Bannerlord is semi-abandoned and let me tell you why

[Ankial]

I get it, You are here to defend a small studio. "tale worlds is not a AAA company", "they need more time", "they are working on bugs and fixes" Yes yes we know.

However

I am in the impression they have stopped or not working on the game as much as they used to. In the start of game release, Everything was very fair and good, Regular updates, new features, more content, more armoury, more weapons, dialogue etc etc. it was the peak of taleworld team as they did a good job liaising with players and their dev team.

I have not played bannerlord for over a year given the state of the game, It lacks content, dialogues and more. We all cannot play the game without mods, It's just lacking heavily. I had decided to play bannerlord and pay it a visit to see the current state of the game, I was pretty much disappointed.

Here is my reason's why I think bannerlord is semi-abandoned.

After the release of the game and i noticed how quick the developers were able to fix, add and implement new things to the game, Every month we will getting a truck load of updates, some of them up to gigabytes of updates due to so many changes and add-ons.

then covid-19 came and they said our staff are working from home and due to lack of communication, the updates are gonna be slow and work is gonna be slow. [Fair enough, i have no issues with this, I would also prefer they prioritize their health and safety over providing updates.]

After a lengthy period lacking of updates, the community requested a Road map , They had provided and have reached their goals. mind you this "road map" is back from 2021. It's already all achieved and they had yet to update it.

The post Needs to fix was posted back in 2021. i agree with 80% of them and it should be implemented. They did not reply, communicate nor worked with the community to make it happen. It's a negligence on their end to work with the community and update the game with necessary requests which is quite valid for bannerlord

Due to the lack of updates for 2022/2023 they had introduced workshops for steam so the modders can do the work for them. Pure laziness, I respect and admire the modding community for making the game play-worthy but it's such a big let down that the developers refuse to put the hours and work onto the game themselves and rather make an independent fan work on it which makes $0 from the mods they create.

Curious to know what they been working on for the past few years? Micro patches , bug fixes and crashes. That's it. No new changes to the game, No features, No content, no dialogue, nothing. Thanks to the modders that they brought this game to a playable state, If you are here to speak up against this argument, Please go play the game without mods. I'd be surprised if you play it for a few hours \\\ Patch Notes v1.2.9 \\\ Patch Notes v1.2.10 Beta \\\

Curious to know the news / updates they been providing to the players for the past 6 months? or perhaps years? Community Tales #7 \Community Tales #8 // and the list goes on and on. They release that once a month giving double exp for multiplayer which 90% of us don't play, i'm sure most of us are only interested in single player and sharing a few artsy work of the fans, how cute.

Conclusion
I'm sure there is many reasons I had missed, Many people can point out and add in more of the faults and issues from the developer team, I find it quite unfair that majority of us are from warband era and we waited 10 years for this game release only to be disappointed even after game release. What has the developers been doing all this time?

Some of you will say it's a small team but it is no excuse to provide such a disappointing amount of updates for the game, We see so many successful games from solo developers, They provide more and do more all by themselves. We can't keep turning a blind eye to this and keep fooling ourselves into thinking they are doing their best. Results and lack of updates say otherwise.

We also cannot deny the fact that they are using modders to complete the game for them, If you say otherwise. You are braindead and not from the warband era so don't even comment. I won't waste my time on kids like you


What we want...
Transparency..transparency..transparency..
another updated road map would be nice, the players and community would like to know what the developers are working on or what is yet to come.

Please taleworlds, Listen to the community / players. If you are unable to provide more contents and features for the game for whatever reasons [ Lack of staff, inexperienced developers] then hire the modders from the modding community and let them finish the game for you on an official scale.

 

[RageMelts]

I agree. There’s a YouTuber who goes by the name of Strat Gaming Guides, and he has posted a half hour video recently (after putting 5k hours into the game) on everything he would improve about bannerlord. Most of his thoughts and ideas were very practical and some were not so much but I really think the developers should just listen to the community because they have so many great ideas. Bannerlord seems so dead to me, and I’m not even referring to player count just the actual base game, and I find myself returning to Warband just because the game has more spark and life to it. I also find myself becoming bored of playing warband due to the fact that I just love huge battles and better graphics. Don’t get me wrong this game is great and I’ve already put 500+ hours into it but it’s the fact that I know these developers can make the game seem more alive as they’re not the type of devs to care about cash grabs or micro transactions.

 

[Apocal]

That's a whole lot of words when I have a much simpler reason they aren't working on it: it has been out for four goddamned years.

 

[Roy1012]

That's a whole lot of words when I have a much simpler reason they aren't working on it: it has been out for four goddamned years.

Yeah, but here’s the thing: shouldn’t they be working on dlc? The answer is no, because they screwed the pooch so hard that they know nobody would buy it. Why waste time on a money grab if it won’t work?

 

[Dodgy]

Sad but true.
So much potential wasted. They could have milked this for a lot more money if they hadn't followed "the vision" by scrapping what would have made it good to try and cater for the bigger audience. They sold more copies to start with, but no DLCs now (nobody would buy them) and such a massive reputation loss that I struggle to see their next game managing to sell well.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

What has the developers been doing all this time?

They were going to make a scifi game at some point for whatever reason. No sign of that for the last 3 years though so we can only guess what's going on in their massive office. Taleworlds is not a small studio by any means: it employed 150 people at its peak which is about half the size of a AAA team.

 

[Erundil]

It's still not too late to backtrack.
I hope they go back to WB engine and modernize it. Fix the stretching on non-4:3 screens, update to 64bit, etc. It's a lot more moddable and flexible.
Make it backwards compatible with Warband and it's a goldmine of old mods to use.
And then they could sell it for like 80$ a piece. I'd buy it.

