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
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