Questions regarding the game

[Veniathan]

Hello, as some of you may or may not know I am new to the game. Just barely a week of playtime. I have questions which I couldn't find answers for, google sometimes had almost no results related or the people ingame didn't bother answering me.



1.) What is valour, how do I get it and what does it do? I asked this ingame and I don't remember the response, it was very badly written and someone said it "works in promixity".

2.) How do repairs actually work? Are they the "upkeep" cost per item? So when it breaks that's how much you have to pay? Why do they only repair sometimes? Why do weapons that can not "break" have to be repaired? Like smoke bombs in example and sidearms you NEVER use?

3.) How can I test the high tier weaponry and especially and most importantly the armour if the upkeep costs are absolutely massive? This is one of the things I don't understand really, I read on the forums a post where a guy said he made 20 000 a day with very expensive armor. And I really don't understand. Infact I've had to cut down on even medium armor so I don't lose money ..

4.) When my team, most importantly in Battle but can also apply for Siege doesn't work together what can I do? Usually I tell them to work together, go certain flank in groups, stick together. And they start with personal insults calling me a complainer etc. Then we lose that round and stay at x1 for the next 10 rounds or so. It's very frustrating especailly as support shielder. People split off from me leaving me to die, or don't let me help them because they're too busy chambering for 90 hours

5.) What type of a gameplay would be most welcoming to new player? I find that 1h mace/axe/hammer/sword and shield work fine, but the shield is a massive downside. So would a 2h polearm or any 2h weapon be recommended for a new player, because the damage is absurd however you must manually block which I suffer with a lot.

5.) I'm level 31 in 2 million xp and I will retire, sell my heirloom point for money. How much money should I ask for it. Most people said 400 000 but is that okay ?

6.) All the big clans, Greys, Druzhina etc never communicate with rest of the team. Only inside of their stacks, they usually don't even bother to help in team situations. Why? Haven't seen this with Byzantium tho, always communicable people. +1 for that to all you out there

7.) How do people get rich (millions etc)

8.) What is "difficulty" on weaponry and armour?

[Grumbs]

You get valour by scoring more points that the other players on your team. You get points mostly by dealing damage and being near people who deal damage

Every minute you get one "tick". Each time you get a tick each of your items has a 7% chance to break. Each thing can only break once in a round

I would aim for between 20k-40k for making money or breaking even with an average multi. You could try higher tier gear when you have x3-x5 and cheaper stuff at x1 or x2. This can backfire if you don't help your team to get a decent multi and use bad gear all the time. Higher cost doesn't necessarily mean better either. Weapons tend to be either crap or good, with the cost being a fairly random number. For armour medium is probably the best as you get diminishing returns on the effect of the bonus from more armour compared to the bonus from moving faster. Heavy armour usually isn't worth the cost imo unless you just fancy using it

Teamwork can't really be forced on a public server. I'd go with the flow, offer some suggestions but don't take it too seriously. People kind of act like a herd, you can lead them somewhere but don't expect too much. If people won't fight with you somewhere there might be a good reason. Might be a bad position or there are too many enemies. Press p to cycle squads and and take a flag (hold F1 on yourself). Learn the voice commands

As a new player just go for gameplay you enjoy even if you're bad at it. The more you enjoy it, the more you play, the better you get. I would start as a 2 hander or pole just so you learn manual blocking but with a shield you might survive a bit longer

Set market to "loompoint only" and order from cheapest, thats what its worth. It is around 370k i think atm

Some clans don't speak english as a first language, or they communicate on TS. You don't really need to say much if you use voice commands

Sell loom points for cash. You can leach in bad gear for gold but the point is to enjoy the game..using crappy gear is kind of a waste of time unless you like that gear

Difficulty on weapons and armour is minimum strength to use it. For ranged is the ranged skill the weapon uses

[Umbra]

To expand on the difficulty thing: It is strenght requirement when it comes to using armor and wielding weapons. For throwing weapons the difficulty is the ammount of points you have in Power throw, for shields it is the ammount of points you have in Shield skill, Bows diffculty = points in Power Draw.

For Xbows it is a strenght requirement like armors and weapons, however, if you intend to be accurate you should invest some Weapon proficiency points into xbows. For horses it is riding and if you want to be accurate as ranged on a horse, either with xbows or bows, you should invest points into horse archery (bare in mind that Horse archery is unique in a way that you can invest one point every 6 agility, for other skills it is every 3 agi/str)

[Utrakil]

For valour you need to get 3times the score of your teams average.

[Veniathan]

All of these are good answers, thanks a lot. There was a player earlier that gave me 80 thousand gold, I guess he liked me and he was rich he said.

But I'll still sell my loompoint, as I belive .. It's the best idea. I don't actually go for some super expensive gear. I just try to balance cost, look and armor. There are some really gorgeous high tier helmets, I don't even care about the armor I just want to wear them but it's unlikely that will happen for a long long time.

