Things that Annoy the Living Hell out of Me

[JTDC]

Actually, it's one thing right now, but it's really, really, really annoying.

It seems that, no matter who my faction (the Nords) are at war with, raiding parties always, always, always seem to go right to my village, Vayajeg, no matter where they originate from.  Sarrinid Sultanate?  Yeah, they go right for it.  Khergit Khanate?  Yeah, they'll trek right across all of Vaegir territory (which we now own, because of my efforts)  to get to MY village.  They pass over several on the way.  Rhodoks?  Yeah, they put a hold on their spat with the Sultan to trek across Swadia and raid my village.  My village holds a strong charge, and the opposite of that charge is "Raid the living hell out of me and ignore all other villages between my land and this one because screw Dragar."  And I haven't raided any of their villages, or besieged any of their castles/towns.  My honor is around 60 and climbing, but it seems that within hours (gametime) of someone declaring war on us to curb our growing power , I get a message about my village being raided--all when I'm off following my useless marshal across lands where they refuse to besiege any territory, then just quit the campaign when Ragnar decides to hold a feast in Sargoth for the tenth time in as many weeks--leaving me holding the bag of smiting incursions across ex-Vaegir territory and chasing down bandits and rooting out their goddamn bases in the middle of nowhere.  It's worked out for me, territory wise--I expanded my towns from Rivacheg and Khudan to include Reyvadin (so I basically own all of the Vaegir towns, and Yargolek remains in my prison because his subjects were too cheap or too broken to try and ransom him in the two months I held him before Reyvadin fell), but I feel like a Dutch boy trying to plug the dike with his fingers as more and more leaks spring up.  I'm too busy fighting someone to attend one of those silly little feasts or otherwise campaign to improve my standing enough to get myself selected as Marshal.  In fact, sometimes I'm so busy off busting chops to keep some of my hinterlands free of Sea Raiders, so my rents and tariffs suffer.


Another, separate, thing is when I'm riding down some worthless peasant on my mighty steed, my lance is couched, and he's about to take a lance in the face, and suddenly one of my cavalrymen cuts in front of me, knocks him over with their horse, and makes mine stop dead, ruining my kill.  In fact, they get in my way a lot, my troops do.  I was storming a castle, and using my crossbow to pick off enemy archers while I let my Huscarls take enough of the parapet to stand without me being crowded by a dozen men, and right as I am about to release, a guy steps in front of me and I headshot my own troop.  This has happened several times.  It seems that every time I shoot one of my men when they charge across my line of fire, it always hits them in the head.  I accidentally threw a javelin when cycling back to my lance, at full tilt, and somehow, I hit one of my troops in the head--the only one in my field of vision, who was towards the edge of my field of vision, and he gets it to the face. 


So that's what's been annoying me lately.  Anyone else have things that annoy the hell out of them in the game?

 

[NJSQRL]

Indeed it is annoying, in a game I recently gave up on (conqured 3/4 of the map with nords and got bored) I was awarded Fearichan (sp?) You know... that funky little almost out of the way village just on the other side of the river from Ismerella Castle?

Well we were at war with the Vaegirs at the time and it got raided before I was even awarded it... fine. Peace breaks out with the Vaegirs but not until the village was raided again, a week later we go to war with Swadia.... before I can even get to the marshal (he was in Thir I was in Sargoth) my village had been raided by the Swadians....


We pushed through the Swadian villages eventually nearly wiping them out (and broke out into another war with the Vaegirs) but every week or so despite all the fighting going on in the Suno/Uxkhal region some lonely count managed to find his way to raid my village and my village alone...

Later on, after conquering the Swadian lands (most of them anyway) we went to war with the Sarranids.... first thing they did was raid my village. Same thing happened with the Rhodoks and Khergits.. but honestly I didn't mind... they left my town and castles alone I did not care if they raided that one little village away from my holdings.


Now to what really bugs the crap out of me.... getting into a tournament and having Ragnar show up... despite my 420+ one handed proficiency he somehow swings that 2 hander he gets faster than I can drop my shield and swing that pathetic little hatchet.

 

[ggnorekthx]

I was thinking of making a post about this very thing.  I am around day 600 in my game, and I've had the difficulty cranked for most of it.  I am with the Swadians so I am a little more centralized - but people will make extreme effort to reach my outermost fiefs. Not to mention that my first two fiefs were Ada Kulun and Iyindah - essentially as far apart as you can get around the Swadian border.  I couldn't even ride between them quickly enough to stop the pillaging.

