Different Factions for NI2

[Ramos_Caoliki]

I (personally) am in favor of abandoning the player faction as specifically Swadia / Vlandia, as it would make more sense to have it be a faction that allows us to use the most amount of item variation possible. Different ideas have been thrown around suggesting things like referencing the singleplayer's clan system and having all players be a part of a mercenary faction (in lore), or other similar themes that would allow the player faction to look varied in their culture and allow for a myriad of jobs to do. It would open up the player faction in a lot of ways, and allows us basically a blank slate to do whatever we want with lorewise. Allowing a player to choose their culture for a character could provide some player customization that I think we should always strive for.

However -- the enemy still has to be the Nords. Kriegstofu is correct, as Bannerlord is a prequel, NI2 could focus on the original invasion of the Nords into Sturgia from Jumne. The player faction being hired as a mercenary faction to fight against the Nords all across the continent would be varied enough in setting and interesting enough in lore to provide some good gameplay. In the lore, Sturgia is not the Nords, but the Vaegirs, represented as the Rus in both interpretations. Assumedly, the Nords come from Jumne and take land from the Sturgians and Battanians, pushing the Vaegirs to the east of the map and outright wiping out the Battanians. Other things could happen on top of this, such as different factions allying with the Nords after periods of time and other factions joining the fight against them, changing the enemies every couple of months to keep the gameplay fresh.

Basically: the player faction is less important, but the main enemy has to be the Nords. Does not mean there can't be more than one enemy faction or enemy type.

That sounds brilliant to be fair and after your description, I agree. It would be interesting though to choose a background and maybe have a small passive ability from your chosen heritage similar to the campaign. I.E- you choose Vlandian culture so have a +10 to your polearm or +?? hitpoints skill, or Battanian so have +10 to your archery/throwing, very small but still provides advantages dependent on the playstyle you're going for, this adds a way to create more unique classes that can excel at their role as a pure or branch into other styles.

Would be really cool if possible to have a more fleshed out house/clan system that allowed everyone to craft and contribute / quest as a clan and contribute towards a common goal / get clan renown that can be spent on passive buffs similar to the tournament banner that existed for a while that may last for a set amount of hours. Perhaps even implement an alliance/vassal system.

On the topic of new enemies, it would be interesting to perhaps have quarter-annual "reinforcements" that could present new enemies/bosses/equipment/waves/legendaries something that players can look forward too amongst other things on a semi-regular basis.

Also, have the dev team considered like a 45 wave mode? Essentially just combining normal/hard/rag with better drop rates may be at like 1.1x to reward the greater time requirement.