Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord Suggestions List

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WilltheGamer

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Emperor Williams:
M a s s i v e  L i s t  o f  S u g g e s t i o n s!


I want to start off by saying that all these ideas are subject to change if I think something else might be better suited, and they are indeed just suggestions or opinions, so please don't take them too seriously.

I love mount and blade and while I may not know everything about it, this is my best shot at some lore, but more specifically gameplay mechanics.

All these posts I am reserving will be new posts about new topics, I will create a Table of Contents when it is done.

If you like anything please specify what you liked :smile:
If you didn't like something, I always welcome criticism.


This list includes:
New Faction Ideas
Bosses
New Items
New Quests
New ways to rule the Kingdom
Attributes Overhauls
Stats Overhauls
Strategic Style of Gameplay
Merchant Style of Gameplay
Bandit Style of Gameplay
New Sound Ideas
Changes to the Map
Taxes
Arena!
City Building
Titles

And lots more random suggestions.
Enjoy!​
 
Over-arching story:
The Emperor has fallen, after a grueling defeat trying to cross the mountains. With his absence in Calradia, and no army back home to hold the old Kingdoms together, the land has fallen into chaos. The land has been split between the Old Noble Houses, however the old Kingdom of Swadia holds the Calradian Capital of Dhirim and claims by right of conquest that "King" Harlaus is the new Emperor. However, the other noble houses have not fallen under his banner, and all claim right to rule. The newly "elected" King Graveth has undergone preparations in the mountains, turning his forest Kingdom into a fortress of stone and spears. Meanwhile towards the coasts, The "Mighty" King Ragnar has been rallying all the banners of the Old Nord Houses. Thousands of Nord Warriors and Huscarls have been seen roaming in massive warbands under previously unknown minor lords hunting down any Non-Nord. The frozen lands of the Vaegirs however have been surprisingly quiet. The "Rightful" King Yaroglek has taken charge from his fallen father and rallied the old banners to his side, moving most of his soldiers into their massive fortresses bordering the Nords. While the Vaegirs hold up in their fortresses, the dusty plains to the south have seen great movement. The Nomadic Khergit tribes have gathered under the "Great" Sanjar Khan who has taken control of the plains with his massive host of horsemen. He has already begun harassing the Swadian borders with lightning raids, using his powerful horse archers to raise villages and farms and get out before anyone can stop them. Sultan Hakim the "Magnificent" has rallied the old Sarranid empire to his side, but has remained rather quiet. It can be seen that his men scour the sands amassing mountains of wealth in jewels and spices, perhaps he is preparing for something big...

The bordering nations and islands near Calradia have also noticed the great strife, and seen it as a great opportunity. Who knows who will come to try and take Calradia for their own.

The land is split, the nation divided. Rogue Lords rise to conquer, Noble Lords battle for land and power, Bandits and Highwaymen plague the roads and the Merchants of the land seek to create empires of wealth in this time of opportunity.

Will you be a powerful Rogue Lord? Join a Noble House? Live the bandits life? or seek a mountain of gold and all the power money can buy?

Or will you seek to conquer all of Calradia, and name yourself Emperor...
 
Character Creation Ideas:

So, I have really thought this over, and come up with some new ideas on the matter. Granted, they may not be the easiest to implement, but they are definitely something I would enjoy seeing added to the game.

When you start a game of Mount and Blade you are prompted by a set of options detailing your back-story, these options give you a "hidden" set of bonuses that are applied automatically to your character. And as you select each option, you are given a new piece of your past which is written at the top of the screen. By the time you have finished you have basically read the entire life of your character up until that point in time, and I love this, it is simple, and allows for a highly customized story. However, I believe that it is very limited. You can only be born outside of Calradia, and many of the options, some of them being nothing more than stat changes, seem very limited. So, with that in mind, I would detail a few extra options:

1. Be able to choose to become a noble born from a Calradian House. This will start you well off, and automatically aligned with a faction of your choosing. (Easy Starting Option)
2. Starting option as a bandit, making you automatically hostile with all houses, and making all factions attack you automatically until good relations can be made again (Starting relation -20 with all factions, Hard Starting Option)
3. If you received the achievement "Emperor" or "Empress" in Warband or achieved domination in Bannerlord, allow the player a hidden option to start as the last surviving heir to the Throne of Calradia. You were too young to take control of the Empire when it fell, and were taken away by loyal servants to keep you safe, now that you are of age, you seek to reclaim your throne. (+100 right to rule, -50 relation to all faction leaders, +3 Persuasion, start with 5 Loyal Imperial Knights a custom cavalry unit, when creating a faction highly likely that all factions will go to war with you, likely that enemy factions will ally to defeat you, allows new options with claimants allowing you to help them in exchange for fealty, and automatically skips tutorial. Very Hard Overall Experience)

Declaration of Values:
One thing that a player should be able to do, perhaps when they start a new kingdom, or are leading a large company, is make a Declaration of Values that the players troops can hold close to.

So for example, when the player starts a new kingdom, one of your companions will say, "My Lord/Lady, the troops are all lined up waiting to hear a speech from the founder of a new nation!"

Then you will see a cutscene where you are lead into the courtyard of whatever castle/city you just took and all the men in your company as well as the number of peasants/merchants in the city will be displayed cheering for you.

At this time the player will have a list of options to choose from that they shout to the people, declaring their intentions as a monarch, some examples would be:
1. Justice is a prime concern of my rule and the common people will not be overlooked! (-10% global tax rate, +5 relation per month to each city held, +5 Global Morale of Soldiers)
2. The bellies of my people shall not go wanting, our farms shall be prosperous! (-10% global tax rate, +5 relation per month to villages not raided, -25% chance of starvation/famine)
3. Trade shall be free to all in my Kingdom, and the roads shall go unharassed! (-50% Tax from Tariffs, -10% Global Tax Rate, Small Patrols will defend the roads from bandits, Large increase in trade, More available goods in town, increased chance of assassination attempts due to open borders)
4. Injustice is a thing that must be paid for, in gold, or death. (+10% global tax increase, -15 relation with each town held for a month due to corruption, -5 Global Morale to soldiers)
5. Farmers and villages belonging to my kingdom belong to me, and thus all must pay tribute! (+10% global tax increase, -15 relation with each village held for a month due to corruption, +15% increased chance of starvation and famine)
6. Our borders are not so easily bypassed by garbage peddling merchants, we shall close our borders to this filth and rid ourselves of their snake oils. (+10% Global Tax Increase, -100% from Trade Tariffs, -90% chance of assassination attempts within your borders, Bandit numbers increase within the countries borders.)

The player would only be able to choose 2-4 options to benefit their nation depending on the number of options. This would shape the way other kingdoms viewed yours, and many different options could be added to this screen. A player could also make a new speech and over the course of a month, change the way they were viewed and the bonuses they received.

Traits
Now you may think this is a little strange, but I got one of the best ideas from one of the most random places. So, in medieval times everyone was vying for power, trying to marry up, trying to scratch out the most(as we have clearly seen from game of thrones). And each person goes about using their traits as human beings to try and do this. Warband already had this to a minor extent. For example, some lords were noble and good hearted, while others were total asshats (You know the ones...), they both interact with the player in different ways and have different things they approve of. These are considered traits. Well what if we took an idea, like from say the Sims 3(Dont judge me I love that game) where each character has a list of traits that is randomized or set on a per person basis, that creates an interesting mix of characters.

For instance, here are some traits that NPCs might have:
1. Completely Loyal - Will never betray his lord, or wife. Bars player from persuasion attempts.
2. Loyal to Gold - Will obey the person who pays him the most unquestioningly. Players need to persuade with money.
3. Loyal to person - Is loyal to a single person in his faction and will go wherever he goes.
4. Loyal to nobody - Easy to persuade to join you if it looks good for himself.
5. Greedy - Loses more relation when he doesn't get what he wants.
6. Callous - Cares little for others feelings and thus has low relations with most.
7. Nationalist Greed - Is content as long as someone loyal is profiting from it. Loses relation when enemy takes assets of the Kingdom.
8. Power Hungry - Seeks to move up in the world, and will do anything to get it, regardless of honor.
9. Knights Honor - Will never commit a dishonorable act. Will often set prisoners free.
10. Circumstantial Honor - Will be honorable when it is favorable to do so, or at least appear so.
11. No Honor - Does whatever benefits him the fastest.
12. Resentful - Holds a grudge and never forgets. Any negative actions towards this character result in permanent irreversible negative relationship. If he has 100 hate for you, the best you can do is get him to 0 with 100+.
13. Forgiving - Forgets past grievances easily, and gains trust quicker.
14. Loving Parent - Treats children well, bastard or not. Will spend extra on ransom if children are captured.
15. Spiteful Parent - Cares nothing for children, especially bastards, and will often never pay ransom for them.
16. Godly - Worship is very important, views people without religion as hostile.
17. Casually Godly - Cares little for the church goers, but is distrusting of those who do not.
18. Pagan - believes in other gods, is distrustful of non-pagans.
19. Atheist - Believes in nothing, but does not hold it against others if they believe.
20. Spiteful Atheist - Believes in nothing, and hates those who do.
21. Priest - Seeks to convert anybody he can to whatever religion he is.
22. Anti-priest - Seeks to make people atheist, exclusive to atheists.
23. Blood Thirsty - Is happy when he wins battles. Is VERY unhappy when he loses them, sees allies in those who fight with him.
24. Aristocrat - Believes in the aristocracy and noble births, dislikes those of low birth.
25. Humanist - Believes in the people, dislikes those who mistreat others.

These traits could go on for days and they could help make each new game of Bannerlord a fresh experience. Though I will say, it would take a long time to write all of these into the code.


More on this to come.



Time

Time
One thing that has always bothered me is the presence of time. It seems so inconsistent, and in many cases arbitrary. I don't particularly like the night/day cycles that happen, even though I understand the gameplay design options behind it. The reason I don't like it is because I think it limits the possibility of story expansion and realism. This is supposed to be a medieval simulator, and things in medieval times took a long time, and if it only takes 3-5 days for a massive army of foot soldiers to cross Calradia, then it makes it feel very very small. With an increase in the speed at which time flows, many new options become available.

Increase the speed of time: instead of having the day night cycle with the alternating dark and light sequences, have a detailed calendar in the bottom right corner of the screen. A small circle will indicate what time of day it is. If it is midday it will be a bright sun, if it is midnight it will be a full moon, if it is evening the moon will rise as the sun sets, and if it is dawn, the sun will rise as the moon sets. The calendar will also have the current date as the days pass it will record both the date in the Lore, but also the number of years/months/days played. All in all, time will increase about 2000%. What does this mean? That 1 day in warband would equal 20 days in bannerlord. Why is this important? Because it allows for various other options to open up in the story, though various things such as "Siege times" and so fourth will need to be altered to compensate.

Aging:
No matter how long you play your wont play long enough to see your character die of old age. With the increased speed of time, this could be a large possibility, however, you then have the option(before you die) of creating a legacy, having children, teaching them your skills and techniques, and when your main dies, being able to take control of one of your children instead of starting the game over. But also creating a lot of bastards who may or may not grow up to hate your lineage.


Babies!!! and bastards...

So one of the major reasons I wanted to change time was because it left no room for family growth. No room for off-spring, long term relationships, and meaningful story-telling. If the player decides to have children, given 15 years of time, that child should mature into a character the player can field as a companion and bring to the field as a soldier. Also, this allows for much new dialogue between the children. As a medieval family, you choose how you want the children to turn out, this can also lead to inter-family conflict. For example: Say a father wants his daughter to become a proper lady, so he can sell her off to another family for alligence, but the mother wants her to marry someone she loves and do what she wants with her life, this would open up new conversation options with your significant other and add new depth to the game. Then, the children can come to resent or love you depending on how you raise them either strictly, kindly, or not at all.

Another available option is to spend time with your children teaching them skills your character has learned(in case they die) and when the child comes of age, they will have already learned many skills only being level 1, this will allow the really hardcore players to design perfect characters(10/10 all stats) that would otherwise have been impossible on a solo character, but will take a great deal of time to achieve.

Also the options of bastards comes into play. If you are a male, and you go around cheating on your wife, or simply using your persuasion skill to seduce women, you could easily end up with 10 bastard children, none of which are your legitimate children, but when your main dies, you can choose to be any of them, thus, joining whatever family, and faction, that child was a part of. Though you will have reduced relationship with everyone in the mothers house, and you will not be treated as a noble or allowed to carry your families flag. You will also be addressed as "bastard" by many and will lose relationship with many lords because of it. However, all bastard children will have a bonus to relationship based on similar backgrounds.

If you are a female, and you get pregnant, you go through a pregnancy phase, where after 4 months your character gets a Pregnant debuff that makes her much slower in combat for the next 5 months, it will however, not effect her ability to lead. If the child is legitimate, she will be able to raise the child with the father. If the child is a bastard, and the father knows that it is not his, he will leave you, if he thinks that it is his, he will raise it like his own. The player will still be able to raise her children the same way a father would even without a father, giving them the stat bonuses they want to impart on them. Unlike a father who does not get to raise his bastard children.


Sex/Rape/Bastards/Affairs and more!

So as we all know the average medieval person was not particularly well educated. This lead to many things going wrong, including love affairs, bastards, rape, whores, disease, etc etc.

Why should Calradia, a medieval simulator have anything less? It shouldn't I say!

Before the player even starts the game, several things should happen:

1. The game randomizes 50 love affairs between lords and ladies. This means that unannounced to the player or the other lords in the game, lots of lords and ladies are doing the dirty on the down low. This allows the player to become, without having to do anything, involved in an ever changing world. If the player does their research, and with a high enough persuasion, he can use these budding affairs to blackmail lords and ladies to do their wishes.

2. The game randomizes 3-10 bastard children, with random first names, per faction. This means each faction will have a host of illegitimate children that have no claim to their household estate, and are loathed by either their father, or mother. This will add more tension to the mix.

3. The game randomly generates 150 dishonorable actions between the lords, and 150 honorable actions between the lords. This could mean that in the past, one particular lord could have slept with the ladies from 5 different houses, losing him personal honor, and relation with those people, and a history of disloyalty. This could also mean that Lords lost honor raping and pillaging towns and villages, losing more honor and relation with their wives. This might also mean that a lord let an enemy lord go when he should have executed him, giving him a much higher relationship. This will create a good mix of random alliances between random people and houses who may be from completely different factions.

I think this will give each new game of bannerlord new and unique gameplay experiences.


Persuasion Overhaul now with Sex!

So one thing that I will mention over and over in this is how I think persuasion is highly overlooked, and I had a few new suggestions on how persuasion options can become available to the player as time goes on.

Level 1 - All attempts at persuasion are 10% easier, new "get to know" options available for lords.
Level 2 - All attempts at persuasion are 15% easier
Level 3 - All attempts at persuasion are 20% easier, new "appeal" and "intimidate" options become available allowing the player to use coercion on officials and lords.
Level 4 - All attempts at persuasion are 25% easier
Level 5 - All attempts at persuasion are 30% easier, new "seduction" options become available for members of the opposite sex including merchants, wives(male only), lords(female only), and town officials(female only).
Level 6 - All attempts at persuasion are 35% easier
Level 7 - All attempts at persuasion are 40% easier, new "take to bed" options become available for lords.
Level 8 - All attempts at persuasion are 45% easier
Level 9 - All attempts at persuasion are 50% easier
Level 10 - All attempts at persuasion are 55% easier


List of things you could do with Persuasion:
Barter with Merchants
Seduce Town Officials/Merchants/Lords/Kings and Queens
Bribe/Persuade/Intimidate Caravans to give you their cargo.
Bribe/Persuade/Intimidate Lords to disbanding their armies and surrendering.
Get to know lords and ladies better simply by spending in game time with them when they are available. IE: not on a mission/with the marshall
Get town officials to do a variety of illegal things for you, such as not taxing your caravans, lifting trade laws, paying them to let your bandits into town, etc
Take Kings to bed and become their queen or assassinate them.
Take lords to bed and instead of bedding them, assassinate them.
Take lords to bed to gain improved relations.
Bribe/Persuade mercenaries/assassins to try and kill a lord.
Bribe/Persuade/Intimidate bandits to leave the area, reducing bandit presence and increasing income from trade.
Bribe/Persuade/Intimidate bandits to join you, work for you, or preform tasks for you.
Persuade/Intimidate Village Elders to giving you their rents rather than the lords they serve.
Persuade Manhunters to give up their prisoners.
 
Power Swing and Power Draw Changes

So one thing I noticed is that upgrading these skills was a mere stat change, but the other day I was playing and realized how much more interesting they could be.

Change the name of Power Swing to Brutality

Each rank of Brutality passively increases your melee attack damage by 4%.

Crushing Blows
Unlocks at Brutality Rank 3.
Enemies struck with melee weapons have their movement speed slowed. If you are wielding 1-handed weapons, the slow is 20% for 3 seconds. If you are wielding a 2-handed weapon , the slow is 35% for 5 seconds.

Sundering Strikes
Unlocks at Brutality Rank 5.
Attacking using melee weapons ignores 25% of the targets armor.

Vicious Strikes
Unlocks at Brutality Rank 7.
Targets struck with melee weapons bleed for 50% of the damage dealt over 10 seconds.

Devastating Blow
Unlocks at Brutality Rank 10.
When the player holds the attack button down for 3 seconds a Devastating Blow is charged. When the player releases the attack button the player will preform various power attacks. If the attack is from above, they will drive down with a crushing blow, dealing 250% weapon damage. If the attack is from the side, the player will release a frontal cleave, dealing 125% weapon damage to all targets within a 180 degree radius in front of them. If the attack is a thrust, the player will leap forward 5 feet, dealing 150% weapon damage, and completely ignoring armor.


Now as for Power Draw, I would suggest renaming is "Marksmanship" and adding the following.

