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The mod is extensive and not too simple. In this wiki I will try to provide an overview of each major feature. They will be short and intuitive. You don't need to know every detail about everything, and it would take loads of work from me to keep descriptions always precise. So, don't worry about it. More details can be found ingame whe they are necessary.
Settlements are much more profitable than vanilla, in general. But it's not that simple. Villages usually produce more things and in bigger quantity, but most production types are limited by acreage. Towns and castles now have a baseline revenue from taxes over the population, but the population also has consumption needs that affect prosperity. Overall settlement economy is quite more complicated than vanilla "++prosperity -> ++gold -> --food". For more details, scroll down to the Settlements section where each area is addressed in more detail.
By default, the map is a much more dangerous place in BK than in vanilla. New high-end bandit parties such as Rogue Knights, as well as generic Caravan Robbers (the mounted bandits from the caravan guarding quest) replace many a looter party across the map. By default, the mod also allows twice the bandit parties to be spawned in relation to vanilla (MCM configurable). This means double the bandits, and many bandits much stronger than before. Naturally, this means that travel for trading is quite more dangerous.
Likewise, more trade happens to compensate. Traders will spawn between towns of the same realm. These are small civillian traders that buy what is cheap in Town X and sell it higher at town Y. These represent folks making their living by trading. They disappear as soon as reaching their destination, as opposed to permanent caravans. They help stabilize prices of products within the same realm and price disparities between close towns. For example, it was common for a town with fur villages to have much cheaper fur than the other, closest town. As fur is a good of low supply, prices tend to go up, and caravans do not meet the trading demand. Thus, traders will spawn and make these short trips, taking advantage of prices and stabilizing them in the long run.
More caravans also roam the map. This is mostly due to the fact AI clans will now create their own caravans. To learn more, scroll down to the Clans section. But given the perilous nature of more and stronger bandits roaming the map, it is expected that caravans will die and need to be reformed more often.
Another change to caravans is the optional Realistic Caravan Income MCM configuration. This means that caravans will only deposit their revenues when entering a fief owned by the caravan owner or currently visited by them. This often means they'll hold and accumualte their income for days or weeks until meeting their owner / a fief owned by their lord. Combined with the bandit changes, this means caravans can be destroyed alongside weeks of revenues, making them both more risky and realistic.
- More, stronger bandits
- Local trading by civillians, more stable prices
- More caravans
- Realistic caravan income = realistic revenue loss risks
Trade goods now have item modifiers. Combined with Production Quality in settlements, this means that settlements will have varying quality to their productions. Item modifiers open up new trade possibilities and adds a new layer to the process - supply and demand are not the only factors to consider anymore, but also quality. Modifiers also open up novel ways to use items - food modifiers in your party will have an impact in morale. Your soldiers don't want to eat poor food. Neither will your Feast guests.
Base production in towns for general goods is increased ('Artisans' workshop). Towns now also produce more basic resources such as iron and hardwood, to make sure workshops have their basic inputs.
Workshop speed production now depends on Production Efficiency tracker in the settlement. Notably they now produce goods in many different qualities. The quality of a workshop may be increased with perks, Artisan lifestyle and increasing workshop level (to be implemented).
Prices have been significantly increased - mostly based on workshop type. The labor for a silversmithy is much more valuable than that of linen weavery. This is now reflected in the mod.
Workshops now also pay taxes. Taxes are paid to the settlement owner, and depend mainly on the tax policy.
Workshops can now also be upgraded. Upgrading takes 3 construction days. Each upgrade increases wage costs by 15%, but production quality by 5%. The more quality you have, the higher the likelihood of producing an output with better modifier. Price jumps between modifiers are big, so every quality point is valuable.
Workshops now also have inventories. Workshops fill their inventories when they have enough profit & town has supply. If the town runs out of supply for their inputs, the workshop starts consuming the inventory, and therefore keeps running instead of stopping and going into a net loss. Inventory starts with the capacity of 20 items and rises by 20 for each upgrade.
