Bannerlord is mis-advertised by the devs on Steam (yes, even taking into account Early Access)

[babelfisch]

Or maybe you do, if you think there's any more than what I mentioned in there. Because there isn't (please do point them out if so).

It's like half of the entire text:

"We are hoping to run a productive and efficient early access for M&B Bannerlord as well. However, due to the nature and scale of game that we have envisioned, there may be various problems or missing features and content during the course of early access. Here are a few aspects you may need to know:

Unique Maps for Towns, Castles and Village: Although we plan to create unique maps for every town and castle in the game, it is a rather arduous process to create that many well designed maps and as such, different locations may share the same map during early access.

Quest Content: A portion of planned quests may be missing entirely, and those in the game may be using placeholder maps, animations, etc.

Balancing: Various aspects of the game may be poorly balanced. Parts of the game may be too easy or too hard.

Voice overs: Since the game uses a lot of dynamic text and hundreds of NPCs, we are planning to record voice-overs for only a limited subset of the dialog (greetings, companion introductions and main quest). Some of these planned voice overs may be missing or using placeholder versions during EA.

Savegames: We will strive to keep savegame compatibility during EA, however it may be technically infeasible to provide 100% backward compatibility in savegames and you may occasionally have to start a new game after updating to a new version.

Bugs and glitches: Although we strive to create a stable game experience, the game will be actively developed during early access and hence there will be a greater chance of bugs and glitches creeping up. It will of course be a priority to fix these.

Localization: Our current plan is to localize the game into the following languages: French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin American) and Turkish. Other languages may be added later. During EA, localizations for these languages may be missing entirely or may be incomplete.

Multiplayer modes and features: The game currently supports several popular multiplayer modes, but we are planning to add more modes and features, possibly including ranked matchmaking.

Singleplayer Features: Several planned single player features may be missing or incomplete. These include but are not limited to: full game controller support, some skill and perk effects, crafting, some aspects of sieges, and clan, army and kingdom management.

Developing M&B Bannerlord has been, and continues to be a fabulous experience for us, and we are excited to be walking the final phase of this journey together with our players. Of course, you may prefer to wait a little bit longer and hold off until the final, finished product. In this case, please consider adding the game to your wishlist and you’ll receive an email when we release the full version.”

 

[Mikey]

It's like half of the entire text:

Read what I've written again (if you're able to take off your White Knight goggles for a moment) and you'll see I've already addressed all of those.

 

[babelfisch]

Read what I've written again (if you're able to take off your White Knight goggles for a moment) and you'll see I've already addressed all of those.

Not really. They told you that basically the entire game is unfinished and incomplete. They also told you to wait until full release if you want a complete game. Then they told you that also localisation is missing and that you will run into bugs.
And your interpretation is that everything is ready?

 

[Mikey]

And your interpretation is that everything is ready?

I rest my case. You're obviously trolling.

 

[babelfisch]

I rest my case. You're obviously trolling.

This is what you said:
"So, I ignore it because the rest of the text paints a picture of the incomplete things being minor, like missing localization, more diverse layouts for cities or "obscure bugs" - all in the service of trying to make the game sound way more complete than it was (or is)."
Only because you ignore it, you read it as 'only localisation is missing and some obscure bugs'. If you wouldn't act like it isn't there, you would realise that they told you that many parts of the game are unfinished. If your best argument is 'I ignore it', tell me again who is trolling?

 

[mgb519]

Guys, I bought ArmA III when it came out in early access. None of you know the definition of patience yet.

 

[ZydrateTheSmoothCriminal]

Guys, I bought ArmA III when it came out in early access. None of you know the definition of patience yet.

patience
/ˈpeɪʃ(ə)ns/

noun
1. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.



Boom.

 

[babelfisch]

patience
/ˈpeɪʃ(ə)ns/

noun
1. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.



Boom.

Sounds crazy.

