Need for change

[Barristan]

Small groups of three-four operating seperatley is also a good strategy to try on maps with divergent spawns.

[Jacatho]

I like how it currently is becuase it is a lot of team work and defensive stratagies which make the game fun.

[Noidenous]

Not to harp on the fact, but this is why I find the suiciding/holding last bot tactic so... I dunno... distasteful, I suppose. It's akin to tying someone up in a basement and building your fort knowing that the enemy can't do anything until you finally off the guy you're holding prisoner. It's also using the poor game AI against itself by creating the swordplay/archery version of a turkey-shoot. It feels like I've found a spot on a GTA map where the cops only come in from one point and I'm just killing them ad infinitum/nauseum.

Back before shieldwalling became the norm and groups would 'co-ordinate' by milking the inherent loophole, you really felt a rush because it was chaotic as fuck. As a redshirt, you had to consider the stronger players. You constantly had to ask yourself if they were they being overwhelmed to the point where it was detrimental to the group, or were they in a position to help you. Of course, when cavalry were around, you had a few who were just lone rangers, gallopping the length of the map just to kill a peasant you'd time and again demonstrated you could handle without assistance and having the rider steal XP they hardly needed when already qualified for hard mode. Thank fuck for assist XP and shared drops now.

When my house had a private server which was made open to the public, we found there exists a group of NI players who don't want any part of the suiciding for cades as it felt wrong to allow it or even be involved with people who used that 'tactic'. Worm gave us permission to reset the server as soon as we found players were ignoring our request to keep the server clean. When it was decreed that some private servers would be shut down due to untrustworthy admins, we'd close the server until one of us was up for a session of NI. We didn't even want people using our server to, essentially, abuse a game mechanic. Unfortunately, the lustre of loot and stories of the ultimate success led to more and more players taking that easy path.

It's hardly a challenge now to take out skirmishers because that's when it stops being open-field fighting and everyone falls back into the routine, where once upon a time everyone would shit their pants. I'd love for there to be open-field options such as box formations and the like, but people will always take the easiest path given the knowledge and opportunity to act out the easiest scenario.

What drew me in originally, was that I was sick and tired of encountering feint-spammers, on top of aimbot and autoblock hack users in native. This was something where you had a double chance if only you could just do enough to keep that one required player standing. Now, all I see is the NI equivalent of those hacks, especially with autoblock being in place.

Don't take it the wrong way, because I've spent more time playing this mod than anything else for the last 6 months or thereabouts, and I damn well appreciate the time/effort (hence my voicing against the situation), but it needs something. Is the campaign mode still being worked on?

While I was in my state of being banned a couple of months back, I went looking for other mods I didn't particularly need a local server for (no-one really caters for Australians). One of those was the PW mod, which seemed ok, but it was full of sadistic cocks sitting at spawn points and just raping new or solo players who'd not yet developed enough to do anything about it. I did like its crafting, commerce and potential for RP'ing in a sensible fashion.

N.I. has its own crafting, however if in some way it was merged with Persistant World I think someone could end up creating a far more fleshed out version of the towns in Mount and Blade native. Want to just fight for prizes? Go to the arena where native game modes are optional, DM, battle etc. Some real versatility to the city/village setting could be added by using the N.I. wave format. Anyone fighting in the hypothetical arena could suddenly be invaded in that 'instance' for a period, forcing the combatants to co-operate. The same could be done in the cities etc. It would be a lot of work, but I feel it's where this kind of gameplay could really shine and satisfy most types of gamer (well, the ones that have the patience to master M&B in the first place).

I know this mod was never intended to be an MMO as such (although my assumption is that campaign mode would be N.I.'s version of it) and it would take far too much time for the team you've assembled to accomplish the full scope, but I think it could be a real boon to find another few teams willing to collaborate and embark on such a project.

This post was put together as a point of discussion, not a venting or griping session. A few other points may come to mind as this thread progresses. 

[Jarold]

I would also like to add that without shield walling or holding the last enemy, you could never get to prince EVER, or for that matter loke ( maybe even einherjars ) or higher. That takes away the fun for me, wiping on like wave 12-16.

[Swadius]

As far as I see it, all gaming ivolves finding exploits within the game to your advantage. From exploiting the AI in a duel, how AI works in a mob, how you equip yourself to function in a team, and to the placement of barricades. Holding doesn't seem to be all that different to me.

[_Erk_]

Unfortunately, I don't think that the game mechanics allow for much of a change. I would say you need to let the mod rest, then come again for some fun and keep rotating mods.

[Extibo]

Small groups of three-four operating seperatley is also a good strategy to try on maps with divergent spawns.

Actually almost every map with multiple spawns could be solved this way if not all, but I still got no idea why are ppl afraid to try it out. 4-5 players on each choke point can handle bots with ease

[Huscarlton Banks]

People don't like strategies that split assist exp.

Plus outside of events, chances are 1/4-1/2 of the players are not contributing much.

[Extibo]

People don't like strategies that split assist exp.

Plus outside of events, chances are 1/4-1/2 of the players are not contributing much.

Now that's the problem, the xp, if they would get over it and split they could get to prince and maybe even get a legendary but yes less xp... depends on what player wants

[Galen_Thalheimer]

People still go all rambo sometimes just to get away from the keep and keep split chances.

Perhaps the enabling factor here is to just make assist xp/drop range infinite? Then there is no incentive to stay all lumped up or for someone to race off in the hope of getting drops. The down side is that it allows AFK to just sit somewhere and roll in the leech. But that happens anyway once people are all grouped up.