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Bannerlord SP First Reactions: Megathread
- Thread starter IceNoVa
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I am a first time M&B player. It was very novel to me, in that I hadn't played a game that essentially mixes Total War style battles with a RPG. I love the weighty fighting, the internal clan/kingdom dynamics, and the management of castles/cities (among other things). I am only about 30+ hours in, so I don't have a full grasp of the game as a whole.
The biggest thing that is bugging me at the moment and is breaking immersion, is the lack of any real politics between kingdoms and the mindless AI. Why are the Aserai fighting the Northern Empire so far away from their own territory? What were the reasons for going to war? How do other kingdoms feel about said fighting? What are the war goals? Etc. Etc. These items are severely lacking and means that wars conducted between kingdoms have no clear purpose and are just messy. There doesn't seem to be a coherent war strategy involved. Same is somewhat true for the battles themselves.
I hope this issue gets addressed, but I worry that the developers will focus on other items first and that this is what we will be essentially left with. I am a big fan of Paradox games like Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings. I realize that M&B II isn't these games and perhaps it is too far of a stretch to ask that it incorporates some of the diplomacy and intrigue that make these games immersive and balanced overall.
The biggest thing that is bugging me at the moment and is breaking immersion, is the lack of any real politics between kingdoms and the mindless AI. Why are the Aserai fighting the Northern Empire so far away from their own territory? What were the reasons for going to war? How do other kingdoms feel about said fighting? What are the war goals? Etc. Etc. These items are severely lacking and means that wars conducted between kingdoms have no clear purpose and are just messy. There doesn't seem to be a coherent war strategy involved. Same is somewhat true for the battles themselves.
I hope this issue gets addressed, but I worry that the developers will focus on other items first and that this is what we will be essentially left with. I am a big fan of Paradox games like Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings. I realize that M&B II isn't these games and perhaps it is too far of a stretch to ask that it incorporates some of the diplomacy and intrigue that make these games immersive and balanced overall.
So... almost 80 hours into the game and I'll drop my thoughts about it; the good and the bad.
The good:
The bad:
- Graphics. They did a stellar job regarding the looks of the game; including the vibrant customization options. The game looks very pretty and runs very smooth (except in sieges, but I will get to that later).
- Tutorial. The tutorial and introduction is very well done and new-player friendly, even as a Warband veteran I found it a very good addition, playing through it numerous times to get a feel for the game.
- World building, map design, artwork, soundtrack etc. The world map is amazing, the different factions are well-done and the overal themes and cultures are very neat. Some very good and catchy pieces of music in-game as well.
- The UI. A massive improvement, it feels much more modern and user-friendly while still keeping in touch with the medieval setting.
- The RPG skill tree. The amount of skills, perks and passives you can learn are amazing. Its got depth, its got creativity, and it feels like a true sandbox where you can branch out and do many different things in each new playthrough, which will only get better and better as the game progresses and will eventually get out of Early Access.
- Combat and horse riding. A great improvement. Ragdolls are very realistic, and when you throw a javelin or cut someone with your twohanded sword it feels very realistic and satisfying. I can really see they put a lot of work into the combat, having improved and built upon the original Warband combat.
- Developers and community manager(s).
The game is actively being patched and there's good communication. The game is rough, but within time, it'll be one of the best creations to have ever graced this Earth.
- Sieges. For me at least, I know others have had good experiences but for a lot of people including myself, they are borderline unplayable. The performance in sieges is abysmal. I can have relatively large, open field battles - but even the smallest siege cripples my system. 3-20 FPS is common, and it turns my game into a slideshow. I have an i7 7700k and a GTX 1080, which should be more than enough to run them. Performance aside, the AI in sieges are completely braindead. It is pretty much Warband 2.0. The AI clumps up, units don't listen to what you tell them, units don't climb ladders, and so forth. The issue I suffer most from and find most annoying, is that for some reason I have archers in my infantry group, infantry in my archer group and so forth. Units seem to get randomized and then put in different divisions/groups (?) I really have no idea what this is about. Sieges are so clunky and I dislike them a lot, which is a shame cause it was the feature I looked forward most to, yet they are absolutely abysmal and not fun to play. Sieges need A LOT of work.
- Quests. Considering it's been 8 years since the Bannerlord announcement, I expected more of the quests and dialogue. The village quests are about the same, shallow experience as they were in Warband and there is barely any variety either. Quest dialogue and overal in-game dialogue has spelling errors here and there, and unfinished text as well. The main quest where you have to talk to 10 lords and find out information about the item given to you is badly done. You have to travel all over the map and hopefully run into the 10 lords that have information for you.
- XP gain. You're pretty much forced to use mods/cheats if you want to get anything out of your skill trees and get the passives. Especially Smithing and Engineering I've found to be one of the major culprits that even with mods, are a disaster to level up. And like, does uh... does Medicine even work? How long do I need to sit in a town to heal up my wounded troops before this skill tree starts to level up? Entire decades? Engineering isn't fun to level up either, and neither is blacksmithing. There's not enough forts and towns in Bannerlord to siege in order to level up Engineering to its late-tier with the current rate of XP gain, lmao.
- Loading screens. Considering it's 2020, it's pretty much unacceptable for there to be so many loading screens. We all know the Looter example, you get 2 or 3 before you're finally in a battle with them... just... why? But I'll list an even worse example. Victorious on your large 300v500 battle and defeated the 5 enemy lords? Great! Lets take them prisoner! ...YOU WILL LITERALLY GET FIVE ENTIRE LOADING SCREENS! For each lord, a dialogue will pop up where you take them prisoner, once you've taken them prisoner the game goes into a loading screen where it loads the other lord. Then, you take them prisoner and then you get another loading screen until its loaded the next lord. Why can I not take all 5 lords prisoner at the same time? What year is this? 2004? Terrible design.
These are my main delights, and my main issues with the game. I have fun playing it, but other times I do not - which is a shame. I can only look forward to many months from now, where the game will 100% be in a much better state than it is now. Because as of right now, and it pains me to say it, I expected more from 8+ years of work.
This is a good post. I understand the game is early access, I get that it is unfinished, but some of it feels 'unstarted' and I can't fathom how you go this long and don't improve very basic things
I have a lot to say about this game but the last point feels pertinent. Some of the things that are not working are so fundamental to the game that I'm struggling to see what was done to improve them over the last decade.
* Sieges - just a scrum as per warband, literally it's the same game in almost every regard
* battle tactics - one of the ridiculous idiosyncrasies of M&B is that you and your troops just pile into every situation with (seemingly) no plan and you then have about 20 seconds to set up your troops via an F button system before enemies are attacking. A pre-battle screen where you set up your tactics via mouse drops etc would be an appropriate step forward.
* party management - the old warband single column of troops that you have to shuffle around felt like a placeholder, yet somehow it's still in there. We should be able to create groups of troops, give them names, give them leaders from our companions, and upgrade them. They shouldn't just be stacked the way they are which is frustrating and clunky.
