Concerns about content in Bannerlord SP - not much to do

[InfinityFire]

It's finally here. And it's a bit of a let down.

I'll get straight to the point.

Yes, I completely understand that the game is still very early on in 'early access'. But there just seems like so little content after almost 8 years of development.
It's a sandbox game without any sand in the box. You're free to do anything, but there's nothing TO do.

This being said, I have no doubt that once more content is added, Bannerlord has the potential to be one of the greatest games out there.

Let me explain.

It's not that the game feels empty, your character's interaction with... anything feels empty.
- there is little to none interaction with the lords and nobles of factions
- marriage is simply answering 3 questions correctly. Three. Questions. And boom, married
- the barter and diplomacy options are almost entirely non-existent as of now
- quests are unbelievably repetitive... seriously, there's like a grand total of 5 different quests currently
- kingdom management/participation is clearly unfinished
- companion interactions don't exist, or are not implemented yet
- I don't have the best gaming specs, nor an ssd, but waiting almost 2 mins to render in a town to talk to a singular npc sucks. It actually sucks.

Not to mention all the bugs, glitches, and crashes that come with early access.
Crashes galore atm. Many of these crashes seem to have been addressed.

You know that feeling of progression and working towards something that was always present in Warband? Bannerlord lacks the content to provide that same feeling in the state that it's in.

The world just feels so... incomplete and unfulfilling. I don't know how else to word this.


One thing that is done correctly is the battles. They feel fluid and the tide can shift with the right tactics. Combat is smooth. Sieges are fun.


I'll say again. It is in early access, for all the term applies. I do think it will become an amazing experience eventually. But I'm just very concerned of the lack of stuff to do and things to interact with as of now. Maybe I just hyped it up too much in my head...

So yeah, that's just my opinion, based on my experience with the game. (82 hours on the multiplayer beta, 20 hours on singleplayer)

I really do want to love this game, but I just feel like my character doesn't have the same journey or effect in/on Calradia like he did in previous titles.

I know it's really a waiting game until they polish and add new stuff to the early access, but I dunno, felt like there would be more to do.

Anyone feel similarly? Differently?

Also is there a roadmap somewhere that confirms what content they're adding?




Edit: To clarify, and as I've stated many times, I know that this game is in early access. I know that the developers are working hard on it. I understand that not everything goes or will go as envisioned. I also understand that decent game development takes a long time.

But I do think that these features need to be implemented soon, even if it is just a rough draft of said feature. Because the single player in it's current state is very lackluster. People wont wait another couple years.

 

[Adrivan]

Yes i do feel like some features are missing, but I suspect the developers already know that. They clearly stated this is an early version and not everything will be in the game. I guess with every patch that comes, we will get more and more content.

 

[InfinityFire]

Yes i do feel like some features are missing, but I suspect the developers already know that. They clearly stated this is an early version and not everything will be in the game. I guess with every patch that comes, we will get more and more content.

Yes, I am astutely aware that it's an early version of the game. And like I said, I'm certain Bannerlord will be amazing once it's complete.

My main concern is WHEN it will be complete tho. It's been 8 years in development already.
To quote myself, "I know it's really a waiting game until they polish and add new stuff to the early access, but I dunno, felt like there would be more to do. "

And exactly that. I know they're adding stuff. But I've waited since middle school for this game, I'm going to college in a few months. I honestly thought that we would be receiving a more complete game by now.

I'm not trying to flame the devs or anything, I genuinely appreciate the game they brought to reality - and I know it takes a lot of work. I'm just a bit salty that the game seems hollow despite all this time.


I suppose the point of my whole post is to enforce and bring to light some of the problems (or lack of, really) in bannerlord atm.


Because even if the devs do know that many aspects are missing, and they eventually implement them - if it takes too long, much of the playerbase might not be around anymore. They wont stick around to enjoy the game for what it truly can be.

 

[Adrivan]

8 years is indeed a long time, but working in software development myself.. i can understand how it can happen.
What initially was supposed to be a '2 weeks tops' project for our company, ended up being 8 months... it's just hard to predict sometimes how much developing a software will take.

