I'm new! And a bit lost :(

[RollTheBones]

Hi all,

I recently discovered this game (my son found it and showed me!) and am loving it so far. It has some really great mechanics and the battles are some of the best I have seen in this genre.  That being said:

I am a bit lost on what in the heck to do...I am currently level 11 with an army of about 20.  I have one Hero, Jermus or something (hes a monk type with high medical skills but always seems to be wounded).  I tend to lean towards the Danish Viking type so when I found the Nords I thought "Ok this is my home, I am joining these guys!"  I am wondering if that was a mistake since I can't take two steps without being mobbed by armies 4 times my size.

What I really want is to become a fearsome warlord and have my own castle...am I better off doing this on my own or joining one of the factions?

If the former, can I get out of my allegiance to the Nords or do I have to start over?

Another question: do items and NPCs scale with my character level in this game?

TIA,

 

[Mabons]

Hi all,

I recently discovered this game (my son found it and showed me!) and am loving it so far. It has some really great mechanics and the battles are some of the best I have seen in this genre.  That being said:

I am a bit lost on what in the heck to do...I am currently level 11 with an army of about 20.  I have one Hero, Jermus or something (hes a monk type with high medical skills but always seems to be wounded).  I tend to lean towards the Danish Viking type so when I found the Nords I thought "Ok this is my home, I am joining these guys!"  I am wondering if that was a mistake since I can't take two steps without being mobbed by armies 4 times my size.

Well, your army isn't very big, I'd suggest getting some better troops too. Try to fight bandits mainly and when you are roughly level 20 and 50 good troops, start taking on lords. Jeremus will continue to heal unconcious so don't worry about that. And you've done the right thing choosing the nords. Make all youre infantry stand closer and hold position until enemy reaches you in battles.

What I really want is to become a fearsome warlord and have my own castle...am I better off doing this on my own or joining one of the factions?

Joining a faction is the easier of the two. And to get a castle, get a better army, more renown(by fighting) and go to an enemy castle, and besiege.

If the former, can I get out of my allegiance to the Nords or do I have to start over?

Just ask the king to be released from his oath and you will be a free man again.

Another question: do items and NPCs scale with my character level in this game?

Not sure what you mean, but everything will stay at the same sort of level in this game, and can be changed by changing the diuffculty options.

 

[Tzsak]

Rush fan?

If so, high five!

Another question: do items and NPCs scale with my character level in this game?

No, but I think the parties and bandit ambushes/infestations you encounter will gradually get bigger.

 

[RollTheBones]

Hi all,

I recently discovered this game (my son found it and showed me!) and am loving it so far. It has some really great mechanics and the battles are some of the best I have seen in this genre.  That being said:

I am a bit lost on what in the heck to do...I am currently level 11 with an army of about 20.  I have one Hero, Jermus or something (hes a monk type with high medical skills but always seems to be wounded).  I tend to lean towards the Danish Viking type so when I found the Nords I thought "Ok this is my home, I am joining these guys!"  I am wondering if that was a mistake since I can't take two steps without being mobbed by armies 4 times my size.

Well, your army isn't very big, I'd suggest getting some better troops too. Try to fight bandits mainly and when you are roughly level 20 and 50 good troops, start taking on lords. Jeremus will continue to heal unconcious so don't worry about that. And you've done the right thing choosing the nords. Make all youre infantry stand closer and hold position until enemy reaches you in battles.

What I really want is to become a fearsome warlord and have my own castle...am I better off doing this on my own or joining one of the factions?

Joining a faction is the easier of the two. And to get a castle, get a better army, more renown(by fighting) and go to an enemy castle, and besiege.

If the former, can I get out of my allegiance to the Nords or do I have to start over?

Just ask the king to be released from his oath and you will be a free man again.

Another question: do items and NPCs scale with my character level in this game?

Not sure what you mean, but everything will stay at the same sort of level in this game, and can be changed by changing the diuffculty options.

Excellent, thanks for the tipS! Sounds like I am just a bit too impatient   Doesn't help that I just got done reading the Warlord Chronicles and Saxxon Stories and can't wait to be a feared warlord. 

