Black Shields (BkS) bks bks bks bks bks bks bks bks bks bks bks bks

Users who are viewing this thread

Dearest Friends,

I write to you now, in what may be my final few posts here. You see, I've invested years into Mount & Blade, and then its eventual successor, Mount & Blade: Warband. My, and our, many victories don't need to be retold; the fact that we did it better than anyone else does, doesn't need to be restated any longer. These are facts, much like Marshall Mathers being the best rapper of his era, and as he once proclaimed, "It ain't even cool for me to sound cocky anymore." I, and your overlords BkS as well, have been gone for quite some time. However, we have been watching the development of Mount & Blade: Bannerlord:

Hoping that it would follow Warband the way Warband followed the original.
Hoping that the competitive scene would finally get some reinforcements and not need to sustain itself wholly.
Hoping that the development team would act in good faith and retain what made Warband so great.
Hoping that they would be open-minded, listen, and be receptive to the advice of those who knew it best from a player's perspective.

We waited in vain, I'm afraid.

I recall a Round Table done by Calamty and Bladecast, where we hosted Callum. You see, in the times of old, Captain Lust and I may not have always liked each other, but we respected each other. He had a relationship with the heads of the community. It was in this spirit that Callum was asked to come sit down with us and have a casual fireside chat with us, and he obliged. We were told then, as well as in later posts, that Skirmish was the official mode, that Battle would not be the official competitive mode. I brought up plenty of objections, based in years of experience at the highest levels, and nearly all were ignored in favor of his comment, "We hope you'll give us a chance to see what we have for you. We think it's going to be great, and if it isn't, we'll be open minded to discuss things and how they can change." Overall, the competitive community at the time wasn't happy with that, but we forcibly acquiesced. Fast forward to playing the closed beta, and it was immediately apparent there were numerous issues -- which I won't list here -- and we once again loudly rang the cries of dissent. #nobattlenobks had already been established, but we were still being open minded, as we were requested. However, we were told in no uncertain terms, that this is the way the game is going, and we better get used to it. We were told that they were unwilling to make any changes. Our words fell on deaf ears, long after being told that if we gave them a chance, they'd give us a chance to speak up later. We were met with naked disrespect. We were met with hostility, even, when all we were trying to do was offer up some solutions to problems, or even just illustrate the problems, as it's clear the developers themselves are great at developing games, but not so much at playing them. This is a truncated version of events, but it is an accurate version. We were disappointed, but not surprised.

However, we recently had the privilege of interacting with a new group of developers, and a new game:

Donkey Crey has been working on Last Oasis for quite some time. They are some of the same developers behind cRPG. We have been involved in their Beta testing process for quite some time now, and have been engaging with their developers in their Discord actively as iterations on the game are ongoing. They are receptive, open, transparent, and player input actually seems to matter to them. The game itself is massively enjoyable, and I'd recommend it to anyone here. If you want to find us after March 26th, that's where we'll be. Unfortunately, after having a home here for the last ~decade, I can no longer accept being disregarded, disrespected, ignored, or lied to by a team of individuals when their product isn't half of what the previous iteration was. I wish I could say I wish them the best, but I meant what I said when I posted #nobattlenobks, and I'm not going to take their route and start being dishonest. It's my hope that those of you who enjoyed playing with us will give Last Oasis a shot, I'm hoping you'll trust my judgement on this, because Taleworlds certainly has no interest in the input or judgment of it's players.

Sound the horn once more, and if you boys don't hear from us again, remember: Remove the S key from your keyboards, tear off your helm, follow rules 1 and 2 at all times, and do it for the homies.

#bksswag
#nobattlenobks

Rhade Letalis
Supreme General of the Shields of the Black,
Commander of the Zealot Alliance,
Patriach of Mar Shral,
Leader of the White Legions,
Wielder of the mighty Lionsbane,
King of the World,
Rider of the Red Dragon,
Sexer of attractive females,
Drinker of much ale,
Father of peers
 
Dearest Friends,

I write to you now, in what may be my final few posts here. You see, I've invested years into Mount & Blade, and then its eventual successor, Mount & Blade: Warband. My, and our, many victories don't need to be retold; the fact that we did it better than anyone else does, doesn't need to be restated any longer. These are facts, much like Marshall Mathers being the best rapper of his era, and as he once proclaimed, "It ain't even cool for me to sound cocky anymore." I, and your overlords BkS as well, have been gone for quite some time. However, we have been watching the development of Mount & Blade: Bannerlord:

Hoping that it would follow Warband the way Warband followed the original.
Hoping that the competitive scene would finally get some reinforcements and not need to sustain itself wholly.
Hoping that the development team would act in good faith and retain what made Warband so great.
Hoping that they would be open-minded, listen, and be receptive to the advice of those who knew it best from a player's perspective.

