Dev Blog 02/05/19

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_88_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>In this week’s blog, we want to take a small step back from the game to tell you about our plans for this summer’s Gamescom, something that we’ve been asked about many times in the past few weeks. Yes, we will be attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this August (no surprise there, eh!).</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/108

 

[AJIexander]

Callum will beta participants be able to share videos and screenshots to increase overall interest in the game?

 

[RoboSenshi]

Need some clarification please.

Will it only be a limited demo again available to attendees of Gamescom?

Or will the full(ish) game be available with character creation, choosing factions etc? Albeit with some restrictions and bugs present. Basically, will the Gamescom presentation be limited or open?

 

[AJIexander]

Need some clarification please.

Will it only be a limited demo again available to attendees of Gamescom?

Or will the full(ish) game be available with character creation, choosing factions etc? Albeit with some restrictions and bugs present. Basically, will the Gamescom presentation be limited or open?

Write Callum

1) We will be showing singleplayer in the business area, so you can expect to see a few gameplay videos from our guests there, I can't tell you precisely what that footage will be of though just yet! And yes, the screenshot is from Captain Mode.

2) As you can imagine, this is quite a huge deal for both us and (hopefully) our community. We want to be fully prepared for this momentous occasion and ensure that players get to enjoy the game in all its glory. That’s why we’ll be showing one of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord’s exciting multiplayer modes in our public booth.

 

[RoboSenshi]

I think it's best to allow Callum answer the question himself. I don't like to infer meaning from a statement replying to someone else's question.

Plus those don't answer my question.

 

[HawkyX]

Need some clarification please.

Will it only be a limited demo again available to attendees of Gamescom?

Or will the full(ish) game be available with character creation, choosing factions etc? Albeit with some restrictions and bugs present. Basically, will the Gamescom presentation be limited or open?

"We will talk a little more about what to expect from us at Gamescom in a future blog, as well as, discussing our plans for the upcoming beta."

Meaning more info about Gamescom and beta in some of the following blog posts.

 

[kevinboer]

Callum, do we have any more information on how the beta will be distributed? Like what chance do any of us have of being able to partake in it?

I can't share too many details right now, but what I can say is that we plan to start out small while we test our systems, before scaling it up to many more players. If you are active around here on the forums, then I'm pretty sure you won't miss out!

well rip me, i have been around on the forums and every devblog since the early days mb warband but i hardly comment on things.

 

[Roccoflipside]

Callum, do we have any more information on how the beta will be distributed? Like what chance do any of us have of being able to partake in it?

I can't share too many details right now, but what I can say is that we plan to start out small while we test our systems, before scaling it up to many more players. If you are active around here on the forums, then I'm pretty sure you won't miss out!

well rip me, i have been around on the forums and every devblog since the early days mb warband but i hardly comment on things.

The way that's stated, I'm guessing "active" means following the blogs, checking in once or twice a week or so. I don't think it'll be tied to comment frequency or anything like that, as they have multiple forums under the m&b umbrella outside this here.

 

[Aldries]

So no attending E3 this year, which is totally fine considering you already have alot to do, but could we anyway maybe expect some offical gameplay videos or information any of that kind around E3? In addition to gamescon

 

[narhaday]

Why is it always Germany? Why do we have to to fly to only Germany? Why not a more reasonable location?

 

[NPC99]

Need some clarification please.

Will it only be a limited demo again available to attendees of Gamescom?

Or will the full(ish) game be available with character creation, choosing factions etc? Albeit with some restrictions and bugs present. Basically, will the Gamescom presentation be limited or open?

+1 will the business area single player demo be a full demo? Unlike last year:

Many thanks to everyone for their comments. The team here is working really hard to get the demo ready for Gamescom and we really appreciate your support.

Just to clarify a few things, the build we'll have in the booth will be different from the current development build in that, some features and pieces of content have been disabled. There are mainly two reasons for this. First, we want to focus our efforts on polishing the features that will be of most use in the demo. Disabling the rest allows us better manage our resources and time. Second, we do not want to reveal all the features and content in a single demo. We'd rather leave a good portion of the game as a surprise.

Here's a list of some of the things that are missing/disabled: 
Sieges
Crafting
Character generation
Kingdom and town management
About 2/3 of town scenes. We selected 2 town scenes per culture and all towns will be showing those.
Most companions are disabled. There will be around 10 that are available.
About 2/3 of planned perks are not yet implemented.

The suggestion to release this version as a demo sounds interesting, but that doesn't fit any existing model and it would take a lot of time and effort to hammer out the details and make this work. I would rather put that effort into development and do a proper early access version.

Also, will this Gamescom single player demo roll into a post-Gamescom single player Beta?

