The 300 bets for tournaments already made them a complete waste of time for anything but early game for time spent. You'd make maybe 500-600 off of a 1200 bet, max. For the 5-10 minutes you'd spend in the tournament, this was already bad for anyone but the lowest-level characters farming Renown.
Now, with these changes, it's even more pointless and you've basically made sure I'll never waste my time playing out a tournament again, especially because the gear rewards that used to be top-tier are trash now.
Thing is, tournaments just really aren't *fun* after you've done a couple, at least that seems to be the general consensus. They're simply a means to an end for most people, and with no real reward for participating people are just going to do a couple, shrug, and never do one again. Then you've wasted all the time you spent making them part of the game.
I appreciate the pace of patches, but I don't understand why you are so focused on nerfing player progression when one of the main complaints about the game currently is the grind. You're literally making it worse.
I have to agree, the core of the game is solid, but theres been some puzzling patches making them a mixed bag. I can't say I've ever seen anyone complain about tournaments being OP. If alot of people are doing them, then its a good sign you have a fun feature. Devs need to keep this in mind. While I get why they nerfed woodcoin, it confuses me when a few patches later they make everything 10x more expensive.
Tournaments are a waste of time after this patch which is a shame, I enjoyed doing tournaments during every feast in warband...of course, we don't have feasts in Bannerlord yet, but the point remains. In warband, it was solid income and relationship with a lady. With mods, they were cash cows and rightly so, people would pay a fortune to see a legendary warrior beat down several people.
I'd say if devs are concerned about balance, make the death mechanic work. If we could die in tournaments, then make them 20x more profitable with some of the best gear in the game. If lords could die in battle, then snowballs will be halted. If we could die in battle, then we could play as heirs, currently I am yet to even see them grow up since the game ends before then. I have noticed that with the "death enabled" option on, heroes show up as dead casualties very frequently, so that said it needs some balancing, I'd hate to lose companions to a bandit hideout etc. So, it should be situational as to when and where you can die, but also let perks, skill, armor and hp affect it. I'd like to use kenshi as an example of a fun death mechanic - you get knocked unconscious if you take too much damage in a vital area, and if its untreated or you simply take too much at once, you die. Armor helps in that regard immensely. Bannerlord could have a similar feature - like what Viking Conquest had. Fatal wounds that need to be treated immediately otherwise a hero will die. With armor, its likely you'll survive, but without, you're most likely dead. Punishing players who try to fight a tournament like that at level 1 when they're wearing cloth armor is a hard lesson, but makes the risk reward factor insane. Since bannerlord already detects where a shot lands, neck, head, chest could be instant death for heroes without armor, but with armor they will just be wounded if knocked out, but need to be treated as soon as possible. Would justify the 100k+ price tag on armor. Also, changing the "Damage to player" option to "damage to heroes" in general, or simply adding a new option would be definitely good to see when death is a mechanic.
I'll make a list of things I'd love to see patched in asap, because I'm very happy with how quickly devs are patching things. I had a gamebreaking crash which was fixed the next day and I didn't even have to come here for help. Add big features when you're ready of course, don't feel rushed. I know you're all currently working on fixing the snowball - I won't bring that up here, but I will say that until there is a rebellion feature, snowballing factions put an abrupt end to the game. It should be very hard for the AI to takeover all of Calradia in the first place. If they by some miracle they happen to do that, holding it together should be even harder, but everyone lives in peace and harmony after someone from Sargot or Chaikand conquers the entire world in less than 10 years.
1. +/-Relationship after battles, attacking and taking prisoner. It seems that when first meeting a lord and helping them in battle gives you relationship, but not at all afterwards.
2. We desperately need notification when enemies are sighted near fiefs and when they siege fiefs, not just as they are assaulting.
3. Nerf relationship hit after a vassal loses a fief. It shouldn't be nearly as punishing as it is, especially when the only reliable way to get relation currently is through voting.
4. For the sake of fun gameplay, let us nominate ourselves for any fief the player takes, even if we're over the limit, but double the relationship loss for choosing ourselves if we're at the limit.
