Simple Idea to make armies equippable

[Runner]

Perhaps this has been suggested before, but I would like to be able to equip the stack I have with better equipment. It would work very simple: I talk to them and barter in the same way as with Borcha, for example. And if I give them an axe then all 12 horsemen of that stack would have this axe or randomly any of the weapons which I gave them in the bartering.

This might feel kinda cheating because all of a sudden there will be 12 black armors on the battlefield after me buying just one and giving it to that stack of knights, but if the last man of a stack dies, then all the stuff is lost as well which makes it interestingly risky and balanced again.

Thus it might also be risky to give ubergood stuff to peasant, because they are quite likely to be killed all!

And the stacks come with their standard equipment already so if someone doesn't want to do that bit more of micromanagment, he can simply skip on it.

This can also not be used in order to cheat on the equipment like hiring a footman for 100 coins and trying to take his stuff away and sell it, because of the current bartering style: He (and Borcha as well) doesn't give me his stuff for free...

Another good thing is that this gives a much more personalized feeling, because I could, for example, try to dress all my men in red stuff, for example.

So what do you all think about this?

 

[Worbah]

I don't really like this, but if you could choose the equipment option you want when upgrading your character (you know, the way they don't have identical eguipment) from the different combinations already available.

 

[Runner]

The good news is, that if you don't like it, nothing changes for you, you just ignore the option to customize your troops and everything works as previously.

 

[Skyrage]

Ugh...no...

I'd not mind being able to equip my men but then it'd have to be fair...thus one armor to one man and one weapon to one man...

One thing that I'm actually not too keen of is the way upgrading units work...they miraculously get better equipments and horses and stuff...would be much more interesting if you had to provide the stuff for them AND I'd like to see my men or in fact all men (whether mine or NPC's) really scavenge fallen enemies of their items horses etc. This scavenging could be done at the end of combat when the type of loot that you've captured is shown. You take what you want and give your men the rest. If you find 2 crossbows and a couple of bolts, then two of your men will get them (assuming they can use it) and so on...

 

[Runner]

Well, I thought about that, too, but that is really micromanagment then. And the amounts of loot should be much more realistic then. Currently it is utterly unexplainable, why those 10 dark knights die and don't leave even one boot.

The idea as formulated above fits into the current system without too much obstruction and perhaps from that a further version might be one which makes one crossbow - one man, not one crossbow - stack of man with crossbows.

Programming wise I think that currently no equipment is stored with the army stacks. It looks like the equipment is diced out at the start of each battle. But that's only my impression.

 

[Otto Von Lanstien]

One thing that I'm actually not too keen of is the way upgrading units work...they miraculously get better equipments and horses and stuff...would be much more interesting if you had to provide the stuff for them AND I'd like to see my men or in fact all men (whether mine or NPC's) really scavenge fallen enemies of their items horses etc. This scavenging could be done at the end of combat when the type of loot that you've captured is shown. You take what you want and give your men the rest. If you find 2 crossbows and a couple of bolts, then two of your men will get them (assuming they can use it) and so on...

Lol. But I do agree. I have also suggested before a system whereby you can move up or down the value of the loot you get (%) - the higher it is for you - the richer you get - but the less weaponry your men get. It would be nice if upgrades in rank didn't give bonuses to actual equipment (which they would instead obtain from the enemy) but instead to their skills. Depending on those skills the computer would award the remaining percentage after you have taken your share to the correct type.

For example - you receive 40% of the loot - but the first 60% must be shared between two men; a vaegir veteran and a vaegir archer - the archer might recieve a longbow or crossbow bolts etc, and the vaegir veteran a tunic or boar spear. You would take the rest: whatever not is prioritised to the computer.

This would prevent me having a watchman with a shield and cudgel skip to a fully armoured hired-blade with as good stuff as I could hope for at twice my level in the time it takes for me to advance.

 

[Runner]

So what are the masters thoughts about this topic? Or future plans? Or will this kind of changes be covered by the mod tools?

 

[DaLagga]

I had a suggestion regarding this in a previous post. But, what the heck, i'll post it again. I don't like the idea of equipping each individual unit, or the whole stack getting whatever you give one guy. Although i do like the idea of a percentage slider. My idea is, each stack should have an equipment rating, from 1-100. Character class should mainly determine what skills those guys have, and whether they're mounted or not (i think knights should always have horses regardless of equipment). Each class has equipment that they require. You raise the equipment rating by giving equipment to your troops, but it has to be what they need. i.e. you can't give black armor to an archer to increase its rating, it would have to be a bow/crossbow, and maybe leather or padded cloth or something. So basically the higher the equipment rating, the better equipment they get in battle(it shouldn't really be related to what items you gave them specifically, but hardened leather would increase the rating more than tattered for example). Also, you can't upgrade them to a new class until they've reached a required equipment rating (can't have a knight wearing a peasants clothing). The rating would then reset once a unit was upgraded. This way you don't have to go through the tedious process of equipping each individual man, you just select a group, then click on the equipment to give them. In addition to this, you would also have to be given more loot from battles, otherwise this system would be too expensive.

 

[Howzer]

If we can't have full out micromanagement, I like Dalagga's idea.
You give your men unit-type appropriate stuff, and they start showing up with better equipment. The onyl problem is, I could swear that they keep their equipment. I may be mistaken but I thought I remember seeing my sword sister wearing and looking the exact same, through a serious of battles. Same with a knight and horsemen in one of my smaller parties.

Ideally though, I'd like to have full out micromanagement, where I can customize everything about my men(even give them "plastic surgery"). But there should be some sort of auto-manage option that you can check and your men will automatically take care of themselves. Perhaps when you are speaking to a particular merchant, you could select something to allow your men to shop for themselves. So when you're talking to the smithy armourer, you say "I want my men to equip themselves" or something, and they automatically go through his stuff, find the best thing for them that they can afford, and buy it and equip it, and sell their old equipment.