Freelancer is now almost a classic for M&B. If you played Warband with your favourite mod, you are probably familiar with this concept. However, this mod expands the idea of Warband's Freelancer and brings more features on top of that idea. 

About
In a nutshell, Freelancer allows you to enlist any lord/lady's party as long as you meet the requirements. Join as no one, fight hard, rank up, gain better gear, learn new tricks, increase your tactics. Let your party owner pays you, feeds you. This is very early stage of the development of this mod and expect a lot of bugs that I wasn't able to fix/see. However in later updates, I also added Caravan Guard and Bandit career options as well. If you want to become a bandit and rule your own hideout, or learn trading tricks with caravan masters while guarding caravans, you are reading the correct mod description.

Freelancer? It doesn't make any sense
It does not. Yes. You are not a freelancer, but a normal soldier after all. But I wanted to use this name because it's already known by old player-base and there is no need to confuse some people with different names.  


How does it work?
Once you enlist to a party - your true allegiance will be to your party owner. If your leader dies, you are out - the party will be disbanded. If your lord gets defeated, you will be either taken as a prisoner or your captors will allow you to go - but you will be free. If you want to join the same lord's army, you need to find that person. You will be able to join battles directly or let others fight while you wait on the sidelines. Historically, that's not logical - i.e. you not participating in battles while you are just a regular soldier - but for the sake of the gameplay, I didn't want to enforce players to fight in all fights. 



How to Enlist/Join?
You can do this by talking to Lord/lady directly. Again, I know that this doesn't make any sense - to see that a regular peasant approach a Lord and ask for joining the army - but this is for simplicity.  
You need to meet certain requirements at first
- If you do not own any Settlements ( towns, castles etc )
- If your Clan tier is less than 2
- If you are not at War with that faction
- If the Leader isn't in Minor Faction ( i.e. Beni Zilal etc )
then you are good to go. 

Follow the steps, and you are in.

• Normal Introduction/Greetings
• Say "There is something I'd like to discuss"
• Say "I would like to join your ranks"
• Say "I would not let you down. How do I join?"
• Say "You can count on me. I won't let you down"
  

Congrats. You are now part of a larger army. You will always start from the most basic tier - recruit or so. And you will wear their equipment. You will carry their colors and banner on your shield ( while at war )



Soldier Camp, Desertion, Rejoining
Soldier camp is the location where you can ask for leave and other stuff. In the future, I might add a camp scene where you can play games with your fellow comrades. Have training etc.
You can buy better food from your quartermaster. This immediately increases your HP by +15.
You can buy beer for your comrades. This action can be done only if you are in town. Price is calculated based on how many soldiers are in the army and your current fame. Successful order will bring +7 fame immediately. 
You can ask for Leave only if you are at Service Level 2. BUT, if your faction is no longer at war with anyone ( any major faction ) then you can leave the army by paying a small fee ( tier * 2 )
If you leave the party while there is no war, you won't experience any issue with your lord. However, if you leave the army while the faction is still at war, your relationship with the Lord will take a hit. This is depended on your service level - meaning that, you will get a higher impact if you leave the army while you are successful and known. 
Or you can honourably discharge from the army without getting any relationship impact. If you killed more than 190 enemies, you will also keep the armor ( not weapons )
If you desert the army, you will get -55 criminal rating with the kingdom. Upon desertion, you WILL keep the equipment.
If your army is routed/defeated, you will get some "timeout" days to return your lord. You have to find your lord within that time interval. Days to rejoin will be calculated based on the possible respawn place distance of the army leader to player location. It should be more than enough in most of the cases. If lord haven't assembled an army by the time of your arrival he/she will give you extra +7 days so that you can check back. If they don't assemble army within 10 days, as a system I'm forcing them to assemble their own army. 