Also, both times I've held a significant fief (I was owner of Praven and Sungetche Castle so far) it seems that the nearest faction will quickly start a war and show up with everybody.  I've been marshal twice (I've since been declining because controversy skyrockets when you are the marshal) and both times couldn't gather more than maybe 300 troops, yet within about two weeks of me owning Praven, the Nords declare war and 1400 (not joking) Nords show up and take it.  So later on, I get Sungetche Castle and basically spent the next month of in-game time recruiting. Had 150+ guys there (Rhodok Sharpies, Swad Sharpies, like 30+ Swadian Knights and 20+ Men-At-Arms and some Nord infantry) plus another 100 in my army, guess what?  The neighboring Khergit declare war, and within two days there's 1000+ of them there.  Note that I've basically been trashing their lords left and right.

I have like 130+ Honour, 1200 renown, and I'm basically friends with everyone.  Only one guy is an enemy, and he's one of the weak lords (he usually has a party of 30)

I can carry 107 troops, but since I didn't do leadership straight (first character) it seems like I simply can't field enough men to do anything.  I can destroy 15 nobles within a day or two, and a few days later it seems like they all have 80+ guys again who are tier 3+.  And I typically fight 200+ at a time, losing only maybe 1-4 guys at most.

Do I need to turn the Campaign AI down from Good?  Is it usually this bad?  I'm basically the only Swadian who does anything.  My guys have been continually losing castles and cities.  Praven and Dhirim are gone, many of the surrounding castles are gone, and anytime I do manage to take a castle or town 1000+ guys show up.

One last thing - Swadians are weird.  I can fight an army 4 times my size in the field and take absurdly small casualties, but to defend a castle I generally need 2x their army size.  I've started to actually just fight them while they are besieging because it turns out better.  Is that just how the Swadians work?  Seems kinda ****ty that I can't defend a castle with armored knights and decent crossbows.

 

[Nicholas Bell]

It seems that, no matter who my faction (the Nords) are at war with, raiding parties always, always, always seem to go right to my village, Vayajeg, no matter where they originate from.

I do not mean to be flip about it, but from what I have read, the designers would respond "working as designed".  A common experience for nearly everyone.  Doesn't take away from the frustration though.  Through no failure on my part, I eventually lost the one fief I had (and had built up with everything - even the useless manor) when the adjacent castle was lost.  When I retook the castle, the fief went to the king.  No matter, I am better off without it.  Since I have a relationship of 99 with the village, I can recruit there anyway no matter what.  So I lose the tax revenue.  Yes, it was nice to get that extra 1000 denar, but since the village was razed most of the time it was usually nothing or very little.  Whether intended or not, it seems that the design pushes the player toward acquiring towns and businesses (as castles are money pits garrisoning them and your village is constantly burned) and giving the fiefs to your vassals (with the assumption you have declared your own kingdom).

Do I need to turn the Campaign AI down from Good?  Is it usually this bad?  I'm basically the only Swadian who does anything.  My guys have been continually losing castles and cities.  Praven and Dhirim are gone, many of the surrounding castles are gone, and anytime I do manage to take a castle or town 1000+ guys show up.

Turning it down "supposedly" results in smaller AI retinues and less coordination between them.  I think it does, but not to the degree I need.  Like you, if I besiege a castle or town, I would quickly end up with a 2400+ "Mighty Host" breathing down my neck.  With "Poor" Campaign AI it's only 1500-1800.  These large size retinues are a "late game" phenomenon which really distorts things IMO.  I've noted in numerous posts folks mentioning (not bragging) about wiping out half the map, being king, etc in half the time you mention (600 days).  I think this is only possible because they move upward quickly before the AI gets as powerful as it does.  I'm currently around day 1600 so have experienced what you mention.  And yes, the AI is really not very adept at defending it's holdings.  My experience is the only way to properly defend a town or castle is to take it oneself and leave your army as a garrison.  Otherwise the AI will take a place, leave a minute garrison and go have a feast.  In the meantime the enemy comes down and recaptures the location.

 

[JosieJ]

Actually, it's one thing right now, but it's really, really, really annoying.

It seems that, no matter who my faction (the Nords) are at war with, raiding parties always, always, always seem to go right to my village, Vayajeg, no matter where they originate from.  Sarrinid Sultanate?  Yeah, they go right for it.  Khergit Khanate?  Yeah, they'll trek right across all of Vaegir territory (which we now own, because of my efforts)  to get to MY village.  They pass over several on the way.  Rhodoks?  Yeah, they put a hold on their spat with the Sultan to trek across Swadia and raid my village. 

