Bannerlord SP First Reactions: Megathread

[Obliterati]

love the game, but as my posts elsewhere will attest, the combat spawn system sucks. and i mean really sucks. and with so much of the game revolving around battle? that really cripples it.

got 900 hours into the game, and part way through a campaign, but cant bring myself to play anymore unless i feel like i have an impact on the field and arent getting blobbed by spawning in ai.

if you guys could address this sooner rather then later that would be awesome.

 

[belzasar]

It's going to be 9 years after Bannerlords first announcement.

Over one year since EA release.

And it feels to me like a repainted nerfed down and cut off Warband - a MVP. A pretty, bad copy.
It's not only the notification log history that is lacking - it's so much..
Sure, combat is kinda fun (AI aside), but what do i fight for?
Where is the sandbox? To me, "sandbox" means handing out playground and the tools and then let the player decide when or where he wants to "get involved" or siege or dispose the economic competitors or die trying..(!)
Where is the innovation? That crafting?! (Charcter portraits are nice)
Why is it still so full of issues and still so empty of life?
Where do all these aimless looters come from?
Are goods actulay consumed or just diffused over the map?
What exactly is dynamic? Over and over the same quests from the same guys in the same location.. doesn't seem that dynamic to me?
What happend in those 9 years?
What have gone wrong?
What will happen?
Is there a roadmap?

I care! But can i hope? :/

 

[Dio Khaan]

I wish it was more immersive. I liked it when the Sea Raiders told me they wanted to drink from my skull and/or farmers told me it is almost harvesting season. The main quest and tutorial seem a bit lacking.

 

[Riffraff99]

The long awaited Early-Access to Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord is finally upon us.
What are your first impressions?
What are your plans for clan and Calradia?
Found a new feature that got you excited?
Let us know!

Especially good things will be selected by moderation to be featured in the Opening Post in an upcoming feature reel.

So be creative and have fun!

A few ground rules:
Videos, gifs, pictures and comments are allowed.
You can be funny or thoughtful, as long as you're also respectful
And obviously: Forum rules apply.

IMAGES

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SCREENSHOTS & COMMENTS
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Guys, its all over i have found the way to victory_Cursed hero selling services for 666 gold_____Apparently I'm famous. Had no idea how

- Thanks to Piconi for the artwork -​

The Gif in your post runs like Bannerlord.

 

[shaktar]

Imo, i hope they push back launch.
The issues:
-Sieges are still pretty basic and.. ****. Ladders and towers dont work, mixed groups makes missile units somtimes protect the gate. Frustrating. AI clumps units and pushes 300 men onto walls. = easy kills unnecessarily for enemy. AND suicides from falling. SHOOTING THROUGH FLOORS. TW, pls. Fix it! I cant block a group or unit type from entering battle. Like.. Really? So i have to lose all my 2h palace guards to arrows? Cool. Thanks. Friendly fire from mangonels etc. 4-5 times now, they even destroy my own siege tower! Like, wtf. And kill dozens of my own men.
-custom equip units or color schemes or ANY customization! I want my own bodyguard in purple. And with special hats. Gimme! It does not have to affect stats! Just cosmetic. Gimme!!!
-villages and cities are not finished. I know they are working on this. But release is 2021 and there is so much with the basic mechanics and such that is wonky.
- world is still empty and lategame, looters/bandits overpopulate the map. Where is my patrol option?!!!
-quests are still samey. Even in 1.6.0 "gang leader need recruits" is just rehashed "slave labor" quest. The only quest i REALLY like is the "find spy" one. Great way to show off the cities. Why not look at mods from Warband? Things that would be easy to implement. Hunting. Bandit character that is allied with bandits. More things based in influence. Lords asking for help, directly. Like a summons. Because we are their friend. And on realistic, quests are very, very rare. Makes it hard to gain relation. And not fun hard. Just waiting-hard. Also random events, ambushes, waiting on campaign map.. The drunkard in the tavern! The world is empty. And the game is less than a year from full, 100% release?
- Companions and lords need different priorites in combat. I hate levelling "Osric" to lvl 30 and then some looters stagger his horse and kill him. Death is fine. It is genuinely a good upgrade from Warband. But having 200 in one armed or polearm, should be a really good fighter who can block, run away and keep distance. Companions especially, often fight worse than tier2 troops, no matter their skill. And 2h or polearm is useless because they run up and give the advantage to sword&board. Optionally, only make them able to die to enemy lords. This is a bad option, but an option i would prefer. If not, death is just not fun. Because skill becomes worthless.
- companion quests! Make them personalized. The quests could be generic, but initialized when you have known them for a time. And the option to have feuds to avenge their deaths.
-relation system is ****. It is a great skeleton for more options, however. In Warband, relation affected many things. Who joined you as marshall, who followed your orders or how big their relationship hit was when you defied their wishes somehow. Bring some of that back! At least make us able to give lords individual orders outside of armies!
- Combat is underwhelming. I dont feel a difference between 60 one handed or 200. A looter STILL hits faster than me. Wtf.
-Armor. MAKE ARMOR GREAT AGAIN. The best feeling in Warband was when your took ZERO dmg from low-level arrows, rocks and looter scythes. So far, even at 50+ armor, 20 looters can kill me in 3 seconds.
- missile aiming is wonky. The path of the arrow/bolt changes when you go from 3rd person to 1st and back again. In sieges, the arrow can fly above the reticle. Like.. What? Not working as intended. I can compensate, but like, why have a reticle of it is not where the arrow goes from? So that is my point of reference.