Promotions, Wages and Bonuses
Promotions are based on your kill count. Kill count also decides your salary. 
The current daily wage calculation goes as follows:
TroopWage + (Kill Count * 2) + Tier * 2
This formula is subject to change and if you detect any imbalances, post it away. I would like to tweak that one if it's too unbalanced. 
Tier and Service Level are equivalent at the moment - which might change in the future. Tier/Service Level calculation goes as follows:

• Kill Count less than 4 = Service Level 1
  

• Kill Count less than 14 = Service Level 2
  

• Kill Count less than 34 = Service Level 3
  

• Kill Count less than 49 = Service Level 4
  

• Kill Count less than 79 = Service Level 5
  

• Kill Count above 80  = Service Level 6
  

Higher Service Level also means that you will have access to better gear. And explained above, it also decides your relationship loss with the Lord when you leave the army.
Bonuses are currently only given to extraordinary soldiers who were able to kill/knockdown enemy generals/lords. You will get 550 gold for each commander you took down, as a bonus to your salary.
Each normal kill will bring +1 fame and each hero kill will bring +20 fame. 


Fame and Noble Troops
You can increase fame and gain credibility after your long-lasting service. If you are above 75 fame for a faction, you will be recognized by others and you will be leveled up to L3 directly without any questions asked. This is especially good if you don't want to start from bottom all the time.
Noble Troop lines is something else that is in the game. If you are Level 5 (Character Level NOT service level) or above and from the same culture as the faction you are joining, then you will start as a noble troop rather than average peasant. 
Fame has a soft limit of 40. If you are above 40 fame, your fame will still decrease but it will stop decreasing after 40. However, if you are below 40, then it can go all way down to 0. This soft limit only kicks in if you are at the party. ( Will continue to decrease if you are separated from your army )



Orders, tactics and Chain of Command
Have you ever heard Byzantine Generals Problem? Yes? Cool. This has nothing to do with this. You have two people to listen in the battles. One of them is the leading general - i.e. your lord. The second one is your Sergeant. Usually, you get 2-3 orders from your leading general directly - and that's with war horns. Your sergeant, in the other hand, gives you direct orders and gives that order for your unit type specifically. If you are in ranged formation, he will lead you based on that. Usually, if your leading general gives a command, your sergeant gives you a follow-up command about this.



Leading Soldiers and Being a Bodyguard
If you are Service Level 6, you will lead a small group. This group will not be "unknown" soldiers for you, instead, they will be your comrades. Each will have their own culture-specific name, they will listen to your commands, they will die with you. They will have the same ( not identical ) equipment and tier with you. However, if the army you are serving is lack that unit type, the system will check lower tiers with the same formation and check all way down. So in some instances, you might end up getting 2-3 soldiers as well.

If you are Service Level 3 or above and have 90 or above Loyalty to that clan, you will be asked to become a bodyguard for that leader. If you accept, you will be promoted to the top-tier noble troop and you will gain an immediate 10 relationship bonus and your wage will be doubled/tripled. Your only job will be keeping the leader alive in the battles. However, if the leader dies in the battle, you will get -25 relationship damage. And if the leader gets knockdown, you will get -5 relationship damage with that clan. You can refuse the offer - this will not cause any relationship damage.

While you are a bodyguard, you won't lose a relationship when your subject knocked down if you are already knocked down. Also your "subject" will be marked on the battlefield with a floating banner on its head. Banner isn't something unreactive/ugly but instead acts like a real banner ( with physics etc ) so it won't ruin up the natural look of the game *see images* If you press ALT (the same key with how you see other nameplates in cities ) then you will be able to see the exact location of your lord with a highlighted purple contour around him. This makes it easier for you to identify him in night battles - as well as in battles where you are unable to find him because of the obstacles. If you kill enemies around your lord, you will earn 1 relationship point for each person you kill. You need to be in range for this - so you need to be close to him/her. Radius is around two-horse length ( yes, I'm using horses as a measurement unit ) each successful battle you participated in will give you a random amount of relationship with your lord. It can be between 1 and 4. Note: you won't get any if you are fighting with looters/bandits etc


