Strat NPC's

[Crazyi]

Have you guys played around with adding NPC's to strat battles(last i played there were none, bu that was a year ago)? There are many ways I am thinking you could try it. The most obvious would be to have a general for each team, and they can command small-large squad of NPCs to add another element to the battle. This would allow players to use the NPC as fodder or even tactically as their own little force. If you kill the general, they lose the ability to command the NPCs. I would have to suggest melee troops only, we have all experienced Rhodok sharpshooters headshots, no fun. Possibly even give the general a calvary squad, to have an actual calv unit causing havoc.

Another way is you have x amount of troops to divide up how ever you see fit. You could assign 2 per player, or 10 per person you fully trust, or whatever. Even having 1 NPC per player would give another layer of combat. Some people would simply use them as fodder and some people could try to use them as an effective duo. People could coordinate their NPC attacks. I think it would add a level of strategy.

[Tavuk_Bey]

bots in mount & blade are quite retards..

[Wookimonsta]

Strat battles don't need NPCs. Strat map does.
The larger a clan is, the higher the chance they get attacked by NPC army.

Message. "A band of 10,000 vikings approaches, they will reach getRandomCity(<CLANNAME>) in XX:XX, prepare your defenses"

NPC armies hire like villages

[Crazyi]

I agree bots aren't anywhere close to players. A swarm of them can still be effective. A calvary unit controlled by a person to do grouped charges could be effective(they can couch fairly well). A unit of Pikemen would be effective to screen your infantry players from one side against calvary.  It certainly won't replace players but I think it could be fun.

[Spawny]

Strat battles don't need NPCs. Strat map does.
The larger a clan is, the higher the chance they get attacked by NPC army.

Message. "A band of 10,000 vikings approaches, they will reach getRandomCity(<CLANNAME>) in XX:XX, prepare your defenses"

NPC armies hire like villages

I've played a game with a seperate computer controlled "clan"  in it. In that game, every offensive action you take, contributes to a threat rating. Doing nothing slowly decreases said threat rating. As your threat rating increases, you're more likely to be attacked by the "bots".

In strat, it could work out like wooki posted. You go on a military campaign, take a few villages, increase your threat meter and then one of your home villages gets attacked by the bots. This adds a bit more risk to the game.
Bot strength could be loosely based on the defending army, so that a castle defended by 5000 soldiers doesn't get attacked by a band of 400 bandits.

[Crazyi]

I was meaning to have NPC's in Player vs Player strat battles to give another layer of combat. Not just having NPC's in the system.

[Knute]

Heh, there's two ways of incorporating npc's being discussed here but I like both of them.

I know it's a little annoying when you spend your hard earned Strategus gold paying for gear/troops and then have almost nobody who signed up for your battle show up.  So even if bot AI is bad, it would be nice to have the option as a backup.  There's a captain co-op mode in With Fire and Sword where each player commands 10 bots in battles against waves of npc attackers like in defend the virgin, it works pretty well in that game.

In strat, it could work out like wooki posted. You go on a military campaign, take a few villages, increase your threat meter and then one of your home villages gets attacked by the bots. This adds a bit more risk to the game.
Bot strength could be loosely based on the defending army, so that a castle defended by 5000 soldiers doesn't get attacked by a band of 400 bandits.

There's so many villages locked down with the 100 gold fees and even 100% taxes in some places, if I was a peasant I'd be pissed!  There could also be a meter that gradually increases over time based on how high you set your taxes/fees.  Then if it reaches the boiling point there's a npc peasant attack on the fief.  Maybe different types of attacks (peasant, nord raider, kherghit style horse archer) based on certain things going on in the fief.

[RibaldRon]

It would be really awesome if the map had NPCs that hired like villages.

Don't really like the idea of bots unless the AI is really good and I don't see  that happening any time soon, probably not worth the effort.



BUT Strat needs more battles and opportunities for  battles  especially in situations  where one team is completely dominating. 

[engurrand]

Have you guys played around with adding NPC's to strat battles(last i played there were none, bu that was a year ago)? There are many ways I am thinking you could try it. The most obvious would be to have a general for each team, and they can command small-large squad of NPCs to add another element to the battle. This would allow players to use the NPC as fodder or even tactically as their own little force. If you kill the general, they lose the ability to command the NPCs. I would have to suggest melee troops only, we have all experienced Rhodok sharpshooters headshots, no fun. Possibly even give the general a calvary squad, to have an actual calv unit causing havoc.

Another way is you have x amount of troops to divide up how ever you see fit. You could assign 2 per player, or 10 per person you fully trust, or whatever. Even having 1 NPC per player would give another layer of combat. Some people would simply use them as fodder and some people could try to use them as an effective duo. People could coordinate their NPC attacks. I think it would add a level of strategy.

Crazyi i am interested to know if you had read any of my "why no bots" thread...

I think we are seeing similarly here.

The core reason is to give no name people who have equipment and such a chance to flush out their armies without needing full player rosters... So what if they die, its better to have died fighting then to have no one fighting for you and auto loose.

[Crazyi]

I have not, post a link?

[engurrand]

http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,26077.0.html