Since very long time, maybe since the first M&B game I was curious, how did the hero inherited the authority to lead anyone in the medieval world. Memory serves not very well, but i think in one of previous games if player selected something like "squire" at character cration, he immediately got the banner, and if not, than the banner was given to him later...
In Bannerlord, things got even worse. You can choose some street urchin parents instead of "Baron retainers" and still right in the beginning you end up having a noble clan capable of hiring anyone anywhere. I think the beginner player should play quite some time as a non-noble character.
Can be done implementing some parts of "serve as a soldier" mod (which i didnt try personaly, but i know whats its about).
The game should start as it does, just without some fancy highborn parents options (or such options should come at a cost). After character creation, sorry lad, no sigil. Write down family name, and its a common name, without dey/fen/etc.
So clan level 0 should be considered a commoner clan with huge limitations. You cant recruit and maintain anyone but mercenaries, bandits, peasants and companions. Any faction troops are non-recruitable and non-transferable to such a party. You cant upgrade anyone aswell. The highest tier should be 1 or 2. And on top of that, the party limit is 0, so any troop has some chance to desert any day. That should not affect companions (friends) which are generally the only likely members of level zero clanparty.
To advance to more privileged state one must get knighted. That is achieved in service to proper lords, which can be performed either by serving in their parties as troop(s) or helping them in battles as partyleaders. The way of the trooper is kinda known by the corresponding mod, but since i dont know how exactly its done there, here is my vision. Firstly, to decrease the time spent in waiting for encounters, the timescale available in this mode shoud be increased to x16 or more. Secondly, companions should join the same party. Dunno about the armors and weapons, i think player should be in control of that still, for both himself and companions. Thirdly, renown gained in service of a lord should be at least partly taken away if player chooses to leave this lord. And finally, "gentrification" should go in stages. 1st stage is being just a regular soldier. 2nd is to be able to create a little formation from just companions. 3rd is to be placed by lord in control of a regular formation. 4 is to be able to choose which formation to lead. I think, the commander at stage 4 is good enough to be ascended to knighthood, so at this point player can choose the banner and upgrade clan to level 1.
That too can be achieved in battles as partyleader. Benefit of being nobody is that commoner party (however little) can participate in any battle on any side with very little effect on relations. So if you ally with some lord and help him win battles, you get your renown too, just maybe slower...
Two paths are interchangeable, you gain same stages of officer experience leading a microparty, so when you want to play as a trooper you simply join the lord you like (or rather the one who likes you).
The common thing here is: you dont get renown defeating bandits. Maybe you get a little when helping lord against bandits. And to progress you need to somehow stick to one lord to have your achievements noticed. If you served/helped 10 lords a little bit, none of them will make you knight. But if you served/helped one lord several times - bingo. Maybe some combination of renown and relationship will do the trick.
After being knighted player should be able to ascend to lordship.
I think knighted clan should be finally able to hire/upgrade kingdom units (maybe only of the faction it currently serves), but the party size should be still very limited (maybe 10-15), and the max tier of troops should be around 3-4.
Upgrade to lord should follow the same pattern, just instead of any lord we have any king. Either serve in kings party, starting as commander of your 3/4 companions and then progress as an officer, or help kings win battles, participating with your little party in any of them. Or join a faction, which will disable free joining battles, but will allow to join the army...
At some point the luckiest faction leader will surprise you with a message that your achievements did not go unnoticed and that the lordship awaits.
Its still not 100% historically accurate, cuz in real middle ages titles usually come with fiefs, but since the minimum fief is a castle, its really expensive to properly ennoble some umjumped nobody. I liked warband more, where a single village was a fief...
But its better than what we have now:"Hey, bro! Everyone these days has a banner, so lets draw one and be on par with all the aristocracy right away"
In Bannerlord, things got even worse. You can choose some street urchin parents instead of "Baron retainers" and still right in the beginning you end up having a noble clan capable of hiring anyone anywhere. I think the beginner player should play quite some time as a non-noble character.
Can be done implementing some parts of "serve as a soldier" mod (which i didnt try personaly, but i know whats its about).
The game should start as it does, just without some fancy highborn parents options (or such options should come at a cost). After character creation, sorry lad, no sigil. Write down family name, and its a common name, without dey/fen/etc.
So clan level 0 should be considered a commoner clan with huge limitations. You cant recruit and maintain anyone but mercenaries, bandits, peasants and companions. Any faction troops are non-recruitable and non-transferable to such a party. You cant upgrade anyone aswell. The highest tier should be 1 or 2. And on top of that, the party limit is 0, so any troop has some chance to desert any day. That should not affect companions (friends) which are generally the only likely members of level zero clanparty.
To advance to more privileged state one must get knighted. That is achieved in service to proper lords, which can be performed either by serving in their parties as troop(s) or helping them in battles as partyleaders. The way of the trooper is kinda known by the corresponding mod, but since i dont know how exactly its done there, here is my vision. Firstly, to decrease the time spent in waiting for encounters, the timescale available in this mode shoud be increased to x16 or more. Secondly, companions should join the same party. Dunno about the armors and weapons, i think player should be in control of that still, for both himself and companions. Thirdly, renown gained in service of a lord should be at least partly taken away if player chooses to leave this lord. And finally, "gentrification" should go in stages. 1st stage is being just a regular soldier. 2nd is to be able to create a little formation from just companions. 3rd is to be placed by lord in control of a regular formation. 4 is to be able to choose which formation to lead. I think, the commander at stage 4 is good enough to be ascended to knighthood, so at this point player can choose the banner and upgrade clan to level 1.
That too can be achieved in battles as partyleader. Benefit of being nobody is that commoner party (however little) can participate in any battle on any side with very little effect on relations. So if you ally with some lord and help him win battles, you get your renown too, just maybe slower...
Two paths are interchangeable, you gain same stages of officer experience leading a microparty, so when you want to play as a trooper you simply join the lord you like (or rather the one who likes you).
The common thing here is: you dont get renown defeating bandits. Maybe you get a little when helping lord against bandits. And to progress you need to somehow stick to one lord to have your achievements noticed. If you served/helped 10 lords a little bit, none of them will make you knight. But if you served/helped one lord several times - bingo. Maybe some combination of renown and relationship will do the trick.
After being knighted player should be able to ascend to lordship.
I think knighted clan should be finally able to hire/upgrade kingdom units (maybe only of the faction it currently serves), but the party size should be still very limited (maybe 10-15), and the max tier of troops should be around 3-4.
Upgrade to lord should follow the same pattern, just instead of any lord we have any king. Either serve in kings party, starting as commander of your 3/4 companions and then progress as an officer, or help kings win battles, participating with your little party in any of them. Or join a faction, which will disable free joining battles, but will allow to join the army...
At some point the luckiest faction leader will surprise you with a message that your achievements did not go unnoticed and that the lordship awaits.
Its still not 100% historically accurate, cuz in real middle ages titles usually come with fiefs, but since the minimum fief is a castle, its really expensive to properly ennoble some umjumped nobody. I liked warband more, where a single village was a fief...
But its better than what we have now:"Hey, bro! Everyone these days has a banner, so lets draw one and be on par with all the aristocracy right away"
