is it worth upgrading villages

[Aeonir]

i just got my first fief and i wondered, these upgrades take a lot of time and money is it worth spending that?

[Tankfriend]

In the end, you'll make more money than before, and get the villagers happy and prosperous, which will increase the number of recruits you can get.
One thing you can do is train the engineer skill on yourself or a companion - it decreases building times for all your fiefs, as well as siege equipment.

[G. Alexander]

I think when you're bringing in alot of income and have alot of fiefs, go ahead. That one village could get taken over and you'd have done it for nothing.

[Aeonir]

i only have 1 so i suppose i should upgrade it then

[Asphe]

Take a look at the supposed return... and calculate how long it'll take to get your money back. What about... a reasonable profit... considering you could've spent the money on fancy horses, fancier swords and fabulous clothes.

Short answer? Almost never. What upgrades you'd want are those that give a specific function, like the ability to rest/wait at the village.

Stuff you probably never should upgrade... watchtower (doubles the time you have to 'rescue' the peons from being looted'). Seriously... the odds are SLIM that you'll get back in time anyway.

Towns/Castles. Where you can garrison troops and fight sieges.

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Some mods made it very worthwhile to do this though. Just not in Vanilla.

[fishhooks]

What Asphe said. Unless it's a village way back in your holdings, with virtually zero chance of being raided, upgrading is a money suck. I've had some success with villages that are safe from attack, and in those rare instances, building a mill increases their income to over 2k, which is great. Problem is, if the village gets raided and I can't get to it in time to stop the raid, the income goes to ♥♥♥♥ for a VERY long time...Better off buying a Bastard sword and killing a hundred bandits.

[wonderpup]

Honestly, upgrading villages is almost pointless. As long as they have a continuous flow of farmers going to and from them they will get more and more prosperous over time. Albeit, 99% of the time they get raided while you are out being a hardcore mothertrucker.

I wouldn't reccomend it, but I would suggest that you do some missions for them from time to time. Not only does this increase their happiness, but once it gets high enough they start giving you more and more as well as upgraded troops. Needless to say, this comes in handy when you are getting ready for some of the bigger fights.

Hope I was of help, best of luck in your adventure!

[Xenothor]

I'd say no for the most part, other than the school may be worth it to improve your relationshiip with the village. Trying to maintain a village at a rich / very rich prosperity takes a lot of work during times of war, as once it gets looted it goes back to being very poor and takes weeks to build it's prosperity back up again, and even a failed looting attempt against your village will set it's economy back a bit.

- You'll probably never make your inverstment back from building a mill, so don't waste the money. You'll likely only get an extra 15-50 a week for your investment.

- A messenger post and watch tower help you protect againt looters, but it's not worth the effort for the little extra money that a rich village earns you. A poor village will make you around 300/week while a rich village on average will make around 1000/week. It's a lot of work for 700/week which can be made far more easily through other methods.

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

When I read you saying "I only have one", it sounds like you have nothing.
I wouldn't mind to have one village to take care of, let say as a mayor for instance, watching over hundreds of lifes.
Spoiled kids are spoiled... and kids. Which one is worse?

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

You could keep only the part you like in a quote.

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

Just quote, and erase what you don't need within (highlight and erase), making sure to keep the starting and ending [*quote] + [/*quote]" (without the *)

Originally posted by Asphe:

Take a look at the supposed return... and calculate how long it'll take to get your money back. What about... a reasonable profit... considering you could've spent the money on fancy horses, fancier swords and fabulous clothes.

Short answer? Almost never. What upgrades you'd want are those that give a specific function, like the ability to rest/wait at the village.

Stuff you probably never should upgrade... watchtower (doubles the time you have to 'rescue' the peons from being looted'). Seriously... the odds are SLIM that you'll get back in time anyway.

Towns/Castles. Where you can garrison troops and fight sieges.

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Some mods made it very worthwhile to do this though. Just not in Vanilla.

and...

Originally posted by Asphe:

Edited...

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

I'm very glad you've understood my frenchglish. I'm not sure I would have...

[DROPbear]

no. vanilla WB upgrading fiefs rare contribute much. If you insist on upgrading them, the only reasonable fief upgrade would be watchtower (increase enemy time to pillage by 50% - thats basicly 2-3 days)

[Scrogdog]

I agree it is not worth it. If you have money; invest.

http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Productive_Enterprise

Watch it, this article may lead you to believe things that aren't true. Such as the fact that Rivacheg and Jelkala are the only two places that import raw silk perhaps implying that both places are good for a dyeworks, when in fact Rivacheg is the best place on the map for one and Jelkala the worst.

The guild master tells you the expected profit for each building.

[Reno Story]

With nearly 1000 hours of gameplay under my belt, I can say... Nah, don't worry too much about it.

While your first village does a great job of keeping your army costs down, there isn't much need to invest money into it in the early game, mainly because of 2 things:

1: The village is going to get raided sooner or later, no matter how hard you try to protect it. I remember as a noob how protective I was of my village, camping near it and keeping a watchful eye over it. After awhile, though, i soon realized how pointless it was to delay what was bound to happen anyways. It's not like it will remain a burning pile of rubbish forever, it'll start right up again sooner or later.

2: The Town/castle it is connected to might defect. This sometimes happens in my games, where an arse betrays his king and takes his castle with him, along with your first fief that you only recently got.. It is quite annoying when this happens, but also goes to show that it is a bit risky to invest in a village early in game if you don't trust the castle owner.

In late game, though, when you have a buttload of money, go right ahead and invest away. Schools are a must in every village, to make gaining their favor much easier while you are out fighting wars. And since Upgrades stick with the village forever, you won't have to worry about reinvesting in it.

And while Mills are helpful, you can probably save more money while killing two birds with one stone by helping the villagers in some way or another. Gaining their favor is very important if you want to build larger armies on the quick.

[DROPbear]

Originally posted by cqqks:

native game, no mod's.

Originally posted by y3ivan:

no. vanilla WB upgrading fiefs rare contribute much. If you insist on upgrading them, the only reasonable fief upgrade would be watchtower (increase enemy time to pillage by 50% - thats basicly 2-3 days)

Should your village have a watchtower but no messenger post, you won't be notifed of an attack until after its been looted.

zoom out and check visually by pointing your mouse over the fiefs. If you are nearby the sector, you will be informed regardless. Messanger post informed you even if you are half way across the map.