After I retire I planned on building a 2 handed pikeman, preferrably with a shield only as backup. I've no clue if this is a smart idea honestly. Currently I am pissed about 1h, it's got very low damage output and reach .. I guess it might've not been the best idea.

[Nordwolf]

If you play battle going pikeman is a really nice idea. Some people use it with buckler and a sword as a backup, some don't use shields at all.
I think this class is not that bad at making you learn how to block and does a nice effort in teaching you footwork, in most of the situatuions the better idea is not to switch to your sidearm but to block and block and block and then attack etc.

If you go piker you can also try a lot of other pole weapons.

[Umbra]

Dont know if you use this already but here is a great tool for builds/damage/xp gain calulation http://sayginsoher.com/merccrpg/calculator/

[Grumbs]

Forgot to say what valour actually does. If your team loses a round you usually go down to x1 again. If you did well and got valour your multi will only go down 1 and if you were on x1 already you go to x2. So if you're on x5 you go to x4 instead of x1 (if they didn't change it). If you get valour on the winning side you get +1 multi

Multi is how much gold/xp you get per minute (each tick). Usually its 50 gold and 1000xp at gen 1, it can go up to 250 gold and 5000xp at x5. When you retire you get a bonus to how much xp you get per minute so even more for higher multi.

Lots of people play a "hoplite" style which might be worth a try. Shield and spear. It requires a bit of knowledge on how stabbing works in the game, but it lets you be quite defensive while having a medium range attack, and you only have to concentrate on learning one attack direction. Its good for team fights but by yourself you'll need to put the shield away. If you want to put the shield away you'll want something like a Warspear so you have side swings. As a new player having 2 directions will just get you killed 1v1. If you always play with a team and don't fight outnumbered you can try something like Ashwood pike

Stabbing in this game is quite unintuitive. You need to aim to the side or up when you first release then swing into the player after a short delay, unless you start far enough away and walk into the player as you release. You're going to glance a lot as a new player though until you get some technique sorted. The shields are all pretty balanced. You might want to go with a heavy/high HP/high armour one because when it breaks you will probably die for now

[Rico]

2.) How do repairs actually work? Are they the "upkeep" cost per item? So when it breaks that's how much you have to pay? Why do they only repair sometimes? Why do weapons that can not "break" have to be repaired? Like smoke bombs in example and sidearms you NEVER use?

Everything you spawn could break due to a random-%-chance, even if you do not use it. The longer the rounds, the higher the chance it breaks. Spawning the same item multiple times, e.g. 2 stacks of arrows or 2 shields, also multiplies the chance that it breaks. But it never gets higher than 100%, so you never repair the same item twice, even if you have two in your spawn inventory.

3.) How can I test the high tier weaponry and especially and most importantly the armour if the upkeep costs are absolutely massive?

Prioritize. There is a Balde shielder (sorry, forgot his name) who is using a Short Falchion, medium armor and a Huscarl's Round Shield. His armor/shield upkeep is relatively high, but the weapon saves him a lot of money.

Looms can also help you a lot. For example, check out the Iberian Mace:

(click to show/hide)

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28 blunt
390 gold upkeep

Now look at the Mighty Spiked Mace:

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28 blunt
129 gold upkeep

I think you get the point

4.) When my team, most importantly in Battle but can also apply for Siege doesn't work together what can I do? Usually I tell them to work together, go certain flank in groups, stick together. And they start with personal insults calling me a complainer etc. Then we lose that round and stay at x1 for the next 10 rounds or so. It's very frustrating especailly as support shielder. People split off from me leaving me to die, or don't let me help them because they're too busy chambering for 90 hours

People call you a complainer cuz you play this since a week and already cry more than GTX, Rufio and Jarlek together. Safe your tears for the Strategus diplomacy section in the forum, but leave the game chat clean. Also, beginners in cRPG are bad. Even if you are perfect at the combat mechanics because you had a lot of practice in other mods or native, some important cRPG features are so different from other mods that you will need at least 5 gens to get rid of your "noob aura". As an experienced player, you can see who is new and who is not based on their movement, their equipment (style and looms), what they write in the chat, which banner they use, what build and level they have, whether they behave according to their build (backpedal as STR dude against AGI dude is not a good idea, having 9 athletics, a short weapon and crappy footwork is a waste, etc.), and so on.

tl;dr: Whenever you use the chat, keep in mind that you are not the most important person in this mod, and even if you were, you wouldn't deserve permanent attention from 60 players on the server.

5.) What type of a gameplay would be most welcoming to new player? I find that 1h mace/axe/hammer/sword and shield work fine, but the shield is a massive downside. So would a 2h polearm or any 2h weapon be recommended for a new player, because the damage is absurd however you must manually block which I suffer with a lot.

Play dos handres (twohand). There is a shitload of insanely fast polearm players out there, and since the last speed buff you can spam polearms unlike anything else. Spam is a bad mean to improve your skills, so better play twohand first (it is still strong, despite the polearm buff).

