Unique towns/cities/castles + Siege gameplay

[betafrog310]

So far I am enjoying the game but there are aspects of it that could use improvement, namely the siege gameplay and the lack of variety when it comes to the town, city and castle designs for each faction. In Warband, each one of them was unique, and it really added to the immersion. So it was a bit disappointing that they all have one design per faction.

The lack of variety in city design leads into my criticism of the siege gameplay, because instead of each castle or city requiring a unique strategy (something that I thought was really cool about Warband), all you have to do is adopt one strategy for each faction's castles and cities (i.e, use one strategy for Sturgian castles, another for Khuzait castles, another for Imperial castles, etc.). So almost every siege ends up playing out the same way since you always attack from the same direction, siege weapons are useless since walls are indestructible (only the crenelations are), you can't place siege weapons/barricades/siege engines/troops where you want so there is almost no strategic element. Basically you just send wave after wave of troops up ladders and siege towers until you win.

My suggestions are:

-make cities and castles unique, or at least introduce more variations
-allow free placement of siege engines/weapons, barricades and troops
-give us the option to attack from different directions
-maybe give us different order options such as designate where artillery should aim/fire/cease fire
-make castle and city walls destructible, at least certain sections

Anyways, that's just my 2c, hope you all have a wonderful day.

 

[monkeynomics]

didn't they say they were reusing some stuff for now but were going to make unique scenes for everything eventually?

and:
- free placement of engines would probably be too much work for too small a gain in gameplay. maybe mods for that.
- you can actually command the artillery and fire it yourself wherever you want it to fire.
- city walls are destructible (by siege engines). you can demolish walls to create wide foot entrances to the keeps/castles.

 

[wookdaddy]

How do you direct artillery where you want it to fire? I didn't know that.

 

[orbitup]

How do you direct artillery where you want it to fire? I didn't know that.

By getting in there and doing it yourself.

 

[wookdaddy]

Lame, by the time you hit anything your army is already there. Defeats the purpose.

 

[betafrog310]

didn't they say they were reusing some stuff for now but were going to make unique scenes for everything eventually?

and:
- free placement of engines would probably be too much work for too small a gain in gameplay. maybe mods for that.
- you can actually command the artillery and fire it yourself wherever you want it to fire.
- city walls are destructible (by siege engines). you can demolish walls to create wide foot entrances to the keeps/castles.

I guess that's a small consolation, I admit I haven't read all of the different press releases.

I remember seeing a gameplay video years ago where there was free placement of everything. It was something I was really looking forward to, and it was a bit of a letdown when I realized it was more like a mobile game.

And no, you can't tell your troops where to fire or break any walls during battle. If you have evidence that shows otherwise, could you please link to it?

 

[Kipch@k]

So far I am enjoying the game but there are aspects of it that could use improvement, namely the siege gameplay and the lack of variety when it comes to the town, city and castle designs for each faction. In Warband, each one of them was unique, and it really added to the immersion. So it was a bit disappointing that they all have one design per faction.

The lack of variety in city design leads into my criticism of the siege gameplay, because instead of each castle or city requiring a unique strategy (something that I thought was really cool about Warband), all you have to do is adopt one strategy for each faction's castles and cities (i.e, use one strategy for Sturgian castles, another for Khuzait castles, another for Imperial castles, etc.). So almost every siege ends up playing out the same way since you always attack from the same direction, siege weapons are useless since walls are indestructible (only the crenelations are), you can't place siege weapons/barricades/siege engines/troops where you want so there is almost no strategic element. Basically you just send wave after wave of troops up ladders and siege towers until you win.

My suggestions are:

-make cities and castles unique, or at least introduce more variations
-allow free placement of siege engines/weapons, barricades and troops
-give us the option to attack from different directions
-maybe give us different order options such as designate where artillery should aim/fire/cease fire
-make castle and city walls destructible, at least certain sections

Anyways, that's just my 2c, hope you all have a wonderful day.

%100 agree with your points and i want to add some more;

Some cities and castles does have different layouts but not different enough use different approaches.
I think destruction right now is decent enough. What find lacking is the siege layout varieties. I think our engineering skill should drasticly change the equipments lay on the siege. for an example worst quality battering rams or tower, maybe even they should be acquired with a perk or something. barricades have much lower health or less barricades. If you have better engineering skill you should have more arrow barrels, reinforced barricades, battering rams or towers. this way you can choose your most preffered tactics through perks you choose.

In history, castles and towns usually build on top of hills and shorelines. I dont see that in bannerlord. Some cities can be in so difficult terrain maybe towers shouldnt even be an option to siege them.

 

[betafrog310]

%100 agree with your points and i want to add some more;

Some cities and castles does have different layouts but not different enough use different approaches.
I think destruction right now is decent enough. What find lacking is the siege layout varieties. I think our engineering skill should drasticly change the equipments lay on the siege. for an example worst quality battering rams or tower, maybe even they should be acquired with a perk or something. barricades have much lower health or less barricades. If you have better engineering skill you should have more arrow barrels, reinforced barricades, battering rams or towers. this way you can choose your most preffered tactics through perks you choose.

In history, castles and towns usually build on top of hills and shorelines. I dont see that in bannerlord. Some cities can be in so difficult terrain maybe towers shouldnt even be an option to siege them.

I agree. The engineering skill should definitely have more impact on how sieges play out; I like the idea of the barricades being different and the equipment health changing according to perk and skill level.

 

[monkeynomics]

I guess that's a small consolation, I admit I haven't read all of the different press releases.

I remember seeing a gameplay video years ago where there was free placement of everything. It was something I was really looking forward to, and it was a bit of a letdown when I realized it was more like a mobile game.

And no, you can't tell your troops where to fire or break any walls during battle. If you have evidence that shows otherwise, could you please link to it?

you can damage walls in the middle of the battle. siege engines can "remove" (demolish) the part of the wall that gives cover to infantry up there. i don't think you can, however, actually demolish the wall itself during the battle, like you can before the battle with catapults and trebuchets in order to make a hole so infantry can freely walk through during the battle.

and regarding unique scenes: i'm pretty chill about it since i know they're going to make everything unique eventually. it's one of the things they seem to always worry about. not all developers are the same. talewords cares about it. look at the sheer amount of clothing, for example. it's insane. from a numeric point of view (armor defense values vs weight) it's absolutely useless, but they did it in favor of some purely cosmetical realism or degree of detailing for the cities. they definitely care about making the scenes look pretty.