I've been a little bit perplexed by how the news circulated in Calradia since I started playing way back. Instantaneous news of what is going on in the world is somewhat less immersive and realistic. But how to do it is the real problem. If we combine the fact that news circulate too fast and that most interactions with the NPCs of Calradia are meaningless (I mean conversational interactions), why not make it so NPCs propagate news? Word of mouth could be a very interesting way to get news. You might be oblivious to some political changes in the realms, of attacks, battles, and castle captures until you meet someone who knows about it.
I first thought about how the news could get from one place to another. There are many parties that go to and from villages/castles/towns already. They could be used to propagate the news like a virus. Something happens at a castle. Any party that is at the castle or any party spawned at the village associated with the castle, are now flagged with that news. They then carry it to other settlements, flagging any party there, and subsequent spawns with that news. I don't know how much it would cost performance-wise to implement this, but I think it would be more interesting and make the world seem more alive.
A player could be made aware of news by different means that already exist. We can ask about gossip, but it's usually of low interest. Having to rely on gossip to know what is going on would make the whole thing more useful. And then more critical news could be relayed through the alert screens. One thing that always bothered me is that you knew instantly if one of your settlements was attacked, even if it was a 3 days ride away. Of course, this would require another news feed system to be realistic because relying on caravans and farmers would be too slow. Then it would just be a matter of having a 'courrier' home straight for the player across the map (but still, how would the courrier even know where you are).
I haven't put much more thought into this, but even if it's too complex to add in Warband, I think this deserves some thought for mods or later expansions!
I first thought about how the news could get from one place to another. There are many parties that go to and from villages/castles/towns already. They could be used to propagate the news like a virus. Something happens at a castle. Any party that is at the castle or any party spawned at the village associated with the castle, are now flagged with that news. They then carry it to other settlements, flagging any party there, and subsequent spawns with that news. I don't know how much it would cost performance-wise to implement this, but I think it would be more interesting and make the world seem more alive.
A player could be made aware of news by different means that already exist. We can ask about gossip, but it's usually of low interest. Having to rely on gossip to know what is going on would make the whole thing more useful. And then more critical news could be relayed through the alert screens. One thing that always bothered me is that you knew instantly if one of your settlements was attacked, even if it was a 3 days ride away. Of course, this would require another news feed system to be realistic because relying on caravans and farmers would be too slow. Then it would just be a matter of having a 'courrier' home straight for the player across the map (but still, how would the courrier even know where you are).
I haven't put much more thought into this, but even if it's too complex to add in Warband, I think this deserves some thought for mods or later expansions!