Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Spectacle]

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3510

Tired of AI parties getting free troops when they are defeated only to come back with doomstacks? Here's your fix. Removes the free troops lords get when they are defeated and respawn. Now they're just like you. This only affects lord parties.

Be aware that this mod will severely nerf the mercenary clans, as all the unique troops they have can't be recruited, they only appear when the party spawns.
For regular kingdom lords the effect won't be that significant, they only get about 15 free troops as a bodyguard so that they don't get ganked by looters right after spawning.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't remember this from before when I played but now you can easily recruit Battanian archers that eventually become Battanian Fians in many villages in Battania area. I started as Vlandian (to get the mercenary bonus) but out of 200 troops in my army, around 90 are Battanian Fians as I did a lot of quests in Battania areas for the villages that keep spawning those units.
They got nerfed multiple times but they are still so powerful. I won a couple of battles where enemies had 50% or more troops than me (not recruit armies) but I managed to win with less than half of my troops lost (and in one I badly moved my troops) and in another I got downed at 1/3 of the battle and AI won by itself with all these Fians.

 

[Fedora Master]

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3510

Tired of AI parties getting free troops when they are defeated only to come back with doomstacks? Here's your fix. Removes the free troops lords get when they are defeated and respawn. Now they're just like you. This only affects lord parties.

Be aware that this mod will severely nerf the mercenary clans, as all the unique troops they have can't be recruited, they only appear when the party spawns.
For regular kingdom lords the effect won't be that significant, they only get about 15 free troops as a bodyguard so that they don't get ganked by looters right after spawning.

That makes it pretty pointless then.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

It gets tiresome to see the same lord coming at you over and over again though. I didn't know the AI would receive free troops after being defeated, but Im not surprised.

What! Is it American lord anon! Is it! What!

 

[Spectacle]

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3510

Tired of AI parties getting free troops when they are defeated only to come back with doomstacks? Here's your fix. Removes the free troops lords get when they are defeated and respawn. Now they're just like you. This only affects lord parties.

Be aware that this mod will severely nerf the mercenary clans, as all the unique troops they have can't be recruited, they only appear when the party spawns.
For regular kingdom lords the effect won't be that significant, they only get about 15 free troops as a bodyguard so that they don't get ganked by looters right after spawning.

That makes it pretty pointless then.

Yeah. The reason lords often come back with big parties right after spawning is because they take troops from garrisons. So it will take more than one battle to win a war of attrition, but eventually the enemy wiill be spent.

 

[vota DC]

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3510

Tired of AI parties getting free troops when they are defeated only to come back with doomstacks? Here's your fix. Removes the free troops lords get when they are defeated and respawn. Now they're just like you. This only affects lord parties.

Be aware that this mod will severely nerf the mercenary clans, as all the unique troops they have can't be recruited, they only appear when the party spawns.
For regular kingdom lords the effect won't be that significant, they only get about 15 free troops as a bodyguard so that they don't get ganked by looters right after spawning.

Why they still use magic troops? They could have raidable outposts where they recruit as any regular faction, they could just add a faction check to avoid foreign lords to recruit from their outposts.

 

[ArchAngel]

https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/3510

Tired of AI parties getting free troops when they are defeated only to come back with doomstacks? Here's your fix. Removes the free troops lords get when they are defeated and respawn. Now they're just like you. This only affects lord parties.

Be aware that this mod will severely nerf the mercenary clans, as all the unique troops they have can't be recruited, they only appear when the party spawns.
For regular kingdom lords the effect won't be that significant, they only get about 15 free troops as a bodyguard so that they don't get ganked by looters right after spawning.

Why they still use magic troops? They could have raidable outposts where they recruit as any regular faction, they could just add a faction check to avoid foreign lords to recruit from their outposts.

That already exists but there are too many lords and not enough troops even for one faction.

 

[Alter Sack]

I have played for several hours until now and noticed some things/differences to warband:

1. There is basically no good loot. I fought several big armies with high tier units but the loot only contains shitty items either bent or rusty. At least in warband you were sometimes lucky to get a good armor or weapon.