I heard they scratched the game and started again at some point during development, so I'm not surprised it took them this long. They also started as a new company, Mount & Blade was their first and only title.

 

[InfinityFire]

Whilst I have very limited experience in programming, let alone game development;

I do understand that things pop up, prototypes get scrapped, and as a general rule of thumb - projects often take much longer than expected. Life happens too.
Yes, it is a fact that they are still a relatively small team in a relatively new company.

And my goal is not at all to attack the developers, nor their work.

But simply to share my thoughts on features that I think desperately needed to be added quite soon. Because I really don't think it's okay to let a game sit in the unfinished state that Bannerlord is in atm and charge money for it.

I'm not disagreeing with you.

I know what I signed up for when purchasing an early access game, and I know that the developers do have plans for it. I also know that people wont stick around if crucial aspects of gameplay aren't added soon.


And maybe I'm just wasting my breath here (so to speak) because they in fact, might add most of the content within these few months. Which would be great, while unlikely. But that would mean that this post served its purpose (or had none, whichever way you look at it)

 

[majiger]

If you played Warband, you would know the game was pretty bare bones at launch as well. It was slowly improved over time. The main thing that keeps this type of gaming is the modding community. Once the main aspects of the game are fleshed out/bugs fixed. The modding community will give players that need more variety the ability to sate that.

 

[Aivian]

Mad respect for taleworlds and bringing me the experience of M&B warband, I absolutely appreciate the experience taleworlds brought to me and my friends with m&b warband... here comes the but... I have played the game now since release (SP) and I feel like I am done. I have a total of 30 hours in the SP now in one run (compared to my 50+ hours SP time in warband native) and I have had my ups and downs, my experiments etc all in one playthrough and now I have done everything there is and I have nothing else to do. I have tested out every bug, I have tested everything else that is not a bug and I feel finished with the game. Now it is time to play the waiting game again and wait for taleworlds to fix all their bugs and add the extra content and then do another playthrough and then after that comes the waiting time for mods that will make the game amazing

TL.DR I feel you on the sence that there isn't much to do but at this point all we can do is wait until taleworlds adds their missing content and fixes their bugs and then wait a bit more for mods and see where that takes us!

 

[Fietta]

People don't quite understand how Bannerlord was developed. From what I've heard, the first two years they were developing Bannerlord off the Warband engine with a relatively small team, scrapped it then decided to build an entirely new engine for Bannerlord and then developed Bannerlord. 8 years is pretty reasonable if it happened like this.

 

[InfinityFire]

My main concern is not over the reasonably of eight years or not (it has been a long wait, no matter how you look at it) but mainly if they will add the rest of the game within a timely fashion.

 

[Aivian]

People don't quite understand how Bannerlord was developed. From what I've heard, the first two years they were developing Bannerlord off the Warband engine with a relatively small team, scrapped it then decided to build an entirely new engine for Bannerlord and then developed Bannerlord. 8 years is pretty reasonable if it happened like this.

I dont think that is the case? They started working on their own game engine right after they released warband in 2010 but they came across many problems forcing them to re-make their engine after some time and they also have re-done the game one time too, on top of that they have scrapped and re-done many things in the game hence delaying the release and why the game is not yet finished

My main concern is not over the reasonably of eight years or not (it has been a long wait, no matter how you look at it) but mainly if they will add the rest of the game within a timely fashion.

There is no reason for them not to add the rest of the game (in a timely fashion as you say) as the game will most likely not be re-made from scrap again with a newer engine or what not

 

[Solanthus]

Honest answer? Come back in a year.

 

[froggyluv]

Im honestly worried about how hooked ill be once they DO implement all the polish

 

[mamastoast]

I'm so used to Pendor and other overhaul mods that I'd kinda forgotten how empty a vanilla mount and blade world really is Even with all the planned features I've heard about... it sounds like the game will have similar issues to warband where the content is entirely dependant on kingdoms being at war.

What is there really to do in peacetime? Kill looters and bandits?