* combat ai - already mentioned a number of times but this is m&b's bread and butter. There is no advance here, if anything it's a step back. In 1v1 it feels like it did in the original game.
* battle AI - again, one of the reasons we play is for this opponent to challenge us, and one of the ways I was personally hoping it would improve was in the battle AI. Thus far it has not. There is no sense of a pitched battle, no real feeling that you can understand the opponent's strategy and react accordingly. Instead most just blob towards you en masse, with an ill-timed cav charge followed by a homogenous group of air slashing automatons. None of it feels intelligent on any level.
* Map ai. Wow. What do the AI do that is different to warband? They still panic and run, then while you're in sight, come back, then run away ad infinitum. Then you have the groups of lords attacking random settlements, with no coherence or strategy. There's no 'grand plan', or even any overall aim. I don't understand what has changed here, because it's somehow worse than warband in that there is no respite from it, and no way to enjoy the game's mid-life stages without engaging with it.
* towns and NPC interaction in general. There are a bunch of robots doing nothing, saying nothing, offering nothing. They follow the same pathfinding weird rules as warband, it all feels just as bad. The areas don't feel alive, they feel pointless. Lords have no role, there is no depth to any of it. Not a single thing an NPC does in the game so far has been different to warband.
I like the graphics. They're a reasonable upgrade and probably all that is possible given the scale of the game. Combat has not been completely broken. That is about it.
If I could give you one piece of advice as developers, it would be to focus on flexibility and management of troops, on and off battle for, the player and the AI. Mods will be able to work with that, but right now we're in the same 'omg we're in a battle lads!' moment as warband. Let people set their troops into units, look at stuff like total war and understand that people want the strategy of a battle and the thrill of joining in, but it all has to be better.
I'm a huge m&b fan and will continue to play, try to enjoy it, and support TW, but this is sadly one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. I'm gutted. 10 years and it feels like warband 1.5. I'm sorry if that's harsh, I know a lot of work seems to have gone in as a whole, but nothing except the graphics is better than warband.
This is so sad, that's everything I do expected improved... what about diplomacy?This is a good post. I understand the game is early access, I get that it is unfinished, but some of it feels 'unstarted' and I can't fathom how you go this long and don't improve very basic things
I have a lot to say about this game but the last point feels pertinent. Some of the things that are not working are so fundamental to the game that I'm struggling to see what was done to improve them over the last decade.
* Sieges - just a scrum as per warband, literally it's the same game in almost every regard
* battle tactics - one of the ridiculous idiosyncrasies of M&B is that you and your troops just pile into every situation with (seemingly) no plan and you then have about 20 seconds to set up your troops via an F button system before enemies are attacking. A pre-battle screen where you set up your tactics via mouse drops etc would be an appropriate step forward.
* party management - the old warband single column of troops that you have to shuffle around felt like a placeholder, yet somehow it's still in there. We should be able to create groups of troops, give them names, give them leaders from our companions, and upgrade them. They shouldn't just be stacked the way they are which is frustrating and clunky.
* combat ai - already mentioned a number of times but this is m&b's bread and butter. There is no advance here, if anything it's a step back. In 1v1 it feels like it did in the original game.
* battle AI - again, one of the reasons we play is for this opponent to challenge us, and one of the ways I was personally hoping it would improve was in the battle AI. Thus far it has not. There is no sense of a pitched battle, no real feeling that you can understand the opponent's strategy and react accordingly. Instead most just blob towards you en masse, with an ill-timed cav charge followed by a homogenous group of air slashing automatons. None of it feels intelligent on any level.
* Map ai. Wow. What do the AI do that is different to warband? They still panic and run, then while you're in sight, come back, then run away ad infinitum. Then you have the groups of lords attacking random settlements, with no coherence or strategy. There's no 'grand plan', or even any overall aim. I don't understand what has changed here, because it's somehow worse than warband in that there is no respite from it, and no way to enjoy the game's mid-life stages without engaging with it.
* towns and NPC interaction in general. There are a bunch of robots doing nothing, saying nothing, offering nothing. They follow the same pathfinding weird rules as warband, it all feels just as bad. The areas don't feel alive, they feel pointless. Lords have no role, there is no depth to any of it. Not a single thing an NPC does in the game so far has been different to warband.
I like the graphics. They're a reasonable upgrade and probably all that is possible given the scale of the game. Combat has not been completely broken. That is about it.
If I could give you one piece of advice as developers, it would be to focus on flexibility and management of troops, on and off battle for, the player and the AI. Mods will be able to work with that, but right now we're in the same 'omg we're in a battle lads!' moment as warband. Let people set their troops into units, look at stuff like total war and understand that people want the strategy of a battle and the thrill of joining in, but it all has to be better.
I'm a huge m&b fan and will continue to play, try to enjoy it, and support TW, but this is sadly one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. I'm gutted. 10 years and it feels like warband 1.5. I'm sorry if that's harsh, I know a lot of work seems to have gone in as a whole, but nothing except the graphics is better than warband.
Yeah, as I said sieges need a lot of work; from performance fixes to AI fixes. Hell, if they can manage to fix the performance and make sieges actually playable - I wont even be mad about my infantry only using 1 out of 3 ladders on my siege towers. I just want to actually play a god damn siege and not Microsoft PowerPoint.
Yeah, intelligence wise the AI of this game is literally just Warband 2.0. I could have a doom-stack of lets say a few hundred Battanian Fian Champions and there would be NOTHING in the game that could stop me. The AI does not use shield walls, they do not utilize horse archers or cavalry well, and mindlessly have their infantry charge in. I guess this is also why people have been complaining that Battanian archers are OP, which I do not agree with.
I'm even playing on the 'realism' setting for my army and character and despite only having about 60 Fian Champions, a few dozen lower tier archers, and some haggard infantry, I am quite effortlessly beating armies numerous times my size because the AI usually suicides it's few units of cavalry and horse archers, followed up by their infantry which never uses their shields properly, and then it's pretty much GG. Most units will get deleted before they make it into melee range and which AI infantry manages to get close to my archers, I can just use my few units of haggard infantry and cavalry to swoop up the remnants.
The map AI is like you said pretty much the same, if not worse compared to Warband. For some reason I also get small 20 to 50 man armies chasing my 180-ish size party when I am running from them. However, when I start chasing them it will say ''Running from my party". If I start ignoring them and go to another location on the map, that same party will chase me again. It's literally just cat and mouse, but actually worse.
Anyway, in general I wouldn't say that there's been zero improvements. I've already stated the things I like about the game, however if we're speaking purely about AI behaviour, then yes, the game is pretty much Warband if not worse, regarding the AI that is.
Yeah there have been some enhancements, just not sure it equates to 8 years worth of progress. At heart, M&B is about combat as a commander, and making that combat meaningful in a campaign. Those two things are completely reliant on good AI, otherwise we're just swinging away for no reason and getting no resistance.
I hope they don't just buff certain units or try to buff the AI unit strength to make up for the issues with 'intelligence'. They are already capable of winning if they're well commanded.
