A TL;DR will be at the bottom for those who don't want to read

Bots matches would be a great way for new players to experience large scale battles without having to worry about high tier players chasing them down in partial plate and also allows players to play the game when ever they please with as large of  a battle as they please, i often come home to find no battles on my server and other servers to be to lagy or to low populated to enjoy a good battle that is not me fighting the same player over and over again.I understand the counter argument to that is to join the large scale battles but not everyone can be on when those happen

Another benefit for these bot is that they could be used for balancing or making battles more populated, an example of this is the 3v2 and 1v2 i often find my self in(this may not be the case for everyone but if a new player encounters this it could ruin his experience) when these unbalanced matches happen its often a up hill battle for the lower populated team as the other will simply take turns killing them as they run in over and over to simply die to better players, adding a hand full of peasant bots adds a constant stream of enemies both teams have to focus on and can assist in over powering the more powerful players turning this 3v2/1v2 into a 8v7/6v7 providing a more pleasing experience for those involved

TL;DR

Pros

-player can fight bot populated battles anytime of day

-new players can play the game without worry of powerful players or empty battles

-players without internet or who hate pvp can enjoy a team based pve experience that is not just a   wave survival game(new market?)

-provide a way to balance matches in pvp without taking away all the fun

-bot matches can be used to practice fighting with a team 

Restrictions

- i feel bots should not be allowed in de militari as that is a pvp system and allowing players to spawn armies of bots equal to there reinforcements (while cool) would ruin the point of the game mode

Conclusion 

I understand players have been against the idea of having a form of single player in the game but do so ensure not matter what happens along the Dev cycle of this great game we can still enjoy its beautiful art and engaging combat and could attract new and old players back to this game with the promise that they can enjoy it no matter the population of the servers.

there are plenty of multiplayer pvp games out there that offer enjoyable bot matches that can still be enjoyed to day that did not take away from the multiplayer in anyway.(lol,dota,All the call of duties,quake,etc)

This video exhibits an issue where I cannot close the chest reward dialog.

I believe the following steps may reproduce the issue:
1. Fight in the arena, and gain a chest.
2. Try to open the chest, and hit escape before it can do anything.
3. Wait for a little while.
4. Open the clan window.
Now the issue should be apparent.

Workaround: Exit and relaunch the game.

Can I suggest a bug category named "UI" or "Interface"?

So, I was thinking: we should want clans to get their neutral fiefs quickly in order for the real clan v clan fun to commence. But the way it is now bigger clans can either totally boycot any new clan's attemps at getting their fiefs or they can just help each other get them (carebearing).

I think a neutral fief should not really be something you have to fight over. It's a personal matter of any clan. However, just as the new clan itself has to gather an army to get to their fief, so could any other clan that want's to either contest that or help them.

So it's a bit like the new ambush mechanic: another clans has to build an army and march them in the vicinity of the new clan. If they manage to get to the fief in time they can contest it and a battle between those two clans will be scheduled. Any other clan who wants to fight in this battle also has to get an army there.

Since most of the time another clan's army wouldn't form up and travel so quickly the new clan will be able to take their fiefs without any combat. Their army should be able to continue traveling to their other fiefs without having to be formed anew at their stronghold.

Thoughts?

Currently you lose every single troop when you lose an attack on a village, in case of the TK attack some time ago they lost 200-300 in the battle but 600-700 due to this. There should be an appropriate penalty, to discourage "attacking" without really attacking (maybe 35-50 % of the surviving troops) but it is unrealistic and really punishing for attackers to lose so many. 

Idea is simple, when there is a clan neighboring another clan, a fief/location is generated between. This is to encourage conflict, increase viewing distance, and diplomatic reasons. not to mention to make clans feel like each other are encroaching on each other's lands.

Simple (and practical) implication: Villages spawn between kingdoms alongside occasional towns/forts. This should be easier to implement. could be as simple as having .5 fiefs spawn at each corner of the kingdom (not limited to 1, so occasionally there is a bundle of fifes to fight over).

Additional/advanced tileset implication: Alongside villages we could have natural features or different man made places to seek after. I can list a many. Hey I say should be typically from 12v12 to 32v32 (that's the equivalent right?) events. Perhaps armies can even camp there. Now I fully expect this to be late game, but it sure would enchant the Militari to some extent.

Watch tower: Small location with a viewpoint over far away lands, which eliminate more fog of war than normal occupied spaces. Here it can be like field ambushes/open field battles, or a conquest, of 3 or less (possibly 1) flags. Imagine fighting on a mountainous location where on a small partly barricaded plateau lies a fairly large watch tower with room to move around inside of. there could be two paths leading to it from each side with ledges around the actual plateau. Think of having a flag on top and the surviving defenders, waiting for re-enforcements, desperately hold the staircase, or chokepoint.

