About TW communication on release date

[Kehlian]

Actually I'm glad they take their time. I wasn't at first, but I can see now how it's good for BL.

Armagan has an eye and a say on everything the game is and will be. It's his dream, and seeing how good warband was, I can only say it's a good omen. Even if it feels slow to us, we know we'll get a good product.

What really ruffle my feathers, though, is the way they communicated around the project.

 

[NPC99]

Armagan has an eye and a say on everything the game is and will be. It's his dream, and seeing how good warband was, I can only say it's a good omen. Even if it feels slow to us, we know we'll get a good product.

+1

 

[whatwhat1]

At this point, I would say it hey need to just wait to give a release date. They have missed to many marks to risk missing even a highly reasonable and likely release date. I hope they do what linage 2 revolution did announcing its release date. Basically what they did was twitch con or something was coming up and 2 weeks before twitch con they began a very aggressive ad campaign. They said nothing about there release date until there little show at the convention and then announced the release was in like a week. I feel like this is very effective because they raised a lot of awareness about of there game very quickly, while keeping the hype. On top of that they made the wait feel really short. I kinda hope Bannerlord does something similar.

 

[Kniggit]

I would love to have a release date, just so I know when to expect it and set money aside for it, but I trust in what they are doing, and that it is worth the wait.

When I first experienced an early version of the original Mount&Blade ten years ago, the only thing I remember working was the Arena, and I couldn't get enough. I had never played a game that actually let me control someone on the field in a medieval setting, and had mounted combat. I eagerly ate up every update, and loved the forum community that rose around it.

This time, they seem to be keeping a more closely guarded approach, and I think when it is finally released, we are all going to **** our pants, because it is going to be so immersive, so enthralling, so exhilarating that we won't want to put it down. From what I seen of the revealed content, everything that I wished Warband could do, Bannerlord will be able to do it, and more. Not to mention their focus on the Modding Community.

Every few months I'll fire up Warband, check out any recent mods, and put more and more hours into it, and I am eager to see how many months straight that Bannerlord can hold my attention. I know the game has been in development for years, but I just know it will be worth the wait.

- Ian

 

[whatwhat1]

That is what  I am torn about. I know bannerlord will be a good game, there is no doubt of that. But will it be worth the wait?

 

[Tengil]

That is what  I am torn about. I know bannerlord will be a good game, there is no doubt of that. But will it be worth the wait?

That does not make sense to me. You have no choice but to wait and your life does not stop during this wait. What do you mean "worth the wait" you are literally doing nothing ^^

 

[vota dc]

Next week developer blog with writer
Week after Empire blog
Week further after another developer blog
Week even after subfaction blog
Then they will release without a warning

 

[KhergitLancer80]

Next week developer blog with writer
Week after Empire blog
Week further after another developer blog
Week even after subfaction blog
Then they will release without a warning

I dont think they will release the game before ''PR''ing it for at least 3 months.

 

[Crowcorrector]

Next week developer blog with writer
Week after Empire blog
Week further after another developer blog
Week even after subfaction blog
Then they will release without a warning

I dont think they will release the game before ''PR''ing it for at least 3 months.

This is my worst nightmare,  their PR it ****e anyway    If we're to be kept in the dark I rather it be released asap

 

[vicwiz007]

I have two main issues with this whole release date sham. I think they are two things TW seems to overlook as well.

1) We have no idea when it WONT be releasing. This is annoying because most game you know theyll say "delayed, and will not be coming out in 2017" or something like that, so people know at least that they should not get excited, and inevitably disappointed of course. TW even takes it a step further and has given "hopefully this year" statements, but say nothing about it and leave the community to realize its not happening once the year is over.

2) The whole "we dont work like that because we want to create the "perfect" (dont know if they ever actually used the word perfect) game" philosophy. Well what the hell does this even mean? You could add features, fix bugs, polish, etc for a literal eternity. At some point you just have to realize that the game wont be perfect, it will not please everyone, and you have to just stop. It just has feature creep written all over it. Usually, i would not say this is an issue, however, the problem is that we have seen almost no progress. Id be much more willing to accept this philosophy if we actually saw the results, otherwise, what is going on right now is that we feel are being told to wait with no "benefit" to our waiting. I think this attributes to why so many people say that it looked playable back when we saw even the siege gameplay or PC Gamer gameplay years ago. Nobody has any idea what is being added, fixed, etc so witnessing that seemingly playable gameplay and then having to wait a few more years with no big signs of progress is frustrating. I know a lot mustve changed since then, but again, not much i can think of that has been shown.

Im just trying to rationalize my own, and presumably many others' feelings. I find this a lot more constructive than a lot of the rants we see, even if i am not necessarily "correct" in all my observations. For example, im sure there are those out there who feel we've seen good amounts of progress, and that the communication has been adequate.

 

[Kehlian]

You can't be incorrect as you clearly said you are expressing how you feel about the situation.

I agree with your point of view, it indeed FEELS there is no progress since the multiplayer gameplay video, because we are kept in the dark, and they give the very minimum information they can. But I can see they work hard, so I believe there is progress anyway.

Having blogs about the lore is cool and all, but it quickly becomes old, when all we want is to play since a long while, now. Especially knowing that most of the lore will be roleplayed anyway.

I see why they exist, though: So they can work for a full 2 weeks before having to show progress and features, as development takes time, so I fully understand their decision.