At this point, this is the amputated expansion of Warband. Nothing more. I really hope they push back release. Taleworlds, don`t release this game as a half-assed Warband copy! It has potential and there is greatness in there. You just gotta fix it!

 

[Cquarto91]

I hope we get village upgrades back.

 

[TechnoSarge]

It's kinda sad that the purpose of the thread is "First Impressions" but it's turned into a thread where a lot of old-timers are trotting out their wish lists for the umpteenth time, in the hopes that maybe TW will actually read some of it and take it to heart.

It TW talked to us more, you wouldn't be seeing this...

 

[Cquarto91]

It's kinda sad that the purpose of the thread is "First Impressions" but it's turned into a thread where a lot of old-timers are trotting out their wish lists for the umpteenth time, in the hopes that maybe TW will actually read some of it and take it to heart.

It TW talked to us more, you wouldn't be seeing this...

Such a shame, but we have modders like Bloc who will find a way to put stuff in.

 

[Arvenski]

A few observations I've had during my first 45 hours of singleplayer:
I'm going to preface this by saying that I think there's plenty to love about the game, even if people are *****ing about it everywhere. Years ago, I reached the point where I'd played WB so much that I wasn't really into it anyone. Now, I'm glad to say M&B is back in my life, finally, and in a game that's familiar and yet different from its predecessors. Which is good, because change keeps things interesting. However, I have noticed a few things which, in my opinion detract somewhat from the experience:

1.) Crashes, crashes, and crashes. I can't believe how much this game crashes. I can expect the game to crash a few times every time I play. Today has been good, I've played for almost 2 hours and I think it's only crashed twice. Other days it can crash 3-4 times in an hour or so. A few nights ago I think it crashed 3 times in ~15 minutes. It reminds me of the good old days of playing modded Skyrim.

2.) There needs to be more variety in armor, and, frankly, I wonder if the armor values and costs of most armors need to be looked at: There are a lot of "beginner" armors that don't offer a great deal of protection, but are more affordable. The trouble is, it didn't take me very long to save up enough to buy a "mid-tier" suit of armor, which rendered all the lighter armors obsolete. After buying one or two more suits of armor, I'm now wearing armor that is better than just about anything else I see for sale except the high-tier stuff that costs 10k or more. The helmet I'm wearing now is only like the 2nd or
3rd one I've bought, and I've had it for ages and ages. It's got an armor value of like 29, so it's better than most everything else except the really expensive helmets that might cost 50-100k. It's like there are roughly three categories of armor: there's the crap/basic stuff, the good stuff that you can afford pretty early on in the game, and the heaviest or "elite" items which you won't be able to afford for quite some time and which might be the last pieces of armor you buy for yourself.

3.) There could be more variety in what merchants have for sale. It gets dull when the trade screen in every town in a faction/culture looks basically the same as it did in the last town you went through. If nothing that was for sale in one town caught your fancy, you might not have any better luck in the next town if the faction/culture is the same, because they all sell the same stuff.

4.) Having so many Imperial factions isn't such a good idea, at least in my opinion. I know the devs were trying to create a story like the breakup of the Roman Empire, but from a gameplay perspective it's pretty boring to have so much of the map be inhabited by the same culture. It would've been more interesting if instead of 3 Imperial factions we could've seen 1 Imperial faction and 1 or 2 other unique factions with their own cultures. My last point about item variety really applies in regards to the Imperial factions, because all three factions share a culture and therefore all the towns sell the same stuff. This greatly contributes to the boredom when traveling through Imperial lands.

5.) Tournaments and dull and repetitive. The multiple rounds don't help: the 2v2 and 1v1 rounds are the dullest because once you've gotten used to the combat it's really easy to beat the AI in a 1v1 fight, especially when you have armor and a shield. (Also,everyone always spawns in the same spot, which really adds to the feeling of it being the same thing over and over again.) Unless I mess up I'm almost certain to win, so it's just a matter of going through the motions and the rounds to get the prize, and then doing it again every time I come to a town with a tournament underway. Practice fights, on the other hand, are addictively fun. They're spontaneous, brutal free-for-alls, and since no one has any armor, no one can shrug off blows like I can in tournaments. In a practice fight, I always feel like I'm seconds away from potentially getting a sword in the back or a javelin in the face, and when I win I feel a sense of accomplishment. If the devs could make tournaments feel like that, that'd be great.

 

[SpartanBG]

Here is my recap of things as I've been playing this weekend (first time after release and probably after Early Version.4/5)

Performance: Thank you, the game has truly gone a long way since those early patches, Map gameplay, siege gameplay and overall, in the scene gameplay has improved. I'm just starting to try out bigger battle sizes to check if my PC will handle.