Trade route: Think of a wide open paved/hard packed path which, before you arrived, teemed with merchants going about there travels. Here are several carts strewn about, and perhaps even campsites or a toll both/tax collection office. This could provide a small gold stream to a guilds/kingdoms treasury. Could be a limited conquest (3 or less flags) or classic army filed ambush until one retreats.

Mines/gold mine: This fairly large event (thinking that 32v32 scenario) could mirror the common fort defense missions we have, but here we have the setting in a much more unusual environment. Underground. Now I say we have the attackers take the above ground first few flags, and all mid-game to end-game fighting takes place underground/in the tunnel systems. All the way down to either a dead end, or a final room (garrison/somewhere) where they have to engage in some serious close quarters (but NOT claustrophobic combat), like the camera should always be able to move freely, even if it's slightly unrealistic that the mine ceilings were so high. The benefit of this location is a moderate to large gold stream to the guilds treasury and will diffidently be a valuable prize to take, and fight over.

Large bridge: This would have it so that troops will either have to take a lengthy detour to attack a opponent, then send a invasion through this critical point. This should be a large (big element of the map, maybe 64v64) wide stone/wooden bridge over a vary large river with some nice rapids for scenery. with a nice cobblestone/dirt path leading though it with perhaps some rolling hills. This battle should be fought mainly through brute force of the armies at full force head on facing each other and not spaced apart everywhere. This should lead into some head to head combat that our players usually don't encounter. with perhaps a flag before, middle, and between the middle and the start (or just flags only on the bridge itself). The feature of this bridge is however is that it can deny, or allow entry, into areas/your kingdom. Like say your KOE and you want FCOR to travel freely, they can. But don't like TKM and TKM will have to forcefully take this area to pass. Also would auto-disable clans passage if they attack one of your fiefs. Like if they target your land, there army will have to go through this "ambush" on its way to your castle.

Natural features: Like prime building locations for new fiefs, possible bridge building point, possible future mine, hot springs, ruins (expedition parties? like skirmish, but you have to survive the whole way to a point to get treasure/complete objective through traps/npc's?), caves, vantage points (lift fog of war)/other general interesting locations. 

Long intro:

Battles for neutral fiefs are wierd. First of all they tend to lack defenders, but when they have them the fief is harder to cap than clan fiefs because the time allotted for the battle is halved (from 1 hour to 30 minutes), the good reason for this still escapes me. Furthermore, if the attackers lose (which they might because of the low time), attackers lose ALL remaining troops (in case of the TK attack some time ago, only 200-300 troops were actually killed but the remaining 600-700 simply disappeared) while defender’s troops instantly get back to their old numbers. This makes battles for neutral fiefs very “sudden death” - the rewards for winning them good but lose one and you lose a lot and gain nothing at all. 

Proposed solution:

Change the way troops work for neutral fiefs. Have them generate troops over time (maybe 10 a day for the smallest fiefs) with a minimum amount in the beginning of a season (to avoid rushing). When the troops die in battle, it actually reduces the number of tickets in the fief on the map. 

Effects:  

This will result in: 

1) No more neutral fiefs magically getting all their troops back instantly, which means you can grind them down over several battles. 

2) No more “winner takes all” attitude with neutral fiefs, even if you lose you gain something (fewer tickets next time) 

3) Neutral fiefs scale in strength during a season. Neutral fiefs will be weak in the beginning but harder as time passes. This would quicken the “neutral phase” while making them less of a target later. 

Btw, this is how it worked in strategus and it worked well. 

Defence of neutral fiefs is poor these days as few clans want to antagonise potential partners by signing up agaiast them. The result is that few veterans sign up for defence and casuals don’t show, which leads to boring battles. 

Increase the incentives for defending neutral fiefs. One solution is to increase the number and rarity of loot chests, even if the defenders lose (more suitable to casual players). Alternatively, give a small troop reward to any successful neutral defence to incentivize veterans with lots of gold. 

Or just get rid of neutral fiefs. It seems to be a phase everyone wants to get over with, including the devs. Alternatively, make new clans start with more fiefs or more troops to more quickly start taking fiefs and getting us out of the neutral battles phase. 

It happens sometimes, that when you are aiming with a bow, at the moment when you want to shoot, the character gets "tired" and stops aiming. If you click left at that very moment, the arrow goes back in the quiver, forcing you to pull it out again.
I suggest a small change:
Arrow goes back in the quiver with left mouse button ONLY (not holding right mouse button)
It should not happen when you are holding right and click left (because that means you want to shoot).

Simple concept, suggesting additional bot types to fill out the rosters of available opponents.

Mercenaries: Somewhat heavily armored infantry units that can be found using a variety of moderate quality weapons. Specifically things like war scythes, classic one handed swords, and will be found using a rich variety of weapons, but no spear and shield. They have moderate fighting abilities and balanced stats. They wear things like  having moderate protection helms, like kettle hat, moderate chest pieces like scale vest with leather shoulder, long sleeved mail, alongside lighter gloves and lowers, and occasionally no helms or gloves.

