Why is TW still not allowing custom servers?

Would you prefer community hosted servers to be available?

  • Yes

    Votes: 71 93.4%
  • No

    Votes: 5 6.6%

  • Total voters
    76

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I remember back in the beta days, there was a mod to host custom servers, which was patched up once EA was released. My question is, why? Why is taleworlds still forcing us to play on official servers with official balance? Why not allow the community to tweak it by themselves to their own liking?

Out of all the fixes, I honestly think that bringing community servers would be the fastest way to revive the MP population, no matter how badly implemented.
 
They're most likely holding onto it until stability and all that is fixed. Though I am slightly concerned that if they focus all their efforts on a ranked mode and turning the game into an e-sport, then they'll be reluctant to release the custom server files for a long time. I hope that's not the case however.
 
They're most likely holding onto it until stability and all that is fixed. Though I am slightly concerned that if they focus all their efforts on a ranked mode and turning the game into an e-sport, then they'll be reluctant to release the custom server files for a long time. I hope that's not the case however.
The thing is literally no one will play the ranked matchmaking when we get private servers, especially for skirmish players, because battle will become the competitive gamemode and TW won't have anything to say about it.
 
I agree, but my point was that TW probably knows that too which is why they're reluctant to release them in the first place :razz:
 
The thing is if you realese server files which are (or might be) unstable, everyone would demand quick fixes and updates for them aswell. And the tolerance for unstable servers wouldn't be as high as you guys might think. You guys are reading the forums, the most casual players don't.
Also TW wouldn't have access to any server logs and during the development they want to gather as much informations about crashes etc. as they can get.
And they would get 'even less' than right now.

"We could send logs and crash reports to taleworlds"
Yeah.. I bet :^) Everyone will do that for sure!

"They can just autoupload our server logs"
Sure thing, more traffic, every serverhoster would love to see this. Aside of that you would be in trouble with the law depending on the player region / server region.

As much I would like to host my own server, I think it might hurt the general development right now.
The argument "But we would have more players in general" is invalid in this case. Those players would still not play on official server nor use the matchmaking system.

It's just not worth it as long as they cannot provide stable server files.

Edit:
You would btw. require working gamemodes to host: Siege, TDM, DM and at least Skirmish as gamemodes.
But afaik Siege still crashes sometimes and Skirmish doesn't support teamdamage nor players spectating (but this might work in meanwhile, I don't know)
 
Yeah they are also good points. The current custom servers all get closed at the end of a round too which is something they'd have to solve or else it'd require someone to constantly take care of it. I personally wouldn't mind that regardless, but you can just tell the servers (even the official ones) must still undergo a lot of work.
 
The fact is that there was a community mod during beta to host custom servers, which TaleWorlds actively patched.
The thing is if you realese server files which are (or might be) unstable, everyone would demand quick fixes and updates for them aswell. And the tolerance for unstable servers wouldn't be as high as you guys might think. You guys are reading the forums, the most casual players don't.
Also TW wouldn't have access to any server logs and during the development they want to gather as much informations about crashes etc. as they can get.
And they would get 'even less' than right now.

"We could send logs and crash reports to taleworlds"
Yeah.. I bet :^) Everyone will do that for sure!

"They can just autoupload our server logs"
Sure thing, more traffic, every serverhoster would love to see this. Aside of that you would be in trouble with the law depending on the player region / server region.

As much I would like to host my own server, I think it might hurt the general development right now.
The argument "But we would have more players in general" is invalid in this case. Those players would still not play on official server nor use the matchmaking system.

It's just not worth it as long as they cannot provide stable server files.

Edit:
You would btw. require working gamemodes to host: Siege, TDM, DM and at least Skirmish as gamemodes.
But afaik Siege still crashes sometimes and Skirmish doesn't support teamdamage nor players spectating (but this might work in meanwhile, I don't know)
Yes, but if we had server files, we can quite easily mod team damage/new game modes.

I don't know why taleworlds is trying so hard to push competitive play/ranked matchmaking when its clear that the community doesn't really care. The mods and community servers made Warband MP fun. The competitive matches we had were mostly glitter, irrelevant for most who weren't really competing (most of the community)
 
The fact is that there was a community mod during beta to host custom servers, which TaleWorlds actively patched.