2. Because of that my character still looks like an absolute hobo among his better equipped minions. It's kind of funny.

3. After pledging loyalty to a ruler you basically can't avoid getting a fief. I pledged loyalty to the Northern empire and immediately got two shitty newly conquered frontier castles. I remember that it really took some effort to get a fief in warband.

4. To open a workshop you have to run around in the city and find a worker from which you can buy a workshop. It's a little bit annoying. They should integrate an option to do that in the clan menu. Also the depiction of the NPC characters often isn't correct. For example a NPC is called Numbnut the brewer but owns a silver mine and not a brewery. It would make it easier to buy your desired workshop if the depictions were correct.

5. Increasing your weapon skills seems like a damn grindfest. I fought a lot but my weapon skills only increased a little. Increasing those skills in warband didn't take so long if I remember correctly.

6. Smithing seems to be overpowered and the way they tried to limit the usefulness of this skill by introducing "smithing fatigue" seems a little bit strange.

 

[Peachcurl]

@ Alter Sack
Too much shitty loot is true. Although if you're doing lots of fighting, you should probably be able to afford decent gear from shops.

Regarding weapon skill grind: Just to be on the save side, you did invest focus points, right?

And yeah. Smithing is overpowered in terms of the economy. The resources smithing uses are too cheap. If that shit would be expensive, they wouldn't even need that stupid fatigue bandaid.
That aside, I think the advantages of smithing your own gear are fair enough.

 

[deuxhero]

I remember that it really took some effort to get a fief in warband.

If you played as a girl maybe. In Warband kingdoms would literally line up to offer you a fief once you hit a certain fame threshold as a male.

6. I must be the only moron who thinks smithing fucking sucks. Everyone always goes on about how it's OP, but I just don't see it. You have to go out fight some looters or whatever, then you smelt their stuff, then you wait a bunch, then you make some two handed swords as those are the only ones that cost anything, and even then, they only sell for about 2k bucks. Who cares? In the time it takes to do all that you can flip some jewels and get a fat profit, or sack a town or a few armies and get like 50k in loot. Last time I played, I got smithing all the way to around 70, which was long and boring, and even then it barely was worth it, because I paid more in wages while waiting for stamina (even with the perk that cut the cost of waiting in towns) than what I got from smithing (and yes, I know about the orders, those usually suck too asking you to make shitty clubs and daggers for 500 big ones, and when the stars align just right, you maybe get 4-5k for a sword. Wow).

Smithing is like Magikarp: Useless at low levels, but well worth the effort you put into it once it's at mid-level (getting it there is relatively easy if you know that orders, even when failed, give absurd XP. Especially so for the high level ones). The biggest thing going for it is that some weapons can be smelted for great materials while costing little (Pugio and Tribesman Throwing Daggers being the big offenders). Once you do that you can easily buy some wood and a few daggers for 1000, and turn it into two-handes words that sell for 6000+ (which is after high tier equipment prices were nerfed. It used to be even worse). It also helps (but is non-critical) if you grind companions up to 25 smithing so you can off-load your charcoal and iron production onto their stamina expendature (have them do any low level requests once you've gotten enough parts and materials to make it reliable).

Smithing really needs the following tweaks, most of which can be done by mods.
1: Smelting an item gives knowledge of any parts in it in addition to the random chance to get new parts.
2: Stamina recovers on the world map (even if it's at a slower rate)
3: You can use better metal in place of worse metal if you want to. I frequently ran out of the worst metal while sitting on piles of mid-tier stuff.

 

[Zanzoken]

Mount & Blade did not need a crafting system.

 

[GhostCow]

Mount & Blade did not need a crafting system.

No game does imo. It's one of the worst modern trends.