Popularity and Mutiny
There is a popularity system in place which decides how popular you are within the army. At first glance, it might sound strange to have a "popularity" measurement for a soldier - however, this is strongly tied to the mutiny system in the mod. If you are eligible, you can start a mutiny within your party. Convincing your comrades to take up arms against the current lord and his irrational decisions. Your chances of success will be determined based on how many units that party has and how popular you are in that army. Upon success, you will take over the command of some portion of the army and you will seize the war-chest. It's very likely that your leader will not let you take the army without a fight - so prepare yourself for a fight. Your chance will also decide how many people you will draw to your side if a fight breaks out. If you fail, you will become a prisoner, an enemy of state and even might be beheaded. You need at least 50 fame and 50 popularity for starting a mutiny.



Soldiers and Generals Update
First of all, this is an ambitious and loosely tested feature. And this is the exact reason why you can opt out yourself from this. If you don't want mod to add this, simply go to your Config.json, change "AllowGenerals": true to
"AllowGenerals": false
This update adds a new sub-clan to each kingdom in the game. This sub-clan is called Faction's Generals. The system automatically creates 5 unique generals for factions at the startup. In theory, they work like regular clans however generals are not able to marry ( and reproduce ) and they have no right to own land/castle/town. Upon the death of generals, a new general immediately emerges from one of the towns of that faction. They spawn with a random ratio of basic and elite troops. If the faction has no town, they are becoming unable to get more generals - hence, if you want to terminate a faction completely, you need to take their towns first.

Upon fulfilling certain requirements, you will be asked to join to faction as general. Currently, these requirements are not configurable but in the future, they will be.

• You need to serve at least 200 days for that faction with a service level higher than 3 ( Means that only days where you served as service level 4+ will be counted. Days are not getting reset and can be seen in the reports menu)
• You need to have 100+ Leadership skill
  

Beware, this is not the same as a vassalship or mercenary contract. In this, you are becoming a member of the Generals council. But you are not becoming a leader of that council. If you decline, you will get a minor relationship penalty but you will continue being Freelancer. If you accept, you will immediately get a mixture of units and be part of that sub-clan and faction. You will also earn 3000 to 6000 gold each week randomly regardless of your state and achievements.
As a member of this council, you will be able to participate in battles and kingdom decisions. However, you cannot disband your "clan" armies and get elected as town owner.
Once you become a general, you can leave the kingdom by going to Clans tab, and click the Leave Kingdom. This will impact your relationship with lords within the faction severely.




Career Path Update - v1.2.0 - Caravan Guard and Bandit Option
With this update, I'm adding two extra career path opportunities to the game. Now you can choose to guard caravans or decide to become a bandit and do unlawful things. All up to you and your sandbox playstyle.


Caravan Guard Career Path
Now you can guard encountered caravans for a small fee. Unlike normal freelancing, in caravan guarding, you can bring your own troops and companions to the party. However, you should have an empty place at least half of the size of caravan units. ( i.e. if the caravan has 40 units in it, you should have 20 free space ) - because caravan master will give you half of the units in the caravan for making unit control easier for himself. He will pay all the fee in your daily wage + your extra fee as well.
While guarding the caravan, you will earn Trade and Stewardship skills, passively. The amount of the XP you earn will be based on your experience level. Each kill you take and each day you spend while guarding the caravan will contribute to this experience.
While on the road, you can trade with trader within the caravan. And if caravan stops in the city, this option will open town's trader - so that you can do actually trading between the stops and buy new gear if you want. If you captured some prisoners, you can also see those prisoners in the town.
While in town, you can also hire new mercenaries for your crew. Usually, this shouldn't be required but after battles, it's very likely that you will lose some of your soldiers and you need replacement. Another good news is that, if you recruit new people with this option, you won't pay their fees as well and if you leave the caravan you can actually keep them.