 

[RollTheBones]

Rush fan?

If so, high five!

Yep...a lot of people don't get that. 

No, but I think the parties and bandit ambushes/infestations you encounter will gradually get bigger.

Ah, ok thanks.  So it's not so much the quality that scales but the quantity?  Do you know if this is based on character level or amry size? Or time in the game...?

 

[David Derde]

You'll be more lost before this day is through.
I guarantee it.

 

[Tzsak]

Yeah, it's the quantity. I'm pretty sure it's based on character level too. Regardless, challenge scales as the games on anyway since you upgrade from attacking bandits to caravans, then to lords, then castles and towns and the like~

 

[The Red Baron]

Knight of Cydonia - Robin hood rules man.  Nice euphanism. A clue - no
And the ambushes/infestations don't get bigger, you're just fast enough to avoid big parties earlier on.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

Knight of Cydonia - Robin hood rules man.  Nice euphanism. A clue - no
And the ambushes/infestations don't get bigger, you're just fast enough to avoid big parties earlier on.

I think they do actually, the script that was responsible for this was pointed out by a modder the first time this issue came up.

 

[Virmin]

Jeremus will continue to heal unconscious so don't worry about that.

I'm fairly certain that this isn't the case. I don't believe companion can benefit the party with his or her party skills while wounded. One way to see this is if you give one of your companions the tracking skill and they get wounded in battle then when you go back to the world map all tracks on the ground will be white intill that companion gets unwounded then the tracks become colored again and give the additional info. Also it can be seen if you give yourself the surgery skill and none of your companions have it then if you order your party into battle without going into the battle yourself you will end up having more deaths in your party instead of just wounded because you weren't present just like your companions aren't present in battle if they get wounded and so can't help the party out with their party skills.

In terms of the items and NPCs scaling with your lvl question, they sort of can depending on what exactly you mean by scaling. As someone else mentioned bandit parties infesting a village definitely get bigger over time but I don't know if that has to do with your lvl or if it just has to do with how long you have been playing. And various skills increase your damage by a percentage so lvling up and putting skill points in certain places will make you more effective in battle and the same is true for your companions. But when it comes to your other party members they are only as effective as their rank allows for. The scaling in difficulty for you as you lvl will come in the form of you being able to take on larger and larger armies with less and less help as you become better equipped and better skilled from your choice of skill point distribution when you lvl.

 

[Mabons]

I'm fairly certain that this isn't the case. I don't believe companion can benefit the party with his or her party skills while wounded. One way to see this is if you give one of your companions the tracking skill and they get wounded in battle then when you go back to the world map all tracks on the ground will be white intill that companion gets unwounded then the tracks become colored again and give the additional info. Also it can be seen if you give yourself the surgery skill and none of your companions have it then if you order your party into battle without going into the battle yourself you will end up having more deaths in your party instead of just wounded because you weren't present just like your companions aren't present in battle if they get wounded and so can't help the party out with their party skills.

I just tried it with surgery and it worked,(I had 0 surgery) and then tried it with Borcha, and the tracks, as you said, disappeared. Strange.

In terms of the items and NPCs scaling with your lvl question, they sort of can depending on what exactly you mean by scaling. As someone else mentioned bandit parties infesting a village definitely get bigger over time but I don't know if that has to do with your lvl or if it just has to do with how long you have been playing. And various skills increase your damage by a percentage so lvling up and putting skill points in certain places will make you more effective in battle and the same is true for your companions. But when it comes to your other party members they are only as effective as their rank allows for. The scaling in difficulty for you as you lvl will come in the form of you being able to take on larger and larger armies with less and less help as you become better equipped and better skilled from your choice of skill point distribution when you lvl.

I just used a cheat character and out his lvl to max, and checked a village. It definitely scales up your levels.

