PoliteTim
Recruit
Hello, I am sending out a list of problems I have come across during my play time that I have yet to see spoken of on the forums!
Firstly are the dialogue options. I see reoccurring bugs when speaking to companions in taverns. When speaking about their backstory, it will be replaced by "This is a generic backstory." This one happens without rhyme or reason, and isn't very common.
The second bug I find is when talking to lords, and this one generally happens at clan level 2 or above. When greeting them, I will receive "(This is a greeting for a famous player. Make sure this doesn't happen.)".
Recently, during a save I have, I received a notification that I failed the banner quest, as I "Could not complete in 10 years." I am assuming that there are still 365 days in a year, and this frustrates me as I am only 800 days in. I had to reload a much earlier save and really push to finish the story on time just so that I could start my own kingdom.
During the same save, I had a problem with diplomacy while being a kingdom. All of a sudden, half the map went red as my clan declared war on the Vlandians! I never spoke to any of their lords, attacked their villages or parties, or made any aggressive move! I am unsure if this was my Kingdom acting as an AI out of my control, or the Vlandians actually declaring war on me, and getting the wrong notification. This was really aggravating, as it means I have to try to sue for peace against a kingdom that rules half the map!
Before I had my own kingdom, I was a part of the Sturgians. Because of the snowballing issue, two kingdoms had risen to extreme power, the Vlandians and the Kuzait. Our king found it prudent to delcare war on one, and in the midst of losing to them, decided to declare war also on the other! This was on maximum difficulty, all settings realistic. I feel AI should be far more careful about declaring war, as this led to two kingdoms smashing the Sturgians from either side.
For other feedback, I have some:
Skills-
Skills: Skills have been talked about, and I have little to add that hasn't been said. They seem so arbitrary, the benefits they give you rarely scale with the time you have to put into them, it is mathematically impossible to get the last three attributes on most skill trees, and locking health behind some of them makes your character paper thin.
Smithing-
Stamina: Stamina for blacksmith actions should be buffed, and visible in a bar or points! The current rate you gain it and amount you can do is so severely limiting, especially if you have an army with you, waiting a day just to turn crude iron into iron could cost the player 300 denar!
Charcoal: More feedback for the blacksmith actions! This was my primary way of getting money, so I had to suck up for the grind and made many opinions on it. Turning hardwood to charcoal should not take stamina, period! The stamina limit on refining and smelting is bad enough, but having to constantly stop and also make charcoal is a real killer.
Crude Iron: The mechanic that refining metal makes other, inferior metal is neat. But having all refining make crude iron is a bit much, as you will eventually bank up 600 crude iron. With the current limits on stamina and having to spend stamina on making charcoal, this creates a situation where you simply cannot smelt all your crude iron! Not to mention, it sells for less than iron ore regardless of where you go, which I find strange. Perhaps making high level refining not make crude iron, or maybe make wrought iron instead?
Quests-
Making a Kingdom: Having to do the quest simply to make my own kingdom is a big drain, having to track down lords and ladies simply for a few lines of dialogue is a bit of a pain because of how much time it can take. I like having a big army, and having to do the quest line before I can get one or be stuck with a kingdom that is delcaring war on everything and getting crushed feels like the lesser of two evils at times. Once snowballing is fixed, this wont be the case, but the quest as is a time drain. Not to mention, it makes you go through hideouts
Hideouts-
Hideouts: I'm sure this has been spoken of already. But Hideouts feel inexcusably tough. I get that they shouldn't be easy, but there are some problems that have no business being around. Firstly: why so few troops? If I roll up to a hideout with some 100 odd troops, I should be able to take at least more than 8! And there absolutely must be a screen that lets me choose my troops. The fact that there isn't feels like a massive oversight. It's frustrating to lose 3-4 tier 4 troops because they had no support and I got screwed by a bad selection of troops. This is made worse when you factor in the weapons that some mountain bandits and other raiders use, like the throwing spears which can 1 shot even tier 5 or 6 troops with a head shot. On a personal note, my computer could run a 1k vs 1k troops battle with some stuttering at the start when fellas were loaded in, but those hideouts max out my CPU and GPU like mad, and it leads to me having to pause my game to wait for the frame drops to go away. They are so optimized! The final condemnation of the hideouts are the boss fights. I get that there was a want for dialogue, but that should happen after the player beats them! The fact that I have to stop, wait for a mini cut-scene, do dialogue, then get stuck in a position that I have no choice about to fight a force that is all together after fighting my way through the hideout with limited troops is ridiculous! Please do a redesign of the hideouts!
Armor-
Stunning: I'm sure this has been discussed already, but armor should be universally buffed against stunning. It is frustrating to loose my lance crouch status after a peasant pelts my 50k denar metal helmet with a rock. I am okay with not being as tanky as Warband, and I am happy that arrows are more powerful against armor now, but armor itself needs to protect better against stunning
Absorption: I find that my armor doesn't seem to protect very well, at all! Of course, there is a noticeable difference between cheap armor and expensive armor, but it still is odd that tier 0 and tier 1 units can still dish out so much damage. I rarely seem to absorb more than 20-30 damage, even when wearing truly endgame armor.
