So this is probably something that already appeared as a solution, be it by the community or the devs. I'm nowhere near being a game developer or knowing anything related to how Bannerlord engine works. All the following are just ideas that come to mind, when thinking about this dropped village managing feature(castle building, and village development) and how shallow the diplomacy/clan system is in the current game state. Anyway, this is how I, a mere peasant on game developing, would deal with that stuff.
Also, I Am fully aware that most of the following features and ideas will probably be deemed as “too complex” for the game. My hopes are to have some community feed back or at least a “**** off” from devs(@Callum @Dejan @MArdA TaleWorlds ) in order to know what is possible or not, and in an ideal world have this features implemented into the game be it officially or as a MOD.
Most of the features could be joint with another list of stuff that I commented on a while back, if you like the ideas I brought here you should definitely check my other post “I miss making Jeremus a Duke”
Lord “Ragamuffin” dies, the settlement goes to its direct heir within the clan “Apple Jobs”, Lord “Bobtail”.
Faction “Sweet Pies” is at war with the faction “Spank me Daddy” and settlement “X” is attacked by an “Spank me Daddy” army. The army can now raid the settlement or just occupies it leaving a small garrison to do so.
Now settlement “X” controlled by faction “Ragga muffin”, owned by clan “Apple jobs'', ruled by lord “bobtail” but all the interactions of these are blocked, because the settlement has its status as “occupied” by faction “Spank me Daddy”.
If the war is won by “Spank me Daddy” and the settlement is a war objective of “Spank me Daddy”, the place goes to the lord,clan,faction of that faction, and its status as occupied is back to normal. Not to be defined during the war as it's in the current game.
Yet to sue for peace a faction must have its objectives occupied or a major war score that would be used to trade for the settlements that are objectives but have not been occupied.
Also, I Am fully aware that most of the following features and ideas will probably be deemed as “too complex” for the game. My hopes are to have some community feed back or at least a “**** off” from devs(@Callum @Dejan @MArdA TaleWorlds ) in order to know what is possible or not, and in an ideal world have this features implemented into the game be it officially or as a MOD.
Most of the features could be joint with another list of stuff that I commented on a while back, if you like the ideas I brought here you should definitely check my other post “I miss making Jeremus a Duke”
- Remove bound villages and castles, this would enable the game to have only two types of independent settlements, towns and villages.
- Casus Belli, A reason/objective to wars would probably solve the town/village ownership dilemma. Said lord/king used some of his own influence to declare a war, with the objective to capture “X’s” settlements. At the end, the faction that loses the war would lose just the said villages/towns. The settlements captured by the other side during the war, would have their status set as occupied(not owned) during the war, and would be returned to the losing side if they are not part of the Casus Belli.
- Occupied/Raided Settlements status. Settlements would have 2 different status regarding its current situation: Occupied, a settlement occupied by an enemy faction is a settlement that got attacked and lost to an enemy lord/army but is not fully controlled, and now it has to live with an enemy garrison in there till the end of the war, or until someone comes to liberate it. This settlement would still be able to produce to the faction that occupies it, but on a smaller scale, depending on the loyalty to its original faction. A raided settlement is a settlement that has been attacked and can’t produce for “x” amount of time, depending on damage to buildings etc., but still available to be occupied or remain controlled depending on the raider's will.
- Controlled/Owned/Ruled, Controlled settlement defines the settlement ruling faction where it prioritizes the resource's allocation to its owning faction and allegiance, owned means that the settlement is owned by a “X” CLAN. Ruled, refers to the settlement ruling lord that defines settlement upgrades etc
Lord “Ragamuffin” dies, the settlement goes to its direct heir within the clan “Apple Jobs”, Lord “Bobtail”.
Faction “Sweet Pies” is at war with the faction “Spank me Daddy” and settlement “X” is attacked by an “Spank me Daddy” army. The army can now raid the settlement or just occupies it leaving a small garrison to do so.
Now settlement “X” controlled by faction “Ragga muffin”, owned by clan “Apple jobs'', ruled by lord “bobtail” but all the interactions of these are blocked, because the settlement has its status as “occupied” by faction “Spank me Daddy”.
If the war is won by “Spank me Daddy” and the settlement is a war objective of “Spank me Daddy”, the place goes to the lord,clan,faction of that faction, and its status as occupied is back to normal. Not to be defined during the war as it's in the current game.
Yet to sue for peace a faction must have its objectives occupied or a major war score that would be used to trade for the settlements that are objectives but have not been occupied.
- Village development, re-enable villages to have 4 areas for new buildings(production related buildings, defense related building, prosperity, militia barracks etc... and a castle/manor bringing castles that are bound to a village as the 2016 Bannerlord) buildings that would actually matter and contribute to a kingdom/clan rise to power.
- Settlement region. Do not discard the regional map feature as a whole, use it to set settlements regions as a predefined/static thing(as geography usually works on the spam of 1-3 hundred years).
- Development trees. The same as a troop tree but for settlement buildings, it all starts with a “clearance area”(one of the 4 spots to start building) and it can go up as the player/AI choose, meaning that certain buildings are only reachable through X path. Castles would also have a few slots of their own, related to troop garrison, armory, defenses, siege workshops, lord's influence, food stocks etc.
- Village production, some buildings and upgrades for villages would be cheaper or available depending on the kingdom/village culture, ruling clan/lord/governor skills, village region. Yet keeping initial villages with a prioritized resource production, based on the region. (A mix of static/dynamized control of production, one to give it a kick-start on the campaign other to allow the player to feel an open and vivid calradia)
- Town and Villages interaction. Villagers parties would still go to towns to sell their spare production, just like in the normal game, but usually choosing between a calculation of Faction settlement/distance/profit, not bound to a major settlement but yet logically choosing the nearest from the kingdom.
- Town development, With more internal slots available to build into different paths, the buildings available to the town owner would be related to public/social/defense/political area of the town (meeting halls, public market, public baths, barrack, dungeon, better defenses etc.) while economy/production related building would be under the notables and Town Guild control and not building paths from the town. Towns would have their own developing way, being mostly guided by the town guild economically (miss ya’ Guild master) a union on vote by town notables that would present the town owner with needed changes in order to gain relations with each of the notables. They could offer to pay for some building in order to gain some leverage over the lord.
- Resources for building, Besides paying for buildings the villages would have to use resources, could it be home produced on the local quarry, woodcutting camps or bought from other settlements, wood, clay, stone, iron all needed in “X” amount to erect a building, making villager parties really needed in order to bring those resources forward, AI/player could also bring those resources to the spot in order to help.