I hope they don't just buff certain units or try to buff the AI unit strength to make up for the issues with 'intelligence'. They are already capable of winning if they're well commanded.
okntt58
Recruit
When we look at to this youtube video which is published in 2017, we see that the soliders have own banner and i think it seem properly work i mean it seems there is no problem. At least it is way better than some of the banner mods. But when we look at to the early access, we dont have any banner in the game. My first question, are you gonna bring back to the banners in full game or you have cancelled the banners?
And alsa my second question, For multiplayer mod there is some ruined castles or maps in rainy stormy day. Are we gonna see some rainy day or seasons in the future. Especially in winter, almost half of the map is covered with snow. For me, this is too much. We definitely wanna see rainy days.
And alsa my second question, For multiplayer mod there is some ruined castles or maps in rainy stormy day. Are we gonna see some rainy day or seasons in the future. Especially in winter, almost half of the map is covered with snow. For me, this is too much. We definitely wanna see rainy days.
Yes, the banners will return eventually
Hello!
I've managed to clock 74 hours in the game now, and I'm pretty much burned out. I guess I'll have to try and take a step back for a month or two and wait for things to improve. (Or possibly, a year or two to wait for mods...)
I don't at all mind the fact that the game is pretty much Warband 2.0 in many aspects, that's what I was expecting, and starting the game was really nostalgic actually. Right now though, the nostalgia is sort of starting to wear thin.
The bandit/looter faction is an exact copy, but very poorly implemented. The economy is pretty much the same system, with the same annoyances, like bows that cost more than a thousand pieces of other weapons, but again, pretty poorly implemented. (The very limited options of viable weapons and armor to buy, and the totally broken armor values from item to item, to name one thing.) The faction system isn't the same, but it's sort of broken on so many levels, and totally on some, or atleast waiting for a damn big feature update. (Voting system seems completely arbitrary, pretty much like just randomly getting fiefs in Warband.) The campaign map sure looks better, but is a subject of soooo much pain. Message system is totally inadequate. AI groups do the same stupid things over and over like in Warband. Castles and cities are great to walk through, but the management seems like a placeholder, and as a bonus, the food system is broken. AI Lords spawn at a ridicilous rate. In my last play I was endlessly (for an ingame month) defending one of my villages, against an average of three AI Lords per day. All with recruit armies that I slaughtered without casualties. To make things even more stupidly boring, it was the same AI Lords. Northern Empire had three minor factions working for them, and their leaders kept leaving (!?!) my dungeon to show up the next day with a new army. For four weeks.
Then there's the hopefully placeholder character and NPC developement. Smithing that seems like such a great and promising thing, but pretty much immediately ends up being a grind without an end or way to advance meaningfully, for very little real gain. (This is an easy fix though, just make it possible to buy a great smith who makes all the shiny things.) Combat AI that never fails to do exactly the same thing it did before, which is pretty much stand still or charge in. (I noticed this during those fours weeks, fighting on the same map against similar enemy groups. It got to a point where I could just order my battanian archer group to a position at the start of the fight, and let the enemy try to attack them over a river, no need to actually participate.) Combat balance that very heavily favours archers, and in which cavalry waltzes through packed infantry formations with spears and shields.
UI has seen improvements, inventory screen is pretty OK, but the troop page is its horrible old self with barebones functionality. Also, I loved the fact that extra horses speed up infantry and function as inventory space, great move.
I guess the list could go on, but what really gets me is this:
Every week apparently we get a patch, that fiddles with some minor balance things, fixes one thing, while messing up another one. (Tournaments gave no XP, then normal XP (great!), then very little XP. WHY?!) These patches ofcourse make the available balancing and tweaking mods broken, as well as save games. Every week. Yay.
Weekly patches for bugs, especially crashes, are great, and I was really suprised by speed the initial crashes got fixed. However I fail to see how rolling out minor changes to a system that I would pretty much start balancing by deleting all the values helps anything. It also makes any kind of playtesting and feedback in detail sort of hopeless. I'd really love to see the devs keep on fixing bugs, but taking a big step back, and coming up with properly game enhancing, complete feature updates.
Imagine these: 1. Item update - All Item Values readjusted, all item stats readjusted, all missing items added to merchants, added items to weapons that were lacking tiered updates, legendary weapons added (So you can have stuff that costs 90k.)
2. Character progression update - Complete overhaul of skill system, it's now meaningfull and the player can feels he's actually progressing and specialising in what he wants to do. All perks even work now!
3. Smithing update - Player gets to buy new parts with smithing experience! Smithing experience gain is now meaningfull, no need to let the Khuzait conquer half the map to learn how to make a horseshoe.
4. Campaign map update - Looters and bandit spawnrates fixed, will now form an army an actual AI lord can catch if left alone. Hideouts fixed, and there's now more than one type per faction! Actually diplomacy and war goals system that balances out snowballing. AI Lord spawnrate fixed. Caravan behaviour fixed. (You could block them at chokepoints, like dozens of them at a time.)
5. City update - Pimp your castle hall! Every player own garrison doesn't starve as default. Governors that actually improve the city, and maybe give out quests (Waiting for a quest update)
Okay, I'm out, see you in a couple of months Bannerlord.
I've managed to clock 74 hours in the game now, and I'm pretty much burned out. I guess I'll have to try and take a step back for a month or two and wait for things to improve. (Or possibly, a year or two to wait for mods...)
I don't at all mind the fact that the game is pretty much Warband 2.0 in many aspects, that's what I was expecting, and starting the game was really nostalgic actually. Right now though, the nostalgia is sort of starting to wear thin.
The bandit/looter faction is an exact copy, but very poorly implemented. The economy is pretty much the same system, with the same annoyances, like bows that cost more than a thousand pieces of other weapons, but again, pretty poorly implemented. (The very limited options of viable weapons and armor to buy, and the totally broken armor values from item to item, to name one thing.) The faction system isn't the same, but it's sort of broken on so many levels, and totally on some, or atleast waiting for a damn big feature update. (Voting system seems completely arbitrary, pretty much like just randomly getting fiefs in Warband.) The campaign map sure looks better, but is a subject of soooo much pain. Message system is totally inadequate. AI groups do the same stupid things over and over like in Warband. Castles and cities are great to walk through, but the management seems like a placeholder, and as a bonus, the food system is broken. AI Lords spawn at a ridicilous rate. In my last play I was endlessly (for an ingame month) defending one of my villages, against an average of three AI Lords per day. All with recruit armies that I slaughtered without casualties. To make things even more stupidly boring, it was the same AI Lords. Northern Empire had three minor factions working for them, and their leaders kept leaving (!?!) my dungeon to show up the next day with a new army. For four weeks.
Then there's the hopefully placeholder character and NPC developement. Smithing that seems like such a great and promising thing, but pretty much immediately ends up being a grind without an end or way to advance meaningfully, for very little real gain. (This is an easy fix though, just make it possible to buy a great smith who makes all the shiny things.) Combat AI that never fails to do exactly the same thing it did before, which is pretty much stand still or charge in. (I noticed this during those fours weeks, fighting on the same map against similar enemy groups. It got to a point where I could just order my battanian archer group to a position at the start of the fight, and let the enemy try to attack them over a river, no need to actually participate.) Combat balance that very heavily favours archers, and in which cavalry waltzes through packed infantry formations with spears and shields.
