Make Outlaws recapture

[NED]

I would like it if a castle that I have defeated and left without anyone on would be recaptured because of it having no defenders.

 

[CrazyEyes]

I would like it if there were mods for that.

(at least I think so)

 

[NED]

No offense, but why couldn't they just make updates and patches rather then other people having to always make mods?

 

[Professor Jumbo]

They do make updates and patches.  They also make this website and forums, which tell you alllll about the updates and patches.  Seriously dude, did you just wander in here by mistake?

 

[nightscout]

hes new forgive him and also the creators may not have the time to create all the patches and updates theyre busy enough as it is so ppl make mods so that if they want to put it in the game all they have to do is make a few changes to make it compatable with watever version theyre on

 

[calandale]

He also uses punctuation, and the shift key, so it is easy to understand what he is saying. You are also new, so we will (briefly) excuse you as well. Try to use the language in a readable manner though.

 

[NED]

Actually what I was saying is everything I have asked to other people about I am always responded by a "oh so and so made a mod for that!" and I was wondering why I have never gotten a "oh they are working on making a patch for that already" D:

 

[calandale]

No offense, but why couldn't they just make updates and patches rather then other people having to always make mods?

Sure they could. But, they are doing what they consider most important first. Given that a large part of the community (without access to the game engine) is able and willing to make interesting mods to add storyline and little changes like this, it is easier for them to wait until the basic work is all done. The vanilla game is playable, and holds interest for a while, so it serves it's purpose. Rather than bloating what is essentially the moddable code, they are doing us all a favor by leaving a lot of this crap out. Most of it would require a decent amount of time to test and to balance. I'd much rather have the developers working on stuff that no one else can touch, until they are fully satisfied with it. That way, their updates become easier, and they are doing what they alone can do.

 

[Amman d Stazia]

He also uses punctuation, and the shift key, so it is easy to understand what he is saying. You are also new, so we will (briefly) excuse you as well. Try to use the language in a readable manner though.

iagreeitsreallybloodieanoyieenwennowunkanriteproperlyisintitt?

 

[igyigy]

iagreeitsreallybloodieanoyieenwennowunkanriteproperlyisintitt?

My brain.

I agree, it would be nice if they will be more active in recapturing it.  I chalk alot of things up to.. lets see what they put in next.  Seems to be alot of things that are meant to be expanded on.  They are just not in yet.

It is still good to mention, because you never know.  They might not have thought of that.


maybe some people just talk like that with no pauses and stuf they just keep talking with no break and talk and talk and talk till they are out of breath and have to.  breath.

 

[calandale]

More likely their keyboard is damage. My space bar is hurting.

 

[bryce777]

I agree that it's a lame copout to constantly say 'make a mod', or give a really lame way to work around some game flaw.  Especially when this game only lets you use one mod at a time.  It just seems like a lame sort of fanboi-ism.

I assume eventually this particular issue will change, though.

Personally, I say enough combat tweaking for now, and enough work on the towns being 'living world'.  Let's get some quests that make sense and some kind of ultimate goal to the game at the very least to the degree pirates! works.

 

[igyigy]

Quests and such are minor issues.  That is end work.  What you want to work first is the underlying engine.  This is what the game is built on, and how the game works.  The game you are playing is basically just a mod running on the engine.

Don't forget.  The game isn't released yet.  when you start seeing game revision numbers greater then 1, that means it is a release software.

 

[bryce777]

Quests and such are minor issues.  That is end work.  What you want to work first is the underlying engine.  This is what the game is built on, and how the game works.  The game you are playing is basically just a mod running on the engine.

Don't forget.  The game isn't released yet.  when you start seeing game revision numbers greater then 1, that means it is a release software.

True, but the engine is fairly complete aside from some more modding tools.  Even a few things like in the last days would make the game ten times better, mostly because you have some basic purpose.

 

[calandale]

I do hope you're wrong about the engine being fairly complete. There's a lot that I still want to see.

