Books: Are They Worth It?

[Weizen1988]

So, books seem extremely expensive, and they take a very long time to read, particularly if you are just doing it when you happen to camp, which im not sure why someone would do other than to read, you heal marching, night doesnt slow you down that much, and theres always things needing done, so are books even worth it? Should i be sitting and waiting more? Takes so long to cross the map that it seems like a waste of time, money and food to just wait around. Am I doing it wrong?

[GhostyGG]

Of course! I *highly* recommend that you read the lotr series by Tolkein. :P

[White Knight]

I always get books as soon as I can get enough money to splurge on something beyond, businesses and equipment. I'll usually have two so I can start reading the next one straight away once I've finished the current one. There are lots of opportunities to read but the primary one for me is when I beseige castles and towns.

Waiting around for an army, blocking a bridge, setting up an ambush, time between tournaments, feasts, etc. These are all examples of times I spend waiting in-game. I'm not sure but even the training fields might count towards reading as well?

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. I have more gold than I can spend and the books offer increases in stats or skills, etc. and that is always a good thing. Just get one, step outside of the city, hit the camp button, select start reading, then break camp and go back into the town to finish shopping. One day, you'll get a message that you are done reading your book.

Not reading books would seem about as foolish in this game as it would be in real life.

Edit- It just occurred to me, are you sitting there and starving your army while you read your book in one sitting? I just let it run automatically in the background and never actively read my books.

[Paperclip *PIRX*COP*]

Originally posted by Weizen1988:

So, books seem extremely expensive, and they take a very long time to read, particularly if you are just doing it when you happen to camp, which im not sure why someone would do other than to read, you heal marching, night doesnt slow you down that much, and theres always things needing done, so are books even worth it? Should i be sitting and waiting more? Takes so long to cross the map that it seems like a waste of time, money and food to just wait around. Am I doing it wrong?

You're not supposed to actively try and finish the books as if they're some part of a quest; you'll mess up the morale of your troops just by sitting around doing nothing. The books are secondary items that automatically progresses in the background while you happen to be doing other stuff (like the poster above me said, anything that you do that involves waiting around such as spending time at the inn, or waiting for an army, or time spent while training camps all accumulate "reading time").

Additionally, the high purchase price means these are designed to help you later on when you're at a much higher level, which is why they seem prohibitively expensive early on when we're just starting out and barely have enough to pay salaries to our troops.

Are they worth it? Well, you DON'T HAVE to have them to finish the game, but the benefits that they provide are certainly useful and important enough. And besides, later on in the game by the time you have, say 400 thousand denars with you and earning 20k denars every pay period, then you don't really bother to think twice about purchasing any of the books -- or all of them at once, if you wish -- because losing a little bit of money (at that point) seems like such a small price to pay get
+1 to Surgery if you have the surgery book;
+1 to Training if you're carrying the Manual of Arms;
+1 to Wound Treatment if the Healing book is in your possession; along with

the permanent stat boosts to trade, persuation, etc. that you'll get from completing the rest of the other books that are available.

And so at least for me, I'd say reading them is most certainly worth it.

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by Paperclip *PIRX*COP*:

Originally posted by Weizen1988:

So, books seem extremely expensive, and they take a very long time to read, particularly if you are just doing it when you happen to camp, which im not sure why someone would do other than to read, you heal marching, night doesnt slow you down that much, and theres always things needing done, so are books even worth it? Should i be sitting and waiting more? Takes so long to cross the map that it seems like a waste of time, money and food to just wait around. Am I doing it wrong?

You're not supposed to actively try and finish the books as if they're some part of a quest; you'll mess up the morale of your troops just by sitting around doing nothing. The books are secondary items that automatically progresses in the background while you happen to be doing other stuff (like the poster above me said, anything that you do that involves waiting around such as spending time at the inn, or waiting for an army, or time spent while training camps all accumulate "reading time").

Additionally, the high purchase price means these are designed to help you later on when you're at a much higher level, which is why they seem prohibitively expensive early on when we're just starting out and barely have enough to pay salaries to our troops.