I think the 2 last blogs that weren't about faction went a step in the right direction, though. They explained features they were working on (instead of general description of a job), and showed it to us via gifs and screenshots. But we still don't know what technical difficulties made them believe it would be out 1,5 years ago, and finally delayed the game.
We don't have any idea of what features are left to work on, and that is frustrating as we can't project ourselves in a future where we play Bannerlord. Saying a general and banal «we only have polishing left to do» isn't helping at all. WHAT needs polishing ? And how much polish ?

Keep up the good work, TW, I can see improvements in your communication, but you're not quite there yet. Let Callum deliver more informations !


On a side note, I always thought «feature creep» meant cutting features out.

 

[Dest45]

Literally every video they show us shows leagues of improvement over the last. Their “feature creep” is working wonders. They aren’t a seasoned developement team, there have been obstacles snd setbacks. A games initial release sets the whole tone for its life-span and long term interest. Most players will not play again after the first months and even weeks. OKAM was really popular when it came out but it died literally two weeks later because it wasn’t ready. It was fun but it wasnt ready and not what people expected.

Same with plenty of games, No Mans Sky, The Division..

Bannerlord isn’t ready until Armagan says its ready, be thankful they are self publishing and able to make a great game on their terms even if it takes a little while.

Warband was an indie game. Bannerlord is the big leagues. Things are different.

 

[NPC99]

Literally every video they show us shows leagues of improvement over the last. Their “feature creep” is working wonders. They aren’t a seasoned developement team, there have been obstacles snd setbacks. A games initial release sets the whole tone for its life-span and long term interest. Most players will not play again after the first months and even weeks. OKAM was really popular when it came out but it died literally two weeks later because it wasn’t ready. It was fun but it wasnt ready and not what people expected.

Same with plenty of games, No Mans Sky, The Division..

Bannerlord isn’t ready until Armagan says its ready, be thankful they are self publishing and able to make a great game on their terms even if it takes a little while.

Warband was an indie game. Bannerlord is the big leagues. Things are different.

+1

 

[Tengil]

Literally every video they show us shows leagues of improvement over the last. Their “feature creep” is working wonders. They aren’t a seasoned developement team, there have been obstacles snd setbacks. A games initial release sets the whole tone for its life-span and long term interest. Most players will not play again after the first months and even weeks. OKAM was really popular when it came out but it died literally two weeks later because it wasn’t ready. It was fun but it wasnt ready and not what people expected.

Same with plenty of games, No Mans Sky, The Division..

Bannerlord isn’t ready until Armagan says its ready, be thankful they are self publishing and able to make a great game on their terms even if it takes a little while.

Warband was an indie game. Bannerlord is the big leagues. Things are different.

The problem with having EVERYTHING go through one person is of course that we can only do so much at once. What if this person demands a department to add a feature that directly conflicts with a different feature? The entire game will hang on the daily mood and schedule of Armagan which is pretty bad.

Now It might not be like this but I have gotten the feeling that nothing happens without Armagan's approval. This to me sounds worrying. This is similar to the story around CDPR and their "complicated" development of the Witcher 3. Sure that game came out ****ing fantastic but the development was plagued with over ambitious features that had to be scrapped and big chunks of the game reworked. They too run an "everything needs to go through the top" kind of management.

Yes, their game came out ****ing fantastic so maybe this is the development method to go with! But their game was delayed by a year from their initial release date so maybe that can tell us something.

Bannerlord will probably be an absolutely fantastic game. But at this point I don't really think it is safe to bet on a 2018 release.

 

[Apocal]

OKAM was really popular when it came out but it died literally two weeks later because it wasn’t ready. It was fun but it wasnt ready and not what people expected.

OKAM?

 

[Marko͘]

Of Kings and Men, an independent game by the cRPG mod makers.

 

[aged3]

Yeah I believe their info of the release date is lacking immensely. Because anytime a group of people keep asking for a release date. Its either a employee or a program that says the same thing and then puts this link up http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/2353548518936257594.

To their face and im actually not quite sure why but how hard can it be to say something to your community. Im pretty sure other game developers dont do the same thing.

Also when people say let them do what they want let them finish the game. Remeber this will be their 3rd year in a row of just saying "we are polishing up" Remeber 3rd year.

2016 video interview of saying "Polishing" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZcBAGtXvpk
2017 video of interview saying "we're doing the last touches" https://steamcommunity.com/groups/mountandbladeIIbannerlord/discussions/0/2119355556479209918/

 

[Tengil]

That was in June.  An awful long time to be doing the last touches.

 

[Dest45]

You guys wonder why they aren’t giving insight into the release date? Cause they obviously don’t **** know yet and last time they tried to be transparent about it and it didn’t happen the way we all wanted everyone flipped them ****. Can you understand why they don’t want to repeat that cycle? It is what it is. Accept it.

 

[Tengil]

You guys wonder why they aren’t giving insight into the release date? Cause they obviously don’t **** know yet and last time they tried to be transparent about it and it didn’t happen the way we all wanted everyone flipped them ****. It is what it is. Accept it.

You are either transparent and tell the community what is going on and what the plan is, or you keep them in the dark but if you are going with the "keep them in the dark" approach then you can't go around saying things like "yea we plan to release the game in some form 2017" or "we are doing the last touches". No you have to be absolutely silent otherwise it feels like they are playing with us.

Of course, they know. You honestly believe a company who has been working on a game for probably 8-10 years and are on the "finishing touches" do not have a release date in mind? If you are correct then the development process on this game is utter crap and may the gods help us all.