 

[Sushiman70]

The Merchants dont scale up as you level, but it can cost up to 20000 to get a good weapon set up , armour up to 40000 and up to 20000 for a top-line horse. Thats up to 80g's for a full set, so considering you only start with 120, it could take some time to get that amount

 

[Tzsak]

And the ambushes/infestations don't get bigger, you're just fast enough to avoid big parties earlier on.

I vividly remember cheating my character to level 60-something then going to a village and finding that it had been infested by 70 forest bandits. What was worse was when I did a train the peasants quest and promptly got invaded by 70 aforementioned forest bandits.

 

[RollTheBones]

Thanks for all the replies,

The reason I asked about "scaling' (and it seems most understand the term) is because I played a lot of Oblivion.  Those that have played Oblvion know about the scaling concept.  Basically when you are say level 5, any enemies you meet will be around that level.  As you level up, the enemies and items level up with you so at level 15 anything you run into will be around that level, as well as any items you loot.  I actually hated it and found mods to make the world more static.  It's not fun to spend time leveling up and getting more powerful only to have just as hard of a time fighting a goblin at level 15 as when you were 2.  There is no sense of accomlishment.

 

[Mabons]

Thanks for all the replies,

The reason I asked about "scaling' (and it seems most understand the term) is because I played a lot of Oblivion.  Those that have played Oblvion know about the scaling concept.  Basically when you are say level 5, any enemies you meet will be around that level.  As you level up, the enemies and items level up with you so at level 15 anything you run into will be around that level, as well as any items you loot.  I actually hated it and found mods to make the world more static.  It's not fun to spend time leveling up and getting more powerful only to have just as hard of a time fighting a goblin at level 15 as when you were 2.  There is no sense of accomlishment.

I thought that was why.

 

[Kritzo]

I think you should put a little more up in the skills leadership so you can get a bigger army. When you think your army is big enough you can go chase bandits to get your men upgraded. If you are good at tactics you might be able to win wars with 6x men.

You should also consider having both archers and infantry. Since you like vikings you might like this mod: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,49453.0.html

Are you from Denmark? I mean since you wanted to be Nords because of danish vikings. I'm danish!

 

[RollTheBones]

I think you should put a little more up in the skills leadership so you can get a bigger army. When you think your army is big enough you can go chase bandits to get your men upgraded. If you are good at tactics you might be able to win wars with 6x men.

You should also consider having both archers and infantry. Since you like vikings you might like this mod: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,49453.0.html

Are you from Denmark? I mean since you wanted to be Nords because of danish vikings. I'm danish!

That's pretty slick, will have  to check that out.  I am not from Denmark but am fascinated with the Danish Viking history; I always seem to gravitate towards that type of faction in these games.  There was no question who would have my loyalty when I ran into king Ragnar. 

 

[Lord Shields]

I think you should put a little more up in the skills leadership so you can get a bigger army. When you think your army is big enough you can go chase bandits to get your men upgraded. If you are good at tactics you might be able to win wars with 6x men.

Don't waste skill points on leadership. Just go out and attack low levels like Looters... and you'll gain Renown. Renown allows you to carry more troops in your army and you level up your existing men at the same time. Tactics is a decent skill to work on, but I wouldn't put much into it. With the battle limits, and with good enough skill in battle, you can work things into your favor.

I had a battle that had me start out with 5 guys and the enemy had 200+. Needless to say I won in the end but it was a ROUGH fight. I only lost a couple guys just by riding out to cut the numbers down before they got to my men.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

The Merchants dont scale up as you level, but it can cost up to 20000 to get a good weapon set up , armour up to 40000 and up to 20000 for a top-line horse. Thats up to 80g's for a full set, so considering you only start with 120, it could take some time to get that amount

No it doesn't, a good set can be well below 5000. Not everything needs to be reinforced or lordly. Rusted, bent, or cracked will protect you just as well as normal ones with a difference so small it's questionable why people even buy the more expensive armors and weapons that have a 3 point difference.

 

[Virmin]

He said 'up to' which implies it can go up to that much, not that it will cost at least that much. And in actual fact his numbers were super low compared to what it can go up to. The Lordly variant of the top plate armor in the game is well over 120k on its own assuming you have some points in trade.