Something that I touched upon in a somewhat unrelated post: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index...who-cares-about-crafting.422733/#post-9438722
It would be nice if each faction had some "favored skill" associated with it in a perceivable, from player's perspective, way. Both in terms of combat as well as non-combat, and possibly non-combat skills being valued higher for some factions than straight up skull bashing.
I feel that not all AI lords need to be expert combatants. In fact, having much higher mastery of Tactics and Leadership would probably be far more valued within Imperial culture than the Sturgian "one man shieldwall" combat-focus or Battanian "I can shoot a fly off your nose at three hundred paces, then cut it in half with my greatsword!" combination.
I'd like to see Aserai really live up to their trading reputation, with their lords having extra caravans and the faction waging more wars for "trading rights" or some form of trade monopoly than simply to expand their territory. So that when it comes time to vote on whom the new fief should belong to, suddenly if you're Aserai you can simply outbid everybody else with hard, cold denars, instead of playing the influence roulette (thought the price required would also be dependent on your relationship with other lords).
In contrast to "only honor lies in battle" Vlandians, who might simply require superior battle performance from their lords to advance to higher positions. Where who took the fief and just how many enemies you personally, or your party, killed in battle has a huge impact on fief assignment (as long as everyone important has one, I guess).
I would like to see Battanians and/or Sturgian lords hold blacksmiths in great respect, to the point where your smithing skill directly impacts relationship (at least initial) with their lords, and you can get unique "lord wants specific greatsword/axe made" quests.
Make Khuzait the "Horse Lords" that they are supposed to be - maybe they don't care about "influence" as much as literal horses? So instead of spending "influence" as a Khuzait, if you really want to improve your relationship with one of the lords you send them a gift of several dozens of war horses (basically influence spending has much, much more limited impact on relationship gain).
In contrast, the Imperials (assuming each of their factions won't be shaped into something more unique then they are right now) are all about influence and status. Give them exclusive policies that improve influence gain and drain (say, spending influence to promote the movement of "freemen" into it. In game terms influence cost for quick boost to hearths number, though it would be nice if some sort of "immigration" mechanics existed between villages, too... Perhaps detract these from any neighboring villages belonging to another lord, at the cost of relationship with the fief owner (and potentially a smaller one with the notables of the affected villages?).
Why aren't Imperials more concerned about leadership, tactics, stewardship, or engineering than straight up combat skills? After all, they are supposed to be the "civilized" factions. Give them a meaningful way to show it to the player.
This would hugely tie in with the currently being reworked quests. Probably the best way to make the factions feel distinct is to have faction-unique quests for each, and implementing something like I described seems like an excellent way to guide implementation of such a distinction.
Not to mention that, if such focus is also reflected in skill preferences, wives from different cultures would have immediately distinct utility - yet another way to differentiate.
It would be nice if each faction had some "favored skill" associated with it in a perceivable, from player's perspective, way. Both in terms of combat as well as non-combat, and possibly non-combat skills being valued higher for some factions than straight up skull bashing.
I feel that not all AI lords need to be expert combatants. In fact, having much higher mastery of Tactics and Leadership would probably be far more valued within Imperial culture than the Sturgian "one man shieldwall" combat-focus or Battanian "I can shoot a fly off your nose at three hundred paces, then cut it in half with my greatsword!" combination.
I'd like to see Aserai really live up to their trading reputation, with their lords having extra caravans and the faction waging more wars for "trading rights" or some form of trade monopoly than simply to expand their territory. So that when it comes time to vote on whom the new fief should belong to, suddenly if you're Aserai you can simply outbid everybody else with hard, cold denars, instead of playing the influence roulette (thought the price required would also be dependent on your relationship with other lords).
In contrast to "only honor lies in battle" Vlandians, who might simply require superior battle performance from their lords to advance to higher positions. Where who took the fief and just how many enemies you personally, or your party, killed in battle has a huge impact on fief assignment (as long as everyone important has one, I guess).
I would like to see Battanians and/or Sturgian lords hold blacksmiths in great respect, to the point where your smithing skill directly impacts relationship (at least initial) with their lords, and you can get unique "lord wants specific greatsword/axe made" quests.
Make Khuzait the "Horse Lords" that they are supposed to be - maybe they don't care about "influence" as much as literal horses? So instead of spending "influence" as a Khuzait, if you really want to improve your relationship with one of the lords you send them a gift of several dozens of war horses (basically influence spending has much, much more limited impact on relationship gain).
In contrast, the Imperials (assuming each of their factions won't be shaped into something more unique then they are right now) are all about influence and status. Give them exclusive policies that improve influence gain and drain (say, spending influence to promote the movement of "freemen" into it. In game terms influence cost for quick boost to hearths number, though it would be nice if some sort of "immigration" mechanics existed between villages, too... Perhaps detract these from any neighboring villages belonging to another lord, at the cost of relationship with the fief owner (and potentially a smaller one with the notables of the affected villages?).
Why aren't Imperials more concerned about leadership, tactics, stewardship, or engineering than straight up combat skills? After all, they are supposed to be the "civilized" factions. Give them a meaningful way to show it to the player.
This would hugely tie in with the currently being reworked quests. Probably the best way to make the factions feel distinct is to have faction-unique quests for each, and implementing something like I described seems like an excellent way to guide implementation of such a distinction.
Not to mention that, if such focus is also reflected in skill preferences, wives from different cultures would have immediately distinct utility - yet another way to differentiate.