Marksmanship passively increases damage with bows by 6% per level.

Debilitating Shots
Unlocks at Marksmanship Rank 3.
Hitting a target in the legs will reduce movement speed by 50%. Hitting them in the arms will reduce their attack speed by 50%. Hitting them in the chest will cause them to bleed for 50% of the damage dealt over 5 seconds.

Power Shot
Unlocks at Marksmanship Rank 5.
When the crosshairs form a perfect target, the crosshairs will become red. If the player fires his shot at this exact moment, the shot will deal 150% normal damage and force the target to fall down. If the target is mounted, they will be thrown from their horse. If the shot hits a shield it will deal 500% damage to the shield, and stagger the victim if it breaks.

Quick Draw
Unlocks at Marksmanship Rank 7.
This will passively increase the draw speed of the player by 50%, allowing them to fire arrows at a much faster rate.

Ranger
Unlocks at Marksmanship Rank 10.
Allows the player to move and attack with a bow without accuracy loss.


The Merchant Style of Gameplay!

I think one of the greatest things about Mount and Blade is the potential it has to truly immerse a player in a medieval world and make them feel truly a part of it. These suggestions are meant to open up different ways to play the game so that a player can enjoy the game in whatever way they want. When I think of a medieval world, I don't just think of knights and lords and glory through conquest. I think of merchant lords, powerful nobles swaying policies that effect the people, power struggles, Bandit Warlords, Love quarrels, Rogue Knights who do as they please, an era where you couldn't just fly across the world it took time and effort to get places and do things so more planning was necessary.

In the idea of the merchant, I would like to see more use of the Persuasion and Trade skills, allowing players to experience the game differently.

List of Ideas that come to mind when I think of the Merchant style of gameplay:
Caravan Trading
Bartering
Merchant Cities - Crossroads
Merchant Empires - Mercenary Armies
Starting Businesses
Faction Neutrality
Economic Conquest
Merchant Wars
Gang/Corruption Mentality - City Control through Corruption
Honorable Merchants vs. Corrupt Merchant Lords
Business's being destroyed in wars
Wars opening up opportunities in different cities
Policies not allowing Trade
Policies allowing trade to flourish
Bribing Politicians to break trade disputes
Convincing Politicians or town leaders to take your side
Becoming a powerful influential man, rather than a militarily powerful one
New screens showing tax rates and profit margins for advanced traders
Underground networks
Man of the people
Feared and untouchable merchant

Let me expand on these ideas a little more one by one so I can suggest a way to implement them.

Caravan Trading
When I think of caravan trader I have ideas much like the ones you would find in with Fire and Sword with a few exceptions. In WFS players cannot create a caravan unless the town has enough supplies of that type to send(If any) and there is no way to supplement this of my knowledge without increasing the towns prosperity from trading over and over or being a lord and building in that town. I also have found no way to send more than one caravan at a time in with fire and sword, further limiting the trader lifestyle.

Here are my suggestions:
1. Allow players to create enterprises within a city, like in warband. Say a player builds a fur lodge, the city will then have more furs for trade so larger caravans can be sent.
2. Allow players to send as many caravans from a city as the city has resources available to send. IE: If you can make 4 caravans because you have 4 resources that can be sold, then allow it.
3. Reduce the cost for caravan guards, to do one job costs me more than to hire an entire band of mercenaries permanently, doesn't seem right and hurts profits.
4. Allow players to start permanent trade caravans between cities. If say there are 15 resources that can be traded in a game, and the player can build a maximum of 1-2 factories(or whatever) that produce these goods, then some towns will always have less of Items 3-15 and more of 1 and 2. Allow players to make factories in many different towns, catalog what he built where, and then send those goods to the towns that don't have them or are farthest from them. This will allow players to keep a constant cash flow into their pockets, obviously this needs to be regulated or the player will become to powerful to easily so maybe only small caravans can be permanently sent and only once every 1-3 days or something. Or maybe just make it so that if one city is producing a good for the player, it will automatically send a caravan once a week (Large caravan) to a city that has a high demand for it.

This will make it so players can invest capital in a city, and start trade routes between cities and liven up the map a little with some movement.

Bartering
A talent that was incredibly important to trade back in the medieval times, and has turned into an automatic feature with the Trade skill. Now this is an idea that I think is iconic to the medieval world, but I don't have any easy way of implementing it that would simply be a stat change on a hidden menu. This would require an almost complete overhaul of the trade system unless you entered parameters where it was only used in specific situations but even then it seems like it might over complicate the game. So for now I will leave this idea at that, just an idea.

Merchant Cities
Also known as Neutral Cities, such that the rise and fall of empires is overseen by a rich man in a palace made of gold. Part of the new building system I am trying to design is building up cities and villages from what otherwise would be a plot of dirt. The same idea goes for a Merchant City. A player would find a crossroads where caravans often pass, and he would build a city. These locations would be automatically placed before the game even starts, but players can choose to build their or not.

Ideas for Merchant Cities:
1. Neutral city that can be looted like a village but is neutral to all nations the player is neutral with, and does not count as trying to become a monarch.
2. Merchant cities are built on crossroads, so the roads that connect towns together, this will mean caravans have to pass through them on their way.
3. These cities can charge taxes on whoever passes through them.
4. These cities, unlike faction based cities, are focused completely on trade, so nobody is trying to gain anyone's loyalty.
5. These places cannot be used to produce goods, but can procure goods that pass through them at a discounted price, and then sold at a higher price somewhere else.
6. Bandit Lords, Rogue Lords, or enemy faction Lords can raid these cities, so mercenary guards must be paid to protect them.
7. These places can be havens for bandits and crime rings, putting drugs on caravans or hiding wanted men within them.
8. Just as they were built, if the player doesn't want it anymore, he can destroy it.

These are some ideas that come into mind when I think of a merchant city, a city that is built and raised by the player.

Merchant Empires or better thought of as Mercenary Armies
This style of gameplay came to me from something I read awhile back. What if the biggest and baddest army, was one for hire? What if the rise and fall of nations was decided not by the sword but by the coin?

Ideas that come to mind:
1. Player builds a mercenary army out any units (See Mercenary/National idea).
2. Player finds 2 lords in a fight, player talks to those lords.
3. Depending on how much gold each lord has to spare, they can barter for your help against the other. If you win, you get paid, handsomely.
4. Mercenary group finds a lord, he tell you how much he hates other lord X. You find other Lord X, and kick his ass, you win, you get money, lots of it.
5. Lords castle is under siege, you can talk to the people besieging the castle/town and ask them if they want your help for a price. Success = Money.
6. Lords castle is under siege, if the people besieging the castle don't want your help, or you just don't like them, you can talk to the defenders and see if they want any. And again, success = money.
7. Beating an army as a paid mercenary does not warrant negative faction reputation, so you can fight whoever and not have to worry about backlash.

These sort of ideas come to mind when I think of money = power.

Starting businesses
A continuation of what you did with Warband. Find a place that has an easily accessible source of material A, Make factory for material A, Ship material A to the world for a price. Expanding on what I talked about earlier, basically just building places of production in different areas. Maybe the Nord lands are rich in Furs so you build a tannery there and it makes tons by trading all the furs to the Sarrinid who have no furs in the desert for crazy profits. Or maybe make a silk production facility(IDK what they are called) in the Sarrinid lands and ship it to Swadia where everyone wants to wear fancy robes and make a huge profit.

Finding demand, exploiting resources to meet said demand, profit. Simple, and a good way to get really really rich.

Faction Neutrality
Talked about this a little earlier, being able as a merchant to stay neutral with factions or even friendly. I would hope to have a built in way for traders to become friendlier with factions they trade with and thus stay on their good side. The death of a salesman comes when the people he trades with turn against him. This leads me to ideas that may involve popularity... but that would be over-complicating things. For now I would just say that neutrality needs to be part of the game for a merchant, but still be able to sell a sword(lolpuns) to the right buyer without the backlash.

Economic Conquest
When a player runs all the trade going in and out of every city in every nation, then that player has won the game in a sense. The idea of Economic Conquest is just that, conquering the coin, win by buying your enemies, or paying their enemies to fight for you, or simply being so rich and powerful, nobody dares to touch you, and kings come asking for your permission to conquer. The idea that you can become so wealthy and powerful that a faction is not required to become victorious.

Merchant Wars
This idea adds a whole new level to the merchant gameplay style. Merchant Wars refers to NPC traders competing for your coin and having to fight either with sword or corruption to gain economic footing in an area.

Ideas that come to mind:
1. Already existing powerful merchant lords who control production and shipment of resource A.
2. Sabotaging enemy traders businesses.
3. Defending your businesses.
4. Bribing town officials to raise taxes on their export so they have to close.
5. Framing enemy traders for crimes they didn't commit.
6. Mercenary Trader armies that seek out enemy trader caravans to destroy competition literally.
7. Paying guards to stop and hassle enemy caravans, reducing profits.

Lots of different ways can be added to prevent enemy trade, and procure new resources. However, don't make enemies of traders you can't defeat, or they will do the same to you.

Gang/Corruption Mentality - City Control through Corruption
Obviously Merchants and Bandits play a dance of death, sometimes against each other, sometimes one in the same. This idea focuses more on the mafia or gang style life that a merchant with power can have. This may cause the player to lose honor with his actions but grow in strength within the city.

One thing I didn't find very important in the long run of the game was popularity with a city. It didn't seem to have any real effect on how the player interacted with the city unless he wanted to start a business there. I think we could go a bit further than this.

Here are some ideas:
1. Even if town popularity is low player can bribe or persuade check the guild master into allowing the player to start businesses.
2. Bribing or Persuading town officials to cut taxes on just your caravans.
3. Adding a "Take Illegal Action" menu to the town screen.
4. Allowing players to start drug rings in cities.
5. Allowing players to start "Protection" rings in cities.
6. Allowing players to set up bandit groups in cities to keep the population in fear.
7. Becoming a member of the city council and gaining more influence in policies of that city.
8. Avoiding tax calls on property in a city.
9. If you have bandits in the city, forcing local merchants to give you a percent of their income.
10. Having a "Hideout" in a city where if you are being chased you can use it as a rabbit hole to wait until their army leaves.

Many many different ways to add these types of gameplay come into mind.

Wars opening up opportunities in different cities
One thing I was thinking about was different ways to bar a player from economic conquest. My reasons being that if you had the system from Warband but added all these different ways to be a merchant lord without giving them any restrictions the game would be way too easy for anyone to just mass economic wealth and be super rich. So with that in mind the game has to find logical ways to hinder the players progression to wealth.

One of those ways is economic policies banning foreign traders from starting businesses in their cities. This will force the player to bribe or persuade people in those cities to allow them trade access. If the player decides to max trade and not put any points in persuasion, it will be difficult for him to make new opportunities in certain lands.

This is where war can be of an advantage to players like this. Say for example:
The Nords wont allow foreign traders, but the Swadians will. Now lets also say these 2 factions are at war. The player can either go hostile with the nords and attack their armies/caravans/cities/villages to hinder them while they are at war with Swadia allowing Swadia to conquer their lands and thus open up trade for you in those cities.
or
Find bandit camps and hire they to attack Nord villages and caravans for you. While not as effective it furthers your goals and allows you to stay neutral.
or
Pay Nord Jarls not to attack Swadia, or to stay in their castles.

These are just different thoughts that come to mind when I think of war and mercantilism being a major playstyle in the game.

The Bandit/Criminal/Warlord style of Gameplay

Another style of gameplay that I think could be expanded upon in many different ways, opening up new ways for players to experience the world of Calradia.

When I think of bandit I think of men wandering the lands just looking to rob someone easy to catch for easy cash. This is something I don't see a player really focusing on, and it's already in the game for the most part so I will focus my thoughts on other areas.

When I think Crime Lord a whole lot of new ways to play the game come to mind. Extortion, Corruption, Merchant Lord, Gang Mentality, Drug Deals, Untouchable member of society. Things of those nature which are a lot more interesting than a common bandits life.

When I think of a Warlord, many different types of Warlords come to mind. Some Warlords fight for a country and seek War, some Warlords fight only for men who pay them well with an allegiance to nobody. Some Warlords go wherever there is battle for the simple joy of combat. Some Warlords become conquerors and seek a throne and title. Many things come to mind when I think of Warlord. So many different ways to play come as well :3

Thoughts that come to mind when thinking of a bandit style of gameplay:
Warrants for your arrest
Dodging the law
Laying low in towns
Starting criminal networks
Starting drug rings
Starting extortion rings
Influencing Politics
Bribing Guards
Striking fear
Raiding Towns and Castles
Wandering NPC Bandit Lords.
Finding a battle, and fighting for the person who pays you the most, and what better way to put use to a rogue army, than to enter a battlefield and be the deciding factor, for a price.

Persuasion Change - Intimidate/Charm Honor Rating

One idea that popped into my head the other day was why isn't persuasion more useful in a time like this? I mean look at Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. He is a midget but he holds more power in a sense than the king himself. So one idea I had was adding a Charm/Intimidate feature to the game that is affected by your honor rating.

For example:
Lets say you come to a caravan and you want it to sell you some of its goods on the cheap so you can resell them later at a higher price. However the caravan master is a strict man and he will not have his honor stained by such a thing. Normally you could just attack the caravan and take what you wanted, but this leads to an opportunity to put the persuasion skill into use.

Instead you are given different options:
Attack the Caravan - Goods are free but risks war with a faction or large loss of honor or even losing a "noble" companion.
Charm the Caravan Master - Requires Female/Persuasion level 5 - No loss of honor and allows you to buy 30% cheaper.
Intimidate the Caravan Master - Requires negative honor/overwhelming force/Persuasion level 2 - Allows you to buy their cargo 30% cheaper and does not start a war with faction and only minor loss of honor.
Bribe the Caravan Master - Requires Persuasion level 3 and costs you 100 gold, but you get to buy all his goods 30% cheaper.

I think these options would give new ways of looking at Sex Choice/Caravan Sightings/Deeper thought about Honor and the way people in the world perceive your character. This can also be applied to many other areas of the game, such as:
Winning over Town Officials to change tax policies
Change the opinions of guards stopping your caravans
Changing the minds of lords besieging a town
Changing the minds of villagers who seek to resist you
Persuading a King to give you a fief
Persuading a Lord to marry or allow you to marry

And any number of other ideas you could come up with in conversational segments. Adding this segment opens up new gameplay options to people who want to build up skill in the path of a leader rather than a warrior.

Retirement overhaul
One thing that disappointed me was retirement. I started my own Kingdom, owned every fief in the game, and not only did I not become empress, but when I retired it basically said I was a poor nobody, when I had 280,000 gold.... I could buy out an EMPIRE with that much gold... how would "what little silver you had" make any sense.

I think it should take into account conquests, vassals, lineage, families that you are married into, and actual money. The retirement score as it is, simply makes no sense.

Will add more later...
 
New Tactics Overhaul
Let’s be honest, tactics is a dump stat for a companion and it has the potential to completely change the way the game is played. Rather than being a minor numbers difference, have the different levels of Tactics unlock new automatically and manually activated battle tactics to be used in combat. This will also be a way of getting rid of the clunky combat orders menu.

On the left hand side of the screen, I suggest putting a vertical rectangular box, separated into smaller boxes with pictures on them. These pictures will indicate which tactic is being used, and will have their hotkeys displayed on the bottom right of their respective boxes. These new tactics will be unlocked every 2 points of tactics the party has.

Rally/Attack(F1)
Unlocks at Tactics Level 1 and allows the player to Rally all his troops to his current location. All troops will fall back to wherever the player is, or alternatively, to wherever the player wishes to position them. This can be used at any time but break formations and cause units to hold position at the players current location. When used again, it will cause them to break into a charge. This can also be used in unison with unit group selections, such as infantry or cavalry.

Standard Formation(F:cool:(auto)
Unlocks at level 2. At the start of a battle this tactic will force your units to move in unison. Unlike before where all the units would run straight ahead at their opponents, this will put them into a basic formation. Spear using anti-cavalry up front, swordsman/infantry/crossbowmen behind them, archers in the back, and cavalry to the left and right sides(Even split) next to the archers and behind the melee. This will make it clear when you are fighting an organized army, or just a rabble of units. Once the frontline units have engaged in melee however, cavalry and infantry will rush to collide with the frontlines as well. Clicking on this ability at the start of the fight will break formation and cause a charge, this will however disable other tactics. You can click the button again and they will return to formation, however if you are already engaged in combat this can cause many deaths. (All Lords should have this ability by default)

Arched Firing Formation(F2)(auto)
Unlocks at level 4. Archers will no longer fire in straight lines, instead when entering a battle they will wait until they are within effective firing range, and fire arrows upwards on top of enemy units. This greatly increases AI accuracy, but also makes them stationary as they shoot. If a target runs within melee range, they will draw melee weapons. Crossbowmen are not effected by this, and will fight with the infantry group. If this ability is turned off, archers will break formation and try to auto target their nearest enemies, like usual. If this tactic is reused, archers will scramble into formation at the location of the player.

Specialized Formations(Number Pad)
Unlocks at Tactics level 5 and uses the number pad on the right to assign specific formations depending on the composition of your enemies army.

1. Heavy Artillery Positioning - All units center themselves in a Hold Position command at the location of the player, with the archers being at his direct location, and the rest of the forces spread out in a wall around them. This allows for the player to get a fortified position and defend his archers as they unload on the enemy. This can only be used while in standard formation.

2. Loose Infantry Formation - When you have a heavy ball of un-shielded infantry like basic militia and the enemy is using many archers, this will order your units to spread out and break formation into a charge. This will make it harder for archers to hit targets and more units will survive your attack. Can be used at any time and will break any formation currently engaged.

3. Tight Infantry Formation - When you have a large group of shielded infantry such as Huscarls, this will place them in a very tight formation and charge into the enemy. This will allow shield using infantry to maximize their effectiveness. This however will break other formations and cause a charge. You can however single out unit groups for this command.