 

[Apocal]

Yeah fair enough, I stand corrected that that line may have been in there originally. My mistake, I will make sure to cut TW a bit more slack about that.
However...
It also says this:
“In terms of content, the early access version of the game contains all of the main staples of the Mount & Blade experience, with a host of content that is new to the series. Players can create their own character using the game’s character creation system; explore the continent of Calradia; gather their own warband of troops; command and fight alongside their troops in large scale battles using the game’s extensive command system and intuitive skill-based directional combat system; raid settlements; lay siege to and capture enemy towns and castles; trade items and goods using the game’s deep economy system; engage in politics and diplomacy; manage their own clan; upgrade and manage settlements; gather armies and wage war; and much, much more...

Does that really sound like an honest description of the game in its current state? It sure sounds like a load of marketing BS to me, the bolded bits especially.

You could definitely manage your own clan and settlements on release. Diplomacy is iffy (it was literally random on release) but engaging in politics was doable.

What about beeing able to command parties/vassals, also not a main staple?

In vanilla Warband, you couldn't really command vassals. You could give suggestions, but they would ignore you as often as they listened (yes, even if you were king) and even those that listened would occasionally **** off to raid villages or chase other parties.

Diplomacy mod was the one with patrols being sent to guard villages.

 

[Bannerdog]

Yeah fair enough, I stand corrected that that line may have been in there originally. My mistake, I will make sure to cut TW a bit more slack about that.
However...
It also says this:
“In terms of content, the early access version of the game contains all of the main staples of the Mount & Blade experience, with a host of content that is new to the series. Players can create their own character using the game’s character creation system; explore the continent of Calradia; gather their own warband of troops; command and fight alongside their troops in large scale battles using the game’s extensive command system and intuitive skill-based directional combat system; raid settlements; lay siege to and capture enemy towns and castles; trade items and goods using the game’s deep economy system; engage in politics and diplomacy; manage their own clan; upgrade and manage settlements; gather armies and wage war; and much, much more...

and this:
The early access version of the game contains a wealth of content that will keep players engaged for many hours. While the early access version is very much stable and playable, players can expect to run into some obscure bugs and other issues while playing that we intend to locate and fix before the full release.

Does that really sound like an honest description of the game in its current state? It sure sounds like a load of marketing BS to me, the bolded bits especially.

Yup, it's a mis-statement of reality and MISLEADING as I detailed this in the first post of the thread. Tale World didn't force anyone to buy the game, they actually tricked people instead.

 

[AxiosXiphos]

Yup, it's a mis-statement of reality and MISLEADING as I detailed this in the first post of the thread. Tale World didn't force anyone to buy the game, they actually tricked people instead.

How dare Taleworlds try to sell their game - what utter insanity is that!

As for the statement nothing is untrue - all of those features are present just unfinished. I'm confused which part you think you are missing?

Once again it was very very clear what the state of the game was and it was your choice to take part in the EA. If you want to complain about the progress since release then fine but dear god these self-victimisation threads are annoying...

As Taleworlds has stated many times - come back at full release.

 

[Bannerdog]

How dare Taleworlds try to sell their game - what utter insanity is that!

As for the statement nothing is untrue - all of those features are present just unfinished. I'm confused which part you think you are missing?

"Nothing is untrue"... are you actually serious or are you, just like some others on this forum, desperate to defend TW?

"While the early access version is very much stable and playable, players can expect to run into some obscure bugs and other issues "

This was a literal lie... indefensibly so. TW knew what state the game was in when they released it, and that state included MASSIVE and often GAME-BREAKING bugs.

They lied, it's that simple.

 

[AxiosXiphos]

Nothing is untrue, are you serious, or just like some others and inexplicably desperate to defend TW?

"While the early access version is very much stable and playable, players can expect to run into some obscure bugs and other issues "

This was a literal lie. Indefensibly so.

... It is playable? I have several hundred hours on the game and even more on the BETA.. that's not unplayable. Stability varies from patch to patch but it's not too bad. Game certainly runs and there is content to play. As for bugs - I haven't actually seen that many bugs; what there is a lot of is unfinished content but that's EA for you. Actual honest bugs though... apart from the MP servers being iffy it's not nearly as bad as you are making out.

