Would you prefer more micromanagement options?

[guiskj]

It does feel that way doesn't it and someone had a "conspiracy theory" on the whys it was developed thus.

@guiskj I believe? Apologies if it wasn't you.

We're supposed to be the Harry Potter in this story...but instead, we've been reduced to a cog helpless to even feed our town.

Maybe I should cool off if I am coming across as a conspiracy theorists

For the topic at hand. The vast majority of systems in Bannerlord are interact by the player and NPC in the same way.

We as players love the idea of a leveled playing field, where NPCs have to follow the same rules as the players.

But in reality, instead of elevating NPC behaviour, what this entails is limiting player choice to what NPCs can handle.

In my game design opinion, everything in a game serves one purpose: to add fun for the player.

@mexxico is an amazing, passionate and talented dev, but we differ in opinions here. He has stated multiple times that NPCs should not "cheat" relative to the player.

I believe that effort should be spent on maximizing the players options for fun even if it means that the world and player operate on different sets of rules.

NPCs should interact with the rules in the same way as the player only enough to create enough cohesion so the player can suspend his disbelief. At that point, NPC behaviour should aim to maximize player enjoyment rather than trying to simulate the player.

But anyway, this particular ship has sailed for Bannerlord. And for better or worse, what we have is a simulation software that happens to allow human input. It can still be fun to interact with said simulation, but a game Bannerlord is not. In my opinion, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Fate]

We as players love the idea of a leveled playing field, where NPCs have to follow the same rules as the players.

The sad part is they didn't even get this right

- AI don't need horses to recruit or level up horse units (extremely broken)
- AI respawn with armies after capture

I'm sure there's many more examples

"In my game design opinion, everything in a game serves one purpose: to add fun for the player."

While I definitely understand this, I do think they could add fun to the player while having a level playing field. Giving the player more control of various options would add a substantial amount to the game and start to make it less of just the battle simulator it is

 

[Csatádi]

What options?

 

[Death2Tyrants]

Maybe I should cool off if I am coming across as a conspiracy theorists

For the topic at hand. The vast majority of systems in Bannerlord are interact by the player and NPC in the same way.

We as players love the idea of a leveled playing field, where NPCs have to follow the same rules as the players.

But in reality, instead of elevating NPC behaviour, what this entails is limiting player choice to what NPCs can handle.

In my game design opinion, everything in a game serves one purpose: to add fun for the player.

@mexxico is an amazing, passionate and talented dev, but we differ in opinions here. He has stated multiple times that NPCs should not "cheat" relative to the player.

I believe that effort should be spent on maximizing the players options for fun even if it means that the world and player operate on different sets of rules.

NPCs should interact with the rules in the same way as the player only enough to create enough cohesion so the player can suspend his disbelief. At that point, NPC behaviour should aim to maximize player enjoyment rather than trying to simulate the player.

But anyway, this particular ship has sailed for Bannerlord. And for better or worse, what we have is a simulation software that happens to allow human input. It can still be fun to interact with said simulation, but a game Bannerlord is not. In my opinion, for whatever that's worth.

Heh..

No no. You're quite right BL feels more like a simulation than a game. I had the exact same impression months ago so the background info you provided was interesting. It's all conjecture at this stage however hence "conspiracy theory"...I certainly did not mean to paint it in a negative light!

I'd agree that any single player game's overarching goal ought to be fun for the player.

 

[Nodice83]

I feel that finding balance between "CKV" and "CONSOLE style:hit the x button real hard" is not an easy task. I agree this game requires certain feature improvement / enrichment but making it too complicated wouldn't help either. Some warband mods - however very ambitious - lost their arcade flavour entirely because of some dull and meaningless m. m. features. Game should have certain level of "magic" that goes on in the background instead adding button and sliders to all features IMO.