UI has seen improvements, inventory screen is pretty OK, but the troop page is its horrible old self with barebones functionality. Also, I loved the fact that extra horses speed up infantry and function as inventory space, great move.
I guess the list could go on, but what really gets me is this:
Every week apparently we get a patch, that fiddles with some minor balance things, fixes one thing, while messing up another one. (Tournaments gave no XP, then normal XP (great!), then very little XP. WHY?!) These patches ofcourse make the available balancing and tweaking mods broken, as well as save games. Every week. Yay.
Weekly patches for bugs, especially crashes, are great, and I was really suprised by speed the initial crashes got fixed. However I fail to see how rolling out minor changes to a system that I would pretty much start balancing by deleting all the values helps anything. It also makes any kind of playtesting and feedback in detail sort of hopeless. I'd really love to see the devs keep on fixing bugs, but taking a big step back, and coming up with properly game enhancing, complete feature updates.
Imagine these: 1. Item update - All Item Values readjusted, all item stats readjusted, all missing items added to merchants, added items to weapons that were lacking tiered updates, legendary weapons added (So you can have stuff that costs 90k.)
2. Character progression update - Complete overhaul of skill system, it's now meaningfull and the player can feels he's actually progressing and specialising in what he wants to do. All perks even work now!
3. Smithing update - Player gets to buy new parts with smithing experience! Smithing experience gain is now meaningfull, no need to let the Khuzait conquer half the map to learn how to make a horseshoe.
4. Campaign map update - Looters and bandit spawnrates fixed, will now form an army an actual AI lord can catch if left alone. Hideouts fixed, and there's now more than one type per faction! Actually diplomacy and war goals system that balances out snowballing. AI Lord spawnrate fixed. Caravan behaviour fixed. (You could block them at chokepoints, like dozens of them at a time.)
5. City update - Pimp your castle hall! Every player own garrison doesn't starve as default. Governors that actually improve the city, and maybe give out quests (Waiting for a quest update)
Okay, I'm out, see you in a couple of months Bannerlord.
Boomstomp123
Recruit
it looks grait was a bit disappointed that the auto directional attack and block system was missing that was in warband and the battlefields feel a bit repetitive but im sure they will ad more over time looking forward to all those features that are going to be added like the complete character creator id like to be thinner and younger when I start ,as I suspected its going to be my favorite game worth the wait.
ok. Played about 30 hours. I just restarted in order to just play it sandbox as an itinerant smith. He doesn't interact with Nobles, at this stage why would he? Maybe after he has become a better Smith then yes. He and his body guard help quell looters and bandits, both to increase stability and to get weapons he can smelt down so as to increase his skill. He is a little annoyed by Nobles joining his battles and taking most of the loot. He is also annoyed when their disputes interfere with his trading in a city because there is a siege. It is, for me, a fun way to play. This character is not a Glory Hound... he is a craftsman. He seeks not to rule, but to master his craft. You know what? For me this is FUN. I have a game which will grow and which I can play in the background without having to be the hero or villain if I don't want to me. Hopefully, as his craft grows and his renown he will be recognized. I know this is an Early Access game and that there will be problems before it is finished and that it is not finished yet. Personally I applaud the Devs for what is becoming my favorite game. Thank you.
I have about 90 hours in Bannerlords. I have about 1000 hours in the Total War series. I picked this game up on a whim, I heard about the predecessor that it had a following and was around for a while but for some reason I thought it was more of an RPG, like Witcher except you have bodies of troops and you can yell orders at them. I don't know, some review gave me that impression I don't remember was long time ago. But recently I heard from someone it was more like TW except the campaign was RTS so here I am.
My thoughts in no particular order:
I don't like it that I'm making all this money off looting my enemies and that I can individually manage the looting of every bloody tunic. Why is the lord bothering with it? Lords are rewarded with land, titles and they extract money from their new fief. Soldiers keep the loot, it raises morale and keeps the lord alive.
Why do towns sell quantities of elite weapons to passing strangers? Shouldn't the local lord trust me a LOT before that? Because I might kill him with those weapons?
I like the little armies that harass your main army, keeping tabs on you and letting you know more are coming and soon there will be more of them so watch out.
The music is very very good. A little too much shouting though during the battles.
I need the icons in battle to tell troops apart but man are they annoying af.
I don't understand the caravan mechanic at all. I mean I do in terms of world economy and moving good around. But for me as a player it's basically a choice to make a random investment, right? I don't seem to have any control or way to influence it, it just makes me money for a random amount of time and then it dies and I don't really know if it paid for itself unless I take screenshots every day.
I like that rulers just do what they want. You take the castle, you spend the influence and get shafted. Yeah sorry it's going to the other guy. Also not sorry. That's awesome. I hate systems where I have enough resources early to basically impose my will.
Trading is way too easy. Two cities one day travel apart and I realize a 30% profit? It seems my limiting factor in the early game is simply the amount of pack animals I can buy. After a couple of days I'm transferring a third the city contents at a time to the next city. Way too much trading income. Shouldn't all that stuff be taxed into the ground? Didn't the local guilds take their pound of flesh?
Building stuff is omg fast. What's with all these 1 day build times? Everything should take months or weeks at least. I visit my new castle, click all the projects and go around the countryside to inspect my new fief clear some looters I come back four days later I have brand new place.
I really like that I can spend influence to get other people to send their troops into the meatgrinder for me. Just like in real life. Awesome.
I just hate the whole hideout mechanic. I have 800 soldiers. I know exactly where the hideout is. I have the whole hill surrounded and heavy cavalry ready to charge. I'm bringing a couple of randos with me it, let's go!
I don't like it that I can kite bodies of infantry. No human being on foot would ever chase a horseman with a bow. Ever. You hide, you run away, you look for something, you form a turtle, literally any other action is more beneficial. Lying down and playing dead is better.
Bandits and looters and other trash are annoying. There's too many of them and they move too fast for disorganized rabble. It's like you're trying to chase down these little hyper-aware Jeb Stuart's when it should just be some slow mob.
I like that you can form a party of one with your companion and they go off and hopefully not get captured while growing troops and doing quests and patrolling around. I like seeing their medical skills go up cause I know they're getting captured next or maybe they'll get away. It's very tense. Then I can call them for free to my army and steal all their guys and send them off again.
The siege process seems weird. We build some towers and a ram so that's good. Then we build some onager whatever, it fires once or twice and it's dead. So we build another and it's dead. The guys on the walls have four. So yeah, maybe we can build them out of range? Then move them in at once and fire all at one point? Can we do that Engineer-role guy?
I know perks are borked. I like the choices you have to make though between some.
The leveling system is weird and also kinda cool. It's nice how you have to be truly versed in many disciplines to rise in level. However, it's really easy to create a bottleneck where it's very difficult to accumulate enough points to get more focus.