Each battle will increase your relationship with the caravan owner. Each week you spend will also increase your relationship with the owner. However, if you leave the caravan without having 50 experience, this will hit your relationship with the caravan owner because you are leaving him out open. All the assigned troops will be given back to the caravan master ( not the ones that you recruited along the way )


Bandit Career Path
When you encountered with bandits ( doesn't matter if they are looter, sea raiders, forest bandits etc ) you will have an option to offer your "services" to them.
Currently, there is no limit to this so they will always accept you. However, this option will only be visible if they catch you - not if you catch them on the battle map ( in other words, you have to be weaker than them in terms of battle strength )
Once you are in - you won't get new gear and you will preserve your current gear. You will also preserve your units as well. Being a bandit isn't easy - and most of the times it's boring ( since the game isn't designed in that way ) hence to spice things up, I added several things.
While fighting with bandits, you will be able to recruit other local bandits. Each day, you will see new recruit availabilities which will be assigned randomly. You can choose to ignore them and the next day you will see other recruits. I'm decreasing their price for this purpose and this price drop is directly related to your banditry fame.
You can sell your prisoners to slave master if you were able to catch some people. Unlike caravan guarding, you don't have to be in the city to do this activity but you need to be close to a city ( although the range is quite big so I don't think this will be an issue )
You can make one time attack each day to locals nearby. This is basically the same as attacking peasants but these peasants won't have any trade intentions but will be local people on that location. Each action you take - each battle will increase your criminal rating with nearby factions.
You will also have the opportunity to sell your junk to a smuggler and you will be able to buy new stuff from a smuggler as well. Unlike a proper trader, a smuggler will bring only the things he could bring - so don't surprise if you don't see anything valuable. However, each day this will be reset and you can see fine armours and stuff in there as well.
Leaving any of these career paths won't reset your experience immediately however they will decrease each day. They are global experiences hence it doesn't matter if you got 50 experience in Aserain caravan and then want to join Khuzait. It will still consider that your old experience is there.

Bandit Career Expansion
Now you can form your own bandit organization in Calradia. Own a hideout - get offers from lords who want you to do the dirty work and much more.

To form your own gang, you need at least 95 fame among bandits and 40 kills. Once you are eligible, you will see the "Form your own gang" option changes. If for some reason menu is not changing, simply open Trade with smuggler screen and exit, it should show.


Once you click, the following happens:
- You become hostile to all kingdoms.
- You become an ally to all bandit type units - desert bandits, looters etc. This doesn't mean that you can't backstab them. I mean, you are a bandit, right? You can still approach them and kill them.
- You own an available hideout nearby. This "nearby" can be a bit far away - this is solely related to availability. So don't surprise if you have to go a bit further to settle in your new hideout.
- You will be asked to add a name for your gang/bandit organization. This will also show on the nameplate of your hideout as X's Inn.
- You will be recognized as a leader. Hideout will be under your control. You can recruit new people from hideouts as well.


Hideout Management
In your hideout, you can manage several things and interact with your followers.
- You can trade with a smuggler: This is basically the same as how you do while at a bandit party. However, this smuggler brings more goods and have more money. He also smuggles better items based on availability. Each day items changes.
- You can set ON or OFF to criminal activities. Criminal activities will decide how much you will earn and how much your criminal activity will hurt other factions. The current version is tested loosely but currently, values are 5 and 2 per week. ie. if you allowed criminal activities, you will have -5 criminal rate with factions and -2 if you turned it OFF. This happens weekly and revenue also comes weekly. That revenue is completely based on how many units you added inside your hideout and their tiers.
- You can sell your prisoners. You can also keep your prisoners inside the troop screen if you don't want to sell them.
- Each day random amount of locals will come and request joining. You can choose to ignore this if you have enough amount of soldiers.


Dirty Business
When two factions go into war, the weakest side can decide to pay some money to you in order to balance things out for their own good. You will get a notification, giving you information about who is asking where to attack and how much they are offering. This is pretty a sweet deal if you are a bandit. They will still attack and chase you - because what you are doing won't be an official faction agreement. So don't think the faction that you are helping won't attack you. Try to avoid their armies.

