Import/export Characters

[Ravenfield]

Hi.
Ive just recently returned to playing Mount and blade and as such i am pretty bad ...but i finally managed to get a decent game up and running with a great character. only after reading the wiki and stuff like that was it possible.
i must say that this mod is really a lot more challenging than the old Floris mod i used to play which is a nice thing.

i really want to congratulate the team's effort in bringing this huge mod into a such a brilliantly working state.

a long ramble....but now the questions.

i play at a difficulty setting of 101% everything at its hardest, except combat speed which is normal...not that good reflexes yet.
i've got this great game at day 650, with a character level of 25, but i haven't managed to start a kingdom yet. mainly because i was too slow working up relations and stuff like that...and the fact that i know how quick they attack after i take some random fortress.

can i get some advice from some of the more hardcore players in these forums on how to effectively start my own kingdom ..at what character level and such.

my other question is about importing and exporting....ive been thinking about exporting my character and starting over. Mainly because i get to keep the level and thus ill be able to start my kingdom a lot quicker ? ..is that something you do ? ..its just, it takes so LONG to get a good character up and running ..and if i want multiple playthroughs thats gonna take forever ....

this is a long ramble ..i know...how you can find heads and tails in it.

By the way i REALLY hope you do pendor 4.0 for bannerlord when that arrives...this is by far the game ive sunk the most hours into....i never seem to tire of riding into battle

thanks alot.

 

[freyuk]

To create a kingdom more than character level the key points are money and troops. Can you defend your main castle against a force numbering in the thousand? If you are confident that you can, go for it.

 

[wookdaddy]

If you import a character it's kind of like cheating, because your skills/renown will be higher than the other AI lords. It's just OP to start with an imported beast, that's kind of the point of starting over in that every game is different. Before starting a kingdom own shops in every town and have a good chunk of spare cash (a lot of people say a certain number, it's just what you need. I started my last one with 200,000 which was plenty). I'd also advise being a mercenary for one faction long enough until you can take a town (don't get castles or villages outside of the first village given to you). Once you have a town, build all improvements and start stockpiling troops. Make sure your leadership is as high as possible. I always get effective but cost efficient troops, like ravernstern kiergards in mass for castles. Have high relations with whatever faction you are allied with so you can steal those lords when you start your rebellion. In general, just think about whatever you could possibly need beforehand. Make sure the one town you have is situated where you want to found your kingdom and that when those 2-3k armies come knocking on your 600 someodd man garrison that you can defend it against any number. There are a lot of towns like this (poinsbruk, rane, nal tar, marleons etc.). Think about what vassals you want that will work well together. I usually get a couple families (father-father's brother-son combos). Make sure you have high trainer skill as well. If need be you can always hire a merc army to help you out in a tight spot, really money is everything. Your companions benefit more from good armor and weapons than stats.

 

[Naasir]

Another reasonable choice is going the vassal route, getting yourself a castle while still being vassal. When you are about to go for your own kingdom, store a good number of quality troops in your castle and also fill your party with quality troops. Annoy your king a bit (so you won't recieve your next castle/town), and conquer. After conquest store all your party troops in your new castle/town, and go collect the quality troops from your first castle. Either store them in your new home or make them your party. Let your old castle be taken from you if it's located poorly (from your new home's perpective).

That way you get a good start and some quality defenders for your new throne.

 

[Ravenfield]

So what i gather from this is
Get enough shops and money to support the new kingdom
dont go for castles of ..instead go for towns ? ...

i managed to get a castle yesterday with only 150 defenders ...so at least im on to something now ...

last question.
do i have to manually train every troop ..or can the castle steward do something ..like automatic training like in the floris mod pack ?

Thanks a lot mates.
Ravenfield

 

[fidoman1272]

So what i gather from this is
Get enough shops and money to support the new kingdom
dont go for castles of ..instead go for towns ? ...

i managed to get a castle yesterday with only 150 defenders ...so at least im on to something now ...

last question.
do i have to manually train every troop ..or can the castle steward do something ..like automatic training like in the floris mod pack ?