6.) All the big clans, Greys, Druzhina etc never communicate with rest of the team. Only inside of their stacks, they usually don't even bother to help in team situations.

That's not true. I get help from both even when I am playing with my dagger thrower on a random banner. A Druzhina polearmer yesterday even sacrificed himself twice to safe me, and you can imagine that dagger throwers don't usually carry the team

[bavvoz]

May i suggest trying poleaxe if u want reach and high dmg? Even i manage to get a kill now and then with that weapon

[Varadin]

I gave you 80k gold so you dont have to sell that loom .... 

[Screaming Idiot]

4.) When my team, most importantly in Battle but can also apply for Siege doesn't work together what can I do? Usually I tell them to work together, go certain flank in groups, stick together. And they start with personal insults calling me a complainer etc. Then we lose that round and stay at x1 for the next 10 rounds or so. It's very frustrating especailly as support shielder. People split off from me leaving me to die, or don't let me help them because they're too busy chambering for 90 hours

Well, try to put yourself in their position/shoes. If you were having a jolly old time in Battle and suddenly a new kid ran in telling everyone what to do, you'd get pretty annoyed, especially some of the people in positions of authority (clan masters and the like).
Teamwork and tactics isn't the focus of Battle/Siege, it's mostly people working together towards a common goal while doing their own thing. If you want more in-depth teamwork you should probably go to Strat and join a battle as a merc.

[Veniathan]

Sorry for the late reply, I'm still here. Just had some PC issues but it is resolved.

Look, I did not want to come off as a complainer anyway. They were all legitimate question, and only because I'm new does not mean I don't know anything about teamwork. Teamwork is pretty logical and a lot of the time it happens but sometimes not and I suppose that was my only point. Without teamwork you will not win Siege or Battle, that's the reality.

If you go off alone you'll be bait for cavalry, archers or get hunted down. Which is what happens to many peopl or tiny groups of clans that seperate from the main team.

Also Heskey, to respond. The gear I'm wearing would be: Iron Hat with Aventail, Heraldic Mail with Coat, Mail Mittens, Rus Shoes and a Kite Shield. As for weapons it really depends on the situation. I use a bit of everything.

[Veniathan]

That's a max upkeep of nearly 1k gold without taking into account weapon (which could vary hugely since most expensive 1hander is 747 upkeep, weapons are usually the highest upkeep).

I recommend before selling any looms that you note how much gold you have before a session on the servers, then note how much you have after without buying anything. If you're gaining gold then keep your loom, if you're making a loss then review certain aspects of your gear, for example look at one or two of the following:

Upkeep tip 1: Your gloves, Leather Gloves are only slightly less armour than mail mittens, but cost 70 upkeep less.
Upkeep tip 2: Nice cheap boots, nothing to change there.
Upkeep tip 3: Weapon, this will be your main expense, use a cheaper one for a bit if you're losing lots of gold.
Upkeep tip 4: Other major costs are head armour, body armour and shield. Consider if the extra head armour is helping you. Also for drastic measures there are many fine body armours that offer more protection to the torso, but for significantly lower cost - it's still important to go with a style you like, but if you want to make some gold whilst still having good armour there are some exceptional choices, like the Mail Shirt with fur which offers 36 body armour (just 2 less) but at half the upkeep cost of your current one.

I make gold on characters with 1,333 max upkeep, i never got valor cos i suck and i can spend long periods on x1. On the inventory page, what does your 'max upkeep' say?

Nice tips, I suppose they do indeed make sense. I'm currently using mail mittens instead because they look better, and I realized they actually don't cost a lot. As you pointed out, thanks for that.

I try to take it easy with weaponry and quite frankly I can't really be bothered to try out the really expensive ones. As they are too expensive. I'm fine with the upkeep cost and all, as in a game mechanic. It does it's job however I think the devs went a little ... Overboard with the cost, resulting in about 50% of the actual gear being unaffordable to the mass. Which is a damn shame because some of the higher tier armor is quite sexy.

I know about the mail shirt with fur, the issue is that it doesn't quite fit with the style of the clan. It's allowed but doesn't look crusadery at all.

I'm also noticably getting better at the game, usually higher on the scoreboard than I was so I guess it is going okay. I hav 141k gold so selling a loom point may not be a good idea at this point. I got money from players, noo I did not beg for it. They offered it, one of them wasn't gonna play the game any longer.

So soon I am 31. What should I do with this loompoint then? What can be done with it?

My upkeep stays at around 1,100 to 1,400 as max basically.

[Angantyr]

What I'd suggest to any new player; go hybrid the first few gens, there' a nice hybrid bonus so with decent WM you can quite easily have well above 100 in both 1h, 2h and pole and test out all the different weapons until you find one you like that you'd want to loom. I also hybrid on my alts, weapon points above 130-ish really isn't that noticeable for the price.