Bannerlord major fall on Steam most played games

[Killer Kitten]

Noticed bannerlord was very popular, being in the top 5 then top 10 on steam but now it has collapsed .. wonder why ?

I'm still addicted but obviously some have moved on ?

The appeal of the original game for me wasn't the core game itself, but the mods. I play the original game for awhile, but I really like the different mods and such. Unfortunately, without the mod tools being released, the incentive just isn't there.

 

[Reckiario]

Well, I'm having a lot of fun and i really appreciate it went out during quarantine. It has been keeping me entertained. I find it way more fun than other similar strategy games of the genre. And it has a lot of room for improvement regarding city building, kingdom content, general content and balance in the single player campaign.

 

[Locklave]

Noticed bannerlord was very popular, being in the top 5 then top 10 on steam but now it has collapsed .. wonder why ?

I'm still addicted but obviously some have moved on ?

Well it might have something to do with the Devs failing miserably at keeping Steam players informed. Posting a sticky with important information is too much work.

Maybe they should have invested some of their 2-5 million units sold on Steam money into a guy that does that. I know I'm crazy.

 

[eritchie]

Noticed bannerlord was very popular, being in the top 5 then top 10 on steam but now it has collapsed .. wonder why ?

I'm still addicted but obviously some have moved on ?

Its just such a frustrating game because it hints at so much and could be absolutely brilliant... but after this much time i just dont know whether it will ever be what I am imagining it could be. Maybe with mods. But right now Its a long way off.. Although I have sunk over 400 hours into it so I cant complain too much... I ll keep an eye on updates but for now im giving it a rest.

My main asks are -

Diplomacy - Alliances, Trade Agreements, Feasts, Diplomatic Marriages, Vassals (of other factions)

Quests & NPC's - Interesting, unique, culturally varied, voice acted quest lines and NPC's to populate the world and immerse you in it

Kingdom Management - Better control of the armies and fiefs in your kingdom, big expansion in castle + town management and construction possibilities and ideally a kingdom political system with intrigues, titles etc

 

[Killer Kitten]

Well it might have something to do with the Devs failing miserably at keeping Steam players informed. Posting a sticky with important information is too much work.

Maybe they should have invested some of their 2-5 million units sold on Steam money into a guy that does that. I know I'm crazy.

With inflation around 20% in Turkey, that money probably didn't last that long.

 

[federally]

Its just such a frustrating game because it hints at so much and could be absolutely brilliant... but after this much time i just dont know whether it will ever be what I am imagining it could be. Maybe with mods. But right now Its a long way off.. Although I have sunk over 400 hours into it so I cant complain too much... I ll keep an eye on updates but for now im giving it a rest.

My main asks are -

Diplomacy - Alliances, Trade Agreements, Feasts, Diplomatic Marriages, Vassals (of other factions)

Quests & NPC's - Interesting, unique, culturally varied, voice acted quest lines and NPC's to populate the world and immerse you in it

Kingdom Management - Better control of the armies and fiefs in your kingdom, big expansion in castle + town management and construction possibilities and ideally a kingdom political system with intrigues, titles etc

This is a great point.

I see so much possibility for the game, but the EA process so far is really making me think it will never be much more than it is already.

I mean the post they made about their single player plans is like so insignificant. It doesn't communicate any big plans. They basically just want to finish the systems we have and that's it?

Combined with the Steam page describing the game as basically finished and the picture isn't looking too rosy.

 

[Badcritter]

I mean the post they made about their single player plans is like so insignificant. It doesn't communicate any big plans. They basically just want to finish the systems we have and that's it?

That list is only of short term goals, the lack of big plans on it is normal and is not an indication that their long term intentions are small. That said, it is disappointing that the big plans haven't been coherently laid out anywhere else.

Personally my play time has dropped off sharply since 1.4.1 went to beta. I was going to continue pumping ~40hours/week into playing on the new beta because its feature set looks great, but with the extreme war conditions that are happening on it in practice I decided I wouldn't have much fun, so I'm only fiddling around on my old 1.3.1 save for an hour or two a day instead until the 1.4.1 experience stabilizes.

Because hardcore players are mostly not having fun on 1.4.1 and are bored with older versions, similar patterns of behaviour are likely from that body of players who make up a big proportion of hours played.

 

[Yozzer]

@Badcritter
You are right, I have played for 570 hours so I cannot complain, but the frustrations, and for me game stopping bugs in 1.4.1, seemed to me to indicate they are going backwards, so since seeing a comment about VC with V12 balance mod, I have gone back to playing that. I bought VC when it first was put on sale, but not since, and I have to say reforged with the balance mod its really very good, (and not seen a bug yet). As for Bannerlord, I too will keep an eye on progress,

 

[Warlord123123]

Currently only mods are keeping me in the game.
If anyone is interested, then this setup works rather nice with 1.4.1:

 

[chemical_art]

Of course it is going to fall off. You have a ton of pent up demand for wanting to try the game. However after that rush of trying it people are going to move on to different things. The number of people willing to play patch after patch is a much smaller group who wanted to see what things were initially. These people are going to wait until an announcement that the game has hit standard release or otherwise out of EA. A significant portion of the problems described in this thread are part of the EA process so I'd suggest waiting till out of EA so as to not get burnt out if that is an issue i.e. wanting mods

 

[babelfisch]

First, it's normal that more people play at release.
Second, I was quite surprised that so many people bought the game. M&B was always a niche game in my opinion and most people I know didn't like it as much as I do.
Lastly, everyone knows that it's early access. I played like 50 hours and had lots of fun, but many features are still incomplete. A proper campaign can easily take 100-200 hours and I don't want to burn out playing the unfinished version.