Special: Fight dirty, they will bash and kick opponents.

Rangers: Like scouts, there ranged units, but a more engaging and difficult variety. Possessing more moderate, but light, levels of equipment. Like wearing things like Mongolian laminar, byzantine laminar, chain armor, padded pants with schynbald, maciejowski helmets, marsleben helms alongside varied lighter gloves. They tend to favor bows, and know how to use them. They posses slightly higher movement and attack speeds but balanced other stats. They favor parries in close combat with good footwork, as there skill is higher than a fair bit of units. occasional bashing and kicking included.

Special: Ranged approach, these archers are no cowards and will continually approach opponents while they fire away at opponents, hopefully wearing them enough to easily take them down in combat, and will draw swords early when close to there opponents. 

Heavy crossbowmen: rare units (almost as rare as bosses?) that posses heavy armor and either a hunting crossbow or a heavy crossbow. They are vary patient marksmen that are sure to cause problems when massed. they have vary low attack and movement speeds, higher health stats, but make no mistake, when they finally fire, they pack a wallop of damage. When engaged in close combat they prefer a defensive stance, and try to block many attacks mainly waiting for infantry assistance, and do not chase when disengaged.

Hoplites (or medieval equivalent): carrying a spear and shield they rely upon other bots for support. They try to circle lightly and purposely keep distance between there foes and will back away when there opponents get too close. These units typically are gifted with moderate, but slightly heavy armors, and have a fancy for pointy helms, like the conical Greek helmet, and large protective shields.

Dualists: Young, cocky, but ultimately inexperienced noblemen that have been taught in the elegant arts of swordplay, and not the harsh realities of the battlefield. They tend to bare, typically light, but sometimes heavy, elegant armors encrusted with gilding and color, and a fair bit of them let there face feel the fresh air. I think maybe a fancy re-enforced red gambeson could look fantastic. They tend to go for advanced swordplay arts like parrying when the time is right, bashes when appropriate, sped up attacks (like how you turn while hitting to increase attack speed artificially) and somewhat impressive swordplay and footwork, but watch them back up and shrink back when struck, be surprised and stunned from kicks, and not fine tuned to blocking unorthodox strikes. typically wielding one handed swords, targes, and two handed swords. Usually, there harder to deal with that normal solders. They posses slightly higher movement and attack speed, but lesser health and damage. A rarer unit on the battlefield.

Special: Call attention, when they are struck in combat they may call for help for other bots, and if you want to increase difficulty they could summon up to two additional units (spawn, max) if not taken care of quickly.

Special x2: Dualist lunge: They rush towards there opponent, and if they have a clear line of fire, they do a jumping lunge (stab/other) towards there opponents as a possible first attack.

Men at arms/militia: A step up from peasants, but not by much. typically they posses little proper armor and the parts they do have, is well, light. Expect chainmail shirts, light helmets, and little else. And weapons to be from ramshackle to lower end military equipment. Maybe if there lucky they might have one quality piece! They can block... somewhat, they attack.... predictively, and are otherwise, mostly what you expect. Since they have minimal training they do have slightly higher stats than said peasants, but nether less, fall down easy.

Here on out are a few bossbot ideas.

The Sniper/Specialist: A special operations unit respectively of his day, possessing a unique set of light armor, specifically a black suit of gambeson with subtle hints of additional armor underneath, with a mostly black hood or hat, and gloves, but occasionally forfeiting the hood for a full head of hair. alongside his padded pants. A ranged unit at heart with his own signature instrument of ranged weaponry. He takes a while to shoot, as he gets the shot just right, and nearly hits every time. When you come near he is like the assassin, but not some hedge knight hoodlum, but a true master at his art, coming with maxed out stats (yes movement, but only high health) and vary lethal close ranged combat to be feared.

Mercenary captain: The battle hardened leader of a mercenary company (when he spawns mercenaries tend to spawn more), comes equipped with heavy armors, perhaps a black cape or gilded piece, and a nasty attitude. Fights as dirty as it comes with his sword and shield in his hands. Coming in with maxed stats, and vary slightly higher movement speed.

Royal vanguard/royal knight: A alternative to the mercenary captain, this righteous battle hardened unit comes in like a medieval tank, wielding a morning star and shield in hand. He comes bearing the special armor from season 1 of the militari, and is rather overbearing opponent. Comes with expected maxed stats. However has some advanced skills in combat, like Nibbs's spin attack (hold stance lock and spin a entire rotation and let go) to deal with circling opponents (maybe just the 180 version) and heavy shield bashes. May occasionally spring and use a overhead/side swing where he jumps down with a heavy attack. Though may not be useful, but I should add a intimidation factor.

I hope you like a few of these ideas and did not waste a few hours.

Feel free to post a few below.

And no, no Peedeoo7 bots, as they would only team hit, and pinprick, there allies.

I should know. I know some cheap players might like it tho.

When your in between a lot of players or bots, it would be cool to be able to distinguish your oponent from all the others.