I went bananas when I saw the new lamellar armor, it is by far my favorite armor I've ever used in mount & blade, spanning every mod or native version. I actually stuck with it, despite the fact that heraldic armor is now fixed and has the appropriate colors (background is dominant on the back, ie, black lion on red gets a red back) which just about made my day. Using an 8800 GTS 512, I have noticed in big battles it is substantially poorer performance, but I attribute that to the much higher resolution apparent on armors, horses and helmets. I may have to turn things down a wee bit to get back to 200 person battles (which i've become so accustomed to, 30v30 seems almost childish.)
I look forward to whatever updates are in the future and the mod scene just about exploding with renewed interest and effort.
I also sincerely hope that sales of the game, whenever it is that they hit stores, will be beyond expectations, both rewarding the developer and the players with new features.