We waited in vain, I'm afraid.

I recall a Round Table done by Calamty and Bladecast, where we hosted Callum. You see, in the times of old, Captain Lust and I may not have always liked each other, but we respected each other. He had a relationship with the heads of the community. It was in this spirit that Callum was asked to come sit down with us and have a casual fireside chat with us, and he obliged. We were told then, as well as in later posts, that Skirmish was the official mode, that Battle would not be the official competitive mode. I brought up plenty of objections, based in years of experience at the highest levels, and nearly all were ignored in favor of his comment, "We hope you'll give us a chance to see what we have for you. We think it's going to be great, and if it isn't, we'll be open minded to discuss things and how they can change." Overall, the competitive community at the time wasn't happy with that, but we forcibly acquiesced. Fast forward to playing the closed beta, and it was immediately apparent there were numerous issues -- which I won't list here -- and we once again loudly rang the cries of dissent. #nobattlenobks had already been established, but we were still being open minded, as we were requested. However, we were told in no uncertain terms, that this is the way the game is going, and we better get used to it. We were told that they were unwilling to make any changes. Our words fell on deaf ears, long after being told that if we gave them a chance, they'd give us a chance to speak up later. We were met with naked disrespect. We were met with hostility, even, when all we were trying to do was offer up some solutions to problems, or even just illustrate the problems, as it's clear the developers themselves are great at developing games, but not so much at playing them. This is a truncated version of events, but it is an accurate version. We were disappointed, but not surprised.

However, we recently had the privilege of interacting with a new group of developers, and a new game:

Donkey Crey has been working on Last Oasis for quite some time. They are some of the same developers behind cRPG. We have been involved in their Beta testing process for quite some time now, and have been engaging with their developers in their Discord actively as iterations on the game are ongoing. They are receptive, open, transparent, and player input actually seems to matter to them. The game itself is massively enjoyable, and I'd recommend it to anyone here. If you want to find us after March 26th, that's where we'll be. Unfortunately, after having a home here for the last ~decade, I can no longer accept being disregarded, disrespected, ignored, or lied to by a team of individuals when their product isn't half of what the previous iteration was. I wish I could say I wish them the best, but I meant what I said when I posted #nobattlenobks, and I'm not going to take their route and start being dishonest. It's my hope that those of you who enjoyed playing with us will give Last Oasis a shot, I'm hoping you'll trust my judgement on this, because Taleworlds certainly has no interest in the input or judgment of it's players.

Sound the horn once more, and if you boys don't hear from us again, remember: Remove the S key from your keyboards, tear off your helm, follow rules 1 and 2 at all times, and do it for the homies.

#bksswag
#nobattlenobks

Rhade Letalis
Supreme General of the Shields of the Black,
Commander of the Zealot Alliance,
Patriach of Mar Shral,
Leader of the White Legions,
Wielder of the mighty Lionsbane,
King of the World,
Rider of the Red Dragon,
Sexer of attractive females,
Drinker of much ale,
Father of peers
It's been a pleasure lord Rhade.
 
The Bannerlord and feedback point is spot on, but just as a passing remark I can't entirely agree about Last Oasis(My guys and I were in the beta, too). Their development process and listening to feedback is 300x ahead of Taleworlds, they are a much smaller and more flexible studio focusing on MP only though. But I can't really think of the game as a substitute for what Mount & Blade Multiplayer was. It seems so geared on giant blobs and zergs, it was really hard to continually survive and do well even with having skilled players that would kill far more than they would die. Maybe stuff's changed since we last played those few weeks ago so I might be wrong, that was just our impression. However, it is absolutely true that the beta experience in Last Oasis was much more smooth, fluid and changes were significantly faster and more impactful than what we've had in Bannerlord beta.

In any case it's really sad to see what state the hardcore MP scene was driven to by Taleworlds. Good luck in Last Oasis.
 
