Statement regarding Plans for Singleplayer and Engine III

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When a walled settlement is besieged and the defenders feel that their relative strength allows it, they may choose to sally out and break the siege. Currently, this leads to a field battle - this point references a dedicated sally out mission.

Do you know how that will work?

To me it seems like a mechanic that won't happen too often. I am only guessing here, I am not sure how it works.
Armies only lay siege if they have an army size & winning rate that is higher than the defenders + the autoresolve bonus for sieges, right?

So if the attacking army is always stronger there is no reason to sally out into a position where they have a disadvantage.

The three reasons I could come up with why the defenders should sally out is
1. It's the player.
2. The city has a lot of cavalry units and so is stronger in open field battles than in siege.
3. The city starts a fight because it expects support from an nearby ally.


I am not sure how you are planning to implement the mechanic but I have 2 suggestions:

The army that plays siege can only use unmounted units ( since they are suprised)
That again gives an edge to cavalry units in Siege situations.

The other option would be to change sally out into a mission were both armies only use a fraction of it's unit in contrast to the full scale attack.
This might be for example an night attack where the defenders try to sabotage the siege equipement while the army that is laying siege also only has a few units (due to it being night)
(Could also be an additional skill to the rougery skilltree)
 
Random outcomes just encourage save scumming.
Not if they use a single seed set at the beginning of the game.

Do you know how that will work?

To me it seems like a mechanic that won't happen too often. I am only guessing here, I am not sure how it works.
Armies only lay siege if they have an army size & winning rate that is higher than the defenders + the autoresolve bonus for sieges, right?

So if the attacking army is always stronger there is no reason to sally out into a position where they have a disadvantage.

The three reasons I could come up with why the defenders should sally out is
1. It's the player.
2. The city has a lot of cavalry units and so is stronger in open field battles than in siege.
3. The city starts a fight because it expects support from an nearby ally.


I am not sure how you are planning to implement the mechanic but I have 2 suggestions:

The army that plays siege can only use unmounted units ( since they are suprised)
That again gives an edge to cavalry units in Siege situations.

The other option would be to change sally out into a mission were both armies only use a fraction of it's unit in contrast to the full scale attack.
This might be for example an night attack where the defenders try to sabotage the siege equipement while the army that is laying siege also only has a few units (due to it being night)
(Could also be an additional skill to the rougery skilltree)
Sallying happened in real life because the besieging army was not on guard 100% of the time. You'd effectively just be harrassing the enemy camp/forcing them to wake up in the middle of the night to engage in a skirmish etc. That was where the sallying party had the advantage, and could whittle away the enemy force or delay the construction of siege weapons etc. So I imagine that is the source of inspiration for the mission.

two (easy) features
No such thing.
 
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Duh, do you have any information about logs in the game? A logs feature which enables you to view and sort the events is really missing in the game.

Not the best execution, but useful mod:

I agree that there should be an option in the game. Currently events are moving so fast, that its hard to follow.
 
No such thing.
There are mods where this works perfectly.
Just look at the code, refactor it, implement and test it.
Add two menu configuration toggle buttons and its done. Will take a week of one developer probably.
But I guess they are quite busy with development resources for "nice to have" features currently.
 
There are mods where this works perfectly.
Just look at the code, refactor it, implement and test it.
Add two menu configuration toggle buttons and its done. Will take a week of one developer probably.
But I guess they are quite busy with development resources for "nice to have" features currently.
Sorry, it was a tongue-in-cheek comment about software development being a complicated process no matter how simple the code itself is.
 
Do you know how that will work?

To me it seems like a mechanic that won't happen too often. I am only guessing here, I am not sure how it works.
Armies only lay siege if they have an army size & winning rate that is higher than the defenders + the autoresolve bonus for sieges, right?
Correctly. Now if an army is besieging a city or castle, the siege will be 100% successful if reinforcements are not suitable
So if the attacking army is always stronger there is no reason to sally out into a position where they have a disadvantage.

The three reasons I could come up with why the defenders should sally out is
1. It's the player.
2. The city has a lot of cavalry units and so is stronger in open field battles than in siege.
Even going out during an assault would be a good idea. If a player appears on horseback in battle, why can't you add another 10-20 mounted units next to him. An attack to damage siege towers or a ram. Then the enemy must either continue the siege or retreat
The other option would be to change sally out into a mission were both armies only use a fraction of it's unit in contrast to the full scale attack.
In Pendor's Prophecy (and maybe in the original WARBAND), when the besieged sally swooped in, the attackers had an arrow penalty. The besiegers had 2 or 3 arrows in a quiver.
This might be for example an night attack where the defenders try to sabotage the siege equipement while the army that is laying siege also only has a few units (due to it being night)
Night attack with some kind of fire grenades so that siege weapons can be set on fire. It would be cool. And such an innovation will allow a kind of a whole quest from the siege

