NPC tracking mechanic

[kem]

Current system of generating opponents at the start of every battle is falls short in the case of intentional or unintentional battle restart, and breaks both immersion AND core gameplay experince as history does not affect oppoents party.

For general Gameplay point of view:

1) It rules out skirmishng tactics, as only kills counts, and injuries does not transfer for opfor into next battle, but transfer for the player as well as morale loss for running away. (morale loss for sucessful raid or recon sortie? Why?)
2) All enemies are facesless and baseless.

Example: noble war, “decicsve battle” contract.

Sir Gregor start battle 1 with fearsome greatsword. But the in the next battle (few hours after) he wears an axe and shield, and his armor is pristine, despite him eating an arbalester barrage few hours aerlier.

Impressions: Previous impression of mighty knight is gone, history of great stupidity is ignored.

Example: Orc invasion, “kill the warlord” contract or raid any greenskin camp contract.

Mighty warlord ThrakkTorr is famed for his might and his infamous axe “ThrakkTorr’s choppa”. But if you kiting the warlord and feeding him army patrols, he will start each battle with new assortment of gear and fresh armor.
Or you fail to overcome orc city in the first attempt, and his famed axe is gone.

Impressions: famous warlord with infamous gear become generic sortie leader, player not allowed to watch his slow demise by battling through several encounters and accumulating damage and injuries.

This system is too prone to gaming, if one is set to game it

Examples:

Target:

1) get a desired gear spawn.

For example:

a helmetless raider with a flail or pike in the first couple of encounters, to kickstart your farming business.
a leader/fallen hero with both 230+ armor&helmet as well as a greatsword/any t3 desired weapon.
a famed weapon on a knight/warlord

etc.

2) geat a desired battlemap spawn

an uphill position for goblin city fight.

Means are the same:

1) savescum – roll the battle with the save untill target is met.
2) ironscum – roll the battle with retreat mechanic untill target is met. (use alt+f4 if you optimising time consumption)

What I suggest to add:
1) Implement NPC party rosters
1) Implement nonplayer party rosters. General and detalied. General has party (composition, status log, invetory), detailed has detailed roster with the track of every member and its attributes.
2) Assign random gear/hp/injuries modiiers to winning party in world map npc_vs_npc encounters.
3) Adjust combat generation procedure:

On the first encounter
For every NPC party member
Generate member’s apperance and gear for every NPC.
Apply gear/hp/injuries modifiers to random members.
Or load saved roster and as needed, genarate missing entries for the roster.
4) Log conditions upon battle end. (damage to armor, injuries, HP left). Assign loot to the party inventory. If some piece of gear is missing on a roster member, assign gear piece from inventory to party member. (to plug missing helmet/shield situation if the gear is available)
5) Assighn heal/rapair rates for NPC parties.
6) Adjust rules of repopulation of sites, to delete detailed roster entries for previusly generated line members (if fully healed/rapaired) but keep track of “named” entries and only upgrade their gear as time passes.
7) Add rules for spawning parties, that ran from the battle with the player.

That will allow NPCs to start battle in “damaged” state, to keep track of foes, and their states, previously encountered by the player (named Foes, and line members in cycles between repopulation of the sites). It will allow to HUNT the beast that ran away in the battle (that 3rd lindwurm that runs away when 2 of his kin are killed in battle)

2 Scouting

On battle start menu add “scouting” option, to see the battle site. Sucess -> Generate site for current battle. Failure -> Battle with unfaivorable odds. (enemy party is split into 2-3 parties and occupies 2-3 deployment zones (front + top/bottom)

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