five bucks
Knight at Arms
Taleworlds has put a lot of work into Bannerlord's town scenes, and they look really good!
But there's barely anything interesting to do inside them- just one quest that doesn't trigger often. So an average player spends 1% of their time in settlement scenes. 99% of playtime is in menus, field battles, wall siege battles, and the world map. This means the potential of town scenes is wasted. Players also often say the game feels repetitive and could do with more varied activities.
These two problems could be improved by adding interesting gameplay content which only takes place in town scenes and ties back into the main gameplay loop, so players have a good reason to explore these scenes. Here's some suggestions.
Hunt Down Fugitive: A quest from Warband. Notables or lords can give you a quest to hunt down a fugitive criminal in a particular town/village, who is hiding somewhere in the scene (so the player has a reason to explore it). When you discover the fugitive, you must persuade or fight them.
Assassins: This was a feature present in Warband. Lords who hate you will hire Assassins, who ambush you when you enter towns at night. The battle happens instantly in the town scene, with the player using their civilian outfit (making that game mechanic more relevant). To avoid becoming repetitive, assassins should only attack once per season.
Special wanderers: An NPC marked as "Adventurer" can be found in town/village scenes. These are wanderers with better stats than the ones you can find in taverns. Adventurers do not show up on the world map town menu (encouraging you to explore the scene).
Collect Taxes / Riot: A similar quest existed in Warband. Nobles can give you a quest to collect tax in a town/village. If you collect too much tax, it causes a riot fight inside the town/village scene. Implemented in 1.6.1, but this quest only takes place in villages and does not use the actual scenes.
Charity: Beggars currently exist in town scenes. A system could be implemented to give them charity through dialogue. You can give them denars for a reward of Generous trait gain. A similar feature was present in Warband.
Bargain: An NPC marked "Bargain Trader" can be found walking around town/village scenes. They will trade goods at an unusually cheap price. The amount of goods available scales with your Trade level, making this worthwhile even in the late game. You can do this once every 10 days in each settlement, encouraging you to explore different towns.
Clothier: A marked special merchant NPC who sells all civilian clothing items in the game, which is explained as "tailoring" them for you on the spot. Want to buy Aserai robes but you're all the way up in Sturgia in Reyvl? The clothier will make them for you.
Practice Medicine: An NPC marked as "Sick Person" can be found in towns/villages. They tell you they are ill in some way. You can guess a good treatment suggestion from 3 dialogue options, and if you guess correctly, gain Medicine XP for an amount scaled to your existing Medicine skill. This provides an alternate way of leveling Medicine. You can do this once per day in each settlement.
Skill Trainer: NPCs marked as "Trainers" or "Teachers" can be found in towns. You can go to trainers, pay money, and wait in town for a day to gain a boost of skill experience, or you can leave a companion to train up. Each town has a few Trainers who each focus on a specific skill, such as an Engineering Teacher and Stewardship Teacher in Lageta, or a Crossbow Trainer and Polearm Trainer in Pravend. Warband had a similar feature (book sellers).
But there's barely anything interesting to do inside them- just one quest that doesn't trigger often. So an average player spends 1% of their time in settlement scenes. 99% of playtime is in menus, field battles, wall siege battles, and the world map. This means the potential of town scenes is wasted. Players also often say the game feels repetitive and could do with more varied activities.
These two problems could be improved by adding interesting gameplay content which only takes place in town scenes and ties back into the main gameplay loop, so players have a good reason to explore these scenes. Here's some suggestions.
Hunt Down Fugitive: A quest from Warband. Notables or lords can give you a quest to hunt down a fugitive criminal in a particular town/village, who is hiding somewhere in the scene (so the player has a reason to explore it). When you discover the fugitive, you must persuade or fight them.
Assassins: This was a feature present in Warband. Lords who hate you will hire Assassins, who ambush you when you enter towns at night. The battle happens instantly in the town scene, with the player using their civilian outfit (making that game mechanic more relevant). To avoid becoming repetitive, assassins should only attack once per season.
Special wanderers: An NPC marked as "Adventurer" can be found in town/village scenes. These are wanderers with better stats than the ones you can find in taverns. Adventurers do not show up on the world map town menu (encouraging you to explore the scene).
Collect Taxes / Riot: A similar quest existed in Warband. Nobles can give you a quest to collect tax in a town/village. If you collect too much tax, it causes a riot fight inside the town/village scene. Implemented in 1.6.1, but this quest only takes place in villages and does not use the actual scenes.
Charity: Beggars currently exist in town scenes. A system could be implemented to give them charity through dialogue. You can give them denars for a reward of Generous trait gain. A similar feature was present in Warband.
Bargain: An NPC marked "Bargain Trader" can be found walking around town/village scenes. They will trade goods at an unusually cheap price. The amount of goods available scales with your Trade level, making this worthwhile even in the late game. You can do this once every 10 days in each settlement, encouraging you to explore different towns.
Clothier: A marked special merchant NPC who sells all civilian clothing items in the game, which is explained as "tailoring" them for you on the spot. Want to buy Aserai robes but you're all the way up in Sturgia in Reyvl? The clothier will make them for you.
Practice Medicine: An NPC marked as "Sick Person" can be found in towns/villages. They tell you they are ill in some way. You can guess a good treatment suggestion from 3 dialogue options, and if you guess correctly, gain Medicine XP for an amount scaled to your existing Medicine skill. This provides an alternate way of leveling Medicine. You can do this once per day in each settlement.
Skill Trainer: NPCs marked as "Trainers" or "Teachers" can be found in towns. You can go to trainers, pay money, and wait in town for a day to gain a boost of skill experience, or you can leave a companion to train up. Each town has a few Trainers who each focus on a specific skill, such as an Engineering Teacher and Stewardship Teacher in Lageta, or a Crossbow Trainer and Polearm Trainer in Pravend. Warband had a similar feature (book sellers).
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