Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog 7 - Imperial Declines

It would be epic if you would make a faction of the epic Vendel era warriors with heavy mounted horse warriors plus Wolf, bear and Wild boar warriors and also Raven helmet warriors. You can search youtube for " Vendel era 550-793 AD (Wolf,Bear,Wild boar,Bird warriors)  " To see them.
Cheers from Sweden and your earlier games are very epic 

NIce work

Tale Worlds:

  I know what I'm about to say might be a little blunt and could be taken in the wrong way but I mean it with the best intentions and for your own good.

  Just release the game already.

  I'll be honest with you- Mount&Blade Warband Native sucks. Alright, maybe it doesn't suck but it has very little of an entertainment factor in and of itself. You (Tale Worlds) did not take Mount&Blade to the level that it is at now. The Community did. The Coders and Sceners, the Texturers and the Players, they took something that had the foundation of a great game and transformed it into what it is now. Instead of focusing on all the little bitty things that in the end could have been missed without much ado, focus on making the game "mod-able". If you have been following any of the great games that have been around recently (strictly on the PC platform) what separates them from the rest is the community: GTA V, Minecraft, Skyrim, M&B.
  Instead of worrying too much about what lord likes who and which lady is adventurous, focus on the mechanic of the lord/lady relations. Instead of worrying too much about creating the most beautiful landscape, smooth out the "scener" tool and facilitate the creation of these scenes by the community. You will never be able to satisfy each and every want of the consumer- that's where the modders come in. Give the power and responsibility to the players, they will create content that will rival and even surpass what a company like you can put out. Not only will it save you money and time but it will increase the life of your game. One of the great things about M&B is being able to play in the world of a Game of Thrones and then quickly switch over to the fantasy land of Perisno- facilitate that.

  The gaming industry is an ever-moving playground. You have to create content that can easily keep up with the times thanks to the community's input and efforts.

  To close off: Obviously if the game is not done do not release it, but seriously, seven blogs have gone through and the only progress we've seen is improved graphics and, maybe,improved AI. Please, please, please do not waste 4 to 6 months creating a "deep story" that people will only play for a few weeks/months before they turn over to playing the much better mods. Other than that, I want to applaud your efforts and wish you the best of luck. Just remember that the community is what made you into such a great game- do not leave us out and try to communicate more with us.

Tarius30 said:

You (Tale Worlds) did not take Mount&Blade to the level that it is at now. The Community did. The Coders and Sceners, the Texturers and the Players, they took something that had the foundation of a great game and transformed it into what it is now. Instead of focusing on all the little bitty things that in the end could have been missed without much ado, focus on making the game "mod-able". If you have been following any of the great games that have been around recently (strictly on the PC platform) what separates them from the rest is the community: GTA V, Minecraft, Skyrim, M&B.
  Instead of worrying too much about what lord likes who and which lady is adventurous, focus on the mechanic of the lord/lady relations. Instead of worrying too much about creating the most beautiful landscape, smooth out the "scener" tool and facilitate the creation of these scenes by the community. You will never be able to satisfy each and every want of the consumer- that's where the modders come in.

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Have you read about the new scenning and modding tools? https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/3

And they said Bannerlord won't need Module System anymore to mod. And these are two of the first things they did and said, I think.

Hello and congratulations for the wonderful graphics. First of all, I apologize for the English, which is google-translated. I state that I am a longtime player of M&B and Warband, which I consider the game more intelligent/innovative as ever, and that I would try to do some reflection.

It is obvious that the suggestions could go in any direction and every aspect of warband can be improved and expanded, but to avoid confusion I would like to start with a part of the game that is very important for me: the strategic map and tactical map. Apart from an obvious graphics redesign, which I'm sure will be done, there are many improvements that can be made in this section, in my opinion.

In the strategy map could be interesting to have a more realistic scale size. To be clear, do not cross a continent in a day and a half. This could be easily achieved by simply slowing down the characters, but this would undoubtedly increase the boredom; this should be a lot more things to do on the map, for example, provide food for the troops if in short supply, or gather material to build siege equipment or, build a small outpost for the night (the Romans built a fort every night) (might be interesting to put the rest in the movements, it could affect the morale).

In short, it would be intriguing to enter the tactical map and always have something to do, a sort of minigame. This would be possible, however, to the condition that there is a topological correspondence between the strategic and the tactical, which would not only be an aesthetic accessory but would have a huge impact on the fight, as the choice location on the strategic map that would then end up at tactical. A bit like it was in the Total-war series. The topography should still be more realistic and less perlin noise and absolutely eliminate the "climber horses." Personally I prefer flat terrain, if the fight takes place in the mountains should be designed better.

