Anyone else feels like the progress of the game has stalled?

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I agree. The game feels stale and not much going on. I think that they left a couple of guys to do some bug fixing and went off to develop a new game, coz this is where the money is - New Title = more sales.
 
They've gotten their big paycheck now they'll work on it at whatever pace is most comfortable

Gotta love EA
 
Then again im not a software developer so my layman's vieuw on it has no actual grasp of how difficult it is but I dont think its normal in the industry for this 'stage' of development to take this long...
I'm a software developer and I can tell you it's not normal. Not in the slightest. Their current roadmap being as vague as it is this late in the process absolutely SCREAMS disfunction from a game design/management standpoint. When half of your points are "improve <x>" then you're almost assuredly flying by the seat of your pants.

Then again I suppose this is more normal for EA than it is for a normal product, not that that's an excuse.
 
People please, you must understand that um Covid? Or bugs that are "fixed" and the "fixes" cause more bugs? Or Sieging being broken, then more broken then "fixed" then even more broken.
 
The lack of a new beta is disappointing but statements from Devs about what they are working on are reassuring that much needed work is going on.
I'm taking a break for now but look forward to playing more soon. It's also a question of not getting completely burnt out so I have the desire to play new updates (and someday finished game) still.
 
I'm a software developer and I can tell you it's not normal. Not in the slightest. Their current roadmap being as vague as it is this late in the process absolutely SCREAMS disfunction from a game design/management standpoint. When half of your points are "improve <x>" then you're almost assuredly flying by the seat of your pants.

Then again I suppose this is more normal for EA than it is for a normal product, not that that's an excuse.
I was not a software developer, but I spent 15 years troubleshooting and evaluating suppliers projects for a large Telco.
From the outside, this looks suspiciously like several failures I've had to dissect... A small team start-up that gets bigger and fails to organize.
There are organizational pitfalls for developing companies. You can do wonders with a "garage team" of motivated developers with a creative and charismatic leader that orchestrates everything around his/her vision.

Try to do the same with 50 people or more and it frequently implodes... You need documentation, organization, proper roadmaps etc... The guy that was so good at driving 5 or 6 people often gets frustrated at being forced into such chores. Might even call such organization "a load of bull****" (I've heard that from a senior developer in actual audit...) Quite often the more "tech" guy needs to recruit someone else to take the reins.. Or sell the company and start something else. I've seen both scenarios.

That's of course, just a general hypothesis. You never know for sure till you've actually evaluated the situation. But this looks like a falied project and a start-up that failed in its growth.
 
That's of course, just a general hypothesis. You never know for sure till you've actually evaluated the situation. But this looks like a falied project and a start-up that failed in its growth.
They literally didn't use a design doc for this game.
 
refractor of the scuffed code pt 2
how do u know?

They literally didn't use a design doc for this game.
literally.

I was not a software developer, but I spent 15 years troubleshooting and evaluating suppliers projects for a large Telco.
From the outside, this looks suspiciously like several failures I've had to dissect... A small team start-up that gets bigger and fails to organize.
There are organizational pitfalls for developing companies. You can do wonders with a "garage team" of motivated developers with a creative and charismatic leader that orchestrates everything around his/her vision.

Try to do the same with 50 people or more and it frequently implodes... You need documentation, organization, proper roadmaps etc... The guy that was so good at driving 5 or 6 people often gets frustrated at being forced into such chores. Might even call such organization "a load of bull****" (I've heard that from a senior developer in actual audit...) Quite often the more "tech" guy needs to recruit someone else to take the reins.. Or sell the company and start something else. I've seen both scenarios.

That's of course, just a general hypothesis. You never know for sure till you've actually evaluated the situation. But this looks like a falied project and a start-up that failed in its growth.

seems like it for sure. really too bad.

of course, no interest, no new revenue. the game is doa. i can't believe they took a decade to produce this.

Word.
 