It would also be correct to introduce fire arrows for archers. So they can set fire to siege towers and battering rams. ))))
 
And the sieges themselves have not yet been completed. Archers from the walls shoot through one. 150 Battan heroes barely win 200 Vlandians, 100 foot soldiers, 50 crossbowmen and 50 knights. Although in theory, the Vlandians should not have reached the walls. And if you do, then with crushing losses
 
I would love to see speech bubbles of npcs in cities/villages or hideouts scenes. For cities on the market for example, when they talk over prices of goods. In lord halls about enemy parties/armies, or weddings/lord prisoners. In villages about work/weddings and their actual health. In hideouts bandits talk about their prisoners and stolen goods, or near villages they would want to raid(yeah I know they do not raid villages). These bubbles in hideouts would close automatically of course if they detect you. Would add more flavour to the scenes I think.
 
I would be happy to forward any well composed feedback you may have in mind to the relevant people.

Hello!

After over 350 hours of gameplay on the campaign alone, with multiple characters/faction playthroughs, I would like to share some of my experiences/suggestions with you... I would also like to say I love this game, and haven't had more fun/time spent on a game since Skyrim.

I will break this down into sections, and I hope this won't be too long of a read;

Battle AI/Unit Capabilities -

Cavalry - I understand there have been tweaks to how well cavalry do in battles, as well as tweaks on horse archers and the Khuzait being OP in most playthroughs before the recent betas. With that being said, I think cavalry should just be more "shocking" period. If we look back to some of our favorite battles in popular movies and TV shows, cavalry charges are absolutely devastating, as they should be. War horses are massive muscular animals, it makes sense that getting stampeded by a 30-40+ group of horsemen would break any infantry line, with men being thrown across the ground left and right, unless better shield wall or some form of spear/pike wall holding the line is in place.

My suggestion would be to make cavalry charges knock over soldiers, especially lower tier units, and cause at least 50% more charge damage (would still only be 12-16 damage anyways with current numbers). Instead of half my cav getting stuck on individual units on contact, make them smash right through with speed bonuses. This would add so much more to battles, and really bring them to life more than they already do. Some may say this would make the problem even worse, making cavalry too OP, but I think they honestly should be. If you come across an army or party with 50+ horse units, you should be scared. This in my opinion would balance out with sieges, where the horsemen and horse archers have to fight on foot, climbing ladders and taking arrows, ballista spears and catapult shots, taking a huge toll on their numbers. Although you can change the load order of your troops and hope too many of them don't spawn before a settlement/castle is taken, I still think this balances out a bit. You can have huge victories on land with cavalry, but make it much harder to put those units to use during siege. These units could also consume more food per day, or have higher wages to find that balance.

Infantry - My problem with infantry troops trees is that most factions have spear units, if not all, and in my experience they're basically worthless. I believe I saw in some forums that in the coming updates, a new spear wall/hold formation will be added, and I sure hope so because it is absolutely needed, and would further balance out a heavy infantry army taking on a heavy cavalry army, with tactics making much more of a difference. Factions like Sturgia and the Empires would do much better with more spear formations and tactics. I never produce menavlion or Sturgian heavy spearmen because they get slaughtered very easy, with very few kills. An update to spear units would be awesome!

Moving on with infantry I'd like to quickly address skirmishers. In my opinion skirmishers are pretty weak units, especially when given one stack of 4 javelins. All skirmishers should have at least two stacks, making them more useful/worth it to have in the army. I think their athletics skill should be higher as well, making them able to run around more units, utilizing their throwing weapons and ability to skirmish. To balance this maybe take away all shields from these units until they hit tier 5 in some factions, like the wildlings or oathsworn. This would add more balance to Battania, Sturgia, and the Aserai particularly.

Faction Troop Trees -

Aserai - I'll start with them just because they are extremely weak in my opinion. I think splitting the ranged part of the tree into a skirmisher line and archer line would be huge. If skirmishers are given better and more unique abilities, going back to what I briefly stated on skirmishers on the previous section, the Aserai could be tougher. Have the option to get to a tier 5 skirmisher infantry troop instead of only the master archer. This would simply add more depth and a better unit to their armies. I also like the idea of a tier 5 cavalry troop that still ride a camel, maybe a heavier camel with light armor or something. Just adds something more unique to their faction, and could have slightly different abilities than a normal heavy cav unit riding a war horse.

Sturgia - Possibly the weakest faction in the game thus far, they really need a bigger boost to their troops trees. My suggestions would be to bring the druzhinnik and druzhinnik champion into an infantry roll, and keep the focus on a heavy infantry faction. Trade their spears/lances for a heavy two handed sword, and maybe a short sword, shield, and one stack of javelins.

