SomeWeirdSins
Veteran
AI issues/game breaking bugs :
1. Troop behavior in field battles :
A. AI sends in one row of infantry to engage player shieldwall. The remaining infantry mill around in the back while dying to archers. No attempt is made to flank/overwhelm the player shieldwall or to engage the archers. AI infantry simply walks in circles while it dies to player archers
B. Cav cannot hit anything and can be ignored. Cav charging an exposed flank of player archers will not kill a substantial amount of archers before dying
C. Skirmishing infantry (wildlings, etc.) do not know that they are skirmishers. When mixed with sheildwall troops, they will run up front and die in melee.
D. Empire and Aserai armies will often move back and forth between two nearby hills while dying to player ranged fire.
F. AI armies/parties do not assign captains and do not benefit from captain perks.
2. Troop behavior in siege battles
A. Defending troops start a long walk away from their 'defensive' positions. Attacking archers often can get in place and kill the defenders as they trickle up to the walls one at a time
B. If the attacker breaks two breaches in the walls (with trebuchets, for example) and focuses attacks on one breach, defenders from the un-attacked breach will run outside in an attempt to reposition and die to archer fire.
C. Sieges force melee engagements in tight quarters (on towers or in breaches). This tight-quarter combat is a massive advantage to the player who often has high- tier units. The AI do not have any way to use the walls as a force multiplier.
3. Army Behavior
A. Large armies will chase small parties that they cannot catch, wasting huge amounts of time.
B. Small armies will walk past large enemy armies to begin a siege, get stuck in the siege, and get wiped.
4. Wanderers
A. Wanderers continue to teleport across the map instantly. As a player, walking from Marunath to dautistica to hire the only scout, getting to vostrum, and seeing that scout has teleported to ostican. This is not a feature that any player wants.
B. Wanderers still spawn with attributes and focus that do not make any sense
5. Marriage is currently bugged if the target faction is at war (related to either the clan leader or potential spouse being in an army, I believe)
Design problems:
1. Early game -
A. Due to the way trade goods spawn in, the early economy is deflationary. This means that trade is generally not a viable way to play, outside of some cheeky quick flips.
B. AI lords aggressively snap up all of the recruits on the map, meaning that recruiting and hunting bandits is generally not viable for a decent chunk of time
C. Having Nomadic traditions (75 riding) and to a lesser extent sweeping wind feel absolutely mandatory to being allowed to play the game
D. The result of the above is that the only thing to do the first 10-20 days is to kite looters with a horse an a bow. Despite the nerfs, it's still effective. It's also even more boring and grindy than it used to be. The only thing worse than 1 hour kiting looters with a horse + bow? 2 hours doing it before being allowed to play the game.
E. AI lords do not have access to many of the game's most powerful skills, and therefore cannot challenge a player that has a general understanding of the game.
2. Late game -
A. Clan expansion: Due to the war/tribute mechanics, the 'only'* way to grow a kingdom is to hire clans. This means that with 2-3 million denars and 200 charm the game is 100% won. The only question is how to get these things. Winning fights against the odds is not even meaningful - Being able to beat an entire faction with just the player's one clan result in every enemy kingdom declaring war on the player.
B. Recruiting clans is not meaningful or immersive - it is just a matter of grinding cash. Set up caravans and let the game run overnight? You won.
C. There are no mechanics to stop the player from snowballing. Once you are the strongest faction in the map, your clans can defend and slowly expand your kingdom while you go from fief to fief sieging without getting pressured at all
D. Generational systems are irrelevant, as the 'gameplay' portion of the game is 3-5 years, with a full conquest taking 6-10 years, depending on the patch.
*You can, of course go with the exploit route of never declaring a kingdom and just buy the map. You can also save up enough seed money to buy peace with everyone except for 1 faction and just win wars with your clan vs a kingdom one at a time due to weak AI. These are things that should probably not be possible with good design.
Suggestions:
1. First and foremost, the game has to fight back.
2. Prioritize the AI issues. The game should provide a challenging experience, and feel lived-in for those of us who also want to role-play.
3. Full rework of the clan recruitment system. Recruiting a clan should be a big deal. Passing the charm check could unlock a chain of quests that conclude with the recruitment of the clan. Examples: Win three army vs army fights while outnumbered by over 100 troops, Conquer target clan's 'ancestral' territory and gift back. Capture and hand over 10 lords of rival clans, etc.
4. Give AI lords support skills (or wanderers) that match their culture: Medic for Aserai, roguery for sturgia, etc.
5. Implement anti-snowball mechanics: Clans of eliminated kingdoms being absorbed into AI kingdoms, AI kingdoms merging/allying, etc.
