Let’s be very candid...

[TheSlain]

Hello Bannerlords,

This may be a tad long, but before I go on I want to say I enjoy Bannerlord and I really enjoyed Mount and Blade WB.

My main concern right now is depth. Warband was great for what it was and how long ago it was made. However Bannerlord is feeling like it’s going to develop into a WB with a few extra features. I don’t know about you, but I want depth! I’ll explain what I mean below. Bannerlord has the amazing opportunity to become such a deep political Game of Thrones type game without the fantasy. Currently we can make empires, run trades, execute, etc.. however it all feels kind of dull at the moment (when you say EA I get it, but I don’t believe things will be implemented the way they could).

Companions:
It really irks me I cannot leave a companion in a city unless it’s to govern. We need so many more options for our companions, beyond what warband featured. Companions should act as smaller nobles while you are starting out. Why not send them on relations campaigns, training missions, bandit hunting missions, raiding missions, etc.. Depending where you are in the game relates to what missions they can complete (success depends on companion skill obviously). They are sooo dull at the moment and I want them to go far beyond what they did in warband, this is a new game after all.
And what about your wife!? She is a baby maker and a governor at the moment, but let’s make her such an important part of your story! She should impress nobles, hold dinners and tournaments, improve/decrease relations depending on skills/attitude.
And can we actually stick to the DEAD feature. I love this is implemented but it’s dry as hell at the moment. When I go into battle, or send a companion on said mission, I want there to be a real risk! I don’t want to lose my companion archer whom I spend 10 years adventuring with, and I’d like to feel the tragedy if I do lose her/him. This game is so heavily reliant on role playing elements of the players it needs to add features to really immerse us. Losing your wife to an angry noble, children captured, companions tortured or forced to change sides, wouldn’t that add SO MUCH to the game?

Owning Fiefs:
they give me gold currently and I can build a few things... eh.. Why is it that if I am the lord of a castle with 2 towns, I still need to run missions to improve relations with the locals to recruit? This is so lost on me.. once I own that town/castle fief, I should have access to all it has to offer. If I have a big city, why can’t I hold tournaments or hosts dinners? Maybe I want to clear out the criminals in my town which would lead to a few side missions. Owning a fief/town should be its very own mini game. While it was great in warband, let’s expand on the greatness! I have so much going on in my head but you get the idea with owning things in Bannerlord, it could be more.

Sieges:
love them! They are a ton of fun. But what happened to the talk to the castle defender and tell them the situation is hopeless. Can we expand on that idea as well? What about turning that captain of the defense on your side? Even better, adding spies (your companions) to Infiltrate, damage walls, damage food/supply sources, blow up siege weapons? And during my sieges, I find it ridiculous I cannot send out foraging parties for food. Long drawn out sieges already have risks of being relieved or sallied, so let’s send our foragers (companions can help who have high Roguery) to grab food for our beloved siege-ers

owning your own kingdom:
I know they are going to add a lot more, but I hope they add (you guessed it) MORE DEPTH. We need more options for our kingdoms, maybe even alliances (taking some nobles to war for your cause). What about relations improving quests. More quests when the kingdom is at peace. We just need more and I seriously hope

I road map would help, and I’m sure we will get one in the coming months. But I want this game to be something at its core and not rely on mods!

 

[xlXSunshineXlx]

I agree with your post, this game is good now. If you added nothing else and just made it stable it would be a good game, but all of us here want this game to be great and honestly its close. It has the surface level stuff but lacks the depth you've described.

 

[darksoulshin]

Since yours is a feedback and I noticed that what you are looking for is "depth of gameplay", I insert the link of my suggestion thread, which contains 3 threads that deal with economics, logistics and war.
War that can be fought even without battles.

ECONOMY , LOGISTICS and WARFARE SUGGESTION LIST <---LINK

 

[Clanker]

I agree OP. After 80 hours I feel like I've seen everything there is to see at this point. For what I paid I've certainly gotten my moneys worth at this point but a hallmark of these games is the amount of time you can get out of them. If they really want this game to take off with the broader public they're gonna need a lot more.