You raise Engineering only by doing siege stuff? How many sieges do I have to be in? I mean omg it's just insane amount of sieges no?
Some skills seem impossible to raise for companions.
Maybe because I haven't had any very large towns yet, but Governors seem kind of a waste. Like I could have a free party for my army and tons of great relations or I could have a guy sit in a town and have a minor effect that can be situational?
I'm not sure but it seems like every castle and town have the same facilities? Like I can improve irrigation the same amount in a desert town that I can one the fertile temperate belt?
There are no tradeoffs to building stuff or changing defaults in towns and castles it seems. You just build everything limited by the available cash and click the thing for default you want and that's it. Seems like useless button clicking. Like you take a castle it should just assume you're improving everything and give you some messages your castellan improved the granary and then it's all done.
I really like that you can dress up all your crew with all these different styles. I like my banner on the shield.
Swinging a big polearm and just cleaving a guy in half is satisfying, so is a nice charge with the lance and stuff. I know people have a problem with the AI but I'm just learning combat stuff so I'm not worried yet. But the animations and sound effects and everything is good. There is no excessive rag-doll issue that I hate where they really go into all that flailing and stuff. Dead bodies just drop and lay there like sacks not go flying with limbs akimbo. There is just the right amount of blood on everything.
I can marry and have children. Awesome! Do I die of old age or am I some sort of vampire? I haven't got that far.
There should be a skill check for acquiring companions and if rejected they should reject you for months.
The encyclopedia should not tell me anyone's current location or their skills. I mean it's nice to know that but I shouldn't know that. I should have a generic description that they like to frequent this region and are very charming.
What's cohesion? My armies have it, it runs down and then it gets replenished magically. I join other armies, sometimes they fall apart because they lose it. Is there some button I press to get more I missed that part.
The taverns are done really well. All the interiors and towns and castles. Really like visiting villages and just riding around looking at all my happy peasants. Walking around my castle battlements. Town market with the vendors. It's totally unnecessary and great.
There doesn't seem to be any traditional alliances. Kingdoms are liable to attack pretty much any other kingdom. I do see they prefer border wars but then I see the Khuzaits warring on the Vlandians again and I'm like why? I'm not too up on the lore but there should be like ok these two kingdoms fight rarely and these guys just can't stop.
Territory seems to change too easily. A typical outcome should be a sacking, or a reduction in facilities representing a razing, but control change should be rarer. Typically leaders who didn't allow their army to sack the city didn't fare well in future security arrangements if you know what I mean.
I thought there would be functional roads.
The questing mechanic for improving relations is not appealing to me at all. Time spent for relation gained is not worth it for me. I'd rather send out companions in parties, they do the quests for me. I had some notable up to 86 before I knew what was happening.
There are two big navigable bodies of water in the middle of the continent with six coastal cities between them and another eight cities on the ocean coast and I can't take a boat anywhere. Oceans, seas, lakes and rivers seem to play no part of the game besides channeling land movement. I'm not asking for detailed naval combat, I just want to take a ship between two towns.
I like the seasons with the snow and everything, and the clock with the sun/moon that's nicely done too.
Generally the UI is good but there are too many elements placed way too far from each other. I have to click LOOT ALL in one corner of the screen, then travel down to DONE on the bottom. Why not right next to each other since that's all you do? Stuff like that. There should be more sorting on the columns. Can I transfer by type? Like all foot archers? I know I can click for one and something-click for 5 but can I click for all? So the UI could use some work in the UE department, but the presentation is nice and generally functional.
However, the text log is absolutely horrid. Stuff just disappears I don't know what's happening I can't scroll someone is captured they're all getting captured are there filters do I have any control does it keep a permanent log?
When I talk to people I can be nice or a jerk or whatever. But it doesn't seem to make a difference they always reply the same.
I have not had one single crash. I have a GTX 1060 in a Helios 300 laptop and it's all max setting all the way including battle size and I can't complain one bit. Well, for a couple of giant sieges I had to turn it down to medium I can't lie but otherwise it's maxed out. Not one single crash or hang.
A lot of equipment is wildly under or overpriced. I'm not worried cause there will be a mod for that. People love modding the economy so as long as the basics aren't too off I should be fine.
There should be a way to set stances for your army. Like reckless or cautious or ambush. Like there should be a way to ambush an army coming down the wide road without them immediately spotting you and running away at .01 more speed than you. I should be able to entrench maybe like in Agincourt.
People complain about the battle AI and I see what they mean. Lots of reckless cavalry charges and foot soldier clumping.
So the Tactics skill with the simulated battles bonus, that's awful. You should never make it more appealing to skip the battle. If you want to skip the battle cause it's not worthy of you, that's cool, but don't prod the player please. Don't make me feel guilty about enjoying the blade.
What's going on in that deploy screen on the siege battles? I just click autodeploy, whatever, does it make a difference?
My scrubs pushed a siege tower into a ditch and went askew and no one could climb it. Hilarious and just like irl. Two thumbs up. Should I have deployed it somewhere else maybe? Is that what's going on with that screen?
I think no one should be able to recruit out of my fief without my permission. You can't just ride in and take my military-age males from my lands what the hell are you thinking? I mean yeah if you're my liege but this is just anyone! I own those people. Not like in the modern corporate way, but literally they are all my property.
The whole movement speed thing is very opaque to me. Seems like a lot of factors influence it, so I just try to do the logical thing like faster horses less stuff more riders. More skilled riders. I hope it's working, it seems like it is.
I hope the starting point changes based on player culture. I mean it's fine for the Empire guy but as a Khuzait I prefer to start near a yurt. I don't know how the rest of you play but I spend a couple of days doing nothing but traveling to my homeland so I can start the game right.
I stopped reading the main quest like three NPC's in. I don't care about the battle. My parents are dead I have no family what do I care what some stranger did to another back in the day? Then it gets ridiculous I don't want to spoil anything but I don't need anyone's permission to usurp power I have a thousand loyal men and a fierce desire to rule. Just erasing the whole thing would make a better focused game.
What's the benefit of helping out that artisan? He's like here is almost nothing and everyone hates you now. I help him out again same thing. Screw that guy.
Can I set waypoints for my party?
The character generator seems really weird. Like you have all these sliders but there's this archetype you kinda can't get away from. It's hard to describe but for example all the females look a little Finnish to me. Like you can darken their skin and slap an afro on 'em and still something is off. I don't like that I have a million sliders for the head and one for the rest of the body. And the big doesn't even look like a big person. They look like a scaled up small person. Big people are...thicker, not like fat but just more bigger in certain places to support that extra mass. So not a good effort on the body mod.
The bow arc is too limited for an offside target when mounted. It's a minor quibble but a skilled horse archer can shoot quite a bit more offside than is represented here, especially with the short bow.
Armies travel on their stomach, why can't these guys bring enough food? The influence gain from feeding the army is nice but I should not have to leave the army to run ahead to the city to buy 150 grain and 100 cheese so everyone can eat.
