This is a collection of feedback from the community, to track Bannerlord's progress on meeting community expectations.
Taleworlds said they want to "bring the game to the level the community expects". Here, those expectations can easily be seen. This list only contains things which Taleworlds somehow led buyers to believe the game would have.
Added content or fixed issues are marked in green.
Issues/content which Taleworlds has confirmed will be worked on are marked yellow.
Deconfirmed features are in grey.
CATEGORY 1: Fixing and balancing existing features to improve gameplay.
This is a list of significant issues, not including minor bugs.
TW is aware of some of these issues, but they are listed for the sake of tracking progress.
Overworld
* Voting: Most votes can't be changed, even with 150 Influence and 100 Relations. Traits and Relation should affect the AI's vote choice more. The player should always be an option in a fief/leader vote.
The AI should not repeatedly call the same vote in a short time.
* War/Peace:
The AI constantly declares war on the player faction with not enough breaks for peace. AI kingdoms should not demand tribute if they are losing badly. AI kingdoms should offer peace to the player (Added 1.6.1).
* Nobles and garrisons
never surrender and rarely negotiate.
The player should have a reason to surrender.
* Siege artillery should spawn in reserve. The AI should only deploy artillery when they have enough.
* Khuzait culture bonus is weak and almost unnoticeable.
* The player needs better ways to increase a settlement's Loyalty.
* Minor factions: Their unique troops don't get used enough. Criminal minor factions don't do crimes. Mercenary minor factions don't have T5 units.
Beni Zilal have no backstory (added 1.7.2).
* AI Kingdoms with no fiefs left raid the player forever. They need to be removed from the game after 30 days of holding no territory.
* Autoresolve Battles: High tier troops die in simulations when they shouldn't. AI nobles don't die in simulated battles (Fixed 1.6.3).
* The reward for raiding is not worth the penalties and time (Fixed r1.1.0).
* Strategic AI: AI parties should commit to actions more instead of bouncing between targets (fixed 1.8.) Parties should enter friendly towns/castles when fleeing (fixed in 1.5.9).
* Caravans die too easily, and their profits are too low (Fixed in 1.8.)
* Castles need to be more useful (Added exclusive recruits to castle villages in 1.5.10).
* Imprisoning nobles is unviable as they escape too easily (fixed 1.5.9).
* Player can't control allied parties (Fixed in 1.5.10 with stance and wage options for allied parties).
Roleplaying
* NPC Relations: Good relations with nobles has no useful benefits. It should make them much more likely to join your faction. Members of your clan should have good relations with you, instead of 0.
* Skill Gains:
Tactics and Engineering level too slowly. Skills level way too slow (Fixed 1.5.10). Leadership, Trade and Roguery are too hard to level (Fixed 1.8.) Charm tree is underpowered (Fixed 1.7.0). Ability to respec perks (Added in 1.8.)
* Skill Effects: Engineering should make siege camps build faster. "Loyalty and Honor" perk should only apply to T4+ troops. Tactics skill should benefit the player in real battles more.
* Companions: Companions/clan members take too long to learn skills.
Not enough companions spawn (Fixed r1.1.0).
* Personality Traits: Most traits are far too slow for the player to gain. Traits have no noticeable effect on the AI's behaviour. Executing people doesn't give you the Cruel trait.
* Marriage: NPCs often marry characters
that are on the other side of the world from them or are
too old to have children.
* Some armor pieces have wrong stats or civilian rating. (17 items fixed in 1.6.2-1.8.)
* Quests: Some quests do not trigger (Fixed? 1.6.1). The mid game lacks quests (improved in 1.6-1.6.1 with "Conquest of City", "Noble Revolt" and "Revenue Farming").
* Dialogue: Many lines of text have grammar/spelling/consistency issues (fixed in 1.8.) Tavern keepers have no dialogue (Fixed 1.7.2). Player should be able to talk to prisoners (Added 1.7.2). Dialogue should reflect recent events (Added 1.8.)
* Smithing: 2H maces lack parts (Fixed 1.8.) Smithing is repetitive (1.6 Orders mode adds variety). Items sell for ridiculously high prices (Fixed 1.7.0).