- Workshop Upgrades
- Workshop inventories
- More town productions
- Workshops produce outputs in varying qualities
- Workshops pay taxes
- Different wages for different workshop types, more daily cost
- Prices increased based on new wages and local prosperity
- Prices increased if notable has no other workshop and/or Common Area, up to 40% total
- Prices increased based on amount of owned workshops. Each workshop further increases costs of next ones by 5%
- Buying or converting a workshop to a production that competes with existing workshops will yield relations loss with the owners of these workshops
Some of the changes brought by the mod dramatically change balance aspects of the game. These changes are often features by themselves or part of other feature groups. However I prefer to group them here as they by themselves each bring large gameplay impact.
Party supplies represent the realistic needs of a war party to regularly consume a variety of different supplies in order to maintain fighting shape. Supplies such as firewood and textiles for building tents and campfires would have a large impact over the morale of soldiers. A soldier that eats well, sleeps dry and warm is much more motivated than otherwise. Weapons, shields and ammunition would also be a major concern for military retinues.
As such, different categories of supplies are required by noble parties in the mod. Military equipment is used to maintain party size limit, firewood and tools are used to maintain siege camp and engines building speed, and various different supplies are used for morale, such as alcohol. The rate of daily consumption of each item can be checked in the party wage tooltip, in the bottom right. Alternatively, you can also talk you your quartermaster for a detailed rundown. Quartermasters can also be used to buy these supplies automatically. Simply stay over in a town and they'll buy whatever is needed (and you can pay for) at the time of wage payment, about midday. You can activate or deactivate this behavior through dialogue.
AI parties will always have auto buying enabled. They are susceptible to supplies in the exact same manner as the player.
'1' here means 1 item of said category a day. If your requirements list, for example, '0.03' arrows, that would mean a buildup of 0.03 items per day, equals 1 item every 33.3 days.
Most supply requirements are nullified when staying in a town. Assume your soldiers will procure their own food, alcohol and lodgings requirements.
A concept similar to Party Supplies, but applied to fief projects. Town and castle projects will now require building materials. The amount of materials is dynamically evaluated based on their building points requirements (thus, cross mod compatible). The types of materials are based on the building level and type. Most buildings start with wood and clay at level 1, add iron and more wood at level 2, and finally add limestone at level 3. More advanced buildings, such as Forums, already start at limestone, and at level 3, require mostly marble, the rarest and most expensive building material.
Projects do not advance without the materials. At project completion, materials are destroyed. Appointing a governor will make sure they buy the materials automatically from the market, securing them in the fief's stash. Material demand and supply is visible in the vanilla 'Manage Town' tab, where projects are handled. Whenever a material is required, its local price increases. This helps with supply by making it more profitable for caravans to bring these materials over and sell them.
Limestone and marble are the biggest limiting factor in building materials. They are both added by BK. These minerals are produced in villages, but also in towns and castles through the Mines building. Securing minerals for projects may take years, which is realistic. Supplying stone for medieval projects as expensive and laborsome project that often meant importing them from long distances. Notable medieval cathedrals have taken decades to build. For more details about minerals, scroll down to the Minerals sub-section under Settlements section.
As the name suggests, decisions are a list of personal decisions you may take. They range from only impacting your family, such as assuming a different culture, to world-changing decisions, such as Reforming the Imperium Calradium. Each decision has it's own set of requirements and repercussions, all explained in their tooltips.
That is right, you can now organize feasts. Feasts take in local notables as guests as well as at least 3 other clans in the realm. All the clan members will attend the feast. Feasts may or may not be positive. Guests have high expectations. They will want to be satisfied in these metrics:
- Food quantity
- Food variety
- Food quality
- Alcohol
- Host's presence
Food and drink need to be in the fief's Stash. They will be consumed as the feast progresses. Feasts last 7 days. Failing to provide these will degrade your relations with guests. A good feast will instead increase them, as well as award you some influence.
