I'm at the point of progress where I'm conquering towns and castles for the Southern Empire as a loyal vassal with my fellow clan parties over many years of war yet I still have to do everything myself with my only interactions with the other lords are quests to do menial chores for them (they can't send out a few men from their army to go collect taxes or buy food...?) with the occasional mission of raiding/conquering enemy lands. It feels like there's a gap in the mid-game with something missing; even with 2 castles, 4 workshops and a few caravans under my belt, I still operate like a mercenary.
A suggestion to fill that gameplay gap would be the function of player given quests once they reach a certain renown level. There could be some sort of UI where we choose what we need from a list and set up a reward and maybe a suggested party size/power level/faction requirements. As the player goes about moving around the world map with a blue exclamation point above their head, friendly/neutral parties that pass the player may approach to see what the quest is and decide based on aforementioned requirements, affiliation/relationship level with the player and distance from the quest location with the player confirming and beginning the quest timer. The quest would play out similar to how the player completes quests for others, with a chance for the quester to fail in which the player can re-advertise the quest. Once the objectives are complete, the npc would return to the player to complete and collect their reward, which would then increase their party's power level.
In short, mid-game vassal gameplay feels like it's missing something and we need ways to make us feel more like lords after taking quite a bit of time to reach that level, and I think player given quests would help partially fill that gap.
A suggestion to fill that gameplay gap would be the function of player given quests once they reach a certain renown level. There could be some sort of UI where we choose what we need from a list and set up a reward and maybe a suggested party size/power level/faction requirements. As the player goes about moving around the world map with a blue exclamation point above their head, friendly/neutral parties that pass the player may approach to see what the quest is and decide based on aforementioned requirements, affiliation/relationship level with the player and distance from the quest location with the player confirming and beginning the quest timer. The quest would play out similar to how the player completes quests for others, with a chance for the quester to fail in which the player can re-advertise the quest. Once the objectives are complete, the npc would return to the player to complete and collect their reward, which would then increase their party's power level.
In short, mid-game vassal gameplay feels like it's missing something and we need ways to make us feel more like lords after taking quite a bit of time to reach that level, and I think player given quests would help partially fill that gap.
