Goyyyio
Sergeant
People often ask in this forums, why does Bannerlord feels like it lacks a souls, what could Bannerlord do to feel alive? I think as much as we crack open our heads and make suggestions, devs are beyond listening, and after playing this game for 2 years I feel I can approximate myself to answer a different, but similar question:
What makes Bannerlord dull
Warband and Bannerlord may seem similar, have this big campaign map, different lands to travel to, lords to talk to and then battles to play, "it's the same game but prettier!" Yes in the basics, it is, but there are a couple of additions and removals in Bannerlord, that even if unnoticed to the eye, they're noticed in subconsciouly, small pieces of a big puzzle that made it a whole, now gone, pieces that weren't even completed in Warband but that were discarded instead of investigated upon, and left a void in Bannerlord that translates into a boring and dull world.
In my opinion, among many others, this is the worst offender: The encyclopedia. The encyclopedia makes this game dull. When you make an RPG, a roleplaying game, it's important you make a world where a role can be effectively played, that means that every decision you take to give a player information, counts on how immersed will the player be while taking that role. Imagine if Skyrim started and the first thing it told you was that you were the dragonborn, right from the go, through a line of text in the menu and when you press "Tab" it gives you all the information of every character in the game? Sure you can play the game anyways, but you are being robbed of the mistery of knowing people, discovering a world, and to effectively, playing a role, a huntsman build wouldn't be an omnipresent being.
In Bannerlord, you're forced to be an omnipresent being, because the encyclopedia is the main, and only source of information for the player. That means that now making relationships with lords is completely useless. Making a conversation system where you HAD to get to know lords, to know their attitudes? No, press one button in the encyclopedia and you now know. Getting to know people in the game doesn't exists, because you don't need to. In Warband, the only way you had was to make quests for them or to plot against other lords they didn't like. It was a rudimentary system that needed improvement, but instead Bannerlord throws an interesting but flawed system out of the window and just says "eh here it is, press a button, this lord is... Devious".
Let's imagine a little bit here: What if skill points, like charisma, or roguery (either ours or our companions') allowed us to unlock Lords' traits, that would mean you need to get resourceful to get information, and its not just magically thrown into you. Maybe, knowing the location of every lord withouth asking could be a spymaster perk, because you get information from anywhere and you just know things, but nope, you just know everything the second you set foot in a town.
The next thread is Influence, but I think I'll just write on it in the comments when I feel like it. Sometimes writing about Bannerlord I get frustrated halfway through, because is completely useless to think of this game or to suggest anything at all since devs don't care about it.
What makes Bannerlord dull
Warband and Bannerlord may seem similar, have this big campaign map, different lands to travel to, lords to talk to and then battles to play, "it's the same game but prettier!" Yes in the basics, it is, but there are a couple of additions and removals in Bannerlord, that even if unnoticed to the eye, they're noticed in subconsciouly, small pieces of a big puzzle that made it a whole, now gone, pieces that weren't even completed in Warband but that were discarded instead of investigated upon, and left a void in Bannerlord that translates into a boring and dull world.
In my opinion, among many others, this is the worst offender: The encyclopedia. The encyclopedia makes this game dull. When you make an RPG, a roleplaying game, it's important you make a world where a role can be effectively played, that means that every decision you take to give a player information, counts on how immersed will the player be while taking that role. Imagine if Skyrim started and the first thing it told you was that you were the dragonborn, right from the go, through a line of text in the menu and when you press "Tab" it gives you all the information of every character in the game? Sure you can play the game anyways, but you are being robbed of the mistery of knowing people, discovering a world, and to effectively, playing a role, a huntsman build wouldn't be an omnipresent being.
In Bannerlord, you're forced to be an omnipresent being, because the encyclopedia is the main, and only source of information for the player. That means that now making relationships with lords is completely useless. Making a conversation system where you HAD to get to know lords, to know their attitudes? No, press one button in the encyclopedia and you now know. Getting to know people in the game doesn't exists, because you don't need to. In Warband, the only way you had was to make quests for them or to plot against other lords they didn't like. It was a rudimentary system that needed improvement, but instead Bannerlord throws an interesting but flawed system out of the window and just says "eh here it is, press a button, this lord is... Devious".
Let's imagine a little bit here: What if skill points, like charisma, or roguery (either ours or our companions') allowed us to unlock Lords' traits, that would mean you need to get resourceful to get information, and its not just magically thrown into you. Maybe, knowing the location of every lord withouth asking could be a spymaster perk, because you get information from anywhere and you just know things, but nope, you just know everything the second you set foot in a town.
The next thread is Influence, but I think I'll just write on it in the comments when I feel like it. Sometimes writing about Bannerlord I get frustrated halfway through, because is completely useless to think of this game or to suggest anything at all since devs don't care about it.