So the other day, for the first time ever in vanilla M&B, I saw one NPC faction succeed in capturing a town from another. To be precise, the Khergits took Uxkhal from Swadia, while I was off working for the Nords and paying the situation no mind.
Later I rode by just as a huge group of Swadian lords were attempting to take it back. The Swadians had 900 men while the Khergit garrison of Uxkhal only had 300, and yet the Khergits won handily.
Clearly there is some sort of large bonus given to the defenders when two factions contest a town without player involvement. This would explain why they don't take towns more often. Except later on the Swadians DID succeed in taking back Uxkhal, after the Vaegirs declared war against the Khergits and presumably helped weaken them.
My question is, are the dynamics behind this clearly understood or documented anywhere? Exactly what rules are in place to keep one faction from wiping another out, and how flexible are they? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.224.150.6 (talk • contribs)
- I believe how it works is that a faction's aggression will increase/decrease depending on how much territory they own. So a very powerful faction will become lazy and stop conquering as much land, while weak factions near death can make an extremely quick come back. This keeps the game balanced so no faction will ever die or win without the player's direct involvement. Stealing towns is very difficult, so it is a rather rare occurrence. When it does happen, it is usually because of the actions of the player: weakening the victim so they are easier to attack, weakening the aggressor so they are more determined to claim new territory, keeping rival factions busy so the aggressor has nothing better to do, etc.
- I wish I knew the algorithm the game used to determine battles in which the player is absent, but I think it is quite simplistic and pairs up combatants 1-on-1, the stronger defeating the weaker with some random chance thrown in, then repeats. Defenders probably get a bonus added to their power.
◄► Tephra ◄► 22:58, April 12, 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks for the info! I'd post more but this forum software is baffling and I'm pretty sure I'm doing some stuff wrong.