Optimized Experience

[Khalim]

Hi, I am new here

I am trying to max out my knowledge of the game but there are still some difficulties to "master" warband.

My biggest question is, how the calculation of gaining experience is working and how to get myself and my compagnions fast to a high level.

Now it seems to me that it is nearly impossible to get an Int 30 companion who is also capable of fighting. Lacking fighing abilities joined heros can not level fast, so i considered it the best way to give my companions at least STR 9 and weapon mastery. I believe melee on horseback has the best results in gaining experience for my companions. The time before, I tried to give my heros siegecrossbows without horses and places in the ranks of my Rhodok Sharpshooters but actually they didnt score very often

I wonder how Experience is calculated in battle for my companions and therefore I made some tests but the result was quite confusing:
1, The shared party XP seems to be randomly. I could not find any connenction to casualties(tried this with autobattle)
2, The player gets a share of party XP, wheras it is more XP the less soldiers you lead into battle(if you fight with only your main hero you get 100% of party XP)
3, Heros get about 30% of the players EP. If you have more heros there is no loss of XP, in contrary, XP is generated
4, Quest XP are split up upon companions(Main Hero gets 100% and if you have two comp they will get 50% each)
5, XP do not seem to be affected by difficulty, what a pity

Example:
Killing ~40 Searaiders with an ~40 man sized army with ~4 companions brings about ~1600 party XP(varies, ramdomly), 150-250 Player Xp and a third of players XP for companions(~70XP, it does not matter how many heros you have)


This are my findings and I came to the conclusion that it is quite useful to have not many companions, let them fighting in melee and to fulfill quests. Especially making peace(4000XP) or killing bandits(2000XP) can really push the experience for companions.

Anyway, I am feeling to make low progress in leveling my companions. How is it possible to stick their levels close to mine? Level ~15 is no problem but when I hear of companions of level 30+ I wonder how this is possible in an adequate time.

What is a good strategy to level companions and how do the mechanics of getting experience work. Did I miss something? Currently I am playing very much and also I think I am not so bad with my main hero but when I get to level ~24 my companions have level 15 or less and progress is really getting slowed down.

I will be very grateful for tipps, strategies and knowledge

 

[Bill the Bold]

i give 7 of my 8 companions a sword, a spear, a shield and a horse, label them calvary and charge them into the enemy flank.  that seems to level them good.  as im playing nord they are my main calvary force and i think they're getting alot of experience from running down routed enemies.  i tried using baheshtur as a mounted archer at first and he seemed to lag behind so he got the sword and shield and now levels better.

jeremus, my healer, is labeled an archer.  hes mounted (i've heard your party moves faster on campain map if all companions are mounted) with a sword, shield and light crossbow so he doesnt get many kills but the higher level companions with training skill drag him along.  exept for a point or two in strength and agility so i could work up his iron flesh and shield skills all the rest have gone into intellegence.  i think hes level 15 now with 21 intelligence so hes a pretty effective healer even at that relatively low level.  all his weapon proficiency points have gone into one handed so he can protect himself if the fight gets in close and i wouldnt be surprised if he gets the odd kill because of it (its ~110-120 now).  i know he gets a kill here and there with the crossbow as that weapon proficiency is slowly increasing (~60), and i've only ever sank one or two left over points into it.

 

[Boduar]

Well currently with the dumb way AI works you can send off your companions by themselves into the enemy and as long as they have good armor/horses/weapons they will get tons of kills before they go down and sometimes route the enemy by themselves.  Occasionally AI is smart and counterattacks them and they die painful deaths but they still get some XP before they go.  Other than that make sure you have trainer yourself since you will always be higher lvl than them and also fighting bandits with just your companions can work out well as long as your confident you wont get knocked out and captured which is annoying and will cost you a lot of time and money.