TO BE IMPLEMENTED:
- AI feasts (organize supplies)
- Feast events (fights & such)
- Feast specific dialogues / actions
Marriage in vanilla makes absolutely no sense. Now it does. You can no longer start marriages with anyone else other than the family head. Spouse candidates that don't lead their clans will not start courtship stages. Marriages have to make sense. No, the king won't marry the princess to a broke nobody like yourself. No, the empress won't marry some village idiot like yourself, despite how much (you think) she likes you. The developers put in marriages, but didn't make them look like marriages.
Key points:
- Marriages only start through family leaders. However, you can talk to spouse candidates, to have an idea if they like you (new dialogues).
- Spouse scores dictate whether a marriage is acceptable or not. Score depends on the spouse's personal merits and the family standing. A princess has more value than the daughter of a Baron. The head of a family or expected heir have more value than the 2nd or 3rd sons, who are not expected to inherit.
- Dowry is now calculated on spouse score.
- Marrying now costs influence. The more important a clan is, the more valuable are their marriages, and the more demand there is for them. Thus, it costs political influence.
- Marriage contract options. Celebrate with a feast, inver the final clan (and get paid the dowry, instead of paying it).
- Arranged marriage option lets the player skip courtship phase completely, for a significant increase in Dowry cost.
A new system governed by a new skill, Scholarship. Everything done with this system will increase your Scholarship.
By default every culture has it's own language associated with it. Languages can be learned from your clan members or notables. Their competence & several other factors affect your learning speed, such as intelligibility of your natural language with the target language.
Languages are most useful for reading Books. They also have secondary uses such as special greetings, making for better deals or increasing the your cultural acceptance in settlements of difference cultures.
Going over language limit slows down your learning process. Scholarship perks can increase the limit.
They are sold by book sellers spread out across the map. Use the Acquire Book Decision to buy them. Books come in different types but most of them are associated with a Skill. Finishing the book will give you a Focus point in that Skill, or simply experience if the Focus points are maxed out.
Books are written in Languages. Your reading capacity is dictated by your fluency in the Language. Onwing the Dictionarium Calradium book will help you reading any book, even those in a language you are completely incompetent at.
Lifestyles give you access to specialized perks, 3 to 4 of them. Lifestyles are associated with 2 Skills, always. Lifestyles have 'stages', each perk is a stage. You need to have 100% progress in one stage, as well as meet the minimum Skill criteria (for the 2 Skills the lifestyle is associated with) and acquire the perk by spending a Focus point in order to progress ot the next stage.
Essentially, lifestyles are Focus points & time investments, for specialized perks that are increasingly strong.
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Perks acquired in lifestyles are permanent, meaning you can complete different lifestyles while keeping the benefits.
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Lifestyles also have 2 passive effects - a positive and a negative one. They are directly correlated to the lifestyle's theme.
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Some lifestyles are culture-specific, like Cataphract, and you cannot assume the lifestyle without being part of the culture.
Knights are an entire new host of lords in the game. Knights are commoners that are gifted property by lords, and thus serve them militarily, what is known as Knight-service. The property may be in the form of a Lordship (village title) or Estate.
As player, you are no longer able to fill parties from companions. Parties must be led by nobles (your family members) or knights. Thus, fielding more parties means either risking your family or making an investment of property, that is gifted to someone else to make use of it.
Knights that own Lordships are financially independent. By granting them a Lordship, the village's income is directed to them rather than to you, and it is enough to provide for their retinues.
In order to field knights, your Peerage must allow granting knighthood. Grant knighthood to a knight candidate by talking to them about their position in the clan.
You are no longer the single person in the world capable of having companions. AI clans will recruit companions and put them in parties to fulfill the functions they are best at. Companions are equipped with equipment presets provided by the mod, meaning they are decently armed and look good - they don't use a T-shirt and a rusted sword.