Weapons-
Harpoons and Throwing Spears: The throwing spears that mountain bandits and sea raiders can come with are simply too dangerous. I understand that such weapons are meant to be dangerous, but to watch a highway man waste a Vlandian Knight with 1 hit from a spear really puts things into perspective. Even wielding them as a player they are dangerous. Not to mention, the AI seem very accurate with them, and can get incredible range with them. Especially in the Hideouts, these mean beans can kill a run dead in it's tracks, as they can usually 1 shot whatever the AI deemed it necessary for you to bring!
Short Bows: I have yet to use longbows, as I prefer to be a Calvary member, but I have used short bows a bit. And they are so wimpy! 3-4 body shots against a looter even with a fairly mid tier bow and some range arrows is so laughable! It all reminds me of how hard this game was when I started my campaigns.
AI-
Sending Troops: This is a holdover from Warband! When faced with a fight, you must always attack! Sending troops and letting the AI play out the fight is such a colossal mistake. This is because no matter what, the AI expects you to take losses. 60 tier 3-4-5-6 troops against 20 looters? I lost 13 troops! I had 16 casualties, and 13 of them were deaths! I fought a rival lord with an army bigger than mine, and all I did was sit AFK and I lost 3 troops, all wounded. Not to mention, because this is the AI used for Lord Vs Lord and Lord Vs Bandit parties, this might also contribute to the snowballing issue. If every lord takes such massive loses against even a handful of unwashed looters, then every lord on lord fight will result in catastrophic losses for a lord who has to wait a few days just for the villages to start handing out recruits again.
Sieges on Offense: While being the aggressor during a siege, I found my troops rushing up to the walls instead of waiting near or behind the battering ram/siege tower, then getting picked at by archers. Perhaps adding an option for troops movement called "Follow objective"?
Helping Armies: This is a minor complaint. When helping a lord or army during a fight, it would be nice if I got the same notifications as when being commanded in that army, so my forces can coordinate with the AI's troops. Its frustrating to watch the AI's front line sprint in and get turned to burger meat because I thought they were waiting behind in line, or letting my front line run in and die because the lord suddenly fell back. Knowing when the AI wants to be offensive or defensive could help a lot!
That's everything I came up with during my play time, and I realize it is still in Early Access, so all the more time for things to be fixed or change, and even get features not done yet! I feel these problems really killed a lot of my fun with the game, and I made sure not to talk about snowballing, because you have made it clear that that is your main focus.
Firstly are the dialogue options. I see reoccurring bugs when speaking to companions in taverns. When speaking about their backstory, it will be replaced by "This is a generic backstory." This one happens without rhyme or reason, and isn't very common.
The second bug I find is when talking to lords, and this one generally happens at clan level 2 or above. When greeting them, I will receive "(This is a greeting for a famous player. Make sure this doesn't happen.)".
Recently, during a save I have, I received a notification that I failed the banner quest, as I "Could not complete in 10 years." I am assuming that there are still 365 days in a year, and this frustrates me as I am only 800 days in. I had to reload a much earlier save and really push to finish the story on time just so that I could start my own kingdom.
During the same save, I had a problem with diplomacy while being a kingdom. All of a sudden, half the map went red as my clan declared war on the Vlandians! I never spoke to any of their lords, attacked their villages or parties, or made any aggressive move! I am unsure if this was my Kingdom acting as an AI out of my control, or the Vlandians actually declaring war on me, and getting the wrong notification. This was really aggravating, as it means I have to try to sue for peace against a kingdom that rules half the map!
Before I had my own kingdom, I was a part of the Sturgians. Because of the snowballing issue, two kingdoms had risen to extreme power, the Vlandians and the Kuzait. Our king found it prudent to delcare war on one, and in the midst of losing to them, decided to declare war also on the other! This was on maximum difficulty, all settings realistic. I feel AI should be far more careful about declaring war, as this led to two kingdoms smashing the Sturgians from either side.
For other feedback, I have some:
Skills-
Skills: Skills have been talked about, and I have little to add that hasn't been said. They seem so arbitrary, the benefits they give you rarely scale with the time you have to put into them, it is mathematically impossible to get the last three attributes on most skill trees, and locking health behind some of them makes your character paper thin.
Smithing-
Stamina: Stamina for blacksmith actions should be buffed, and visible in a bar or points! The current rate you gain it and amount you can do is so severely limiting, especially if you have an army with you, waiting a day just to turn crude iron into iron could cost the player 300 denar!
Charcoal: More feedback for the blacksmith actions! This was my primary way of getting money, so I had to suck up for the grind and made many opinions on it. Turning hardwood to charcoal should not take stamina, period! The stamina limit on refining and smelting is bad enough, but having to constantly stop and also make charcoal is a real killer.
