Losing a battle leads to a lot of useless chores

[cadadr]

The experience of losing a battle is as follows:

* Most of the time its 100% destruction of your party, which is alright.

* Your remaining party members are scattered all over the map.

* You go looking for them when you're eventually freed, but the encyclopaedia constantly lies to you.

* Your party members have no intention of coming back to you. Either you play whack-a-mole with the encyclopedia or you just avoid having companions and family members in your party.

This makes harder levels of the game really boring because if you don't make sure to constantly win battles through various ways that make it possible, every two or three battles more or less you're playing the same game of fetch.

 

[niekdegrijze]

The experience of losing a battle is as follows:

* Most of the time its 100% destruction of your party, which is alright.

* Your remaining party members are scattered all over the map.

* You go looking for them when you're eventually freed, but the encyclopaedia constantly lies to you.

* Your party members have no intention of coming back to you. Either you play whack-a-mole with the encyclopedia or you just avoid having companions and family members in your party.

This makes harder levels of the game really boring because if you don't make sure to constantly win battles through various ways that make it possible, every two or three battles more or less you're playing the same game of fetch.

yes your party members should try to seek you out, or go to a friendly town and stay put.
Possible notify you after they are escaped/released and give you a choice between:
1 joining your party again
2 go to a friendly town and wait
3 be released from their service and on their own again.

 

[Sigaretovic]

yes your party members should try to seek you out, or go to a friendly town and stay put.
Possible notify you after they are escaped/released and give you a choice between:
1 joining your party again
2 go to a friendly town and wait
3 be released from their service and on their own again.

That would be great

 

[Marbles20]

Its easier to track them down via the Clan interface. But they should have it that the companions/family members just go back to one of YOUR fiefs (town/castle) and wait. If you don't have any fiefs then the current system is ok, since you don't really have a fallback point.

 

[Sigaretovic]

The experience of losing a battle is as follows:

* Most of the time its 100% destruction of your party, which is alright.

* Your remaining party members are scattered all over the map.

* You go looking for them when you're eventually freed, but the encyclopaedia constantly lies to you.

* Your party members have no intention of coming back to you. Either you play whack-a-mole with the encyclopedia or you just avoid having companions and family members in your party.

This makes harder levels of the game really boring because if you don't make sure to constantly win battles through various ways that make it possible, every two or three battles more or less you're playing the same game of fetch.

Have you thought about putting this up for review in the suggestions section?

 

[D0c1]

just make them governers in your fief and they'll be teleported there.

 

[niekdegrijze]

Have you thought about putting this up for review in the suggestions section?

i will put up a suggestion

 

[cadadr]

just make them governers in your fief and they'll be teleported there.

That's something widely known but a lot of folks. me included. enjoy playing the game as mercenary at least for a decent amont of time initially, in which case you won't hold fiefs.

 

[clovis_sangrail]

The experience of losing a battle is as follows:

* Most of the time its 100% destruction of your party, which is alright.

* Your remaining party members are scattered all over the map.

* You go looking for them when you're eventually freed, but the encyclopaedia constantly lies to you.

* Your party members have no intention of coming back to you. Either you play whack-a-mole with the encyclopedia or you just avoid having companions and family members in your party.

This makes harder levels of the game really boring because if you don't make sure to constantly win battles through various ways that make it possible, every two or three battles more or less you're playing the same game of fetch.

Not when I lose a battle --

Hit Esc to bring up menu, click on the Load button, select and load a save file and try to figure out what I did wrong or what about the game is fubar and preventing me from winning.

It's Early Access, and things are not quite right yet, so feel free to Keep Calm and Reload On.

 

[Sigaretovic]

I know some of you are trying to help by sharing how you can avoid losing your companions, but lets face it, some of the suggestions are merely adressing the symptoms and not the root of the problem.

 

[niekdegrijze]

just make them governers in your fief and they'll be teleported there.

This is a work around and not a solution

 

[cadadr]

Not when I lose a battle --

Hit Esc to bring up menu, click on the Load button, select and load a save file and try to figure out what I did wrong or what about the game is fubar and preventing me from winning.

It's Early Access, and things are not quite right yet, so feel free to Keep Calm and Reload On.

That's good on you! Having enjoyed this game since v1.4.1, I'm kinda fed up with saving and reloading and winning tho. Playing with realistic difficulty is enjoyable, but there are some quirks that make some parts of the game into chores. People like me post to point out these pain points in the hopes that they get a solution, not replies like this.

If it's early access, then I suppose as beta testers of this game its our main function to report back about our experiences and have some input in the development process. Otherwise all we are is cash cows that keep an almost failing project afloat with a witless injection of cash at the last moment.

 

[Pensaci]

I think the main problem is as you point out once you lose, or say been defeated in battle, the result is yourself and troop into captive = total annihilation.

This is like a old theme from WB and the whole M&B game.
A stand point, I guess, can be recruit-battle-loot is the core gameplay loop.

 

[D0c1]

That's something widely known but a lot of folks. me included. enjoy playing the game as mercenary at least for a decent amont of time initially, in which case you won't hold fiefs.

This is a work around and not a solution

i thought he was looking for something to ease the searching pain.

it can be made much better by making battles not to the last man. the loser should rout after ~25% casualties. this will preserve small kingdoms' forces and make defeats not so devastating to the player.

personally, i dread defeats because i'll have to gather horses all over again. if they allowed us to rout, they can allow us to keep horses equal to the number of living soldiers or something similar.

companions can rout with us if they weren't knocked unconscious in the battle.