 

[gq87]

I agree with the OP mostly. Have to remember this is early access. The game is really about 6 months to a year of hard work from being finished imo. Companions need more depth, the leveling system needs a rework, AI needs some upgrades, and you need more ways to gain more fiefs. The game eats up my quarantine hours nicely. The way I see it, the early game is GREAT. The mid game is okay, you get a fief, find a wife, assemble the banner etc.

The late game is what needs the work. You need a way to influence your fellow nobles other than showering them with gold. You need a way to ensure that you are up for bid on some fiefs after you have one. I find myself leading armies and helping lords get their 2nd and third fiefs and I'm never on the ballot. That has to change. Sieges IMO are way too easy. Castles should be a greater advantage for the defender. You should really be required as the attacker to have at least 3 times as many troops as the defenders, or much higher quality. Historically, commanders would need 10 times as many attackers to reduce a castle efficiently. They would still take massive losses. This would lower the "snowballing" rate of kingdoms if every fortress was a massive impediment instead of a minor headache. It would also give AI armies a realistic amount of time to rebuild armies.

The political side of things has so much more room for expansion. I leave that to the devs as to how they want to do that. They could go Crusader Kings or GoT or whatever. They could do nothing at all and the game would still be pretty damned good.

 

[StewVader]

I agree with your post, this game is good now. If you added nothing else and just made it stable it would be a good game, but all of us here want this game to be great and honestly its close. It has the surface level stuff but lacks the depth you've described.

How can you honestly say this? No offense, but you must be very easy to please.

 

[xlXSunshineXlx]

If I had not played warband and so many amazing mods, if I did not have the expectations of what bannerlord could be, and had never heard of TW. If saw this game on steam and picked it up it and just played it i wouldn't feel like i wasted money. I've already got over 200 hours in this one. Now, having said that, this game is not where I wanted it to be, but the foundation of the game is there. It lacks depth and honestly until additions are made i don't know when I will pick it back up. The warband/bannerlord concept in itself makes this game good.

 

[Botlike]

How can you honestly say this? No offense, but you must be very easy to please.

You'd be surprised what many millions of people around the world are satisfied with when it comes to gaming.
I actually agree 100% with the guy.
We live in an age where game sequels launch with less content for more money and everything evolves around lootboxes , roulettes and microtransactions.
Bannerlords 2 is a breath of fresh air for me.

Asking for features and depth is imo mundane at this point. It is so blatantly obvious there are going to add many of the things i see across many threads. It will take time. Till then take a break or get mods.
The fact alone that this game can be heavily modded ( more in the future ) is enough to provide a lot of duration.

For me this is the best game i've played since Skyrim. I've lagged , i've lost saves , i've been frustrated but i'd rather not be overdemanding , considering the sad age we live in.
It's also obvious they are not here just for the cashgrab.
They care , they will give us more content when they can i guess /shrug

 

[badman]

depth is going to take a looong time. Even the basic skeleton of the game isn't out of the oven yet. I don't know how many things they have ideas to develop, there aren't many clues or placeholders. We may have to rely on mods to really flesh out this game.

 

[TheSlain]

You'd be surprised what many millions of people around the world are satisfied with when it comes to gaming.
I actually agree 100% with the guy.
We live in an age where game sequels launch with less content for more money and everything evolves around lootboxes , roulettes and microtransactions.
Bannerlords 2 is a breath of fresh air for me.

Asking for features and depth is imo mundane at this point. It is so blatantly obvious there are going to add many of the things i see across many threads. It will take time. Till then take a break or get mods.
The fact alone that this game can be heavily modded ( more in the future ) is enough to provide a lot of duration.

For me this is the best game i've played since Skyrim. I've lagged , i've lost saves , i've been frustrated but i'd rather not be overdemanding , considering the sad age we live in.
It's also obvious they are not here just for the cashgrab.
They care , they will give us more content when they can i guess /shrug

so this is primarily why I made this post. IS IT blatantly obvious they are going to add such features? Warband was good, but this can be great if it’s expanded upon. Since I’m a bit cynical I wonder if they will add the obvious. Even if there is a 50% chance to get stuff in there it would be such an amazing medieval simulator! Makes me nervous because we have all been waiting a VERY long time for this

 

[TheSlain]

You'd be surprised what many millions of people around the world are satisfied with when it comes to gaming.
I actually agree 100% with the guy.
We live in an age where game sequels launch with less content for more money and everything evolves around lootboxes , roulettes and microtransactions.
Bannerlords 2 is a breath of fresh air for me.

