Mount&Blade Warband : best mods.

[Kyl Von Kull]

I tend to lose patience with Warband when I’m grinding reputation in the early midgame/late earlygame. But I can’t bring myself to cheat via console commands, so I rarely push through long enough to pick up some real estate. Are any of these mods less grindy?

 

[mbv123]

If anything, the mods make it even more grindy.
I personally prefer the early game myself, when you're a literal nobody and have to carefully pick your encounters and choose sides. Don't really care about the kingdom management, real estate building since it's not something that my character would really do. (I always play with lowborn characters)

 

[Merlkir]

We added the option to double the rate of respoint/influence gain in The Last Days recently. Games go quite a bit faster that way. You can also tweak the war system numbers so there's almost no time to grind.

 

[thekdawg21]

Mind giving a brief overview of what Last of Days is Merlkir ? I heard good things and those tweaks sound quite good

Edit: Nevermind, the mod actually has a decent and easily findable overview. I got it. Quite a few other mods (PoP) don't really state in a concise way what they do and require poking around wikis to find out their purpose.

 

[Merlkir]

Right. If you wanna try TLD, make sure you install the Steam Workshop version:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=299974223

Or the latest build from here:

https://tldmod.github.io/

 

[Dwarvophile]

I tend to lose patience with Warband when I’m grinding reputation in the early midgame/late earlygame. But I can’t bring myself to cheat via console commands, so I rarely push through long enough to pick up some real estate. Are any of these mods less grindy?

Me too actually. I mean, in VC I already own 2 forts and a village, but I'm still very noob in the political part of the game. Never could intrigue enough to gain anything without a battle. Which I suppose is very possible.

AD1257 makes it even worse since there are so many lords and ladies. So many that the game engine can't even reference them all, the UI list stops at the letter "L" ! Been playing more than 100 hours and still, I just know how to fight and how to trade.

 

[wyes gull]

I hope bonerlord does something with the rep. Save a guy from rotting in jail for +3 relation? Out of 100? Piss off, I'm not gonna save him 30 times just to be his mate.

 

[Turisas]

I hope bonerlord does something with the rep. Save a guy from rotting in jail for +3 relation? Out of 100? Piss off, I'm not gonna save him 30 times just to be his mate.

Would be nice if you could have them (well, the honorable ones anyway) be indebted to you for it, and for other such big favors. Politics and power play in general should be fleshed out, even if not necessarily to CK2 levels - being a great commander and winning battles for your faction should be only one of the avenues into increased standing; backstabbing etc ought to be at times a viable choice, too.

 

[Dwarvophile]

Politics and power play in general should be fleshed out, even if not necessarily to CK2 levels - being a great commander and winning battles for your faction should be only one of the avenues into increased standing; backstabbing etc ought to be at times a viable choice, too.

The bastard child of CK2 and M&B Warband would become the emperor of the universe of gaming.

 

[Incantatar]

AD1257 makes it even worse since there are so many lords and ladies. So many that the game engine can't even reference them all, the UI list stops at the letter "L" ! Been playing more than 100 hours and still, I just know how to fight and how to trade.

I just wish the sieges weren't broken. Not really playable for me without archers using archery. I know you clumsily can get your own archers to fire or go melee but not the enemies.

 

[vazha]

Prophecy of Pendor is the closes M & B has come to being a full-fledged RPG game. The setting & lore is better fleshed out than in many AAA titles. Wolfbode the Slayer FTW!

 

[Modron]

I would say Viking Conquest was far more of a RPG, several different quest lines, multiple starting points and stories, et cetera. Downside being no armored horses nor nice sabers.

 

[janior]

pendor is pretty epic yeah

 

[Merlkir]

I would say Viking Conquest was far more of a RPG, several different quest lines, multiple starting points and stories, et cetera. Downside being no armored horses nor nice sabers.

Agreed. I respect a lot of what PoP devs achieved and they're really nice people. But I just don't enjoy playing PoP at all. All it is, at least as I experienced it, was hammering the player with high level shit from the start and constantly spawning massive armies of incredibly overpowered troops. There's a lot of cool stuff like the procedurally generated knightly orders, or the achievement system.
But it's just pointless/boring to me, I can't find a reason to keep playing.

It could well be I've played too much of the game in various mods and in native over the years. (thousands of hours, plus testing our own mod for hundreds of hours)
Viking Conquest had the right amount of story and length not to get boring and repetitive and it had enough new features to keep my interest. Plus the whole structure with an actual story, stat and skill checks and so on hasn't been done very well before.

It's much closer to a conventional cRPG and I liked that.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I would say Viking Conquest was far more of a RPG, several different quest lines, multiple starting points and stories, et cetera. Downside being no armored horses nor nice sabers.

Agreed. I respect a lot of what PoP devs achieved and they're really nice people. But I just don't enjoy playing PoP at all. All it is, at least as I experienced it, was hammering the player with high level shit from the start and constantly spawning massive armies of incredibly overpowered troops. There's a lot of cool stuff like the procedurally generated knightly orders, or the achievement system.
But it's just pointless/boring to me, I can't find a reason to keep playing.

It could well be I've played too much of the game in various mods and in native over the years. (thousands of hours, plus testing our own mod for hundreds of hours)
Viking Conquest had the right amount of story and length not to get boring and repetitive and it had enough new features to keep my interest. Plus the whole structure with an actual story, stat and skill checks and so on hasn't been done very well before.

It's much closer to a conventional cRPG and I liked that.

And you got a pet doggy.

 

[janior]

I would say Viking Conquest was far more of a RPG, several different quest lines, multiple starting points and stories, et cetera. Downside being no armored horses nor nice sabers.