As far as their noble line, I'd really love to bring back the berserker. Give them a noble line more unique to a northern, gritty faction. Maybe start the noble line with a tier 2 unit wielding two handed axes, and just keep progressing armor stats and weapon damage as the tier increases, possibly adding some throwing axes for tier 5 and 6. Give them big bear and wolf pelts over armor for the shoulders, and make them shirtless even, with crazy war paint all over the face and body, maybe some piercings. This would just add more to the faction, make them feel unique, with an extremely tough infantry force. Give me more reason to play campaigns as a Sturgian!

Battania - This is by far my favorite faction in the game, so maybe I'm bias wanting them to do better haha, but hear me out.

Battania needs an archer unit in the main troop tree. They just simply do. The faction is focused on range and skirmish capabilities, so more focus on that aspect would be a huge improvement. I want the noble line to stay exactly the same. The fian champion is a perfect example of a noble line tier 6 troop that adds a unique experience to a Battanian playthrough, with a great all around look, and good abilities based on the faction's tactics in battle. Adding an archer unit to the main troop tree just puts more emphasis on how Battania succeeds or doesn't in a fight, being focused on range and skirmish (guerilla warfare if you will). I think the easiest fix would be to remove the mounted skirmisher at tier 5, and replace him with a solid archer unit, maybe similar look and abilities as a Battanian hero or fian, just not quite as good, equipped with a two handed weapon, and maybe even throwing weapons for close range when being charged by cavalry.

More units with war paint on faces/body as well?? Give them a unique look, after all they're a more tribal faction who ambushes empire armies who stray too far into the dark green woodlands they seek to preserve!

Other Factions - I think the balance is much better in the rest of the factions, but over time more units and more units unique to that culture would always be a step up, and a lot of fun! (If the Khuzait heavy horse archers had the helmet with the heavy white haired plume, it'd be more badass, instead of the tiny weak plume. Maybe swap helmets with the horse archer, I know it's a purely personal opinion, but just a thought!)

Sieges -

I won't poke and prod with this topic too much because there is more than enough discussion going around regarding how to fix sieges. I would like to address that I too wish siege AI will be fixed before literally anything else, as it brings me pain after many in-game days worth of sieging a settlement, eating up hundreds of food stock until their walls are broken hoping for a better chance at victory, just to spawn in and watch my infantry charge a closed off wall section right next to the literal open wall, or simply stand still and get mouthfuls of arrows until I decide to retreat and force them to use a battering ram. I have hope still, and know the team is working on it.

What I would like to suggest though, and I've thought about this a lot, would be to add more elements to siege defense. I would love to see soldiers dumping hot oil or fire onto enemies climbing ladders or waiting at the gates. Maybe give soldiers more abilities to throw heavy rocks at incoming troops as well. Maybe even the ability to create a moat for your castle/settlement? There could be a new construction addition or process that adds to fortification, or a new option in your castle/settlement menu upon entering where you can stock up defenses. For example; a new option for refilling oil cauldrons or fire cauldrons with a new item you can buy/trade, if you have a level 2-3 in that specific construction option under "manage castle" or "manage town". Give another option to put money into building a moat of some sort, or extra obstacles for the incoming armies. I think so many players would love this, giving us new abilities and new ways to attack and defend our fiefs. I think making it harder to take any castle or settlement would give the game much more depth and strategy. Working on tweaking rewards for owning or taking fiefs is a start, and also making it extremely stressful and costly to attempt a siege assault. Taking a huge castle or settlement should be much harder, and would balance out other factions from snowballing and taking over half the map, especially a heavy cav/horse archer faction like the Khuzait, forcing those men to get off their horses and take huge losses trying to take a fief, going along with the end of my cavalry section and balance. I want it to be much harder, and maybe others would too. This would bring longevity to my campaigns, and surely make them exciting as hell, when I finally create my own kingdom at clan tier 4, and push onward to conquer the realm.

Skills -

I am pretty happy with the updates on skills as of late, good work to whomever is in charge of that. There are many useful skills and perks that are worth the grind.

There are a few that need a fix though, mainly just on ability to level up. These include;
- Medicine
- Trade
- Leadership
- Engineering
- Smithing


Most of those just need to fixed to allow the character to level them up without grinding for too many hours.

Here are some suggestions for a couple of them though;

Leadership - I think a great addition that could be added to leadership is allowing the skill to level based on the culture of the army. If I am playing an empire character, and lead a party comprised of 100% empire troops, or leading an army comprised of 100% your culture's lords.
Or simply have a more significant boost to morale for armies comprised of 100% your culture's units, allowing for leadership tp increase more with high morale. I know there is a perk for something like this but it doesn't help the leveling up process much for leadership.

