I saw bunch of TS guys with plated chargers and full plate...gah have fun paying that off.
Lots of people have a lot, no A LOT of money, so if the upkeep actually is increased (I hope so!) this would still take a long time (months?).
I assume, this post most probably won't be noticed here, but still...
Some initial impressions about the patch.
1 1/2 swords are pretty much useless now. They are outranged by most polearms and on par with the longest one-handers, they occupy two slots (so you cannot take a pike and a shield), and now, due to a completely nerfed stab, their users have no chances against cavalry. I've just got a masterwork longsword which has 24p thrust damage, so even with 6 PS it cannot kill the weakest horses (palfrey&rouncey). I must admit I'm pretty low level now, yet I have >100 wpf and 6 PS. So, a one-handed horseman can just ride to me, survive my stab to his horse's chest and hit me in the face with his sword.
Nevertheless, I will still continue using 1 1/2 swords, as I used them despite all the Native (beta) and cRPG nerfs of those weapons, only because I find them to be the most aesthetically pleasant among all the M&B arms. However, I have to delete nK_Givi_the_swordsman from the (future) Strategus and substitute him with a 1h+shield guy or, more probably, with a polearm/cavalry character, since I don't want to be a burden for my team. Nerfing "lolstab" (What is it? Never had any problems with it while playing as any melee class both in Native and in cRPG) actually resulted in nerfing the wrong thing.
The most viable all-round pure melee builds are polearm+shield or 1hander+shield+pike (especially since even the biggest board shields still occupy 1 slot, at least the plain one. UPD: As far as I have noticed, the only one that occupies 2 slots is the huscarl one). All-round (i.e. somewhat good against infantry, ranged, AND cavalry) 2hander builds are impossible with the patch. 2 hand + shield build is useless against cavalry, while 2hand + pike build is raped due to general cRPG ranged fest (here by 2 handers I mean 1 1/2 handers mostly, since I use pure 2handers VERY rarely, so my words are not backed by experience).
One more thing: thank you very much for adding Rus armor pack in the game. A quick suggestion: "Litchina" (more correctly, "lichina") means "a facemask" in Russian. So, at least two helmets can be named "lichina helmet" ingame. I suggest renaming "Litchina helmet" from Narf's Rus armor pack to "Kovali helmet", since this headgear is based on the Cuman helmet from the Kovali burial mound.
Another suggestion: is it possible to add the information about the number of slots the weapon occupies on the web page? Picking your default equipment would be much more convenient then.