I do not know if you know Outerra (of course, at that level would be a dream, but a small step in that direction would be great).

It would be interesting also access to special locations just by visiting the tactical map, a kind of exploration range, and then things get discovered as icons on the strategic map.
They should also be made ​​visible on both maps, the changes to the structures, fields etc.
Finally, it would be great to find in the tactical map all the events of the strategic, such as moving troops, peasants, caravans etc.

In practice a greater integration between the two maps, in fact, the real game map should become the tactical and use the strategic map as a kind of fast travel. Last example: you need to make camp for the night? Choose the area on the strategic map but organize it on the tactical map, so use the natural defenses of those particular rocks ...

ok I'm sick ...

I've said too much, but the fact is that M & B is so unique that I expect it to be more RPG, more simulated, more sandbox, more more ...
Many of these things are already partly explored by the community of modders, but it would be nice to see them implemented in a consistent manner.
Even though I'm dying to have it, I say to developers: Put us all the time you need, not a minute less. Viva Turkey
Baci da Pisa

Are there going to be new towns there. the ones that had been burned down 200 years later.

I'd prefer if they'd focused more on the multiplayer & modder part of the community, becouse that's where the game lives or dies.

Tarius30 said:

Tale Worlds:

  I know what I'm about to say might be a little blunt and could be taken in the wrong way but I mean it with the best intentions and for your own good.

  Just release the game already.

  I'll be honest with you- Mount&Blade Warband Native sucks. Alright, maybe it doesn't suck but it has very little of an entertainment factor in and of itself. You (Tale Worlds) did not take Mount&Blade to the level that it is at now. The Community did. The Coders and Sceners, the Texturers and the Players, they took something that had the foundation of a great game and transformed it into what it is now. Instead of focusing on all the little bitty things that in the end could have been missed without much ado, focus on making the game "mod-able". If you have been following any of the great games that have been around recently (strictly on the PC platform) what separates them from the rest is the community: GTA V, Minecraft, Skyrim, M&B.
  Instead of worrying too much about what lord likes who and which lady is adventurous, focus on the mechanic of the lord/lady relations. Instead of worrying too much about creating the most beautiful landscape, smooth out the "scener" tool and facilitate the creation of these scenes by the community. You will never be able to satisfy each and every want of the consumer- that's where the modders come in. Give the power and responsibility to the players, they will create content that will rival and even surpass what a company like you can put out. Not only will it save you money and time but it will increase the life of your game. One of the great things about M&B is being able to play in the world of a Game of Thrones and then quickly switch over to the fantasy land of Perisno- facilitate that.

  The gaming industry is an ever-moving playground. You have to create content that can easily keep up with the times thanks to the community's input and efforts.

  To close off: Obviously if the game is not done do not release it, but seriously, seven blogs have gone through and the only progress we've seen is improved graphics and, maybe,improved AI. Please, please, please do not waste 4 to 6 months creating a "deep story" that people will only play for a few weeks/months before they turn over to playing the much better mods. Other than that, I want to applaud your efforts and wish you the best of luck. Just remember that the community is what made you into such a great game- do not leave us out and try to communicate more with us.

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Yay! Salty kids who know nothing about how game development works but still think they have the authority to talk about it! Obviously TaleWorlds devs will want to listen to you when you basically tell them "Haha everything you've done is **** and sucks and we're the only reason your game made any money"

Have you ever thought of WHY they are not pumping out information on a weekly basis? Maybe its because the game isn't close to ready, when it is, they can pump out information to generate more hype. There is no reason to throw out a bunch of info 3 years before your game's planned release date

So nice!

I'm excited to see a bit of in game video. Just running around a town or a quick skirmish to demonstrate some conceptual ideas and direction for the combat.

Oh well, more waiting we will do!

Thank you for the great work on the game

warbandmeetsgta said:

not trying to be funny but im not impressed at all
we are a good 2 and a half years from bannerlords annoucement `trailer` which consisted of writing and groaning

the `blogs` are few and far between this one took months to arrive,

and beyond the first few lines it was just a basic fantasy mixed with reality history lesson of life 2 milleniums ago, without saying anything about game play/ game goals/ new features nothing

and the screenshots still say work in progress

this is a very good 2 - getting near to 3 years since the annoucement was made

i appreciate the taleworlds team isnt exactly ign or ea with a unlimited budget but i havent seen anything in previous blogs or screenshots that doesnt look like it isnt from a polished mod with enhanced graphics or any of the other 1000s of mods for warband since 2010.

this isnt a huge multi platform game like gta which had weeks worth of audio and an unreal amount of graphics etc, this is just `the next level in warband` which whilst we are all excpecting improvements, nobody is excpecting something of the magnitude of gta

so pardon me for not being that excited, but when we are waiting quarter of a year for a blog which says virtually nothing about gameplay or featuers, it doesnt say much for the team

nice sugar coat though,  the way they got your attention talking about factions and then just rambled and waffled on for 5 paragraphs about absolutly nothing.

