The Calradian Cost of Living - Biggest Absurdities in WB

[Flanged]

What I really love about M&B/Warband (and this is in no way a sarcastic thread, or meant to be taken as criticism) is the absolute absurdity of the situations you can get into, and some of the huge, glaring absurdities in the game world itself.  We all know, for example, that this is a land of endless warfare and death where the population of the towns and villages never decreases, where men are born fully grown, where a farmer can become a knight in eight days, and where the Lords, after their thousandth losing battle, are still as strong and healthy (and the same age) as they were at the start. 

All the significant women (unless the player goes female) are aged 19 to 21, and when the mighty Nord nobles gather for a three day feast they might just possibly drink as much as half a barrel of beer between them. 

Today I stumbled on another one.  It might've been noticed before, probably has been, but it made me laugh anyway.

Every hundred days or so I make an extra save for safety, then go to the camp menu and retire, just to see what ending I'd get if i really retired at that point.  Right now I own a town and a village, both increasing in wealth - I have over 50,000 denars in my town treasury and carry about 20,000 with me.  I have 580 renown, about 60 honour, and 48 right to rule.  I'm a big-shot, basically.  Haven't lost a battle or a tournament in ages.  In the last tournament, during one of my highly successful feasts, I beat up King Ragnar with a wooden axe!

So, what happens if I retire now?  Obvious, isn't it?  That's right - I soon "fritter away" what "little money" I have put aside, and end up as a pathetic drunk begging for booze around Sargoth and telling military stories that nobody believes.    All the lords forget how often I used to defeat them, or that I was at all their feasts for several years, and I somehow manage to spend 70,000 denars despite having no more armies to support, wars to fight, or garrisons to pay for...  Meanwhile I presume that all my companions go on living comfortably on the 20-odd denars a week that they're used to. 

The cost of living in Calradia is truly outrageous, if you're the player character.  Every other commoner can survive a lifetime on a denar a day, but not you.

I think the absurd parts of the game (which do it no harm at all - I like them) stick out more because the rest of it is semi-realistic, at least as far as games go.

So what other funny things have ye's noticed?

 

 

[Sirkad]

Probably the most obvious one is knocking someone unconscious with a 2 hand sword, or an arrow, or a bolt, or a giant axe. Take your pick.

 

[Sven-Mjolnir]

Well you get killed every possible way during the game, or sometimes they hit you with a bolt right in your neck and you keep fighting

 

[Karnaak]

Not to say falling down from a castle wall dressed in chainmail and still be ready for a fight

 

[Flanged]

Yeah, the lack of fall damage is definitely something that sticks out as ridiculous.  Wonder why they made it that way?  Maybe there's a reason for it, like fall damage would have to be calculated from the player's velocity, and if they made you take damage from going a certain speed you might end up getting hurt from going too fast on a horse.  Or some other reason.  There must be one.

 

[markushex]

Well ... I think that the game should be more complex . It is not a perfect game , but is great one .

Maybe in MB3  will be much complex and will  get  close to the real thing .

 

[Filou]

When you do prison break missions as a neutral character.  You walk up to the lone guard (at night having lit a fire in a nearby village beforehand) beat him up, go in to get the prisoner(s), beat up one more person on your way out, slip out and you're done.  None of this causes any alarm in the rest of the garrison, no one remembers your face so you can repeat the process in the next town/castle and you don't lose any reputation with either the faction, the town or the town's owner.  This is especially strange when you're a female character and everybody you meet comments on how they heard about the women that fights like a man.

But if you dare attack some random villagers on the road and exterminate/capture them all then all of the faction is immediately made aware of your actions, and if you weren't an enemy with the faction before you are instantly become one.

Calradia, where news of an attack travels much faster in the country side than in a castle, and where the lives of peasants are much more important than the ones of prison guards.

 

[bonez899]

Also how does 1 loaf of bread last for 50*3=150/10 15 or 15 days with 3 people eating it and cost over 40 denars where as in real life I can't make a loaf of bread last one person a week when I eat it once a day.

 

[Sven-Mjolnir]

Yeah, the lack of fall damage is definitely something that sticks out as ridiculous.  Wonder why they made it that way?  Maybe there's a reason for it, like fall damage would have to be calculated from the player's velocity, and if they made you take damage from going a certain speed you might end up getting hurt from going too fast on a horse.  Or some other reason.  There must be one.

I don't think so, there are many things that have no sense in the game, like tax inefficiency being 65% its completely ridiculous and I see no good reason for it to be that way, tho its suppose to encourage you to give fiefs to your vassals giving them too many fiefs can end up in civil war (wich has no sense either) so...

 

[Captain_Octavius]

Yeah, the lack of fall damage is definitely something that sticks out as ridiculous.  Wonder why they made it that way?  Maybe there's a reason for it, like fall damage would have to be calculated from the player's velocity, and if they made you take damage from going a certain speed you might end up getting hurt from going too fast on a horse.  Or some other reason.  There must be one.

Lack of fall damage? Then I don't know what game I've been playing, but I've received damage from lots of falls.

 

[bonez899]

Yeah, the lack of fall damage is definitely something that sticks out as ridiculous.  Wonder why they made it that way?  Maybe there's a reason for it, like fall damage would have to be calculated from the player's velocity, and if they made you take damage from going a certain speed you might end up getting hurt from going too fast on a horse.  Or some other reason.  There must be one.