Cavalry Flank(F3)(Manual)
Unlocks at level 6. This manual ability is a one time use and can only be used while in formation. This ability will cause cavalry to split and move left and right, and after roughly 200 paces, break for the enemy army. If timed correctly, this move can force the enemy cavalry to defend or force the archers into melee. More importantly, it allows your cavalry to avoid the spear wall in the frontline.

Phalanx Formation(F4)(Manual)
Unlocks at level 8. This formation can only be used while your units are still in standard formation and requires at least 10 spear&shield using infantry. If these requirements are met, once activated will cause your frontline spearmen to lock shields and move in a tighter formation than is usually possible. When this is used the archers, infantry, and cavalry will all try to line up behind the spear wall as best they can. Once the spear wall has engaged however they will not break formation. The player must click F4 again and a “Phalanx Break” order will be issued. This order will cause the spearmen to widen the gap between them, and the infantry and cavalry will charge between. Archers however will continue to fire over the heads of the infantry and at enemy units.

Wedge Formation(F5)(Manual)
Unlocks at level 10.  The wedge is unique to cavalry, and will cause all cavalry to follow the player in a massive triangle. Once the player engages in melee, the remaining horsemen will do the same. If the command is cancelled before melee is joined, the remaining cavalry will attack the target closest to them.

Testudo Formation(F6)(Manual)
Unlocks at level 12, only unlockable if player reads books on tactics and has level 10 tactics already, or a party member has a sufficient tactics level to compensate.  The player calls the nearest shield bearing infantry to his side to form a turtle like formation around him. Requires the player not be mounted, and that at least 24 nearby shielded infantry can be found. Once this tactic is active, the soldiers will follow his movements, attacking everything that comes near him. If the Tactic is cancelled, the infantry break off and attack the nearest enemies to them. This can be used as a last ditch effort if you have low health, or can be used as a mobile wall of death in the midst of battle.

Cantabrian Circle(F7)(Manual)
Unlocks at level 14, only unlockable if player reads books on tactics and has level 10 tactics already, and a party member has a sufficient tactics level to compensate. The player tells all horse archers to form a spinning circle that doesn't stop moving. These horse archers will fire at any nearby enemies, and flee from any entering melee, while still retaining the circle. Horse archers under this tactic gain increased horse archery skill and accuracy. This is the ultimate hit and run tactic. When cancelled, the Cantabrian Circle will break and the horse archers will skirmish in different directions. However they will lose their accuracy bonus.

Take command from afar.

One thing I really want to be added to the game is the Strategists style of gameplay. Where advanced tactics and unit control come into play more so than direct combat, so as a player I can act more like a different kind of medieval lord, one that takes less part directly in the battle and instead commands his troops to victory. Sort of like if I were a king who believed that fighting was "Brutish" or "Lowly" or that a true king is a leader not a fighter. Something along those lines.

So here is my suggestion:
Upon reaching Tactics level 5 a new option will appear in your before battle menu.

Normally it would say something like:
Attack with your Troops.
Let your troops attack without you.
Leave some troops to cover your retreat.
Surrender.

I suggest adding another option! This option will only appear in field battles, not sieges. It will also only appear if you have 10 or more troops.
Place Markers and take Command from afar.

This option will do a few things:
1. When the battle starts the player will spawn near his chest where all his stuff is kept, but instead will be face down staring at a map on a table in front of him.
2. The weakest unit in the army will be selected as the "Trumpeter". When the player issues a command the trumpeter will blow a horn in a specific pattern to signal the troops. Commands given by the player will have a 2 second delay before being issued to simulate response time.
3. The player will not be looking at the battle but instead have a "map" screen in front of him.
4. The players Honor Guard will be surrounding him on the field.

The "Map" Screen
This is the screen where the player is looking at the map, the player will not be looking at the battle as normal but instead see an overhead view of the field. The map will have small icons representing each type of unit. A square on the map is an infantry, a rectangle is a cavalry, a triangle is an archer, and a square with a line coming out of it is a spearman. Green symbols are your soldiers, and red symbols are their soldiers. Scattered in a pattern across the map will be small markers. These markers can physically be seen on the map as poles in the ground with your flag on it. On the right hand side of the map will be a legend depicting the markers on the map and explaining what they are. The "Tactics" I went over in the previous section will be displayed as normal on the left hand side of the map.

On the bottom of the screen, a square bar will be placed, it will be divided into 7 separate squares each with a picture. The pictures will represent: An Infantry Unit, An Archer, A Horseman, A Spearman, A Horse Archer, a Crossbowman, and an entire army. Each of these boxes will also have a number 1-7 assigned to them, and these hotkeys will replace the standard battle hotkeys. Unlike in a normal battle where the mouse controls camera movement, the player will have an actual mouse cursor, it can be made to look like a hand or something if you wanted to get really fancy. When a player clicks on a unit group, or clicks the hotkey, the cursor will glow in some way that indicates you have made a selection, and you will be allowed to click on one of the markers scattered throughout the map. The unit group selected will then hear the trumpeter and move to that location, falling into lines. While they do this they will ignore damage taken and move without attacking even if it kills them, the only exception to this rule is horse archers who will continue to fire as they ride if they are able.

When the battle starts the symbols representing each unit will begin to move, as if you were viewing a poorly drawn RTS game. The little symbols will move towards each other and attack the enemy just as they normally do. When a soldier dies, their marker on the map disappears.

Note: when the player is using the "Map" Screen, he is still physically on the battlefield and capable of being attacked. If the player is attacked while in this state, he will be forced out of the map screen. The player can approach the map again after being knocked out and hit F to enter the map screen again. If the "Trumpeter" is killed, then the player will exit the map screen and be unable to re-enter it.

Benefits of this State:
1. Player is farther from the battle so retreat is an easier option.
2. Player can more directly control unit groups allowing him to flank with cavalry, position archers, and make spear walls.

Weaknesses of this State:
1. Player is vulnerable to attack by enemy commanders who also are commanding from afar.
2. Player is not directly contributing by fighting in the battle, as with his honor guard.


Honor Guard:
One thing I don’t like is having my companions rush into battle and die. So instead I suggest having one of the higher numbered groups turned into the “Honor Guard” group. While any group of units can be placed here, all companions will automatically be placed in this group. All units within this group will automatically follow the party leader at the start of battles and defend him from attacks. This will allow you to keep your companions close at hand or assign a small group of units to be your personal body guard. These units would ignore any tactics given, and when entering the command menu, will be the ones guarding you from the point on the map where you are issuing orders.

New Engineering Overhaul

Much like Tactics I think much more can be done with Engineering. As it stands, engineering is only used to reduce the construction times of buildings in towns and for sieges. This is good and should be a major part of it, however I think we can add more to it don't you?

For instance:
On the siege menu where it says "Build Ladders to attack the walls." or whatever it says exactly, instead give a list of different things that you can do before besieging the town.

Here's a list of items that could be made before a siege:

Ballista
Trebuchet
Siege Tower
Battering Ram

These items could be made before a siege in case you wanted to have a better method of attack, or multiple ways.

For instance, you could build 3 Trebuchet's and 3 Ballista before you enter the combat screen, and they would fire relentlessly throughout the battle at the defenders on the wall.
Or you could build a battering ram and batter down the gates allowing your soldiers to pour in rather than be cut off at a choke point.
Or if you want to use ladders but you don't want your men to only use 1 or 2, make a siege ladder also, allowing you to put a whole group of men inside of it to protect them.

However not only could you use it for sieges, but you could also use it for defense.

Here is a list of defensive items you could build to defend your castle or town:
Burning oil
Trebuchet(City only)
Ballista
Reinforced Gates
Archer Turrets

These upgrades could be added to any castle or city under the players command increasing their defense of the city.
For instance if you built burning oil traps, any battering ram would be incinerated instantly killing everyone pushing it.
Ballista and trebuchet would sit on the walls firing down on the invaders.
Archer Turrets would work as heavily fortified towers that archers could use to fire with little risk of being hit.

These sorts of things could completely change the way we view engineering as a stat choice.
 
Random Suggestions

This is just a list of slight tweaks to the gameplay that I would like to see. These include character controls, UI changes, and gameplay mechanics.

1. Double tapping a directional key causes the player to roll in that direction.

2. Moving downhill makes you go faster not slower.

3. If archers are on a hill they will stay on a hill for the advantage.

4. The faster a horse is moving, the farther it will jump.

5. The character doesn't stall for a moment after jumping.

6. Id like to see melee swings easier to control, if I start thrusting when I want to slice downwards I rage a little inside and I have no idea how to stop it from happening. Maybe have more detailed instructions on how to make something swing in the direction you want? I've tried how the tutorial says to do it but no matter what I try I can't seem to get it to swing in the same direction consistently.

7. Larger unit groups on the field at once. I understand the tactical/difficulty implications as well as the processing implications, but as someone with a really powerful computer and a desire to see massive battles, I would like to maybe increase the maximum to 300 total units on the battlefield at the same time? Please? :smile:

8. Movement pathing on the map improved, especially in many AI cases. I sent a caravan from one city to another and it was literally a straight shot there, but instead the caravan decided to make a massive swing south through enemy territory, clearly because it wanted to see the river. :neutral:

9. Horses do more damage the faster they are moving and cause a knockdown effect. If you were run into full speed by a horse and they trampled over you, you would be dead or seriously injured. Maybe just increase the max damage from like 4 to 20 at full speed. Also however, you could add the negative effect of running into a spear at full speed kills the horse.

10. I encounter a problem every so often that causes lances to stop couching. Not sure if bug or lance is broken or what.

11. I'd like to see more iconic cities on the map. For instance, when I look at Veluca and say Praven I don't see much of a difference, at least not one that would make me think OH that's their respective capital cities. What I mean by this, is the same way Gondor and Rohan look completely different in aesthetic, you could make the main cities equally different and I think it would give players more of a sense of attachment to those areas. For example: You could cover the wooden walls of the Nord Capital with Round Shields and Viking Longboat Heads or you could make the Veigar capital look like something out of Game of Thrones with big stone spires built into the frozen mountainside. Something cool like that.

12. If at all possible make separate areas where bandit camps spawn that are off the beaten path where players can farm bandits. You had this in Warband and I couldn't hardly find any in With Fire and Sword. If anything expand upon these areas and make them sort of hidden but well known.

13. More quest types, it feels like in warband you only had 20 or so quests, and in With Fire and Sword you had about 50ish. I think a good number of different quests to sit at would be 200ish. You could do this not only by adding some of the features I describe, but also by adding named NPC's in towns that hand out random quest chains. One quest chain can turn from 1 fetch quest into a 15 part story.

14. Please no guns in the next game :sad:

15. The ability to stop looting a town and run if enemies come at you.

16. Make acquiring gold easier and keep unit recruitment just as cheap and make maximum party sizes larger. I wanna see enemy armies of 1000 out on the field.

17. Make executing vassals part of the game. I think it is really stupid that you cannot execute vassals you capture, if I was a lord, I would kill every enemy I came across. So what implications does this have? You too can be executed, for a safeguard to this, have it so if players using realism mode(No leaving without saving) make it so it only saves after a battle, so if you enter a battle and are killed rather than captured, it will go back to your previous autosave. If you get captured however it saves and causes the usual capture routine.

18. Make looting cities and castles possible. I really like the "bandit" style of gameplay, and when I attack a fortress I don't nessesarily want to become a monarch. I suggest adding a screen after a siege that gives you two options "Take the castle/city." or "Loot and Burn the Castle/City." If you choose the second option your army will stand still like it does for looting a village, and the town will be burnt to the ground and give the owning character no rents but provide the looter with massive profits. More specifically lots of Villagers as prisoners, and lots of Trade Goods.

19. Make it so when you "Sneak into a City." that isn't friendly to you, you still take your first two weapon slots with you. I hate using the stick.

20. Give Lords larger party sizes, kings much larger party sizes, make lower ranking members have small parties to emphasize the power of the lords, and make the world much bigger to fill all these new armies.

21. Lords should not get angry with you for losing a battle under your command. Why would someone be mad at their king because THEY lost a battle, it isn't like its all the kings fault.

22. The reason each nation should have tiers of lords with different levels of strength, and many more lords and lands than ever before, is because it is necessary. Even if you don't implement execution for lords, or death for them, with a massive new map you will need lords to rule the lands and weaker lords for players to farm or practice on before attacking a king who has say an army of 1000. So if say an empire has a total of 20 lords and 50 fiefs, it should be upgraded to 60 lords and 150 fiefs. Why? Because these "Great nations of Calradia" don't feel so "great" when you start steam rolling their kings with 50 Swadian knights.

23. Trees should make it harder to be seen, allowing for ambushes.

24. The ability to "Hide your army" in forests and attack enemies who wander too close.

25. If you are completely destroying a faction, they shouldn't reject your sue for peace over and over. If they have 45 fiefs, and you bring them down to 10 they shouldn't be saying "I see no reason to pursue peace." it just makes no sense. If their armies are broken and castles taken they should ask for peace.

26. Fix archery and shield collision. Few things in this case, if a soldier has his shield on his back, it should block attacks from the rear, no reason it shouldn't. I can be right next to an enemy and my arrow will go right through them for some unknown reason. Shields also block a much larger radius than they lead on. I have done trials where I shot arrows at someones head perfectly and the shield still blocked it and the arrow appeared like a foot below where it actually should have hit. Fixing collision on shields would be nice for archers :smile:

27. Please make it so when a Kingdom loses all its Fiefs, it dies. I am sick of beating the game, and the kingdom of the Rhodoks and the Vaegirs or whatever wont die so I can't get the achievement for Empress.

More to come...
 
Removing Riding as a Skill

OK I know I am going to get a LOT of flack for this but hear me out. I think riding is a useless 'talent' as far as a simulator goes. Not that there is no such thing as being a skilled rider, thats far from the truth, but I don't like having to spend skill points to ride the armored horse that the jackass crap knights in the middle ages could ride when they were 12.

Instead I suggest we use a licensing system or something of the like, so players don't have to spend skill points on what seems like a dump stat.
NOTE THIS HOWEVER DOES NOT MEAN REMOVE THE HORSEBACK ARCHERY STAT.


For example:
Mounts could be broken down into a ranking system like follows:
Legendary Mount – Requires Grade A Riding
Grade A Mount - Excellent Quality
Grade B Mount – Good Quality
Grade C Mount – Average Quality
Grade D Mount – Below Average Quality

The reason I am breaking the mounts into grades is because in order to remove riding, I want to add Riding Licenses. Riding licenses will be given out from specific trainers all across Calradia. In order to ride the higher level mounts, you will need to purchase a mount of sufficient quality to pass the test(If trying to pass the Grade A test you will need a Grade B horse), and finally to simply take the test.

Once you talk to the riding trainer he will ask you to pay him and he will give you the riding test.

The test will be an obstacle course which must be completed within a certain time limit. If the test is completed fast enough, then the player will receive his license. If it is not, the player will have to pay the trainer again to retake the test.

Once you have the higher grade licenses, you will be able to purchase better horses, and instead of having the speed bonus from the riding skill, just add the difference onto the better horses.

Elephants

War Elephants were probably the coolest and most terrifying thing on the battlefield in medieval times. That being said, adding them to mount and blade can only bring good things :grin:

Control wise, elephants could work like horses, with the added system that you can climb on the back of ones you aren't driving and fire bows/crossbows as if you were on the ground but still requiring mounted archery.

Here's my unit suggestions:
Unit Name: Elephant Rider
Unit Type: Cavalry
Health: 250
Capacity: 1
Weapons: Raiders Sword, Cavalry Shield
Rank Level: 3
Description: These elephant riders have light weapons and are heavily armored, they use their elephant to ram into enemy units dealing massive Trample damage.

Unit Name: War Elephant
Unit Type: Cavalry
Health: 300
Capacity: 2
Weapons: Long Bow, Arrows, Sword of War, Cavalry Shield
Rank Level: 4
Description: These armored versions of the elephant are larger and thus have had seats added to their backs to allow an archer to mount himself upon his back. This elephant will trample the front lines crushing morale and firing arrows at random.

Unit Name: Heavily Armored War Elephant
Unit Type: Cavalry
Health: 400
Capacity: 3
Weapons: War Bow, Large Bag of Arrows, Sword of War, Elite Cavalry Shield
Rank Level: 5
Description: These heavily armored monsters lumber about the battlefield firing arrows at anything they can see. Using the largest Elephants in the land, they cover them in the heaviest armor and rig them for battle. These elephants are so large they can be used as battering rams in sieges.

The Banners of Bosses

One idea I had come to me randomly today was a rather interesting one. Have rogue lords with ridiculously powerful armies, or willing to fight you in single combat and have them be extremely hard. Then after you defeat these lords there will be an equipment slot called "Banner" when you place a banner in that slot it will resemble that of a japanese shogun, posted on the characters back. You will only be allowed to have two banners equipped at a time, but they will give you a passive bonus to either yourself or your army or both if you use one for each. What made me think of this was Lu Bu from Dynasty Warriors, over the top crazy fighter who is feared for his ability to one shot anyone in a single combo. Same can be said for bosses in this game, here are some of the ideas I came up with:

Name: Hofdar the Indomitable
Location: The far corner west of Odasan
Castle?: No
Weapons: One Handed Axe, Huscarls Shield
Health: 420
Army: None
Description: Hofdar the Indomitable stands alone watching the shores rise and fall(On the map he has no horse). He was a former Nord Huscarl but abandoned his army when he heard his wife had died giving birth while he was gone to battle. When men came to claim and take him back to the army he killed them with a fury not seen in Calradia before. More men continued to challenge him, and more men continued to die. He still stands, watching the waves come and go without saying a word, eating the food left by the bodies of the people who challenge him. When you fight him, you must fight him alone.
Banner Reward: Banner of the Indomitable - passive 20% more health to your character.