* Trade: Camels aren't purchasable (Added 1.8.) Some weapons and armor are worth far too much money (Fixed 1.7.0).
* Tournaments: Need better rewards to make them more worth it in mid-game. (Fixed 1.6.5).
* Upgrading a unit should use the cheapest horse the player has, not the most expensive (Fixed 1.6.3).
Battles
* Singleplayer Armour:
Arrows/bolts do too much damage to armour, which is unrealistic, makes archers/horse archers very overpowered, and leads to shallow tactics. Armour gives poor protection against melee weapons, which makes battles end too quickly, and expensive armour pointless (Fixed 1.8.)
* Combat AI: Archers cannot hit circling horse archers. Spearmen do not use their spear when fighting infantry.
Cavalry rarely couch their lances (Fixed in 1.9). Cavalry will ride off the map to gain charging distance on enemies (Fixed 1.5.10). Troops sometimes ignore close threats to reach their destination (Fixed 1.6.4) or focus on enemies who are too far away (Fixed 1.5.10). Ranged unit AI will not target cavalry at long range (Fixed 1.5.9).
* Singleplayer Weapons:
Spears are too slow and weak. Glaives do too much damage.
Shields have too much health. Throwing axes are weak.
Throwing axes should do more shield damage (Added 1.8.) Pike bracing does not work in Singleplayer (Added 1.6.2).
* Morale is mostly irrelevant, and doesn't let you turn the tide of battle, the way devblogs said it would. Low tier troops can easily get perfect morale (fixed 1.5.9). Visible formation morale (added 1.7.0).
* Troop Trees: Too few troops use braced polearms. Troop trees are not different enough from each other. Tavern mercenaries are very weak (Fixed? 1.9).
* The ability to order troops to attack a specific enemy formation is needed to make battlefield tactics less frustrating to execute.
* Sieges: Siege ladders should be less powerful for attackers. Troops use siege towers and siege ladders very inefficiently (Fixed 1.7.0), and attack castle gates one at a time (Fixed 1.6.1). Artillery often hits allies when aiming at enemies (Fixed 1.5.10 and 1.6.1). Rams block troops (Fixed 1.5.9).
* Assigning hero troops or filtering by high/low tier in Order of Battle system needed (Added r1.1.0).
* Due to collision zones, crowds of units jitter rapidly, and can attack through each other. (Fixed 1.9).
* Retreating from a siege has no penalty and can be exploited (Fixed 1.9).
* Singleplayer Mounted Combat: Horses charging into infantry don't cause enough knockdown (Fixed 1.8.)
* Reinforcements teleporting into the middle of a starting location severely disadvantages whichever side moves forward to attack (Fixed 1.8.)
* Prison Breaks: Need ability to tell prisoner to wait (Added 1.6.1).
* AI nobles/companions die in non-simulated battles too often (Fixed 1.6.3).
Visual/UI/Sound
* Balding haircut options, which were in Warband.
* Generated NPC children are clones who look exactly the same.
* Empire nobles wear worse helmets than their troops.
Multiple armor pieces are not used by troops (Fixed r1.1.0).
* Music: Unique regional songs rarely play when travelling in the relevant territory (except for Aserai's song). Siege music lacks variety.
* Rain weather effects for scenes are built into the game, but currently do not occur.
* Scenes: Some castle scenes and 66 field battle scenes are still unimplemented. (Many added in 1.5.9 to r1.0.2.) Unique town scenes (Completed 1.5.9-r1.0.2).
* Battle Ambient Sound System and Quad Ambiences improvements to sound system.
* NPC conversation animations glitch when they loop. (Fixed? r1.0.2)
* Vlandian culture lacks shoulder armor models (Fixed 1.8.) Aserai culture lacks armor models (Fixed 1.6.2-1.8.)
* Frequent sound for relation gain is annoying (Fixed in 1.6.3 by reducing frequency of emissary relation gain).
* Helmets are the incorrect size for characters' heads (Fixed 1.9).
* NPCs do not blink in quick talk screen (Fixed 1.7.2).
* Rulers of a faction should look like rulers (great crown models added in 1.5.10 - r1.1.0).
* Upgrading large quantities of troops in the UI is irritating. (Fixed 1.6).
* Greeting/main quest voiceovers. (Added 2.0 official release).