Asking for features and depth is imo mundane at this point. It is so blatantly obvious there are going to add many of the things i see across many threads. It will take time. Till then take a break or get mods.
The fact alone that this game can be heavily modded ( more in the future ) is enough to provide a lot of duration.

For me this is the best game i've played since Skyrim. I've lagged , i've lost saves , i've been frustrated but i'd rather not be overdemanding , considering the sad age we live in.
It's also obvious they are not here just for the cashgrab.
They care , they will give us more content when they can i guess /shrug

so this is primarily why I made this post. IS IT blatantly obvious they are going to add such features? Warband was good, but this can be great if it’s expanded upon. Since I’m a bit cynical I wonder if such amazing features could be added. Even if there is a 50% chance to get stuff in there it would be such an amazing medieval simulator! Makes me nervous

Since yours is a feedback and I noticed that what you are looking for is "depth of gameplay", I insert the link of my suggestion thread, which contains 3 threads that deal with economics, logistics and war.
War that can be fought even without battles.

ECONOMY , LOGISTICS and WARFARE SUGGESTION LIST <---LINK

Ah great links. I wish I could just put my post in yours.

 

[badman]

so this is primarily why I made this post. IS IT blatantly obvious they are going to add such features? Warband was good, but this can be great if it’s expanded upon. Since I’m a bit cynical I wonder if they will add the obvious. Even if there is a 50% chance to get stuff in there it would be such an amazing medieval simulator! Makes me nervous because we have all been waiting a VERY long time for this

I\ve put a lot of hours into this game and I think I will play it for years when good mods come out. But I don't have a lot of confidence that the final product will be as deep as people wish for. There just isn't any indication of it at the moment. Not unless EA lasts for about 2 years.

 

[daxiapi777]

You'd be surprised what many millions of people around the world are satisfied with when it comes to gaming.
I actually agree 100% with the guy.
We live in an age where game sequels launch with less content for more money and everything evolves around lootboxes , roulettes and microtransactions.
Bannerlords 2 is a breath of fresh air for me.

Asking for features and depth is imo mundane at this point. It is so blatantly obvious there are going to add many of the things i see across many threads. It will take time. Till then take a break or get mods.
The fact alone that this game can be heavily modded ( more in the future ) is enough to provide a lot of duration.

For me this is the best game i've played since Skyrim. I've lagged , i've lost saves , i've been frustrated but i'd rather not be overdemanding , considering the sad age we live in.
It's also obvious they are not here just for the cashgrab.
They care , they will give us more content when they can i guess /shrug

Just want to have a friendly discussion here. I don't think all the people playing this game right now are satisfied with it. Because, if this logic is true, how many tens of millions of people around the world would be satisfied with those lootbox games you mentioned? And how many hundreds of millions of people would be satisfied with predatory mobile games? Maybe I am a bit cynical, but there is a recognizable chance that TW would just join the fray. Maybe not lootboxes, but bad team and project management which we have already seen (it took them at least 8 years to ship an EA in such state). I love Mount and Blade, but right now, it's probably the time to show tough love. I want this game to be great, but that needs responsible customers.
A warning sign for you, TW has entered a partnership with Netease, the Chinese company probably responsible for all the Diablo Immortal fiasco.

 

[Botlike]

Just want to have a friendly discussion here. I don't think all the people playing this game right now are satisfied with it. Because, if this logic is true, how many tens of millions of people around the world would be satisfied with those lootbox games you mentioned? And how many hundreds of millions of people would be satisfied with predatory mobile games? Maybe I am a bit cynical, but there is a recognizable chance that TW would just join the fray. Maybe not lootboxes, but bad team and project management which we have already seen (it took them at least 8 years to ship an EA in such state). I love Mount and Blade, but right now, it's probably the time to show tough love. I want this game to be great, but that needs responsible customers.
A warning sign for you, TW has entered a partnership with Netease, the Chinese company probably responsible for all the Diablo Immortal fiasco.

Damn , wasn't aware. We'll just have to wait and see i guess. Don't want to discuss this too much here , but diablo immortal never launched anyway. And they announced diablo for PC since that happened.
Imo thanks to unsatisfied customers , although what blizzard did was extreme , announcing mobile games on a PC audience happening /heave !
That crappy mobile game has been ready for months , netease has confirmed it.
Anyway , i am guessing that if anything , they will take this game down the DLC road when it's ready , similar to total war , but that's just a guess.

As of the content i was referring about , i see many threads about perks , diplomacy and the sorts.
They've already confirmed perks are getting reworked , diplomacy has a tab already that does nothing and it's a no-brainer it's going to be added.
I can go on about family system and all that , clearly , they will add something , that's what i meant about obvious. Might be little things to some , but that's the sort of threads i was referring about.

Thanks to all the lovely modders , we can speed up this process by playing their content. For example , there is mod already for diplomacy , perks , rebellions and much more. I get people would rather have those things ready , i would also like them ready YESTERDAY , but it simply won't happen for quite a while. That is also obvious.

We are all affected with more or less the same problems. I am currently playing a campaign , where there's only 1 superpower left ( aserai ) but they got 24000 strength while i got less than 10. I have to pay 500k peace every 1 month or so just to keep going. Got from clan 5 to 6 within 1.5 day due to how many battles i've played. Lords ask for 5 million to join me and if i manage to get someone he might as well leave with +100 relation within 5 days , wanderers are all broken apart from the initial ones , i get memory leaks every 1 hour and my clan parties somehow get destroyed by looters. I'd like all those systems ready and the game fine tuned by now as much as anyone.

Still , that doesn't change the fact that i see potential in this game and that i've been having a BLAST of fun since the game launched. Perhaps naive or over optimistic , dunno , i've never been a fanboy for anyone though , i haven't even played warband. Landed on this game by a friend recommendation. Time will tell!

Have fun everyone !

 

[badman]

does anyone else really not feel like using mods until the game is out of EA?

 

[COOMER]

I've been enjoying Streets of Rage 4.

 

[Owen Wulfson]

Companions:
It really irks me I cannot leave a companion in a city unless it’s to govern.

You can. I regularly drop companions off in city taverns before ransacking bandit camps so they don't get in the way of my actual soldiers. Just click on a city's tavern page and look for a + sign on the top and it will go to a menu where you can choose who to leave.

Originally, we were supposed to be able to stash troops and companions in an allied city that we didn't even own. So far, we can only stash companions but we can do it any city that is allied or neutral. Hopefully they fix the garrison system and, in addition, implement this originally planned feature fully.

I know they wanted some impediment against players amassing an army of soldiers in a city, but there was no such hindrance in Mount and Blade and it was fine - we still had to worry about paying everyone anyways.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

I know they wanted some impediment against players amassing an army of soldiers in a city, but there was no such hindrance in Mount and Blade and it was fine - we still had to worry about paying everyone anyways.

Guess you never played a Lady and abused the wage free Garrisons of your husband? I think we really need to be able to drop off some guys in taverns early game though, so we can catch all those disgusting steppe bandits.... and recruit them.

Anyways to OP topic, I'm also a little worried about the shallow NPC/companion stuff, but I think there's many more important things to work on such as basic kingdom/vassal functions and player character growth/skills.

I will be disappointed if in the final versions NPCs are just "make number go up get more thing" boxes with no personality or response to the game world or your own actions. I really hope an enemy lord, who's entire clan and everyone they've ever known I have recently executed doesn't give me the same greeting as anyone else about how cool I am and "not want to fight me".
They should be getting scared and desperate at that point, they should offer me that fancy armor they've got (that never drops?)and beg for their life.
I want friendships and feuds to really matter in the final game. Your buddies should have special dialogue and options if they're at war with you. Nasty lords who hate you should be plotting revenge against you.

 

[Bannerman Man]

they should offer me that fancy armor they've got (that never drops?)

I don't think we should be able to take their armor when we beat them, as long as they don't take our armor when the shoe is on the other foot. Having a chance to lose the huge investment you've put into your gear every time you lose a battle would not make for good gameplay imo. Slapping together some more troops when you lose is relatively easy, but finding another rare 100k chest piece you spent ages hunting down is not something I want to have to do again haha. The costs of losing should stay fairly low for both player and AI.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

They can't take your armor? Well I guess I wouldn't know but in warband they could randomly grab anything, famously leaving you horseless at the start of the game if you took a rock to the face.