Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog 2 - Painted Plants

Avid blog followers and newcomers to the series, in this, our second blog, we're talking about our team of engine programmers and their role in our development process. It is fitting that the engine team sits in the centre of the office, developing the core of the game. The room is generally busy with the comings and goings of demanding developers, the hardware is powerful and the attitude is relaxed and open. Inside dwell the gremlin exterminating gremlins. The light masters. The engine engineers.

Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/3

 

[encryptor256]

Hi!

I think the biggest problem is impatience. 

Development takes too slow, i could do it faster with my calculator.

How long will it take to develop?
My prediction, max period: It will take a 1 - 3 years.

Gameplay is more important than Graphics.

Bye, Encryptor256.

 

[CryoNomad]

Singil and gkx you need to stop reading the lavish praise thrown at you in this thread and hurry up and finish this game.  I wanna play this beauty!

 

[Ratvioli]

DAT HYPE IS COMING BACK!

 

[Do not look here]

Hi!

I think the biggest problem is impatience. 

Development takes too slow, i could do it faster with my calculator.

How long will it take to develop?
My prediction, max period: It will take a 1 - 3 years.

Gameplay is more important than Graphics.

Bye, Encryptor256.

Quick! Somebody get this man a calculator!

 

[Siegbert_von_Meklenburg]

Games that need only 1 year to develop are usually not the best ones...
I don't care how long it takes. I'm perfectly happy with Warband plus the various mods that are established. If Bannerlord comes it'll be hopefully the same but better in terms of general quality.

 

[awallacer]

This game is looking pretty damn good! Keep up the good work guys!

 

[Osviux]

Somehow the pictures in the blog reminded me of Age of Empires II HD :/ Am I playing it too much and not enough Warband? :S

 

[Primi]

I don't want to join this detail search really but...http://puu.sh/5IfFb.png
Could be just a random thing, i'm also not sure what that is so if anyone can clarify.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/888_(number)

In Christian numerology, the number 888 represents Jesus, or sometimes more specifically Christ the Redeemer. This representation may be justified either through gematria, by counting the letter values of the Greek transliteration of Jesus' name,[11] or as an opposing value to 666, the number of the beast.[12]

I hope this means that they won't make this game as satanic as Warband.

 

[Antar]

Hmm... The only game my computer can really run is Warband on Medium-High. I am getting a feeling I won't be able to play this until I get a better computer.

This seems to be the case with a large percentage of the PC gaming community. I'm not sure developers are separating the PC gaming experience from the console one and may be going for the wrong approach from games I've played recently like CoH2 and RTW2 which weren't even runnable. I have a very nice PC, it was the most expensive in the store a year and a half ago, not that that means it is necessarily well built for gaming, but it should give an indication of the target audience's rig. Even fire and sword does not feel like smooth gameplay to me and I barely played it at all. I love Warband and Napoleonic Wars and have 415 hours clocked. Not holding out hope for this though...*sigh* :/

It won't be that bad, sure you won't be able to run it on maximum settings but medium-low will probably be fine. It heavily depends on optimization and games made now are usually optimized really well. I have a pretty bad video card (while the other parts are pretty good) and I can still run AC Black Flag and Crysis 3. But if you have trouble running Mount and Blade on medium settings then you do need to start upgrading your PC. Developers shouldn't be limited on what they do just because some people don't upgrade. That's like saying developers making a game for PS4 should make it a PS3 game because they don't want to/ can't upgrade to PS4.

Spoiler

But that mountain though. Much better looking then the current "hills" on warband.

Yes! That's another thing that bothered me when mapping. The ugly terrain borders were an eye sore so I just end up covering them with my own terrain or just using the "sea_outer_terrain_2" border. Hopefully we have more control over the borders this time.

 

[Slawtering]

I got taught that you have to design a game so it can be run comfortable at a decent fps (30) on the ****tiest  of PC's (Lowest Common Denominator). Since the minimum Dx is Dx9 there will be an obvious increase in specs needed over Warband. Another note is that many modders complain that M&B isn't optimised to the best it could have.

Though to be honest you can build a more than need gaming pc for £600-800. Which for 5 years of gaming (maybe the occasional part change) is not bad at all. Especially when you factor in that PC parts are expensive over here in the UK.

 

[guilemaster]

I love you guys for this. As if I didn't love you enough before

Keep up the great work guys, It's been great to watch you guys go from Mount & Blade to today.

 

[Mudcrab]

Yo I haven't posted on these forums in years.

But I've taken the gargantuan effort to log back in...  Just to let you know how hyped I am for the game and that I wish you all the best!

Godspeed.

 

[Neon.Matrix]

Looks great so far, keep up the awesome work!

 

[FrisianDude]

I hope we can actually eat meat(animation) and regenerate health! Also, if we can steal the meat right off the meat stand, that will be great.

Bold = wat?
Red = wut?

 

[Pilum]

I hope we can actually eat meat(animation) and regenerate health! Also, if we can steal the meat right off the meat stand, that will be great.

Bold = wat?
Red = wut?

Eat the meat (with an eating animation), regenerate health. Or, make it like in "Persistent World" mod, where you have to eat in order to sleep, while sleeping regenerates health. That or a doctor with a scalpel can heal you.
I hope for sleeping animations in "Bannerlord", or that they can be added by modders.

 

[Reiksmarshal]

So does anybody know if Bannerlord will actually have battlefield standard bearers/flag carriers? 

 

[Ruthven]

This new map editor looks really cool.  I hope they add an option to toggle between square/circular brushes  - especially for terrain elevation.

 

[Guerillonist]

Looks good.
I hope Taleworlds will release news more frequently for the future. 

 

[dimstog]

Better graphics ? Great!
Better engine and scene editor, giving modders more freedom and potential ? Even more.... Great!

But please, please, try to learn from the features concerning gameplay, that modders have added over the years in M&B and M&B:Warband and implement them from the get go. It's not that hard, just take a look at mods like Floris Mod Pack or Native Expansion or Pre-Battle Orders or Formations.

I am very excited that Bannerlord is finally taking shape, but I don't want to wait for 18 months after release for a modder to add simple "quality of life" elements to the game that would only take the dev team a couple of weeks to put in, in the first place.

 

[FrisianDude]

I hope we can actually eat meat(animation) and regenerate health! Also, if we can steal the meat right off the meat stand, that will be great.

Bold = wat?
Red = wut?

Eat the meat (with an eating animation), regenerate health. Or, make it like in "Persistent World" mod, where you have to eat in order to sleep, while sleeping regenerates health. That or a doctor with a scalpel can heal you.
I hope for sleeping animations in "Bannerlord", or that they can be added by modders.

Yyyyes, I know what he meant. I guess I should have asked 'why'. Why would you want to be healed by eating? I think the current time-thing works far better. And an animation for stuffing your face? Or for sleeping? Talk about wasting resources and time.