Engineering - I would love to see more siege abilities and perks along this skill, and to level faster, because right now it's very hard for me to level up, even when besieging many fiefs over time on a playthrough. I could also tie this in with my suggestions for sieges, with perks that allow you to start building moats, obstacles, fortifications, using hot oil or fire, new siege equipment for assaulting side, etc.

Smithing - I know there are many critics on the crafting process and values, so I won't go there and waste your time, but I do have some suggestions regarding crafting in general.

First off, I honestly love the smithing grind. Every single character I build ends up at a decent smithing level because I'm always crafting my own weapons for myself, family, and companions. It adds that customization to the game that so many of us desire. With that being said, I really think the ability to craft bows, crossbows, and armor is a MUST. There is really no other way for me to put it than I love the ability to customize my campaign and character in every way possible. Being able to use different shades of wood, and metal finishes and trims for a crafted longbow just sounds badass. It just makes me feel more like my character whenever I get to customize my loadout and the presentation of everything. I think I'd get a lot of agreement for an ability to craft your own armor sets as well, for example; shoulders, helmets, body, boots, etc. With the potential of this game, I really see no reason not to add this. The graphics are awesome, so why not utilize it so your players can gaze in awe at the beautiful, unique set of armor they've just grinded to craft and put together as the sun rises over the hill at dawn, just in time for a cheer, and the start of a battle. I'm sure this is so so much easier said than done, but just thought I'd share my thoughts on how cool that feature would be.

Banners -

My only suggestion for banners is why aren't there more color options and customization available in the native/vanilla game? I think adding many additional colors is a must-have moving forward with this game. Just another note on customization, it really brings players into the world and kingdom/clan they've created. Sometimes it's just the little things for me that make or break something.

Character Customization -

More options for hair and facial hair, as well as war paints would be awesome! If we can't get the ability to craft our own armor, or weave our own clothes, I think the more armor pieces added to the game, the better. Just brings that depth we all desire when getting deep into a campaign.



Well this about wraps up the post, just wanted to focus in on what I've been thinking as of late... I'm sorry if the read is a lot for some of you(first forum post), but any replies are welcome. Whether you completely disagree with me, or love the suggestions, let me know! Would love to discuss.

As always, thanks to the Bannerlord devs on the updates and keeping us informed on upcoming content to the best of your ability. Would love to hear any feedback from you guys as well. I'm very excited for some of the new battle terrain features, sandbox, and much more in the future!

Best,
Jack
 
Dear dev team,

A new garrison update just came out. It has a PACK of features and even a good looking UI.
Can you just hire this guy and speed things up please?

 
Dear dev team,

A new garrison update just came out. It has a PACK of features and even a good looking UI.
Can you just hire this guy and speed things up please?

I really like all this features, but in my own taste, it detracts from the Mount & Blade feeling of your only one man. Here you have a mini computer in your backpack with all that info.

That's we are missing a council of Lords or Clans which would present information a in a more medieval-appropriate setting, with less accurate information but more you giving them a general direction of what to focus on. @Terco_Viejo made a thread about it some time ago. Alas, I can only dream of the potential.

But good job on sharing that mod.
 
I really like all this features, but in my own taste, it detracts from the Mount & Blade feeling of your only one man. Here you have a mini computer in your backpack with all that info.

That's we are missing a council of Lords or Clans which would present information a in a more medieval-appropriate setting, with less accurate information but more you giving them a general direction of what to focus on. @Terco_Viejo made a thread about it some time ago. Alas, I can only dream of the potential.

But good job on sharing that mod.
I must admit that beginning of the game is the most fun, but when you get to the top and own a kingdom, its really annoying to manually take care of garrisons.

I know that in 1.5.10 they will maybe deliver Garrison and Party commands, but hiring talented moders isn't the worst idea eve, imho.
 
I must admit that beginning of the game is the most fun, but when you get to the top and own a kingdom, its really annoying to manually take care of garrisons.

I know that in 1.5.10 they will maybe deliver Garrison and Party commands, but hiring talented moders isn't the worst idea eve, imho.
Completely agree with you, Warlord.
 
Is there any plans at all to help Sturgia with balance issues? Their geography and economy is so weak especially their trade and villages and also how cramped and far away towns are, 9 out of 10 they always lose wars...
 
PLS DEVS DROP NEW BETA ON MY BIRTHDAY ON 25 FEB
Happy Brithday! :party: Sorry it didnt drop

Is there any plans at all to help Sturgia with balance issues? Their geography and economy is so weak especially their trade and villages and also how cramped and far away towns are, 9 out of 10 they always lose wars...
Take a look at this thread. Sturgia is no longer the underdog in 1.5.8 and snowballing overall is fixed (for now).
 
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