Stamina+Sprint, Mount Inventory Slots and more

[Kaine]

Greetings everyone,

I have played Mount&Blade for about a month now (highest char about level 23 now) and enjoy it quite a lot

I have some suggestions, hope you like them. It will be quite a long post covering a few topics, but I dont want to spam the Forum with several threads. Please be patient and read

Stamina and Sprint
I dont know how much the walking speed is, when you have a high athletics skill (mine is currently 4, btw is there a maximum?), but it really disturbes me, when I get dismounted, that I am so awfully slow, that I have problems to even participate in the battle anymore, at least, when the center of the fight is some 200 m away. Also it is quite difficult, to avoid a horse charge, if you are on foot. I really believe it would be possible to dodge it, when you see it coming and start running adjacent to the charging horse. And it is not as if I wear a thick plate mail, I have a good leather armor and with all stuff together I have an encumbrance of about 23. I dont know what unit it is, but even if it is kilogramm, I normally could run with that for short distances.

So here is the idea:
Have a stamina bar of let's say 100. It could increase based on agilty and/or athletics skill. Your normal running speed is like jogging, i assume, since encumbrance already affects it, it wont deplete from normal movement. It's a matter of balancing if it refills while you move, maybe only with low encumbrance. Of course it should refill while you stand.
If you run (e.g. via a run button) you get some speed bonus, let's say 50% plus 5% for each agility skill level you have. But only as long as you have no encumbrance at all (you are naked). That's only a rough idea, the maximum speed you can reach should be smaller than the fastest horse, of course. Maybe the speed bonus increase should be nonlinear, so every new level of agility yields less speed bonus, i think that would make sense.

If you wear stuff your speed bonus is reduced, dependend on your encumbrance and your strength. The same with the depletion rate of your stamina which is increased accordingly.

Lets say, speed bonus reduction is like strength/(encumbrance+1). So if you have 10 Strength and 20 Encumbrance, your speed bonus from sprint is halved. And your stamina depletion is doubled.
It doesent have to be displayed a stamina bar on the screen, it could be done far more stylishly by letting the character breate heavily and hearing his heart bump loudly.

Other side effects:
-lighly armored foot troops will become more versatile, they could reach strategic positions faster, this would increase the tactical component of the battles. the player would have to decide if he let's his character and his fellow men some minutes of rest, or if he chases them over the battle field, risking that they are exhausted at the wrong time and thus less able to dish out damage, dodge, change positions and so being less effective.

-sprint should affect weapon damage, at least from melee and throwing weapons, so you can improve the damage of your javelin with sprinting, while losing accuracy. also you could charge with a spear weapon to impale an opponent (of course this wouldnt get you to the point of a couched lance, but nevertheless it would make sense).

-To improve my running speed, I should be able to drop Weapons into the field, e.g. my lance, which is qite usless when dismounted. The weapon is simply put to the inventory, so it doesnt have to be implemented, that you can pick up weapons again.

 

[Kaine]

I would like to see the better horse types to offer some inventory slot, which I could access, as long as I am mounted on this horse.

I admit, this is a powergamer attitude and I dont know i this would make sense from the historical point of view. But at the moment i feel too restricted concerning my fighting style. I have to expect, that I will be dismounted in the fight, when they kill/injure my horse. So I normally need a shield against archers, since i am totally helpless against these without it. The next would be a melee weapon, if 1h the I can use the shield with it, 2h I do more damage and have longer reach, but can't use the shield.
So I have two slots left, to define my fighting style. If I choose to be an archer, I can use a bow and have 25 shots, which is not much against a war party. If I want to be a melee type, I choose a lance and a throwing weapon. The latter are depleted very quickly and the lance requires large areas of flat terrain and is quite useless otherwise. In reality you simply would draw out a javelin from a copse to have another shot, but I guess to implement this, it would be the far more difficult way.

So I like the idea that hunter and courser horses have one, warhorses and chargers maybe even two additional mount inventory slots. Horse archers would pick the faster horses and have another slot of ammunition, melee types could get more throwing weapons, or have the choice between lance, 2h-w and 1h+shield, maybe of different damage types (1h-hammer pick againste heavily armored knights, 2h-sword against the peasants around him )

 

[okiN]

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Common suggestion redirection sheet.

This sheet contains commonly suggested features to M&B, and most of the relevant threads that discuss the suggestion.
The threads are (sort of) ranked in order of relevance, and quality of the discussions. Any additions/suggestions to this form are welcome.
First of all, there's the sticky at the top of the page right here.