Yes, but if we had server files, we can quite easily mod team damage/new game modes.

I don't know why taleworlds is trying so hard to push competitive play/ranked matchmaking when its clear that the community doesn't really care. The mods and community servers made Warband MP fun. The competitive matches we had were mostly glitter, irrelevant for most who weren't really competing (most of the community)
I agree. As a competitive player, the day custom servers come out is the day I quit comp skirmish. Most of us are only playing it because it's the only option. I want to be able to host large events for my clan and have my own server. Having the only competitive mode be 6v6 is extremely limiting when it comes to growing a clan.
 
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THE REALEASED OF CUSTOM SERVER MEAN THE TERMINATION OR AT LEAST LAY OFF for MUTIPLAYER TEAM

i don't think custom server at this point is needed though, i don't think custom server will help balance that much, and it will futher divide the player base which is not that many to start with, but what dev team show is lack of vison, there is no road map, before we talk about balance how about we talk about FUN. is the combat FUN. then you narrow down from there.

is 360 degree spin kill fun? is shoting arrow through frontal shield blocking stance fun.is left right swing dominate battle flow fun. is cav+ archer+2 hand noob stomp fun ( well i have to said if you are not on the reciving end it's quiet fun, zero death lots of kills).

developer on mutiplayer team never play on a orgnise team match before. the reason i can tell is they show no understanding that how different that could be compare to a random skirmish game. Despit both side have randomly very good player, the outcome of match could heavily decided by compsition which side has, due to simple hit per kill, by product of class, however i do like drive heavy armor dicking around though won't hide that which you dont get to do in warband.

so dont balance game in term of team matches, do your own thing then slowly do subduction instead of addition. and do it rapitly there is no other way. try and error and fast, and if you are to busy on working on bugs just tell as so instead of making small balance changes that nobody happy with.

either do it big like this patch or not doing it at all.
 
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I guess it has to do with player amounts. You cant split upp your playerbase to much because that would mean that no one will be able to play in the end because there are 20 different camps and only 100 players online.
 
Can we just....stop saying they're pushing an esport agenda here? Theyre clearly not, or they would do way more balancing and preferebly hire an expert from the industry, considering they have zero experience on the topic.

The class system wasnt made for competitive, its easier for them in almost every way to lock down how people play. This way they can balance between gamemodes fairly easily (gold for skirmish, troops for captain) and not to mention they can make sure the equipment you pick fits with the "uniform" they want you to have, and armor clipping shouldnt be an issue. It also makes it easier to sell skins down the line, and they mentioned people being confused by picking their own equipment. None of this has to do with competitive or esport. It makes a lot of sense for them to do this, it just sucks for the players.

Skirmish is definitly their competitive gamemode, they probably thought battle was too boring and simplistic and as someone who commentated quite a few games, theyre not wrong. At the beginning of battles there'd usually not be any fighting at all, and everyone would just find their assigned seats then move on when the flag shows up for 1 big fight. I think Skirmish is gonna end up basically the same way, but for now, the 3 flags give an incentive to fight throughout the round instead of at the end of it. Multiple lives also help this idea. Personally I dont mind skirmish, Im not a crazy fan of multiple lives, and I think as a way for new players to learn the game, Battle would be infinitely better, with a limit of 10vs10 on public servers, but I think skirmish has some potential. They listened to competitive players with years and years of experience on battle changes because its something that we mastered in previous titles, but even then, they have their own ideas that we heavily disagree with, like crushthrough.

Now! For why tw still isnt allowing custom servers. Ofcourse just in my opinion.
Theyre not ready for it. Look at how any of the gamemodes are set up in this game. Its so hardcoded, it wouldnt surprise me if they have to completely re-do how its done. There are no admins tools that we know of, changing maps seem to be impossible, TDM boots you out after each round, cant spectate in Skirmish/captain even on clan matches.
Theres also some logic to the idea that the game is changing so much, after every patch the servers would need updates etc, however considering the last major update was weeks ago, Im not sure im on board with that. Add a disclaimer explaining why their servers might break and people will still happily create their own servers. We'd be first in line.
Then theres the whole data collection thing, Im not sure how this works, but Im pretty sure its easier for them to collect data from their own servers etc. Theres still instability on servers, things like that will have to be fixed before giving out the server tools.

