First I must say, this is for un-modded Beta v1.1.0, although comparisons to previous versions will be made. This is not a bug report as it is too broad to report, it is for discussion. We are all aware that the game is still in development and this is not a point of argument here. I complete campaigns on most versions of the Bannerlord, just for comparison of the problems I will discribe.
In short, the basic gameplay loop of defeating factions and taking fiefs and creating/recruiting clans to paint the map has been compromised in a variety of ways.
1: Vassals, both player faction and AI seem even more docile at defending from sieges or defeating enemies then in previous versions .
2: Parties coming to fight together to attack a besieger does not seem to happen anymore. I have taken half the map and not once have I seen the behavior I'm used to where parties or smaller armies will come and wait and attack when enough show up.
3: Factions that have no fiefs, or very few fiefs seem to easily attack other factions and take more fiefs, both from player and AI factions.
4: AI Armies, other then the largest possible seem docile and slow to do anything productive. Meanwhile a army of 1k can chain siege fiefs undisturbed, even if an appropriate amount of smaller armies exist, they seem to not care/know.
What this does create a situation that players call Wack-a-Mole, no matter how well you've created you faction. Even with much greater power and amount of clans and starting in a good location, unlike in previous version, the AI can somehow easily re-take fiefs from you causing you to have to re-take them, But because the AI can do this somehow even with no fiefs, it can just happen again and again. And of course there will enemies on the other side of the map too, so the overall feeling of progress and satisfaction of playing the game is dramatically compromised. Most player simply do not want to have repetitive loops of the same exact content with no feeling of progress.
Now lets keep in mind long standing problems and concerns that effect this.
1 No control over vassal or armies! Even though you have superior numbers and power, it's useless because you are dependent on the AI's calculations for their actions and if for some reason they aren't helping and doing useful things it's not different then just playing as your own clan, even though you have 30+ vassals.
2 No diplomacy gameplay, war/peace tributes system is not very useful. The game just calculates constantly to make new wars so even if you make peace to focus on one or two factions it seems to just increase the chances of another war being declared. We all know how the calculation is made to stop snowballing, but it's not useful or appropriate for the players interactions with the AI. In short: Player needs to paint the map as this is the only gameplay that exists.
3 Vassals will vote for more wars even when you have several going and they aren't helping at all. It makes no sense. Vassals can just vote again and again too.
4 Clans will stop joining you (even if all normal conditions are met) when you faction has an amount of clans (20? 25?). This means you can't recruit all the normal clans in the game and since they don't leave the game they persist as enemies forever. This was less harmful in past versions but in Beta v1.1.0 they seem to re-take your fiefs much easier and seem to be ignored by your vassals very often.
Keep in mind that there is not other gameplay in bannerlord but battles and siege's, painting the map is the only activity and no other content exists in the future plans either. This is not meant as a complaint, just to point out that it's not okay to make the AI incompetent at defending so that the map cannot be taken in a reasonable way, as this is the sole activity of the game. If you can't make reasonable progress and hold you lands with superior power and number of clans, you might as well just load custom battle and fight individual battles all day as the rest of the game looses all meaning.
Another unrelated but odd issue I've seen is that occasionally a wander turned into a clan leader will "be lost from the game", they weren't in combat and were only 30 so this was not a normal type of death. By re-loading it could be avoided, meaning it was some type of roll from the game. It is likely a bug from the process where wanderers are removed sometimes form the game, but obviously this is not appropriate for wanderers turned into vassals.
Another issue I have is the pre-deployment of siege battles sometimes does not let you separate non-ranged form ranged. I know it is because it is only giving X a small mount of non-ranged, but these non ranged being in with ranged makes them vulnerable to attack as they can't be put in shield wall (without compromising the ranged troops). Even if I have only 20 or less, I want to use them independently as infantry. I also notice I am not able to move anything into groups 1 and 3 some times, but by changing group 2 to infantry I can then add things to these groups, then change group 2 back to ranged and have the 4 groups I want, it is strange and I don't understand it.
