Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: Deshara on October 10, 2020, 01:21:46 AM
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this is a feature in Bannerlord that I really like; if you're a part of a faction, when they go to war & begin drawing together an army the game informs you of the call to arms & and shows them on your map as if they're within sight range no matter how far they are. if you want you can go there, open comms with their commander and make your army a part of theirs with your camera now following around their army on the campaign map with 0 controls beyond "leave army" and when battles happen it's an AI vs AI battle with the player being just 1 body in the press.
Assuming your force is just a small part of the battle it's fairly low-risk since the relative chance one of yours takes a hit is low and you get to once again go back to playing as a small fry as a break from commanding. On top of that, the increased quantity of loot & captured enemies means that the player's inventory fills up faster, which on top of the number of wounded soldiers on your side who need time to rest adding up with no break gives a natural pressure for players using this feature to break away to go offload loot, dump unwanted prisoners and heal wounded troops and refill feedbags so it isn't really viable or optimal for players to use it long-term which prevents it from hurting the pacing of the game. Also, it gives players a chance to participate in battles on a scale they haven't seen yet if they don't have armies yet
And, to be clear, you can only join armies formed for making war with major factions, so you can't just give your forces to a passing trade convoy that never sees action, so if the player is finding themselves a bit bored by the lack of action their newfound large-scale power has given them, the "join army" button is a guarantee for some quick battles without needing to *** up their own diplomatic situation -- which compounds really well with the fact that you can offer mercenary contracts to factions to fight under their flag without needing to actually join their faction and (if you install the mod that lets you communicate with NPC's via letter) you can leave their service whenever you want the instant you're tired of it, no commitment -- you can even tell the faction leader you're terminating your contract with that it was an honor fighting alongside them & have them wish you luck.
also, I had one battle where one of my named companions from my regiment was put in charge of commanding our collective forces which I thought was really cool, watching the AI commander decide one of my right-hand officers was the best person available to lead the battle and receiving direct orders from them on what to do & where to go -- the enemy AI needs the ability to command individual forces around, so getting to RP one of those with free reign to listen or *** up as much as I see fit with the only pressure to perform being the player's natural inclination to carry their weight so the nameless forces under you don't take needless deaths is the exact thing that made the original call of duty (back when they were taken, and took themselves, seriously) & halo (same) games compelling.
it's really good. Now, I'm not the kind of person who feels comfortable telling devs to play competitor's games and shamelessly pillage mechanics wholesale, but, alex should play this competitor's game and shamelessly pillage this mechanic wholesale.