Something is rotten in Calradia

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This is another feature from WB that the devs could really improve and expand on. Make feasts actually matter. Have custom scenes and animations of lords around a long candle lit table, eating and laughing and talking. Introduce new interesting quests that can only happen at feats. Perhaps they could be based around political intrigue: Slip poison into Lord X's wine, Seduce the daughter of Lord Y, Get the King drunk and get some information out of him, Follow Lord Z to his secret lovers place and black mail him. Rewards could range from influence to gold to relations. Just give the player something to do for **** sake.

Or simply add the ability to get really drunk and let you walk around town or the keep in a drunk state. Something like what GTA does. It may seem trivial or useless but things like this allow the player to connect more closely with his avatar in game. It lets you care more about what goes on in this game world. Perhaps a particularly happy go lucky lord is always taking you out drinking during feasts and you form a soft spot for him. If he's ever killed in battle or executed it would mean more to the player than just text scrolling on the side.
It is these little things that BL is missing so much. GTA and Skyrim are filled with things that seem like they do nothing but really add to the lived in feel of their worlds and drinking is such a small easy one to do.

I actually really want them to add to the friends and enemies mechanics that you touched on here with the drinking. Could they maybe make it so if you are good friends with a vassal they will maybe act quick to defend one of your villages or maybe your enemies go out of their way to target your villages or your caravans on the map. These are small things that would really add to the experience and make the world feel alive.
 
I wanted to push this post forward because its so well said and well done. You really should make this an independent post because it really encapsulates the frustrations and concerns of the players.
Thanks for the shout out :wink:

I have expanded on it here though I haven't seen a lot of traction...
 
It is these little things that BL is missing so much. GTA and Skyrim are filled with things that seem like they do nothing but really add to the lived in feel of their worlds and drinking is such a small easy one to do.

I actually really want them to add to the friends and enemies mechanics that you touched on here with the drinking. Could they maybe make it so if you are good friends with a vassal they will maybe act quick to defend one of your villages or maybe your enemies go out of their way to target your villages or your caravans on the map. These are small things that would really add to the experience and make the world feel alive.
Alas it seems BL is an action rpg now. We'll leave immersion to the modders. It recently dawned on me that all my suggestions and ideas were a waste of time cause the dev team will most likely never notice or even consider implementing any of them. They have their hands full atm fixing the game. However, they are fun I guess, to discuss and pretend they'll be put in the game. But most likely we'll find satisfaction in a future mod I think.
 
I hope they fix it, however, the available dev comments indicate otherwise. They have actively moved to cap and reduce workshop / caravan income. The outcome of this decision is the player having to just kill/sell kill/sell ad nauseum. Which is boring, tedious and unrewarding gameplay.

Snowballing is a problem in a game that advertises a succession system. As I said, what is the point of a succession system if the game is essentially over in one characters lifetime?

I listed a few major issues. I believe the game will need a massive overhaul.


Historically, dynasties did tend to develop.... as someone else pointed out, where's the line between snowballing and simple supremacy. It's a fact of the medieval world that the strong got stronger and the weak get weaker. If someone wins a pivotal battle that yields a major city, the destruction of a large enemy high-tier army, and the capture of multiple senior nobles then you would naturally expect the losing faction to be at a disadvantage from then on unless they experience a massive reversal (it's on the winner to fumble at that point).
 
Historically, dynasties did tend to develop.... as someone else pointed out, where's the line between snowballing and simple supremacy. It's a fact of the medieval world that the strong got stronger and the weak get weaker. If someone wins a pivotal battle that yields a major city, the destruction of a large enemy high-tier army, and the capture of multiple senior nobles then you would naturally expect the losing faction to be at a disadvantage from then on unless they experience a massive reversal (it's on the winner to fumble at that point).

I dont have any problem with that happening eventually. The problem is it happens too fast. No one argued it shouldn't happen ever. I honestly think it shouldnt really start happening until the players clan tier 4. Have that be the event that triggers more aggressive AI etc. But when your clan level 2 or 3 and the game is fundamentally over because one faction has twice as much as any other its kinda dumb. Not to mention if you form your own kingdom against that, you just won't have any fun because the whole time you be fending off never ending AI
 
I'm starting to get the feeling that Bannerlord is just poorly designed from the ground up. The core gameplay loops are really tedious and unrewarding for the player. Additionally, there really isn't any immersion or player agency in the game, making the experience hollow and linear. I know its EA, but without substantial changes, I can't see playing this game in the future.

I gave the e1.4.3 beta a solid chance (no mods), and the game is just so tedious (unless you exploit smithing for gold). I chose not to do smithing because exploiting smithing just ruins the game for me. What's the point of anything if you can just bankrupt an entire town selling a pack of javelins? So I started off trading, then got 3 caravans (in cities with high prosperity) then I got 3 workshops and built shops that should be good for those locations (ex. Brewery in Zeonica etc). To my great dissatisfaction, I can honestly say, the ability to make gold outside of exploiting smithing is either not working as intended or terribly implemented. With 3 caravans, 3 workshops, 1 castle and 2 villages I was losing money (only funding a 100 strong garrison of mostly level 3/4 troops) and a army of 98 (mix of 3/4/5). How does that make any sense? The most any workshop made was 120 and many days Caravan's weren't making anything (while traveling I suppose). So in order to stay a solvent I had to run around and kill/sell everything I could hoping to gobble up a weak lordling for his loot.

Additionally, defeating huge armies, only to see them again shortly after is very discouraging, and I think this is the core problem with Bannerlord - the endless war and nothing else to do. If the AI had other stuff to do, maybe endless war wouldn't be necessary? The endless war is just so unsatisfying and immersion breaking. Why can't the game have campaign seasons, with an attrition mechanic if armies are on offense during that time? Something to slow the world pace down so the player can actually enjoy the total experience, rather than be rushed around before the whole map is conquered.

Snowballing is not fixed, it just takes a little longer. What is the point of a succession system if the game is fundamentally over in a characters lifespan? I don't want to even get into the influence system, but in my experience, the problem with influence is, by the time you have enough influence to support other lords and play politics, the game is fundamentally over because of snowballing, and kingdom ruler greed.

I could go on and on, but right now after a couple small play throughs on the beta and one concerted effort, it just seems like the game is fundamentally flawed and the design decisions indicate that they wanted the vanilla game to be very shallow, not immersive and arcade like. This is just my opinion and experience.
You are absolutely right. If whatever you mentioned above is fixed then it will be enjoyable to play in EA. No problem.
 
It is these little things that BL is missing so much. GTA and Skyrim are filled with things that seem like they do nothing but really add to the lived in feel of their worlds and drinking is such a small easy one to do.

I actually really want them to add to the friends and enemies mechanics that you touched on here with the drinking. Could they maybe make it so if you are good friends with a vassal they will maybe act quick to defend one of your villages or maybe your enemies go out of their way to target your villages or your caravans on the map. These are small things that would really add to the experience and make the world feel alive.
I really hope this small features are missing because of early access and not because the game has been “streamlined”
 
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