I believe that one of the best selling points of the M&B series lies in the freedom it gives the player. In the singleplayer campaign you create your own character, choose a custom background, then decide where to start your adventure, build your character around the playstyle that best suits you and choose what faction you want to fight for, if any. The multiplayer options are of course much more limited but still offer a wide variety of weapons and armors available for each faction. And while Taleworlds seems to be adding more customization options to the singleplayer, which is great, they also seem to be limiting the options available for us in the multiplayer.
Before continuing I should make clear that I don't have access to the closed beta as of right now, so I might be missing some details here that others may choose to further explain or discuss. On another note, from what I've seen and heard of people that has played the beta, most of them don't really seem to hate the new system, but preferred the one in Warband.
In the old system, every faction had 3 different classes (infantry, ranged and cavalry), each with a wide range of weapons and armor at their disposal. With the new system, the factions have 7 different classes, each of them having a perk to choose from a total of three, these perks improve a different aspect of the selected unit (its weapons, armor, ammunition, etc.), this allows for certain degree of customization, but it pales in comparison with the old one.
I honestly think the new system is flawed, it seems to have been created to fit a mold, that of the new modes of skirmish and captain battle. And while it seems it can work in those modes, it feels completely off in other modes like team deathmatch (only other mode currently in the beta):
To start of, the gold system they've decided to go with, isn't even implemented in all the modes, you can join a team deathmatch server and spawn as a vlandian knight (most expensive class in skirmish) right away. This completely kills the sense of progression Warband had within a match, where you got better equipment as the match went on, depending on how well you were performing. This wouldn't be a problem if all the classes were equally strong and perfectly balanced, which is not the case in the current beta, and that's why they have different costs in the skirmish mode, because the potential to impact the game is higher on a vlandian knight than on a peasant levy armed with a sickle.
In modes where the gold system isn't used, some classes are simply outperformed by others within the same category, and I'd argue that even in the skirmish mode it is better to have two lives of a decent unit than three of the weakest one.
I guess the main point I want to make is that the old system allows for more versatility on the players' side, and also adapts much better to the different game modes. In my opinion the logical step to take was to improve the previous system instead of making a completely new one that only really fits a couple game modes. I'd love them to go back to something closer to what we had in previous games, but I'm not too optimistic about that happening, so I hope they at least balance how this whole new system works in the different game modes.
So what do you think? Please answer the poll above and post your thoughts.
In my opinion, this, along with the reintroduction of the location based armor system, would be the best outcome possible for Bannerlord multiplayer.
EDIT: With those two modes I mean the skirmish and captain battle modes introduced in Bannerlord.
Before continuing I should make clear that I don't have access to the closed beta as of right now, so I might be missing some details here that others may choose to further explain or discuss. On another note, from what I've seen and heard of people that has played the beta, most of them don't really seem to hate the new system, but preferred the one in Warband.
In the old system, every faction had 3 different classes (infantry, ranged and cavalry), each with a wide range of weapons and armor at their disposal. With the new system, the factions have 7 different classes, each of them having a perk to choose from a total of three, these perks improve a different aspect of the selected unit (its weapons, armor, ammunition, etc.), this allows for certain degree of customization, but it pales in comparison with the old one.
I honestly think the new system is flawed, it seems to have been created to fit a mold, that of the new modes of skirmish and captain battle. And while it seems it can work in those modes, it feels completely off in other modes like team deathmatch (only other mode currently in the beta):
To start of, the gold system they've decided to go with, isn't even implemented in all the modes, you can join a team deathmatch server and spawn as a vlandian knight (most expensive class in skirmish) right away. This completely kills the sense of progression Warband had within a match, where you got better equipment as the match went on, depending on how well you were performing. This wouldn't be a problem if all the classes were equally strong and perfectly balanced, which is not the case in the current beta, and that's why they have different costs in the skirmish mode, because the potential to impact the game is higher on a vlandian knight than on a peasant levy armed with a sickle.
In modes where the gold system isn't used, some classes are simply outperformed by others within the same category, and I'd argue that even in the skirmish mode it is better to have two lives of a decent unit than three of the weakest one.
I guess the main point I want to make is that the old system allows for more versatility on the players' side, and also adapts much better to the different game modes. In my opinion the logical step to take was to improve the previous system instead of making a completely new one that only really fits a couple game modes. I'd love them to go back to something closer to what we had in previous games, but I'm not too optimistic about that happening, so I hope they at least balance how this whole new system works in the different game modes.
So what do you think? Please answer the poll above and post your thoughts.
Klausolus said:My suggestion would be to keep the new class system in those two modes, but incorporate an improved version of the classic system for all the other modes, as it clearly suits them better. And also add classic battle as a skirmish alternative in matchmaking and competitive play.
In my opinion, this, along with the reintroduction of the location based armor system, would be the best outcome possible for Bannerlord multiplayer.
EDIT: With those two modes I mean the skirmish and captain battle modes introduced in Bannerlord.