 

[Alter Sack]

We've established earlier in the thread I've no fucking clue what they changed in 1.7, and some of those changes make 0 sense, but based on the 1.6 version,

1. You do get some occasional great drops, mostly when there's multiple lords on the enemy side. Forget about the OP stuff your mooks wear. It's just there for balance reasons, not real, and only autists get butthurt over the fact that some loser in your squad wears 500k in gear but works for like 12 bucks a day. Ignore that and you'll lead a happier life.

Maybe they changed that in 1.7 too? I got into 15-20 major battles until now (with several hundred minions on each side and dozens of lords) but only got shit afterwards.

Or is there a skill that increases loot (and loot quality)? I think in Warband there was one. Well, seems like I have to study the skill trees again.

We've established earlier in the thread I've no fucking clue what they changed in 1.7, and some of those changes make 0 sense, but based on the 1.6 version,

2. Once you get going, you'll be able to afford all the great gear in the world. Tournaments early are your friend. Also, marrying some noble warrior lady is the way, as they usually wear all the top gear and just so happen to be your size. Pure profit.

Interesting. Can you also get a divorce? Maybe I should consider a career as a marriage swindler for my character.

Marry the bitch, plunder her armor, divorce her and rinse and repeat.

So female lords are at least good for something. :D

@ Alter Sack

Regarding weapon skill grind: Just to be on the save side, you did invest focus points, right?

Well, I did invest some points.

My vigor is six and I invested three focus points in one-handed and two in polearm.

But maybe that's not enough.

I must confess that I mostly invested focus points into scouting and leadership to get a faster and bigger army.

But do you even have to invest into scouting if you have employed a high class scout and assigned him the according role?

My high class scout doesn't seem to improve the speed by much, the pathfinder trait only gives me a 0.09 speed increase and despite having 33 extra horses and only 49 footmen I only get a speed increase of 0.12

Edit: Shit, I noticed that Athletics also has an effect on movement speed.

On another note: I got Melion Castle as my first fief now as a subject of the northern Empire. It's a frontier castle and every time there is a big battle close to the castle the other nobles drop off all their prisoners at my castle.

Since the northern Empire is at war with the southern Empire that's the case pretty often. I get basically swamped with prisoners and make a shitload of money ransoming them.

 

[Gumsmith]

Or is there a skill that increases loot (and loot quality)? I think in Warband there was one. Well, seems like I have to study the skill trees again.

Roguery passively boosts how much loot you get though I don't know if it'll make it much easier for you to get your hands on something really nice. Battle loot does seem to mostly be junk, I just sell the armor and smelt the weapons without looking at whatever I actually got.

Crafting is pretty dumb, the game is called Mount & Blade after all, not Hammer & Anvil. I'd prefer to just make a shitton of cash and pay someone to make me a blade that meets my specifications, like how you'd expect a Calradic mercenary warrior merchant to get a weapon he wants. Instead you or your companion need to take a break from mercenary life in order to start your journey from blundering novice to master smith, slowly learning the art and selling all of your imperfect creations until you are finally, finally struck with the divine inspiration needed to make an extra long lance that can also be couched. It's all rather unnecessary.

 

[deuxhero]

According to bannerlordperks, rogery increases loot item value from battles by +0.25% per level. This guy's test confirm it.

 

[Zanzoken]

rogery increases loot item value from battles by +0.25% per level.

The old character system wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than this +0.25% bonus shit. I hate attribute / skill systems that are based on tiny incremental improvements.

Much better to have less frequent but more impactful gains where getting +1 actually means something.

Max attribute of 10 = great
Max attribute of 300 = MMO-inspired trash

 

[deuxhero]

Original/Warband basically required you bank your skill points till your attributes were high enough to advance the right skills, and had massive imbalance between skills: Some were mandatory for the main character and useless to everyone else, some were just plain old useless past a few points, and a few just didn't work (Block). For most skills, you're never only raising a single point at a time due to how XP works.