Things to note
- You can leave banditry whenever you want. This will take hideout out of your control and you will lose soldiers inside there. However, you won't be hunted down by other factions anymore. If you have criminal records on those factions, you still need to pay up though.
- If you go away more than 65 days, hideout will find a new leader and will be taken out of your control. So try to visit your people from time to time.



What next?
I'm planning to add several other features to this mod.
Being a sergeant, responsible for several other soldiers in the army. Done✅
Being bodyguard as a new status and responsible from your lord in the battle Done✅
New events that will enable you to improve yourself outside of the battle ( hunting, training etc )  Done✅
Unit mod compatibilities  Done✅
Games and actions where you can gain gold or fame  Done✅
Troop/tier balance, as well as outcome balancing, Done✅
Rebellion ( internal army rebellion ) to take away some soldiers and run away etc. Done✅
Other mechanics, banditry, caravan guarding etc  Done✅
Random events where you might be encounter and decide to improve yourself
Scenes where you can interact with your comrades play games do training etc.
But all these will depend on my free time + popularity of this mod.


FACQ ( Frequently Asked Crash Questions )

+ Game is crashing when I launch the game
- And since its crashing on start up - it's not related to this mod - it's related to DLL Blocking. Take a look at this  or to this

+ I'm using X.X.X Beta Branch and game is crashing
- Don't use Beta. This mod is NOT SUPPORTING beta. 

+ I did {VALID SCENARIO HERE} and I got crash
- Please follow the template and report this. I can take a look. Follow the template very strictly -because there is a reason why I created a template. It's not fun for me to chase bugs

+ I'm a good person and I want to report a bug with as much as info I can provide
- I highly recommend using BEW( Better Exception Window ) while reporting the bugs. It helps a lot. Also screenshots and stuff helps a lot too.

+ I have XXX mod and it's crashing
- Don't use XXX mod and ideally let us know in the posts section ( not bugs )

+ I think ABC isn't balanced. What can we do?
- Not exactly a crash. Use posts section and let us discuss. If you have an idea, use forum section.


FAQ
+ What will happen to my soldiers if I join an Army? Will they be part of that Army?
- No, they won't They will be disbanded. You will be the only one that is joining the party. Your companions will be scattered around.

+ What will happen to my current weapons/gear if I join an Army??
- It will be "reserved". So you will get it back once you are done with your service. You will get it even if you desert the army or taken as prisoner. Although I might change that in the future

+ Somehow I'm not able to see the Freelance Menu on left? Game stops when my party raids? I'm unable to do anything while raiding and fight going on
- Raids have some issues. So I opted out from that. You need to click Play/Forward from time control at main map. Raids send stop signal to game time flow - but you can't do much so you need to click to skip. Your army will still do whatever they want. If you are not seeing the Freelancer Menu, just click somewhere in the map, it should pop up.

+ I got more than one promotion, why?
- If you ranked more than once ( i.e. assuming that you had 0 kills, and you killed 20) then you have to pick your first level up, and then the second one. This follows the same path as the normal unit upgrade tree

+ I was very experienced, now it makes me start from Recruit again. Why?
- This happens. Because you are not "known" anymore. Whether you left the army with your own will, or taken prisoner, you are no longer part of that party and you will start from scratch if you want to do something else. In the future, if you get famous ( ie kills more than 100 ) then I might make you a legend/known figure. However, it's not implemented yet. 

+ Is this different than Warband's Freelancer?
- Yes. Almost completely different. Warband was also based on the Medieval age, Bannerlord is not. So Warband's Freelancer was also based on the Medieval age whereas this mod is focused on Late Antiquity as its era. 

+ Can I use my own equipment? 
- No. As stated above, they will be reserved and you will be given standard issued gear from the pool. This is historically accurate as well. Also, it increases the immersion of being a "regular soldier" within the army because you won't have any unique and special items. You will fight with your comrades and go through the same experience.

