Bannerlord MOBA

[marcusuno]

I keep thinking about a potential SMITE/Bannerlord MOBA modded game. Imagine lanes and neutral camps and hero units with item shops and gold. Had to share this thought. It could be lots of fun!

 

[Roy1012]

 

[Aprikosenmann]

I want to see League of Legends Mod

 

[ParzivaI]

How about... no?

 

[Gibby Jr]

I actually think a For Honor/MOBA-type game mode for Bannerlord would be an interesting experiment, especially if an actual mod that enables gear and gold progression within a game.

 

[Brandis.]

It would be an interesting experiment.

That said, MOBA champions have countless unique abilities and mechanics, while Bannerlord combat is quite small in scope. Idk if people would stick around for it

 

[marcusuno]

Maybe no heroes. Just regular dudes but you earn equipment/stats.

 

[Brandis.]

I’d like to see the complex and dynamic upgrade systems that MOBAs use. The relationship of an economy to purchase in-game power is important dynamic.

Bannerlord does this with gold and purchasing higher tier classes, and Warband did it by purchasing equipment.

I’m not a fan of how Skirmish handles the power system, and MnB is the perfect engine to host individual equipment upgrades for. However, leaning into MOBAs, it’d be interesting to see how permanent and upgradable passives worked throughout a match.

But at least Skirmish is better in this than Captain, which has no economy at all.

 

[Gibby Jr]

I’d like to see the complex and dynamic upgrade systems that MOBAs use. The relationship of an economy to purchase in-game power is important dynamic.

Bannerlord does this with gold and purchasing higher tier classes, and Warband did it by purchasing equipment.

I’m not a fan of how Skirmish handles the power system, and MnB is the perfect engine to host individual equipment upgrades for. However, leaning into MOBAs, it’d be interesting to see how permanent and upgradable passives worked throughout a match.

But at least Skirmish is better in this than Captain, which has no economy at all.

I actually think this is an interesting direction economy-wise. While Bannerlord simplifies the economy system to its extreme, it has introduced the notion of passive bonuses which players actively choose. Passive bonuses are not an unfamiliar concept from Warband, as all classes had different underlying passive stats which made some faster, tankier, better at using shields and so-on, but the idea of choosing the ones you want is new to Bannerlord. In a MOBA-y style longer format match, in which you are gaining gold throughout, the ability to tailor yourself in the direction of specific damage types, or to be better at tanking, or to be faster would be an interesting dynamic, especially considering the way that damage types work; it may be advantageous, for instance, to deliberately not purchase better armour if the other team are speccing into blunt damage and to instead focus on high damage glass cannon builds.

The idea of a "progressing" battlefield, where both sides are accumulating gold and upgrading themselves in the direction of their choice, would be a very unique take on the MP compared to both Battle and Skirmish, which offer round-based gameplay. At the same time, it wouldn't take away from the anticipated "teamfight" engagements which teams co-ordinate in Battle and Skirmish, what some call a "crash" when the infantry engage one another and the support classes come into play. There would still be a need for each side to co-ordinate themselves and bring all of their players together in decisive fights, only that these fights would be more organic, less frequently involving the entirety of each team, and over objectives on the map which give more minor benefits than flags which simply win rounds.

There are definitely ways that Mount & Blade lends itself to this sort of gameplay and other ways in which it does not. "Lanes" could simply end up with players duelling without real way to disengage except by both sides choosing to back off. Altering that would require the addition of something like a "roll" or "dodge", which could be put on a large cooldown to prevent its abuse in combat, but the addition of which would be a serious step away from the tradition of M&B gameplay. And, if one were to go that far, there's the even further step of straight up abilities of the sort which exist in MOBAs. Miring a strong combat system in asymmetrical abilities could be a serious source of frustration in a lot of circumstances. A For Honor-type mode with a MOBA-like economy and XP system, centering the M&B combat system, if carefully constructed could be something genuinely interesting. Not that it is anything within the realms of possibility until MP modding is made available.

 

[hoonii]

maybe consider taking a shower

 

[Brandis.]

The ability to tailor yourself in the direction of specific damage types, or to be better at tanking, or to be faster would be an interesting dynamic, especially considering the way that damage types work; it may be advantageous, for instance, to deliberately not purchase better armour if the other team are speccing into blunt damage and to instead focus on high damage glass cannon builds.

The idea of a "progressing" battlefield, where both sides are accumulating gold and upgrading themselves in the direction of their choice, would be a very unique take on the MP compared to both Battle and Skirmish, which offer round-based gameplay. At the same time, it wouldn't take away from the anticipated "teamfight" engagements which teams co-ordinate in Battle and Skirmish, what some call a "crash" when the infantry engage one another and the support classes come into play. There would still be a need for each side to co-ordinate themselves and bring all of their players together in decisive fights, only that these fights would be more organic, less frequently involving the entirety of each team, and over objectives on the map which give more minor benefits than flags which simply win rounds.

There are definitely ways that Mount & Blade lends itself to this sort of gameplay and other ways in which it does not. "Lanes" could simply end up with players duelling without real way to disengage except by both sides choosing to back off. Altering that would require the addition of something like a "roll" or "dodge", which could be put on a large cooldown to prevent its abuse in combat, but the addition of which would be a serious step away from the tradition of M&B gameplay. And, if one were to go that far, there's the even further step of straight up abilities of the sort which exist in MOBAs. Miring a strong combat system in asymmetrical abilities could be a serious source of frustration in a lot of circumstances. A For Honor-type mode with a MOBA-like economy and XP system, centering the M&B combat system, if carefully constructed could be something genuinely interesting. Not that it is anything within the realms of possibility until MP modding is made available.

I really like the idea of leaning more into a "progressing battlefield" than Skirmish and Battle currently do. There are current low and high points in econ, but nothing that gives it a lasting structure.

League is one of the single most toxic environments, but even if your team is doing poorly, you can stomp in your lane and earn enough resources to carry in the late game. I don't know if that level of upgrades would work in MnB, however.

Abilities have always felt weird and not often requested in MnB, but mods such as Bear Force demonstrated that at the very least, the (type of) engine could work with them and be still very fun, even if those abilities were kind of silly and very high impact like flying/superjumps. Active abilities would raise the skill ceiling in combat with more to consider and master, but it would detract from the importance of the core combat system, which I'm guessing a large portion of players wouldn't like.

A short dodge or rage ability would be interesting to see. There's also the argument that pike bracing and couch lances are current abilities as well.