Lately, this has been happening with specific people.  Say the Swadians attack my faction; all of a sudden, I get the message "Your village is being raided by Count Regas!"  All the time, it's this guy--he seems to be going out of his way to personally mess with me!  (Screw you, Regas, there will be a reckoning!)

Another, separate, thing is when I'm riding down some worthless peasant on my mighty steed, my lance is couched, and he's about to take a lance in the face, and suddenly one of my cavalrymen cuts in front of me, knocks him over with their horse, and makes mine stop dead, ruining my kill.

Hate this, too!  I've resorted to just telling my cavalry to follow me instead of letting them charge.

One other thing I hate (even though I can't argue that it's not realistic): nobody seems to be able to tell me where the person I'm looking for is!  Say I'm doing some pointless errand, like carrying a message, for someone I'm trying to get in good with.  They'll tell me where they think the person is.  I go looking and can't find them, so I'll start asking everyone, and not only do they not agree where the person is, but they're literally all over the map with their directions!  Ultimately, I'll find the person clear across the map from where they were supposed to be!

 

[TheWatcher]

Why don't you just build the enhancement that lets you keep soldiers in the village?

 

[SpittingLlama]

Lords are more likely to raid your village if they dislike you

 

[Ambush Reality]

I am well with you on having villages being raided. I had the most isolated village I thought existed from the Nords. Forget the name of it, but it's not far west from Chalbek Castle if you're looking north. It gets raided by the freakin Sarranids >.< I don't understand why they go out of the way to assault my fiefs.

 

[gutsaxe]

I had the village being raided problem but sorted it by ambushing every lord who went near with all the cavalry I could gather (to catch the beggars). It worked fine, and I had several lords imprisoned until the khergits joined in my war with swadia; it took me an ingame month of chasing 1 lord away repeatedly until I was able to get my father in law to help me ambush him.
However annoying the other factions raiders are, the khergits are diabolical to catch!

 

[Filou]

The thing that really gets me is lords that don't help out another lord that is being overwhelmed, while 2-3 of them could join the fight to shift the odds.  I try to blame it on conflicting personalities for letting one bugger getting rampaged.  But when it's the king that's getting owned while the Marshal and a dozen lords ride by ignoring him, I just lose it. 


Somewhat in similar, but while in combat: when your allies form one long line and start circling right while the enemy does the same creating this surreal dance. 
Not so frustrating when odds are somewhat equal, but when we outnumber them more than 5 to 1 that usually means my troops will inevitably get in the way of the enemy and I have to battle them all on my own.  This obviously happens much more often when my group is much smaller than the opposing army.

 

[JosieJ]

Why don't you just build the enhancement that lets you keep soldiers in the village?

I thought that improvement only let you (and your party) rest in the village, not garrison soldiers there.  I must look into this further!

 

[NJSQRL]

Why don't you just build the enhancement that lets you keep soldiers in the village?

Because not everyone is playing whatever mod you are? 

 

[skullmasher]

I hate it when in combat the litte banners over my soldiers heads get into my view.

 

[NJSQRL]

Why don't you just build the enhancement that lets you keep soldiers in the village?

I thought that improvement only let you (and your party) rest in the village, not garrison soldiers there.  I must look into this further!

The manor only lets you and your party rest there... He is likely playing a mod, or doesn't know what he is talking about.

That said I thought of another thing that irks me... Troops that cannot decide what they want to be...

Vaegir Veterans are a good example of this... some are mounted some are on foot... some have maces some have axes.

Bugs the crap out of me.

 

[thb_bandit]

That happens to me so i just keep good relations with all lords even from other factions so they dont raid my villages

 

[thb_bandit]

Actually, it's one thing right now, but it's really, really, really annoying.