Multiplayer: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Dropping cargo and goods to make yourself faster: 1 2 3

War loot is of too high quality: 1

Camping: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Stamina and fatigue: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Whistling for your horse 1 2 3

Various ideas on expanding tournaments, etc: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Being able to see the health of your horse::1 2 3 4 5

Sieges: 1 2 3 4 5 6

More advanced troop tactics, formations, etc: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Playing as a bandit/joining bandit faction: 1 2

Shield bash: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Heraldry: 1 2 3 4

Gloves: 1

Dual wielding: 1 2 3

Gore: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

World map features, roads, ruins, forests, etc: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Sheathed weapons visible on player: 1 2

Unarmed/fisticuff fighting: 1 2 3 4 5

Hunting and animals: 1 2 3 4 5 6

More heroes, enemy heroes and hero abilities: 1 2 3 4 5

Item durability and degradation: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Ambitious suggestions on overall gameplay and storyline: 1 2 3 4

Other commen suggestions threads: 1

And finally: read this before posting any suggestions


Thankyou for your cooperation.

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[Kaine]

Simple Troop Management
Let's have the possibility to order different types of my fellow men different things.
So the order structure would be [Troop Type] + [Order]

Troop Menu:
1. Everyone...
2. Cavalry...
3. Infantry...
4. Archers...
5. Horse archers...

Order Menu:
6. ...follow me!
7. ...hold position!
8. ...charge/skirmish! (melee = charge, ranged = skirmish unless out of ammo, then charge)
9. ... move to that position! (avatar has to look at the wanted position)
0. ... await enemy from there! (avatar has to look at the wanted position)

So I could order my archers to take position on a hill and hold it, move my infantry beneath them for protection, order my horse archers to harrass the enemy by shoot and run tactics, and my knights will follow me into the heat of battle.

Order 0 will make my archers to look into the right position and shoot as soon as possible, not that they look to the top of the hill and get slain
Maybe they even could form a line, so we have a little stationary formation.

This should be enough for the beginning to make the fights somewhat organizd. It would be stylish, if the avatar cries out the order (and in case of order 9 and 0 points to the specified position), and some of the designated troops cry a confirmation.

The "move to" and "charge" orders could also trigger the melee troops to sprint.

I would also like to see options for ordering troop types to attack specific targets, e.g. archers attack infantry, horse archers attack horses (and i mean the horses and not the knights on them), and finally formations. But this would require a more complex menu structure and of corse better AI, which is a difficult thing and imho needs a lot of time for just one programmer

 

[okiN]

I posted that list for a reason. Lookit.

 

[Kaine]

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Common suggestion redirection sheet.
Summary

Ah ok, thanks for the summary, I see, most of my stuff is already covered.
My apologies to everyone which feels, I have wasted his time.
But I hope, noone expects me to read everything of this, before posting any ideas?

edit: ok i looked at the list, it seem's everything i had in mind was covered in one way or another, I apologize again. I would delete the thread Iif I could, maybe someone else could do this

 

[GonZ]

Okin ffs the only posts I ever see from you are pointing at that thread. You have a point... up to a point... but now it's just tedious.

Well thought out threads on any subject should be welcomed not shot down.

Yours with increasing anger.

GonZ

 

[okiN]

I thumb my nose at you, GonZ.

I was by no means aiming to shoot this thread down. I just wanted to point out that, as Kaine said, this is pretty much old news. I have nothing against starting the discussion again, especially after such a good (Albeit long-winded ) post, since it'll keep interest high and possibly generate something new. However, to make sure we don't forget, a few quotes from the RUN!!!!!!!!!! thread.

Sorry. I'd like to keep the game controls as simple as possible. I don't think sprinting is such a critical feature as to warrant an extra button, not to mention a lot of extra work.

I like the stamina idea. I'll try to add it if I can find the time.

 

[holybandit]

Grrr never EVER refer to a deffrent topic again, it makes the topic go off-topic and shoots it down.

And on a side note, try to read the stickies where it says "read before posting", good ideas though congrats on that.

 

[Kaine]

easy guys, okin is right
i normally only read the posts on the first page, i must have somehow overlooked the sticky thread about the suggestions which is very helpful ... if you read it *G*

and holybandit, could you explain, what you mean by "never EVER refer to a deffrent topic again, it makes the topic go off-topic and shoots it down"?
i didnt get that