The Bannerlord playerbase has been decreasing for months now. There are a number of factors behind this. Among the causes are unfinished game modes, bugs/crashes, busted gameplay mechanics, a lack of balance in Skirmish and Captain Mode, no battle mode, lack of loadout customization, lack of maps, and no custom servers.
All of these factors contributed to players leaving MP. With that being said, there was still a small holdout of players who continued playing, optimistic about the game getting better. They understood that eventually the bugs would get fixed, the combat mechanics would improve, we'd see better balance in the existing game modes and maybe even some new maps. In time, even custom servers would arrive.
But then, something happened that seemed to push the community over the edge. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. It was the addition of crush-through.
In July of 2020, the upcoming 1.5x patch advertised the ability for all 2H weapons to crush through their opponent's blocks. There was a lot of head-scratching among the playerbase, because this was a mechanic no one had asked for. There was speculation and confusion on how exactly crush-through was going to be implemented.
When I heard about the plan to make 2H have crush-through capabilities, I made a post on the forums on July 27th 2020.
The post was slightly tongue-in-cheek, and it was mostly me being a smartass.
Here is what I said:
As you can see, I used a direct quote from the patch notes on the new crush-through mechanic, then I made a troll-ish comment about s keying and spamming overheads. Then, to conclude, I made another sarcastic remark about being able to crush through with my menavlion. To be completely forthcoming, I was just being a total smartass and posting a quasi-Worst-Case-Scenario regarding the new crush-through patch, especially with the last comment -because the mere thought of menavlions being able to crush through was inconceivable to me at the time.
I mean, why would one of the longest weapons, with great power and deceptive speed, wielded by one of the fastest moving inf classes, actually be allotted the crush-through ability? Wouldn't that be a little broken?
Well they did. Along with practically every other 2H weapon -including swords. You would think only a short and slow weapon would have the crush-through trait - purely for game balance purposes. No, it was every weapon. Some of these weapons were really fast. Some were really long. Some were both.
It was a broken, busted mechanic that had infiltrated the game. It removed skill, and replaced it with RNG and cheese. The new patch -instead of promoting the development of skill and ability, lowered the skill ceiling and made the delicate combat ecosystem more of a crapshoot than ever before.
Players were immediately turned off by the controversial new crush-through mechanic. If you were the one getting crushed through, it made you feel frustrated. If you were the one doing the crush-through, it made you feel dirty on the inside. No one won.
The addition of crush-through had immediate impacts on the duel server, since abusing crush-through with 2H is an obvious faux paus. Thus, there's now a whole class of weaponry -and entire playstyle, that went out of vogue.
Siege and TDM were affected as well. It's no fun to get repeatedly killed by the same player abusing overheads time and time again. These game modes already had their issues with friendly-fire, bugs, crashes, and overall balance. Now crush-through was another issue added to the pile.
Then we come to Skirmish.
It bears mentioning that one of the reasons crush-through was implemented was because of the lack of 2H in competitive Skirmish play. A decade of competitive Warband saw sword and board reign supreme in the inf department, with 2H being a novelty at best. The devs wanted to make 2H more viable.in competitive, and thus they added a new mechanic.
I actually applaud this way of thinking. The devs wanted to change up the meta somewhat and add variety to the gameplay. It's admirable and forward thinking -generally a good thing.
The problem was, instead of addressing the issues that discouraged 2H use (tweak/adjust OP throwables and ranged class capabilities, increase 2H effectiveness against shields, increase shock class armor, give shock classes access to viable shields), they created a new mechanic that complicated the game further. Hmm, where have I heard this before???
Instead of simplifying, the devs added yet another mechanic, multiplying the combat issues Bannerlord currently faces.
Even worse, the new mechanic they added was -as mentioned earlier, dominated by RNG, gimmicky/cheesy, and generally looked upon unfavorably.
As to crush-through's impact on Skirmish play, well, it's hard to say.
Coming from an NA perspective, there hasn't been a Skirmish tournament since NABB (June-July 2020). In the time since, we've only had pickups and half-hearted clan scrims. Not long after the crush-through patches came out, many teams and clans started becoming inactive/left the game entirely. I see 2H used in scrims/pickups occasionally -with mixed results. That being said, they still get picked by archers or pincushioned by pilas/javelins.
What is safe to say is 2H haven't become any team's normal loadout or meta.
So crush-through as a whole has failed in its strategic goals. It did not change the competitive meta. Sword-and-board is still the mainstay for inf players. The collateral damage caused by crush-through has been felt most keenly in Duel, Siege, and TDM. All of these game modes have far less players now than they did in the spring/summer.
Now there's no way to ever know, but I hypothesize that crush-through was the final slap in the face that pushed players to leave Bannerlord. The community was on shaky legs, and morale was perilously low, and then crush-through was dropped on them and, well, crushed them.
Go back up to the quote I posted and read it. My ****post was prophetic, my fears were accurately predicted, and my cynicism was vindicated, but I feel no satisfaction or catharsis. I do not feel like a Nostradamus, I do not feel good about being right. I wish I was wrong. Because now barely any plays Bannerlord.
And those sentiments I expressed on July 27th were not unique to myself; I was merely echoing the general attitude of the community regarding their fears about adding crush-through. The playerbase as a whole predicted this, and still the MP team went forward with adding it, and on December 17th, 2020, we still have crush through.