 

[ombror]

So many years we can see video, demo, gameplays... and still nothing. Seems we still won't have anything this year. *sigh*

Last year demo was playable ! I'm not developer, but if you have a playable demo 1 year ago, i can't understand why you can't provide it to us or have the game finished.

Yes, my comment is like many other comments. Yes, it's not really positive. Yes, i ask for a release, a demo... But, we are waiting and you are teasing us since 2012 ! If you tease people, one day, you NEED to give them something !

 

[Moton]

But, we are waiting and you are teasing us since 2012 ! If you tease people, one day, you NEED to give them something !

Well, one day they will give uss something.

 

[HawkyX]

Why is it always Germany? Why do we have to to fly to only Germany? Why not a more reasonable location?

Like E3 in Los Angeles? How is that reasonable for Europeans then? Sure would be nice if everything was convenient just for me.

Tokyo Game Show should also be in America (or Europe). /s

On a more serious note, these conventions were founded by local people/(dev)teams, started small and through time, more people and teams joined in on the fun. So they are local and some become well-known.

Here's a list of some of the things that are missing/disabled: 
...
Most companions are disabled. There will be around 10 that are available.

Uwah, most. Sounds like there will be around 50 or so companions in full version. (obviously exaggeration)
Warband had 16 companions.

 

[Do not look here]

Last year demo was playable

Last year they had playable ~30 minutes of early game, with WIPs and placeholders lying around.

 

[578]

So this is a blog about gamescom to tell us that a future blog will be about gamescom. Are you ****ing trolling us?

 

[HawkyX]

So this is a blog about gamescom to tell us that a future blog will be about gamescom.

AND another blog post about the approaching beta. I am okay with that kind of informative post once in a while. As for Gamescom itself, (not sure but) I think its ticket capacity is limited? They're open about it and gave us a warning quite ahead of the event.

 

[FBohler]

I think the chance for 2019 release deteriorated greatly with this.

If beta is going to happen after the 8th month of the year then even if they make it in the 9th month, 3 months are not enough to release the game.

I mean why would they release it just 3 months after they give beta ?

I must agree with you. 2019 release is getting very unlikely.
I dare to say that we're nowhere near from getting a release date this year.

I agree 2019 seems unlikely, but this is definitely good news that they feel confident enough to let anyone play it this year. I'd say we're looking at 2020/ very early 2021 at the latest, assuming gamescom/beta go smoothly.

Holydays 2020 seems reasonable for me.

 

[John the Roleplayer]

Right, time to make the forum jealous. I live about an hour from Cologne. I've never been, but I guess I'll be going to gamescom this year.

 

[Mad Vader]

Uninformed speculation? I'm in!

Spoiler

Need some clarification please.

Will it only be a limited demo again available to attendees of Gamescom?

Or will the full(ish) game be available with character creation, choosing factions etc? Albeit with some restrictions and bugs present. Basically, will the Gamescom presentation be limited or open?

+1 will the business area single player demo be a full demo? Unlike last year:

Spoiler

Many thanks to everyone for their comments. The team here is working really hard to get the demo ready for Gamescom and we really appreciate your support.

Just to clarify a few things, the build we'll have in the booth will be different from the current development build in that, some features and pieces of content have been disabled. There are mainly two reasons for this. First, we want to focus our efforts on polishing the features that will be of most use in the demo. Disabling the rest allows us better manage our resources and time. Second, we do not want to reveal all the features and content in a single demo. We'd rather leave a good portion of the game as a surprise.

Here's a list of some of the things that are missing/disabled: 
Sieges
Crafting
Character generation
Kingdom and town management
About 2/3 of town scenes. We selected 2 town scenes per culture and all towns will be showing those.
Most companions are disabled. There will be around 10 that are available.
About 2/3 of planned perks are not yet implemented.

The suggestion to release this version as a demo sounds interesting, but that doesn't fit any existing model and it would take a lot of time and effort to hammer out the details and make this work. I would rather put that effort into development and do a proper early access version.

They need to have enough to amaze game journalists with preset scenarios/saves. They will get their full attention if they are finally announcing a release date (Spring 2020?) and they need to show them a nearly finished game. (The purpose of the current daily meetings is to plan for such a nearly finished version in August. Finally, a deadline they can't dodge!)

Also, will this Gamescom single player demo roll into a post-Gamescom single player Beta?

If I were them, no. A single player beta would take a lot of their time and give a fairly hostile crowd more to ***** about. Yes, more bugs will be discovered, but is that really worth the trouble? Armagan's history says no.
I think they might go for the default industry approach and let the players "beta test" the game on release, then follow up with a quick patch that fixes the game-breaking stuff.

 

[RoboSenshi]

Still no answers to my question? I kinda need that info if I'm going to make arrangements to go. I won't like to spend money on a ticket and accommodation for essentially the same demo as last year's. Or a demo that's not some what close to the finished article at this point.