Garrison troops train on their own, right? Why do I have to transfer them to my party to promote them now they're all comingled and I'm clicking lots of stuff.
Need way more variety in companion surnames. I had two "The Golden" in my army cause they were the best fighters I could get.
New companions spawn over time so that's awesome. I abandoned a start because the initial pool was so bad before I knew that. Like I mentioned before, that's not knowledge I should have.
Is it better to take crappy companions that you can level how you like? Cause I always take the most developed guys but then I'm stuck with what they got cause it's so hard to raise them.
Moving slower at night? Thumbs up.
No matter what formation I choose, if want to shoot a guy coming up on my eight, Mudlips the Golden will be right there on his fine Arab charger with my crosshair pointed right at his skull. And when I adjust my target to the next guy, Mudlips slows down a bit to get between that guy. I just whiz the arrow right by his ear, he can't be really killed. Maybe he knows so he just watches me dumbly as I hold the string.
Cavalry fights in snowy forests are the most awesome thing. You can't see a thing, can't tell who is who, everything just running crazy total panic and terror horses charging out of the fog. You see guys get stuck on a tree then out of nowhere bam impaled by a lance. Atmosphere plus one.
I stopped caring about the small relation adjustments during kingdom things. Laws, fiefs, what should we do with this what law do we pass. I take a hit with Lord Mxlptlk over his fief, he likes me better because we both support Hunting Rights, it evens out. There's so many little adjustments coming at you they stop mattering. After a couple years in I can see this guy hates me or this guy really loves me and I have no idea why I tried to be equally nice to both.
I'm in a kingdom now I have like 2k influence for my clan, that's more than than some but the top two clans are just insane. The number one guy has like 90k influence. Number two is at 70k. I'm not saying that's good or bad gamewise, but damn. These guys passed laws that favor the top over my dissent and I'll never catch up. I get like 200 influence and I see these guys go up by 2k. I guess I'll stick around until I can gather some more territory if these guys throw me some more crumbs. Otherwise it's my own kingdom time. I kinda wanted to work from the inside here but these guys protect their own and I'm the outsider. I like all that. These are choices TW never gave me outside of stilted scripted events. I'm making my own political destiny here. I wish there were more choices how to interact with the other lords though.
Anyways, that's all for now. Not gonna get too deep here yet since EA is just breaking and changing stuff every day, but I really like this concept and I like what I see so far. I'm really positive on the game even though it's mostly all complaints above because sparse praise is the best praise imo
My thoughts in no particular order:
I don't like it that I'm making all this money off looting my enemies and that I can individually manage the looting of every bloody tunic. Why is the lord bothering with it? Lords are rewarded with land, titles and they extract money from their new fief. Soldiers keep the loot, it raises morale and keeps the lord alive.
Why do towns sell quantities of elite weapons to passing strangers? Shouldn't the local lord trust me a LOT before that? Because I might kill him with those weapons?
I like the little armies that harass your main army, keeping tabs on you and letting you know more are coming and soon there will be more of them so watch out.
The music is very very good. A little too much shouting though during the battles.
I need the icons in battle to tell troops apart but man are they annoying af.
I don't understand the caravan mechanic at all. I mean I do in terms of world economy and moving good around. But for me as a player it's basically a choice to make a random investment, right? I don't seem to have any control or way to influence it, it just makes me money for a random amount of time and then it dies and I don't really know if it paid for itself unless I take screenshots every day.
I like that rulers just do what they want. You take the castle, you spend the influence and get shafted. Yeah sorry it's going to the other guy. Also not sorry. That's awesome. I hate systems where I have enough resources early to basically impose my will.
Trading is way too easy. Two cities one day travel apart and I realize a 30% profit? It seems my limiting factor in the early game is simply the amount of pack animals I can buy. After a couple of days I'm transferring a third the city contents at a time to the next city. Way too much trading income. Shouldn't all that stuff be taxed into the ground? Didn't the local guilds take their pound of flesh?
Building stuff is omg fast. What's with all these 1 day build times? Everything should take months or weeks at least. I visit my new castle, click all the projects and go around the countryside to inspect my new fief clear some looters I come back four days later I have brand new place.
I really like that I can spend influence to get other people to send their troops into the meatgrinder for me. Just like in real life. Awesome.
I just hate the whole hideout mechanic. I have 800 soldiers. I know exactly where the hideout is. I have the whole hill surrounded and heavy cavalry ready to charge. I'm bringing a couple of randos with me it, let's go!
I don't like it that I can kite bodies of infantry. No human being on foot would ever chase a horseman with a bow. Ever. You hide, you run away, you look for something, you form a turtle, literally any other action is more beneficial. Lying down and playing dead is better.
Bandits and looters and other trash are annoying. There's too many of them and they move too fast for disorganized rabble. It's like you're trying to chase down these little hyper-aware Jeb Stuart's when it should just be some slow mob.
I like that you can form a party of one with your companion and they go off and hopefully not get captured while growing troops and doing quests and patrolling around. I like seeing their medical skills go up cause I know they're getting captured next or maybe they'll get away. It's very tense. Then I can call them for free to my army and steal all their guys and send them off again.
The siege process seems weird. We build some towers and a ram so that's good. Then we build some onager whatever, it fires once or twice and it's dead. So we build another and it's dead. The guys on the walls have four. So yeah, maybe we can build them out of range? Then move them in at once and fire all at one point? Can we do that Engineer-role guy?
I know perks are borked. I like the choices you have to make though between some.
The leveling system is weird and also kinda cool. It's nice how you have to be truly versed in many disciplines to rise in level. However, it's really easy to create a bottleneck where it's very difficult to accumulate enough points to get more focus.
You raise Engineering only by doing siege stuff? How many sieges do I have to be in? I mean omg it's just insane amount of sieges no?
Some skills seem impossible to raise for companions.
Maybe because I haven't had any very large towns yet, but Governors seem kind of a waste. Like I could have a free party for my army and tons of great relations or I could have a guy sit in a town and have a minor effect that can be situational?
I'm not sure but it seems like every castle and town have the same facilities? Like I can improve irrigation the same amount in a desert town that I can one the fertile temperate belt?
There are no tradeoffs to building stuff or changing defaults in towns and castles it seems. You just build everything limited by the available cash and click the thing for default you want and that's it. Seems like useless button clicking. Like you take a castle it should just assume you're improving everything and give you some messages your castellan improved the granary and then it's all done.
I really like that you can dress up all your crew with all these different styles. I like my banner on the shield.
Swinging a big polearm and just cleaving a guy in half is satisfying, so is a nice charge with the lance and stuff. I know people have a problem with the AI but I'm just learning combat stuff so I'm not worried yet. But the animations and sound effects and everything is good. There is no excessive rag-doll issue that I hate where they really go into all that flailing and stuff. Dead bodies just drop and lay there like sacks not go flying with limbs akimbo. There is just the right amount of blood on everything.
I can marry and have children. Awesome! Do I die of old age or am I some sort of vampire? I haven't got that far.