Are they worth it? Well, you DON'T HAVE to have them to finish the game, but the benefits that they provide are certainly useful and important enough. And besides, later on in the game by the time you have, say 400 thousand denars with you and earning 20k denars every pay period, then you don't really bother to think twice about purchasing any of the books -- or all of them at once, if you wish -- because losing a little bit of money (at that point) seems like such a small price to pay get
+1 to Surgery if you have the surgery book;
+1 to Training if you're carrying the Manual of Arms;
+1 to Wound Treatment if the Healing book is in your possession; along with

the permanent stat boosts to trade, persuation, etc. that you'll get from completing the rest of the other books that are available.

And so at least for me, I'd say reading them is most certainly worth it.

Oh, ok, i thought it only was considered being read while i was actually camping, if its any time im waiting for anything that makes alot more sense. But no i wasnt just sitting tanking my morale, i just wasnt buying them because i thought thats what i had to do to read them.

[Sohei]

I get a lot of reading done while building siege towers or resting in castles to heal. Once you select the book of your choice in the camp menu you will make progress in it whenever you are idle unitl it is finished. Once you reach the point in mid game where you have more money than you can use books are worth it. Before that, you may be better off buying a new set of armor instead.

[DeadlyBob]

good one

[Miiiiiiiiiiiiike]

If you get your trade skill up some more then the price of books drop a lot.

[kevinshow]

I had not noticed before so I wasn't sure if it was just part of the mod or maybe Warband, but recently, I got notices about finishing a book while training peasants. That was a pleasant surprise and it means that now besides reputation with the village and gaining honor in general (for refusing the rewards), now I can feel better that I'm also reading a book at that time.

Other than that, I use the Camp->Wait for a while option when I am leading merchant caravans or cattle around on the map. I usually travel faster than they do, so I get ahead of them a bit and then camp and wait for them.

Just be careful that they don't get attacked my some group outside of your field of vision, especially as the night approaches and you can not see out as far.

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by navorskatie:

I had not noticed before so I wasn't sure if it was just part of the mod or maybe Warband, but recently, I got notices about finishing a book while training peasants. That was a pleasant surprise and it means that now besides reputation with the village and gaining honor in general (for refusing the rewards), now I can feel better that I'm also reading a book at that time.

Other than that, I use the Camp->Wait for a while option when I am leading merchant caravans or cattle around on the map. I usually travel faster than they do, so I get ahead of them a bit and then camp and wait for them.

Just be careful that they don't get attacked my some group outside of your field of vision, especially as the night approaches and you can not see out as far.

Cattle can follow you? Ive had to do some irritating zig zag pattern to keep them moving the right direction every time, i hate cattle.

[Sohei]

Many mods change cattle behavior to follow because the default is a pain.

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by Sohei:

Many mods change cattle behavior to follow because the default is a pain.

Could you post a link for one? I refuse to do those missions because its so annoying the default way.

[Sohei]

Actually, it is included in almost all of the mods. Here it is by itself though.

http://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade/mods/1279/?

[kaiyl_kariashi]

TweakMB allows you to add the functionality to any mod (or even native).

[MiKye200]

When your income starts to reach the point that you are wondering what to spend it all on, then books are an excellent investment.

Imo, the best books are the Party skill reference books(bonus when in inventory).
Putting the +1 Surgery and +1 Healing books in your Healer's inventory adds quite a bonus.
Same for the Pathfinding and other reference books; give them to your specialists in those skills.

The books that give a +1 to skills after being read are best read later in a career, as the bonus they give makes it harder to raise the skill through normal experience; I like to read those skill books when I have stopped allocating skill points to those skills.
Eg. say you've reached 4 skill in Tactics and 15 in Intelligence and are wondering whether to purchase and read the Tactics book.
If you do buy and read the book, then your Tactics will now be 5 but you will need to invest three more points(to reach 18) in Intelligence before you can raise yourTactics to 6.
If you defer buying the book and allocate your next skill point to Tactics, then read the book, then you will still have Tactics skill of 6 but will have spent three less skill points on Intelligence.
That's one example.

[salmpayne]

More often than not I end up finishing them when looting villages or waiting for a seige. And I agree with several of the earlier posts in saying that they are most useful late game when you need 50-60k expierence to get one skill point.