Sandalak Peasant Mob to Taselak Army: GTFO!

[Indirik]

So... Looks like Sandalak peasants can do some serious ass-kicking now.

Battle in Gwohadda   (14 minutes ago)
Sandalak vs. Taselak
Estimated strengths: 3000 men vs. 720 men
Homer Simpson, Knight of Umkinnu was seriously wounded by a militia unit of Sandalak.
Attacker Victory!

By my count, there were approximately 10,500 CS spread over three units, totaling ~2,500 peasants. No Sandalak mobile forces or regular militia. All peasant mobs.

Taselak had 14 units in the battle, totaling ~7,000 CS.

Following the battle, there are still about 2100 peasants, with 8800 CS. All 14 Taselak units wiped out. ~3,000 CS left for the Tassels.

Is this from the new looting code, producing peasant armies to be feared? No more stirring up peasant mobs so you can boost your unit's training and cohesion!

This is really going to change things ...

[Anaris]

Yeah, I think I may need to nerf peasant militia spawns a little bit. However, I think the nerf they need is in frequency, not in strength.

I'm strongly in favor of peasant militia spawned by excessive looting being a serious deterrent to further looting. Having them just be cannon fodder may be amusing, and may play into the narrative that peasants are pathetic little fools only worthwhile when led by nobles, but it doesn't make good gameplay.

[Indirik]

I agree, on both accounts. Gwohadda's population was about 18,000 prior to the militia spawns, so 15,000 now. I think that all spawned last turn.

Peasant mobs have really been a joke ever since the current combat system was implemented. They got a little better when we stopped spawning the 10 peasant mobs to face off against 3,000 soldiers. But even still, this incident seemed a bit excessive.

[jaune]

I dont like this. It will make game more static, it will take tool away from warfare, destroying region through looting. You can loot few times then you must run. It is already few weeks operation to destroy recruitment center, now that peasants defend those too and wield 2 handed swords... looting is the !@#$. I would rather see regions go to rogue more easily than get those elite peasants.

-Jaune

[Anaris]

I dont like this. It will make game more static, it will take tool away from warfare, destroying region through looting. You can loot few times then you must run.

Destroying a region through looting—that is, making it a total wasteland—is something I wanted to remove as a possibility. That's why looting is now intended to tank a region's production for a week, then let it bounce back.

As far as preventing looting from doing even that, yes, as I've said, I think it needs a nerf.

It is already few weeks operation to destroy recruitment center, now that peasants defend those too and wield 2 handed swords... looting is the !@#$. I would rather see regions go to rogue more easily than get those elite peasants.

One of the next things on the WIP list is to make attacking recruitment centers work very similarly—you can disable one for a week without too much work, but destroying it completely will be damn hard.

Creating large swathes of rogue lands is an unintended and undesirable consequence of some of the changes that have come in the last few years. I would far, far rather have realms with regions they can barely control along their fringes because they don't have enough Lords for them than big areas of total wasteland that takes RL years to recover and be worthwhile land again.

One of the main intentions of the Looting Overhaul is to make a brief looting raid a real, viable option that can actually do meaningful damage to your opponent. Under the old system, depriving an enemy of a region's output meant sitting there for days or weeks at a time steadily dismantling it. That's much less fun.

[GundamMerc]

I certainly like it. :3

[Anaris]

I certainly like it. :3

It's possible that's the first time you've said that about anything I did.

[trying]

Do peasant mobs lose strength over time the way militia does?

[Zakilevo]

I thought they just go back to their homes in time? Or maybe they really should. They should probably disband over a week maybe?

[Anaris]

I thought they just go back to their homes in time? Or maybe they really should. They should probably disband over a week maybe?

They're supposed to do this—the code's already there, it just very rarely gets triggered, because in the past, peasant mobs just insta-died.

I think now we might actually get to see it activate, and probably find out just how many bugs there are in it! ;D

[jaune]

I just made 1 looting and there is 3800cs peasant unit.

Looting is now viable only for larger armies --> More reasons to keep one big blob armies and stick together.

-Jaune

[Zakilevo]

I am actually starting to think that 30% increased TO speed for SI should become a standard for all islands.

Don't know why but I really do like that 30% increased TO speed. Maybe I was thinking TO was too slow before.

[Indirik]

I just made 1 looting and there is 3800cs peasant unit.

Looting is now viable only for larger armies --> More reasons to keep one big blob armies and stick together.

Or keep moving. Which gets you into the problem of running out of time...

While a mob of 800 peasants *should* be too strong for 50 soldiers to handle, the frequency and strength of mobs does need to be tuned. The size and probably should be based on the type of looting, the amount of damage done, and how much looting has been done there in general. Looting an isolated village, or strong-arming the tax collectors, shouldn't be as likely to trigger a mob as going on a killing spree.

[Chenier]

Yea, I think I'll hide in Taselak until these peasant hordes are tuned down. XD

The previous situation was quite silly, but the new situation is exaggerated. Peasants' first reaction should be to run in fear and hide. Right now, I think we've got regions full of Rambos.

I think I'd prefer the game focusing on small "units" of peasants resisting individual looting actions (a father defending his home and family as foreigners raid it, perhaps killing a soldier or two), rather than spawning large armies of peasants that'll fight on the battlefield. More realistic and seems better for gameplay.

[GundamMerc]

Yea, I think I'll hide in Taselak until these peasant hordes are tuned down. XD

The previous situation was quite silly, but the new situation is exaggerated. Peasants' first reaction should be to run in fear and hide. Right now, I think we've got regions full of Rambos.

I think I'd prefer the game focusing on small "units" of peasants resisting individual looting actions (a father defending his home and family as foreigners raid it, perhaps killing a soldier or two), rather than spawning large armies of peasants that'll fight on the battlefield. More realistic and seems better for gameplay.

That's a ton of extra coding, you realize, on top of all the coding he's already doing.