Sid Meier's Mount and Blade: Mount the horse!

I just bought Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the life game... mainly because I've grown bored with Mount and Blade in its current state and in its modded state (last days). After playing the game but a few minutes, I came up with a radical idea for M&B.

For those unfamiliar with Sid Meier's Pirates game, let me get you up to speed (for those who have played the game, skip to the next paragraph). In that game, you take control of a pirate ship, of which there are many types you can acquire. You then sail about (very open endedly) the Caribbean doing what pirates do best, namely capture/sink vessels from various nations (read: Swadian, Vaegir, Bandit), you can visit ports of call from each nation (read: Tulga, Zendar, Praven, etc) where you can talk to the governor (read: Count), visit the tavern and recruit sailors (sound familiar?), visit the shipwright (read: armory/smithy), etc etc. You get quests in the game too... from bringing a specific villian to justice (read: capture the nobleman), find lost relatives and kidnapped governor's daughters (read: kidnapped girl quest) and much more.

So, I started playing Pirates and immediately a light bulb went on in my head.... Here's the radical idea:

Armagan should go directly to Sid Meier (or the publisher Firaxis) and shop the Mount&Blade game and see if Sid will bite. It could be marketed as an expansion to the pirates game, just set in a different era.

Before you scream blasphemy to me for suggesting Armagan sell out to a mainstream developer/publisher, hear me out as there would be several benefits for everyone involved

1. Both Pirates and M&B are very similar, yet have their distinctions. Nevertheless, I think M&B could be adapted to the Pirates game engine which would (a) add depth to the quest system (b) improve the graphics ENORMOUSLY (c) create a more dynamic game world where cities could be taken and retaken resulting in true changes in global power for each faction involved (d) and much much more.

2. Getting hooked up with Sid Meier has many obvious advantages for Armagan including (a) having it published mainstream means more folks will buy the game, meaning more profits (b) Putting Sid's name on the box will sell 100,000 copies alone... seriously his name on a box of doo doo will sell that many.

3. Getting hooked up with a mainstream developer has advantages for us the game players including (a) a more polished game with presentation value (b) a finished game in a timely manner... I joined the M&B revolution in September (v .632) and have seen only a MINOR improvement to the game in the last four months.

There are many more reasons why this would be attractive for the M&B side of things. It would also be attractive for Sid and the publisher because they could essentially re-use the Pirates game engine and get another game out of it... EA has successfully done it with many of its franchises (Sims, any sports game).

True, Armagan may lose some control over the game's development, but the similarities to Pirates would suggest that the core gameplay would not suffer. In fact, the addition of several of the minigames (and inclusion of new ones like card games in the tavern) used in pirates would make M&B a more complete game. But Armagan stands to gain quite a bit. First, he may get the opportunity to work in one of the mainstream development houses which means more resources and more people dedicated to working on it AND he'll make a killing in terms of $ (Let's say 3000 have bought the game so far at an average cost of $13, thats's only $40k, but if Armagan gets ONLY $1 off each game sold if he sells to Sid, he'd come out with over $100k.

Just a thought... M&B is the first and only game I've purchased from an "indie" developer so I don't know if I've crossed the line into some sort of taboo blasphemy, if I did, I apologize, but to me this seems like a win win win situation for Armagan, the game, and its players... and if Sid doesn't bite, no harm done.

I do know that this has been suggested before, but I also havn't played Pirates since last March due to an, incident on the internet let's say. Also, while I love and worship Cid Meier, it wouldn't be the same M+B, besides, he's got Civ5 on the drawing board. We want him to do a good job.

Well, it might work, but:
1. I already have M&B and won't shell out $90 AUD to buy it again with pretty graphics.
2. I'm not the only one who has M&B and i'm sure you can't sell the same game with beter graphics for twice as much and get away with it.
3. EA's new games that use the same engines, IMHO, are crap money making scams.
Still, it's a good idea and i would like to see M&B with a good graphics engine and some good minigames, but I think that most people who already have M&B won't buy it again for twice as much and the people who buy it in the shops won't like the fact that we payed half as much and we still get practially the same game

I doubt it would be as expencive as 90AUD.. more like 40 (like all the other games).. However, I believe this is Armagan's project, and he would rather prefer to keep it that way.
Secondly, I personally believe there is a LOT more to a game, than just pretty graphics. (Although I would prefer to see people riding horses in M&B rather than ponies graphics wise)
Lastly, who is Sid Meier ? :

Good idea.

$90 Australian, all of our new games are $90 australian, because of exchange rates and stuff.
Sid meier, uhh... , i think he is a famous maker of stratergy games, he mde of of teh Civilisation games and some others.

I personally hated Sid Meirs Pirates, and had to take it back within 3 days cos it was so ****ing **** and pontless. God that game pissed me off...

Secondly, Mount and Blade is already ****ing awesome, much better than that lump of Terd made by Sid Meier. He may be well known, but it would completely destroy any reason to play MnB, cos Sid Meier essentially is 1: Agreeing with the sneakster, names are money making schemes. You put "GTA: Mount and Blade" on a case and it will be one of the most popular games of the year.
Secondly, Sid Meier games are pretty **** anyway, I don't know what all the fuss is about. I hated Civilisation, by the way. Number 4 was ok, worth playing, but Mount and blade had me talking about it for days with my friends, and playing it for hours.

I agree that the development on this game needs to be upped considerably, but thats only cos Armagan doesn't want any help (even free help, I would offer my modelling services but he wouldn't accept them cos he thinks he can do it by himself, it's prolly a macho thing) because its his little pet project and he doesn't actually want to finish it. Either that or he is just not that bothered. I mean, he prolly has a life too, maybe spends an evening on the weekend to work on the game when he can be bothered or when he is bored and has nothing else to do. It's been a month and a half, no updates, and a month before that for a few bug fixes and modding tools that nobody gives a **** about compared to putting ****ING SIEGES INTO THE GAME, EVERYONE WANTS IT JUST LISTEN FFS.

If i wanted another Sid Meiers game, i could get one. If i wanted better graphics, i could leave this.

I have found a game that is fun to play, its under developing, its open based (easy to mod) and above all, its not made of anyone that think that theyr name alone will sell.

I think the game is good as it is and dont need anyone else, like Sid, into this. He would just take the idea, tweak enough to call it hes own, kick Armagan out of it and take the whole credit.

Erm, no. I think its good as it is. Finly a game that base itself more on gameplay and fun then graphics.

pirates is boring, but Sid has made some seriously kick ass games

Nice idea in theory. A few problems though.

First, Firaxis are a development company. They get paid to make games, they don't pay others to make games for them. The publishers for Pirates were Atari (insert vomit sign here). Second, publishers don't tend to like games that compete with currently selling products. New sales with the new product tend to reduce sales with the old product, thereby reducing total sales.

Armagan also risks a significant sum of money by going with a publisher. The money he would get from them now to pay for all development would be loaned from the publisher, he would be put on a strict timetable for when the game would be completed and all sales would belong 100% to the publisher until all the development money they had loaned him was payed back. After that point, he might start getting $1 per game sold.

If you meant for Firaxis to develop the game for Armagan, he would never get even close to $1 per sale. He would probably receive closer to $0.01 per sale.

As it is currently, all sales made by Armagan are completely his. Provided that covers his current development costs, he has no significant overhead such as a publishing company with which he has to share profits.

thesneakster said:

$90 Australian, all of our new games are $90 australian, because of exchange rates and stuff.
Sid meier, uhh... , i think he is a famous maker of stratergy games, he mde of of teh Civilisation games and some others.

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Ouch... Most of the new games here are $49.95 (around there ish).. Thats around AU$40 ::\
And I mean it is Armagan's project, he put a LOT of effort into it, he basically created a game, with a personal computer, two people on development team, in a garage somewhere, having that game put every single multi-million dollar gaming company to shame.

Honestly speaking, other than adding in nice graphics, which surprisingly would only work on the most top end system, at the point of release, (whether its released in 2006 or 2060, the graphics looking the same by the way) screwing up some aspects of the game to make it '5 year old friendly', and kicking Armagan out of the picture entirely, I don't think a large company can do anything else.

Where are you volkier, we've been paying $90 AUstralian for nwe elease games for a while now, for new games like FEAR and Quake, mabye the exchange rates have changes but the prices here havn't. Which is one benifit of buying online. there's no middle man so it's a lot cheaper, and you use the current exchange rates and stuff, so you get he best deal possible.

Sneak, I live in the southeast U.S. and new releases at Best Buy run between 39.95 and 49.95 american dollars. Not sure what that would exchange to in Australian dollars. Wal-mart is even a few dollars cheaper, SOMETIMES, and IF they actually get PC stock.

well I actually have always seen m&b as a partial clone to pirates!, since it works pretty much the same at the moment though combat is like 100 times better
I disagree that it should be given to firaxis to be "improved" for the following reasons:
a) this is a scratchware program so it is cheap but of very high quality (for a game made entirely by 2 people
b) armagan would get most likely put as just one of the 20 game designers and would get a really tiny cut from the profit firaxis would get
c) I would never buy a new version for m&b just because it's prettier (and probably BUGGIER)
d) the game would be forgotten just like another 2 tons of games that aren't supported after say a year after they have hit the shelves ...
publisher:"no, no no just 2 patches to leave it more or less stable.. if you want to fix something we'll make an addon later and we'll sell the patch! you aren't paid for fixing stuff that has already been sold, armagan, so on to m&b2 resurrection, we'll add more polys worsen the ai by 60% and we'll make it a massive multiplayer game so they keep paying us "

Pirates sucks. Its fun on the very beggining, but the combat is stupid, those dances are even more stupid and the game is far too repetitive.

M&B is similar in some aspects, but its a game focused on combat, not trading and questing. I dont think this idea can work on the real world, but if it was possible, I would be pissed off. M&B is an awesome, criative, different, independent game, not just another generic blockbuster designed to make a huge corporation even richier.

If M&B was published by EA, I sincerelly would not have bought it. I would have downloaded it from emule. And I would not give a **** about not giving EA my money.

Elias_Maluco said:

Pirates sucks. Its fun on the very beggining, but the combat is stupid, those dances are even more stupid and the game is far too repetitive.

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The combat is somewhat comical, but I found it fun. The naval warfare is a lot of fun too. Dances are pretty cool, IMHO... requires you to have a bit of timing and an ability to recognize patterns.

Elias_Maluco said:

M&B is similar in some aspects, but its a game focused on combat, not trading and questing. I dont think this idea can work on the real world, but if it was possible, I would be pissed off. M&B is an awesome, criative, different, independent game, not just another generic blockbuster designed to make a huge corporation even richier.

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I'm not saying that what makes M&B what it is be ditched... no just added upon. IMHO a combat game for the sake of combat is shallow, so you need to have some sort of questing system or overall goal to make the game fun past the first few times you play it.

Elias_Maluco said:

If M&B was published by EA, I sincerelly would not have bought it. I would have downloaded it from emule. And I would not give a **** about not giving EA my money.

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EA is like the evil galactic empire... I suppose their CEO is named Darth Vader? I agree that turning over a game to a developer/publisher changes the spectrum to focus on profit above all else, but I don't think the core gameplay would be altered much... after all, that is M&B's ONLY selling point.

Talon68 said:

I personally hated Sid Meirs Pirates, and had to take it back within 3 days cos it was so ****ing **** and pontless. God that game pissed me off...

Secondly, Mount and Blade is already ****ing awesome, much better than that lump of Terd made by Sid Meier. He may be well known, but it would completely destroy any reason to play MnB, cos Sid Meier essentially is 1: Agreeing with the sneakster, names are money making schemes. You put "GTA: Mount and Blade" on a case and it will be one of the most popular games of the year.
Secondly, Sid Meier games are pretty **** anyway, I don't know what all the fuss is about. I hated Civilisation, by the way. Number 4 was ok, worth playing, but Mount and blade had me talking about it for days with my friends, and playing it for hours.