Name: Nemian the Horse Breaker
Location: In the forest between Mechin and Tadsamesh
Castle?: No
Weapons: One Handed Sword, Swadian Knight Shield
Health: 300
Army: 150 Mercenary Swadian Knights, 150 Mercenary Swadian Man-at-Arms, 100 Swadian Sharp-Shooters, 100 Swadian Sergeants
Description: Nemian was a former general in the Swadian army. He was rising to fame having won many battles, and taken many fiefs. However King Haurlus became jealous and began awarding fiefs rightfully his to himself, and when he had taken a fief he deserved for the third time, he left, taking his entire army with him. Now Nemian wishes to overthrow Haurlus, and is the most feared rebel leader in Calradia. Nemian became known as the Horse Breaker when three Khergit Lancers were attacking him after he lost his horse, stuck on the ground Nemian decided instead of trying to kill the riders, kill the horses. He left that battle with the heads of his enemies, and the legs of their horses. In this fight you must defeat his entire army to achieve victory.
Banner Reward: Banner of the Horse Breaker - army moves 15% faster on the overworld map.

Name: Colossus the Bandit King
Location: In the steppes north of Dugar
Castle?: No
Weapons: Halberd
Health: 380
Army: 300 Sea Raiders, 75 Steppe Bandits, 250 Brigands, 200 Tundra Bandits, 75 Desert Bandits, 400 looters, and 200 Forest Bandits.
Description: Colossus is a huge man who got his name when he lifted a man 3 feet off the ground just so he could be eye-level with him. He is known as the bandit king because he leads the largest army of bandits Calradia has ever seen. Over 1000 Bandits are part of his army and he roams the Khergit lands with free reign, even Sanjar Kahn avoids him, but does not do it openly. In order to claim his banner you must defeat his entire army.
Banner Reward: Banner of the Colossus - Increases maximum army size by 50 - cannot be removed from the equip slot if in use.

Name: Terinder, The Reaper of Rivacheg
Location: The Forests south of Rivacheg
Castle?: Yes, Corpse Castle
Weapons: Military Scythe
Health: 280
Army: 150 Vaegir Marksmen, 100 Vaegir Knights 150 Vaegir Guards
Description: Terinder was once the son of a merchant of Rivacheg. When he was 14 his father took him hunting. After killing his first deer he liked it so much he killed another, and another, and another until a pile of deer larger than he and his father had the ability to skin and eat. So his father hired the local tannery to come and skin all the deer. By the time his father had returned with the Tanners, Terinder had piled up rabbits, wolves, bears, and even horses nearby. Over 150 corpses causes a stench that reached the sky. From the money they got from the skins, Terinder bought a small mercenary army, which he then used to kill merchants and rob them. Over time, Terinder had amassed a mountain of stolen wealth and a huge mercenary army. Using this money he built his castle Terinder castle, which was later renamed Corpse Castle when he closed the doors on the builders he had paid to build it and killed them all then skinned them. He now sits atop Corpse Castle, his mercenaries raiding the countryside and using his castle as their center. Any enemies who attack his castle, are skinned, and their skins hung from posts. These human skins became his flag.
Banner Reward: The Banner of the Reaper - Strikes fear into your enemies, causing morale breaks much sooner than usual when in field combat.

HAVE AN IDEA FOR A BOSS?!?

Name:
Location:
Castle?:
Weapons:
Health:
Army:
Description:
Banner Reward:

Make your own!
 
More Items and Item Slots
I have seen many places where this has been suggested so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.
My list of Item slots:
Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Feet
First Weapon Slot
Second Weapon Slot

Shield/Ammunition Slot
Second Ammunition Slot
Mount Slot
First Banner Slot
Second Banner Slot

Now here is a breakdown of things I would like to see improved for each slot:
Head
The head slot has quite a few cool pieces in Warband. You can choose very heavy armor, or lighter armor with less weight. This is good, but I would like to see more variations in helmet types. For instance, I loved the winged great helm, but it is horrible for third person archery, it completely blocks the targeting reticule. This makes the heavy armor choice for archers a little more difficult if you don't want to use first person mode. I would suggest maybe 2-3 more types of heavy/medium/light armor pieces that give the player a range of different helm types.

Shoulders
This was one thing that saddened me about Warband, no shoulders means that you can't have really cool symbols and statues and such mounted on your shoulder. For example, you could have the Lions from the Lannister Family in Game of Thrones, or maybe reeling horses, or scorpions etc. These shoulder pieces don't even have to have an armor value, they could simply be mantle pieces that players can choose to wear that have weight to them. Just another way to show you pride!

Chest
I would like to see a larger variation in the number of chest pieces available, with different symbols and markings on the front, or at least the ability to add your tabard to it. The best chest piece in the game that I was aware of was a plate one that had no tabard on it, which made me sad because I really liked my tabard.

Hands
Maybe more color options? I didn't see too many problems with gloves.

Belt
How can you run without something to hold up your pants? Haha all jokes aside the belt could be another piece of armor that is included with leg armor. Or it could be another set piece like the shoulders, and massive belts with trimming and house symbols lining them.

Legs
I didn't see much of a problem with the variety of leg options. Though maybe a few more color swaps would be nice.

Feet
No real problem here, maybe a few more color swaps could be nice.

Weapon Slots and Ammunition Slots
The only change to the weapons I would make, is that the slots are split between weapons and ammunition. The first ammunition slot can either be more ammo or a shield. The one thing I really wan as a nord warrior is dual wielding axes, swords, and going Berserker on people. As far as weapon variety goes? I would like to see longer polearms like the ones from Fire and Sword. I want shields that lock with polearms so you can have a proper Phalanx.

Banner Slots
I cover these ideas in the Banners and Bosses section.

I would like to have a larger variety of armor to choose from, and larger variety of weapons, more strategies involved, and more counters. It would also be nice to have colored armor, if I want to be a black knight why cant I be?
Legendary Items

One thing that makes me really sad about this game is that the gear options feel so limited once you get to the higher levels. I would like to have gear that nobody else has, better than all the other gear that can be bought. In With Fire and Sword you had the ability to commission better weapons be made, but this is CALRADIA!!! AND IN CALRADIA WE DONT COMMISSION ****!!!

I don't know where that burst of sudden anger came from but here is my suggestion.

Add legendary weapons that are attached to quest chains. These quests can only be obtained once you meet the requirements for the weapon at the end of the quest chain. These quests will be SECRET as in their quest givers will be hidden throughout the world.

For instance:
Legendary 2 Handed Sword - Excalibur
76 Swing
52 Thrust
Speed Rating 100
Weapon Reach: 115
Requires 10 Power Swing
Requires 30 Strength
Player gains +2 Leadership while this weapon is equipped.

Epic sword right? Right. Now how do you get this amazing sword you ask? Not easily that's for sure.

Once you have 30 STR and 10 Power Swing a quest giver named "Niamh Dela Lake" appears in Swadia in the town of Praven near the door by armor merchant.

When you talk to her she will tell you that her ex boyfriend "Mordred LaFey" has stolen her family sword and asks you to get it back.
If you accept she will tell you he is in a random village in the kingdom of the Veigars(That isn't looted), when you go there, the town will be empty and one man will stand in the middle.
When you talk to him he will tell you he is the greatest swordsman of all time and he dares anyone to challenge him.
To complete the quest you must challenge him, he has 200 Health, full lordly scale armor, and wields Excalibur. He is much faster and stronger than any opponent in the game.
Once defeated you will obtain "broken sword"
Take the sword to the quest giver and she will tell you she can repair it and asks you to help her. She requires 5 iron, 1 velvet, and 5000 gold for a new jeweled hilt.
Once delivered she tells you to come back in 10 days.
When you return in 10 days she reveals to you that she is actually a foreign queen, and that the person you killed was the greatest warrior in their land.
She then presents you with the blade as a token of your victory.

This would be a cool way to do a quest chain for every weapon in the game, though different for each one, the same principles apply. Do a secret quest chain get a legendary weapon.

These sorts of things don't have to be limited to weapons. For instance, you could add Legendary horses like Red Hare into the game, where the player meets a secret quest giver who sends him on a quest chain that eventually leads him to acquiring the Red Hare as his horse.

List of Legendary Item Suggestions:

Muramasa and Masamune
This quest chain begins once the player has 30 STR and 10 Power Strike.

1. Quest giver says his apprentice has run off but he does not know where or why and tells you a group of bandits were seen nearby, and is worried for his health.
2. After player defeats the bandits, the bandits say they captured him, but were running from a group of Manhunters and he was taken.
3. Nearby Manhunters spawn, when approached, they tell you they let him go and he headed to a nearby village.
4. Going to the village and talking to the elder will have him tell you that he did indeed come into town, but he murdered a village woman and locked himself in a barn and they were too afraid to enter. He has been heard screaming madly throughout the night, something about the sword talking, he asks you to find someone he knows to see what could have been the problem.
5. Returning to the quest giver lets you in deeper on his story, that his apprentice had been dabbling in trying to create an evil blade, and must have succeeded. However the blade has driven him mad, and if you return it to him he can cleanse it for you.
6. Returning to the village and defeating the apprentice will get you the sword Muramasa.
7. Taking the sword back to the quest giver he will ask you if you want to purify the sword, if you say no, it stays Muramasa, if you say yes, it become Masamune.

Legendary 2 Handed Sword - Muramasa
80 Swing
38 Thrust
Speed Rating 115
Weapon Reach: 100
Requires 10 Power Swing
Requires 30 Strength
Player gains +2 Athletics while this weapon is equipped.

Legendary 2 Handed Sword - Masamune
80 Swing
38 Thrust
Speed Rating 115
Weapon Reach: 100
Requires 10 Power Swing
Requires 30 Strength
Player gains +2 Surgery while this weapon is equipped.

Mjolnir
This quest chain begins at 30 STR and 30 Power Strike.

1. Quest giver says his brother has betrayed him, and he has joined a group of bandits with his families riches. Through these riches he has made this group of bandits very strong, and it will take a great army to defeat them.
2. Large group of bandits spawns near the city(100-120 tier 3-5 units).
3. Once defeated the bandits leader begs for mercy and says he will return everything if you set him free. However as you free him he laughs and runs calling you a sucker and that you will never take his fortress.
4. Nearby bandit lair spawns, this is a very strong lair. Once defeated, he will surrender his families riches to you.
5. Taking the "Family Riches" item to the quest giver rewards you with Mjolnir.

Legendary 1 Handed Hammer - Mjolnir
42 Swing
Speed Rating 105
Weapon Reach: 55
Requires 10 Power Swing
Requires 30 Strength
This weapon does 400% damage to shields.

Repeating Crossbow
This weapon becomes available at 9 Power Draw.

1. This quest giver appears in the town Ilvia north of Yalen. This quest giver tells you he is haunted at night by the screams of men. He says they come from the forests to the northwst and asks for you to investigate.
2. Heading to the forests reveals a bandit camp, the bandit camp is filled with a unit called "Wolfmen" which are named hairy men with one handed axes. After attacking the bandit camp a captive comes to you and tells you that the "Wolfmen" are drugging people with mushrooms found in the forest and giving them weapons. The effects drive the people crazy and attack anyone who nears.
3. After leaving the camp and returning to the quest giver he tells you that this has happened before. Crazed cult leaders were teaching the forest bandits they could have wealth beyond their imagining and telling them the mushrooms would open their minds to new powers. All it really did was drive them mad and send them attacking in every direction. He then tells you that you are going to have to kill the army of wolfmen and then find the cult leaders in order to stop this madness.
4. Travelling back into the forest reveals an army of 800 Wolfmen. These Wolfmen are numerous but weak, however they have a massive battle advantage making the starting fight a roughly 10 to 1 ratio.
5. After defeating the Wolfman army, you return to the quest giver who tells you that he doesn't know where to find the cultist lair but he knows someone who does. He sends you to Reveran.
6. There you meet a quest giver who tells you he has been hunting the leaders of the Wolfman armies for awhile now, and he is sure that they are located in a cave to the east. Heading out to the cave leads you to a Wolfman Lair.
7. The Wolfman Lair has 150 Wolfmen and 10 cult leaders(Black robed bandits with knives) who you fight with your companions or strongest units. After defeating the camp you return to Reveran where the quest giver thanks you for your effort and rewards you with his Repeating Crossbow.

Legendary Light Crossbow - Repeating Crossbow
Weight: 3.0
Damage: 57
Accuracy: 99
Special Ability: This crossbow fires 6 shots at a time for which it does not require a reload. However, the reload time is very long.

Arm Mounted Ballista
This weapon becomes available at 300 Crossbow Proficiency and 24 STR.

1. The quest giver will be found in Jamiche. He will tell you that he used to be a Rhodok Sharpshooter, but he was kicked out for using a custom bow rather than the standard siege crossbows. When he was kicked out, they broke his bow and shamed him, and now he wants to remake it. He asks you bring him 2 Raw Silk, 2 Iron, 2 Leatherwork, and 2 tools.
2. When you return with the goods he will tell you that he needs some wood the Rhodoks use to make their siege crossbows, and you are going to have to sneak into the facility to get some. After accepting this quest a lumbermill appears on you map, you have the option to sneak in or leave. Sneaking in will get you caught, and you will have to fight 10 Rhodok Sharpshooters all within line of sight.
3. After defeating them single handedly return to your quest giver and he will tell you it will take him 10 days to make.
4. Returning 10 days later he tells you he will award you the Crossbow but only if you can beat him while using it. He will fight you in a village area, he has extreme accuracy and his arm mounted crossbow will one shot you in any army if you take a direct hit. The only way to win is to wait for him to fire and miss then attack while he reloads.
5. After beating him in single combat he awards you the crossbow.  He also gives you the bolts that go with it.

Arm Mounted Ballista
Damage: 130
Weight: 5.5
Accuracy: 99
Speed Rating: 15
Special Effect: Does not stop once it hits a target, but keeps going until it hits a wall. Damage done after the initial hit is reduced by 10% per target.

Half-Ballista
(34/34)
Weight: 3.0
Damage +10
Special Effect: Smashes shields it passes through.

God Killing Spear
This quest becomes available when you have 300 Weapon Proficiency with Polearms.

1. The quest giver tells you that he is a great blacksmith trained by his father who was legendary for crafting Swadian Knight Armor. He says he too is a great blacksmith but nobody recognizes him and so he needs someone to help him gather the materials for a weapon that will impress the world. He sends you to gather 2 Iron, 2 Velvet, 2 Raw Silk, and 2 tools.
2. When you return with the materials he says he will need you to collect special materials from different locations from around the world. The first of which is a mighty pole, made from the mightiest of Rhodok trees. So you are sent to find a merchant in Veluca.
3. The merchant tells you his lumbermill has been overrun by bandits and they haven't made profit in months. So heading out you find the lumbermill and attack the bandits.
4. After returning to the merchant he gives you the Rhodok Wood Pole for free. When you return to the quest giver he says the next thing he will need is a diamond spearhead, and a merchant in sarrinid lands can provide it. Upon arriving in Bariyye, the jewel merchant tells you he has been robbed, and that steppe bandits have taken his assortment of rare gems. Travelling out into the desert you find 100 Desert Bandits somewhat farther than usual from society. After defeating them, the merchant thanks you but says he cannot give it away for free, but says he will give you a 90% discount for your and offers you the diamond spear tip for 15,000 gold.
5. After buying the spear tip and returning the quest giver needs 30 days to finish the weapon.


Legendary Heavy Lance - God Killing Spear
Weight: 4.0
Swing: 34
Thrust: 66
Speed Rating: 90
Weapon Reach: 200
Crushes through Blocks.
Special Ability: If this lance is couched and hits a shield the damage done to the shield will also be done to the user.

Inferno Arrows
The quest for this weapon becomes available at power draw 7.

1. Quest giver appears in a random Sarrinid town and tells you he has been researching something called Gunpowder. He says that this new discovery could change the way wars are fought all over the world, but people think he is crazy. However, he will reward you if you can get him a source of Charcoal and Sulfur. However the spots he has found were bandit hideouts and he couldn't retrieve them and asks you to.
2. First he sends you after the Charcoal which is produced in the field by a corrupt merchant avoiding taxes. The bandit lair is a hard one and once you finish it the foreman will come up to you thanking you for freeing them, and you tell them to start sending their Charcoal production to the Quest giver.
3. After returning to the quest giver he states that the Sulfur is again being produced by a corrupt merchant out in the field. Again a nearby hard bandit camp appears and once it is defeated the foreman will come to you thanking you, and you will redirect his flow of sulfur.
4. This time however when you return to town you will be ambushed by 20 bandit archers. You will however be aided by 4 town guards in the day, and 2 at night. Once they are defeated the quest giver finds you and tells you they were sent by the corrupt merchant to kill you and that he has been unable to leave his house ever since they appeared.
5. The quest giver says he wont be able to study his invention in peace as long as this merchant lives, and he asks if you are ready to face him. If you say yes, it will take you to a lords hall where you and your companions face 15 archers and 15 bandits. If you say No, then he will wait for you to return asking you the same question until you say yes.
6. Once defeated the quest giver asks you that he was close to finishing something before his research was interrupted, and to come back in 10 days.
7. 10 Days later when you return to the quest giver he will tell you that the Gunpowder he discovered is still in a very crude stage of development and will take years before he is able to find a way to use it for large scale warfare, but he was able to implement it into a dangerous weapon for you for helping him with his research.

Inferno Arrows
(34/34)
Weight: 3.0
Damage +5
Special Effect: The tip of the arrow is made to ignite on impact, lighting it's target on fire. If it hits a shield, will burn the shield for 10 damage a second until it is destroyed.

Wind Shear
This quest becomes available when your proficiency with Polearms exceeds 300.

