Peuri
Recruit
First of all I'd like to say I've had fun with the game, but there's a few things that I think would improve the overall gameplay. Firstly the problems:
1. Battles are weightless at the moment. The map is littered with bandits and nobles, making individual battles seem a bit meaningless. Especially when lords spawn with fresh troops.
2. Fiefs are not very important. Currently fiefs serve little purpose other than churning out money to you. Your kingdom's fiefs give you extra recruitment possibilities, but that is about all. You can even recruit men from neighbouring neutral lands, should you run out of men in your homeland.
3. Armies are too cheap. It's very easy to field an army of many hundreds just by killing off bandits and at times doing some mercenary work. This is higly unrealistic, seeing as monarchs have in their personal army about as many you can have as a landless nobody.
4. The map is empty. The map contains about 10 great kingdoms, yet all of them consist of very few villages.
The suggestions:
1. Levy
In medieval times, in many places, in times of war free farmers would be raised as levies to fight for their fief lord. I think that fiefs should grant the owner of the fief nearly free militia units that have very limited upgrade trees. The lord could take the militia and use it in war if the realm is in war. The militia would regenerate slowly based on the amount of people in the village. This would make being a lord a significant boon on the battlefield, and the bulk of the lord's men should be militia. This would also open up villages as money sinks, if you could invest in better equipment for your militia, and perhaps divide some land for your personal knights in your fiefs. This would also get rid of the tedious loop of running around the map after a big battle recruiting people for the next fight. It would also increase the importance of battles and slowly drain the strength of both the attacker and the defender, after which there would be a cooldown period when the militias regenerage.
2. The retinue
I think the idea of what the party currently represents is a bit flawed. You have to run around with all of your men constantly, which is strange for medival times, because very few countries had standing armies, which your party and all the lords parties are in effect a part of. What lords did have was their personal retinue or house guard, which was usually better trained and equipped than the rest of the soldiers used in times of war. Your standing men should be your retinue, not the entirety of your army.
3. Unit costs
Currently units are very cheap, which is very strange looking at the prices of a good chainmail in the game. The costs of upgrading and having a standing retinue should be significantly increased to reflect the fact that it is expensive to keep a standing army, which is why it was rarely done. The cost of a knight's armour was about the equivalent of a labourer's 30 year's value in work.
4. Recruitment
The current recruitment mechanic is an improvement on the old one in for sure Warband, but still, I would prefer if only the lord of the fief, or at the very least bannermen of the faction could recruit in villages. Why kings would allow a neighbouring land or some nobody to recruit in their lands is unrealistic, I feel. This would further increase the importance of having fiefs.
5. Mercenaries
Currently mercenaries are just one unit tree in the game. (In addition to the minor factions). I think there should be mercenary trees for all factions, as mercenaries were often used in armies in medieval times. If the player is not a fief lord, mercenaries should be the bulk of his men. Recruitable from towns, or perhaps from wandering bands of lordless men.
6. Mercenary work
If the player wants to field a party of a hundred men, it should be very expensive like I said before, nearly impossible without a fief or raiding villages. This should force the player to become a mercenary, and in turn the pay from the kingdom he is working for should be much higher.
7. Importance of armour and horses
These changes would significantly decrease the amount of well armoured and mounted men in the game. As it should be. Mounted knights and men in armour in general were expensive to maintain, which is why feodalism came to be in the first place. Buy currently armour is pretty meaningless in the game as a simple looter can do significant damage to armoured men. To highlight the importance of these well trained and armoured men, the damage done to them should be decreased.
8. Number of fiefs and clan interaction
Currently clans own fiefs, not individuals. This should not be. Individuals should own fiefs all the way from villages up, and there should be more villages to go around. This would make the individual nobles more important, as they all would have their retinue and levy.
9. Bandits
The amount of bandits should be significantly decreased. I'm sure I've already depopulated much of the land by simply killin off bandits. This is a war game for sure, but the endless bandit hunting becomes tedious pretty fast, especially when their speed in the map is so high. Maybe have their parties be fewer, but larger in numbers of men.
10. Prisoner recruitment
When I'm at war with someone, after I've depleted my own men, I can start replenishing with recruiting from my prisoners. I'm unsure how often this would happen im medieval times, but it would yet again increase the weight of battles if prisoner recruitment would be limited to mercenary units only. Why would some peasant from half way across the land side with someone his country is at war with? Wouldn't he rather go till his fields? Additionally, the lord whose men have been imprisoned should pay atleast part of the sum of the prisoner's ransom or suffer relationship penalty with his underlings.
