In short, I don't like it.
I probably would not be posting this if the enable/disable death (what I refer to as self imposed clan griefing) actually worked properly. It actually appears as if companion death automatically enables at a certain point. Perhaps soon after your first sibling grows up enough to be added to your party.
I like the idea of being able to excecute lords defeated in battle, of course this should be a double edged sword. However I mostly want to touch on the work I tend to put into my companions and clansmen. Also, some adding some why.
First, I am going to point out how much work I put into normal soldiers. Which is almost none therefore I am not generally super attached to them. Point of fact, at top tiers they are also generally far superior to companions and clanmen combat wise. I also do not have to drop over 100k properly equiping the normal soldiers, even the minor noble variety like cataphracts, and banner knights.
Second, let's compare effort and costs to recruit. I want a soldier, I check the variety I want, head over to the ethnic area where those citizens are located and start recruiting, within an hour I can raise and entire force. I want a companion, I need to consult the encyclopedia, chase the guy down, who might very well move from town to town while I am tracking him. and also pay them around 20 times what I would pay for a raw recruit. To be completely fair, they are simply not worthy of 20 times normal recruitment wages especially considering the equipment they come with literally places them on bottom tier troop usefulness. I suppose you can make a companion useful on the battlefield with perhaps as little as 4 or 5k. On comparison you can raise a force of 30ish heavy infantry for 4 or 5k. Sooooooo.....for 5k you can either have a companion mounted and with equipment makeing them about as capable as a tier 3 or 4 troop, OR 30ish tier 5 unmounted troops. Sounds like an easy decision to me until you add that single guy won't die and likely has a sideskill you won't have to nurture yourself.
Third, I get emotionally attached to these guys. Perhaps, it's the resources and time put into them, that I am grieving over, but I am generally really hurt when one of them dies. I actually don't even care about the very VERY expensive equipment I put on them. Don't get me wrong, when my warparty gets decimated in a major engagement I am not happy, but I can pick myself up and get back into recruiting and training mode pretty easy, unlike when I lose a companion. First time it started, I literally started a new game. Didn't even consider going through the pain and suffering of losing the rest of them.
I suppose this time I will probably let all my companions die off one at a time, and make sure I take them off the roles so I can develop their skillsets myself. Perhaps I make it happen faster so it can be over and done with. Maybe scoop up some governer worthy champs as needed to man the castles and towns as needed.
Perhaps I have a better idea, instead of having our companions killable, lets just get rid of the current system of companions, and make it so we can take a leveled troop, split him off the main group, and name him and give him a title. POOF!! we can give him some skillset access, blah blah blah, and happiness ensues. Masocists get their companion death, Softy carebears like me get to not have to grow attachement to our favorite virtual family members and lose them, EVERYBODY WINS!!
I love this game, hell, I played mount and blade 1 until this one released. I am going to keep playing it. I will say, I feel like a really nice feature of one of my favorite toys is being horrifically broken.
I probably would not be posting this if the enable/disable death (what I refer to as self imposed clan griefing) actually worked properly. It actually appears as if companion death automatically enables at a certain point. Perhaps soon after your first sibling grows up enough to be added to your party.
I like the idea of being able to excecute lords defeated in battle, of course this should be a double edged sword. However I mostly want to touch on the work I tend to put into my companions and clansmen. Also, some adding some why.
First, I am going to point out how much work I put into normal soldiers. Which is almost none therefore I am not generally super attached to them. Point of fact, at top tiers they are also generally far superior to companions and clanmen combat wise. I also do not have to drop over 100k properly equiping the normal soldiers, even the minor noble variety like cataphracts, and banner knights.
Second, let's compare effort and costs to recruit. I want a soldier, I check the variety I want, head over to the ethnic area where those citizens are located and start recruiting, within an hour I can raise and entire force. I want a companion, I need to consult the encyclopedia, chase the guy down, who might very well move from town to town while I am tracking him. and also pay them around 20 times what I would pay for a raw recruit. To be completely fair, they are simply not worthy of 20 times normal recruitment wages especially considering the equipment they come with literally places them on bottom tier troop usefulness. I suppose you can make a companion useful on the battlefield with perhaps as little as 4 or 5k. On comparison you can raise a force of 30ish heavy infantry for 4 or 5k. Sooooooo.....for 5k you can either have a companion mounted and with equipment makeing them about as capable as a tier 3 or 4 troop, OR 30ish tier 5 unmounted troops. Sounds like an easy decision to me until you add that single guy won't die and likely has a sideskill you won't have to nurture yourself.
Third, I get emotionally attached to these guys. Perhaps, it's the resources and time put into them, that I am grieving over, but I am generally really hurt when one of them dies. I actually don't even care about the very VERY expensive equipment I put on them. Don't get me wrong, when my warparty gets decimated in a major engagement I am not happy, but I can pick myself up and get back into recruiting and training mode pretty easy, unlike when I lose a companion. First time it started, I literally started a new game. Didn't even consider going through the pain and suffering of losing the rest of them.
I suppose this time I will probably let all my companions die off one at a time, and make sure I take them off the roles so I can develop their skillsets myself. Perhaps I make it happen faster so it can be over and done with. Maybe scoop up some governer worthy champs as needed to man the castles and towns as needed.
Perhaps I have a better idea, instead of having our companions killable, lets just get rid of the current system of companions, and make it so we can take a leveled troop, split him off the main group, and name him and give him a title. POOF!! we can give him some skillset access, blah blah blah, and happiness ensues. Masocists get their companion death, Softy carebears like me get to not have to grow attachement to our favorite virtual family members and lose them, EVERYBODY WINS!!
I love this game, hell, I played mount and blade 1 until this one released. I am going to keep playing it. I will say, I feel like a really nice feature of one of my favorite toys is being horrifically broken.