I have heard that upcoming patches will reduce/remove crush-though for most weapons. This is a good thing. This will make Bannerlord better.
But I fear the damage has already been done.
All of these factors contributed to players leaving MP. With that being said, there was still a small holdout of players who continued playing, optimistic about the game getting better. They understood that eventually the bugs would get fixed, the combat mechanics would improve, we'd see better balance in the existing game modes and maybe even some new maps. In time, even custom servers would arrive.
But then, something happened that seemed to push the community over the edge. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. It was the addition of crush-through.
In July of 2020, the upcoming 1.5x patch advertised the ability for all 2H weapons to crush through their opponent's blocks. There was a lot of head-scratching among the playerbase, because this was a mechanic no one had asked for. There was speculation and confusion on how exactly crush-through was going to be implemented.
When I heard about the plan to make 2H have crush-through capabilities, I made a post on the forums on July 27th 2020.
The post was slightly tongue-in-cheek, and it was mostly me being a smartass.
Here is what I said:
As you can see, I used a direct quote from the patch notes on the new crush-through mechanic, then I made a troll-ish comment about s keying and spamming overheads. Then, to conclude, I made another sarcastic remark about being able to crush through with my menavlion. To be completely forthcoming, I was just being a total smartass and posting a quasi-Worst-Case-Scenario regarding the new crush-through patch, especially with the last comment -because the mere thought of menavlions being able to crush through was inconceivable to me at the time.
I mean, why would one of the longest weapons, with great power and deceptive speed, wielded by one of the fastest moving inf classes, actually be allotted the crush-through ability? Wouldn't that be a little broken?
Well they did. Along with practically every other 2H weapon -including swords. You would think only a short and slow weapon would have the crush-through trait - purely for game balance purposes. No, it was every weapon. Some of these weapons were really fast. Some were really long. Some were both.
It was a broken, busted mechanic that had infiltrated the game. It removed skill, and replaced it with RNG and cheese. The new patch -instead of promoting the development of skill and ability, lowered the skill ceiling and made the delicate combat ecosystem more of a crapshoot than ever before.
Players were immediately turned off by the controversial new crush-through mechanic. If you were the one getting crushed through, it made you feel frustrated. If you were the one doing the crush-through, it made you feel dirty on the inside. No one won.
The addition of crush-through had immediate impacts on the duel server, since abusing crush-through with 2H is an obvious faux paus. Thus, there's now a whole class of weaponry -and entire playstyle, that went out of vogue.
Siege and TDM were affected as well. It's no fun to get repeatedly killed by the same player abusing overheads time and time again. These game modes already had their issues with friendly-fire, bugs, crashes, and overall balance. Now crush-through was another issue added to the pile.
Then we come to Skirmish.
It bears mentioning that one of the reasons crush-through was implemented was because of the lack of 2H in competitive Skirmish play. A decade of competitive Warband saw sword and board reign supreme in the inf department, with 2H being a novelty at best. The devs wanted to make 2H more viable.in competitive, and thus they added a new mechanic.
I actually applaud this way of thinking. The devs wanted to change up the meta somewhat and add variety to the gameplay. It's admirable and forward thinking -generally a good thing.
The problem was, instead of addressing the issues that discouraged 2H use (tweak/adjust OP throwables and ranged class capabilities, increase 2H effectiveness against shields, increase shock class armor, give shock classes access to viable shields), they created a new mechanic that complicated the game further. Hmm, where have I heard this before???
Instead of simplifying, the devs added yet another mechanic, multiplying the combat issues Bannerlord currently faces.
Even worse, the new mechanic they added was -as mentioned earlier, dominated by RNG, gimmicky/cheesy, and generally looked upon unfavorably.
As to crush-through's impact on Skirmish play, well, it's hard to say.
Coming from an NA perspective, there hasn't been a Skirmish tournament since NABB (June-July 2020). In the time since, we've only had pickups and half-hearted clan scrims. Not long after the crush-through patches came out, many teams and clans started becoming inactive/left the game entirely. I see 2H used in scrims/pickups occasionally -with mixed results. That being said, they still get picked by archers or pincushioned by pilas/javelins.
What is safe to say is 2H haven't become any team's normal loadout or meta.
So crush-through as a whole has failed in its strategic goals. It did not change the competitive meta. Sword-and-board is still the mainstay for inf players. The collateral damage caused by crush-through has been felt most keenly in Duel, Siege, and TDM. All of these game modes have far less players now than they did in the spring/summer.
Now there's no way to ever know, but I hypothesize that crush-through was the final slap in the face that pushed players to leave Bannerlord. The community was on shaky legs, and morale was perilously low, and then crush-through was dropped on them and, well, crushed them.
Go back up to the quote I posted and read it. My ****post was prophetic, my fears were accurately predicted, and my cynicism was vindicated, but I feel no satisfaction or catharsis. I do not feel like a Nostradamus, I do not feel good about being right. I wish I was wrong. Because now barely any plays Bannerlord.
And those sentiments I expressed on July 27th were not unique to myself; I was merely echoing the general attitude of the community regarding their fears about adding crush-through. The playerbase as a whole predicted this, and still the MP team went forward with adding it, and on December 17th, 2020, we still have crush through.
I have heard that upcoming patches will reduce/remove crush-though for most weapons. This is a good thing. This will make Bannerlord better.
But I fear the damage has already been done.