Sandbox multiplayer games are fun to play with mates, but tournaments are rare. I'll be playing it for sure, but obviously the way it's suppose to be played, which is casually. There's no real comparison as the genre of game is completely different, just because it's got medieval-type weaponry, doesn't mean it can be a substitute for a completely different genre of game. You can quite easily play both, this isn't about 'moving' but more about being angry at development and proving a point, which in terms of feedback is fine, but you're not 'moving' as such, you're just playing a different game.

Goodluck in Last Oasis anyways and I hope you return to BL when you're satisfied with the development in the future.
 
Last edited:
Sandbox multiplayer games are fun to play with mates, but tournaments are rare. I'll be playing it for sure, but obviously the way it's suppose to be played, which is casually. There's no real comparison as the genre of game is completely different, just because it's got medieval-type weaponry, doesn't mean it can be a substitute for a completely different genre of game. You can quite easily play both, this isn't about 'moving' but more about being angry at development and proving a point, which in terms of feedback is fine, but you're not 'moving' as such, you're just playing a different game.

Goodluck in Last Oasis anyways and I hope you return to BL when you're satisfied with the development in the future.

Just as you're free to disagree, I disagree with you. This wasn't about proving a point, this is about knowing when to withdraw. It's not really an accurate assessment for you to assume how our group works. Warband, and subsequently, Bannerlord have always been home to us. We always expected to come back. That clearly isn't going to happen, in no small part due to the development itself as well as the attitude of the developers. We don't play a different game of every genre. We keep the pool of games we play pretty small, and as we'll be putting a lot of time into LO, we won't have the time for BL, and I also disagree with your assessment on them being different. The melee in LO feels better than it does in BL, and the key ingredient to Mount & Blade has always been it's melee combat. I have been saying for *years* that Taleworlds was first-to-market in the genre, and had to be careful with not getting complacent or lazy. I have been saying that their market share was dependent on those factors. They didn't listen.

This isn't about being angry or making a point. This is saying, officially and distinctly, we won't be coming back, and I think I have the authority to clarify my statement over your assessment of it, as well as my team's intentions.
 
Last edited:
The combat is so slow and clunky, unsure as to how you can say it 'feels better', if the combat from LO was In Bannerlord, I don't think anyone would touch the game... It does suit LO well though, but even though the combat is directional, that's pretty much where the similarities end.
 
The combat is so slow and clunky, unsure as to how you can say it 'feels better', if the combat from LO was In Bannerlord, I don't think anyone would touch the game... It does suit LO well though, but even though the combat is directional, that's pretty much where the similarities end.

Agreed, played that for a while, wasn't impressed.

Anyway good luck with your future endeavours.
 
The combat is so slow and clunky, unsure as to how you can say it 'feels better', if the combat from LO was In Bannerlord, I don't think anyone would touch the game... It does suit LO well though, but even though the combat is directional, that's pretty much where the similarities end.

Hard disagree. Last Oasis' combat feels way closer to Warband's than Bannerlord's does, imo. Even ignoring all the other issues I have with Bannerlord (fixed loadouts, 1* cav controls, blah blah blah), its combat is absolutely terrible. Slow, clunky, unresponsive and without any redeeming features that I've noticed...It's closer to playing For Honor. LO's combat, especially by comparison, feels smooth, responsive and intuitive. We can say that Bannerlord is just moving into Early Access and still has time to polish (and I hope that it does), but the same applies for Last Oasis and I'd say LO is significantly more advanced at this point...despite TW putting a decade+ into Bannerlord.

And not that I personally care about Donkey Crew or who developed what game, but calling out Taleworlds as anything other than totally incompetent is disingenuous. I can't think of a gaming company that has done less to support, inform and excite its player base.

I'm still hoping that Bannerlord turns around, but as both games enter Early Access? It's not even close imo.
 
Goddamn Rhade. I'm a bit beside myself. Glad to see you never changed my dude. Maybe I'll Czech out LO, Haven't gotten around to memeing in Bannerlord but if the combat is like For Honor. I might be seeing you there myself. Btw, feed peers a treat and tell him 'Hi' for me if you get a chance.
 
Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree. I am sure I will have fun in the single player as I have enjoyed it since before Warband's release, but MB Warband's multiplayer was what kept me playing for >5k hours; specifically the competitiveness of battle. There are a dime a dozen medieval 100+ player zerg team death match/death match games on the market right now but none of them have what MB Warband battle had. Suffice to say, I'm beyond disappointed with the omission of battle and duel modes along with several notable changes that I will spare the length of this post on. Long live the hoboknights.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom