A plea to the Devs- Let the community have an active role in Faction Balance

[Ebdanian Admiral]

Before I say anything else I would like to thank everyone at Taleworlds for their obvious attempts to be much more open about the development  of Bannerlord. With the promised weekly blogs and the addition of this forum you have put much needed hope in the hearts of a fanbase which had certainly started to falter in that department. I really cannot put into words how grateful I am regarding this sudden shift in mindset.

With that said I would like to start a discussion regarding the factions of Bannerlord and how they will be balanced in a multiplayer sense. I think we can all agree that the Mount and Blade formula is prime Esports potential, and yet due to some critical failures in the balancing department that potential has not been reached. The most obvious example of this is the Khergits. Off the top of my head I cannot think of another Esport where a certain faction or race is so broken that it has been banned from competition altogether.

Should Bannerlord repeat this goof and create another utterly broken faction it would be an enormous blow to the games multiplayer marketability. Luckily for us though there happens to be a small, dedicated and extremely experienced group of people that have spent the last 6 years discovering every nook and cranny of Mount and Blades combat systems. I cannot imagine a better group of people to assist in the creation of multiplayer balance.

I know this is probably extremely early but I just wanted to get my opinion out there before my computer blows up again.

Cheers

 

[Dystopian]

This 

 

[DanAngleland]

M&B has prime Esports potential? How so? I've never seen any competitive multiplayer footage that looks anything but tedious, and although not a competitive player or highly skilled myself, I have a decent understanding of most techniques in M&B and have played multiplayer for years. How will it appeal to a mass audience, many of whom will be casual players of the game or not play it at all (and thus have little understanding of the players' behaviour and just see cagey, glitchy looking behaviour)? What's more, a single faction not being ideal for competitive play doesn't stop the rest of the factions being used, so I don't think it's critical to having a successful competitive scene, regardless of whether it becomes an Esport or not. Or is it that you think horse archery could be one of the big draws for an Esports audience, but the game needs to make it less OP so that it can be part of the competitive scene?

In my view, the thing that stops it being good to watch is that being effective against determined opponents generally means being glitchy and cagey. The limits of the control system have to be pushed to find the optimal tactics to win. Want to watch duels? Be prepared to watch a lot of approaching and retreating, waiting for the right moment to strike, and a lot of rapid feinting and holding strikes ready. A battle, perhaps? Then watch as two sides hide from one another until one becomes impatient and bit by bit the two sides find one another. And kiting bowmen. Not good to watch.

Perhaps I'm missing something- what in your view is fun to watch in Warband (competitive multi obviously), and could you show me an example of it? Crucially, do you think casual or non M&B players will be able to enjoy watching it?

 

[Count Delinard]

The matchmaking system will help though

How will multiplayer work, will there be matchmaking?
The game will feature a matchmaking system. This will allow players to have a more challenging and fair multiplayer experience by matching players based on their skill-level, group size and geographic location. There will be a variety of different game modes for players to test their tactical abilities and skills against each other, ranging from a duelling mode through to massive pitched battles and sieges. Players will also be able to host their own private servers, giving them control over the various parameters of the different game modes.

 

[Shemaforash]

battle, perhaps? Then watch as two sides hide from one another until one becomes impatient and bit by bit the two sides find one another. And kiting bowmen. Not good to watch.

did you watch a warband match lately? Matches are quick and rounds are quick. The timer doesn't allow for "hiding"

 

[DanAngleland]

Can't say I have, to be honest. Thanks, I'll have a look on Youtube then. Still, I'd appreciate anyone's opinion on what game mode is good to watch and ideally a link to a good example video. Presumably you enjoy watching battles then, Shemaforash?

 

[Varrak]

The matchmaking system will help though

How will multiplayer work, will there be matchmaking?
The game will feature a matchmaking system. This will allow players to have a more challenging and fair multiplayer experience by matching players based on their skill-level, group size and geographic location. There will be a variety of different game modes for players to test their tactical abilities and skills against each other, ranging from a duelling mode through to massive pitched battles and sieges. Players will also be able to host their own private servers, giving them control over the various parameters of the different game modes.

