SP - Player, NPCs & Troops Make NPC relationships more complex instead of rely on a single slider that ranges from "Hate" to "Devoted"

[divyanthj]

More than combat and battles, the thing I loved most about Warband is the relationships between characters and how they changed over time, leading to different intrigues such as marriages, defections, disputes and quests to resolve those disputes.

Likewise, I feel that there is an opportunity to add more potential to inter-personal relationships by breaking it down into 3 sliders instead of 1, each representing

1. Respect
2. Affection
3. Fear

Let's call them "Relationship types"

https://ibb.co/my8DfF8

I'm going to illustrate some examples of inter-personal relationships with 3-tuples that look like this (Respect, Affection, Fear) as high/medium/low. By no means are these values restricted. They are going to be represented by numbers.

- Relationship with liege (High, Medium, Medium)
- If you are lord, relationship with enemy King who is stronger (High, Low, High)
- If you are lord, relationship with enemy King who is weaker (Low, Low, Low)
- Friends (Medium, High, Medium)
- Children (Medium, High, Low)
- Good Parents (High, High, Low)
- Abusive Parents (High, Medium, High)
- Lovers (High, High, Low)
- Lovers who broke up (High, Low, Low)

and so on.

Different actions and/or quest rewards affect each of these negatively or positively.

For example
- Defeat enemy in Battle (+Fear, +Respect)
- Propose marriage (+Affection, -Respect)
- Assist Ally in Battle (+Affection, +Respect)
- Vote against lord (-Affection)
- Release Lord after Battle (+Affection, +Respect, -Fear)
- Take Lord Prisoner (+Fear)
- Execute Lord (Other lords ++Fear, +Respect from Cruel lords and -Respect from merciful lords)
- Defect from Empire (-Respect with all lords)

Relationship types can be used for various things including

1. Quest conditions. (Some quests require lords to Respect you and Fear you a little bit)
2. Entry into Castles/Keeps in Secret
3. Entry in Castles/Keeps in the open
4. Influence cost for summoning lords into your armies.

..and many more.

It also adds a great amount of role-play into the game. I can be whatever kind of person I want to be. I can choose what kinds of people I want to be Feared, Loved or Respected by!

 

[ZydrateTheSmoothCriminal]

+

 

[EternalHeathen]

I like this idea, but, am I proposing marriage naked? With a duck on my head? Why -respect there?

 

[divyanthj]

I like this idea, but, am I proposing marriage naked? With a duck on my head? Why -respect there?

Yuss!! This! See? This is nothing but "inappropriate behavior" that could be rewarded/punished based on lots of factors. Are you out drinking with soldiers and servants? "Drinking with your men is good for their morale but bad for your honor". This feature could simulate so many different medieval tales.

 

[Limrasson]

Just in general, NPCs (and in extension, the whole world) needs more depth. For the original Mount and Blade, the few lines of dialogue was kinda enough but it's 2020, I would expect the world to be more immersive / alive. A very good example is courtship. Literally just 2 blocks of dialogue with a skill check and that's it. Even the previous game had you recite poems and run errands for the lady. But you just kinda buy her from her father and then she does nothing, but spawn children every so often. Not very immersive, now is it? Can't sink into a shallow sandbox. Needs more sand.