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I couldn't agree more.

Tarius30 said:

Tale Worlds:

  I know what I'm about to say might be a little blunt and could be taken in the wrong way but I mean it with the best intentions and for your own good.

  Just release the game already.

  I'll be honest with you- Mount&Blade Warband Native sucks. Alright, maybe it doesn't suck but it has very little of an entertainment factor in and of itself. You (Tale Worlds) did not take Mount&Blade to the level that it is at now. The Community did. The Coders and Sceners, the Texturers and the Players, they took something that had the foundation of a great game and transformed it into what it is now. Instead of focusing on all the little bitty things that in the end could have been missed without much ado, focus on making the game "mod-able". If you have been following any of the great games that have been around recently (strictly on the PC platform) what separates them from the rest is the community: GTA V, Minecraft, Skyrim, M&B.
  Instead of worrying too much about what lord likes who and which lady is adventurous, focus on the mechanic of the lord/lady relations. Instead of worrying too much about creating the most beautiful landscape, smooth out the "scener" tool and facilitate the creation of these scenes by the community. You will never be able to satisfy each and every want of the consumer- that's where the modders come in. Give the power and responsibility to the players, they will create content that will rival and even surpass what a company like you can put out. Not only will it save you money and time but it will increase the life of your game. One of the great things about M&B is being able to play in the world of a Game of Thrones and then quickly switch over to the fantasy land of Perisno- facilitate that.

  The gaming industry is an ever-moving playground. You have to create content that can easily keep up with the times thanks to the community's input and efforts.

  To close off: Obviously if the game is not done do not release it, but seriously, seven blogs have gone through and the only progress we've seen is improved graphics and, maybe,improved AI. Please, please, please do not waste 4 to 6 months creating a "deep story" that people will only play for a few weeks/months before they turn over to playing the much better mods. Other than that, I want to applaud your efforts and wish you the best of luck. Just remember that the community is what made you into such a great game- do not leave us out and try to communicate more with us.

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'just release the game already' Obviously they can't do that unless it is already finished, so let's just assume you were frustrated at waiting for it and wrote something dramatic to express that emotion.

It is a matter of opinion to say that native is bad. I personally don't use any mods when I play anymore, I haven't found one which doesn't change something to a way I don't like, and all the so called wonderful improvements mods have done generally just don't cut it for me, so in the long run I always went back to native, and haven't used mods for singleplayer for years. Some mods have done some impressive stuff, but the fact that modders were able to do all this new stuff in the first place was because the game is fairly easy to mod and the devs made it that way. You talk as if there were complex workarounds needed for most mods to be made, only made possible by the determination of modders to overcome the inflexible game made by Taleworlds, but it isn't that way at all. When there are things that the devs didn't make easy to change, like the way mounts work, modded workarounds are usually very wonky at best (elephants and chariots for example). The fact that there are so many mods, made by people of a great range of ability and programming experience (many with zero such experience because you can do a lot just by editing text files and importing models), is testament to the attention to modability paid by Taleworlds.


They have already said that they are making it even more user friendly and improved, and have provided info of this in earlier dev blogs. They are not in the position of having to look at what other producers have done and take note, they are ahead of the game! M&B was being heavily modded while still in development 8 years ago! Taleworlds don't need lessons on making the game more moddable.

Yes, they may have overlooked a lot of useful things modders later implemented, which you can see on the modding boards. But I'm confident that doen't mean they can't up their game (bad pun ahoy), because the fact that the community can do all these things with it in the first place says more about the devs' ability than their oversights do about the lack thereof.

PS. DA said it better.

The description sounds awesome.  I had hoped for a sort of prequel since I love the dark-ages period.  I can't wait!

Dasvi2018 said:

No Vaegir Counterpart? Bleh

But otherwise, a great blog for the one intrested in lore, such as me

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Vlandians - heavy cavalry - Swadian
Sturgians - infantry with swords or axes - Nord
Aserai - infantry and cavalry (desert) - Sarranid
Khuzaits - mounted archers - Khergits
Battanians - ambush with arrows - Vaegir?????
Empire - spearmen and cavalry - Rhodok with cavalry and no crossbows????

vota dc said:

Empire - spearmen and cavalry - Rhodok with cavalry and no crossbows????