West of Jelkala at the coastline will be a single man on a horse waiting. He rides a red horse and wears lamellar armor. He carriers a massive Hafted Blade. When you find him he says he accepts all single challengers and that anyone brave enough to face him is welcomed.

If you accept, you fight him single handedly on the battlefield. His horse is fast and powerful with a speed of 75, 180 health, and 30 armor. He himself has 380 health and wields wind shear.

If you defeat him, he will be completely startled and grant you Wind Shear as proof of your rightful victory.

Wind Shear
Polearm(No Shield)
Weight: 4.5
Swing: 55
Thrust: 34
Speed Rating: 100
Weapon Reach: 175
Special Ability: The blade is longer than on most hafted blades, and as such will slice even close range targets.
 
Improved Faction Uniqueness
One thing I love about the different factions is that they have a clear and unique way of life. Each of which can be made more evident through their units, cities, and surroundings.

Here are my suggestions:

The Kingdom of the Vaegirs
When I think of the Vaegirs I think of a powerful mountain people who wish to protect their way of life. When I think of them I think of hardy people who are used to the freezing cold and hunting in lands where there is little but still making do. I think they could have the following characteristics:

Large Castle cities made of stone embedded in the mountain-side.
Heavily defense oriented units with very heavy armor and large metal shields that cover the whole body.
Their lords wear the same heavy armor, with fear inducing masks, and heavy fur cloaks connected by chains of gold and symbols of their houses.
Defensive strategies that involve moving as a unit and only attacking if the advantage is clear and the gains worth it.
Hard to impress society, they think of the rest of the world as weak.
High-born society, the lords believe they are better than other lords.
Specific hatred for the Nords.

The Kingdom of the Nords
When I think of the Nords I like to think 'badass motherfkrs'. I think of huge, mountains of muscle. Men with no fear of anything, who will charge fearlessly at any opponents who forsake defense and strategy for brutality and strength. Some characteristics I think that could be brought out:

Many cities, more than all the others and larger sized armies than any of the others.
Hoard/Barbarian mentality, the strongest leads, the weak die off.
Their cities are less like cities and more like war camps, adorning house shields and not meant to defend against sieges.
Ritualistic society, highly superstitious.
Very aggressive, peace times never last more than a day, must always be attacking something.
Repopulate fast, they eat, they drink, they breed, and they make WAR.
Dual wielding axes, massive two handed battle axes, large round shields for sieges, don't use many archers because they are cowardly.
Hate the Vaegirs and will constantly be at war with them, attacking at any chance they get.

The Kingdom of Swadia
When I think of Swadia I am not sure what vibe I am supposed to be getting. Their units remind me of Rome, but I don't remember Roman Generals being called "Counts" so it confuses me a little. The wiki says they have French influences and I guess I can see that but seriously who likes french people. I think Swadia could use an almost complete overhaul in the looks department. I could go with 2 different looks for Swadia and here is what I think:

Roman Empire Style:
What I mean by this would be to keep the Roman type units, get rid of the units that don't remind you of Rome, and give the generals a different title other than Count. Focus more on looking like the Roman Empire such that:

The cities become larger with bleach white houses and large walls surrounding them.
The lands around them are farmlands and they focus heavily on trade being so centralized.
They are very diplomatic, seeking out peace times whenever possible.
Their strategies rarely involve taking cities but instead mowing down enemy armies in the field where they have the advantage of their horsemen.
High members of society, a very regal system of government with high education, believing themselves to be civilized.
They have a strong hatred for the Nords and the Khanate due to their less than civilized ways.

Riders of Rohan Style:
What I mean by this suggestion, is keep the whole strong horsemen on the plains theme, but go with a much more cavalry centric and horse themed nation. Such that:

They are horse breeders and their cities look more like giant stables out on the plains.
Their nation focuses on roaming hunters for food and rely heavily on horses to do so.
They have Horse themed flags and banners and houses.
They use horse archers in greater abundance than regular ones.
Heavy Cavalry lose the armor, gain speed, and larger shields for the riders.

The Kingdom of the Rhodoks
When I think of the Kingdom of the Rhodoks I think of highly resourceful people. The people of the forests, hunters, gatherers. They are good at laying traps, ambushes, and defending their lands. Here are some ideas that I think would amplify the presence of the Rhodoks:

Their lands are surrounded by HEAVY forests, of which they often hide in as a strategy.
Their towns and castles are very much tied to the surrounding lands, and show it by integrating the forests into their walls.
Their strategies are very defensive, they stick to their lands and don't often leave them.
Highly traditional society, old gods, strong family ties.
Their house sigils representing trees and each of their different houses having unique back stories.
They don't have any quarrels with anyone, except the Sarranids who they do not trust.
They don't actively seek out peace, but they don't actively seek out war either.

The Sarranid Sultanate:
When I think of the Sultanate I think of desert warriors who live a harsh life on the dunes, a place where no life should be. I think of a wealthy society, greed and mercantilism are the marks of their society. Here are some ideas that come to mind:

Their armies are small but they have highly specialized warriors.
They seek peace whenever they can, and are always open for trade.
Their society revolves around the accumulation of wealth, whoever is richest, is leader.
Their society will go to war if they feel it is profitable.
They loot villages and caravans more often than other kingdoms.
They do not like the Khanate or the Rhodoks who deal shrewdly with them.
Their cities resemble those of Classic Arabia, high golden domed buildings representing their wealth and power.

The Khergit Khanate:
When I think of them, I think of the mongols who they were based off of. When I think of mongol hoards I think of roaming horsemen raiding and pillaging. Here are some thoughts to bring out their nature on the map:

Always at war with at least one other faction.
Raid caravans and towns a lot.
Seek riches and slaves, often raiding Sarranid lands for them.
Highly mobile, their towns have very little defense, and their armies are always on the move.
Their strategies in war are complete offense, they defend nothing but instead take as much as they can.
Their society is much like the Nords, the most powerful man leads.
They hunt and gather they do not farm.
Their towns resemble caravans more than towns, and they use them only to sell goods and resupply for battle.

I think these ideas will highly improve the way the different factions stand out, and give more of a sense of nationalism to them.



Mercenary/National Units


One thing I did not like at all about Fire and Sword was the fact I couldn't just recruit any citizens from the towns. I think you should keep allowing players to get new recruits from any town even if they aren't a part of that nation, and that you should also keep the unit leveling system from Warband.

HOWEVER I think one difference should take place for example: A player recruits a Swadian Recruit. If the player is a Swadian citizen or lord those units will be called Swadian Recruit, like normal. However, if the player is not a Swadian, it ill be named Mercenary Swadian Recruit. Not only will the name be different, but the Mercenary Recruits will not fly the Swadian flag colors, they instead will have a standard gray and black uniform, similar to bandits. You could also go so far as to give National Units owned by lords a morale boost or a small stat boost, making say National Swadian Knights slightly more powerful than Mercenary Swadian Knights.

I think this will allow players who want to use the mercenary/bandit/warlord playstyle can still build the army of their dreams without having to resort to lame mercenary units.

New Faction Rank Ideas:

An interesting new idea for factions would be a popularity system. This system would give players a new way to ascend to the throne without having to rebel. Players could instead join a faction, and based on their contributions to that faction would progress through a ranking system. This ranking system will also be tagged next to the players name. (IE: Marie would become Duchess Marie) Going through this system would also gather Right to Rule so if you got to a point where you were an adopted Prince or Princess, if the King/Queen died you would take their place and gain all the respect that comes with the position.

The ranks:
Commoner
Gentleman/Lady
Baron/Baroness
Earl/Countess
Duke/Duchess
Prince/Princess
First Prince/First Princess
King/Queen

another suggestion brought up in this thread was that lesser nobles can be direct subordinates of the higher ones. For instance a Prince or Princess would have any number of dukes or duchess' at their command. Those Dukes/Duchess' would have 3-5 Earls under their direct command, and those Earls 4-8 Baron(Gentlemen do not count as nobility).

Once the player becomes a Baron, he is then placed under the command of an Earl, who then gives him commands, or is a center point for quests. If say a King or Queen is unkind to his Nobles, then one of those nobles might Defect, taking all their lands with them, and giving all the nobles under their command the option to join him in his revolt, starting a new kingdom in the process.

The reason why this would be a good idea in my opinion, would be because it gives each nation much more depth of character and gives a wider variety of options as far as story driven content goes. It also makes the world seem much more stable, these systems of government that have been around for some time now and aren't just rebel factions split into pieces. I understand that in reality that is what they are as far as lore goes, but it could be so much more.



Means to acquire Faction Reputation:
1. Helping any noble with a quest.
2. Defeating the enemies of that faction.
3. Raising an army made up of that factions units.
4. Assisting in sieges or castle defense.
5. Building up towns and making them prosper.
6. Solve disputes between lords.
7. Winning in the Arena. (Lethal)
8. Winning a tournament. (Non-Lethal)

Means to lose Faction Reputation:
1. Starting a war by attacking an enemy nation without cause.
2. Looting an allied village.
3. Attacking an allied lord.
4. Stealing an allied lord’s wife/husband.
5. Starting disputes with allied lords.
6. Using Bandit soldiers.
7. Losing Battles/Heavy Losses against enemy nations.



Another new feature I want to add is Popularity. Once you are king or queen your faction reputation bar will be replaced by your popularity bar. This bar will indicate how much your citizens and lords like you. If you commit good deeds then it will rise, if you commit evil deeds it will go down.

Good Deeds:
1. Lowering taxes.
2. Defending peasants.
3. Helping allied lords in quests/combat.
4. Solving disputes in the kingdom.
5. Making popular judgments in “National Decisions”
6. Building up cities.

Bad Deeds:
1. Raising Taxes.
2. Disputing with allied Lords.
3. Banishing or Executing allied lords.
4.  Robbing/Looting your allied villages.


If your popularity meter is low, your lords may start to rebel if you have a low reputation with them, and entire cities may have peasant uprisings. If the city or castle is poorly defended, then that peasant uprising can conquer the city, and the city will become a neutral rebel city, which can be conquered by anyone without national reprisal.


New Faction Units

One thing I think is a very important change is to make sure that all nations have one of every type of unit AKA: Infantry, Archer, Cavalry, and frontline Spearmen. While each faction may have every type of unit, you can still give each faction strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Nords have strong infantry and cavalry but weak archers and spearmen. Or for another example, Rhodoks could have strong Spearmen and Crossbow Infantry, but weak light cavalry and archers. So with these unit suggestions I am mostly just filling in the gaps that I think each race needs filling for a full army to work effectively.

Swadia:
Unit Name: Swadian Bowman
Unit Type: Archer
Requires: Swadian Skirmisher
Rank Level: 4
Weapons: Short Bow, Arrows, Short Sword, Heater Shield.
Description: The only bow using member of the Swadian Military. While the Lord's of Swadia prefer crossbow infantry and cavalry, they will sometimes fill their rank with these short bow using archers for extra ranged attack when cavalry presence is low.


Unit Name: Swadian Pikeman
Unit Type: Spearman
Requires: Swadian Infantry
Rank Level: 4
Weapons: Heavy Lance, Arming Sword, Heater Shield
Description: Used commonly by Swadian Lords to fill the frontlines, these heavy spear wielding infantry are used as anti-cavalry, but are weak against archer fire.

Vaegirs:
Unit Name: Vaegir Spearman
Unit Type: Spearman
Requires: Vaegir Infantry
Rank Level: 5
Weapons: Awlpike, Kite Shield, Battle Axe
Description: Used commonly by Vaegir commanders but never in overabundance. This heavily armored spearman was implemented after a crushing defeat from Swadian Cavalry. Vaegir Lords will keep at least a small handful of these on them at all times.

Rhodoks:
Unit Name: Rhodok Lancer
Unit Type: Cavalry
Requires: Rhodok Spearman
Rank Level: 3
Weapons: Light Lance, Board Shield, Military Hammer
Description: The Rhodok Lancer is a rather new addition to the Rhodok forces who usually rely on a heavy infantry group. These lightly armored riders use hit and run tactics picked up from various battles with the Khanate.

Unit Name: Rhodok Heavy Lancer
Unit Type: Cavalry
Requires: Rhodok Lancer
Rank Level: 4
Weapons: Great Lance, Military Hammer, Heavy Board Shield
Description: Taking the Rhodoks plan for a lightly armored fast moving hit and run lancer, they completely turned on its heel. The Heavy Lancer is a heavily armored Lancer that charges in and after the initial hit switches to hammer and shield to bash through enemy infantry.

Nord:
Unit Name: Nord Raider
Unit Type: Cavalry
Requires: Nord Footman
Rank Level: 3
Weapons: Nordic Sword, Round Shield, One Handed Battle Axe
Description: These Nord Cavalry units are feared throughout the land. Well known for being knocked off their horse, and jumping right back into battle.

Unit Name: Nord Horse-Breaker
Unit Type: Spearman
Requires: Nord Huntsman
Rank Level: 3
Weapons: Long Bardiche, Nordic Sword, Round Shield
Description: The Nord version of the spearman is much different than many other nations. Instead of using shields and long spears, the Nords choose to simply use longer axes, so they can kill the horse before it hits them.

Khergit:
Unit Name: Khergit Nomad
Unit Type: Infantry
Requires: Khergit Tribesman
Rank Level: 2
Weapons: Nomad Sabre, Cavalry Shield, Two Handed Sabre
Description: Used only in large numbers these novice soldiers swarm in after the horse archers soften then enemy frontline.

Unit Name: Khergit Raider
Unit Type: Infantry
Requires: Khergit Nomad
Rank Level: 3
Weapons: Nomad Saber, Heavy Cavalry Shield, Heavy Two Handed Sabre
Description: These moderately armored infantry units are known to rush in and sack a town after the enemy army is lured into the field and destroyed by the horsemen.

Unit Name: Khergit Spearman
Unit Type: Spearman
Requires: Khergit Skirmisher
Rank Level: 3
Weapons: Spear, Cavalry Shield, Sabre
Description: Used mainly for defending towns, these lightly armored spearman are known to gather in tight knit groups and fight fiercely defending their homes.

Sarranid:
Unit Name: Sarranid Pikeman
Unit Type: Spearman
Requires: Sarranid Skirmisher
Rank Level: 4
Weapons: Heavy Lance, Heavy Kite Shield, Sarranid Sword
Description: These heavily armored Pikemen resemble the Mamluke in armor, and were used to compensate for the lightly armored infantry.

Custom Factions and Armies
So this is something I have seen many many people suggesting and while playing Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes I came up with the idea. Custom factions could be a really simple addition to the game, that allows the player a much higher level of customization and specialty. It however requires 2 things before it can take place:

1. All villages/castles/cities the player conquers will switch from their native recruitment type, to the custom type. Meaning all conquered areas will switch to custom recruitment.
2. All Lords/Ladies who command armies under the player have their default unit type set to the custom units.

While the second one isn't particularly nescesary, it breaks immersion to see your armies a combination of native and custom. It also makes the player feel highly immersed in their empire.

So what can be done to add custom units? Well simple, have the player make their own custom development trees. So, just like the upgrade system in Warband, players will start off with militia, then rank them up, and in the process have new custom tiers available. Aspects of the tiers:

Gold Expense per Tier
So just like the regular unit trees, you can't have your tier 1 militia be Swadian Knights. It would completely break the game, so in order to combat this, you force the player to create tiers of units in a tree. Then, you give the player a set amount of gold to spend on each custom unit. The amount of gold received to create the custom unit is dependent on what level of tier they are, for example:

Tier 1: 1,500 Gold
Tier 2: 4,000 Gold
Tier 3: 7,000 Gold
Tier 4: 13,000 Gold
Tier 5: 22,000 Gold
Tier 6: 43,000 Gold
Tier 7: 90,000 Gold

When creating a custom unit, players will have the ability to spend this gold on gear for each tier of unit. They will also be able to spend this gold on a limited number of attributes, such as Iron Flesh, Weapon Proficiency, and basic STR based attributes. However, the more a player spends on bonus attributes the less they have for armor.

Any gold NOT SPENT will transfer to the next tier. This means if you want an extremely powerful Tier 7 Unit, you will have to go cheap on all the armor of his predecessors, thus giving more ways for players to customize their armies.

Leveling Attributes
Each tier has leveling traits based on the previous custom unit it evolved from, players will not be able to select attribute points, only influence them. For example: If you equip your custom, tier 1 militia with a sword and board, then no matter what, all the tier 2 units that the militia can upgrade to will have +3 STR, +1 power swing, and +1 shield with +25 skill with 1 handed weapons. The same would apply if say your tier 1 unit was a basic horse archer with the most basic equipment. All tiers following that tier 1 unit would have +3 STR, +3 agility, +1 Riding, +1 Horseback Archery, +25 Bow Skill, and +1 power draw. So tweaking your tier units equipment is a stats mini game all of its own.

Standard Equipment
When players create their custom units, they will have a set amount of gold to spend per tier on armor and attributes. The idea of having to go through all those types of armor made my head spin, but then I had an idea.

1. Sort the armor types into categories such as Cloth, Leather, Chain, Plate. Then sort the weapon types into types such as Crossbow, Bow, 2-Handed, etc
2. Set all the armors available to their default values, then allow players to either upgrade or degrade their items to increase or decrease the cost of the unit.

This should limit the number of icons you have to make by 1/5th at least and should help ease the programming load.
 
The Map...

I am going to apologize ahead of time to anyone who reads this, including any devs I may insult in the process but here goes my rage filled rant.