+ Can I loot? 
- No. Why would you? Do you share the loot with your troops when you are playing vanilla game? No, you are just paying their wages. So why would your lord share it with you? You are already handsomely paid for your tier and troubles. 

+ Do I get renown with battles?
- You do. But since your "participation" isn't too known and high, it won't be really significant. But you will still increase your relationship with your lord and surrounding parties. As well as overall renown with the parties.  

+ Can I keep the gear?
- No. You can't. Only if you honorably discharge and killed more than 190 people, then you will get some part of the gear. But not the entire gear.
+ It doesn't make sense. I want to keep the gear
- It does make sense. Both game balance-wise and historically. Bannerlord is based on late antiquity and in that era, armies were professional. The same can be seen in the Bannerlord's recruit logic as well. Once you enlisted you are issued gear and it's your responsibility to keep it intact. If you lose any part - you have to replace it. And because of this, you also have to give it back when you leave the army. Because the next recruits will use the gear and the cycle will continue. In rare cases, you can take some parts of your armor - only if you were too experienced or kept this out of sight. That's why, if you honorably discharge, you can keep some parts of the gear. And game balance-wise it also makes sense. Why? Because the entire loadout of high-tier soldiers can cost more than a town. And that's certainly an imbalance issue within the game. However, if you desert or start a mutiny, you will get the full loadout. Is it worth getting into that much trouble? Who knows. It's your playthrough
+ I don't care about the balance I want that gear
- Use cheats. Click Inventory. Pick whatever you want. 

+ I found a bug. What to do next?
- Congrats. Here is your cookie ? Mod might have a lot of bugs in it. I tried to iron it as much as possible in a short time but I still need time to polish a lot of things. Report it, let me check. But be specific. Don't be vague. If you cannot give details, then it's not worth looking at it.

+ Can this break my save game?
- In theory, no. Worst case scenario is: you were working as a freelancer, your gear is taken away, you disabled the mod, then you should be in same location with the party you were in with 1 unit in your party. That's all. But ideally, you shouldn't remove mods in the half way through ( by the way, no guarantee, it might break your save as well ) 

+ I played with version lower/higher than you said. It's working fine
- Cool. Let us know as well.

Cheats
If for some wicked reason, something is messed up, you are unable to do anything at menu, please enable cheats and write the following
freelancer.reset - Reset your status, no relationship impact or whatsoever
freelancer.reset_sergeant - Reset your sergeant look. This is required if your sergeant somehow stopped giving orders
freelancer.who_is_my_lord - Shows your lord name and current position if in settlement
freelancer.add_fame - Adds fame to your current faction
freelancer.add_kill_count - Adds kill count to your records 
freelancer.add_popularity - Adds popularity to your records 
freelancer.add_loyalty - Adds loyalty to your records 
freelancer.add_clan_renown - Adds clan renown - negative numbers are also accepted. You can use this to lower your tier.

then you should be out of the freelancing option and you should get your gear back. Report this back so that I can take a look.


Config
Some parts of the mod are now configurable. You can tweak the Config.json inside the Freelancer folder. Config should be something like this:
{
   "Generals": {
      "AllowGenerals": false,
      "BannerTemplate": "1.22.157.1836.1836.768.764.1.0.0.301.0.116.497.497.764.764.1.1.-45.301.0.116.497.497.764.764.1.1.45"
   },
   "Freelancer":{
   "ClanTierRequirement": 2,
   "BandageCost": 40,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel1": 4,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel2": 14,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel3": 34,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel4": 49,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel5": 79,
   "KillCountRequirementServiceLevel6": 120,
   "PassiveXPMinValue": 50,
       "MutinyPopularityLimit": 50,
   "PassiveXPMaxValue": 180,
   "KillLimitForKeepingArmor": 190,
       "LeadershipRequirement": 101,
       "ServiceDaysRequirement": 230,
       "TierLimitForCountingDays": 3
   }
}