I WOULD KILL FOR THIS!
TW listen up now. Once upon a beautiful time there was a mod for Warband that was the most fun multiplayer experience I have ever had, period. It was due to several factors, and I will try to be brief and make a comprehensive description (again) for you here so you will understand.
c-RPG worked like this. You created your own character(s), which had its own level, gold, skills and attributes. You would start at lvl 15, and be able to reach 32 or so, and if you played crazy much you could reach lvl 33, or 34, but going to lvl 33 took as much experience as going from lvl 1 all the way to 32, and 34 was all the way from lvl 1 to lvl 33. You had the option however to retire at lvl 33, which set you back to lvl 1 (you got extra experience until you reach level 15 again), and by retiring you got more experience for any future games, plus some kind of "orb of upgrade", that you could use to enhance your favourite weapon or armor, giving it a slight boost such as +1 dmg and +1 speed, or +3 body armor.
Different weapons had of course different requirements, and you had to plan a bit and decide how you wanted to play your character. A balanced troop that could throw hard, wield a shield, but hit a bit weaker than average and not be able to use bows, go for it, or any other build you would want.
When it came to equipment every character you create start with basic peasant gear, but you earn gold through playing online regular battles, in siege, and what not, and with this gold you could log-onto this web site (this could be done in-game in Bannerlord though) and buy new equipment. Horses, shields, weapons, etc. Then equip it. It would all be available in a list in-game to equip, as long as you had the required attributes and skills.
Every piece of gear had %-chance to break after each played round, requiring repair. Repairs only took some money from your stash, automatically, so the game never actually prevented you from still using your weapons and armor. Only if you constantly ran around in the most expensive items you could have, would you likely run out of money and not be able to afford the upkeep. That's why it was fun to experiment with different items too - do I wanna put more money into my weapon, my shield, my armor, or helmet? Or maybe completely forgo one of these in favor of speed and saving money?
This was crazy fun in all, everyone looked very unique and had their own particular styles and favourite weapons, and I could tell, and still can tell, people immediately apart should I see them on the battlefield.
Now for the BIG part of all of this. The biggest PULL and EXCITEMENT with c-RPG I came to learn was what was called 'Strategus'.
What is Strategus you ask? Well, in short and simply put it is the Singleplayer experience mixed with the multiplayer experience.
Take the map of Calradia, with all the castles and villages, put this map online in a browser (Or in Bannerlord, if you make this).
When you log into this Strategus you will spawn a little dot on this map, that's you. With time, and money, you can recruit people just with time passing by, you'd get something like 1 recruit and hour, and twice as many if you had less than 50 recruits or so.
When moving on this map, you wouldn't see any other parties unless they were close enough, or big enough, or if you were high up enough (for example scouting from a mountain), and likewise, if you were hiding in a piece of woods on the map people would have to walk right next to you to be able to see you, unless you fielded 500 men. Which made for great tactics where people would scout with tiny parties, moving fast and trying to stay elevated on the map, and have parties ready to ambush set out.
Now, when you moved on this map, you would click a location to move there, but instead of a trip from Village A to Village B taking 1 minute in-game in Warband, it would take say 10 hours of real-time, or more even. Covering big distances on this map took days, depending on horses and load and equipment and terrain. Which made the world feel big, and that every encounter and decision had meaning - because there was a lot at stake.
If any party engaged any other party on the map, once touching they would become locked in location on the map, "Engaged in a Battle", but the battle would actually take place 24 hours forward (or so), on a specific server. People could look in a tab called "Upcoming Battles", and it would say for example "Tomorrow 12:45 the Butterbois will battle Lardbois", and you could apply to be able to participate in the battle.
If you are in charge of a battle, you could check your upcoming battles, and you'd see everyone that has applied to your battle to fight for your side, and you had the choice to accept or deny their application. You would see the stats of the intended character they wanted to bring as a soldier in your battle, and they could also write a short message such as "Archer +1h and shield", or "Cav + 2h", or "Xbox + shield".
Actual battles were played ONLY BY REAL PLAYERS. Every unit in your army, had to be played by a player, NO NPCS IN ANY BATTLE AT ALL! In addition, every man you had in your party on the map would need to be equipped by you as well. If you had 50 men and wanted them to have armor, you'd have to buy literally 50 armor sets from villages and castles, of varying quality and cost, as well as weapons. A lot of people, especially early on when money was low, would only buy armors for everyone and shields and helmets, but maybe only 20-30 weapons. Because, when people die, allies or enemies, you can pick up their weapons. No need to bring the full amount, as long as the guys spawning has weapons or can pick some weapons up close by.
All of this made for the most fun, elaborate, crazy, whacky, and creative fights I've had. Enemy team buying two cheap cavalry or mules or donkeys to bring without without or knowledge early in the game, to harass us in battles and steal our weapons, putting up wooden pallisades, defending your teams village when under attack, having to set up and prepare the defense beforehand (you got like 5 minutes to prepare defenses as a defender when defending a village, castle or town, which made for great tactics). People would be playing 100vs100 sieges with only players on each side, where a clan would bring all the equipments on their sides, everything literally bought by people in the game, and often times they'd had themes or tactics. So much fun.
SUMMARY: Read everything above. It is too much to summarize in one or two sentances.