Crude Iron: The mechanic that refining metal makes other, inferior metal is neat. But having all refining make crude iron is a bit much, as you will eventually bank up 600 crude iron. With the current limits on stamina and having to spend stamina on making charcoal, this creates a situation where you simply cannot smelt all your crude iron! Not to mention, it sells for less than iron ore regardless of where you go, which I find strange. Perhaps making high level refining not make crude iron, or maybe make wrought iron instead?
Quests-
Making a Kingdom: Having to do the quest simply to make my own kingdom is a big drain, having to track down lords and ladies simply for a few lines of dialogue is a bit of a pain because of how much time it can take. I like having a big army, and having to do the quest line before I can get one or be stuck with a kingdom that is delcaring war on everything and getting crushed feels like the lesser of two evils at times. Once snowballing is fixed, this wont be the case, but the quest as is a time drain. Not to mention, it makes you go through hideouts
Hideouts-
Hideouts: I'm sure this has been spoken of already. But Hideouts feel inexcusably tough. I get that they shouldn't be easy, but there are some problems that have no business being around. Firstly: why so few troops? If I roll up to a hideout with some 100 odd troops, I should be able to take at least more than 8! And there absolutely must be a screen that lets me choose my troops. The fact that there isn't feels like a massive oversight. It's frustrating to lose 3-4 tier 4 troops because they had no support and I got screwed by a bad selection of troops. This is made worse when you factor in the weapons that some mountain bandits and other raiders use, like the throwing spears which can 1 shot even tier 5 or 6 troops with a head shot. On a personal note, my computer could run a 1k vs 1k troops battle with some stuttering at the start when fellas were loaded in, but those hideouts max out my CPU and GPU like mad, and it leads to me having to pause my game to wait for the frame drops to go away. They are so optimized! The final condemnation of the hideouts are the boss fights. I get that there was a want for dialogue, but that should happen after the player beats them! The fact that I have to stop, wait for a mini cut-scene, do dialogue, then get stuck in a position that I have no choice about to fight a force that is all together after fighting my way through the hideout with limited troops is ridiculous! Please do a redesign of the hideouts!
Armor-
Stunning: I'm sure this has been discussed already, but armor should be universally buffed against stunning. It is frustrating to loose my lance crouch status after a peasant pelts my 50k denar metal helmet with a rock. I am okay with not being as tanky as Warband, and I am happy that arrows are more powerful against armor now, but armor itself needs to protect better against stunning
Absorption: I find that my armor doesn't seem to protect very well, at all! Of course, there is a noticeable difference between cheap armor and expensive armor, but it still is odd that tier 0 and tier 1 units can still dish out so much damage. I rarely seem to absorb more than 20-30 damage, even when wearing truly endgame armor.
Weapons-
Harpoons and Throwing Spears: The throwing spears that mountain bandits and sea raiders can come with are simply too dangerous. I understand that such weapons are meant to be dangerous, but to watch a highway man waste a Vlandian Knight with 1 hit from a spear really puts things into perspective. Even wielding them as a player they are dangerous. Not to mention, the AI seem very accurate with them, and can get incredible range with them. Especially in the Hideouts, these mean beans can kill a run dead in it's tracks, as they can usually 1 shot whatever the AI deemed it necessary for you to bring!
Short Bows: I have yet to use longbows, as I prefer to be a Calvary member, but I have used short bows a bit. And they are so wimpy! 3-4 body shots against a looter even with a fairly mid tier bow and some range arrows is so laughable! It all reminds me of how hard this game was when I started my campaigns.
AI-
Sending Troops: This is a holdover from Warband! When faced with a fight, you must always attack! Sending troops and letting the AI play out the fight is such a colossal mistake. This is because no matter what, the AI expects you to take losses. 60 tier 3-4-5-6 troops against 20 looters? I lost 13 troops! I had 16 casualties, and 13 of them were deaths! I fought a rival lord with an army bigger than mine, and all I did was sit AFK and I lost 3 troops, all wounded. Not to mention, because this is the AI used for Lord Vs Lord and Lord Vs Bandit parties, this might also contribute to the snowballing issue. If every lord takes such massive loses against even a handful of unwashed looters, then every lord on lord fight will result in catastrophic losses for a lord who has to wait a few days just for the villages to start handing out recruits again.
Sieges on Offense: While being the aggressor during a siege, I found my troops rushing up to the walls instead of waiting near or behind the battering ram/siege tower, then getting picked at by archers. Perhaps adding an option for troops movement called "Follow objective"?
Helping Armies: This is a minor complaint. When helping a lord or army during a fight, it would be nice if I got the same notifications as when being commanded in that army, so my forces can coordinate with the AI's troops. Its frustrating to watch the AI's front line sprint in and get turned to burger meat because I thought they were waiting behind in line, or letting my front line run in and die because the lord suddenly fell back. Knowing when the AI wants to be offensive or defensive could help a lot!
That's everything I came up with during my play time, and I realize it is still in Early Access, so all the more time for things to be fixed or change, and even get features not done yet! I feel these problems really killed a lot of my fun with the game, and I made sure not to talk about snowballing, because you have made it clear that that is your main focus.