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Quite often the more "tech" guy needs to recruit someone else to take the reins..
He did, but it didn't work out and the manager guy took off a couple of years ago. We don't know about anyone new managing this.
My theory is that the tech/owner guy undermined the manager guy by establishing a laid back, lazy workplace culture where he still makes the major decisions, which should be the manager's prerogative.
I think the manager guy had a developer background too, without the needed touch of ruthlessness to be an effective manager. The breaking point (this is pure speculation) was when they stopped planning and removed deadlines altogether because they couldn't track their progress at around 2016 or so (they were confident they would release in 2016 just a year before, probably based on some kind of a plan that failed spectacularly).
Since then, they are simply unable to predict any dates, so you could guess there's no real planning and tracking. The proof of this is the release date estimate - at the EA release in March 2020, it was "about a year" and in March 2021 "about 9 months more" and it won't stop there.

They should be very effective at producing accurate estimates by now, since they had years of experience. Yet still they fail to keep their own deadlines. You could teach this project as a failure in project management at management courses.
 
The lack of a new beta is disappointing but statements from Devs about what they are working on are reassuring that much needed work is going on.
I'm taking a break for now but look forward to playing more soon. It's also a question of not getting completely burnt out so I have the desire to play new updates (and someday finished game) still.

That's what I've done with Cyberpunk 2077 and Valheim. I do not want to burn myself out playing during all of the testing and content updates. I think besides MP, I'm gonna put Bannerlord on the shelf for a few months too.
 
He did, but it didn't work out and the manager guy took off a couple of years ago. We don't know about anyone new managing this.
My theory is that the tech/owner guy undermined the manager guy by establishing a laid back, lazy workplace culture where he still makes the major decisions, which should be the manager's prerogative.
I think the manager guy had a developer background too, without the needed touch of ruthlessness to be an effective manager. The breaking point (this is pure speculation) was when they stopped planning and removed deadlines altogether because they couldn't track their progress at around 2016 or so (they were confident they would release in 2016 just a year before, probably based on some kind of a plan that failed spectacularly).
Since then, they are simply unable to predict any dates, so you could guess there's no real planning and tracking. The proof of this is the release date estimate - at the EA release in March 2020, it was "about a year" and in March 2021 "about 9 months more" and it won't stop there.

They should be very effective at producing accurate estimates by now, since they had years of experience. Yet still they fail to keep their own deadlines. You could teach this project as a failure in project management at management courses.
I dunno - wouldn't they be worse at giving estimates given their track record at being bad at giving estimates?

I mean - technically, they can get better at being worse, right?
 
I dunno - wouldn't they be worse at giving estimates given their track record at being bad at giving estimates?

I mean - technically, they can get better at being worse, right?
Learning is supposed to be progressive, but not in the sense of a progressive neurological disease.
 
He did, but it didn't work out and the manager guy took off a couple of years ago. We don't know about anyone new managing this.
My theory is that the tech/owner guy undermined the manager guy by establishing a laid back, lazy workplace culture where he still makes the major decisions, which should be the manager's prerogative.
To be honest, it's fairly hard for the original tech/owner to gracefully pass the baton. I have great respect for those I met that did. It was the right move, but not an enjoyable one...
I'm dubious about "laid-back and lazy". Looking back at the previous M&B products, they probably worked hard.
I'd rather suspect a chaotic and conflictual workplace culture, wiith the original owner undercutting the manager, trying to maintain his original way of doing things and a bunch of guys each pursuing their "vision" and pushing their own part... They might very well work quite hard, each pulling the cart in a different direction :smile:
A tomcat trying to herd other cats :p
 
I'm dubious about "laid-back and lazy". Looking back at the previous M&B products, they probably worked hard.
This is backed up by Glassdoor reviews of former employees, usually interns on the way to something greater. But the basic problem remains the same, the mentality of a small indie studio that caused chaos and delays when they expanded beyond a tight-knit group of fairly competent, self-motivated developers.
I can sympathize with Armagan though, when you grow the company you need to spend most of the time stressing yourself with paperwork (including project planning and supervision) and cracking the whip, when all you ever wanted was to develop cool new things.

The relevant thing is what they are doing now to remedy the situation, if anything? Did they give up on planning and orderly development because they are tired and jaded of all the chaos? Or did they realize they need a fresh and more professional approach and new faces in the leadership team?
The likely answer is neither, Armagan started a fresh unannounced project while probably leaving the Bannerlord team to continue without clear leadership and with the good old daily improvisation.
 
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