To avoid every play starting with the same early game, I present an idea shamelessly based on an option from X4.
What?:
Custom Start would be an alternative option to the vanilla basic start that starts the player off with nothing but some tier 2 equipment and small amount of money. Upon selecting custom start the player would be presented with a screen and balance of denars. These denars can be spent on adjusting various game parameters such as starting skill level, equipment, faction relationships (a faction's relationship can be lowered for extra denars), faction membership, property held (cheaper than the perk lets it be obtained for), influence (if in a kingdom), family, and party (both current soldiers and companions) as well as starting location (free to change). Any denars not spent are added to the player's starting bank.
Rather than remain static, a player's denar count for future custom starts would increase as they engage in various activities in game, regardless of save. These would include repeatable ones like battling and killing, but also larger one time (or limited to a small number of times like 3) rewards for having used certain game features. These would include smaller things like getting married, using a barber shop, smithing, recruiting a companion, visiting every settlement in the game at least once, signing on as a mercenary, joining a faction or clearing a bandit base. These (and a human readable checklist) would be a way to encourage players to check out various features of the game at least once. Larger things, like mastering a skill, or even conquering all of Calradia would give very big rewards. It's possible these objectives could also include some kind of reward beyond just denars, like improving the options for gear selection.
Why?:
Quite simply, the vanilla start gets very repetitive to do every time you play a new game after a while, and this presents a way to jump into the action without making it a cheat option and retaining all sandboxyness. Cultured Start remains one of the most popular mods for giving an alternative.
How?:
This would admittedly be a relatively complex feature that would need some balancing work and some tracking, but it doesn't seem logistically impossible. The data for current denars available should be saved in a clearly marked file of its own that preserves across uninstalls. The ability to save and share starting templates would also be a nice QoL feature in implementing this.
What?:
Custom Start would be an alternative option to the vanilla basic start that starts the player off with nothing but some tier 2 equipment and small amount of money. Upon selecting custom start the player would be presented with a screen and balance of denars. These denars can be spent on adjusting various game parameters such as starting skill level, equipment, faction relationships (a faction's relationship can be lowered for extra denars), faction membership, property held (cheaper than the perk lets it be obtained for), influence (if in a kingdom), family, and party (both current soldiers and companions) as well as starting location (free to change). Any denars not spent are added to the player's starting bank.
Rather than remain static, a player's denar count for future custom starts would increase as they engage in various activities in game, regardless of save. These would include repeatable ones like battling and killing, but also larger one time (or limited to a small number of times like 3) rewards for having used certain game features. These would include smaller things like getting married, using a barber shop, smithing, recruiting a companion, visiting every settlement in the game at least once, signing on as a mercenary, joining a faction or clearing a bandit base. These (and a human readable checklist) would be a way to encourage players to check out various features of the game at least once. Larger things, like mastering a skill, or even conquering all of Calradia would give very big rewards. It's possible these objectives could also include some kind of reward beyond just denars, like improving the options for gear selection.
Why?:
Quite simply, the vanilla start gets very repetitive to do every time you play a new game after a while, and this presents a way to jump into the action without making it a cheat option and retaining all sandboxyness. Cultured Start remains one of the most popular mods for giving an alternative.
How?:
This would admittedly be a relatively complex feature that would need some balancing work and some tracking, but it doesn't seem logistically impossible. The data for current denars available should be saved in a clearly marked file of its own that preserves across uninstalls. The ability to save and share starting templates would also be a nice QoL feature in implementing this.