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Seeing as the Civ series pretty much is the grandfather of the strategy genre as a whole I think Sid Meier must know what he's doing...

I agree that people are like sheep... they'll follow the herd, so if you put GTA on the cover you will sell, just as if you put Sid Meier on the cover, you will sell... not bad if you are Armagan and getting a piece of the pie.

Talon68 said:

I agree that the development on this game needs to be upped considerably, but thats only cos Armagan doesn't want any help (even free help, I would offer my modelling services but he wouldn't accept them cos he thinks he can do it by himself, it's prolly a macho thing) because its his little pet project and he doesn't actually want to finish it. Either that or he is just not that bothered. I mean, he prolly has a life too, maybe spends an evening on the weekend to work on the game when he can be bothered or when he is bored and has nothing else to do. It's been a month and a half, no updates,

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You know, I'm not sure what M&B is to Armagan... that's an interesting point... is M&B a full time job for him and his wife, or a "nights and weekends thing?" If it is the former, I must say I'm sadly disappointed at the length of time between updates. If this were a freeware game, I wouldn't have any room to gripe and I would wait patiently for the updates to come But since M&B is now an entrepreneurial endeavor for Armagan, I can be disappointed during times like these where updates are few and far between (from the Taleworlds website:
"Mount&Blade is maintained actively and we release updated versions every few weeks. ").

Talon68 said:

and a month before that for a few bug fixes and modding tools that nobody gives a **** about compared to putting ****ING SIEGES INTO THE GAME, EVERYONE WANTS IT JUST LISTEN FFS.

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Granted, I've only been here since 0.632, but I think folks DO give a sh*t about the modding tools... go check out the mod forum. Heck, if it weren't for the Mag7 and Last Days mods, I would have ditched M&B a long time ago.

jrawlings said:

Talon68 said:

I agree that the development on this game needs to be upped considerably, but thats only cos Armagan doesn't want any help (even free help, I would offer my modelling services but he wouldn't accept them cos he thinks he can do it by himself, it's prolly a macho thing) because its his little pet project and he doesn't actually want to finish it. Either that or he is just not that bothered. I mean, he prolly has a life too, maybe spends an evening on the weekend to work on the game when he can be bothered or when he is bored and has nothing else to do. It's been a month and a half, no updates,

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You know, I'm not sure what M&B is to Armagan... that's an interesting point... is M&B a full time job for him and his wife, or a "nights and weekends thing?" If it is the former, I must say I'm sadly disappointed at the length of time between updates. If this were a freeware game, I wouldn't have any room to gripe and I would wait patiently for the updates to come But since M&B is now an entrepreneurial endeavor for Armagan, I can be disappointed during times like these where updates are few and far between (from the Taleworlds website:
"Mount&Blade is maintained actively and we release updated versions every few weeks. ").

Talon68 said:

and a month before that for a few bug fixes and modding tools that nobody gives a **** about compared to putting ****ING SIEGES INTO THE GAME, EVERYONE WANTS IT JUST LISTEN FFS.

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As far as I am aware, M&B is full time for Armagan and his wife (only seen her name once, can't remember it - Ipek or something???).

As a matter of fact, IIRC they recently moved to a new town/city and are now leasing (or soon will be) space in a building for continued development, so they do not have to work out of their house, and so they can start adding some additional programmers etc.

(bites his tongue and refrains from saying more)

DE

i honestly wasnt that impressed with sid meirs pirates, there were many things i liked, but many things i thought were horrible, or at least to generic. no selling to sid mier....he may be a legend...BUT NOT WITH ME!

I don't know about anyone else but i didn't work during the christmas/new year break and i think that armagan would be working non stop then, although the game needs to be updated but i can wait this long because of the amount of mods.