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Recruit
I purchased Mount and Blade wednesday and have devoured it since. I've gone through a hunter character up to level 30 and am now working on a merchant character.
There were only a few things that really caught my attention as being problems. First and foremost, the escort caravan quests are a total pain in the ass. Merchants are way too tentative and tend to flee far before any enemy could possibly reach them, and flee even when the player removes that enemy. On a typical merchant quest, i would have to kill everything that stood in my way, or face the caravan escaping to the other side of the map. Once, a caravan left my sight - i totally forgot about it, and more than ten days later it showed up on the other side of the map. I suggest one of two things: make caravan's more independent and more stationary, or make the payment for escorting a caravan substantially higher (honestly, four or five thousand denars, up from 1000. The amount of men and time it took to complete those was just never worth it for me.)
Secondly, and i've read it suggested here before, please try to work in better control with melee weapons on foot. I want to control when my Sword of War strikes above or to the left, jabs forward or swings from the right. It could easily be mapped to keys - strafing left or right makes the appropriate swing, moving forward jabs, and being stationary swings above. This already works on the horse, as you swing depending on which direction you face. These attacks being randomized is pretty silly - it matters quite a bit if I give a forward jab when i mean to strike across my enemy while he is moving and harder to hit. I've messed up many times because I haven't gotten the right attack, and find myself trying the attack button repeatedly to see if i can get the appropriate attack before i approach a target.
Third, I'd like to see some streamlining of menus. Zendar should have the quick menu like other cities, and there should be faster ways to rest than having to go to the tavern and walk all the way across the room (and with high encumbrance, that's a long walk). I would also like to see more accurate control over resting time - it doesnt hurt to add in "rest to noon, afternoon, dusk" etc. There were times when i wanted to regain hitpoints but also wanted to keep track of a group of bandits in the region - shorter resting would have let me do that without holding the spacebar for a good two minutes.
Finally, I'd really like to see more trees on the map. That's it. I think the map is perfect now - maybe it could use a bit of fluff, but the layout is excellent. I would just like more trees. They added some interesting tactical depth - often times I was outsmarting faster units by forcing them into trees; Khergit Knights would be on my tail, fast approaching while I hurried to the nearest town, so I would maneuver around trees and force them into trees to get a significant speed difference. Adding more trees would look better and give some more of those interesting moments.
Thanks for spending your time on such an excellent and well-crafted game, Armagan and co. I enjoyed the art in the game as well. Some of the weapons and armor looked really interesting. I'll return the favor by getting the word out!
http://forums.relicnews.com is where I first brought up Mount and Blade. Several people bought it!
There were only a few things that really caught my attention as being problems. First and foremost, the escort caravan quests are a total pain in the ass. Merchants are way too tentative and tend to flee far before any enemy could possibly reach them, and flee even when the player removes that enemy. On a typical merchant quest, i would have to kill everything that stood in my way, or face the caravan escaping to the other side of the map. Once, a caravan left my sight - i totally forgot about it, and more than ten days later it showed up on the other side of the map. I suggest one of two things: make caravan's more independent and more stationary, or make the payment for escorting a caravan substantially higher (honestly, four or five thousand denars, up from 1000. The amount of men and time it took to complete those was just never worth it for me.)
Secondly, and i've read it suggested here before, please try to work in better control with melee weapons on foot. I want to control when my Sword of War strikes above or to the left, jabs forward or swings from the right. It could easily be mapped to keys - strafing left or right makes the appropriate swing, moving forward jabs, and being stationary swings above. This already works on the horse, as you swing depending on which direction you face. These attacks being randomized is pretty silly - it matters quite a bit if I give a forward jab when i mean to strike across my enemy while he is moving and harder to hit. I've messed up many times because I haven't gotten the right attack, and find myself trying the attack button repeatedly to see if i can get the appropriate attack before i approach a target.
Third, I'd like to see some streamlining of menus. Zendar should have the quick menu like other cities, and there should be faster ways to rest than having to go to the tavern and walk all the way across the room (and with high encumbrance, that's a long walk). I would also like to see more accurate control over resting time - it doesnt hurt to add in "rest to noon, afternoon, dusk" etc. There were times when i wanted to regain hitpoints but also wanted to keep track of a group of bandits in the region - shorter resting would have let me do that without holding the spacebar for a good two minutes.
Finally, I'd really like to see more trees on the map. That's it. I think the map is perfect now - maybe it could use a bit of fluff, but the layout is excellent. I would just like more trees. They added some interesting tactical depth - often times I was outsmarting faster units by forcing them into trees; Khergit Knights would be on my tail, fast approaching while I hurried to the nearest town, so I would maneuver around trees and force them into trees to get a significant speed difference. Adding more trees would look better and give some more of those interesting moments.
Thanks for spending your time on such an excellent and well-crafted game, Armagan and co. I enjoyed the art in the game as well. Some of the weapons and armor looked really interesting. I'll return the favor by getting the word out!
http://forums.relicnews.com is where I first brought up Mount and Blade. Several people bought it!