 

[ssssnake]

I'm so used to Pendor and other overhaul mods that I'd kinda forgotten how empty a vanilla mount and blade world really is Even with all the planned features I've heard about... it sounds like the game will have similar issues to warband where the content is entirely dependant on kingdoms being at war.

What is there really to do in peacetime? Kill looters and bandits?

This is very true. Vanilla Warband was not particularly engaging. There was war, and not much else going on.

Pendor gave Warband much more depth. There were tons of interesting sub-factions and spawns to face. There were knighthood orders and building your own knighthood order. The never ending quests for qualis gems. Character and companion development was more rewarding.

There was a lot to do even when you were not at war, and the world felt more real and engaging.

I don't think that Bannerlord will ever have the same sort of depth. However, I'm certain that the modding community will fill the gap.

 

[eddiemccandless]

This is very true. Vanilla Warband was not particularly engaging. There was war, and not much else going on.

Pendor gave Warband much more depth. There were tons of interesting sub-factions and spawns to face. There were knighthood orders and building your own knighthood order. The never ending quests for qualis gems. Character and companion development was more rewarding.

There was a lot to do even when you were not at war, and the world felt more real and engaging.

I don't think that Bannerlord will ever have the same sort of depth. However, I'm certain that the modding community will fill the gap.

Honestly I would be way more excited about a Pendor mod for Bannerlord that I ever was about Bannerlord itself.

Also, I see now that all those fights in tournaments against Hero Adventurers and Noldors were preparing me for the real ultimate adversary: the Imperial Palatine Guard o.o

 

[Brave_Lung]

My problem is that the Lords Armies are too weak. I crash everything no matter what troops I have even 1 to 3.
And this is because all the enemies have just rookies in their armies. I rarely faced armies with more than few elite troops.
But this can be balanced and I will make a thread about that on suggestions.

But the game is clearly made on the same mechanic as Warband. The whole concept is very old and it's not so immersive.
I doubt that it has a lot of potential! It has some potential indeed! But don't expect that it will become something way more than you imagine.

The progression sucks indeed. It's almost no progression. Troops become instant elite troops, you find very fast the best weapons in the game, the crafting doesn't give you way more powerful weapons than that and it's totally useless and it takes ages and not worth to bother.

The main quest is like.. what's that? a joke? I never care about the quests. There is no vision about a story here. Sand box without the sand as you mentioned.

And what's that sand that will come anyway? I'd like to know because I really don't see anything so amazing that would change the whole image of the game. Except the fixes for the broken mechanics that are already in EA.

 

[rthrfrd]

- marriage is simply answering 3 questions correctly. Three. Questions. And boom, married

Probably not the topic for this, but my hope for the marriage mechanic is

Spoiler: this

.

.

 

[Blyatt08]

Probably not the topic for this, but my hope for the marriage mechanic is

Spoiler: this

.

.

This is honestly fantastic and should be it's own thread lol.

 

[Midnitewolf]

OP your absolutely correct and at some point, after about 40 hours give or take, you just run out of things to do any more and it doesn't help that with your assistance, your faction totally dominates the map. In fact I haven't had to defend a siege once yet. However, like everyone else pointed out, this game isn't feature complete, not by a long shot. I mean some of the traits list greater production from mines and horse farms, have you seen a mine or horse farm anywhere?

To be honest with you, this is just a taste and I am glad it came out in EA because I have 92 hours invested already. However, as it stands the game feels about maybe 3/4 done. Honestly, I think your looking at probably at least a year before it hits full release. Also, to be honest, what made Warband so special in my opinion wasn't Warband, it was the Mods so your going to have to figure at least a year or more for those to come online too.

In the mean time I am just hoping the fix the things that are broken or clunky soon or at least figure out a way to patch the game that doesn't break the mods that allow me to fix the broken or clunky things. Once that happens it will be a lot more enjoyable and fun.

 

[Worldsprayer]

Maybe i'm overly optimistic, but look at what's happened. The game has been out for effectively a week, and in that time they have released...6 patches? One of those patches added hundreds of assets.
Lots is missing or turned off (why have a kingdom if you cant do any warring for example), but its obvious that now that it's out, its getting loved on like nothing else.