I am absolutely disgusted with the world map.While it serves its purpose as far as portraying information goes, it is the ugliest thing I have seen in a long time.
Things I hate about the map:
1. The texture quality looks like you took free textures off the internet and splashed them over 10 polygons.
2. The terrain isn't even what I would called detailed. Your mountains are pointy vertexes with a single texture bathed across them.
3. Why do 10 trees scattered in the middle of nowhere slow my army down? Is that supposed to be a forest?
4. My gameboy color can render your map.
5. The villages are all the same model file, most of the towns look like the same model file.
6. Upgrading towns/villages does not upgrade the model files on the map.
7. There is little to no detail in the layout of the land. There are no deltas, basins, mesas, massive peaks, river networks, canyons, forests, or any noteworthy terrain.
8. How come my icon is always a guy on a horse when I have 150 Swadian Knights following me? Shouldn't it be more than one horse? or at least a bigger horse?
9. The map feels dead, there is no system of roads between the cities, no commonly traveled paths that are easily identifiable, and hardly any non-national movement on the map.




SUGGESTIONS:
1. Spend a whole lot of time upgrading the polygon count of the terrain. I mean HD textures on the grass, roads, dirt, snow, rocky cliffs, river water, waterfalls, deltas, forests, etc.
2. Make the map MUCH bigger and fill it with MORE towns villages and identifiable terrain. I would say 2-3 times bigger at least.
3. Make more identifiable terrain. Example: Make a canyon with a castle between it. Make a forest so thick you can't see your army. Make massive rivers that cross the world and split it into sections. Make waterfalls off the sides of massive mountains, even if it serves no purpose just to make it look nice, and give the player an area they can identify with.
4. Make commonly used paths by the AI. For instance, make roads on the terrain between each town and have merchant caravans(Not National Caravans but free Merchant Caravans) travel between them.
5. Make mountains and valleys with DISTINCT traits and DISTINCT textures, not the bland green grass texture you threw over 60% of the map. For instance, maybe make the Veigar capital in the very back of a U-Shaped canyon with unassailable cliffs on each side. Or if you have something like Praven where its out on the plains, at least detail the terrain with farmland and roads. Or make the mountains that separate the sultanate and the Khanate into rocky mesas that jut out from the ground like pillars. This will give the terrain a more meaningful aesthetic.
6. Use my suggestions for town upgrades, and make the terrain around the cities change as you upgrade them. This will give the players a sense of immersion like their actions directly effect the world around them.

New Class Division AI System

One thing I noticed that didn't make sense to me was that Lords and Ladies would simply talk to any strange commoner who happened to walk into the castle. I think for the sake of a simulator, some things about the way the NPC lords and ladies treat you should be slightly altered. For instance, unless you are a Lord of a particular faction, they shouldn't let you in the castle. The castle should be off-limits to any people who aren't part of the nobility. On top of that, travelling lords shouldn't be so easily talked to, in my opinion each lord or lady should have a certain renown requirement before you can even talk to them.

Suggestions:
1. When you click on a Travelling Army with a Lord of a Nation as its leader, a popup menu should show when you collide saying "Attack or Hail the Lord". If you choose attack, no chat screen is shown, combat is instantly engaged. If you click Hail the Lord, it brings up the chat screen.

2. When starting a conversation with any foreign lord, you must first introduce yourself, at this point your character will undergo a "renown check". If the player has insufficient renown to impress the lord or lady, you will be dismissed and unable to talk with them. If you are a member of that nation and of rank 2 or higher you will bypass any allied lords renown check, however enemy lords will still dismiss you if your renown is too low.

Renown Requirements:
Rank 1: 250 to speak, 500 for respect
Rank 2: 200 to speak, 400 for respect
Rank 3: 150 to speak, 300 for respect
Rank 4: 100 to speak, 200 for respect
Rank 5: 50 to speak, 100 for respect
Rank 6: 25 to speak, 50 for respect
Rank 7: None, 25 for respect.
Rank 8: None, respect is always given.

This will give the players another, deeper sense of immersion when they realize they are nothing in this land, and once all these people start respecting them, they have become something.

How to make cities feel more alive!

1. Make more randomly named citizens walk through the streets and give them random ranks. Even if they serve no greater purpose than scenery.
2. Make merchant caravans that aren't tied to any nation move between cities at all times and do not take heed to alliances.
3. Add farm textures to the ground around villages, cities, and castles and have villager units come out and till the soil, fleeing into the nearby settlement if an enemy army arrives.
4. Unlike merchant caravans, give National Caravans a small escort that isn't directly attached to them but follows beside them, to make those caravans stand out from the rest.
5. Give the player direct control over the physical prosperity of the city, upgrading a city literally terraforming the land and adding additional model files around the city on the map.

Spotting Overhaul/Character Map Icon Changes

I don't like the little man on the horse I will say it flat out. It doesn't change enough to give the player a meaningful sense of accomplishment. However I think we can change the way the little man on the horse looks, while also simultaneously improving spotting. Not that spotting is a bad skill, it is actually really cool, but I think I can make it better.

Suggestions:
1. Change the name of Spotting into Scouting.
2. Make the little man on the horse change as the players equipment changes to resemble the leader more accurately on the map.
3. Hide the different unit types an army is comprised of that would normally appear in a window and replace them with "???".
4. Replace the numbers above the army heads with the same numbers used for tracking EX: 20-40.
4. For every 5 units of a single type, create a miniature model riding next to the leader. EX: 25 Infantry would make 5 miniature Infantry appear in front of the leader and march in front.

With these suggestions in place, the next step would be:
Change Scouting to not only increase sight range on the map, but also increase the accuracy of army sizes and unit types.

For each level of Scouting increase the following:
Level 0: 30-36% inaccuracy on army size and unit type. Meaning if the army is exactly 100 men, it will show roughly 70-130 for the player and if there are exactly 10 Huscarls it will show roughly 7-13 Huscarls.
Level 1: 28-34%
Level 2: 26-32%
Level 3: 24-29%
Level 4: 22-27%
Level 5: 20-25%
Level 6: 18-23%
Level 7: 16-21%
Level 8: 14-18%
Level 9: 12-16%
Level 10: 10-14%
Level 11: 8-12%
Level 12: 6-10%
Level 13: 4-8%
Level 14: 2-4%

I think this change makes the game feel more realistic. It gives it the air of uncertainty but also the feeling that once you have mastered this skill, your confidence before battle will rise. It also gives added detail to a skill that is otherwise rather simplistic. :grin:

If you want to think of it this way:
If they have 100 units it shows roughly70-130 at level 0 and roughly 98-102 at level 14.
If they have 1000 units, say within a kings army, at level 0 it would display roughly 700-1300 and at 14 it would display roughly 980-1020.
That is the difference between 600 and 40. Think of how much of a difference Scouting just made.
 
New Factions

Create a Kingdom! Make your own kingdom, here is the format:
Kingdom Name:
Kingdom Location:
Kingdom Leader:
Kingdom Vassals:
Source of Inspiration:
Type of Military Units:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:


Here are my suggestions:

Kingdom Name: Yamamoto Shogunate
Kingdom Location: An island chain leading to the land south of Jekala and west of Shariz.
Kingdom Leader: Shogun Yamamoto Hanzo
Kingdom Vassals: Ku Shogun Tokugawa Edo, Daimyo Date Masamune, Daimyo Mori Muramasa, Daimyo Toyotomi Oda, Daimyo Takeda Shingen, Daimyo Yoshida Yukichi, Samurai Shinji Abarai, Samurai Kenpachi Iba, Samurai Hisagi Hinamori, Samurai Toshiro Omaeda, Samurai Shigekuni Unohana, Samurai Kira Mayuri, Samurai Sosuke Hitsugaya, Samurai Ulquiorra Starrk, Samurai Tier Jaegerjaquez, Samurai Aporro Cifer, Samurai Gilga Zommari, Samurai Barragan Harribel, ranks that follow these are Gashira, Ashigaru, Chugen, and Commoner.
Source of Inspiration: Sengoku Jidai era of Samurai warriors, officer names come from famous Japanese leaders, and mixed up Bleach characters.
Type of Military Units: Heavy Infantry with a focus on Two Handed weapons and heavy armor
Strengths: Very strong attacks, high tier infantry with very high athletics, very heavy armor, and strong yari pikemen with very long spears.
Weaknesses: Weak Cavalry, Infantry with no Shields get decimated by archers, average archers
 
Ruling a Kingdom!

One thing I think that is rather disappointing is that you don't really feel like a monarch when you are a monarch. While I feel in control of the sway of the country, I don't feel the power that a monarch has. With this in mind I would suggest a few things that could improve the interaction between a monarch and his nation, thus giving more quests for the player and more immersion into the world.

First off I want to start by making a change to the way a king interacts with his vassals. For instance, I don't like the fact that all your vassals do whatever they want. It doesn't seem right. You would think a monarch would have more direct control over his armies. So I have a list of new things that I think would benefit the game overall.

1. Giving a vassal a fief doesn't make other vassals mad unless a specific vassal had a direct claim to that fief from a quest granted in court.
2. All fiefs controlled by a monarchs nation can be upgraded as if they were his own fief.
3. Lords no longer are always completely loyal to one house. Instead, they have three stages: Rogue, In Service, Loyal. Rogue lords will have an army, and any fiefs under their command but wave no banner but their own. In Service Lords are Lords whose fiefs are part of a kingdom and will consider the commands of the crown. Loyal Lords are at the direct command of the monarch, their armies and fiefs are under his command.
4. Foreign Lords with negative affection towards you will no longer come to your kingdom seeking to be vassals, but instead will become Rogue Lords.
5. A Lords loyalty is affected by how much he likes the monarch, which is affected by fiefs granted, lands upgraded, battles aided, and popularity with the people.
6. Your lords loyalty will decrease at midnight for negative popularity and increase for positive popularity.
7. Upgrading an allied Lords lands will increase your popularity with them, but also increase the might of his armies. The more powerful his fiefs, the more powerful he becomes.
8. Executing or banishing lords makes you lose a lot of popularity.
9. Any lords with the "Loyal" status will be under your direct command and will only do as they are told.
10. Lords can be dispatched one at a time or in groups to achieve a goal. The highest ranking member of the group is Marshall.
11. Marshall is no longer a single person title, it is a title given to a single lord that leads a mission. They are "Marshall's" of that mission.
12. When a Lord swears loyalty to a players kingdom, he starts off at rank 3: baron, his rank increases as he completes missions for the crown. Lords can also be manually made into higher or lower ranks. If you lower their rank, that lord will be angry with you, if you raise a lords rank before it is earned, all other lords will be angry with you.

THE COURT!!!

An idea I had that would be very cool for a monarch would be The Court. When a Monarch holds his court, he sits on the throne and people come to him with their troubles. He must then rule on how he would like to proceed. Here are some examples of quests given at the court. These quests can be done yourself, or a loyal lord can be dispatched to do them in your stead. If a lord fails a mission, he will return to you apologetically, and his "Respect Level" will drop, if he has failed enough quests, he may even be demoted a rank.

Standard Functions of the Court:
1. Renaming the Country.
2. Taking oaths from prospective lords.
3. Managing the Treasury.
4. Changing Tax levels. (Merchant Tax, Food Tax, Land Tax)(Tax Free, Low, Medium, High, Very High)
5. Sitting on the throne and resolving issues in the kingdom.
6. Assigning orders to loyal lords. (Attack, Defend, Patrol, Hunt Bandits, Protect the Roads, etc.)
7. Asking an audience with an In Service Lord to have them go on a mission. (Request them to take a loyal lords normal actions.)
8. Sending Emissaries to other nations. (Ask for peace/declare war/political marriage/hold international feast/request trade agreement)
9. Upgrading your throne room. (AKA: Bigger hall, bigger fire places, larger tables, more guards, a bigger throne, etc.)
10. Asking the adviser about the next best course of action. (Will give random Monarch tutorial-like advice)
11. Holding Tournaments. (International or National)
12. Electing a First Prince/Princess
13. Officially Marrying your Lords to their wives


Court Quests:

Claiming a Fief
Vassals asking you take take fiefs for them. If a vassal was part of another faction, and he was stripped of his territory, he may come to court asking you if you can take it back for him.
You will be given the options:
1. Yes, if you say yes you will be prompted with another menu. This menu will ask if you want to take the fief yourself, or send a group. If you click do it yourself, taking that fief will be added to your quest log, and you will have 30 days to complete it. If you click send a group, you will be asked to select loyal lords to go and attack that fief. The highest ranking lord will be Marshall and they will set out immediately to conquer it.
2. Sorry, but I cannot at this time. This will cause the loyal lord to lose a little respect for you, and he will come back later to ask again. If that fief is taken before he returns you can give it to him for a massive bonus to respect and loyalty. If you give it to someone else, they will be outraged and lose respect and loyalty. This will only happen if a Lord gives you this quest in court, if the player has no idea, no bonus or loss will be added once the fief is captured.

Attacking Bandit Lairs
Villagers will come to you every so often seeking aid when villagers of your faction have spotted a bandit lair having popped up nearby. Accepting this quest and doing it yourself will gain you popularity. Sending a lord on this mission will gain them respect. Declining will make you lose popularity, and bandit armies in the area will increase in size.


Emissaries with Alliances
Sometimes foreign nations will send Emissaries seeking peace. Accepting will grant you popularity and right to rule. Declining will make you lose popularity with your nation and theirs.

Emissaries for War
Sometimes provoked foreign nations or ones that see opportunity for gain will declare war on you, but will send you an official emissary beforehand. You can choose to accept war, nothing will happen. Or you can ask for peace, this can be done through Promises, A Plea(Persuasion check), or large sum of gold. If they accept your push for peace, they will be locked in a truce for 30 days.

Emissaries with Demands
Foreign Emissaries may come asking you return land that rightfully belongs to their nation. They can also come demanding trade agreements, gold for continued peace, marriage for continued peace, food for their hungry, and many other miscellaneous requests. These can be accepted at the possible cost of allied respect or loyalty, but you will gain foreign popularity. If you decline, it could start a war, or make you lose popularity, or nothing at all depending on the severity of the request.

Emissaries with Political Marriage Proposals
Sometimes an Emissary will come with a proposal that your empires become closer. They will either offer a marriage to one of your unwed lords, or they will ask for one of your unwed daughters. Saying yes will bring your nations closer, saying no will have no repercussions.

Emissaries inviting your Lords to international feasts
Sometimes Emissaries from friendly foreign nations will invite you to their feasts. This will not be something you can accept or decline, it will simply add a quest in your quest log for 3 days. If you go, your popularity with their nation will rise once you speak to the monarch. If you do not go, nothing will happen.

Starving Villages
Often times recently looted villages or very poor villages will come asking for your support. They will ask you to send them cows to help rebuild their food supply. If you say yes, you will have to pay a sum for a certain number of cows but you will gain popularity and the village will grow much faster, if you say no, you will lose popularity and that village will take longer to grow.

Villages under attack by Bandits
If a village is being held captive by bandits, then frightened villagers will come to you asking for you to free it. You can choose to do it yourself, send a lord, or decline.

Villagers asking to rebuild looted Villages
When a village is looted it takes 7 days to rebuild that village and start collecting rents from it again. If between that time you are at court, villagers will approach you asking for aid. Depending on the size of the village they will ask you for a certain sum of money to send a caravan full of supplies to that village.
1. Agreeing will cost you the sum and send a caravan to that village. If it is destroyed, they will come asking again. If it arrives, you will gain popularity.
2. Declining will lose you popularity.

Disputes between Lords
Sometimes lords will approach you with a dispute, sometimes over a girl, a fief, a castle, a town, racism, nationalism, or any various other number of petty squabbles you can come up with. Choosing one or the other can gain and lose you popularity, while blowing them off will make you lose popularity.

Adviser asking you to upgrade a town
When you have few other pressing matters, and a village/castle/city isn't being upgraded your Adviser will ask you to upgrade it. You can agree and proceed with his suggested upgrade, or decline and nothing will happen.

Adviser asking you to raise/lower taxes
Every now and then if the Adviser sees the taxes are low, or the taxes are too high he will come to you with his concerns. Raising taxes will always make you gain weekly income, but lose popularity. Lowering taxes will always make you lose income, but gain popularity. Keeping the taxes the same will do nothing.

Adviser asking you to stop rebels
Occasionally if your popularity meter is low, a village or castle will start a rebellion. If this happens your adviser will ask you to quell it. You can choose to do it yourself or send a lord. If you ignore it they will become stronger.

Adviser asking you to defeat a Rogue Lord
If a Rogue Lord holds lands bordering your nation, your adviser will approach you and will tell you that you could conquer his land without offending anyone and still increase the size of the empire. Saying yes will add a quest, or you can send an available lord. You can decline and nothing will happen.

Adviser asking you to hold a tournament
Every now and then when your popularity is high, and you are at peace, your adviser will ask you to hold a tournament to keep the troops in shape and the sense of nationalism high. Saying yes will cost you gold but increase popularity. Declining will do nothing.

These are all just examples of things you can add to have a more lively court.

Civil Stances within the Kingdom
One idea that "corrupted" posted was civil stances that effect your kingdom in many different ways. This got me thinking of my own ideas, as well as adding his ideas to my list. These "Civil Stances" can be changed at any time at your capital, like taxes, and will change the way the kingdom works in general.

Weapon Ownership
This civil stance changes the rights of peasants in your kingdom to own weapons.
Options: Banned for Commoners/Restricted/Unrestricted
Banned for Commoners
Pros:
+Populace almost zero chance to Rebel
+Less crime from within the kingdom
Cons:
-Looting and Pillaging takes less time
-Looters will never have to fight even if they have less soldiers than the populace
-Bandits will prey on towns far more often

Restricted
Pros:
+Looting a village takes slightly longer for enemies
+Slightly more likely to recruit higher trained villagers
+Less likely to be preyed upon by bandits
Cons:
-Possible to see small rebellions if populace is angered

Unrestricted
Pros:
+Looting villages takes longer
+More likely to see Manhunters
+Larger abundance of Mercenaries available for recruitment
+Unlikely to see Bandits infesting villages
Cons:
-Highly likely that rebellions will start when populace is angered
-Weapon Prices rise
-More likely to see large roaming groups of bandits trying to pick on traders/farmers to far from villages
Death and Taxes

In life there are only two things you can be certain of, you will die, and you will pay taxes.

