You are free to make and release a patch that removes NWDM dependency, it shouldn't be too difficult but I'm not in the mood right now.

I just want to say I tried it and did not like having all those NWDM weps just to use this mod. So I also hope there will be a non-NWDM version of this mod. Helmet is cool though.

Going to try this one

The Horned Bandits finally have a base to assault to take them out. It's not as straightforward as it seems, though.

aight I'll take a look at it if I get a chance

Oh ok. I don't remember if I made a non-NWDM for them. If I didn't you can go ahead and make a patch if you wish and either publish it or just edit them out for yourself. Or maybe I'll make one eventually, but I don't know when I'll be able to get around to do it.

it's just that I didn't want to use that big mod pack anymore so I was sticking to the standalones

I can link them if I used them, sure, but again, I'm pretty sure I didn't use standalones nor I plan to update to use them cause it works well with NWDM. It's been a while, but I think they can spawn with various Planks, Fragment Axes, Kanasaibou and the likes, some maces and swords as sidearms but no cleavers.

I made standalones for the huge cleaver and that one fake religious cane sword. I could see about doing others that the author didn't do yet

iirc I just used something from NWDM. What standalones?

what weapons do they spawn with? maybe you can link my unofficial standalone mods that ikahurula gave the ok for me to make

I want to add a base eventually, but I'm a bit caught up with other stuff right now. The Kabuto Beta thing is not my doing, the Kabuto mod's author changed UC loadouts. I personally like them more than the standard Samurai Helmets. but it's easy to manually fix, just open FCS, look i hte characters tab for UC Samurai and in the gear tab reduce the number next to Kabuto Beta or remove the entry altogether.

One thing that would make this better, though, would be that if (like other Bandit factions) there was a base and a faction leader, such that you could kill the leader to dramatically reduce the spawn rate of the bandits. They become such a feature of the areas where they spawn that actually being able to do something about them would be awesome. (Lore-wise, I also think there's a question about how such a large group of Shek formed in this area of the map; there are a lot of Shek in the UC, but the question is how they came to be organised in this way, so far and so isolated from the centres of Shek population in the SW).

I think those mod works really well (allthough the Kabuto Beta helmets you need to make it work seem to spawn more often than I'd like on the UC Samurai). Do you have any plans for further development? The Horned Devils are, I think, not overpowered and although they spawn quite often, the group sizes don't seem to overwhelm cities so they don't break the game. Similarly, the loot on the corpses isn't overpowered either, and the bounties are more-or-less proportionate (although I need to compare some more 20k bounty characters with the Champions to be sure).

It is, and it's actually quite easy, go to Biomes, Spawn Area, look for the biome you want to tweak and increase Crab spawn or reduce Devils spawn (it's relative chance, so just increase the difference)

I like the mod but they essentially killed off all the crabs north above the forbidden isle (I think that's the place?). Is it possible to reduce spawn rate in that crab region? FCS is fairly limited so my hope isn't high.

Nice!

Just made a version 2 for my patch of this mod that still makes them recruitable but takes away the bounties
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2715127744&searchtext=recruit+AnYONE+patch

Just made a patch of this mod for "Recruit ANYONE."
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2714725462&searchtext=recruit+anyone+patch

tuned down stats all around

Finally reduced spawn rate in the north. The Cannibal Plains had become the Horned Plains lol
Now they should spawn in reasonable numbers