There should be a skill check for acquiring companions and if rejected they should reject you for months.
The encyclopedia should not tell me anyone's current location or their skills. I mean it's nice to know that but I shouldn't know that. I should have a generic description that they like to frequent this region and are very charming.
What's cohesion? My armies have it, it runs down and then it gets replenished magically. I join other armies, sometimes they fall apart because they lose it. Is there some button I press to get more I missed that part.
The taverns are done really well. All the interiors and towns and castles. Really like visiting villages and just riding around looking at all my happy peasants. Walking around my castle battlements. Town market with the vendors. It's totally unnecessary and great.
There doesn't seem to be any traditional alliances. Kingdoms are liable to attack pretty much any other kingdom. I do see they prefer border wars but then I see the Khuzaits warring on the Vlandians again and I'm like why? I'm not too up on the lore but there should be like ok these two kingdoms fight rarely and these guys just can't stop.
Territory seems to change too easily. A typical outcome should be a sacking, or a reduction in facilities representing a razing, but control change should be rarer. Typically leaders who didn't allow their army to sack the city didn't fare well in future security arrangements if you know what I mean.
I thought there would be functional roads.
The questing mechanic for improving relations is not appealing to me at all. Time spent for relation gained is not worth it for me. I'd rather send out companions in parties, they do the quests for me. I had some notable up to 86 before I knew what was happening.
There are two big navigable bodies of water in the middle of the continent with six coastal cities between them and another eight cities on the ocean coast and I can't take a boat anywhere. Oceans, seas, lakes and rivers seem to play no part of the game besides channeling land movement. I'm not asking for detailed naval combat, I just want to take a ship between two towns.
I like the seasons with the snow and everything, and the clock with the sun/moon that's nicely done too.
Generally the UI is good but there are too many elements placed way too far from each other. I have to click LOOT ALL in one corner of the screen, then travel down to DONE on the bottom. Why not right next to each other since that's all you do? Stuff like that. There should be more sorting on the columns. Can I transfer by type? Like all foot archers? I know I can click for one and something-click for 5 but can I click for all? So the UI could use some work in the UE department, but the presentation is nice and generally functional.
However, the text log is absolutely horrid. Stuff just disappears I don't know what's happening I can't scroll someone is captured they're all getting captured are there filters do I have any control does it keep a permanent log?
When I talk to people I can be nice or a jerk or whatever. But it doesn't seem to make a difference they always reply the same.
I have not had one single crash. I have a GTX 1060 in a Helios 300 laptop and it's all max setting all the way including battle size and I can't complain one bit. Well, for a couple of giant sieges I had to turn it down to medium I can't lie but otherwise it's maxed out. Not one single crash or hang.
A lot of equipment is wildly under or overpriced. I'm not worried cause there will be a mod for that. People love modding the economy so as long as the basics aren't too off I should be fine.
There should be a way to set stances for your army. Like reckless or cautious or ambush. Like there should be a way to ambush an army coming down the wide road without them immediately spotting you and running away at .01 more speed than you. I should be able to entrench maybe like in Agincourt.
People complain about the battle AI and I see what they mean. Lots of reckless cavalry charges and foot soldier clumping.
So the Tactics skill with the simulated battles bonus, that's awful. You should never make it more appealing to skip the battle. If you want to skip the battle cause it's not worthy of you, that's cool, but don't prod the player please. Don't make me feel guilty about enjoying the blade.
What's going on in that deploy screen on the siege battles? I just click autodeploy, whatever, does it make a difference?
My scrubs pushed a siege tower into a ditch and went askew and no one could climb it. Hilarious and just like irl. Two thumbs up. Should I have deployed it somewhere else maybe? Is that what's going on with that screen?
I think no one should be able to recruit out of my fief without my permission. You can't just ride in and take my military-age males from my lands what the hell are you thinking? I mean yeah if you're my liege but this is just anyone! I own those people. Not like in the modern corporate way, but literally they are all my property.
The whole movement speed thing is very opaque to me. Seems like a lot of factors influence it, so I just try to do the logical thing like faster horses less stuff more riders. More skilled riders. I hope it's working, it seems like it is.
I hope the starting point changes based on player culture. I mean it's fine for the Empire guy but as a Khuzait I prefer to start near a yurt. I don't know how the rest of you play but I spend a couple of days doing nothing but traveling to my homeland so I can start the game right.
I stopped reading the main quest like three NPC's in. I don't care about the battle. My parents are dead I have no family what do I care what some stranger did to another back in the day? Then it gets ridiculous I don't want to spoil anything but I don't need anyone's permission to usurp power I have a thousand loyal men and a fierce desire to rule. Just erasing the whole thing would make a better focused game.
What's the benefit of helping out that artisan? He's like here is almost nothing and everyone hates you now. I help him out again same thing. Screw that guy.
Can I set waypoints for my party?
The character generator seems really weird. Like you have all these sliders but there's this archetype you kinda can't get away from. It's hard to describe but for example all the females look a little Finnish to me. Like you can darken their skin and slap an afro on 'em and still something is off. I don't like that I have a million sliders for the head and one for the rest of the body. And the big doesn't even look like a big person. They look like a scaled up small person. Big people are...thicker, not like fat but just more bigger in certain places to support that extra mass. So not a good effort on the body mod.
The bow arc is too limited for an offside target when mounted. It's a minor quibble but a skilled horse archer can shoot quite a bit more offside than is represented here, especially with the short bow.
Armies travel on their stomach, why can't these guys bring enough food? The influence gain from feeding the army is nice but I should not have to leave the army to run ahead to the city to buy 150 grain and 100 cheese so everyone can eat.
Garrison troops train on their own, right? Why do I have to transfer them to my party to promote them now they're all comingled and I'm clicking lots of stuff.
Need way more variety in companion surnames. I had two "The Golden" in my army cause they were the best fighters I could get.
New companions spawn over time so that's awesome. I abandoned a start because the initial pool was so bad before I knew that. Like I mentioned before, that's not knowledge I should have.
Is it better to take crappy companions that you can level how you like? Cause I always take the most developed guys but then I'm stuck with what they got cause it's so hard to raise them.
Moving slower at night? Thumbs up.
No matter what formation I choose, if want to shoot a guy coming up on my eight, Mudlips the Golden will be right there on his fine Arab charger with my crosshair pointed right at his skull. And when I adjust my target to the next guy, Mudlips slows down a bit to get between that guy. I just whiz the arrow right by his ear, he can't be really killed. Maybe he knows so he just watches me dumbly as I hold the string.
Cavalry fights in snowy forests are the most awesome thing. You can't see a thing, can't tell who is who, everything just running crazy total panic and terror horses charging out of the fog. You see guys get stuck on a tree then out of nowhere bam impaled by a lance. Atmosphere plus one.
I stopped caring about the small relation adjustments during kingdom things. Laws, fiefs, what should we do with this what law do we pass. I take a hit with Lord Mxlptlk over his fief, he likes me better because we both support Hunting Rights, it evens out. There's so many little adjustments coming at you they stop mattering. After a couple years in I can see this guy hates me or this guy really loves me and I have no idea why I tried to be equally nice to both.