Taxation is another addition to the monarchs rule that will change certain aspects of gameplay, but only for monarchs or rogue lords. While each fief under a kings control grants them rents, they can also claim taxes from all lords who own lands for various different things.

Taxation Levels
Very High - 50% Tax - Popularity Decreases daily. Only suggested use if funds are needed and you already have a very high popularity so you have some to spare.
High - 35% Tax - Popularity Decreases weekly. If you can manage to keep your popularity up in court, then you can balance having high taxes.
Medium - 15% Tax - Popularity will not increase or decrease on a regular basis.
Low - 5% Tax - Popularity increases weekly, but remember as a monarch you need a lot of money to solve various issues that can't be solved with brute force.
No Taxes - Popularity increases Daily, but you will receive no income from allied fiefs or tax income from fiefs under your command.

Merchant Tax
I believe this is more commonly known as a tariff, is a tax that happens anytime a merchant caravan enters one of your cities trying to sell goods. If say the caravan brings in 10,000 gold, the tax with take a percentage of that and add it to the treasury. Taxes also effect players who wish to play the merchant playstyle as it will greatly effect their profits in those areas. A high Merchant Tax will cause less merchants to bring goods into your cities, and less goods means less collecting which means less money.

Food Tax
This would more commonly be referred to as a peasant tax. This tax is calculated by the number of peasants in your kingdom, but since peasants don't have much gold it gives you the least amount. However, lowering or raising this tax will give you the biggest popularity gains or losses amongst the masses.

Land Tax
Or more commonly referred to as the Lords Tax. This tax only applies to lords within your kingdom who have fiefs which collect rents. The land tax takes a percentage of rents from all allied lords rents and deposits it in the treasury every week. Raising or lowering this will have an effect on your allied lords respect of you.

All these taxes are to help the player bring in some money for all the new things he is going to have to spend it on in order to keep his kingdom stable.
 
THE ARENA!!!

So one thing I really liked from Warband was the tournament, because winning tournaments got you renown and lots of money. I suggest the same thing but in a more lethal setting that has higher rewards. Players fighting in the arena however, will be able to use all their normal gear.

The Arena takes place at all times in every Capital City and can be entered by anyone. On the town options menu, a new option will be available called "Enter the Arena." once this is clicked on three more options will come up. "Fight in the Arena.", "Sell Captives as Slaves.", and "Leave."

"Fight in the Arena"
Will make a new menu appear that gives you these options:

"Random 3 Round Tournament."
Victory will return initial bet by 150%
Renown will be rewarded +2 per round, and an additional 10 for victory.
Will increase popularity with that town by 2.
"Random 5 Round Tournament."
Victory will return initial bet by 200%
Renown will be rewarded +3 per round, and an additional 15 for victory.
Will increase popularity with that town by 4.
"All 7 Rounds Tournament."
Victory will return initial bet by 300%
Renown will be rewarded +4 per round, and an additional 20 for victory.
Will increase popularity with that town by 6.
"Free for All."
Victory will return initial bet by 125%
Renown reward will be 10 for victory.
Will increase popularity with that town by 2.
"Gladiators vs Slaves."
Victory will return initial bet by 150%
Renown reward will be 15 for victory.
Will increase popularity with that town by 4.
"Leave the Arena."

After selecting any of these options besides Leaving of course, you will be prompted with another menu like this:
"Place 100 Gold Bet."
"Place 300 Gold Bet."
"Place 500 Gold Bet."
"Place 1000 Gold Bet."
"Leave."

This menu sets the Initial Bet, once placed, another bet cannot be placed again, unlike in the Tournament.

Fighting in the Arena!
The arena fights are broken into 3 sections: Tournaments, Free for All, and Slaves vs Gladiators.

Free for all:
This option will put you in a pit with 24 other combatants who have no allegiance, last man standing takes everything.
The combatants are randomized so you could fight Bandits, Nords, Rhodoks, or even Lords of the Castle, but not captive Lords.

Slaves vs. Gladiators:
This option puts you on a team of Gladiators with heavy armor against poorly armored slaves. Your Gladiator team has 5 people on it, the enemy slaves come in 3 waves, 10, 15, and 20 at a time. If you survive all 3 waves you win. Effectively being a 5 vs 45 match.

Tournament Style:
Tournament style is broken up into 3 sections, Random 3, Random 5, and all 7. The tournament is broken up into 7 games, depending on which selection you make will determine how many random games you play if not all of them.
Here are the games:
1. The Pit.
Players start in the center of the arena, alone, where waves of 2, 3, 4, and 5 slave attackers come at once. These attackers can randomly include Lords sold into the arena.

2. Cantabrian Circle.
You are spawned with 3 allied Gladiators in the center of the arena. 7 Khergit Horse Archers are spawned using the Cantabrian Circle tactic.

3. Gladiator Massacre.
You are spawned with 10 other gladiators against 45 random slave opponents. These opponents can include Lords sold into slavery.

4. Survival.
You are placed alone in a miniature free for all of 15 people. Can include Lords sold into slavery.

5. Killing Floor.
50 Archers are spawned on the walls of the circular arena, they are using the archer formations tactic and firing from above in all directions. You are spawned in the center of the arena with 5 other AI characters no weapons or armor. Last man standing wins. The AI characters will run randomly in all directions, strategy i to keep moving and get the archers who are firing at you to hit the others on accident.

6. Knight Training.
You are given your horse, and pitted against 9 other horsemen, last man standing wins.

7. Death Battle.
You are placed in the arena against 1 opponent, can be an enemy Lord sold into slavery, or a random named character that has the stats of a lord.

If you kill an enemy Lord in the Arena they die for good.

"Sell Captives as Slaves"
with this selection you will be brought to talk to an "Arena Slave Handler" who will be a named character in every city. Depending on the cities demand for violence, which is calculated by the happiness of the citizens, the less happy, the more violence is needed. The demand for violence will determine how much your captives are worth +or-80% which is reduced or increased if you have the "Trade" skill by 5% per skill level so if it is -80% from slave value at Trade Skill level 10 you will only have -30%. Or if its +80% it will be 130% value, giving even more depth to the Trade skill and the value of the Prisoner Management Skill. I think this is a good way to get rid of the "Ransom Broker" that is randomly in a town or not, this way players can make a more lucrative business from selling captives.

This Slave Handler will have 3 chat options:
"I have some slaves to sell, show me your gold."
This option will take you to the normal Ransom Broker screen.
"What are slaves going for?"
This option depending on your trade level will make him respond differently, but always honestly. So if you have 0 points in trade, the answers will be:
-80-61% = "Sorry mate, not many games going on right now so slave value is very low."
-60-41% = "Slave value is low, but well still take them."
-40-21% = "Slave value is low, but games will be starting soon."
-20-0% = "Slave value is low but we will be starting games very soon."
1-20% = "Few games going on right now, I could give you some more if you've got the slaves to sell."
21-40% = "Quite a few games right now, I can give you what I've got for slaves."
41-60% = "Lots of games right now, I need slaves, what you got?"
61-80% = "Not enough slaves, ill take whatever you have at top denar."
81%+ = "I need slaves, NOW! I'm buying at maximum price, give me everything you've got."
"Nevermind."



Selling and Being Sold into the Arena

One thing I didn't like about capturing lords was that they just sat in your party/prison until they escaped or someone sent you a ransom and if the faction was defeated they would just sit there collecting dust. Another beautiful option about the arena is you can sell captured lords for a premium to arenas, however this also means that if you are captured by enemy lords, they can also sell you into slavery in the arena. This too has a unique effect.

Selling Enemy Lords into Slavery:
Like normal units in your captives list, when you click on it each Lord will have a value associated with them. Depending on this Lords Rank within their society and renown throughout the land their value will increase. (More famous lords = more tickets sold.)

The calculation would work something like this.
((Rank Value*100) + (Renown Value))(10% per point in Trade Skill)  = Prisoner Worth.
So if you had a lord who was rank 6 with 342 renown and a trade skill of 10 he would be worth: (600+342)(150%) = 1413 Gold.
This would give the prospect of capturing lords more value, but also mean that waiting for a ransom might be much more profitable.

However, selling a Lord into slavery isn't the end of his life, like the player, he can fight for his freedom in the arena by winning a 7 round tournament.
The Lord will fight in 1 round per day, and at midnight if they don't win, a screen will pop up showing they died.
Chance of Survival per day is calculated by:
%Chance of Survival = (Max Health + Strength) - 3 per day.

So if a lord has say 80 health and 30 strength, they will have 107% on the first day until the seventh day where they will have 89% chance of survival.
If a lord has 50 health and 12 strength he would have 59% chance of surviving the first day and 41% chance of surviving the seventh.

Each day at midnight it will run the calculation, if they die, a message will appear saying they have died in the arena. If a player enters he arena he has a very high chance to be pitted against that Lord. 25% chance per round played.

Now what happens if you are captured and sold into the arena?

Well say you lose a battle and an enemy lord decides to run to the nearest capital city and sell you.
You will go through the same process as a lord, in order to win your freedom, you have to survive 7 rounds in the arena.
So each day you will fight a new round, if you survive, you will proceed to the next day.
If you die you're game resets to the last autosave before you were captured.
If you are knocked unconscious by some stroke of luck, then you will have to start your 7 days over.

New Arena Units:
So as would be expected, new units will be a necessary creation for the arena. These units however are not limited to the arena itself.

Unit Name: Slave Hunter
Unit Type: Cavalry
Health: 43
Mount: Courser
Weapons: Bludgeon, Round Shield
Description: Slave Hunters are a light cavalry unit that has the same AI as bandits. They run in packs of 10-30 and are very fast mounted units. They roam near capital cities on the outskirts but tend to keep their distance from them if they have no prisoners. They will attack any stray villager/player/caravan they can outnumber, and will take a large number of prisoners if they are victorious. After they win any battle, they will rush to the nearest capital city to sell all captives into slavery in the arena. (NOTE: Like bandits, these units can only be recruited if you defeat a character who has captured them. They have no upgraded form.)

Unit Name: Gladiator
Unit Type: Infantry
Health: 80
Weapons: Morningstar, Elite Cavalry Shield, Siege Crossbow, Bolts
Description: These heavily armored infantry are monsters on the battlefield. Born and raised in the Arena, they have fought to the death nearly everyday of their lives. Suited up in the heaviest gladiators armor, with the strongest weapons available, these warriors are a terrifying sight to behold. (NOTE: There is no way to recruit these soldiers, they are only seen in the arena.)
 
City Building Overhaul

One thing that I think will make a massive difference in this games popularity is overhauling the city upgrade system. As with most medieval nations towns were left to rot while nobles squandered their wealth. The peasants were kept stupid so they wouldn't rebel, and priests made sure they obeyed the laws.

List of suggestions for towns:
1. Make it so villages can be added to towns and will spawn nearby rather than be in a far off corner of nowheresville.
2. Make upgrading anything in a town, village, or castle visible on the map. EX: You invest in large farmland, the area around the city turns to farmland texture.
3. All towns should have roads linking them together, the quality of these roads depends on the upgrades.
4. Make neutral towns with no allegiance to any lord, these places are run by Rogue Lords or wealthy merchants.
5. Allow players to conquer fiefs that are neutral without angering enemy nations and also not requiring players start their own nation.
6. You no longer gain relationship with villages, instead you gain it with the city and all villages attached to it.

Buildings and their Purposes
Each building assigned has different tiers which can be built once the previous tier is upgraded. Upgrades can only be done one at a time, and are unique to each individual fief. The reason for having so many different types of foods, is that no one village or section of villages can control the market. The low production numbers also means that to control say, they wheat market, you have to have many fields producing wheat and shipping them all over Calradia.

Village Upgrades:

New Field
This allows another type of farm to be built that can produce a food or good. Can be upgraded 4 times total.

Wheat Field
Adds Wheat Bundle to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Tomato Field
Adds Tomatoes to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Cabbage Field
Adds Cabbages to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Rice Field
Adds Rice Patties to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Apple Orchard
Adds Apples to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Grapefruit Orchard
Adds Grapefruits to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Orange Orchard
Adds Oranges to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Pear Orchard
Adds Pears to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Corn Fields
Adds Corn to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Grapevine Fields
Adds Grapes to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Olive Grove
Adds Olives to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Cow Pasture
For every 4 cows, produces 2 cows weekly. When the village has more than 16 cows, the villagers will slaughter the remaining cows and take the beef to market. The pasture will start with 4, if the village is looted, it will return back to 4 when it recovers. If the village has its cattle stolen, then original 4 will respawn after the same amount of time it would take to recover from looting. If the village gets to the point where it can sell it's beef (After a month) its prosperity will skyrocket.

Honey Bee Farms
Adds Honey to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Sheep Pasture
Adds Wool to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases. Unlike a cow pasture, a Sheep Pasture acts like a normal resource farm.

Hemp Field
Adds Hemp to the weekly produced items. Will be available for trade a week after it is built. Increases prosperity of the village, and makes the prosperity after looting recover faster. Only 4 types of foods can be produced at a time, and can only be built if the available field slot is open. Items not sold after a day will spawn a group of villagers who carry it to market(Nearest town). If said Villager group makes it to the town, prosperity of that village increases.

Wooden Walls
A small defensive wall that can be barred in case of looters. Increases the time it takes for looting and pillaging to finish by 50%.

Guard Towers
Requires: Wooden Walls
Towers line the walls that allow the villagers to see raids coming from farther away, and thus, be better prepared. Increases looting and pillaging time by another 25%.

Iron Gates
Requires: Wooden Walls
Heavy Iron gates that can be closed when raiding parties come and barred shut. Increases looting and pillaging time by another 50%.

Hidden Shelter
Should the enemy raid this village, the villagers will hide in a hidden cellar beneath one of the houses. Once the raiders have left and the coast is clear, they will return to the village. Reduces time it takes for a village to recover after being looted by 3 days.

Winery
Adds a Winery to the village, turns grapes into wine. Grapes are no longer stored and shipped to market. Instead, casks of wine are added weekly then shipped to market.



Will add more later...
 
Titles

Titles are additions to a players name that villagers will address them by. They are known for whatever they are most famous for doing and will be addressed as such by the commoners and enemy lords but not allied ones.

Usurper - Helping a claimant capture the throne.
Kingslayer - for killing a king of a nation.
Gladiator - for winning a 7 round tournament.
Raider - For looting a village.
Bandit - For robbing a caravan.
Murderer - For executing a lord.
Slave Trader - for trading people into the arena.
Great Leader - Maxing the popularity bar as a monarch.
Tyrant - for depleting the popularity bar as a monarch.
Emperor - for conquering every fief Calradia.
Healer - For maxing Wound Treatment.
Doctor - for maxing surgery.
Tactician - for maxing Tactics.
Archer - for maxing power draw.
Knight - for maxing power swing.
Skirmisher - for maxing power throw.
Merchant - for maxing Trade.
Silver Tongue - for maxing persuasion.
Ironskinned - for maxing Ironflesh.
Slave Master - for maxing prisoner management.
Scout - for maxing Spotting.
Hunter - for maxing Tracking.
the Swift - for maxing athletics.
Guardian - for maxing Shield.
Master at Arms - maxing Weapon Master.
Horse Lord - for acquiring a legendary Horse.
Horse Archer - for maxing horse archery.
the Hoarder - for maxing Inventory Management.
Born Leader - for maxing leadership.
Drill Sergeant - Maxing trainer.
the Beast - for killing 25 men in a single battle.
the Monster - for killing 50 men in a single battle.
the Demon - for killing 75 men in a single battle.
the Manslayer = for killing 100 men in a single battle.
the Giant - for taking over 25 hits in a single battle and not dying.
the Colossus - for taking over 40 hits in a single battle and not dying.
the Undying - for taking 60 hits in a single battle and not dying.
the Immortal - for taking 80 hits in a single battle and not dying.
the Ranger - for killing 25 men in a single battle with a bow.
the Master Strategist - Killing 25 men with the Testudo Formation in a single battle.
Commander - for not losing a single unit in any single battle where the enemy outnumbers you 2 to 1 with over 100 units on the field.

Sound File Suggestions

So something I noticed was you have only a few sound files, but the few you have are placed appropriately so they've become kind of memorable. Here is a list of suggestions for more memorable sound files:

1. Yes, my Lord! (Upbeat)
2. Yes... my lord...(Upset)
3. FOR THE NORD!!! (Reverberate, Group yell from National Nord Units)
4. ATTACK!!! (Reverberate, Before two random groups join in melee)
5. YES MY LORD! (Reverberate, As lord/monarch when issuing a tactic.)
6. SWADIANS, CHARGE!!! (Reverberate, Before Swadian Cavalry engages in melee)
7. Bleed them dry... (Bandits)
8. Hearts? I eat those... (Bandits)
9. Misc Cheering (During the Arena)
10. BLOOD! (Crowd chanting in the arena after many deaths.)
11. FOR HONOR RHODOKS, FOR HONOR!!! (Rhodok battle charge)
12. THE SKY SHALL RAIN OF VAEGIR ARROWS! (Vaegir archers battlecry)
13. YOUR CHASING A KHERGIT? HAH!! (Khergit horse archer Taunt)
14. DRAG THEM INTO THE SANDS! (Sarranid Battlecry)
15. Yes my Jarl. (Responsive, Nord Lord)
16. Yes my Jarl... (Unresponsive Nord Lord)
17. Yes Count! (Responsive Swadian Lord)
18. Yes Count... (Disgusted tone Swadian Lord)
19. My Emir! (Upbeat Sarranid Lord)
20. Yes, my Emir... (Annoyed Sarranid Lord)


More to come...

