SP - General Return the deserters on the campaign map (and suggestions on how to do it better than Warband)

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One of the big surprises that Bannerlord brought us is the absence of Deserter and Manhunter parties on the campaign map. If TaleWorlds ever plans to add them back, I suggest to lave behind the Warband design and come up with a mechanic that makes sense and does not spawn parties out of thin air (this is probably my signature idiom now :razz:).

My suggestion:
Spawn Deserter parties from troops who actually desert on the campaign map:
In Bannerlord, troop desert for two reasons: low morale and exceeded party size limit. The mechanic does make sense, but there is a problem: when your troops desert, they simply vanish to never be seen again. In other words, there is a lack of persistency, making the whole mechanic feel incomplete. There is a simple solution though:
- Troops who desert the player or the AI should form Deserter parties on the campaign map. When you lose troops, a Deserter party would spawn behind you, just far away enough so they can run away from you.
Example: The morale is low, and you lost 3 Imperial Legionaries. As you get the notification, you'll see that a Deserter party with 3 Imperial Legionaries spawned just behind you. The same exact thing should happen with lord parties who lose troops to desertion (if they ever do). In order to prevent very small parties from littering the map, Deserter parties could merge with each other or travel to towns to sell themselves as mercenaries.
- Troops who rout from the battlefield could also spawn Deserter parties.

How would the player interact with deserters?
The lazy way would be to treat them like bandits, but there should be a chance to hire them into your party. That could be done either by persuasion (i.e 'I will make sure to have a steady food supply'; 'I'm known as a good leader'; 'We are at war, you'll go to the gallows you if you don't come back to the ranks') or payment.

Discuss :smile:
 
+1.

In addition, I'd like these tiny deserter parties to be able to combine when they encounter each other on the map. Otherwise, you might end up with a million little 1-2 man deserter parties cluttering up the joint.
 
I would also imagine that deserter parties would get created after losing a battle. Whoever escapes or is released might make a party. Because it doesn't seem like very many people desert from low morale that much right now.
 
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Whatever it is, please no more 100 palatine guards deserter party chasing only the player and being ignored by every other party. This happened in some warband mods. I think deserters party size increased with player level so it was an annoying disturb-the-player mechanic
 
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