Clans with the adequate Peerage are allowed councils. These are made by 5 core positions - Marshal, Steward, Chancellor, Spymaster and Spiritual Guide. Each position requires a different skill set and provides different bonuses, that affect all your settlements. Council members are paid wages based on your total settlement income. Their competence at their job is dicated by their skills matching the required skill set & their intelligence.
Any in your Court can be a council member. Your Court is composed of your clan members, direct vassals (based on title hierarchy) & notables from your settlements.
Council members have privileges, one of them being their wage. Other privileges are things such as restriction on who can fill the role - ie, only preachers can fulfill spiritual guide roles.
Ruling clans (at the top of kingdoms) have special councils known as Royal Councils. Royal Councils will often have special positions, which vary on culture, goverment form, etc. Notably, the 5 core positions have the privilege of being only for nobles. This means that the royal council's main roles will always be fulfilled by important vassals of the realm.
Peerage is a new concept introduced by the mod. In the game, all noble clans are equal. Peerage is a set of rights/restrictions that dictate what a clan can or cannot do. The ability to cast votes on elections, start elections, receive fiefs, have a council & grant knighthood - these are all dicated by Peerage. By default, you and mercenary clans start with no Peerage.
Full Peerage reflects the clans as they are in vanilla - no restrictions. Lesser Peerage is better than none - it allows casting votes and having a council. It is awarded to any clan with no Peerage when they join a kingdom.
Full Peerage may be requested by a Decision. The full Peers of the realm will decide whether or not you should be accepted as one of them.
Clans throughout the continent have figured out they can buy property. Turns out the player is not a lord with exclusive rights of property! AI will now buy Workshops and Caravans during peace.
This gives them new income streams that allow them to field bigger and better armies during war. AI lords are restricted by the same limits as the player. If they try to buy a player Workshop, the player will be notified and may accept it or not.
Dozens of new clans can now be formed, denominated Gentry clans. These are estate-owning clans of lesser peerage. They represent the lesser lords within a realm. These clans are created with dozens of new clan names added to each culture. Gentry clans spawn as families with husband, wife and often sons. The quanitity of children will depend on the parent's age, as they can be anywhere from young adults to elders.
Gentry clans will often not field parties in the map, because of their limited income. However they can be summoned through the Call Banners decision. It allows calling any of your direct and indirect vassals, and is used by the AI. They'll use their estate's manpower to fill their party and therefore bring more troops into armies.
Additionally, gentry families provide plentiful marriage prospects for lesser to midling lords, options otherwise sorely lacking. Being of low renown and not title holders, marrying into these families is significantly easier than marrying into the vanilla houses.
In the future, gentry children may also be important for a squiring feature. Squires would be young lords from these lesser houses and would serve as a family member for a given amount of time to pick on lordly skills. This would provide the player or other clan leaders with an useful additional hero as well as a way to build positive relationships with other houses.
In addition to properties, AI will now save money during peace time. This serves 2 purposes: increasing their coffers, and allowing fiefs to replenish & train recruits. During war, AI will often be at financial loss, as they will field significantly more troops. Furthermore, because fiefs are given time to train their recruits during peace, at the beginning of wars, most lord parties will be filled with decent troops. Therefore, by giving AI logical finances, the mod also fixes the problem of recruits-only AI armies.
An entire population system based on 4 classes: nobles, craftsmen, serfs and slaves. Classes fulfill different roles and have dynamic compositions. Ie, serfs and nobles may be increased with policies, slaves can be banned altogether. Pops shift between classes according to need.
Populations are the source and root of nearly everything in settlements. Taxes, productivity, loyalty, prosperity. Essentialy everything is tied to them. Because settlements are not much more than a collection of individuals with intricate relations amongst themselves. The mod tries to represent that.
