SP - General Too much Intercultural Marriage.

[derWU]

I usually conquer the whole map in 10-15 years, so for me it's never an issue.

weird flex.
Of course this is possible, but there are other people, who like to play the game another way.
If you like to play Bannerlord like an eSports game, why not. But your comment has no value for this discussion.

 

[SadBlueberry]

The game is designed around the heir system having a reason to exist, so while it's possible to conquer the whole map in the first generation right now due to a lot of exploits, it won't necessarily stay that way. Either that or they might speed up the timescale even further so that heirs grow up quicker.

At any rate, single-generation playthroughs probably aren't the intended final design, except maybe on very easy difficulties.

Well, Calradia is quite small and there aren't many feasible ways to stall the player from conquering the whole map in a single generation if they truly forced it to.

Fleshing out diplomacy, Calradian laws, inheritance squabbles, actual land boundaries for each fief, minor court nobles, more domestic problems (not just rebellions; starvation, plague, etc) and myriad of actual governing issues, then the player would be forced to deal with these problems instead of just being Alexander the Great and just mow everyone down through military strength.

But then this becomes an issue of "Is this a M&B game or has it become a Medieval Ruler Sim?" Not that I am not down for the latter but it would require extreme amounts of dedication and vision from TW and I am just not seeing that from them at the moment. I'm willing to settle for a game that has good engaging content, and extremely flexible engine and extreme accessibility to modders to change and mold parts of the game.

The inception of M&B was actually not that great. It was only after several updates and a ton of mods that really made M&B last a very long time. Does anyone remember the initial release of M&B before Warband? And does anybody remember the initial release of Warband?

 

[Apocal]

Well, Calradia is quite small and there aren't many feasible ways to stall the player from conquering the whole map in a single generation if they truly forced it to.

Fleshing out diplomacy, Calradian laws, inheritance squabbles, actual land boundaries for each fief, minor court nobles, more domestic problems (not just rebellions; starvation, plague, etc) and myriad of actual governing issues, then the player would be forced to deal with these problems instead of just being Alexander the Great and just mow everyone down through military strength.

Why do you think this would slow the player down? The AI plays under the same rules.

As long as nothing cuts off the player's replacement stream, it won't slow them down unless they choose to be slowed.

 

[SadBlueberry]

Why do you think this would slow the player down? The AI plays under the same rules.

As long as nothing cuts off the player's replacement stream, it won't slow them down unless they choose to be slowed.

• IRL, there is nothing to really cut off a warlord's replacement stream so doing that is just artificial without adding to actual simiulation.
  • Alexander the Great
  • Attila the Hun
  • Kublai Khan
  • Plenty of conqueror who conquered territory far larger than Calradia within their own lifetimes.
• Just because the AI plays by the same rules doesn't mean anything. Nobody cares that the AI plays by the same rules. In fact, it would be more challenging if the AI had more lenient rules. After all, AI are just not as intelligent or creative as humans are.

Slowing down the replacement stream would be bad (I'm assuming you mean by troop replacement)

• Combat is the main focus of the M&B series. To slow down the replacement stream is to cut down on the fun. What players want are large battles with lots of slicing and smashing.
• There is no depth added to just artificially reducing the amount of troops a player can replace in a single time frame.
• It is better to emulate the reasons why historical rulers of countries didn't just go on a rampage like Alexander the Great or why wars lasted as long as they did (100 years war, 30 years war, etc)
  • Forcing the player to take other aspects of kingdom management into consideration before deciding to expand.
  • Recruitment has historically never been an issue either due to forced conscription or a lack of opportunities elsewhere outside of the army
  • Rulers had a concern with the passage of titles onto their heirs. It is no surprise that many internal conflicts come from claimants, not just disgruntled peasants.

Adding obstacles to the player by preventing them from becoming Alexander the Great with ease is not making the player slow down voluntarily. No, players will be forced to slow down because if not, then even if they manage to conquer all of Calradia, then their empire would dissolve after their death either through another civil war or through an assassination of his offspring (assuming such mechanics were made available in the game).