Mikal Manfriedson
Veteran
It would be a good thing when armor would come in flavors itself and doubling effectiveness versus certain sources:
E.g: Plate would be good versus thrust and offer a bit more piercing resistance - at least it should offer excellent protection versus primitive stuff like thrown rocks and weak blunt (clang!). It would be weak versus high damage blunt or cut as it tends to deform
Mail would be great versus cut, but weak versus pierce and thrust
Padded would be good versus blunt and slash but weak versus thrust and pierce types.
Let us think the armor would do a full-scale reduction meaning 30 armor means -30 dmg deduced from hit. Maybe let through a minimum damage of 10% of the original hit. The program should be able to cope with it as it checks the area hit. If resistant versus this damage type, add+50%, if weak deduce -50%. This is just a primitive assumption and model but will give some troops more staying power and will make swarm tactics with light troops more efficient or at least important.
Furthermore, I wonder, whether we should be able to equip our troops ourselves as we already do with horses upon levelling. If we are to buy the weapons and armor ourselves for upgrading troops instead of paying a flat tiny sum of gold we could go the following model instead:
Imagine you recruit a X recruit that comes with his own equipment. Let's take a Vlandian Recruit for instance. Upon leveling we need to have the following items in inventory to make it work:
- for infantry branch we need a level 1 shield, a level 1 SH weapon, a level 1 head armor and some cloth armor.
- for the levy crossbowman we would need similar armor, no shield, a light X-bow and 2x bolts and a lvl 1 SH weapon
Wage would raise from 1 gold per day to 2 gold per day as for the assumption unit tier/level (for companions) equals gold costs per day. So it might become a bit easier to maintain an army, but raising it to higher levels will become harder so we eliminate the spamming of high quality troops as equipment is limited. Loot will become more important as it offers higher quality gear and not just another gold token for paying your army. Carpenters, Tanners and ironmongers will become more important as they supply the towns with needed weapons. Also persuading prisoners to join your forces will be a good thing to get higher-tier units without the need of buying their equipment. It happens slowly currently which is fine.
Yes, this is micromanagement, but meaningful micromanagement as you will really look what you will do. Imagine going to war with a Vlandian warband - you gain enough XP but are in empire lands. Problem: you might not get the proper equipment to level up your troops in the field but need to return to Vlandia to buy the correct stuff. Or you recruit auxilliar units from the empire or have them ready before campaigning. It changes the way, armies are built and gives trade a bit more muscles on its bones. Of course, silly prices like 30.000 gold for a bow must go now. Equipping the player should not be ridiculously expensive. The problem is: is there enough of the high level gear he wants to buy? Maybe only available in certain cities and not when a lord recently has bought the market empty because he upgraded his army. Maybe we should be able to order stuff at a smithy so he can tell us: your weapons and armor will be ready in 6 days - you can get retrieve them once you visit the city again.
For us it is just pay X gold and occasionally have a horse/war horse present.
I guess I should think again about this idea and make a suggestion thread about this. This might improve trade and campaigning a lot and give smithing a good reason to exist (what you don't have sturgian axes? Gimme your mallet and let me at the anvil, will ya?).
For peasant units I would offer the following mechanism:
- they are non-combattants and cannot be used in offensive battles but will form their own group when defending. They cost 1 gold per day and can be used to handle 5 animals of any type but use a slot in your army versus troop count.
- they can be upgraded to either their culture specific recruit or to a mercenary recruit with slightly different armament/stats which will result in merc style troops ending in merc cav, hired blades and hired crossbows
That way peasants are somewhat useful as they resemble camp followers increasing the number of horses, mules and other animals without danger of being killed in offensive battles.
E.g: Plate would be good versus thrust and offer a bit more piercing resistance - at least it should offer excellent protection versus primitive stuff like thrown rocks and weak blunt (clang!). It would be weak versus high damage blunt or cut as it tends to deform
Mail would be great versus cut, but weak versus pierce and thrust
Padded would be good versus blunt and slash but weak versus thrust and pierce types.
Let us think the armor would do a full-scale reduction meaning 30 armor means -30 dmg deduced from hit. Maybe let through a minimum damage of 10% of the original hit. The program should be able to cope with it as it checks the area hit. If resistant versus this damage type, add+50%, if weak deduce -50%. This is just a primitive assumption and model but will give some troops more staying power and will make swarm tactics with light troops more efficient or at least important.
Furthermore, I wonder, whether we should be able to equip our troops ourselves as we already do with horses upon levelling. If we are to buy the weapons and armor ourselves for upgrading troops instead of paying a flat tiny sum of gold we could go the following model instead:
Imagine you recruit a X recruit that comes with his own equipment. Let's take a Vlandian Recruit for instance. Upon leveling we need to have the following items in inventory to make it work:
- for infantry branch we need a level 1 shield, a level 1 SH weapon, a level 1 head armor and some cloth armor.
- for the levy crossbowman we would need similar armor, no shield, a light X-bow and 2x bolts and a lvl 1 SH weapon
Wage would raise from 1 gold per day to 2 gold per day as for the assumption unit tier/level (for companions) equals gold costs per day. So it might become a bit easier to maintain an army, but raising it to higher levels will become harder so we eliminate the spamming of high quality troops as equipment is limited. Loot will become more important as it offers higher quality gear and not just another gold token for paying your army. Carpenters, Tanners and ironmongers will become more important as they supply the towns with needed weapons. Also persuading prisoners to join your forces will be a good thing to get higher-tier units without the need of buying their equipment. It happens slowly currently which is fine.
Yes, this is micromanagement, but meaningful micromanagement as you will really look what you will do. Imagine going to war with a Vlandian warband - you gain enough XP but are in empire lands. Problem: you might not get the proper equipment to level up your troops in the field but need to return to Vlandia to buy the correct stuff. Or you recruit auxilliar units from the empire or have them ready before campaigning. It changes the way, armies are built and gives trade a bit more muscles on its bones. Of course, silly prices like 30.000 gold for a bow must go now. Equipping the player should not be ridiculously expensive. The problem is: is there enough of the high level gear he wants to buy? Maybe only available in certain cities and not when a lord recently has bought the market empty because he upgraded his army. Maybe we should be able to order stuff at a smithy so he can tell us: your weapons and armor will be ready in 6 days - you can get retrieve them once you visit the city again.
For us it is just pay X gold and occasionally have a horse/war horse present.
I guess I should think again about this idea and make a suggestion thread about this. This might improve trade and campaigning a lot and give smithing a good reason to exist (what you don't have sturgian axes? Gimme your mallet and let me at the anvil, will ya?).
For peasant units I would offer the following mechanism:
- they are non-combattants and cannot be used in offensive battles but will form their own group when defending. They cost 1 gold per day and can be used to handle 5 animals of any type but use a slot in your army versus troop count.
- they can be upgraded to either their culture specific recruit or to a mercenary recruit with slightly different armament/stats which will result in merc style troops ending in merc cav, hired blades and hired crossbows
That way peasants are somewhat useful as they resemble camp followers increasing the number of horses, mules and other animals without danger of being killed in offensive battles.