This is amazing. I always wanted matchmaking system but i always though that TW would never implement it. I wonder if MP accounts for matchmatking would work like EU4 or like LeagueOfLegends. EU4 uses Steam account name as our in-game account profile, LoL uses their own databases for player account and players should sign in first to play the game.

 

[Achaner]

The matchmaking system will help though

How will multiplayer work, will there be matchmaking?
The game will feature a matchmaking system. This will allow players to have a more challenging and fair multiplayer experience by matching players based on their skill-level, group size and geographic location. There will be a variety of different game modes for players to test their tactical abilities and skills against each other, ranging from a duelling mode through to massive pitched battles and sieges. Players will also be able to host their own private servers, giving them control over the various parameters of the different game modes.

Oh thank the gods.

 

[Gasset]

Matchmaking is really good news. This was asked for a VERY long time by the more competitive part of the community.

Perhaps also being able to use manual search for servers might be nice. To find your favourite ones. And browse through different server modes.

 

[Lagstro]

Perhaps also being able to use manual search for servers might be nice. To find your favourite ones. And browse through different server modes.

"Players will also be able to host their own private servers, giving them control over the various parameters of the different game modes."

I believe that's basically saying you will still have the option to select custom servers like you can in warband, they just won't have anything to do with matchmaking.

 

[Gasset]

Perhaps also being able to use manual search for servers might be nice. To find your favourite ones. And browse through different server modes.

"Players will also be able to host their own private servers, giving them control over the various parameters of the different game modes."

I believe that's basically saying you will still have the option to select custom servers like you can in warband, they just won't have anything to do with matchmaking.

Great

 

[Alex Jones]

Multiplayer game balance is definitely the most important thing about the new title.

 

[Dystopian]

this nigga is named alex jones ****

 

[Jeffrey9792]

Before I say anything else I would like to thank everyone at Taleworlds for their obvious attempts to be much more open about the development  of Bannerlord. With the promised weekly blogs and the addition of this forum you have put much needed hope in the hearts of a fanbase which had certainly started to falter in that department. I really cannot put into words how grateful I am regarding this sudden shift in mindset.

With that said I would like to start a discussion regarding the factions of Bannerlord and how they will be balanced in a multiplayer sense. I think we can all agree that the Mount and Blade formula is prime Esports potential, and yet due to some critical failures in the balancing department that potential has not been reached. The most obvious example of this is the Khergits. Off the top of my head I cannot think of another Esport where a certain faction or race is so broken that it has been banned from competition altogether.

Should Bannerlord repeat this goof and create another utterly broken faction it would be an enormous blow to the games multiplayer marketability. Luckily for us though there happens to be a small, dedicated and extremely experienced group of people that have spent the last 6 years discovering every nook and cranny of Mount and Blades combat systems. I cannot imagine a better group of people to assist in the creation of multiplayer balance.

I know this is probably extremely early but I just wanted to get my opinion out there before my computer blows up again.

Cheers

I would rather see them move away from factions entirely, just have three classes ranged, Inf, and cav.  Those three classes will have set stats, and equipment would be from all Bannerlords factions put into some sort of pool (could be kind of like cs where you can pick from a pool of weapons).

 

[the Ol Knight Heat]

Before I say anything else I would like to thank everyone at Taleworlds for their obvious attempts to be much more open about the development  of Bannerlord. With the promised weekly blogs and the addition of this forum you have put much needed hope in the hearts of a fanbase which had certainly started to falter in that department. I really cannot put into words how grateful I am regarding this sudden shift in mindset.

