Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[PulsatingBrain]

It's good now. Fun experience. The main quest is actually good. Felt more like a RPG than some RPGs if you get my drift!

Great news. I'll give it another go

 

[Spectacle]

Taleworlds more or less invented Early Access. They know how to do it right.

 

[Alienman]

Both, really. (there was a Warband beta too)

Don't remember the Warband beta, but I remember buying the first game thinking it was an mmo in development

Well. Let's hope they continue doing "EA" well then, my heart just sunk a bit when I read it. I want this game god dammit!

 

[markec]

If they do same pricing system with EA as they did with first Mount and Blade I would buy it instantly.

 

[Metro]

I pretty much know what to expect from this and won't be disappointed. And given the fact it'll probably be another fucking five years until 'release' I'd buy Early Access with a significant enough discount. THAT SAID, developers have a habit of putting a game on Early Access... and then putting it on sale for a further 25-50% off during the major Steam promotions. So will probably wait until that.

 

[wwsd]

3) Kingdoms need to work together better. Friendly lords are hard to direct, even when you're the marshall and have a good reputation with them. Enemy kingdoms also have a hard time with teamwork and coming up with reasonable war strategies. Sometimes they get it right, but they do a lot of dumb stuff too... for example I've seen a group of 700 troops run right by their besieged town just to go raid a village.

4) Wars need to be more decisive. First, they shouldn't just start randomly and for no reason. And when I take a lord down, he should automatically be captured and out of action until the war is over (or until he is rescued). Not respawned within a week with a new army of trash mobs. Give each lord what amounts to one "life" and all of a sudden the stakes get much higher.

Put all of these pieces together and I think the game will feel more logical and cohesive, and more like everyone is acting with a sense of purpose -- instead of just a bunch of dudes fighting a bunch of other dudes, rinse, repeat.

I couldn't take SP Warband seriously after discovering that it was essentially impossible to fully succeed in the metagame for this reason. It doesn't really matter how quick you defeat the enemy bands, if you start the war at a manpower disadvantage you will stay at a manpower disadvantage forever and ever amen.

I even tested with cheats, it just isn't doable.

Making the strategic side of the singleplayer game work would also require the AI lords to be governed by the same rules as the player. That is, they would also have to gain soldiers from recruitment from villages, hiring mercenaries, recruiting hostages, etc., and training and upgrading them just as a human player would. It seems to me that in WB at the moment, they just spawn and respawn them quickly. Of course, the more established lords would start with larger armies and garrisons that they can draw from. But replacing the troops of those armies and garrisons would be their own responsibility, rather than some kind of instant respawning thing.

Secondly, the troops that you can recruit from villages should be dependent not only on relation, but also on prosperity. I.e. if a village is dirt poor, it should never yield anything except low-tier troops, the unemployed scrubs who can't do anything else because everything has been destroyed. This makes it more important to improve and protect villages. What I like about Warband is that it not only depicts pitched battles and sieges, but also raiding tactics; the next step should be that this actually affects the enemy's ability to wage war.

All the ingredients to make this work realistically are already present in Warband, it's just that the AI seems to act pretty randomly. Who knows, maybe Bannerlord can implement this. In Warband, sometimes you can see larger armies just going around laying waste to villages, but the AI gets distracted all the time. In the sequel, it would be great to have marshalls actually trying to pull off major chevauchées à la Edward the Black Prince, i.e. sustained raiding campaigns to draw the enemy out of their castles, at the pain of actually wrecking their economy.

The more I think of it, the cooler it sounds. Unless you're the dumbfuck from the beginning of this thread who thinks M&B should just be a multiplayer combat simulator.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It's good now. Fun experience. The main quest is actually good. Felt more like a RPG than some RPGs if you get my drift!

Great news. I'll give it another go

Spears are dabgerous, be ye warned.

 

[zeitgeist]

I haven't played Warband in ages, I assume the modding scene is in an advanced stage by now, so what's the best fully finished total conversion? Is Floris Evolved the current/updated version of Floris?

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I haven't played Warband in ages, I assume the modding scene is in an advanced stage by now, so what's the best fully finished total conversion? Is Floris Evolved the current/updated version of Floris?