Its just not ready yet.
 
The class system wasnt made for competitive

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It doesn't even matter what it was made for. In fact the class system is killing the game for months - there won't be any bannerlord in the upcoming esports genre - let alone the fact that the nobody is using the current matchmaking anymore - Even if you do so - you end up in hardcore ranged/archer or/and savage cavalry dominated matches.. Once there will be custom servers or even game modes, the official vanilla setup can straight close its doors - valued by its current development speed and multiplayer "fixes".
 
Now! For why tw still isnt allowing custom servers. Ofcourse just in my opinion.
Theyre not ready for it. Look at how any of the gamemodes are set up in this game. Its so hardcoded, it wouldnt surprise me if they have to completely re-do how its done. There are no admins tools that we know of, changing maps seem to be impossible, TDM boots you out after each round, cant spectate in Skirmish/captain even on clan matches.
Theres also some logic to the idea that the game is changing so much, after every patch the servers would need updates etc, however considering the last major update was weeks ago, Im not sure im on board with that. Add a disclaimer explaining why their servers might break and people will still happily create their own servers. We'd be first in line.
Then theres the whole data collection thing, Im not sure how this works, but Im pretty sure its easier for them to collect data from their own servers etc. Theres still instability on servers, things like that will have to be fixed before giving out the server tools.

Its just not ready yet.
It kind of baffles me that a development team is unable to even pull off stable servers in 2020. There are much smaller teams for indie games that have created servers fine. I agree that a lot of it is hardcoded and would need to be completely redone, and that makes me worried that TW will put any effort into this at all. What I really need is taleworlds to come forward and say if we're ever getting custom servers in the first place. I need and honest response to that to know if I should give up on the game now or keep waiting
 
I think the question should no longer be "why is Taleworlds still not allowing custom servers?".

The question should instead be at what point did Taleworlds even reach the conclusion that any system other than custom servers should be the default one. Six months into EA, and more than a year since I played the closed beta I have no doubts that the whole thing is fundamentally flawed and will unfortunately never get better. There's just no coming back from this point.


Multiplayer of this game is so underdeveloped it's really hard to imagine what all the time went into. But think about the following, once TW did decide to produce Multiplayer as a component in Bannerlord someone had to:
  • Decide on multiplayer's direction. What is the core experience and how should it look like?
  • Decide how connections and servers will be handled. Matchmaking or custom servers? Or maybe both? Which has priority?
  • Decide how equipment will be selected. Freeform? Forced presets?
  • Decide which gamemodes will be the focus. Siege? Battle? Duel? Or the invention of new ones.
  • Decide what progression will look like. Ranks? Badges? Paid cosmetics?
  • Decide what core combat will look like. Skill based? Or perhaps not.
  • Decide on a ton of other small, but important aspects like banners, player profiles et cetera.
Now think about those decisions above, and what direction was taken in Bannerlord's Multiplayer.

Spoiler: All the wrong ones.

The old community evidently wasn't interested in this, and the 'new' MP experience is so lacking that no substantial new playerbase worth mentioning has gathered. Did anyone at TW really think you can make a bombastic new popular MP game with 5 maps in the pool or something. There's far better and far bigger generic MP games like this out there. This one has no soul to be unique, nor the content to compete with giants.

In the end the answer to all questions like the one posed in this thread is:
  • Multiplayer market research and analysis(if there even was one, hard to believe there was one) reached all the wrong conclusions regarding what made M&B's multiplayer what it was. 90% of the good stuff from Warband simply isn't there in Bannerlord.
  • The same research also reached wrong conclusions on what makes MP games good and popular in general.
  • The Multiplayer team is too small and understaffed.
  • The Multiplayer head designer has had the wrong idea from the very start.
Now it's simply too late for real changes, I'm afraid.
 
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