5. Do not let imprisoned lords escape unless someone breaks them out of a dungeon. Tie this to loyalty of a settlement. 100% chance a guard will say no to helping a prisoner at 100 loyalty, and 1% chance a guard will say no to helping a prisoner at 1 loyalty.
6. Factions losing in wars need their armies to focus on defense and home territory - tied to culture maybe? I've seen many armies march into the heart of enemy territory right after a catastrophic defeat which makes no tactical sense and ends with another catastrophic defeat. Additionally, when armies are defeated, there should be a notification as to where it happens, because you're in the dark. Rulers (and maybe tier 5 lords with the marshal policy?) should also be able to command armies that are not their own where to siege and where to defend, at the cost of influence. For balance I'd say, the combined influence that was required to gather said entire army.
7. I'm not sure if its true, because I've seen varying things, but if so, tier 5/6 armor in shops should not be unlocked by clan tier, rather the fact you're vassal or not, just because good armor is so incredibly rare. I don't think a smith would deny forging great armor for a noble when he has the denars up front and is a noble of the controlling faction, especially when commoners and soldiers get access to the same equipment.
8. Troop fixes and overhauls. For Sturgia, the berserker line is simply not good unless they have 2x the HP of a normal soldier. Across the board, their armor is very low quality except for the very best troops, which is the opposite of many factions. The druzhinik are also specced in archery instead of polearms, but they use lances and not bows, making them gimped. Battania is perfect, but horsemen sometimes spawn with terrible helmets (15 head armor i think). Hitpoints should be tied to soldier tier, a recruit has too much hitpoints. As a general rule, I'd recommend the maxes for them. Tier 1, 70 for tier 2, 80 for tier 3, 90 for tier 4, 100 for tier 5, 120 for tier 6. Top tier units should not be able to be swarmed by recruits making them effectively useless - i see this happen alot. Correct me if I'm wrong too, but I don't see any tier 6 infantry units and they definitely are needed - Sturgia could use this buff as they should have the best infantry around, being proto-nords. Perhaps giving them two tier 6 troops as opposed to just the druzhinik could balance them out and make them a respectable force to fight toe to toe, right now they're very bad and I'm yet to see their faction survive.
9. Did armor values get reversed for anyone else? I swear the rough tied bracers got nerfed on day 2 or 3 which was definitely needed, but now theyre some of the best gauntlets in the game again. While I am using mods, none of them should interfere with that.
10. Persuasion system needs a ton of work. Currently, it can just be savescummed and many of the variables that effect your chance don't seem to work or aren't implemented. When asking someone to join your faction, they say they don't know you - despite having 100 relationship. At this stage, I prefer the repeatable and simple warband system of courting. (as a side note, i convinced a lord to join my faction just playing around and for some reason they didn't take their towns with them - they should).
11. Culture should have a massive impact on the game and be much more than a bonus to map speed. Let us change the culture of towns and castles and villages, either through policy like citizenship or through force. Battanians should be able to execute anyone but Battanians, and Imperials should be able to execute only who they deem barbarians. I know that technically the game already is like this, but it's the repercussions that need to be changed. The main quest mentions battanians executing imperials left and right taking heads, but for some reason doing this in game leads everyone to hate you. Understandable, but it should exclude battanians, and should increase your relation with them, unless of course its a battanian you execute, in which case, its more severe than normal executions. Hopefully some of the impact culture has is reflected when rebellions are added.
12. Feasts. Let me eat butter with the bois. also we need honey, bread, and sausage back pls.
13. Kingdoms splintering and reappearing, independence wars, etc are all something that are needed to make this game last long enough to justify generational gameplay. There needs to be a better way to revolt than currently leaving faction and making everyone hate you on the hopes someone defects to you, which is not what you want when revolting. Currently its pointless and we need a way to revolt with other clans, potentially through bribes, persuasion (granted its fixed), and just general dislike for the current liege.
I'm absolutely in love with this game right now and look forward to seeing it develop. Its a great successor to warband, the world is beautiful, I can stare at the map for days, every scene is masterful even if some are temporarily the same. The combat is incredible but not too complicated, the physics are amazing, and the technical aspect of everything shines bright.