 

[Leader144]

Currently only mods are keeping me in the game.
If anyone is interested, then this setup works rather nice with 1.4.1:

Thabk you for that. We have nearly similar taste.

Would recommend also mods which slow horses down when injured. Gives it more realistic taste and makes armor relevant. Also there's a mod for increasing damage from a horse charge with around half of horse armor value. That's a great addition in my humble opinion.

 

[Warlord123123]

Thabk you for that. We have nearly similar taste.

Would recommend also mods which slow horses down when injured. Gives it more realistic taste and makes armor relevant. Also there's a mod for increasing damage from a horse charge with around half of horse armor value. That's a great addition in my humble opinion.

Naked females, right? *Wink wink*

 

[WyldKat75]

I gave Warband a look for the first time to compare it to Bannerlord.

Been playing Warband ever since thinking, wow, this is awesome.

 

[Killer Kitten]

Of course it is going to fall off. You have a ton of pent up demand for wanting to try the game. However after that rush of trying it people are going to move on to different things. The number of people willing to play patch after patch is a much smaller group who wanted to see what things were initially. These people are going to wait until an announcement that the game has hit standard release or otherwise out of EA. A significant portion of the problems described in this thread are part of the EA process so I'd suggest waiting till out of EA so as to not get burnt out if that is an issue i.e. wanting mods

Here's the problem with the entire concept: This has been in development for 8 YEARS! By all logic, it shouldn't even be in EA. It should be complete and done. I was talking to my brother who never plays Mount and Blade, but he knows I'm a fan. He said, "You waited 8 years just for early access?" So from outsiders, this looks terrible.

Then you combine that with all the excuses: "Oh, we're building a new game engine." Okay, fair enough. So, what you would expect is a game that plays differently from the original, but we don't. We have a game only marginally improved from the original.

 

[Locklave]

With inflation around 20% in Turkey, that money probably didn't last that long.

2-5 million units times the dollar value of each unit. Their company made $100,000,000 on the low end just from steam sale and possible 2.5 times more then that. So they might have made 250,000,000.

Didn't last long...

 

[eddiemccandless]

Here's the problem with the entire concept: This has been in development for 8 YEARS! By all logic, it shouldn't even be in EA. It should be complete and done. I was talking to my brother who never plays Mount and Blade, but he knows I'm a fan. He said, "You waited 8 years just for early access?" So from outsiders, this looks terrible.

Then you combine that with all the excuses: "Oh, we're building a new game engine." Okay, fair enough. So, what you would expect is a game that plays differently from the original, but we don't. We have a game only marginally improved from the original.

I think we all agree on the fact that they wasted most of their time during those 8 years (which does not mean that they didn't work on it, just that most of the work they did did not produce results, or at least results that we can appreciate as players). All we can hope for now is that despite this the final product will be good.

Now if this was another company I probably would not have bought Bannerlord until after EA myself. However TW has a history of producing initial releases that are... let's say underwhelming, but then turn into amazing final products. So I am confident that given enough time Bannerlord will turn into something good.

In the end, it's not like we can do much else but wait and hope for the best.

 

[Killer Kitten]

2-5 million units times the dollar value of each unit. Their company made $100,000,000 on the low end just from steam sale and possible 2.5 times more then that. So they might have made 250,000,000.

Didn't last long...

Okay, that's not how inflation works.

 

[federally]

Okay, that's not how inflation works.

I didn't expect to find people educated on currency and economics here, but that was ignorance to the extreme lol

 

[Killer Kitten]

I think we all agree on the fact that they wasted most of their time during those 8 years (which does not mean that they didn't work on it, just that most of the work they did did not produce results, or at least results that we can appreciate as players). All we can hope for now is that despite this the final product will be good.

Now if this was another company I probably would not have bought Bannerlord until after EA myself. However TW has a history of producing initial releases that are... let's say underwhelming, but then turn into amazing final products. So I am confident that given enough time Bannerlord will turn into something good.

In the end, it's not like we can do much else but wait and hope for the best.

Right. That's kind of a sign of a project management issue. I'm guessing there was a lot of scope creep and rather than polishing what they had originally planned, they went on with these new features.

And it is true that their first attempts aren't always right. There was a rough start with the original game and then had to be rereleased in Warband and then VC was an unmitigated disaster, but was eventually patched as a stable product. But it's still frustrating. You're still spending money on the original unpolished game. Then they're asking you to spend MORE money to get the product that you should have gotten in the first place.