Gameplay: The game has gone thru some changes. I like how cities now rebel, the world map feels better over-all, but there is this feeling of stuff being there just as a placeholder - examples are some of the chat options where you click one option and there is nothing there and no matter what you do for a said noble or a villager or elder you just do it and nothing changes, just some random new generic quest after some time.
- Relation should be incorporated in some sort of diplomacy, i like the idea of Bennyz's Diplkomacy - steam workshop page.
- Random events like big gangs or a noble ditching his house and becoming neutral and new family.
- Timed events like every 20-30 years one of three or four random world encounters.

Mod content that should make it to the main game:
Realistic Weather - This mod adds rain, snow and fog with variable density to campaign and custom battle missions. Rain and snow decrease movement speed, projectile speed and morale. Fog decreases AI shoot frequency and morale. Dust storms decrease movement speed, projectile speed, AI shoot frequency and morale.
Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2862531759&insideModal=0
CREATED BY
order_without_power


Fourberie - Here you will get access to a large panel of features allowing you to experience new playstyles. Develop a rogue character or simply use dirty tactics and schemes to dominate the world of Calradia...
Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2875710877&insideModal=0
CREATED BY
Spinozart1


Diplomacy - Diplomacy's goal is to provide balanced, fun, and creative options for characters to have an impact on the world, including both the player and NPCs. Diplomacy creates more believable world behaviors while giving the player the agency to shape their world.
Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2881380744&insideModal=0
Mod developers:
CREATED BY
Bennyz
artifixer


I believe this should make it to the game, Ego aside, this guys' work is impressive. You have access to the source code, contact them folks ask them for permission to use the code into the main game, help them flesh it out and release it to the community. THIS for me are basic (must-have) functions to fulfill your promises to the community for an AWESOME GAME.
I doubt there are much more futures that are needed for a long game life cycle. But I believe these should have been in-game.
I've seen mining, i've seen building, endless possibilities, but I don't feel them as a basic part of the game unlike the above 3



Battle: I'm sure there is space for improvements, but I'm still kind of enjoying the grand map, I do a lot of auto-resolving unless it's some big ass army and I've had my loses and I can say I like it.

Note: Will add few more stuff in the next 2-3 days as.

 

[Sreaction]

First Impression: This is just Warband with a slicker skin on top of it,
Second Impression: Bannerlord actually has more layers to it than Warband
Third Impression: Its actually as far as UI and game mechanics a bit more simplified and streamlined than Warband
Fourth Impression: Its both 2 and 3 rolled up into one. I enjoy the game and think it an improvement on the former.

 

[SudianX]

Having just bought the game recently (is it out of early access yet?) I have had minimal technical issues (I have waited so long after early access was available! ), so on to the topic at hand:

My first impression: Wow. I liked seeing towns like Pravend and Ocs Hall (Uxkhal?) and Sargot, even if the geography did not seem consistent (not really important). I loved the different cultures ( voice acting accents, geography related background music, architecture styles, armor styles )

My second impression: WOW. On my current campaign I started my own kingdom in Pravend, named it Swadia, and I am now in the process of conquering all of Calradia. ( I did not name my character Harlaus, nor did I host any feasts )

According to Steam I have 330+ hours so far. I started over so many times just trying to learn systems and make strategies I have not even looked at using Mods yet, but I will eventually. (I have over 4200 hours in Warband, 95% of which was with mods, ~75% in Perisno)

 

[Nawari]

The long awaited Early-Access to Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord is finally upon us.
What are your first impressions?
What are your plans for clan and Calradia?
Found a new feature that got you excited?
Let us know!

Especially good things will be selected by moderation to be featured in the Opening Post in an upcoming feature reel.

So be creative and have fun!

A few ground rules:
Videos, gifs, pictures and comments are allowed.
You can be funny or thoughtful, as long as you're also respectful
And obviously: Forum rules apply.

IMAGES

GIFS

SCREENSHOTS & COMMENTS
​

Guys, its all over i have found the way to victory_Cursed hero selling services for 666 gold_____Apparently I'm famous. Had no idea how

- Thanks to Piconi for the artwork -​

Hope two things for the future:
- A "system" bandits (occupation of the streets, refuges for our "gang", impact and influence on the rebellions, house in village, refuge for bandits, cities, other "bandit missions", interdependence between "outlaws" activities and rebellions to impact the life of kingdoms, on war, on peace... a kind of "robin hood" system),
- an economic system with more explicit impacts,
- a more numerous and explicit political system and diplomatic opportunities,
- more things to do with our children, parents, when we don't have Kingdoms and have chosen a commercial path and "street bandits".
Otherwise, the return of 1.2.0 is good. I have already done the topo elsewhere. I had some big bugs, but I reported as best I could per ticket.
I really wish that we are another path than "building a Kingdom", a very developed "bandit - trader" path with real possibilities to interact on the Kingdoms, to disturb them, to act on the rebellions, to owning shelters, houses, and building a network.