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Maybe a reliable enough version of the crossbow was yet to be developed/adopted back then, especially with all that reputed Calradian ignorance and provincialism?

PS. That would also mean either there are *a few* mercenary units using it, or it's just an easter egg stashed somewhere for the player to find. I doubt they'll completely do away with it.

I just want this game so bad
I cant even at this point, I can only odd

DanAngleland said:

Red_Lancer said:

Oh sounds and looks very Good!, But please tell me that the Empire's foot units aren't going to be spear based? Why not late roman legions? The spear units in WB where very very SAD, and pathetic and weak, why not use the new formation system for the Roman legions?  Yes they used spears but also throwing darts and short throwing spears not the same as the earlier legions though, anyways, Plus siege artillery etc, Uh, I would have rather had the Eastern Empire with its riches and high walled cities then the boring broken western empire, but maybe in an expansion? Also, I hope that units use secondary weapons a lot more such as the short sword, or the late roman swords  Also invading people from out side the map would be really cool, more factions would be nice, and I'm Really happy to hear that there will be more in game control, and ALOT less sandbox upfront, that was a major issue for me in WB, to much sandbox with no objectives = massively boring, NO matter what faction you choose its the same thing over and OVER and over again, I hope castle and fortress layouts are improved and better trade items as well. over all great to see a new blog, now lets not have it be almost another 6 months before we hear anything guys.

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The game is set 200 years before Warband- so about 1057 in the Calradian world. In relation to real world weaponry and troops, they said they are using the approximate period from 600 AD to 1100AD, so several centuries after the classic Roman legions. Late Roman legions were spear based, didn't use the pilum and no longer used the short gladius which distinguished them from most of their enemies, but instead used a longer sword much the same as any other sword in Europe at the time. Regarding the western vs eastern Roman empire interpretation, the western empire was finished before 600ad, and the Calradian empire architecture uses a pattern of brickwork (the terracotta horizontal stripe) that was used in Constantinople's walls. I don't think the Calradian empire is meant to represent a particular half of the Roman empire, I think it is less specific than that. Both halves of the empire had to deal with their decline, the rise of new powers on their borders and the loss of territories leading to further new powers rising in these new border lands, and that is the backstory for the Calradian empire.

By the way, there has been no mention of a 'new formation system'. It irritates me that people pick words out of a blog seemingly oblivious to the context used and interpret it up as proof of a new game feature. Irritation, why? Because the belief that they have said something they haven't spreads, cue lots of complaints and accusations of lying/failing if it turns out such a feature was never made.

They have said before that the game will be easier to mod, and considering the great enthusiasm for Roman mods in M&B/Warband there are bound to be a lot of mods for various stages of Roman history for Bannerlord, perhaps more than before for the late Roman empire given Bannerlord's rough approximation to this part of history. It will not take much modding to give the empire troops weaponry that you desire, such as short throwing spears (assuming they don't already have them), indeed I am sure someone will have modded some of the troop weaponry within a couple of weeks of the game being released.

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As much as I enjoyed your little history lesson, did you bother to read what I actually said, or are you just using my post as a springboard for a rant? I made it clear that the late legions used spears, long swords etc, and I also said they no longer used the Pilum but I forget when, but they also where known to use a short dart the "Plumbata" etc, Which the late legions used and I think the game should reflect this, I shouldn't have to mod that into to the game. as well as Roman siege gear.

As far as talking about battle formations perhaps you should write a letter to TW and tell them to stop wasting our time with the empty content of there blogs which post a screen shot or two but tell us NOTHING about the game, with a sprinkle of story line here and there, So what the hell do we have to talk about? or speculate over? Yes it was refreshing to have an update, but they didn't say anything really. And maybe the game looks like the Eastern portion of the empire, but the story reads like the west, which is boring I hate the history of the late western empire, so boring blah blah, so what do we have to look forward to then? a pretty limited set of armors and weapons, since this time frame isn't really known for its exciting pole arms or halberds. so we will have a few kinds of swords spears, a mace or two, and a bunch of shields lol  some bows and maybe a crossbow for fun. IMO I think they should have redone the game and made a renaissance time frame from the 1300s, till the late or even early 1600s, with full plate, all kinds of pole arms and swords maces, and crossbows long bows, and primitive cannon and firearms, but as it is, we might find a broadsword  What a boring time frame, made much worse if there is no useable siege engines. rant over, woo.

P.S M&B WFS was a total waste, and TW should redo that game.