Band of Bastards feedback — beware spoilers

Warning some spoilers

Really, really like this DLC. Wish Bastards would’ve been greatly elaborated on or merged with Ruin and the related quests. This trajectory makes far more sense for cutting the teeth of a blacksmith’s son.

Observations:
—great cutscenes, just great
—really good dialog once again (the banter :+1:, some of which reminds you of the kind you have when you’re out with your mates/friends)
—Radzig doesn’t actually hold a letter when he reads the Zoul letter
—wish more of the getting to know you interactions would’ve been incorporated into drinking and chatting (eg possible outcome after 2nd mission)
—3rd mission: battle. this one was interesting
——1st time - killed the bad guys on W bank and followed men to flat clearing. Couldn’t find K. Went back. Saw bad guys on E side. Crossed. Went to guy on S flank first. Killed them all one by one, but due to poor AI. The rest didn’t respond as their brothers in arms were getting killed. Insane. By time I killed them all, looted them all, and looked for someone I missed, the game failed the objective :confounded: nobody was attacking so didn’t make sense.
——2nd time - attacked archers on E bank first. They lit me up a little but killed them all. Meanwhile, the band struggled with the guys on W bank. By the time I got there, Stone and Petr were down but not dead. The rest fled to check point. I picked up Stone and carried him there. (What the heck … these guys don’t believe in don’t leave a man behind?!) then, went back and got Petr. The game failed the objective before I could make it back with him.
——3rd time - went aggro and attacked W bank guys. this time Dangler fell. Picked him up and took him to check point. Escape check. Talk with leader check. Next meet up at camp. Dangler didn’t get up. Noticed after fast traveled. Noticed his marker (ring quest) way over by wood’s edge far W of Sasau monastery. Rode back. Carried his lard ass all the way to camp. [For the love of the almighty, wish 2 things: (1) wish you could administer all that dang alchemy and bandage stuff Henry has in inventory to heal the guys, and (2) wish you could load someone on the back of your horse as in another game out now.] Dropped him on bed (sleep spot). Slept in my designated bed. Woke up and checked on Dangler because I wanted to get the ring from him. Guess what? Dangler was back near the Sasau vineyard! What the :exploding_head:!
—Petr sounds like Miller Peshek
—Dangler and the ring (initiated contact with him after dropping off wannabe lover boy in jail)
——1st time. got infinite load screen before duel started
——2nd time. duel started. landed some good ones. then, he got some good shots in. after that, smashed him with a square shot down on his head (ceremonial mace) and failed objective and quest. think i killed him (instead of knocking him out or him surrendering). another infinite load screen. thank goodness i decided to use normal mode with autosaves (that trigger before meeting K)… otherwise, i’d be :face_with_thermometer::face_vomiting::imp:
——3rd time. duel started but mace and shield not equipped. remember fighting Sir Bernard: pressure him in the corner and he struggles. why not give it a try. unarmed Henry vs swordsman Dangler. Dangler has a longsword so you have to close the distance. Jab. Jab. Left knee strikes (seem to be) and right overhand punch. Clinch. Keep him stuck in corner or against fence. Rinse repeat. Increased 4-5 unarmed levels. i was about to scream design porn at Viktor but Dangler slowly started to show bruising on the face. after a near eternity, Dangler finally cried uncle. Cutscene to him giving me the ring.
-Zoul battle - loved the multi vs multi with Henry a designated member of one side. wish there were many more battles like this (esp with roaming bands of same size or larger) instead of the numerous static battle spawn points. still wish the guys held a line better. too easy to outflank enemy NPCs and wreck them. btw, texture for Zoul’s cuirass wasn’t good. wasn’t until money was offered that the detail finally rendered in cutscene
-Kuno camp - not sure why ring of Bacchus has to terminate after Zoul battle. should still be able to interact with the guys. not so :cry:. otherwise, not sure why they remain on site… other than to mock those who want to hunt bandits and Cumans with the band of bastards. again, more rinse repeat multi vs multi battle fields like the one against Zoul would be sublime (even if set up as travel battles akin to FC:ND expeditions to manage memory demand)

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I loved it too. Little short, but for $7.99. I can’t complain. I hope they make more DLC with them involved.

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Radzig starts to read letter before he “unwraps it” in front of him.

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lol, i havnt even gotten to play it yet, its taken me 10 hours to download the 5GB patch, in fact its still only 98% finished downloading

I’ve just finished playing it (and got all the trophies!) I loved it and I didn’t run into any bugs, so I’m a very happy customer. But I wish there was an option to suggest to R to give K some money at the end of the DLC…

One general thing that I’ve noticed, though, is that since today’s update (not necessarily anything to do with the DLC), there are often no blood particles when I hit an opponent, and he doesn’t even lose balance or react to the hit in any way. They still lose health normally, but it looks a bit odd visually.

