Merkwuerdigliebe

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

I actually like the fact that sometimes the tracks are hard to find – Just like in real life, sometimes it’s really hard to track the people/wolves you are looking for down.
And you know what you’re getting into when you accept the contract, so it’s up to you to evaluate the risks and benefits.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

And blessed weapons. Buff against undead, to be purchased with a limited duration at the temple.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Oh, sorry, EDIT: I wanted to add that the “one-hit kill” nature could be solved if you had a way to disable the attacks somehow. As with the mammoth – if you properly ensnare it in nets, it won’t be able to use its “stomp” ability (unless in heavy armor, instakill 500 dmg), just the “tusk” attack, which is weaker (but still highly damaging if it hits unarmored men).

There could even be specialized mammoth-hunting gear (super-heavy axes, team spears). Something like adjusted and refined large orc weapons.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

I agree that the game needs a “boss beast” kind of enemy (in effect, an AFV, which I need to team-storm). I also agree that one-hit killing machines are too hard to handle. I won’t go to a fight that may cost me 3-4 top-trained men even if it goes fairly well.

I actually propose mammoths – beasts that just travel over the map like wild animals (perhaps seasonally?). If you want to, you can try to “hunt” them for meat, fur and tusks. They usually keep in the uninhabited parts, but if some of them go too near villages, the people there will hire you to shoo them off. You might get an old huge male go nuts and stomp over nearby settlements from time to time…

You could even add an ecological element to it – if you kill too many of them (or too many calves), they will come in smaller numbers next year.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Hunting: If I have a hunter/poacher in my party, I should be able to track animals – the same way as enemies. If I happen upon a herd of deer, I would like to engage them in combat, see how many I can hunt down before they run away and skin and butcher the successfully shot ones (if I have an actual butcher in my party, I get more meat or some other extra product I can sell).

This goes in the general direction of more meaningful advantages from different professions of your recruits. Hunters could give you some extra scouting (including for combat prep) and woodspeople could give you faster movements in forests etc.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

How about if I could save up for a war ship and set out adventuring/plundering off to the sea?

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Two more ideas, of a more procedural nature:

I would really appreciate some kind of a “fog of war” marker. When I am exploring an area I have already discovered (because somebody in Bramming hinted that there might be rare armor in the hills west of town – so I’m trying to find a newly spawned orc camp) I can’t tell what I have recently seen or not – especially since the visual range changes with light conditions and altitude. I’m imagining a transparent shroud that lifts for a day when I visit the place again and comes back a day after I leave.

Secondly, what about some kind of a weapon attachment for my men? Either an event by which they form a bond with a specific weapon (this is my lucky axe from that bloody battle! I get +10 melee skill when I use it and -5 when I use anything else*) or simply a learned preference for the type of weapon the character is using habitually (+5 when using hammers, -5 for two-handed weapons, until the character gradually re-adapts to something new – on top of the mastery perk).

*This might possibly be in the game already, but I haven’t encountered it.

Oh – and one more thing: Mushroom huntingForaging? Like in a wooded area, I might lose time for a chance to find some food, when I’m in really dire straits?

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Well ok, fair enough – even though you already have magic and trading in the game – but the lack of some sort of goal or advancement does get grinding after a while. It’s fun and all, but once I have 15 level 11 men, mostly with rare armor and weapons, there isn’t really much left to do. I should at least get to fight in a larger battle as a unit in a noble’s army or something.

But here are some other ideas I would appreciate:

Riders. We have goblin wolfriders, I want to buy a horse or two. And take care of them (and saddle, armor and level them up) as befits a valuable property of the time and setting. Extra movement and height advantage, charge special ability, weak against spears and polearms, can sometimes kick enemies (or go panic and hit your own men)…

Some sort of a “farm” or temporary retirement for some of my men. A place where I could retain a couple of them and, let’s say, give them only half their pay for the duration. I can’t really experiment with different formations and tactics when the majority of my team is locked into a specific role (e.g. heavy swordman – brawny colossus shield expert and swordmaster) and I can’t let them go without permanently losing them. This again comes back to the idea of some kind of a base camp…

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

This is a good idea. But it carries the risk of a death spiral – you go through a rough patch, lose experienced men and, on top of it, can’t even recruit any decent noobs, so you go underpowered into the next assignment and lose another guy…

But I agree that your reputation should involve this aspect as well. Potential recruits would certainly take this into account and request either more money or refuse to join at all. (You could go really deep and crazy and have recruits demand certain levels of armor or that they always carry a shield etc.)

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