It seems that, no matter who my faction (the Nords) are at war with, raiding parties always, always, always seem to go right to my village, Vayajeg, no matter where they originate from.  Sarrinid Sultanate?  Yeah, they go right for it.  Khergit Khanate?  Yeah, they'll trek right across all of Vaegir territory (which we now own, because of my efforts)  to get to MY village.  They pass over several on the way.  Rhodoks?  Yeah, they put a hold on their spat with the Sultan to trek across Swadia and raid my village.  My village holds a strong charge, and the opposite of that charge is "Raid the living hell out of me and ignore all other villages between my land and this one because screw Dragar."  And I haven't raided any of their villages, or besieged any of their castles/towns.  My honor is around 60 and climbing, but it seems that within hours (gametime) of someone declaring war on us to curb our growing power , I get a message about my village being raided--all when I'm off following my useless marshal across lands where they refuse to besiege any territory, then just quit the campaign when Ragnar decides to hold a feast in Sargoth for the tenth time in as many weeks--leaving me holding the bag of smiting incursions across ex-Vaegir territory and chasing down bandits and rooting out their goddamn bases in the middle of nowhere.  It's worked out for me, territory wise--I expanded my towns from Rivacheg and Khudan to include Reyvadin (so I basically own all of the Vaegir towns, and Yargolek remains in my prison because his subjects were too cheap or too broken to try and ransom him in the two months I held him before Reyvadin fell), but I feel like a Dutch boy trying to plug the dike with his fingers as more and more leaks spring up.  I'm too busy fighting someone to attend one of those silly little feasts or otherwise campaign to improve my standing enough to get myself selected as Marshal.  In fact, sometimes I'm so busy off busting chops to keep some of my hinterlands free of Sea Raiders, so my rents and tariffs suffer.


Another, separate, thing is when I'm riding down some worthless peasant on my mighty steed, my lance is couched, and he's about to take a lance in the face, and suddenly one of my cavalrymen cuts in front of me, knocks him over with their horse, and makes mine stop dead, ruining my kill.  In fact, they get in my way a lot, my troops do.  I was storming a castle, and using my crossbow to pick off enemy archers while I let my Huscarls take enough of the parapet to stand without me being crowded by a dozen men, and right as I am about to release, a guy steps in front of me and I headshot my own troop.  This has happened several times.  It seems that every time I shoot one of my men when they charge across my line of fire, it always hits them in the head.  I accidentally threw a javelin when cycling back to my lance, at full tilt, and somehow, I hit one of my troops in the head--the only one in my field of vision, who was towards the edge of my field of vision, and he gets it to the face. 


So that's what's been annoying me lately.  Anyone else have things that annoy the hell out of them in the game?

tell your men to stay back while you go 1v100

 

[ggnorekthx]

Turning it down "supposedly" results in smaller AI retinues and less coordination between them.  I think it does, but not to the degree I need.  Like you, if I besiege a castle or town, I would quickly end up with a 2400+ "Mighty Host" breathing down my neck.  With "Poor" Campaign AI it's only 1500-1800.  These large size retinues are a "late game" phenomenon which really distorts things IMO.  I've noted in numerous posts folks mentioning (not bragging) about wiping out half the map, being king, etc in half the time you mention (600 days).  I think this is only possible because they move upward quickly before the AI gets as powerful as it does.  I'm currently around day 1600 so have experienced what you mention.  And yes, the AI is really not very adept at defending it's holdings.  My experience is the only way to properly defend a town or castle is to take it oneself and leave your army as a garrison.  Otherwise the AI will take a place, leave a minute garrison and go have a feast.  In the meantime the enemy comes down and recaptures the location.

Huh, interesting.  Yeah, I haven't quite seen 2400 guys yet, but 1,000+ is pretty common.  Part of the problem is that since there is already a gap in how many men the Swadians have, it's like a snowball going down a hill.  We have less fiefs, so we have less men (the AI, anyway) so when we take a town they garrison less guys, in turn losing it more easily.  Whenever the Rhodoks or Nords take a town, within a week there's like 150+ guys there, and 80 of them are Sharpshooters/Huscarls/Veterans.

I am assuming the large armies are only possible when that faction isn't constantly at war - which we are.  Having a lot of fiefs probably helps, too lol.

On-topic, although this doesn't annoy the hell out of me, isn't it funny to pick a fight with a noble, destroy him, and then let him go free, only to earn a net reputation increase?  "Thank you for destroying my army!"  When they aren't busy escaping while unconscious.

 

[NJSQRL]

That kind of makes sense though, you have beaten him and could capture him but you show honor and kindness and let him go...

Some lords actually hate that... sure you get the relation increase when you first let them go but the next time you come across them they get all pissy at you.

 

[Nicholas Bell]

That happens to me so i just keep good relations with all lords even from other factions so they dont raid my villages

I have had "friends" that I have a 30+ relationship burn my village, so YMMV on that....

 

[NJSQRL]

How about this one... recently happened...

A small (say 1-3) number of enemy soldiers rout... your entire army gives chase leaving you to deal with the 50 other troops alone