Ull
Recruit
Hi there! I have around 400 hours in game. I have been playing from Early Access to Offical Release and I would like to share some of my opinions about it.
General
First of all I'm really disappointed with offical release. One of my biggest disappointment is the effort that is wasted on main storyline and voice acting rather than working on sandbox and roleplaying elements that are in really bad shape. Most of the playerbase as far as I have seen and witnessed are not interested in following a linear storyline. They are more interested in making their own stories which is the same way I feel and what the game was loved for and bought for. Almost no M&B player expects and amazing linear storyline or well made cutscenes. First expectation is depthful role playing element in singleplayer that is supported by gameplay and as a person that is not a hardcore RPG player (even though I played and finished so many of them) game's dialogue options are very limited and feels weird. That lack of dialogue and roleplaying elements leads the game to feel pointless; sieging, declaring war on nations and almost all the other major gameplay becomes aimless but that is not the only problem. Game does not create a well atmosphere for roleplaying as well.
Politics
To continue and explain atmosphere and roleplaying issue further more let me give you an example; important decisions like declaring war on one nation shouldn't be this easy. You first should have a capital of your empire (or the empire you are in) then host a assembly to consider declaring war on another nation. Also deciding which lord will have the conquered city or castle, passing laws, considerance of peace conferences, how certain lords will be acting in the war (defensive or agressive. If so on which castle/city), expanding authority of the king/queen or decreasing it should be all discussed by other head members of the empire or only by the king/queen if the state is totalitarian. Also, of course all the other political matters must be integrated into something like this to give feeling that player should take this game more seriously and think about decisions more. Basically I really think we need something like visual gathering in a certain place for political decisions rather than making it just a menu and of course expanding them. Also, when a peace is about to be made between the empires that are in conflict empires should meet in a natural city/castle if there is one and negotiate terms of the peace deal. Best part about this it is really really simple thing to do I think. Just a room with table and chairs then bunch of dialogue options.
War
I'm generally happy with war on gameplay side. I only have one big problem is that you almost never get the chance to defend cities/castles. Partially the reason if you are in a city/castle enemy randomly stops sieging after some days. The other problem is (It might be fixed with offical release I would appreciate it if someone informed me about it) AI armies do not calculate and prepare enough to form army and keep it together for a long time, they often end up with food shortage and start dying seperately and end up getting hunted alone. This not only makes the AI siege so much less efficiently and frequently but also compeletely rips the player out of the game's atmosphere once again.
Couple Ideas
-One of the things game can have might be setting great walls outside of cities/castles in just empty land. That way to be able to siege cities/castles first you'll have to pass the empires walls and securing them so you can make sure you can have supply. Of course they would be really expensive and should be positioned in the most efficient way possible which would make the player think about what's the best way to secure his empire without overusing resources.
-You should be able to form small forces to clear the around villages and supply the main army. I think you can do this with companion but not the way I want it to be.
-Empires should suffer relationship penalties if they don't have good reason for war or if they are attacking a really weak enemy. Yes every empire's reason is to expand more and more but if one of them suceeds a little too much others should slightly start getting defensive towards that spesific empire.
Let me know if I said something that has been done in Offical Release and I missed. I'll be updating if new things come to my mind.
General
First of all I'm really disappointed with offical release. One of my biggest disappointment is the effort that is wasted on main storyline and voice acting rather than working on sandbox and roleplaying elements that are in really bad shape. Most of the playerbase as far as I have seen and witnessed are not interested in following a linear storyline. They are more interested in making their own stories which is the same way I feel and what the game was loved for and bought for. Almost no M&B player expects and amazing linear storyline or well made cutscenes. First expectation is depthful role playing element in singleplayer that is supported by gameplay and as a person that is not a hardcore RPG player (even though I played and finished so many of them) game's dialogue options are very limited and feels weird. That lack of dialogue and roleplaying elements leads the game to feel pointless; sieging, declaring war on nations and almost all the other major gameplay becomes aimless but that is not the only problem. Game does not create a well atmosphere for roleplaying as well.
Politics
To continue and explain atmosphere and roleplaying issue further more let me give you an example; important decisions like declaring war on one nation shouldn't be this easy. You first should have a capital of your empire (or the empire you are in) then host a assembly to consider declaring war on another nation. Also deciding which lord will have the conquered city or castle, passing laws, considerance of peace conferences, how certain lords will be acting in the war (defensive or agressive. If so on which castle/city), expanding authority of the king/queen or decreasing it should be all discussed by other head members of the empire or only by the king/queen if the state is totalitarian. Also, of course all the other political matters must be integrated into something like this to give feeling that player should take this game more seriously and think about decisions more. Basically I really think we need something like visual gathering in a certain place for political decisions rather than making it just a menu and of course expanding them. Also, when a peace is about to be made between the empires that are in conflict empires should meet in a natural city/castle if there is one and negotiate terms of the peace deal. Best part about this it is really really simple thing to do I think. Just a room with table and chairs then bunch of dialogue options.
War
I'm generally happy with war on gameplay side. I only have one big problem is that you almost never get the chance to defend cities/castles. Partially the reason if you are in a city/castle enemy randomly stops sieging after some days. The other problem is (It might be fixed with offical release I would appreciate it if someone informed me about it) AI armies do not calculate and prepare enough to form army and keep it together for a long time, they often end up with food shortage and start dying seperately and end up getting hunted alone. This not only makes the AI siege so much less efficiently and frequently but also compeletely rips the player out of the game's atmosphere once again.
Couple Ideas
-One of the things game can have might be setting great walls outside of cities/castles in just empty land. That way to be able to siege cities/castles first you'll have to pass the empires walls and securing them so you can make sure you can have supply. Of course they would be really expensive and should be positioned in the most efficient way possible which would make the player think about what's the best way to secure his empire without overusing resources.
-You should be able to form small forces to clear the around villages and supply the main army. I think you can do this with companion but not the way I want it to be.
-Empires should suffer relationship penalties if they don't have good reason for war or if they are attacking a really weak enemy. Yes every empire's reason is to expand more and more but if one of them suceeds a little too much others should slightly start getting defensive towards that spesific empire.
Let me know if I said something that has been done in Offical Release and I missed. I'll be updating if new things come to my mind.
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