Relativemass
Recruit
Bannerlord is a really great game so far and I am sharing my suggestions because I know it has the potential to be even greater. Some of these suggestions can be easily resolved and others will take more work and time. Following are my suggestions for improvements.
- Crossbows and javels should have an indefinite aiming time, unlike the current system, which makes sense for bows.
- All attacking siege camps should have arrow barrels, not just some of them.
- Displays of money should have commas to help read large sums. For example, 587412369 is much harder to read than 58,741,239.
- The game should NOT unpause when returning to the overland map. It can be confusing to return to the overland map, especially after not playing for a while, and not be given any time to reorient yourself.
- Damage should be more consistent. This may involve adjusting the damage equations, or smoothing armor values over the whole body, or reducing the criticality of heads. Similarly, the vulnerability of the head should be applied AFTER armor, NOT before.
- When damage is taken, especially from ranged attacks, it would be very helpful to indicate the direction the attack came from.
- PLEASE, change how additional troops enter combat, the teleportation system is VERY FRUSTRATING. Having troops teleport into combat nearly eliminates the advantages of fighting tactically, and often ends up with tactically placed units suddenly becoming flanked or new troops teleporting into the middle of an enemy horde. This can be even more frustrating when troops teleport right onto the hero's location. For field combat, I suggest resolving the combat and then returning to the dialog screen and reassessing how both sides feel about continuing to pursue the battle. For siege combat, I suggest having defenders spawn from the keep door and attackers spawn from a tent or road leading into the map.
- Include the ability to command troops to STOP setting up ladders (and other siege equipment) during siege combat.
- Pause the overland game for major announcements, such as the acquisition/loss or a settlement, the capture/death of a notable in your kingdom, or other major events for your kingdom/clan.
- Prisoners should have a tiered system for recruitment. Prisoners of your own faction should be the easiest to recruit followed by mercenaries, and bandits, then followed by neutral factions, followed by factions you are at war with. The more friendly a faction is towards you the less moral should be lost recruiting them.
- Being able to repair the damage equipment looted from combat would be nice, but is not necessary.
- The ability to continue commanding your troops from a companion or high-ranking soldier, when the hero is downed in combat.
- Ranged troops should be more responsive about returning fire and non-range units should be more responsive about holding up shields and taking evasive action when fired upon. Units in general should be more responsive to snipers.
- Consider adding more hit points to notable characters, such as bonus hp to characters = Athletics / 10 and bonus hp to horses = Riding / 10.
- Consider challenging commanders to duals to resolve fights similarly to duals with bandit bosses. It may be that neither side really want to risk losing a lot of troops over some minor resource so a duel between champions could resolve the fight or at least apply heavy moral penalties/bonuses to the fight.
- Factions besides the player's faction should propose peace/tribute similarly to what the player needs to do to achieve peace. Factions that are losing a war should be willing to accept peace with minimal, if any, gifts/tributes.
- Just like how to player can see around their own party, they should also be able to see around friendly settlements and parties. It is frustrating knowing that a friendly settlement is under siege but not knowing how strong the attackers are or how many friendly parties are nearby to help.
- Player vision is impeded by bright/dim light, smoke, and foliage, but NPC vision is not impeded by these things. I do not know the best solution, but it is frustrating to be attacked by troops that I literally cannot see, even when I am looking right at them.
- NPCs should not walk off cliffs. I know this will be hard to fix, but please, try to eventually fix this pathing issue.
- More walkways/stairs in settlements should have guard rails.
- Siege weapons destroyed in tactical combat should remain destroyed even after retreating and resuming combat. The siege weapons should at least be badly damaged in the next combat.
- As siege weapons are damaged they should have reduced performance, at least in tactical combat.
- Siege weapons crews should NOT target the locations of friendly troops.
- Siege weapons crews should NOT target archers behind unbreakable arrow slits that they cannot hit.
- Horses should only run a short distance after taking damage, not always off the map.
- Consider having a whistle to call your starting horse to your location.
- Siege attackers should ALWAYS retreat through the back of the map (or somewhere equivalent); they should NEVER try to retreat through the defender's keep.
- Consider greater speed reduction to movement while ascending slopes. This will allow people to make better use of the terrain.
- Being able to buy shops without needing to walk around town would be nice.
- Invisible walls should be eliminated.
- Unreachable siege weapon locations should be fixed so that they can be reached by NPCs.
- While climbing a ladder, it should be possible to make attacks to the sides.
- Settlements should be more remotely manageable.
- The ability to pause tactical combat and issue orders would be useful. Also being able to order specific formations to target other specific formations would be useful.