Serve as Soldier

Serve as Soldier

Features:

     Random events that can occur giving the player something to do and fight during the long idle periods. There are currently 7 random events added.

Personal retinue at enlistment rank 6 you are allowed to have your own band of retainers join you as is the case with many elite soldiers of the time.  Retinue is limited to just hero units (companions + adult family) who aren't currently busy or prisoner and will move from their current location to join you.  They will fight along you in battles and their wages will be compensated by the lord you are serving.

Addition perk effects are added for each of the combat skills.  They only benefit the player in a way relevant to serving as a soldier as to not having any impact on balance of the later game.

Offer of vassalship with additional reward upon reaching 20000 faction reputation.

Faster healing rates while serving in a lord’s party.  By default, this is around 24hp per day at 0 medicine and scales with the player’s medicine skill to an expected value of 103hp per day at 330 medicine.  Healing rate is tripled when the lord’s party is waiting in a settlement. I found that the slow base game healing rate made gameplay less enjoyable.

Commanding formations such as Infantry, ranged, cavalry or horse archers at enlistment rank 6 or higher.

     Combat training missions using practice weapons when at the arena of a town.  Training is split between melee, ranged and mounted combat and is a decent way to gain xp for combat skills if the party isn't engaging in a lot of battles.  There is even a small chance to gain extra skill in attribute points in the corresponding skills while training.

    Lure bandits into an ambush to trick enemy bandits into engaging your party - gives tactics xp.

    Ride out with cavalry to attack enemy villager parties and caravans for even more things to kill and loot and also for people who want to role play a cruel and greedy character.

    Faction and lord reputation gained by serving a particular faction and lord and designed to incentivize serving with the same faction and lord if the party you are serving in is destroyed.  The sum of party and lord reputation will determine the starting enlistment tier and xp when reenlisting.

     Participate in tournaments without leaving the party.  Winning will grant xp towards the next promotion.

     Promotions and XP gaining level/enlistment tier is now tied to a xp system instead of a kill count system.  This allows xp to be awarded in differing amounts depending on the difficultly of the kill such as killing looters vs killing banner knights vs killing lords.  Inflicting damage to any enemy also grants a small amount of xp. Wining tournaments while serving and completing random event tasks for the lord awards a decent amount of xp.

     Equipment is tied to your enlistment tier.  However you are not forced into following a particular branch of the troop tree and you can switch out your gear whenever you like even to lower tier gear.  Another major change is that when you enlist, the gear you were previously wearing gets added to your inventory.  This way you can supplement the gear you are given with gear you already own.

     Ask for leave you can no longer leave the party for a 2 day period at 0 cost.  I found this to be quite unrealistic.  To terminate the contract early, you must now bribe the commander.  Unlike abandoning the party, this will not cause any criminal rating, relations loss and reputation loss with the faction you are serving.

     Assignments roles give passive xp to the player.  This has been expanded upon with more roles and new descriptions that I wrote.  More importantly, most of these roles now have hidden effects on the party.  For example foraging for food adds to the party’s daily food stocks, drilling troops will allow a handful of troops in the party to gain a moderate amount of XP each day and being the surgeon with high medicine skill will reduce the number of deaths in battle.

     Joining warband still done through a dialog option with a lord although the exact dialogue lines are changed.  Having you high criminal rating with the faction or low relations with the lord will prevent you from joining.  Having high