I was randomly looking in one of the text files to find where I could do a tweak and found a setting for the fall damage multiplier if you want to fix this for yourself. Reply if you want help finding it.

 

[DarkShogun417]

there are 6 "powerful, large nations" set into this land, yet with a decent pathfinding you can get across all of it in about 5-6 days.

 

[lovestofeast]

I have over 50,000 denars in my town treasury and carry about 20,000 with me.

So, what happens if I retire now?  Obvious, isn't it?  That's right - I soon "fritter away" what "little money" I have put aside, and end up as a pathetic drunk begging for booze around Sargoth and telling military stories that nobody believes.

Could it be that retirement ignores the money you have in your treasury? You're using Diplomacy, right? Try withdrawing all your money and putting it into your inventory and see if you get a different result.

 

[JosieJ]

I have over 50,000 denars in my town treasury and carry about 20,000 with me.

So, what happens if I retire now?  Obvious, isn't it?  That's right - I soon "fritter away" what "little money" I have put aside, and end up as a pathetic drunk begging for booze around Sargoth and telling military stories that nobody believes.

Could it be that retirement ignores the money you have in your treasury? You're using Diplomacy, right? Try withdrawing all your money and putting it into your inventory and see if you get a different result.

Retirement does ignore money in your treasury, but I've retired with much more than 70K denars on me and still gotten the "pathetic drunk" ending.  Even with several hundred thousand denars on me, and all companions in my party (including the ones I've used to get RtR and then dumped), I still only get the "lowly tavernkeeper" ending, all other things being equal.

Another absurdity:  no lords ever die, but even with getting knocked unconscious all the time, in battle and in tournaments, no one ever seems to get brain damage!  This struck me because I used to work with brain-injured people, and you'd be surprised how little trauma it takes to severely injure someone for life.  Just a case of real-life knowledge creeping in to ruin the suspension of disbelief!

 

[Flanged]

Lack of fall damage? Then I don't know what game I've been playing, but I've received damage from lots of falls.

Yes, you take damage from them, but it's negligible.  I can jump off the top of a castle tower, about foor or five storeys up, and even as a starting character I'll be unluncky to lose half of my health.  Usually it's about a third.  It just makes it (slightlly) harder to make mods where height/falling is a serious issue or something to be feared.

I was randomly looking in one of the text files to find where I could do a tweak and found a setting for the fall damage multiplier if you want to fix this for yourself. Reply if you want help finding it.

Yes please, bonez.  I'll be needing it soon.  Have been using a script that kills you if you go below a certain height on the map, but it kills you just as dead if you walk down to that height, and you can walk on near-vertical surfaces.  Real falling damage would be much better.

no lords ever die, but even with getting knocked unconscious all the time, in battle and in tournaments, no one ever seems to get brain damage! 

Oh, I don't know about that.  Following Ragnar and his marshalls around, I see lots of evidence of poor impulse control, short term memory loss, impaired decision making, etc.  Thanks for the info on the retirement not counting my treasury money, I should've realised that myself.  Still, 20,000 should go a long way in Calradia.  Maybe I wouldn't be set up for life, but I only retired from adventuring - I could still get a normal job as a trainer of something, maybe even set up my own training field.  Come to think of it, though, I never had to pay those guys anything for using their training fields, so maybe those businesses run at a loss as well.   

 

[Night Ninja]

Another absurdity:  no lords ever die, but even with getting knocked unconscious all the time, in battle and in tournaments, no one ever seems to get brain damage!  This struck me because I used to work with brain-injured people, and you'd be surprised how little trauma it takes to severely injure someone for life.  Just a case of real-life knowledge creeping in to ruin the suspension of disbelief!

Out of curiosity, how little are we talking? Whiplash from attempting a pushup?

 

[FireWaterThunderSteel]

Out of curiosity, how little are we talking? Whiplash from attempting a pushup?

I knew someone that stretched and can't move that limb for like six months (he snapped his tendons). So it's kinda strange and creepy what little harmless things we do could end up killing us.

 

[bonez899]

[

I was randomly looking in one of the text files to find where I could do a tweak and found a setting for the fall damage multiplier if you want to fix this for yourself. Reply if you want help finding it.

Yes please, bonez.  I'll be needing it soon.  Have been using a script that kills you if you go below a certain height on the map, but it kills you just as dead if you walk down to that height, and you can walk on near-vertical surfaces.  Real falling damage would be much better.

Yeah just go into the mount and blade directory module folder and click the module.ini file and read it as a text and about half way down or so there should be something like:
Fall_Damage_Multiplier: 1.0
and I'm guessing that if you change the number higher it will add more damage

 

[JosieJ]

Out of curiosity, how little are we talking? Whiplash from attempting a pushup?

I knew someone that stretched and can't move that limb for like six months (he snapped his tendons). So it's kinda strange and creepy what little harmless things we do could end up killing us.

See?  It doesn't take much!

Seriously, some of them did have significant trauma, but one guy I remember was hit by a chair in a bar fight--just like innumerable bar fights you've seen in movies, etc.  After that, his speech was permanently slurred, his thought processes significantly slowed, and his motor function impaired.  Another guy I remember was hit by a pipe once and was never the same afterwards.  And of course, then there were the ones whose brain injuries were due to strokes--you couldn't tell from the outside, but it caused them major internal trauma.

 

[Itakethebuseverywhere]

You know whats really absurd about the game?

The game itself.

WE MUST DIG DEEPER