What are the "friends" in bannerlord for?

[Nawari]

Hello again,

Precisely my question means:

We can have better relations with the clans by doing missions for certain nobles, helping them during combat, etc.

Then we see appear in the page concerning our character a list of friends and adversaries. How are these "individual" (or clan?) Friendships important? What do they bring?

1 - if we create a kingdom, will these friends from other factions vote against a war against us?
2 - Can having a lot of friends in an enemy faction have an impact on peace or war?
3 - Does this have an impact on bartering with them?
4 - do these friendships promote future faction alliances?
5 - in short, what are the effects of these individual friendships? Are they just a way of knowing where we are in our level of relationship with certain clans?
6 - Do these friendships promote "conversions" to our kingdom? Or is it just the level of fame?

Thank you for your answers.

 

[Julio-Claudian]

3 - Does this have an impact on bartering with them?

Yes, it makes it far easier to persuade someone to join you and far cheaper of they want a bribe if you have high relations with them.

Idk about the rest.

 

[guiskj]

Good relations also makes it cost less influence to ask them to join your army. It also makes it more likely they'll back you to get a newly conquered settlement.

Funny thing is, it doesn't really matter. I have had playthroughs where everyone hated me, and I have had playthroughs where everyone liked me. It didn't feel at all different...

Same goes for kingdom policies. I've had playthroughs where I purposefully enacted as many policies as I could and I've had playthroughs where very few were active. Guess what? It didn't feel any different.

These examples are what, to me, show TW's complete lack of understanding of game design. I have made this point (along others) before. It may be too late for Bannerlord, but for the good of TW as a game studio, they need to rethink how they see their games. Interactive software are not games, they are a medium through which a game is brought to life.

 

[Nawari]

I agree with your last point, sometimes it feels like playing on the medium of an upcoming game, hence their calls to create mods, which in my opinion is nonsense. But it's a small studio so probably with limited resources. I just hope that in the future they can afford to go all the way with their creations. A background content is missing in this game which could be sufficient to give an additional game effect. The main quest is more like a tutorial on how to use software than a game. It's a shame even if I manage to have fun anyway.
Thank you for your answers I see that I tortured my mind sometimes for nothing.

 

[zeytinlikraker]

Hey guys,

We call heroes "friends" whose relation is higher than 10. That's all. Other things like barter privileges are related to relation level, not specifically being "friends".

 

[Nawari]

Having said that, I love this game, otherwise I wouldn't play it.

 

[Brodacious]

Only serves to clutter up the encyclopedia page when all you want to see is who their family members are. At least that is my experience with nobles/lords with all their friends and enemies. You can collapse it but it is expanded after you close the encyclopedia .

 

[Nawari]

I love this game but I hope we have more than battles and more battles, the story mode pleases me a lot more than lining up battles without stopping.

 

[TechnoSarge]

But it's a small studio so probably with limited resources.

I saw a photo a few weeks back, which I think was a photo of the studio members. I believe I counted close to 90 faces in it. I don't know how that compares to the Obsidians of gaming, but to me it looks like enough to scope out and generate solutions to issues a lot faster than is happening.

Perhaps their team management is somewhat loose. I can't understand why there are 30 or so types of shoes they are tracking and displaying but someone hasn't figured out that a set of 3 javelins should not be worth more than a city market's ready wealth.

Or why conversations still don't have anything behind "I'd like to ask a question" except "never mind."

 

[stevehoos]

I saw a photo a few weeks back, which I think was a photo of the studio members. I believe I counted close to 90 faces in it. I don't know how that compares to the Obsidians of gaming, but to me it looks like enough to scope out and generate solutions to issues a lot faster than is happening.

Perhaps their team management is somewhat loose. I can't understand why there are 30 or so types of shoes they are tracking and displaying but someone hasn't figured out that a set of 3 javelins should not be worth more than a city market's ready wealth.

Or why conversations still don't have anything behind "I'd like to ask a question" except "never mind."

I am going to bet there's about only 10 of those nice folks who are actually structuring and designing elements. Because each design decision has to get approved from the king it takes even longer.

 

[Antaeus]

The friend list serves as my 'they'll be easier to bribe' list for later in the game.

I play a 'catch and release' strategy, which means everybody ends up on my friend list. Which means lots of good vassals later.

 

[Nawari]

I saw a photo a few weeks back, which I think was a photo of the studio members. I believe I counted close to 90 faces in it. I don't know how that compares to the Obsidians of gaming, but to me it looks like enough to scope out and generate solutions to issues a lot faster than is happening.

Perhaps their team management is somewhat loose. I can't understand why there are 30 or so types of shoes they are tracking and displaying but someone hasn't figured out that a set of 3 javelins should not be worth more than a city market's ready wealth.

Or why conversations still don't have anything behind "I'd like to ask a question" except "never mind."

No, 90 people, they are not all developers and it is in the game world "a small team" ...

 

[sniparsexe]

I saw a photo a few weeks back, which I think was a photo of the studio members. I believe I counted close to 90 faces in it. I don't know how that compares to the Obsidians of gaming, but to me it looks like enough to scope out and generate solutions to issues a lot faster than is happening.

Perhaps their team management is somewhat loose. I can't understand why there are 30 or so types of shoes they are tracking and displaying but someone hasn't figured out that a set of 3 javelins should not be worth more than a city market's ready wealth.

Or why conversations still don't have anything behind "I'd like to ask a question" except "never mind."

Management issues probably, they increased from 12 workers to 90-100 workers really fast that would cause a huge management problem

 

[Nawari]

Management issues probably, they increased from 12 workers to 90-100 workers really fast that would cause a huge management problem

From what I have read, the new team was set up one year before the release of EA and indeed, it is certainly not easy.

 

[Kut]

Something like;

Around 30 devs,

Around 40 game related personnel, (art, community management, interns, etc.)

Around 30 company related personnel. (accounting, marketing, HR, etc.)

It's small imo. Not like basement-garage company level small, but it is small.

 

[ste636]

I can't believe they asked 50 bucks for this sub-par EA...

 

[Nawari]

I can't believe they asked 50 bucks for this sub-par EA...

I agree 50 dollars, or 45 Euros, is a lot. The only way to console us for the cost would be for them to release an excellent free expansion (or "mod") for those who have played EA. But in view of the difficulties they have, I do not believe very much.