Engine/Multiplayer/Technical
* Multiplayer servers are unstable and players complain they crash often.
* Official multiplayer servers for South American players.
* Replay system for Multiplayer.
* General bug/crash fixing. (Ongoing in every patch - TW tracks bugs in this thread)
* Improved voice chat for Multiplayer.
* Mod tools and their documentation need to be completed (improved in 1.6.1 - r1.1.0) and the modding community have requested the code to be more easily accessible (done in 1.6 - 1.6.5).
* Steam Workshop support for modding (Added 1.9)
* Custom servers for Multiplayer (Added in 1.8.1.)
* Bad performance needs fixing/optimising (Mostly fixed since 1.6 onward, most PC users now report decent performance.)
* Single-life "Battle" mode for Multiplayer (Added 1.7.2).
* Various mechanics in the game are poorly explained, and could receive more information in the Encyclopedia. (Added 1.7.2).
* Ranked matchmaking system for Multiplayer (Added 1.7.2).
* Aesthetic customization system for Multiplayer (Added 1.6.2).
* Choosing which troops are used in Custom Battle (Added in 1.6).
CATEGORY 2: Adding features that were in previous M&B games, or mentioned in dev blogs.
By using the Mount & Blade name to sell Bannerlord, Taleworlds created an expectation it would have what people liked from M&B Warband. TW also hyped up buyers by talking about new features in the developer blogs. So they should deliver on those expectations.
Overworld
* Kingdom Court: In Warband, your kingdom had a Court where nobles would visit and offer to join you.
* Minor Faction bases: Shown in the 2016 demo. A place for minor factions to
recruit their troops and the player to hire them.
* Manhunters: Neutral bounty hunters with special troops, who spawned to fight bandits when there were too many.
Demo
* Civil Wars: A claimant recruits you and other nobles in a war to try and take control of a kingdom they claim to be the rightful ruler of.
* Ability to promote companions to nobles as a faction ruler. (Added in 1.6.4)
* Choosing to accept a ransom offer for a noble, or keep them prisoner (Added in 1.5.10)
* Reasons for support for war or peace (Added in 1.6.1)
* Suggesting to allied nobles to attack/defend a specific location without you. A similar feature, ordering allies to act defensively or offensively, was added in 1.5.10.
Roleplaying
* Feasts in Peacetime: Warband let nobles and the player hold feasts, which added roleplaying options, made it convenient to talk to lots of nobles in one location, and increased immersion.
* Skill Training: You could pay money to get experience in a skill faster in Warband.
* Criminal Enterprises: Taking over an alley from a gang to create your own profitable criminal operation (Added in r1.1.0).
* The ability to retire the main character (Added in r1.1.0).
* Cutscenes: Animations for important events (Added in 1.8.)
* Sandbox Mode: Option to skip the main quest and choose your own starting situation (Added in 1.5.9)
* Ironman Mode: Option to play a save where you cannot quit without saving (Added in 1.6)
* Companions with story interactions and unique persistent personalities, appearances and stats.
Battles
* Surprise Encounters: Warband had surprise attacks by drunks, bandits, and even assassins, in towns at night.
* Noble Duels: You could insult a noble to challenge them to a one-on-one Duel.
* Escape Fight: Fighting your way out in civilian gear after failing to sneak into a town.
* Banners borne by troops in combat as shown in the 2017 trailer. (Added in 1.9.0)
* Order of Battle: Choosing where and how to position your troop formations before a field battle. (Added in 1.7.0)
* The ability to break imprisoned nobles out of a dungeon and battle your way out. (Added in 1.5.9)
* Fighting defenders in the keep after winning the wall fight of a castle siege. (Added in 1.6.1)
* Tax Collection quest where you must gather taxes (Added in 1.6.1) and fight the citizens if they resist.
@armagan @Dejan @MArdA TaleWorlds @elysebluemoon @Singil @uçanbiblo @SadShogun @Duh_TaleWorlds @lottendill @Callum
The community likes and appreciates much about the game, but these problems cause frustration and prevent it from reaching its potential. If this list can get mostly completed, Bannerlord will be a truly good sequel to Warband, and you'll please the vast majority of your buyers.