 

[SokrateX]

i'm currently running a "test game" which grew beyond that - it's fun now

i tweaked so companions wouldn't interact and recruited all 16 of them. they all got a bow as primary weapon (sword and shield as backup) and are ordered to hold position at battle start (or move to a good spot first, then hold) and archer away at the storming enemy - the first few levels you have to help them out in larger battles but once they have power draw 4 and ~150 in archery they kick ass and gain XP like hell. mine all have strong bows with kergit/bodkin arrows and good armor (30+ encumbrance) now and they easily solo sea raider parties of 50. i only round up routing enemies now

they were all lvl 18-20 in ~100 days. imho thats faster as my games b4 were they got sword/shield/horses

quite fun too

S.

 

[Khalim]

yeah, you were right. Getting a bunch of heros and let them fight as a standalone army/cavalery really works great!

In he first time they are weak and useless but at some point the tides changes and suddenly they became a killerteam

Currently I have 8 companions, 3 or 4 specialized in Int/Char skills and the other ones in pure fighting. Getting all of them a moderate trainer skill is a good idea, I think, because the stronger fighters push the Int companions a little bit and also normal soldiers are trained very fast.
currently my companions get about 600-700Xp per day only by trainer skills(average Skilllevel is about 4) Maybe thats not that much but you have to consider that this are about 5 kills and are not to be underestimated.

I think I have found out a useful hint:

Sometimes you explore bandit hideouts but instead of wiping them out instantly you should look for a lord "owning" the hideout faction and is not far away.(for instance mountain bandits are Rhodok, Tegais are Vaenirs, Seariders Nords and so on)
It seems that there is a >good< probability that this lord will give you the quest for destroying this hideout.
Now you have two advantages: You know the location of the hideout and you will earn 2000(or was it even 3000?)XP for doing this easy quest.

If you want to get Xp per Quest there are only 3 types of useful quests:
destroying hideouts
killing bandits nearby a city(brings about 2000XP but sometimes only ~200. I have to look into this)
making peace which is also getting you a lot of money. Bribing is very easy. I wonder how much persuasion would be necessery...

other quests are not as useful or too difficult if you are looking for XP. Caravans are also good if you want to travel to the destination city.

Thats my point of view, maybe there are some more suggestions for making XP?

 

[Tizz]

im pretty sure the "trainer" skill stacks, i personally put as much trainer into myself and companions as possible and garrison top tier troops, then take trips to recuit tribesmen and when i get back from the round trip most of the new recruits are top tier or close, rinse and repeat. this also works with companions lower level than you and go can always count on them being a lower level than you. easily get mammoth armies rather quick.

 

[vonskyme]

I think I have found out a useful hint:

Sometimes you explore bandit hideouts but instead of wiping them out instantly you should look for a lord "owning" the hideout faction and is not far away.(for instance mountain bandits are Rhodok, Tegais are Vaenirs, Seariders Nords and so on)
It seems that there is a >good< probability that this lord will give you the quest for destroying this hideout.
Now you have two advantages: You know the location of the hideout and you will earn 2000(or was it even 3000?)XP for doing this easy quest.

Close. Find the lord of the closest city to the hideout, he's the one who will give you the quest. It's nothing to do with the faction of the bandits, other than the location on the map (for example, sea raiders tend to be near Rivacheg, which is Vaegir). The rewards are very nice for it, although the quest is probably a little TOO easy now they both toned down the numbers and made half of them looters. Either/or would have been about right. If you're not sure which lord it is, ask the tavern keeper in one of the nearby cities.

Oh, and Tizz, the trainer skill DOES stack, for every unit below the level of the companion with the skill. You might find (and probably will) that you can train knights, but your companions can only train militia. Interestingly, your companions can train YOU if they're a higher level (usually only happens when you find Bunduk or Lezalit early).

 

[Khalim]

but your companions can only train militia

Hmm, I am not sure what you mean.