I haven't played that many mods, so I'm no expert, but yes Floris is great. The expanded version adds a lot of features, and even the basic version adds some convenience features like choosing which weapon you get in arena battles

 

[Perkel]

I haven't played Warband in ages, I assume the modding scene is in an advanced stage by now, so what's the best fully finished total conversion? Is Floris Evolved the current/updated version of Floris?

Prophecy of Pendor is what you are looking for.
Nothing comes close to PoP vanilla, mods, other full games and so on.

Be warned though. PoP is like crack. Once you start playing it you will be hooked for years.
After trying PoP you will never go back to vanilla.

Hell even Bannerlords will have hard time beating it.

 

[Metro]

Pendor is only for people looking for a brutal, massively grindy experience. It is a great mod but takes a looooong time to get anywhere.

 

[turul]

Early access...

EA is such a curse. Was just now looking through steam for a good local co-op game, and every single game that looked interesting was EA.

It's a good way to avoid damaging reviews by gaming media and end users. There are some games being on early access for ages, only to be abandoned by the developer

Spoiler

after raking in a few million $-s of course

 

[Metro]

Hah, that game was abandoned? I remember people hyping it. Still, Bannerlord will eventually be finished simply because there's not much to it above and beyond Warband. Even if Talewords goes bankrupt or something fans/mods will polish it up.

 

[Perkel]

Pendor is only for people looking for a brutal, massively grindy experience. It is a great mod but takes a looooong time to get anywhere.

There is nothing brutal or grindy.
Simply put mechanics in this don't make you superstar from start.

If you start as ragshag dirty poor no one then you will be treated as such and it will take a while to do anything worthwile (but payback is in form of getting yourself properly made noble, your own flag and that feeling where you achieve something great).

If you want easier time then you start as noblemen and get hired by one of lords. You will get almost instantly village of your own and you will be able to take part in battles from start.


Either way PoP starting as dirt poor and getting to be creating your own nation is something that almost no game provide.
AAAAND shitload of stuff like armors, knighoods etc

Warband and m&B feels like mod to PoP not the otherwise.

edit:

Also if you start poor there are SEVERAL ways to get into proper position. You can get married to proper lady, create bunch of mercenaries get hired and eventually taken as noble for someone, fight in tournaments as lone warrior and win prestige and be offered noble position.

Best of which is simply being business man and running your own mercenary company.

 

[pippin]

Mods or not, Mount and Blade is probably the only game where grinding feels both fun and useful.

 

[Metro]

Pendor is only for people looking for a brutal, massively grindy experience. It is a great mod but takes a looooong time to get anywhere.

There is nothing brutal or grindy.

There is.

Simply put mechanics in this don't make you superstar from start.

Neither does vanilla Warband.

Mods or not, Mount and Blade is probably the only game where grinding feels both fun and useful.

I don't disagree but PoP is particularly grindy.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/News/150

This year, TaleWorlds is heading to E3! We're excited about the platform this will give us to show off Bannerlord even more and get your feedback on what we've been doing.

At E3, our focus will be on one feature we think has come on leaps and bounds, compared to previous Mount & Blade games and it's absolutely something we get asked about a lot... but we are keeping it a surprise till June.

There will be a big chunk of information released during the event itself, as we make announcements, so expect multiple videos, as well as written details. In addition, recently announced was that we'll be on the PC Gaming Show on Monday 13th June, the day before E3 starts.

Hopefully you're looking forward to the event, as much as we are. The team is working hard, as usual, and we want show you something really special.

Siege, I guess?

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Siege, I guess?

The language used certainly makes it sound like it

 

[Makabb]

 

[Metro]

More like: 'Vaporlord', amirite?

 

[Doesn'tmeananything]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Especially the start:
Milord!
Eh?!

 

[Luka-boy]

For the true M&B siege battle experience, that video still needs the entire left side of the screen being completely covered in green, orange and red messages detailing who killed who

 

[Space Satan]

I must say that killing hundreds of enemy's troops by jousting them one-by-one was bullshit historically, balance-wise and logic-wise but it was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I encountered.

 

[Got bored and left]

I must say that killing hundreds of enemy's troops by jousting them one-by-one was bullshit historically, balance-wise and logic-wise but it was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I encountered.

Delivered couched lance damage! Delivered couched lance damage! Delivered couched lance damage! Delivered couched lance damage!
Hell yeah.