The factions in Bannerlord aren't as cool or fun as the factions in Warband

[ximslammin]

Bannerlord factions seem bland, dull, lifeless, no personality and honestly, boring in comparison to the factions in Warband. Am I the only one who feels that way?

Great game. I'm just not feeling the factions. I can't wait for total conversion mods like Prophecy of Pendor.

[Young Erusean Officer]

The Empire is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sweet. So is Battania. Vlandia is too much what if Rhodoks never seceeded from Swadia but still neat.

[Morkonan]

Unit balancing still hasn't really been done, IMO. So, some changes there could really differentiate the styles of the Factions a great deal.

I'm reminded of Floris Modpack and its unit trees, here. It moved very far away from the sort of "cookie-cutter" approach of Native Warband units. Factions still retained certain strengths that were undeniable, but the idea that certain Factions were practically incompetent in some abilities was completely scrubbed clean.

I don't like the concept that Strength in one ability must mean Weakness in another. Right now I think that's what we have in Bannerlord for the most part. IF there is anything that could be considered a "bad idea" in Bannerlord, that's the first thing I'd point to as a bad idea for a general design principle concerning Faction units.

PoP = Most favoritist Warband TC mod evar :)

[Nasse-Setä]

I want to say I like Bannerlord's factions much more than I ever cared for any of the factions in Warband, but then I hardly ever got around to doing war for anyone but the Nords in Warband. Incidentally, I was devastated to find out that Nords aren't a thing in Bannerlord.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Young Erusian Officer:

The Empire is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sweet. So is Battania. Vlandia is too much what if Rhodoks ever seceeded from Swadia.

The Empire needs a basic light-cavalry melee unit, sort of like a fast-moving Scout, but without any serious ranged capability, IMO. A "Light Lancer" unit would be perfect for the Empire as their decent Noble troops can be difficult to acquire and maintain right now.

[Bumbleton]

Originally posted by Young Erusian Officer:

The Empire is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sweet. So is Battania. Vlandia is too much what if Rhodoks ever seceeded from Swadia.

Vlandia is like that BECAUSE its pre-succession. Otherwise, I don't think they're Bland, but TW seems to have gone the route of making sure each army has SOME unit able to field a given role. Rhodoks and Nords didn't have any cav, being pure foot armies, and that made them... different. Whereas here, even the forest barbarians can field cavalry, even if they sorta suck.

[RunningHill]

Mostly played modded warband. Vanilla wasn't as fun. Guess it will be the same with Bannerlord.

[Nasse-Setä]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

I don't like the concept that Strength in one ability must mean Weakness in another.

I think that's one of the most basic gameplay principles to make armies feel different from each other.

[ximslammin]

Originally posted by Nasse-Setä:

I want to say I like Bannerlord's factions much more than I ever cared for any of the factions in Warband, but then I hardly ever got around to doing war for anyone but the Nords in Warband. Incidentally, I was devastated to find out that Nords aren't a thing in Bannerlord.

Didn't the devs mention once that a Nord invasion mechanic will be implemented at some point? Maybe we'll be able to play them then ?

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Nasse-Setä:

... Incidentally, I was devastated to find out that Nords aren't a thing in Bannerlord.

The first DLC will probably be something like a "Nord Invasion" expansion pack. :)

Just a guess. And, if not, that's going to be the first mod I start hunting for. Calradia belongs to the Nords!

[madracc00n]

With current recruit system i feel like i am playing with enemy units more then with my starting faction/units.

[Wigbert FriggleShit]

On the contrary I think they really are great mainly because just like the previous game, the factions draw from obvious historical models. The obvious new inclusions are the Empire factions which are clearly inspired by the Byzantines, and you can look on any Total War forum and see how popular Byzantines are with the general public. I'm a big fan of them myself as I'm a big fan of heavy armor and shield infantry in general. The cataphracts are fantastic as well.
The other distinctly new faction, the Battanians, have a distinct Celtic feel to them, and I would arguably say they have the most character out of all of the new factions.

I honestly don't miss the Rhodoks (who I feel were Northern Italian/Central European inspired and largely rolled into today's Vlandian faction, which has a very Swadian culture, AKA Western European)

I do however miss the Vaegirs (Eastern Europe) which has since been somewhat rolled into the Sturgians (which is now predominatly very Nord-like, AKA Scandinavian)

[Nasse-Setä]

Originally posted by Kabal:

Didn't the devs mention once that a Nord invasion mechanic will be implemented at some point? Maybe we'll be able to play them then ?

I haven't been looking at anything the devs have been doing aside from the patch notes because I don't like to get hype for things that might be, but hopefully that does happen.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Nasse-Setä:

Originally posted by Morkonan:

I don't like the concept that Strength in one ability must mean Weakness in another.

I think that's one of the most basic gameplay principles to make armies feel different from each other.

That's very true. It's a pretty easy way to approach it. But, it leads to a sort of "cookie-cutter" kind of feel. And, how many variations on that can one affect before some Factions just get... left out. (I'm looking at you, Sturgia. :))

Floris had a very similar approach, but instead of having a very low "low end" in capability, there were some equalizers added so that factions wouldn't be hamstrung by, for instance, not having a decent Archer unit. The Nords got some decent Archers. They weren't great compared to some other factions, but at least they now had some sensible Archers that could do... archery stuffs. :)

But, they also didn't get the rofl-one-shot-armor-piercing and outrageously-armored power of Rhodock Sharpshooters. So, each maintained a certain type of Strength that did tend to favor certain sorts of tactics, making those factions play somewhat "uniquely" in what the player was naturally inclined to favor.

PoP had a similar situation, too. (Once certain factions finally got their rebalancing.) So, no unit was ultimately terrible and some factions could have strong units in different roles. Those that had multiple units that were considered "good" in their role didn't have any overpowered units. Those that had one really powerful unit may have some other units that were serviceable, but not quite "good" in their role.

IOW - It's possible to give factions units that allow them to have functional capability in a role without watering down every faction so none are unique. Just my opinion, though, and I can certainly understand the appeal of more extreme approaches. Even "cookie-cutter" sort of rock-paper-scissors faction design can be a lot of fun.

[Darth Revan]

@Morkonan
well, if battania would not exist then the sturgians would not have gotten left out since they would have the best archers in the game then. :)

Originally posted by Wigbert FriggleShit:

...........

I do however miss the Vaegirs (Eastern Europe) which has since been somewhat rolled into the Sturgians (which is now predominatly very Nord-like, AKA Scandinavian)

thats because of the nord mercenaries who migrated into sturgian realm, however patch 1.1.0 made sturgian troops look more eastern european than they did before.

[Scrotum Scratcher]

I think the factions each need their strengths and weaknesses more pronounced. Every faction seems quite similar as of right now and it makes the game more boring, atleast to me.

The aesthetics of the factions are well done however.