Now please explain why you think that's a lie. I presume as it is unplayable you have only got a few hours on the game? How much do you have?

They lied, it's that simple.

Should be easy for you to provide a good example of such then?

Now when I had an issue joining MP servers know what I did? I directly contacted one of the dev's (per their reporting process) and they personally helped me resolve it. It even turned out to be an issue on my end (with my router)...

 

[babelfisch]

Yup, it's a mis-statement of reality and MISLEADING as I detailed this in the first post of the thread. Tale World didn't force anyone to buy the game, they actually tricked people instead.

I am too proud to admit that I was stupid enough to get tricked by a vague EA description.
YMMV.

 

[Bannerdog]

I am too proud to admit that I was stupid enough to get tricked by a vague EA description.
YMMV.

That kind of false pride and vanity is only a weakness... hopefully you can address it. But please, keep defending TW's lies at the cost of your dignity, I am sure that they appreciate all the help they can get at the moment!

 

[sanalaismine]

Some minds are way beyond calming down. My generation doesn't get offended so easily but appearently, these people can get offended from a company's one marketing sentence.

Don't get me wrong, we've seen disasterous launchs. Most recent comparable one was X4, similar sized, similar devoted fan base. It was announced as 1.0 not even EA. This EA is mostly very, very normal and yes, there is engaging gameplay for hours with obscure bugs.

 

[babelfisch]

That kind of false pride and vanity is only a weakness... hopefully you can address it. But please, keep defending TW's lies at the cost of your dignity, I am sure that they appreciate all the help they can get at the moment!

Actually it was a joke, but I already suspected you wouldn't get it.

 

[Talbrys]

"Nothing is untrue"... are you actually serious or are you, just like some others on this forum, desperate to defend TW?

"While the early access version is very much stable and playable, players can expect to run into some obscure bugs and other issues "

This was a literal lie... indefensibly so. TW knew what state the game was in when they released it, and that state included MASSIVE and often GAME-BREAKING bugs.

They lied, it's that simple.

Nothing in that sentence was a lie. From day 1 of EA the game was completely playable and enjoyable. Now it's even more so.

 

[Hodor NOT]

What can I say? I was certainly expecting (or rather hoping) there would be more content in EA.
TBH the description did lead me to believe that. I was expecting Warband with upgraded graphics and engine, additional diplomatic options and kingdom building, available at EA. Down the road to a finished release I thought we would have a single-player story experience, real sub factions, unique cities, etc... populating the world and the setting I guess.

I guess I was off by a margin. However what disturbs me is not the marketing scheme of calling it EA. Come on... what on earth does EA even mean? It is highly subjective.

What annoys me is the extremely slow pace of development and integration of new features, that actually leaves me worried that the final game will be EA+main quest. I have stopped playing over two months ago thinking I would return and see a bunch of new content.
Well, nothing happened.
No idea where this game is headed. Will they fix the perks and call it finished? Will they actually add real diplomacy? Meaningful quests?

What I am worried about is the potential danger that at the end of the road, the finished game will actually be less complete than what I imagined EA to be.

 

[sanalaismine]

What annoys me is the extremely slow pace of development and integration of new features, that actually leaves me worried that the final game will be EA+main quest. I have stopped playing over two months ago thinking I would return and see a bunch of new content.
Well, nothing happened.
No idea where this game is headed. Will they fix the perks and call it finished? Will they actually add real diplomacy? Meaningful quests?

What I am angry about is the potential danger that at the end of the road, the finished game will actually be less complete than what I imagined EA to be.

You write your concerns in a very constructive way, thanks for that. But I played and loved lots of EA games. It's really the long haul, a long road. This game is the only child of TW so don't be very anxious about your worries. They are gonna develop this game as much as they can do and they recently getting bigger and better for this goal. If there is anything this pace of patches is not slow. It's actually more than ok for an EA game.

Empyrion, factorio, satisfactory lots of good game in an EA state gets updated slowly but surely for a long time. So without worries, people only have to wait either playing and enjoying the game or just waiting it to be more beefy.