I'm in a kingdom now I have like 2k influence for my clan, that's more than than some but the top two clans are just insane. The number one guy has like 90k influence. Number two is at 70k. I'm not saying that's good or bad gamewise, but damn. These guys passed laws that favor the top over my dissent and I'll never catch up. I get like 200 influence and I see these guys go up by 2k. I guess I'll stick around until I can gather some more territory if these guys throw me some more crumbs. Otherwise it's my own kingdom time. I kinda wanted to work from the inside here but these guys protect their own and I'm the outsider. I like all that. These are choices TW never gave me outside of stilted scripted events. I'm making my own political destiny here. I wish there were more choices how to interact with the other lords though.
Anyways, that's all for now. Not gonna get too deep here yet since EA is just breaking and changing stuff every day, but I really like this concept and I like what I see so far. I'm really positive on the game even though it's mostly all complaints above because sparse praise is the best praise imo
Maximum997
Squire
Worst thing about AI and archers - that troops just dont want to hold a shields. In Warband if enemies see even one archer, they will rise a shield in 0,001 seconds.
And in BL i offten see the picture like:
Man just casualy walking into archer fire. Get arrow in the body, after that he rise a shiled. After 1 second he forget about archers, casualy walks again and get another arrow in the head.
Hello there,
Just wanted to post about a topic, that I think is underrated, yet fundamental aspect of the game, namely its immersion.
In my humble opinion, one of the strongest, yet not very commented aspect of the game, is the atmosphere in the cities/towns. From the sunny southern Azerai cities, through the Byzantine style architecture of the Calradian Empire, to the snowy, but cozy towns of the Sturgians, and of course, all of the rest of the cultures and lands of Calradia. I have travelled through most of them with the pure intent to be immersed in the atmosphere that each town, or even a small village, brings with itself.
And I was amazed!
The attention to detail in all of the cultures is indeed commendable. My favorite part of the city are the markets. Just yesterday, I saw a trader, who was roasting fish on a wooden grill, in Varcheg. I loved that so much, that I immediately took some screenshots. I wished that I could try one of the fishes myself, and I do not even like fish that much! (it’s because of the bones ) On the other side of the street a meat vendor had chopped his meaty goods into small, tasty cubes. I bet they go well with a beer or two! And that is just from one of the dozens of towns!
In the cities of Calradia, you will not find dark, mysterious magicians, you will not find prophets holding a speech with raised hands, and you will not find strange races or epic heroes. No, instead you will find blacksmiths doing their work, you will find vendors grilling fish, or selling watermelons, you will find just regular, down to earth people. I love that! I respect that!
The presence of garrison troops, patrolling the streets, as well as the occasional incidents with local thugs, make the immersion complete. Needless to say, one hobby of mine, is collecting quality screenshots, from all over Calradia, like a lost virtual tourist.
Thank you for that opportunity, Taleworlds! You have indeed created a quality game and I am anxious to see what you have in store for all of us in the future!
Stay safe and healty!
Kind Regards!
Just wanted to post about a topic, that I think is underrated, yet fundamental aspect of the game, namely its immersion.
In my humble opinion, one of the strongest, yet not very commented aspect of the game, is the atmosphere in the cities/towns. From the sunny southern Azerai cities, through the Byzantine style architecture of the Calradian Empire, to the snowy, but cozy towns of the Sturgians, and of course, all of the rest of the cultures and lands of Calradia. I have travelled through most of them with the pure intent to be immersed in the atmosphere that each town, or even a small village, brings with itself.
And I was amazed!
The attention to detail in all of the cultures is indeed commendable. My favorite part of the city are the markets. Just yesterday, I saw a trader, who was roasting fish on a wooden grill, in Varcheg. I loved that so much, that I immediately took some screenshots. I wished that I could try one of the fishes myself, and I do not even like fish that much! (it’s because of the bones
) On the other side of the street a meat vendor had chopped his meaty goods into small, tasty cubes. I bet they go well with a beer or two! And that is just from one of the dozens of towns!In the cities of Calradia, you will not find dark, mysterious magicians, you will not find prophets holding a speech with raised hands, and you will not find strange races or epic heroes. No, instead you will find blacksmiths doing their work, you will find vendors grilling fish, or selling watermelons, you will find just regular, down to earth people. I love that! I respect that!
The presence of garrison troops, patrolling the streets, as well as the occasional incidents with local thugs, make the immersion complete. Needless to say, one hobby of mine, is collecting quality screenshots, from all over Calradia, like a lost virtual tourist.
Thank you for that opportunity, Taleworlds! You have indeed created a quality game and I am anxious to see what you have in store for all of us in the future!
Stay safe and healty!
Kind Regards!
Last edited:
First impressions:
This game is awesome.
The dungeons, while there is nothing to interact with at the moment, are really REALLY well done and a lot of fun just to enjoy and explore all the art.
AI archer lines seem to be bugged... constantly trying to face my cavalry party of one unit (me). Thus I can effectively put 100 units out of a fight simply but running through an infantry line. It makes sense for cavalry to hard counter archers, but the entire line shouldn't move to face one unit.
Vlandian banner knights seem to be very strong, stronger than any other cavalry. Sturgia and battania seem to be fairly weak factions.
I want to be able to tell my cavalry to flank/attack the archer line, not sure how to do that.
I wish my infantry line could plant their spears for incoming cavalry charges.
Overall I'm really impressed by the depth of this game so far and am really excited for the future. Even in beta, it's a 40 dollars well spent, multiplayer is also loads of fun.
This game is awesome.
The dungeons, while there is nothing to interact with at the moment, are really REALLY well done and a lot of fun just to enjoy and explore all the art.
AI archer lines seem to be bugged... constantly trying to face my cavalry party of one unit (me). Thus I can effectively put 100 units out of a fight simply but running through an infantry line. It makes sense for cavalry to hard counter archers, but the entire line shouldn't move to face one unit.
Vlandian banner knights seem to be very strong, stronger than any other cavalry. Sturgia and battania seem to be fairly weak factions.
I want to be able to tell my cavalry to flank/attack the archer line, not sure how to do that.
I wish my infantry line could plant their spears for incoming cavalry charges.
Overall I'm really impressed by the depth of this game so far and am really excited for the future. Even in beta, it's a 40 dollars well spent, multiplayer is also loads of fun.
Rbtparker13
Veteran
Not really a first reaction. But when I first got into the game. I was amazed, it was just bigger and better than warband I thought. The first major battle was amazing. An huge army fighting was amazing. I died in that battle, but I wasn't even mad because I could just observe the awesome of hundreds of men fight with awesome music. I was in love. Then after a few hours, after some campaigns, I got bored real easy. I don't really have a certain thing that I would like to discuss, everything that was obvious to me was already mentioned. But the game just feels unfinished, yes I know it's early access but it feels incomplete for early access. I seriously cannot wait when it's finished, or when the mods make it amazing