1. Troop behavior in field battles :
A. AI sends in one row of infantry to engage player shieldwall. The remaining infantry mill around in the back while dying to archers. No attempt is made to flank/overwhelm the player shieldwall or to engage the archers. AI infantry simply walks in circles while it dies to player archers
B. Cav cannot hit anything and can be ignored. Cav charging an exposed flank of player archers will not kill a substantial amount of archers before dying
C. Skirmishing infantry (wildlings, etc.) do not know that they are skirmishers. When mixed with sheildwall troops, they will run up front and die in melee.
D. Empire and Aserai armies will often move back and forth between two nearby hills while dying to player ranged fire.
F. AI armies/parties do not assign captains and do not benefit from captain perks.
2. Troop behavior in siege battles
A. Defending troops start a long walk away from their 'defensive' positions. Attacking archers often can get in place and kill the defenders as they trickle up to the walls one at a time
B. If the attacker breaks two breaches in the walls (with trebuchets, for example) and focuses attacks on one breach, defenders from the un-attacked breach will run outside in an attempt to reposition and die to archer fire.
C. Sieges force melee engagements in tight quarters (on towers or in breaches). This tight-quarter combat is a massive advantage to the player who often has high- tier units. The AI do not have any way to use the walls as a force multiplier.
3. Army Behavior
A. Large armies will chase small parties that they cannot catch, wasting huge amounts of time.
B. Small armies will walk past large enemy armies to begin a siege, get stuck in the siege, and get wiped.
4. Wanderers
A. Wanderers continue to teleport across the map instantly. As a player, walking from Marunath to dautistica to hire the only scout, getting to vostrum, and seeing that scout has teleported to ostican. This is not a feature that any player wants.
B. Wanderers still spawn with attributes and focus that do not make any sense
5. Marriage is currently bugged if the target faction is at war (related to either the clan leader or potential spouse being in an army, I believe)
Design problems:
1. Early game -
A. Due to the way trade goods spawn in, the early economy is deflationary. This means that trade is generally not a viable way to play, outside of some cheeky quick flips.
B. AI lords aggressively snap up all of the recruits on the map, meaning that recruiting and hunting bandits is generally not viable for a decent chunk of time
C. Having Nomadic traditions (75 riding) and to a lesser extent sweeping wind feel absolutely mandatory to being allowed to play the game
D. The result of the above is that the only thing to do the first 10-20 days is to kite looters with a horse an a bow. Despite the nerfs, it's still effective. It's also even more boring and grindy than it used to be. The only thing worse than 1 hour kiting looters with a horse + bow? 2 hours doing it before being allowed to play the game.
E. AI lords do not have access to many of the game's most powerful skills, and therefore cannot challenge a player that has a general understanding of the game.
2. Late game -
A. Clan expansion: Due to the war/tribute mechanics, the 'only'* way to grow a kingdom is to hire clans. This means that with 2-3 million denars and 200 charm the game is 100% won. The only question is how to get these things. Winning fights against the odds is not even meaningful - Being able to beat an entire faction with just the player's one clan result in every enemy kingdom declaring war on the player.
B. Recruiting clans is not meaningful or immersive - it is just a matter of grinding cash. Set up caravans and let the game run overnight? You won.
C. There are no mechanics to stop the player from snowballing. Once you are the strongest faction in the map, your clans can defend and slowly expand your kingdom while you go from fief to fief sieging without getting pressured at all
D. Generational systems are irrelevant, as the 'gameplay' portion of the game is 3-5 years, with a full conquest taking 6-10 years, depending on the patch.
*You can, of course go with the exploit route of never declaring a kingdom and just buy the map. You can also save up enough seed money to buy peace with everyone except for 1 faction and just win wars with your clan vs a kingdom one at a time due to weak AI. These are things that should probably not be possible with good design.
Suggestions:
1. First and foremost, the game has to fight back.
2. Prioritize the AI issues. The game should provide a challenging experience, and feel lived-in for those of us who also want to role-play.
3. Full rework of the clan recruitment system. Recruiting a clan should be a big deal. Passing the charm check could unlock a chain of quests that conclude with the recruitment of the clan. Examples: Win three army vs army fights while outnumbered by over 100 troops, Conquer target clan's 'ancestral' territory and gift back. Capture and hand over 10 lords of rival clans, etc.
4. Give AI lords support skills (or wanderers) that match their culture: Medic for Aserai, roguery for sturgia, etc.
5. Implement anti-snowball mechanics: Clans of eliminated kingdoms being absorbed into AI kingdoms, AI kingdoms merging/allying, etc.