 

[Erundil]

Taleworlds is not a small studio by any means: it employed 150 people at its peak which is about half the size of a AAA team.

150 people at peak is probably gonna be around 20-50 on average day though.
Still, I don't buy the "small studio" argument, because it's the price that dictates my expectations, not the size of the studio (which I don't feel obligated to know).
Bannerlord was selling for a pretty standard price, at least in my region.
And yet it feels like a discount version of Warband - having technical upgrades (engine, mesh/texture detail etc.), but lacking features that made WB so fun.
Graphics are not everything, I can still enjoy Tetris on a rainy day, and that's nowhere near the graphics level of BL.

 

[Apocal]

Yeah, but here’s the thing: shouldn’t they be working on dlc? The answer is no, because they screwed the pooch so hard that they know nobody would buy it. Why waste time on a money grab if it won’t work?

TW never made DLC for OG M&B or Warband. It was some other third-party teams. Old school game development, baby!

150 people at peak is probably gonna be around 20-50 on average day though.
Still, I don't buy the "small studio" argument, because it's the price that dictates my expectations, not the size of the studio (which I don't feel obligated to know).

That isn't how employment works.

 

[Erundil]

TW never made DLC for OG M&B or Warband. It was some other third-party teams. Old school game development, baby!


That isn't how employment works.

Pretty sure you misunderstood me.
I don't mean that number of employees changes day by day. I mean that if TaleWorlds had 150 at most (peak), then they probably have less people usually. And I estimate that to be 20-50.
I'm old enough to know from personal experience how employment works

 

[Lipbalmplease]

And then they could sell it for like 80$ a piece. I'd buy it.

I hope someone else looks after your finances.

 

[Erundil]

I hope someone else looks after your finances.

I appreciate your concern

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

Pretty sure you misunderstood me.
I don't mean that number of employees changes day by day. I mean that if TaleWorlds had 150 at most (peak), then they probably have less people usually. And I estimate that to be 20-50.
I'm old enough to know from personal experience how employment works

I dont know how tax works in turkey, but in most countries the employee count you find on google refers to permanent workers and its illegal to put contaractors or temp workers on there. Most game developers have mass layoffs after the games release but that doesnt seem to be the case with bannerlord, as the numbers have been increasing.

90 (2019) https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Company
131 (2020) google
165 (2022) https://rocketreach.co/taleworlds-entertainment-profile_b5d5b4f6f42e3ae3

Who knows if these are interns or what theyre doing on a day to day basis, but there's no evidence that its an empty office now.

 

[Erundil]

Not sure about Turkey, but it's also a very common practice in game dev (and IT in general) here in Europe to hire "independent contractors" - employees for all intents and purposes, but in legal terms operating as 1-person companies.
It has the benefit of saving money (you pay less tax for buying a service from someone than you would pay in tax for having an employee) so less money spent by the studio and more money into the worker's pocket, but has the downside of having less control over the worker, and also the worker loses the protection of work laws, which favor employees over employers usually. So no paid days off, no sick leave - you get paid for delivering the service, so if you get sick, then get somebody to cover for you out of your own pocket.

For the companies there is no relevant difference between an employee and independent contractor, so in companies I worked with I observed the number of people working for them stay the same, but number of employees fluctuating like crazy, due to workers often switching between "employee" and "independent contractor" - depending on which option they thought would be more beneficial in the coming months (contracts were usually half a year long).

Which is a very long explanation on why I never paid any mind to official employee statistics. TL;DR: employee count can say deceptively little about company's actual working capability.

Again, Turkey is not similar to Europe despite proximity, so gods know how it really works in there.

 

[mad_scientiss]

They have moved on to the next project. We know this because they posted job openings for a sci-fi project a few years ago.

 

[Bucktoothbandit]

I imagine them going to consoles was a good idea for profits but terrible for the game. A lot of PC games that go console seem to come to a stand still when it comes to making quality content and meaningful changes, especially when multiplayer is involved.

Now they have deal with more bug fixes.

 

[drivegol]

We also cannot deny the fact that they are using modders to complete the game for them, If you say otherwise. You are braindead and not from the warband era so don't even comment. I won't waste my time on kids like you

"If you disagree with me you are wrong and your opinion is made of stupid."

I have a lot of questions regarding their increasing lack of communication and patches, but this just smells like bait and an attempt at forced validation.

 

[Duskinz]

They’re busy planning their gofundme for mb3

 

[Ba18070]

They have moved on to the next project. We know this because they posted job openings for a sci-fi project a few years ago.

Wait, so the evidence they arent working on this game is because they are hiring people to work on a different game?

Isnt that like saying "the grocery store isnt stocking the shelves anymore because they hired a new cashier?"

I can definitely buy they dont have 100% of their team working on this game anymore. However someone definitely still is. Should it be more and should they be approaching it differently? Probably.

Personally I really like the slow pace of development. I play some, put it up and come back in a few months when a new patch comes out, sit it down, come back, continue the cycle. There are so many games to play its actually kinda nice to have one that doesnt make me feel pressured to pay attention to it or I'll miss out on its "golden era." Its fine if people dont agree I dont expect them to at all. I do appreciate the consistent free updates though, even if they're less than they could be.

Edit: not to mention modders do so much that I can always find something new or exciting. I played a few mods recently including the armory and rebalancing patches and it was a lot of fun.

 

[Dodgy]

Personally I really like the slow pace of development. I play some, put it up and come back in a few months when a new patch comes out

I mean, where would you draw the line between "a few months" and many months? Cause we are at more than 12 I believe (not counting the hotfixes to solve bugs), more like play some, wait at least a year* and then come back when the new patch comes out.

*curious to see whether in the end it's going to be a year and a few months, a year and many months, 2 years*