, as I’m sure both studios could learn from each other!
Here are some ideas I can think of that might improve campaign faction balance in Bannerlord, and I invite people to make their own suggestions in this thread:
Lord behaviours:
- Factions could heavily prioritise relieving besieged castles and towns.
- Having factions prioritise the defence of castles on chokepoints. Perhaps have Lords far more likely to patrol near them, and retreat to the nearby castle to defend it if they meet a superior force. Bannerlord has beautifully placed mountain passes, make sure the Lords make use of them!
- Make winning factions more complacent and less aggressive in wars, and make losing factions more aggressive.
- When a faction is very militarily outmatched by a faction they are at war with, the faction’s Lords could prioritise recruiting, and upgrading their forces before assembling to fight their enemy’s armies.
- When armies are defeated, surviving Lords could prioritise recruiting and regrouping.
- Lords could prioritise regaining their lost fiefs. Perhaps by making Lords who are leading armies and have lost fiefs more likely to try to retake fiefs that they’ve lost over other fiefs so long as the fiefs are adjacent to their faction’s current territory.
Additions:
- Enabling losing factions to recruit more troops from towns at the expense of economic growth. Perhaps factions enter a ‘crisis mode’ if the faction is losing, where economic growth of towns is stunted in favour of allowing their Lords to recruit more units from fiefs.
- There could be quests for players to defeat a number of enemy Lords in a war, or capture specific fiefs.
- Towns and Castles of losing factions could benefit from having some mobile defence in lieu of their Lord when their Lord is captured. This could be medium sized patrols that have low troop quality, but offer a buffer against weak enemies. They would return to their fief and despawn once the captured Lord is freed. Perhaps they could be led by castellans, or town militia leaders.
- Enable castles to limit enemy movement by periodically spawning small patrols around castles, this could also help thin bandit parties down if they stray too near.
Bannerlord has a ton of potential, and I’m sure other people will come up with even better ideas!
Games with highly-simulated dynamic systemic worlds and economies in which the NPCs are on similar footing with the player have all suffered from teething issues around faction balancing. From The Guild 2, to X4, and now Bannerlord, there is an art to balancing the different actors in these games. Bannerlord’s development can be aided by examining how similar games balanced different factions and actors.
In Egosoft's X4, another recent game besides Bannerlord to have a dynamic highly-simulated systemic world, many measures are in place to ensure that conflicts between factions do not snowball too quickly. These include things such as enabling factions to build up defences on their borders, softly limiting the scope of any one incursion, giving factions whose military has been beaten a priority to rebuild their forces, and missions for players and NPCs that can improve the odds of winning for a faction via systemic elements (such as the player being tasked with patrolling a contested area, or killing off persistent enemies).
It might even be worthwhile for TaleWorlds and Egosoft to consider discussing this subject together, as I’m sure both studios could learn from each other!
Here are some ideas I can think of that might improve campaign faction balance in Bannerlord, and I invite people to make their own suggestions in this thread:
Lord behaviours:
- Factions could heavily prioritise relieving besieged castles and towns.
- Having factions prioritise the defence of castles on chokepoints. Perhaps have Lords far more likely to patrol near them, and retreat to the nearby castle to defend it if they meet a superior force. Bannerlord has beautifully placed mountain passes, make sure the Lords make use of them!
- Make winning factions more complacent and less aggressive in wars, and make losing factions more aggressive.
- When a faction is very militarily outmatched by a faction they are at war with, the faction’s Lords could prioritise recruiting, and upgrading their forces before assembling to fight their enemy’s armies.
- When armies are defeated, surviving Lords could prioritise recruiting and regrouping.
- Lords could prioritise regaining their lost fiefs. Perhaps by making Lords who are leading armies and have lost fiefs more likely to try to retake fiefs that they’ve lost over other fiefs so long as the fiefs are adjacent to their faction’s current territory.
Additions:
- Enabling losing factions to recruit more troops from towns at the expense of economic growth. Perhaps factions enter a ‘crisis mode’ if the faction is losing, where economic growth of towns is stunted in favour of allowing their Lords to recruit more units from fiefs.
- There could be quests for players to defeat a number of enemy Lords in a war, or capture specific fiefs.
- Towns and Castles of losing factions could benefit from having some mobile defence in lieu of their Lord when their Lord is captured. This could be medium sized patrols that have low troop quality, but offer a buffer against weak enemies. They would return to their fief and despawn once the captured Lord is freed. Perhaps they could be led by castellans, or town militia leaders.
- Enable castles to limit enemy movement by periodically spawning small patrols around castles, this could also help thin bandit parties down if they stray too near.
Bannerlord has a ton of potential, and I’m sure other people will come up with even better ideas!