With that said I would like to start a discussion regarding the factions of Bannerlord and how they will be balanced in a multiplayer sense. I think we can all agree that the Mount and Blade formula is prime Esports potential, and yet due to some critical failures in the balancing department that potential has not been reached. The most obvious example of this is the Khergits. Off the top of my head I cannot think of another Esport where a certain faction or race is so broken that it has been banned from competition altogether.

Should Bannerlord repeat this goof and create another utterly broken faction it would be an enormous blow to the games multiplayer marketability. Luckily for us though there happens to be a small, dedicated and extremely experienced group of people that have spent the last 6 years discovering every nook and cranny of Mount and Blades combat systems. I cannot imagine a better group of people to assist in the creation of multiplayer balance.

I know this is probably extremely early but I just wanted to get my opinion out there before my computer blows up again.

Cheers

I would rather see them move away from factions entirely, just have three classes ranged, Inf, and cav.  Those three classes will have set stats, and equipment would be from all Bannerlords factions put into some sort of pool (could be kind of like cs where you can pick from a pool of weapons).

yeah **** factions

 

[DarkLight]

I know this is off-topic but i just heard about matchmaking and i am literally creaming to give it a beating (^:

Matchmaking, disregarding its duel function, is kinda of a gamble from my point of view because its assuming that Bannerlord will have a vastly superior player population than Warband and there will be enough people to sort`em out in different groups and classes according to that many factors. If the game ends up being the same size as our actual product Matchmaking would be an absolutely broken asset and a waste of time and resources, with the overall mayority of the populus just pubbing on IG-like servers, wich considering the tradition of the average Warband MP player pubbing on Camelot, Arena and IG its already the stablished thing to do, I would like to see how that translates to Bannerlod and the matchmaking system succesfully.

But having asserted that risk I think its worth still to implement such a feature, even if it fails or not it will still be there as a niche thing for the few sweaty tryhards that like to give it a go every now and then, then again i am on the receiving end of the product so i care little about TW waste of money (^^^^:

 

[Ruthven]

yeah **** factions

 

[Kazzan]

If the game ends up being the same size as our actual product Matchmaking would be an absolutely broken asset and a waste of time and resources, with the overall mayority of the populus just pubbing on IG-like servers, wich considering the tradition of the average Warband MP player pubbing on Camelot, Arena and IG its already the stablished thing to do, I would like to see how that translates to Bannerlod and the matchmaking system succesfully.

Feel like servers like IG, Camelot or Arena would be less used in a game with a built-in matchmaking service. I like the communities formed around certain servers on Warband, like ZHG, IG or Arena. Where you could know the people who played there often.

Then again, I don't know what the system will look like.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

I know this is off-topic but i just heard about matchmaking and i am literally creaming to give it a beating (^:

Matchmaking, disregarding its duel function, is kinda of a gamble from my point of view because its assuming that Bannerlord will have a vastly superior player population than Warband and there will be enough people to sort`em out in different groups and classes according to that many factors. If the game ends up being the same size as our actual product Matchmaking would be an absolutely broken asset and a waste of time and resources, with the overall mayority of the populus just pubbing on IG-like servers, wich considering the tradition of the average Warband MP player pubbing on Camelot, Arena and IG its already the stablished thing to do, I would like to see how that translates to Bannerlod and the matchmaking system succesfully.

But having asserted that risk I think its worth still to implement such a feature, even if it fails or not it will still be there as a niche thing for the few sweaty tryhards that like to give it a go every now and then, then again i am on the receiving end of the product so i care little about TW waste of money (^^^^:

Hopefully a proper matchmaking system with a more official game mode (or multiple) will ensure a healthier online population rather than concentrating a small amount of people into mostly sh!tty servers.

The initial multiplayer experience for Warband is god awful and that's why the online is a relatively small scene.

 

[Watly]

I feel that generic factions would make the game balanced to a boring degree. Everyone will use more or less the same "meta" equipment making match ups rather static.

It is nevertheless not a bad idea, I'd just personally prefer factions that are properly balanced over the course of some time.