Thanks a lot mates.
Ravenfield

I'm unsure as to training, but your steward can recruit villagers for your garrison.
My advice? take Poinsbruk to start. always take Poinsbruk. You can quite literally hold off the entity of the green horde (Fierdsvains) with a rabble of poorly trained villagers.

 

[Mad Vader]

Poinsbruk is in a rough neighborhood, where both Mysts and Jatu tend to stroll around and sometimes assault the town in great numbers.

 

[Brew]

Poinsbruk is also in a terrible position much better with a more centrally located town/castle.

 

[azenky]

Poinsbruk is also in a terrible position much better with a more centrally located town/castle.

Yea... I came back to 3.611 and took Poins as my first town. Did not have fun fending off around 5 armies.

Jatu isn't really a threat tho. Mystmountain is dangerous as BBs tear up your wall defense and must be sniped off quickly. If you aren't a ranged char... let's just say they oneshot me one time i tried to 2H in the wall. Full hp, 8 IF, lategame armor.

 

[Ravenfield]

Thanks for the replies.
But my question as to whether or not you have to manually train all your troops still stands ....

Thanks
Ravenfield

 

[Brew]

Thanks for the replies.
But my question as to whether or not you have to manually train all your troops still stands ....

Thanks
Ravenfield

Give your companions training skill at level ups and at midnight everynight they will auto train troops below their level, Sir Jocelyn comes with 5 trainer and is level 38 so a very handy companion to have. There is also a book that when in your inventory boosts your training skill by +2. Also once you build the training grounds in your town/castle it will auto train troops but its slow.

 

[Ravenfield]

Yeah okay ..i knew about the training ...

its just in the floris mod pack ....back when i gamed that ...you could hire a trainer to train your soldiers when they were stationed in the keep or town.

but i guess the training ground is the same concept so ill just build that

Another question ...

How long did it take for yall to complete the campaign the first time over...

ive already used 700 days and ive only got like 2 small villages and a castle...not even started my own kingdom ...

feel slow  

 

[Beorn424]

I find that getting higher level troops in the garrison is easiest if you build up relations with the villages around your town. This creates a chance to recruit higher level troops and more of them.
A training ground is also useful so you can get noble recruits, it's usually the first thing I build in my first town/castle.

And I've never actually managed to complete an entire campaign, although I think I will in this playthrough if I can find some more time to play.

What's your party size at and relations with other lords?

 

[Something unusual]

I never finished a campaign before ... I just play and play and pay until I get bored and then I go play some other mod and the same thing happens and then I come back to PoP and play and play ... And then I go and type up a 5000word  story about what happened.. And then i forget to save the story because i never savescum in game ... and yeah anyway, closest I've gotten to finishing was a kingdom with 12 towns, but I got bored then...

 

[azenky]

Yeah okay ..i knew about the training ...

its just in the floris mod pack ....back when i gamed that ...you could hire a trainer to train your soldiers when they were stationed in the keep or town.

but i guess the training ground is the same concept so ill just build that

Another question ...

How long did it take for yall to complete the campaign the first time over...

ive already used 700 days and ive only got like 2 small villages and a castle...not even started my own kingdom ...

feel slow

Finishing the game on first try? Are you sure we're talking about the same game?

 

[Alavaria]

He's asking how long it took to get your first win ever.

A month or so, way way back in the day when nobles were not seperate and you could turn peasants into Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet and everyone's favorite the Silvermist Rangers (which trained from Pendor Grey Archers which were much much easier to level into).

I think you could also boost their stats, so it was pretty ridiculous. Anyone after getting an army of 200+ ubered KotEB it was just steamroll everyone in sieges.


Now you have even better units in the CKO but it takes a lot longer to get there.

 

[Ravenfield]

He's asking how long it took to get your first win ever.

A month or so, way way back in the day when nobles were not seperate and you could turn peasants into Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet and everyone's favorite the Silvermist Rangers (which trained from Pendor Grey Archers which were much much easier to level into).