 

[ArchAngel]

My high class scout doesn't seem to improve the speed by much, the pathfinder trait only gives me a 0.09 speed increase and despite having 33 extra horses and only 49 footmen I only get a speed increase of 0.12

Here's a trick I only discovered on my recent revisit so maybe it'll help you. Sumpter horses are actually fake and ghay. They're not horses where it counts and are good only for carrying your loot and eating in a pinch. In order to get an actual speed increase, you need the premium horses at the rate of 1 horse per footman. Also, you can go a bit higher than that, but if you go overboard and get like 300 horses, you'll get a herd penalty and start moving even slower.

But in general, while I'm playing on everything else realistic I just put movement speed on very easy when starting a new campaign, because I can't be bothered Benny-Hilling all across the map for days.

I never tried it, but now I'm thinking of a Bluebeard/Black Widow type playthrough where in a game with character deaths enabled you mary lords as soon as you can, get their gear, and then make sure an "accident" happens to them by sending them naked into battle with the cheapest possible party. Or alternatively, as a special battle group in your party (but I think 1.7 doesn't let you do that anymore). Then you repeat the process. Not sure how that's going to play out in practical terms, but the idea seems hilarious to me.

Yes, real horses are needed to be equal to amount of non cavalry in your party so you can get a speed bonus. And if number of animals goes over total number of troops you start getting a herding penalty. When leading an army (or maybe even being part of one) extra horses are used for others in army.
I put everything on realistic except damage that I receive (I put that one level down). This is because once you "die", your troops go full retard. If the game let you take over one of your companions and use him to continue commanding your army I would go full realistic for this as well.
This way I can still die if I decide to go retard and go fight in front lines (something I mostly avoid doing) but I will not die to random javelin or arrow while standing being my armies. It is retarded that armies have only one commander and once he falls all command structure falls apart and everyone goes full retard.

 

[vota DC]

rogery increases loot item value from battles by +0.25% per level.

The old character system wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than this +0.25% bonus shit. I hate attribute / skill systems that are based on tiny incremental improvements. Much better to have less frequent but more impactful gains where getting +1 actually means something.

Max attribute of 10 = great
Max attribute of 300 = MMO-inspired trash

How would have worked One handed, two handed, polearm, archery, throwing and crossbow with only 10 skills in warband?

 

[Peachcurl]

How would have worked One handed, two handed, polearm, archery, throwing and crossbow with only 10 skills in warband?

What Zanzoken meant was rather a maximum of 10 points in _each_ skill, rather than limit the number of skills.

But in general, while I'm playing on everything else realistic I just put movement speed on very easy when starting a new campaign, because I can't be bothered Benny-Hilling all across the map for days.

Shit, you can change that at startup? Missed that in my recent new campaign. Guess I'm restarting.

 

[Peachcurl]

btw. what do you guys do to get you started? Mugging looters? Do the arena practice fights for some money?

 

[spectre]

btw. what do you guys do to get you started? Mugging looters? Do the arena practice fights for some money?

Practice fights are shit pay-off. The only good thing about them is that they train stats, but looters are still superior.
So, chase looters to get your fighting skills up to a reasonable level then go for tournaments for a chance of decent gear and, more importantly, renown.
Not sure if they fixed it yet, but smithing used to be borderline cheating. Pretty much solves all your money issues once you unlock some thamaskene stuffies to sell.
Even when not abusing the system, it's fun to complete custom orders.
Make sure you start developing your warband as early as possible and get a companion or two.

 

[Alter Sack]

btw. what do you guys do to get you started? Mugging looters? Do the arena practice fights for some money?

Looters at the beginning. Then I go north and hunt Sea Raiders because they have better loot.

 

[Peachcurl]

Practice fights are shit pay-off.

It's 250 gold, with zero healing/imprisonment downtime. If you'd really start from nearly no gear, it would probably be worth it.

But yeah, looters it is.

 

[Alter Sack]

By the way how can you utilize the stats of your companions?

I only have four positions I can assign to them (scout, quartermaster, surgeon, engineer).

I mean assigning a companion the scout position for utilizing his scouting stat is self explanatory.

But what if I want to utilize the rogue stat of a companion? Will assigning the surgeon position to him also do?

Or will that only make his medicine stat available?