BK vastly extends and deepens Bannerlord settlement management. A whole new host of stats and factors with intricate relations between them give manager players much more to worry about and work with. Settlement policies & decisions allow for more precise control over settlements, such as tax rates, rather than only controlling projects.
All of these have ingame descriptions and explanations for their results, when appropriate. So there is no mystery to them, explore the menus and it will be intuitive. These are some notable new stats that have high relevance:
- Stability. A result from various other major stats such as loyalty, security, and cultural presence. Affects influence gain and prevents Autonomy.
- Autonomy. Has a counter-correlation with stability. Higher autonomy means a lot less taxes. Combined with low stability, you have a lot less taxes and a lot less influence, making the settlement overall much less useful towards you.
- Notable Support. The overall support of the local gentry. Big impact on influence gain, impacts loyalty.
- Cultural Presence. How much of the populace shares culture with you. Huge impact on loyalty.
- Manpower. No more infinite recruits. Volunteers are extracted from population pool. No more manpower, no more people to recruit.
Every settlement is now capable of exploring minerals. Most, however, are poor in them, and thus exploration is not much worthwhile. Every campaign, minerals are generated randomly for each settlement. Mining villages always reflect their main production & are considered rich in minerals. Other settlements usually have 2 layers of minerals, a main one consisting of a cheap mineral, and a secondary of a more valuable mineral.
Minerals are clay, salt, iron, silver and the new limestone, marble and gold minerals. A few settlements have a third, tiny mineral layer of gold.
Exploration can be done through Mines building in all types of settlements.
Villages are now partitioned with Estates. Most of the village's acreage still remains as part of the village, called Demesne Lands in the popup. All landowner type notables are given an estate, that takes a fraction of the village's original acreage.
Villages have at least 1 vacant estate. This estate, while vacant, is part of the Demesne Lands, and therefore owned by the village's owner. It can be granted to other clan leaders or awarded as knighthood property through knighthood dialogue. This means that for every village, you can squeeze at least 2 knights out of it - 1 owning a estate, another the village itself. The difference is that the Estate-owning knight will need your financial help to supply a decent retinue of troops. And that the village-owning knight might eventually make their own clan.
Vacant Estates can also be bought, and serve as an alternative source of income. The only threat to this income is conquest. If the village is conquered by another faction, Estates are not immediatly lost. Instead, they remain as yours, but may be Reclaimed by the enemy owner. To do that, they must first become the village's De Jure owner, what takes at least a full year in most cases. Thus, if the Estate is not reclaimed before the village is conquered back, the property is not lost.
- Estates are part of the village.
- Landowners have their own Estates. These supply the landowners' manpower to full their recruit slots.
- Estates can be bought, or granted as gifts or granted as part of knighthood.
- Estates are not lost during conquest, but may eventually be reclaimed by the conquerors.
- Estates have a workforce associated with them, which procudes a percentage of the village's total production.
- This production is the source of the Estate income, which is then taxed by the village owner.
Villages are quite underwhelming economically. Not anymore. The following changes make them more relevant:
- Income generally increased by 5 times. For whatever reason, vanilla has it reduced by 80%. Not anymore.
- More production. Village economy depends on it's productivity. Overall productivity is higher and more dynamic depending on factors such as population workforce.
- More goods. Various new goods are added to production lists, increasing the economic role of villages that produce exclusive goods and now some manufactured goods they previously couldn't.
- New income streams. Village marketplace and tax office enable new income streams, further increasing their relevance.
- Production differential. Vanilla only produces items in integers. This means that if your village is able to produce 1.5 items, it produces 1. Next day, it also produces 1. No more. Now, it produces 1, and the difference is stored. The next day, it produces 2. Again, more value is squeezed out of villages, value they always had but was never explored.
Villages are no longer your backwater settlement with nothing to do. Projects add entirely new building options to villages. Produce new resources, increase production of base goods or manufactured goods, build a tax office to extract tax from population as a new income source. There's plenty to work with.
