Limbojack
Veteran
I'm nearly fifty hours into the game, and I'd like to share a list of my main issues with the game so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm having an absolute blast with it despite the occasional bug and crash that naturally follows an early access release. That being said, here are my experiences and issues with the game so far:
1) Snowballing.
It currently brings every campaign to a stop within a couple of years, but as it's discussed in various posts already I'll leave it at that.
2) Lords not giving out quests.
I've yet to come across a single lord offering me a quest, making it almost impossible to improve relations with them.
3) Lords spending way too little time in their primary holding.
They're always running around in some army in enemy territory, making them feel a lot more absent that in Warband
4) Tournaments not giving experience.
The current focus on slaughtering looters as the only viable source of experience is getting tedious, so we need at least one alternative way of leveling up early game.
5) The lack of feats.
I don't want feasts to be held every day of the week, but it would be nice if truces, marriages, and childbirths were celebrated with feasts and tournaments and then the tournament winner would be invited to the feast, allowing for some early game interactions with lords and ladies.
6) Influence is too scarce.
Yes, influence should be a valuable and scarce resource, but why on earth does voting cost influence? Affective the vote, sure. Overruling it, of course. But voting? No, that needs to be fixed.
7) The ruler overruling every election and taking fiefs for themselves, especially after enacting the "sacred ruler" law.
It seems like the opinion penalty of overruling the majority when voting for either laws or fiefs is ignored by the AI and combined the inability of improving relations with lords this makes it really hard to play internal politics.
8 ) Sieges are too easy for the attacker.
I've seen the AI successfully assault cities and castles with roughly the same numbers as the defenders, which should be nearly impossible. A 1:1 death ratio during sieges are extremely ahistorical, and probably goes a long way in allowing for the snowballing. If you were to siege assault a tier three-walled settlement, you should be required to have a fully upgraded siege camp. The AI usually assault after building a battering ram and perhaps a siege tower. I'm not sure how to make the defenders fare better in sieges other than giving them bonuses like increased accuracy to archers, increased health to gates, making the AI throw rocks, oil and the like down on the soldiers climbing the ladders and make offensive siege works move slower in order to give the defenders more time. Sieges should be extremely costly for the attacker.
9) Army cohesion is too high.
Another issue that relates to snowballing and lords being hard to come across. AI armies almost never disband, nor seem to require food, meaning that campaigns will go on forever.
10) The AI is too aggressive.
Not only do the AI rulers declare war on factions on the other side of the map, or ignore its own holdings being sieged down while on the offensive, but also refuses to make peace after reasonable gains meaning that factions get gobbled up too quickly.
11) The lack of a training skill.
This is a huge issue for me personally as I'm already pretty tired of having to fight looters while leveling up. I don't need such a skill being less effective than what we had in Warband, but we should have a way of passively improving our low-tier troops into at least tier three without having to chase down half a billion looters.
12) The lack of buildings.
Villages need buildings to feel more alive and important, and I'd like to see a fief hierarchy where villages bring their resources to the castle their village is under and then it's all loaded onto a caravan taking the goods from the castle to the city (unless the village is directly under a city of course). Cities and castles just need more buildings and several levels of them as it's quick easy to max them out if you have the money to speed up the construction process.
13) Can't make parts of the garrison patrol the area around my castle/city.
This is unironically one of my biggest issues so far.
14) The culture bonuses are hilarious.
The 20% extra troop experience of vladians is simply way too OP compared to any of the other cultures. The only reason not to pick it at the moment is roleplaying for another faction.
That's all I got for now. A few of these will be hard to solve, while others should be rather easy to fix. Personally, I feel like tournaments granting experience, the lack of a training skill and army cohesion being too high are the most pressing ones, and also the ones they could solve the fastest in order to improve gameplay as it is.
1) Snowballing.
It currently brings every campaign to a stop within a couple of years, but as it's discussed in various posts already I'll leave it at that.
2) Lords not giving out quests.
I've yet to come across a single lord offering me a quest, making it almost impossible to improve relations with them.
3) Lords spending way too little time in their primary holding.
They're always running around in some army in enemy territory, making them feel a lot more absent that in Warband
4) Tournaments not giving experience.
The current focus on slaughtering looters as the only viable source of experience is getting tedious, so we need at least one alternative way of leveling up early game.
5) The lack of feats.
I don't want feasts to be held every day of the week, but it would be nice if truces, marriages, and childbirths were celebrated with feasts and tournaments and then the tournament winner would be invited to the feast, allowing for some early game interactions with lords and ladies.
6) Influence is too scarce.
Yes, influence should be a valuable and scarce resource, but why on earth does voting cost influence? Affective the vote, sure. Overruling it, of course. But voting? No, that needs to be fixed.
7) The ruler overruling every election and taking fiefs for themselves, especially after enacting the "sacred ruler" law.
It seems like the opinion penalty of overruling the majority when voting for either laws or fiefs is ignored by the AI and combined the inability of improving relations with lords this makes it really hard to play internal politics.
8 ) Sieges are too easy for the attacker.
I've seen the AI successfully assault cities and castles with roughly the same numbers as the defenders, which should be nearly impossible. A 1:1 death ratio during sieges are extremely ahistorical, and probably goes a long way in allowing for the snowballing. If you were to siege assault a tier three-walled settlement, you should be required to have a fully upgraded siege camp. The AI usually assault after building a battering ram and perhaps a siege tower. I'm not sure how to make the defenders fare better in sieges other than giving them bonuses like increased accuracy to archers, increased health to gates, making the AI throw rocks, oil and the like down on the soldiers climbing the ladders and make offensive siege works move slower in order to give the defenders more time. Sieges should be extremely costly for the attacker.
9) Army cohesion is too high.
Another issue that relates to snowballing and lords being hard to come across. AI armies almost never disband, nor seem to require food, meaning that campaigns will go on forever.
10) The AI is too aggressive.
Not only do the AI rulers declare war on factions on the other side of the map, or ignore its own holdings being sieged down while on the offensive, but also refuses to make peace after reasonable gains meaning that factions get gobbled up too quickly.
11) The lack of a training skill.
This is a huge issue for me personally as I'm already pretty tired of having to fight looters while leveling up. I don't need such a skill being less effective than what we had in Warband, but we should have a way of passively improving our low-tier troops into at least tier three without having to chase down half a billion looters.
12) The lack of buildings.
Villages need buildings to feel more alive and important, and I'd like to see a fief hierarchy where villages bring their resources to the castle their village is under and then it's all loaded onto a caravan taking the goods from the castle to the city (unless the village is directly under a city of course). Cities and castles just need more buildings and several levels of them as it's quick easy to max them out if you have the money to speed up the construction process.
13) Can't make parts of the garrison patrol the area around my castle/city.
This is unironically one of my biggest issues so far.
14) The culture bonuses are hilarious.
The 20% extra troop experience of vladians is simply way too OP compared to any of the other cultures. The only reason not to pick it at the moment is roleplaying for another faction.
That's all I got for now. A few of these will be hard to solve, while others should be rather easy to fix. Personally, I feel like tournaments granting experience, the lack of a training skill and army cohesion being too high are the most pressing ones, and also the ones they could solve the fastest in order to improve gameplay as it is.
because the skills are busted. The rest you can actually skill up in with some regularity.