Companions can train everyone, I think. The reasen why middle tier troops might get no experience is, that it takes some time to get them to an appropriate level.
To train Rhodok sharpshooters you will need level 15 I think as the trained sharpshooters have level 14. Most Troop levels go this way: 4, 9, 14, 19 and for knights you will even need level ~22

 

[Boduar]

Need I think 26 or 27 to train veterans into huscarls.

 

[vonskyme]

but your companions can only train militia

Hmm, I am not sure what you mean.

Companions can train everyone, I think. The reasen why middle tier troops might get no experience is, that it takes some time to get them to an appropriate level.
To train Rhodok sharpshooters you will need level 15 I think as the trained sharpshooters have level 14. Most Troop levels go this way: 4, 9, 14, 19 and for knights you will even need level ~22

That's what I meant - at that particular point in the game, while the character may well have been high enough to train knights (say level 25), the companions will be about 10-12, and only able to train militia/footmen. Later on they will be able to train everyone.

 

[Khalim]

Ahh, I see. Thats absolutly right, thats what I thought in the first place.
So its just the low companion level with limits their trainer skill. But to get mid tier troops they are extremly useful. And mi tier troops get many kills so they can be leveled up to high tier troops.

Much better than lose half of the recruits in the first battle

 

[Stabbing Hobo]

If you want to go into tweaking, go to Warband/Modules/Native/module.cfg and look up
[quote author=module]player_xp_multiplier  = 2.0;
hero_xp_multiplier    = 2.0;
regulars_xp_multiplier = 3.0;[/quote]Increase the hero multiplier so suit your likings.

 

[Bill the Bold]

another tip for leveling troops is to level them in batches.  that is to say if you get 20 nord recruits in one day and after the first days training 10 of them can become footmen wait until the other 10 are ready to advance and level them as a group.  do this because in battle troops of the same rank share the experience from kills.  so out of your 20 footmen if one gets a kill he'll share experience with the other 19, thus leveling the group faster.

another thing i do is label the low tiered units "unnamed 1" within my party.  that way if i see a band of 10 looters i'll attack them with the 20 footmen only.  so first i order everyone to hold position then order "unnamed 1"  to charge, otherwise my calvary would just road kill the looters and the footmen wont gain experience.  i still have high tiered units in the party for real battles but can farm looters for low tier experience.

doing this i gathered all my low tiered garrison units in a party and in a few days i had a party of 60 warriors (plus companions).  a day or two later and a couple of easy battles and 40 of them were ready to upgrade.

 

[vonskyme]

another tip for leveling troops is to level them in batches.  that is to say if you get 20 nord recruits in one day and after the first days training 10 of them can become footmen wait until the other 10 are ready to advance and level them as a group.  do this because in battle troops of the same rank share the experience from kills.  so out of your 20 footmen if one gets a kill he'll share experience with the other 19, thus leveling the group faster.

another thing i do is label the low tiered units "unnamed 1" within my party.  that way if i see a band of 10 looters i'll attack them with the 20 footmen only.  so first i order everyone to hold position then order "unnamed 1"  to charge, otherwise my calvary would just road kill the looters and the footmen wont gain experience.  i still have high tiered units in the party for real battles but can farm looters for low tier experience.

doing this i gathered all my low tiered garrison units in a party and in a few days i had a party of 60 warriors (plus companions).  a day or two later and a couple of easy battles and 40 of them were ready to upgrade.

Unfortunately, delaying the group has several downsides:

1) the experience is split 20 ways instead of 10 - so the growth will be no faster. The experience gained by the 10 ready to uprade is wasted, or could be better used to upgrade to the NEXT level.
2) unupgraded troops don't get the benefit of the training skill, from what I can tell.
3) You're much more likely to lose a man, and hence have to start again.

The grouping them is a good idea (I rename them 'younglings' when playing Nords. Sounds so much better sending the Younglings forward to earn the right to be respected as men than ordering the unnamed 1 into the attack). You can even have a few tiers - e.g. recruits and footmen take on looters, trained footmen and warriors take on sea raiders and other bandits, veterans and huscarls are only risked when necessary.