Agreed. I respect a lot of what PoP devs achieved and they're really nice people. But I just don't enjoy playing PoP at all. All it is, at least as I experienced it, was hammering the player with high level shit from the start and constantly spawning massive armies of incredibly overpowered troops. There's a lot of cool stuff like the procedurally generated knightly orders, or the achievement system.
But it's just pointless/boring to me, I can't find a reason to keep playing.

It could well be I've played too much of the game in various mods and in native over the years. (thousands of hours, plus testing our own mod for hundreds of hours)
Viking Conquest had the right amount of story and length not to get boring and repetitive and it had enough new features to keep my interest. Plus the whole structure with an actual story, stat and skill checks and so on hasn't been done very well before.

It's much closer to a conventional cRPG and I liked that.

fucking casual

 

[U-8D8]

Silverstag's good. It adds stuff like spear bracing, crouching, and the ability to place your pavise shield on the battlefield, plus you can order your men to do the same so you can mitigate the cavalry advantage. Be warned though, it uses the Warband script extender which ceased development a few versions ago. You might get bugs if you use a newer version of Warband so it'd be probably easier to have a separate 1.153 installation for it. Here's a link to its nexus page.

https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/3693

 

[Merlkir]

I would say Viking Conquest was far more of a RPG, several different quest lines, multiple starting points and stories, et cetera. Downside being no armored horses nor nice sabers.

Agreed. I respect a lot of what PoP devs achieved and they're really nice people. But I just don't enjoy playing PoP at all. All it is, at least as I experienced it, was hammering the player with high level shit from the start and constantly spawning massive armies of incredibly overpowered troops. There's a lot of cool stuff like the procedurally generated knightly orders, or the achievement system.
But it's just pointless/boring to me, I can't find a reason to keep playing.

It could well be I've played too much of the game in various mods and in native over the years. (thousands of hours, plus testing our own mod for hundreds of hours)
Viking Conquest had the right amount of story and length not to get boring and repetitive and it had enough new features to keep my interest. Plus the whole structure with an actual story, stat and skill checks and so on hasn't been done very well before.

It's much closer to a conventional cRPG and I liked that.

fucking casual

I first bought Mount and Blade in 2006 and played these games and many of their mods ever since.
But yeah, I'll take that. If PoP is for the true hardcore players, then I'm happily not one of those.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

pendor is pretty epic yeah

pendor is my go-to mod for warband, but it has issues, some related to wb itself.
1) too grindy. just too grindy. how am i supposed to fight a 1k army without owning at least half the map? that's just not bearable. i understand, "end game", but i'd like to reach it in a week perhaps, a month if i'm strong willed. not in 200 in-game-years which translates in months and months of non-stop gaming.
2) by the time the main character can access end game stuff he's so powerful and rich (and bored) that only numbers separate him from said content, it's just a matter of how much meat shields you can pay
3) player income is maybe 1/10 of (simulated) npcs'. an npc can mantain a 200 man army while owning a single castle, sometimes just a village, while the player can't pay for shit even with a whole town
4) still only 2, max 3 available builds
5) still nonexistant diplomacy

i wish pop had some mechanics i saw in i can't remember which warhammer mod: military career. instead of building his own army, the player could join any others. no expenses, no need for food, good money and, above all, easy access to +rep with your liege and all the others you fought with. normally in m&b it's masochistic to try to follow some big army in the hope of grinding rep: too slow to go anywhere, too slow to chase enemies, can be stuck ping-ponging between "i want to assault this castle" and "i need to run because i see an enemy army which is [my army]+1 big", all the while not paying a coin and not having to restock with food.

 

[ragnor]

As a huge Tolkien nerd, The Last Days is my favorite mod ever. Merlkir , you guys did a great job there! It is definitely the best Tolkien themed game out there. At least your game understands the spirit of the books, not butcher them like the others.

 

[lefthandblack]

Tocan's Calradia
https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/3916

Phantasy 2018
https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/6194

Diplomacy4.LITDUM
https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/6120

Cadmus Floris Expansion
https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/6152

All of these are compilations that cobble together the best mods (diplomacy, PBOD, Freelancer, etc.) in a single working package along with the authors respective tastes. The phantasy one is like a less autistic Pendor with more magic pew-pew. I like Pendor, but some of their changes piss me off and along with the loss of diplomacy it's not a good trade-off IMO.

I haven't tried this one yet, but it's on my list:

NYSNE
https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/6132

 

[Incantatar]

pendor is pretty epic yeah

pendor is my go-to mod for warband, but it has issues, some related to wb itself.

I got different issues with it.
1. Mod authors are cunts. "We have to protect our precious! No discussion of changing our changes allowed!!!"
2. Too much shitty story. It's just not good. Keep it in the background where it belongs and don't make the player follow a certain path. "You have to play this mod this one special way, if you don't want to suck elf cock, you're not playing the game." Just look at that post: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,375390.msg8944686.html#msg8944686
More late game options for other paths would make the mod a lot better.
3. Voice acting is atrocious.
4. Heavy cav and archery op.

What I love about it is that it adds a lot of flavor while still being stable. Most other mods are far from being as bug free.

 

[Beastro]

Looks like The Last Days finally got ported to WB.

Might revisit MB now myself: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-last-days

 

[Merlkir]

Looks like The Last Days finally got ported to WB.

Might revisit MB now myself: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-last-days

"finally" = around 5 years ago. :D

The modDB version is heavily outdated and unstable. Install either the Steam Workshop version:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=299974223

Or the latest (less stable) nightly build from here:

https://tldmod.github.io/

 

[Anomander Rake]

Okay, so if one wishes to play a necromancer or a magic setting, which mods are available?

Solid and Shade
Phantasy 2018

then?