Haven’t tried the different variations. In mine, he appeared to get all of Zoul’s coin. Didn’t hear anything about giving the spoils to Sir Radzig

For me it seems like the the guys from Kuno’s band need more health or something. In the first mission I tracked down the raiders, then I returned to Kuno at the farm and he rounded up the rest and we attacked the raiders. The first time Jan Bearman went down, I then waited several in game days but he would not wake up or show up at camp. I reloaded my game and the second time Jakey got down. The third time I just rushed in and killed two of them before they could reach the others and now all of them survived luckily. So now I’m constantly paranoid after every battle, making sure there are still 7 men left standing. Also, I got caught stealing in the camp and Jakey started to fight me and I literally knocked him out with 1 punch. I don’t know if they are supposed to get down so easily or even die but it seems like they are pretty weak.

I liked the DLC, as short as it was, but it’s only 7.99. Here is my thing though that alot of devs don’t seem to understand when it comes to getting cool equipment combined with immersion.

I like the armor of Zoul quite a bit, but why in gods name would Henry run around wearing armor that is emblazoned with an enemy of his lords banner on it? Seems like alot of devs do this crap. It’s like in Fallout NV when you get the opposite armor of the faction you’re serving on one of the DLCS.

I want armor that represents my character and his allegiances etc, or armor that isn’t so obviously tied to an allegiance. Like, did this just never pass through their minds when making this? Is it nitpicking? I don’t know, but it’s annoying.

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No, of course, but that doesn’t stop him from betraying Radzig next time. If only Henry could suggest some kind of gesture of good will, etc.

The men can die (which can fail the ring quest). I’ve noticed that if Henry doesn’t do exactly what he should (i.e. if he goes off looting corpses), the men tend to drop off like flies. In the end, I managed to have every single one survive.

Great point. Like giving some die hard 3 Lions fan a Mannschaft kit except worse…

Personally, the cuirass is interesting but a little gaudy

Agree. One of the reasons why I find it puzzling in ashes that I can’t get heavy heater/bouche shield with Talmberg (Divish) and Skalitz (Radzig) iconography/colors from the Pribyslavitz armorsmith (who I hired because of his skill… :grimacing::face_with_raised_eyebrow:). The boar shield is neat but come on… in this time, you honor your own by wearing the appropriate iconography

Over and above the chest of coin? Yeah, not a bad gesture. Not sure Sir Radzig has much of anything left to give, and Kuno and his men haven’t finished their job (haven’t left)

btw, why don’t they play dice (farkle) in camp? Disappointing

Henry plays a few games of dice with the men, and they are otherwise busy patrolling around the camp, but it would be nice to see a bit more variety at the camp.

Played dice at the farm outside Uzhitz but not seeing them do so at own camp after the 2nd mission. Sitting at table doesn’t seem to elicit a response and don’t have dialog option to propose a game

Ring of Bacchus? Drinking, chatting, singing (patriotic/bawdry Czech songs?), drinking games come to mind … certainly offing Zoul and gaining his wealth should trigger an excuse to lift a pint or two

Beyond that, these guys seem to love competition so there should be a lot more repeatable activities (farkle, boxing, dueling, etc) up to a point (exploit/abuse)… especially after Zoul threat neutralized

I played dice with several of the men and duelled and brawled with them as well. Maybe you were too quick to steal the ring instead of finding out what they were willing to do instead.

Didn’t steal the ring. Straight up asked him (Dangler) for it which triggers a duel option (lots of problems associated with that branch of decision tree; described above). That was after the 3rd mission.

If there’s reset clock, that might be it. I pretty much did all in a chain because Zoul is trying to sack this area under Sir Radzig’s influence

Did you finish the ring quest?

No, read above (my 1st post). It fails.

Seems exact opposite of what you said. Waited too long and autofails for no reason other than simplified coding after Zoul battle

I didn’t have any trouble finishing the quest myself. Once I noticed that the ring quest was marked as failed after several of the men died, so I just reloaded the game and fought better to keep them all alive. By the way, I recommend letting them steal the ring back from Henry - it’s good fun and doesn’t actually fail the quest - just adds one more thing to solve.

Don’t believe any of Kuno’s men died. Read above. Yeah, it’s a wall of text :frowning: but the details there for a reason

Weird. They must have if you can’t finish the ring quest after killing Zoul. I still had plenty of time to interact with the men and finish the quest after the battle. The only time when the ring quest failed during the battle with Zoul was when some of the men died - it was marked as failed immediately after one of them fell.