 

[Amman d Stazia]

formations!

DELEGATION!

outlaws laying siege to innocent.... castles?

 

[bryce777]

I do hope you're wrong about the engine being fairly complete. There's a lot that I still want to see.

Well, it is wide open as to what can be considered the engine.  I would say it is mainly complete and most of the tweaks I see from new versions are just that and I would not consider them part of the engine.

The basic stats of the game for example will hopefully be separated out from everything else so they can be modded.  For example it would be great to be able to use a fallout-like stat system if you wanted, or to use a skill system sort of like wasteland (kinda like elder scrolls except not totally lame).  Things like this should ideally be separate from the engine.  The way the stats work now is interesting, but very very limiting. 

 

[calandale]

There is a great deal that the AI still needs to get right. This would be (in my view) a major piece of work on the engine. Also, about half the suggestions which recieve a lot of interest tend to require major reworkings of some part of the engine. My feeling about the suggestions (like this one) which can be modded currently, is that they need to wait until things are close to their final form. If this is the final form of M&B, I feel somewhat saddened - it's already a great game (I wouldn't have bought it otherwise), but adding some chrome doesn't put it where it could be.

I'm confused by the point you are making about stats. Decoupling the stats from the engine seems impossible - movement (of both kinds), combat animations, map vision - these are all influenced by the stats. I don't see how you could give the modders easy control over them.
Hmm...maybe if you set a number of variables which the modder must supply a value to, then they can use the stats to generate those?

 

[bryce777]

Well, basically, the hard part would be making a GUI that can handle this.  Actually I am very slowly working on my own game in my spare time, and this has been one of my goals from the start and it's going pretty well.  Why?  Well, just look at a game like morrowind or oblivion.  Those games have a lot of people modding them.  Unfortunately, no matter what you do, you still have a largely poorly done stat system.  This also kills things in case someone wants to do a d20 star wars version that follows stats well, or wants a gurps system, or whatever.

Being able to put in a spell system/force system/superpower system is nice as well.  If you can determine how the stat system works you can make any sort of game you want and seriously change the way gameplay works.

It would also be nice if there were ways to tweak the AI.  Such as setting percent chance of charging/fleeing/fight radius, etc - whatever is available, for each unit.  That way you can get behavior that makes sense for your newly edited world.

I don't think these things are actually that difficult, they just require slightly more thought and more software engineering towards the general case of things instead of just hacking out and getting it done.  It takes slightly more work, but makes things that are near impossible to mod otherwise simple.

As for modding stuff as a suggestion all the time, that is a bad idea.  Mods should NOT be game fixes.  The reason why is that mods take a ton of effort, and if someone were to do this mod then very likely wen .801 or whatever comes out then it would totally negate all of that hard work.

There are still tweaks needed, but the combat is overall extremely well balanced; anybody will see flaws in any AI given enough time and perceptive ability.  I don't think the AI needs a huge overhaul, and stuff such as having the ablity to retreat or a command to *truly* hold your ground would go a huge distance towards fixing the problems.

When I say largely complete, that does not mean there will not be changes, but the engine is very playable and useable, the game however, is not.  The game is just roaming around fighting with no end in sight, right now.  Some kind of scorekeeping or awards of land and titles would help, and maybe some factional stuff like in the last days mod.  For example if you just sieged an enemy city for weeks (or perhaps defend your friendly army of besiegers) then it would eventually take that city over.

 

[calandale]

I like the open-ended feel of the game, but I see where you're coming from. Actually, the lack of goal may have helped keep my interest up for as long as it has. I do agree that there should be more to do, but I don't want the feeling of completion particularly - at least not in such a way that it cannot be modded out.

Good luck with building a generic engine though. It would be awsome if you get it going. The problem is that it takes so much time to develop a game, that by the time that you have it ready, the hardware is already ahead of your development, and it's time to start again. Trying to get a universal system in such an environment simply means that you will never have it current.