More/Stronger hostile factions

[mamastoast]

What do you guys think of the current number of neutral hostile factions? I mean looters and bandits. It's been a few years since I played vanilla warband but think the current status in bannerlord matches what we had in warband.


However, while I think PoP overdid it with insane armies of internal demons ready to destroy you even into the late game... I do think there is a lot of value in having a lot more variation in strength among neutral hostile armies... It gives the player something to progress through if not in a faction war, aswell as threats to all factions within an area.

 

[Bob Gnarly]

I haven't explored all of the map thus far, so I've only run into looters, forest/mountain bandits and sea raiders. Some more variety would be good for sure.

 

[bantad87]

I'm, personally, not a fan of Warbands scaling bandit factions. Bandits should be, and feel relatively weak, except in the early game. I don't feel like they should pay for a late game army. You should be invested into infrastructure by late game. In mid game, you should be able to dominate these enemies for some small bits of income & experience, but you should be investing into industry and infrastructure as well.

Honestly think that trade should be a larger source of income as well.

 

[Cheesy Crackers]

I'd like it if the four looters I'm auto-calculating battle didn't knock out 4 of my tier 4 units. At least they never kill during auto-calc, but the amount of of your troops that get wounded is kind of insane. Between the loading screens and the tiny looter bands, I'm not bothered to fight every battle. Especially since now we have a skill that you can only level up by doing auto battles.

 

[mamastoast]

I'm, personally, not a fan of Warbands scaling bandit factions. Bandits should be, and feel relatively weak, except in the early game. I don't feel like they should pay for a late game army. You should be invested into infrastructure by late game. In mid game, you should be able to dominate these enemies for some small bits of income & experience, but you should be investing into industry and infrastructure as well.

Honestly think that trade should be a larger source of income as well.

I'm not so much concerned with income, but rather flavor of the world and basically stuff to do if your faction is not at war. Warband mods that add stronger neutral factions are great because they give you army progression tiers that do no involve other lords.. "oh, now I can deal with mercenary companies, great!" Stuff like that.

I absolutely agree that looters should stay as weak enemies, what I'm suggesting are mid to high-ish tiers bands of neutral hostile armies that roam the land for their own goals. Perhaps rogue knights or deserters

Right now, if my king doesn't feel like fighting anyone, I'm stuck hunting looters and bandits forever, which really is somewhat of a flat experience.

 

[bantad87]

I'm not so much concerned with income, but rather flavor of the world and basically stuff to do if your faction is not at war. Warband mods that add stronger neutral factions are great because they give you army progression tiers that do no involve other lords.. "oh, now I can deal with mercenary companies, great!" Stuff like that.

Right now, if my king doesn't feel like fighting anyone, I'm stuck hunting looters and bandits forever, which really is somewhat of a flat experience.

It seems like Bannerlord does have mercenary factions though (I know I've ran into a few), as well as minor factions. I'm sure those are intended for more of an mid-game fight then bandits. I have seen bandits starting to scale though - I've seen size 40 bandit parties running around in the last hour or so.

 

[mamastoast]

It seems like Bannerlord does have mercenary factions though (I know I've ran into a few), as well as minor factions. I'm sure those are intended for more of an mid-game fight then bandits. I have seen bandits starting to scale though - I've seen size 40 bandit parties running around in the last hour or so.

I guess I'd want them to be more of a threat. If you've ever played the anno 1257 mod for warband, I think it strikes a nice balance. But perhaps I should start harrassing them myself.

And yea I think you're right that looters and bandits do scale abit.. or maybe they jsut have longer to form into larger groups after a while. I've seen a 200+ looter group 1 or 2 times.. Not that it helped them much against my horse archers.

 

[froggyluv]

Im like level 5 with 30 man army and pretty bored with the current state of the Robber factions. Went up to Sea Raider territory and couldnt find parties bigger than 7 -seriously why did they weaken these guys. The world should feel threatening yet i can click anywhere on the map, have a smoke (dont smoke) and dont have to worry about anything. There design flaw here.

 

[mamastoast]

Im like level 5 with 30 man army and pretty bored with the current state of the Robber factions. Went up to Sea Raider territory and couldnt find parties bigger than 7 -seriously why did they weaken these guys. The world should feel threatening yet i can click anywhere on the map, have a smoke (dont smoke) and dont have to worry about anything. There design flaw here.

That is kind of situation I'm talking about. I think putting neutral enemies in terms of the world being threatening is a good way to describe it. In those warband mods I referenced, there'd still be those higher level neutral bands roaming the countryside or specific areas so you'd have to watch out.. sure they'd be a lot more than than your common bandit, but they're still there. Makes the game a lot mroe interesting after the early stages

 

[Matt77486]

I'm not so much concerned with income, but rather flavor of the world and basically stuff to do if your faction is not at war. Warband mods that add stronger neutral factions are great because they give you army progression tiers that do no involve other lords.. "oh, now I can deal with mercenary companies, great!" Stuff like that.

I absolutely agree that looters should stay as weak enemies, what I'm suggesting are mid to high-ish tiers bands of neutral hostile armies that roam the land for their own goals. Perhaps rogue knights or deserters

Right now, if my king doesn't feel like fighting anyone, I'm stuck hunting looters and bandits forever, which really is somewhat of a flat experience.

Going the Ck2 route of tremendous realm and vassal instability coupled with messy successions could address this. Conflicts would be fairly frequent but internal to avoid snowballing.