New Tutorials for lots of Things
WARNING: This section is not finished, do not read!
Introducing the Lore
After posting this section the first time I rethought about how I could introduce the player to Calradia, and give the player deeper insight into the lore and backstory of Calradia. For one thing, when you start a new game of Warband, you really have no concept of what these places mean, or really are, other than the fact that they are warring factions. When I first started this game it was asking me background questions which was cool a character creation section. Then it asked me where I wanted to start and for me none of the choices really meant anything. I picked the Veagirs because they reminded me of Veigar from League of Legends and that was all the thought process I put behind it. You really have to do some reading into the companions stories and claimant stories to really get a decent idea of what the hell this place is all about. I think a better job could be done to introduce the player to the world of Calradia, not necessarily the game mechanics, but the lore of the world, and it could give a chance for a lot of story expansion. Though I will note, that it is very difficult to find information on the story, which in and of itself, isn't a good thing. If you are looking for mass market appeal (Which I assume every game company wants) one of the major aspects is to help introduce new people to the genre, I think if you have a highly story driven RPG title, making it easier for the player to understand whats going on helps.

So from what I have learned from listening to a few of the companions, is that Calradia was once ruled by a dynasty of Emperors. However, the last Emperor tried to take his armies over the mountain and conquer the rest of the world. That didn't work out so well for him and he ended up shattering his own kingdom in the process. If this is what actually happened, this could easily be expanded upon at the start of the game.

Maybe when the game starts, the Kingdom is still ruled by an Emperor, and the player gets to witness first hand the fall of an empire. The tutorial could start before they travel across the mountains and the Emperor is massing his armies, maybe then your character could have just arrived on the scene of the moving army. For example:

You start the game, you pick male or female, choose your appearance, set your name, and spawn into the game. At this point your character has base stats and you have chosen nothing.

Maybe a cutscene or a simple picture of a massive army headed by a great crowned man is heading off into the distance and a Knight rides over to your character and says:

Knight: Halt!
You: What have I done?
Knight: Who are you, you don't look like you're from around here...

Options breakdown
  • I just came to these lands from afar, I have no home here.
  • I am from a Noble House of Calradia!
  • I come from a family of Hunters.
  • I come from a family of Nomads.
  • I come from a family of merchants.
  • I am just a peasant sir, you would not have heard of me...

Choice menu:
1. Not from this land!
+1 Strength +1 Intelligence
Response: Oh really? A foreigner huh? Well wherever it is you came from, you're about to march back to. Our Emperor is conquering the world, and it is my duty to enlist any and all members into the army for one job or another. You look pretty tough, considering you came all the way to Calradia alone. I'm sure you'll be good on the frontlines with the infantry.

2. Noble House
+1 Charisma, +1 Intelligence
Response: My apologies my lord, and what house would someone so great as yourself be from?
Choice Menu:
Player picks one of the noble houses.
Response: Oh you're from "insert house name here" are ya? Well then you must be good...
If Swadian Lord: "on horseback then. Swadian Lords are praised for the Horse Lords. I'll put you on a horse and send you with the cavalry!"
If Rhodok Lord: "with a spear and shield then. The Rhodok Lords are well known for breaking the cavalry charge. I'll put you on the frontlines with the spearmen!"
If Khergit Lord: "with a horse and bow! The Khergit Lords are well known Horse Archers. I'll put you in with the scouts!"
If Nord Lord: "with an axe and shield! The Nords are well known for their brutal melee techniques. I'll put you in with the Infantry!"
If Sarranid Lord: "with a bow! The Sarranid Lords are known masters of the bow to fight off desert bandits! I'll stick you with the archers!"
If Veagir Lord: "with a bow! The Vaegir Lords are the best marksmen in the world. I'll stick you with the archers!"

3. Hunters
+1 Agility +1 Intelligence
Response: Oh, well that would explain why I don't know your face, but it would also tell me you're pretty good with a bow. Welcome to the Emperors Army! You just signed up. I'm gonna stick you with the archers and well see how you do!

4. Nomads
+1 Strength +1 Agility
Response: Well that makes sense that you don't look familiar, but it also means you should be pretty good on horseback. I think I will stick you with the scouts and see how you do.

5. Merchant
+1 Charisma +1 Agility
Response: A merchant boy eh? Well, a merchant isn't of much use to me in combat, maybe the Infantry will toughen you up... or kill you. Welcome to the army.

You: Wait.... you're drafting me?
Knight: Yeah, isn't that what I just said? The Emperor commissions me to take any and all for the army regardless of house or origin. Now come on, well get you suited up and ready to fight.

Options Breakdown:
  • Yes sir, I'm ready to go.
  • I don't want to join the military!

Responses:
Yes sir: Good, now pack your gear and let's go.
I don't want to join: Well you can join, or I can ride you down and add your skull to the others. So pack your gear, and let's go.

Interlude:
At this point a cinematic cutscene could play, or you could have one of those epicly drawn pictures of the players character armed in a camp full of other soldiers.

This part could be narrated or text:
You find the rations to be getting low. The march over the mountains has taken it's toll on the troops, but you finally find yourself on the other side. However, landslides in the rear caused a supply block, and the chain of supplies has completely stopped. You hear from the other soldiers the Emperor who commands the houses has ordered looting and pillaging until a line of ships can be established. You have the choice of either starving, or slaughtering peasants for food.

You see the rest of your squad already tearing the nearby village apart.

Continue...

Commander: You there, we have begun looting the village for supplies, you can either help us or starve, your choice.

Options breakdown:
1. I refuse to hurt innocent people, I will not take part in these raids.
+1 Honour -5 Morale
Response: Suit yourself, starve then.

2. Looting and Pillaging it is.
-1 Honour +5 Morale
Response: Hurry up then, they won't burn forever you know.

Interlude:
Again this could be accompanied by a cutscene of a burning village, or a picture of one:

"The village burns, the bodies of the peasants lie scattered across the grounds. The scene is grim, and the crows come for a fresh meal.

If option 1:
You sit watching the scene from a hill, your armor becoming heavier and heavier as the emptiness in your stomach grows. However, your honour remains.

If option 2:
You laugh with the other men, eating the looted food and drink as you dance over the corpses of the dead villagers. Your stomach weighs heavy, but some look upon you with disdain.

Days pass and you have been marching for what seems like all of them. You grow weary, but the commander assures you more villages are near to supply the army, and the boats will be arriving soon with fresh supplies.

More days pass, and no supplies come, no villages to raid, no ships with food. However, you hear of the enemy on the horizon. The commander makes your unit ready for battle and joins the rest of the army. You have never seen this many men before. Thousands upon thousands of men lined up and ready for battle, though most of them look greatly fatigued.

At the head of the army is the Emperor of Calradia, he sits atop his white stead clad in full armor with a crown on his head. Around him are his bannermen and lords of the noble houses. It is a sight to behold, however, on the horizon, you can see the marching of another army. Far in the distance you see the helmets of knights, and the shields of warriors. What nation are they? What king or kings command their armies? You have no idea, but as they get closer, you realize their numbers far outmatch yours. Probably 30,000 men were coming towards you, but you show no fear, your fellow soldiers however do not show such confidence.

What seems like hours later, the battle lines are finally drawn, and a stand-off occurs as the Emperor meets with the enemy armies leader. Moments later he returns an the entire enemy army is in full charge. Archer lines cannot draw fast enough and the infantry braces for the impact of the charge.

Continue...

At this point the player engages in a battle, the enemy army has far less soldiers. The player at this point is designed to win his first battle. His character should have armor that reduces a ton of damage and makes him near invincible, the army is also a lot larger so the chance of losing is slim. His weapons and gear reflect those of the choices he made in the past AKA archers cavalry etc. Two things can happen, the player wins the battle, or he is knocked out by somehow failing miserably. At this point another interlude will play.

If you win:
You stand victorious over your broken enemies, but as you look around, your troop is broken, the battle lines are falling and your army is in full retreat.

If you lose:
Knocked unconscious, you wake up nearby, a soldier was dead next to you, from the looks of it, he was hit by an arrow while carrying you away from the battle. As you look up, your army is in full retreat.

You see a soldier from your company nearby and you call to him.

Continue...

You: Hey! Where is everyone going?
Soldier: Retreating obviously? The Emperor is dead and the lines are broken, it's every man for himself!
You: Well where do you think I should go?
Soldier: No idea, you could stay and fight to the death. All jokes aside, the mountain pass could be an option, it's blocked, but some have managed to make it back that way. When we were on our way here I heard people say there are slave traders willing to barter passage back to Calradia. Those same people said a large group of deserters had been gathering, and were roaming the mountains looting and trying to find a path back home. I personally am going the longer and safer way around, my uncle is from these lands and he can get me a large merchant caravan back to Calradia across the deserts. You're willing to join me if you wish.

Options Breakdown:
  • I would rather die than retreat. I will fight to the death!
  • I will climb the mountains, I came that way, I can go back.
  • I have bartered with slave traders before, point me towards the sea.
  • They deserted this battle? Smart guys, I will seek them out.
  • Sure, that sounds better than the rest of those ideas.

1. I would rather die than retreat!
Response: Suit yourself then, die well friend.
+2 Strength
Interlude:
"You charge headlong into the enemy, completely outnumbered, you are soon surrounded, disarmed, and captured. Months later you find yourself in the hands of slavers, they throw you on a boat and you spend another month at sea. They end up taking you to some slave merchant in Tihr named Ramun. He apparently "Buys low and sells high." and as you are being traded, you find the means to escape. You are free, but have nothing, and nowhere to go...

Then, on the Horizon you see a village. You try to make your way there, but days with no food have made you weak. You pass out, close to the town. When you awake, you are in the bed of a local villager.

Continue...

2. I will climb the mountains.
Response: I hear it is a dangerous road, be careful.
+2 Agility
Interlude:
You trek back the way you came, it seems that others who only knew this way had tried to come this way as well. They however, were not so fortunate. As you came to the mountain pass you see the bodies of many soldiers, it seemed bandits or deserters had picked off these men and taken their gold. Luckily, they had no taken their food. You find as much dry food as you can off the corpses and fill a bag. The trip across the mountains is hard, and to save strength you ditch all your armor. Much of the path is destroyed and you have to take long arduous ways around. After over a month of walking, the food you had looted is gone, and you are starving. However, as you stumble down the mountainside for the last day, you see a village below. You however, do not have the strength to reach it. You fall on the ground and pass out.

Weeks later you awake, being tended to by a local villager.

Continue...

3. Barter with slave traders.
Response: Well I wish you good luck, those men can be shifty.
+2 Charisma
Interlude:
You travel towards the coast, selling your armor as you go to local villagers for food. When you arrive you find a port, where the slave trade is indeed booming. You find the port master, and trade him your weapon for safe passage back to Calradia. The journey is long, and about a month out at sea, the waves become restless. Your ship capsizes out at sea and you go down with it. Weeks later you awake in a small house. A villager is attending to your wounds.

Continue..

4. Join the deserters
Response: You want to join up with them? Cowards and murderers? Well suit yourself, I won't be one to judge.
+2 Strength -1 Honour
Interlude:
It is easy to find the deserters, a trail of bodies follows their band. When you catch them, you tell them you too were part of the army and wish to join them. After some talk with their leader, you are allowed to join. Your band loots and pillages the surrounding areas, but when there is nothing left to take the men become restless. A way back home still hasn't been found, and weeks pass by, hunger and fatigue starts to set in. It is then, when your band is weakest, that a large group of manhunters attacks. Swooping in during the night and attacking your group. You never saw them coming, you are taken prisoner and sold to slavers. After weeks aboard a s hip you find yourself sailing to Yalen to be sold, but before the transfer can happen you jump ship during the night and swim to shore.

You are weary from swimming for so long, and you come upon a village, you try to get close, but pass out from starvation before you can arrive.

You awake in the home of a villager who is tending to you.

Continue...

5. Merchant Caravan
Response: Good to hear, we could use an extra arm in case of the desert bandits. However you will need to sell your armor for a horse.
+2 Intelligence
Interlude:
You follow your new friend far south where you pick up a merchant caravan heading back to Calradia through the desert. You sell your armor for a horse and begin the long road back. It takes a good month before you can round the mountains, and once you do, you end up on the border of the sand dunes. Your caravan follows the mountains base moving for water source to water source. However a few weeks in your caravan is attacked by desert bandits. You have to fight them off with a rusty sword, and realize shortly that the rest of the caravan has already been slaughtered. Jumping on your horse, you head out in the direction you know they won't follow, into the sand dunes.

Days pass in the blistering hot sun, your horse dies, and you throw the rusty sword away, it simply slowed you down. You dreg wearily across the sands when you see a village far off in the distance. You try with all your might to make it there, but fall minutes away from it.

You awake being tended by a local villager.

Continue...

At this point in the story you will be one of 5 places:
1. Fight to the Death - Rizi
2. Climb the Mountains - Dugar
3. Barter with Slave Traders - Fisdnar
4. Join the Deserters - Istiniar
5. Merchant Caravan - Fishara

Villager Woman: Oh you're awake, how are you feeling?
You: Hungry, could you spare anything to eat?
Villager Woman: We aren't exactly rich here, and everyday is a fight for survival in these lands. However, I think some bread could be easy enough to procure.
You: Thank you, you are most kind. Where am I?
Villager Woman: You are in "insert village here" it is ruled by "insert lord of village here" in the Kingdom of "Insert House going for Emperor here".
You: Wait, did you say Kingdom?
Villager Woman: Yes, after the Emperor died across the mountains and his armies broken, his heirs were murdered by King Harlaus of Swadia, who claimed the throne for himself.
You: What about the other houses?
Villager Woman: The houses have defected and retreated into their own separate Kingdoms. It looks like many of them seek to go to war with King Harlaus, but his Swadian Knights are the most feared thing on the battlefield. Uneasy peace treaties have been made between some of the nations that keeps the people from dying on a daily basis, but it won't last. This land is about to burst into war and may the gods help whoever is in the way.

Options Breakdown:
If you are part of a Noble House:
  • I must return then to the Kingdom of "Your house here".
  • I have nothing to go back to, I do not know where to go...

If you are not part of a Noble House:
  • I should go and try to find my family.
  • I don't know if anyone is even alive anymore...

If you are not from Calradia:
  • I came to Calradia to find a new life, now is the time to find it!
  • This place is full of horrible people, but I came here on my own. I must find a way.

Villager Woman: Yes, well if you are looking for work there is a nearby mercenary camp that s always looking for new recruits. They will feed you and pay you well.
You: Thank you, I will keep that in mind.

At this point the player can wander around Calradia. If he is part of a Noble House that he seeks to go back to, a quest will pop up telling him which city to head to. If he is from Calradia but not noble born he will be prompted a quest to the mercenary camp. if he is not from Calradia at all, it will also send him to the mercenary camp.

Note: That for 10 days after the tutorial, no bandits spawn, no armies move, and everything is at a standstill. Merchant caravans and Manhunters still patrol the map however. This gives the player a chance not to get attacked with no armor or weapons.

If you are noble born:
You will receive a quest telling you to go to your houses capital city. This has a 10 day limit, after these 10 days, the kingdoms will begin their war.
You speak to the king in the Kings Court and he tells you that your family members have passed away, and that your family lands taken seeing that nobody was known to be alive to claim them.
You are given an option to reclaim your nobility by joining the army and assisting in campaigns to reunite the kingdom.
You can accept and you will be given armor and weapons based on your nations standard armor and weapons, and you will be sent to a training camp to learn combat.
If you decline, you will also be given a house set of armor, and the king will say it was all that was left of your family treasury. You are now free to do as you like.

If you go to the mercenary camp:
This quest has a 10 day time limit, after this time the map AI will activate.
You will arrive and talk to the camp leader. He tells you that the houses are preparing for war, and they need mercenaries in abundance.
You can accept and you will be given some armor and a weapon of your choosing.
You can decline, but the mercenary captain will insist you join anyways, because it is obvious you have no money or weapons to defend yourself. You are forced to join.
Once you have learned to use the weapon of your choosing you will be prompted to join the war effort or work off your debt training more men.
If you join the war effort you are attached to the nearest Noble House to the Mercenary camp, and taken on some mock battles from which you are released after 2.
If you choose to train men to pay off your weapons and armor. You will be locked in a time skip camping screen for 3 days. Each day you will have a mock fight with another group of trainees. After which you will be released.
 
I'm not sure why do you think "defend your parents and your village" is better than "rescue the merchant's brother and fight a bit in the streets". The problem with introducing parents and then killing them, is that you limit the RP possible with the character creation menus. Not all players imagine themselves to start as noob orphans, or that their parents and birthplace are of a Calradian kingdom - they may have arrived from off-map countries, as noob fugitives or noob mercenaries.
I think the game designers were not lazy not to make a story, but wanted sandbox gameplay that you can also fill with your own stories.
WilltheGamer said:
Let’s be honest for a second. Warband had little to no tutorial,
That's funny, check the fighting tutorial in the main menu - you might have missed that. If you are writing suggestions, learn the game thoroughly.
White Sand Pharaohs
Is that a sports team? Because no self-respecting Pharaoh will name his country like that. :smile:
There are a couple of off-map locations that are already present in Calradian lore and mentioned in companion dialogs. See those, rather than inventing sterotypical factions. For example, do a forum search on "Geroia" and see what the fans came up with.
 
I'm having fun making suggestions, Do I think all of these suggestions are the best possible courses for the game? Nope, they are just suggestions, as the name word would suggest. puns.

Clearly you are the great Calradian Scribe who knoweth all of it's history, so I beg your pardon if my humble suggestions dont have all possible context behind them, or if I think that maybe the history of a fictional place can't be changed to whatever the devs damn well please.
 
Here's how to have proper fun with suggestions:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,76713.0.html
:smile:

Ah, tactics. That makes sense.
For the cavalry wedge (and other formations) see this excellent formation kit: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,34685.msg5888023.html#msg5888023
 
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