Of course all of the other past siege problems like troops not using the ladders very well and enemies getting stuck in walls still exist.
Anyways this stuff is too broad and non-understood to report as bugs, but we can discus it.
In short, the basic gameplay loop of defeating factions and taking fiefs and creating/recruiting clans to paint the map has been compromised in a variety of ways.
1: Vassals, both player faction and AI seem even more docile at defending from sieges or defeating enemies then in previous versions .
2: Parties coming to fight together to attack a besieger does not seem to happen anymore. I have taken half the map and not once have I seen the behavior I'm used to where parties or smaller armies will come and wait and attack when enough show up.
3: Factions that have no fiefs, or very few fiefs seem to easily attack other factions and take more fiefs, both from player and AI factions.
4: AI Armies, other then the largest possible seem docile and slow to do anything productive. Meanwhile a army of 1k can chain siege fiefs undisturbed, even if an appropriate amount of smaller armies exist, they seem to not care/know.
What this does create a situation that players call Wack-a-Mole, no matter how well you've created you faction. Even with much greater power and amount of clans and starting in a good location, unlike in previous version, the AI can somehow easily re-take fiefs from you causing you to have to re-take them, But because the AI can do this somehow even with no fiefs, it can just happen again and again. And of course there will enemies on the other side of the map too, so the overall feeling of progress and satisfaction of playing the game is dramatically compromised. Most player simply do not want to have repetitive loops of the same exact content with no feeling of progress.
Now lets keep in mind long standing problems and concerns that effect this.
1 No control over vassal or armies! Even though you have superior numbers and power, it's useless because you are dependent on the AI's calculations for their actions and if for some reason they aren't helping and doing useful things it's not different then just playing as your own clan, even though you have 30+ vassals.
2 No diplomacy gameplay, war/peace tributes system is not very useful. The game just calculates constantly to make new wars so even if you make peace to focus on one or two factions it seems to just increase the chances of another war being declared. We all know how the calculation is made to stop snowballing, but it's not useful or appropriate for the players interactions with the AI. In short: Player needs to paint the map as this is the only gameplay that exists.
3 Vassals will vote for more wars even when you have several going and they aren't helping at all. It makes no sense. Vassals can just vote again and again too.
4 Clans will stop joining you (even if all normal conditions are met) when you faction has an amount of clans (20? 25?). This means you can't recruit all the normal clans in the game and since they don't leave the game they persist as enemies forever. This was less harmful in past versions but in Beta v1.1.0 they seem to re-take your fiefs much easier and seem to be ignored by your vassals very often.
Keep in mind that there is not other gameplay in bannerlord but battles and siege's, painting the map is the only activity and no other content exists in the future plans either. This is not meant as a complaint, just to point out that it's not okay to make the AI incompetent at defending so that the map cannot be taken in a reasonable way, as this is the sole activity of the game. If you can't make reasonable progress and hold you lands with superior power and number of clans, you might as well just load custom battle and fight individual battles all day as the rest of the game looses all meaning.
Another unrelated but odd issue I've seen is that occasionally a wander turned into a clan leader will "be lost from the game", they weren't in combat and were only 30 so this was not a normal type of death. By re-loading it could be avoided, meaning it was some type of roll from the game. It is likely a bug from the process where wanderers are removed sometimes form the game, but obviously this is not appropriate for wanderers turned into vassals.
Another issue I have is the pre-deployment of siege battles sometimes does not let you separate non-ranged form ranged. I know it is because it is only giving X a small mount of non-ranged, but these non ranged being in with ranged makes them vulnerable to attack as they can't be put in shield wall (without compromising the ranged troops). Even if I have only 20 or less, I want to use them independently as infantry. I also notice I am not able to move anything into groups 1 and 3 some times, but by changing group 2 to infantry I can then add things to these groups, then change group 2 back to ranged and have the 4 groups I want, it is strange and I don't understand it.
Of course all of the other past siege problems like troops not using the ladders very well and enemies getting stuck in walls still exist.
Anyways this stuff is too broad and non-understood to report as bugs, but we can discus it.
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