 

[Midnitewolf]

The experience of losing a battle is as follows:

* Most of the time its 100% destruction of your party, which is alright.

I think a lot of this happening is due to the player choices. I mean how many people actually chose the "Retreat" option if the battle looks like it is going against you?

As far as your companions. A simple solution is to be able to just set a home city or castle that your companions would always return back to when they are separated from you. I mean even a ragged merc band would probably have a city that they were based out of to some degree or another and if you are a lord with a fief, obviously that fief would be your lords base of operations.

 

[BoBB]

Not when I lose a battle --

Hit Esc to bring up menu, click on the Load button, select and load a save file and try to figure out what I did wrong or what about the game is fubar and preventing me from winning.

It's Early Access, and things are not quite right yet, so feel free to Keep Calm and Reload On.

Me too.

Heck, I reload if I lose too many cav.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

if you don't make sure to constantly win battles

This is 99% of the game though. Winning battles with near zero losses should be your goal. It's not like a game of chance (except if bugs kick in), you either have the power and the knowledge to use it, or you avoid the fight. There is no "maybe my guys will win get a critical hit" you either create a advantage for them in combat so they kill first, or they will always trade at best, fail and worst. You should be figuring out how to not lose any more battles. The game really doesn't work if you keep loosing.

As far as companions, yeah they should add a way to call them back.

 

[cadadr]

I think a lot of this happening is due to the player choices. I mean how many people actually chose the "Retreat" option if the battle looks like it is going against you?

As far as your companions. A simple solution is to be able to just set a home city or castle that your companions would always return back to when they are separated from you. I mean even a ragged merc band would probably have a city that they were based out of to some degree or another and if you are a lord with a fief, obviously that fief would be your lords base of operations.

In my experience retreating is just being defeated with a few loading screens as extra. The game has never put me in a situation after a retreat where I can get my ass to safety. Almost always, when I try to excape I'm slowed down to a grind and put at such a disadvantaged position I inevitably have to fight again.

Also you cant try to escape in an army. If you retreat the only option is to rejoin the battle. Which is silly because I've nothing to gain from sacrificing all my party as a mercenary. IMHO it should be allowed, at the cost of reduced honour.

Another thing is down in the news listing I always see AI lords are released after battles. Pretty often. But I have never been released after a battle.

All in all tho, my issue is not about having to lose battles. I am fine with that and fine even with total destruction when it happens. It's grindy to recreate the party but not that big of a deal, even with Realistic recruiting. What sucks is finding companions and family members as they can appear WHEREVER in the map, and they sit there immobile. And sometimes they are HOLDING and that means the encyclopedia will lie to you for many in game days.

There's the Messenger mod which allows you to use one companion to fetch other companions but doesn't work with 1.5.7

What I wish they did was if they gathered small 5-10 troop parties and then marched back to you. Helps with rebuilding the party. Some time ago I started a topic titled 'Messengers and Detachments', and this kind of feature along with those would be a HUGE QoL IMHO. Because as it is, ıf you lead an army or a siege, and want to help a nearby village being raided, you either go there with the whole 1k men in your command or you sit there watching.

 

[Pensaci]

In my experience retreating is just being defeated with a few loading screens as extra. The game has never put me in a situation after a retreat where I can get my ass to safety. Almost always, when I try to excape I'm slowed down to a grind and put at such a disadvantaged position I inevitably have to fight again.

Also you cant try to escape in an army. If you retreat the only option is to rejoin the battle. Which is silly because I've nothing to gain from sacrificing all my party as a mercenary. IMHO it should be allowed, at the cost of reduced honour.

Another thing is down in the news listing I always see AI lords are released after battles. Pretty often. But I have never been released after a battle.

All in all tho, my issue is not about having to lose battles. I am fine with that and fine even with total destruction when it happens. It's grindy to recreate the party but not that big of a deal, even with Realistic recruiting. What sucks is finding companions and family members as they can appear WHEREVER in the map, and they sit there immobile. And sometimes they are HOLDING and that means the encyclopedia will lie to you for many in game days.

There's the Messenger mod which allows you to use one companion to fetch other companions but doesn't work with 1.5.7

What I wish they did was if they gathered small 5-10 troop parties and then marched back to you. Helps with rebuilding the party. Some time ago I started a topic titled 'Messengers and Detachments', and this kind of feature along with those would be a HUGE QoL IMHO. Because as it is, ıf you lead an army or a siege, and want to help a nearby village being raided, you either go there with the whole 1k men in your command or you sit there watching.

Yea. So right now it is like they go their separate way and you have to find them again.

I was frustrated about holding too and I tested something, it seems they are holding for a state as 'just escape from captive'. But there is also a bug where they can become holding indefinitely, which also can happens when a child grew up, you have to reload a save to solve it.

There is also a related issue, that if you leave clanmate in a town they still will start to move on their own. So there is actually a thing here, the related system has some problems.

 

[Pensaci]

This is 99% of the game though. Winning battles with near zero losses should be your goal. It's not like a game of chance (except if bugs kick in), you either have the power and the knowledge to use it, or you avoid the fight. There is no "maybe my guys will win get a critical hit" you either create a advantage for them in combat so they kill first, or they will always trade at best, fail and worst. You should be figuring out how to not lose any more battles. The game really doesn't work if you keep loosing.

As far as companions, yeah they should add a way to call them back.

Yea this point is abit off op's topic and abit far off too.

I think the thing is losing as a acceptable thing, so that if you are on the losing side or facing disadvantage, it is not irredeemable (in the sense of wipe out). I understand it shouldn't be about make the game easy or mitigate winning.