I think you could also boost their stats, so it was pretty ridiculous. Anyone after getting an army of 200+ ubered KotEB it was just steamroll everyone in sieges.


Now you have even better units in the CKO but it takes a lot longer to get there.

Yeah like Alavaria said i just meant how long it takes you to complete...i know the feeling where you play so much it just gets boring. that happened to me when i played the floris mod pack last time.
i just really want to finish this time ...

i now have 2 castles and one village...so im slowly getting ready to start my own kingdom

a last question.

I've noticed in both my playes in this mod, that Ravenstern gets beaten pretty quickly by the other nations....and thought that might have something to do with all the Myst mountain bandits that spawn in their area. its rather annoying when thats the faction i want to help and become a vassal of. they have like the best troops when you consider the low price to upgrade and the time it takes to get them to max level.
But most of all they get beaten by the Empire who has these pesky Armored crossbowmen ...who can really **** a sieging army up .....any advice....??

 

[Sycrus]

a last question.

I've noticed in both my playes in this mod, that Ravenstern gets beaten pretty quickly by the other nations....and thought that might have something to do with all the Myst mountain bandits that spawn in their area. its rather annoying when thats the faction i want to help and become a vassal of. they have like the best troops when you consider the low price to upgrade and the time it takes to get them to max level.
But most of all they get beaten by the Empire who has these pesky Armored crossbowmen ...who can really **** a sieging army up .....any advice....??

Everyone has very different experiences with how the politics of the five Kingdoms roll in their campaigns. I myself have never seen Ravenstern being beaten up, they're the most isolated kingdom in the game. I'm particularly curious about how they managed to get in the Empire's bad side in your game. I've only ever seem they going to war against the Fierdsvain and Sarleon. And the Mystmountain Nomads aren't really much of a threat, if you consider Ravenstern usually doesn't have to deal with Vanskeries, Heretics, or Snake Cultists.

Ironically, in my own game, it's the Fierdsvain and the Empire who always get clobbered up. I had already to rescue both of them twice each from the brink and bring them back to power in this playthrough alone.

For dealing with the Empire in sieges, I would suggest simply buffing up your sieging armies. Get more Ravenstern Rangers to suppress the EACs with volume of fire. If you're a good archer yourself, try to concentrate on sniping the EACs. Also, get some stronger infantry to support your Kierguards in assaulting the breach. Either Ravenstern Highlanders and Knights (if you're using exclusively Ravenstern troops - though Ravenstern Knights have a bad habit of sometimes going to battle sans shields) or Fierdsvain Huscarls / D'Shar Bladesmen, if you don't mind recruiting from other kingdoms.

 

[habeo123]

Ravenstern Highlander if made a higher tier Kierguard, IS the best choice for a infantry army. Thay have both shield and 2 hand weapon, and very good stats making them very formidable. In a game I play as Ravenstern, I simple tweak a bit so that Kierguards can be upgraded into Highlander and thus my Ravenstern army is so much more formidable.

Also I've never seen Ravenstern get destroyed early. Their field army composition is strong, good in defensive sieges. If you play Ravenstern you should join their fights often just to see them destroying Fierdsvain army. Same thing happens to the D'shar, on field battle they're nightmare of the enemies.

 

[Ravenfield]

Hi again and thanks for the answers.
As to how and why Ravenstern got beat up, it was around the time when they went to war against the fiersvain ...then the empire joined in against beating ravenstern ...and after that raven lost a lot of castles..and became weak which the empire really took advantage of. So now im just trying to save them and take back castles as much as i can.

Im already heavy on rangers...consider them the best archer so far.....havent tried end-game troops like all the different knights yet...the special armies which give the gems for the chapter houses are too strong for me...and the few times ive been a marshall we were already at war with at least to other nations...which left me no choice but defending all the time.

now i can see you both are talking about highlanders...arent they some kind of unique unit ? ...not part of any nation ? ....because i cannot upgrade Kierguards into highlanders ? ..

Again thanks for your contributions.