Well, that's my suggestions anyway. I'm sure many will disagree, but I sincerely think these changes would be an improvement.
1. Battles are weightless at the moment. The map is littered with bandits and nobles, making individual battles seem a bit meaningless. Especially when lords spawn with fresh troops.
2. Fiefs are not very important. Currently fiefs serve little purpose other than churning out money to you. Your kingdom's fiefs give you extra recruitment possibilities, but that is about all. You can even recruit men from neighbouring neutral lands, should you run out of men in your homeland.
3. Armies are too cheap. It's very easy to field an army of many hundreds just by killing off bandits and at times doing some mercenary work. This is higly unrealistic, seeing as monarchs have in their personal army about as many you can have as a landless nobody.
4. The map is empty. The map contains about 10 great kingdoms, yet all of them consist of very few villages.
The suggestions:
1. Levy
In medieval times, in many places, in times of war free farmers would be raised as levies to fight for their fief lord. I think that fiefs should grant the owner of the fief nearly free militia units that have very limited upgrade trees. The lord could take the militia and use it in war if the realm is in war. The militia would regenerate slowly based on the amount of people in the village. This would make being a lord a significant boon on the battlefield, and the bulk of the lord's men should be militia. This would also open up villages as money sinks, if you could invest in better equipment for your militia, and perhaps divide some land for your personal knights in your fiefs. This would also get rid of the tedious loop of running around the map after a big battle recruiting people for the next fight. It would also increase the importance of battles and slowly drain the strength of both the attacker and the defender, after which there would be a cooldown period when the militias regenerage.
2. The retinue
I think the idea of what the party currently represents is a bit flawed. You have to run around with all of your men constantly, which is strange for medival times, because very few countries had standing armies, which your party and all the lords parties are in effect a part of. What lords did have was their personal retinue or house guard, which was usually better trained and equipped than the rest of the soldiers used in times of war. Your standing men should be your retinue, not the entirety of your army.
3. Unit costs
Currently units are very cheap, which is very strange looking at the prices of a good chainmail in the game. The costs of upgrading and having a standing retinue should be significantly increased to reflect the fact that it is expensive to keep a standing army, which is why it was rarely done. The cost of a knight's armour was about the equivalent of a labourer's 30 year's value in work.
4. Recruitment
The current recruitment mechanic is an improvement on the old one in for sure Warband, but still, I would prefer if only the lord of the fief, or at the very least bannermen of the faction could recruit in villages. Why kings would allow a neighbouring land or some nobody to recruit in their lands is unrealistic, I feel. This would further increase the importance of having fiefs.
5. Mercenaries
Currently mercenaries are just one unit tree in the game. (In addition to the minor factions). I think there should be mercenary trees for all factions, as mercenaries were often used in armies in medieval times. If the player is not a fief lord, mercenaries should be the bulk of his men. Recruitable from towns, or perhaps from wandering bands of lordless men.
6. Mercenary work
If the player wants to field a party of a hundred men, it should be very expensive like I said before, nearly impossible without a fief or raiding villages. This should force the player to become a mercenary, and in turn the pay from the kingdom he is working for should be much higher.
7. Importance of armour and horses
These changes would significantly decrease the amount of well armoured and mounted men in the game. As it should be. Mounted knights and men in armour in general were expensive to maintain, which is why feodalism came to be in the first place. Buy currently armour is pretty meaningless in the game as a simple looter can do significant damage to armoured men. To highlight the importance of these well trained and armoured men, the damage done to them should be decreased.
8. Number of fiefs and clan interaction
Currently clans own fiefs, not individuals. This should not be. Individuals should own fiefs all the way from villages up, and there should be more villages to go around. This would make the individual nobles more important, as they all would have their retinue and levy.
9. Bandits
The amount of bandits should be significantly decreased. I'm sure I've already depopulated much of the land by simply killin off bandits. This is a war game for sure, but the endless bandit hunting becomes tedious pretty fast, especially when their speed in the map is so high. Maybe have their parties be fewer, but larger in numbers of men.
10. Prisoner recruitment
When I'm at war with someone, after I've depleted my own men, I can start replenishing with recruiting from my prisoners. I'm unsure how often this would happen im medieval times, but it would yet again increase the weight of battles if prisoner recruitment would be limited to mercenary units only. Why would some peasant from half way across the land side with someone his country is at war with? Wouldn't he rather go till his fields? Additionally, the lord whose men have been imprisoned should pay atleast part of the sum of the prisoner's ransom or suffer relationship penalty with his underlings.
Well, that's my suggestions anyway. I'm sure many will disagree, but I sincerely think these changes would be an improvement.
