Dev Blog 05/07/18

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_47_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>One of the main activities you carry out in Mount & Blade games is visiting towns. Towns serve as trade hubs and strongholds where you can socialise with the nobility, recruit companions or get quests. For Bannerlord, we spent a lot of effort on the town menus to make the experience as fun and immersive as possible.</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/67

 

[lolbash]

隐藏

Why make the scene at all then? Just make menus for all locations -oh wait , my way has options.....bugger off

Except "your way" has already been tried in multiple mods already in Warband,  like in Gekokujo, where you are forced to search a town to meet the guild master before getting the shortcut to talk instantly. It has always been tedious, repititive, and has hurt the replayability of the mod.

Forcing players to walk around a giant city to look for collectables and people I would argue is a terrible idea and belongs in an open world game on the likes of Assassins Creed. Not in Mount and Blade when time is money and reducing excessive micromanagement to go into battle is a must for in-game productivity.

If you want exploration in video games I believe you are better off playing traditional RPGs with a focus on you and a small group of people taking quests.

So you just play mount and blade just to see fights? What I loved the most about this game was role-playing a character without having to be "the chosen one", and role playing a character includes visiting places, exploring a world. That may be your perception of how the game should be, but not for many of us. I wouldn't like getting collectables and that kind of stuff, but at least I would like to get a proof that this game is alive and it's not just an excuse to swing a sword against a bot

If your reasoning is immersion and how to make the world feel more alive, then I fail to see how forcing a player to walk around for 7 minutes to find an NPC is going to help make the player more immersed.

 

[Do not look here]

Considering the sheer amount of NPCs that we seem to have now in game, making a portrait for every single one seems like a lot of workload. Shot of an in-game face as it is now seems like a better idea to me, though maybe there could be some pose variety added and character's ability to emote they were so proud of could be employed as well, to reflect their personalities. It's easier to recognize NPCs at first glance this way, imo, rather than remembering dozens of names (even worse when you're a mercenary captain and have potential recruiters you want to keep good relations with all around the map).

 

[NPC99]

Question for Ozan: Will fiefs become access points that only friendly factions can move through? For example, if there is a castle in a narrow mountain pass, will enemy armies be unable to move through that pass without first taking the castle?

+1

Considering the sheer amount of NPCs that we seem to have now in game, making a portrait for every single one seems like a lot of workload. Shot of an in-game face as it is now seems like a better idea to me, though maybe there could be some pose variety added and character's ability to emote they were so proud of could be employed as well, to reflect their personalities. It's easier to recognize NPCs at first glance this way, imo, rather than remembering dozens of names (even worse when you're a mercenary captain and have potential recruiters you want to keep good relations with all around the map).

I’m sure that the icons portray each NPC’s in game face. At times of gatherings/feasts/sieges a city might have an overwhelming number of NPCs inside - the top right corner of the screenshot has an arrow button with 1/2 underneath, indicating multiple pages of clickable NPC faces. That makes me wonder what governs their default order in the face menu listing - no doubt the one I want will always turn up last.

Appreciate the convenience of a panel to talk/see/meet all the NPC's but afraid its going to stunt the want to explore. Really games like this should both encourage and reward exploration rather than "I want/I click!" ADHD response. Also true that after Ive beeni n the same city 50 times it might feel tedious but I think they're should be various easter eggs ie special agents/quests/items that can only be found via walking around the scene to at least encourage it sometimes.

TW have given us the option to explore or fast track with menus. Bannerlord towns will be much larger than the scenes in Warband, making it easier to get lost and frustrated when you’re searching for someone in particular. I hope they have also added encounters/dialogue/quests (minor quests) that only reward casual explorers. Equally, I hope we get greater use of town scenes from:

1. Running battles in the streets within sieges.
2. Running battles in the streets during an internal riot/revolt.
3. Clashes within factions on the streets - off duty retainers of opposing/competing Lords (who hate each other) from the same faction - adherents to opposing minor factions etc.
4. Skullduggery - assassinations, kidnappings, ambushes, robberies.
5. Rescues - damsels in distress etc.
6. Betrayals - sneak missions to kill the guards of a gatehouse and betray the town to its besiegers or poison its water supply etc.
7.updated prison breaks & spying.

 

[KhergitLancer80]

I would like to learn about logistics. Are we going to have to stop in a fief or make a camp every night ?
What about water ? Are we going to have to stop next to a river time to time or go to a fief in order for our troops to drink water ?

It was kind of immersion breaking to move for days in warband.

There shall be water bottles like (50/50) just like in WB , and we shall either be have to stop next to a water source like river time to time or buy new ones from cities or villages.


With these more strategical depth can be the case in the game.

Logistics were one of the most important things after all.

 

[ombror]

A question, but also a comment on M&B warband :

it seems that we had no AI in warband, coming with 300 elite troops against one lord with 10 peasants, that we have already fight (and win) many times, he always say something like "you won't bust me twice" or "he will kill you this time"...

Since they are fleeing on the campain map, they should surrender or ask for mercy. Same point with castle sieges, when after 30 boring days they have no food but don't die or surrender, just try to fight out of the walls...

Will bannerlord provide a REAL AI, with different (and reallistic) reactions depending on the situation, our past encounters and present relationship ? I like variety and want lords, sieges... to be different each time especially for lords that have already been fought severall times but are still roaming on the map to burn villages...

an other small thing : lords never consider the total troops of a group when travelling on the map. if i have 100 troops and am followed by 2 lords each with 100 troops (so 300 in total) and we met an ennemy lord with 200 troops, both my friends will consider their own troops : 100 VS 200 and will flee. But we are in fact 3 * 100 VS 200, so we have numerous advantage and should fight. Please take this into account for your bannerlord AI.

 

[lolbash]

Real AI means installing machine learning programs on your computer and not even multimillion giants like Google have sucesfully made a working AI that can think for itself.

And thats not mentioning how intensive it is on the machine to make it think. Very likely that there will be no real AI in the game.

 

[Orion]

Don't be silly, you know what he means.

 

[NPC99]

A question, but also a comment on M&B warband :

it seems that we had no AI in warband, coming with 300 elite troops against one lord with 10 peasants, that we have already fight (and win) many times, he always say something like "you won't bust me twice" or "he will kill you this time"...

Since they are fleeing on the campain map, they should surrender or ask for mercy. Same point with castle sieges, when after 30 boring days they have no food but don't die or surrender, just try to fight out of the walls...

Will bannerlord provide a REAL AI, with different (and reallistic) reactions depending on the situation, our past encounters and present relationship ? I like variety and want lords, sieges... to be different each time especially for lords that have already been fought severall times but are still roaming on the map to burn villages...

an other small thing : lords never consider the total troops of a group when travelling on the map. if i have 100 troops and am followed by 2 lords each with 100 troops (so 300 in total) and we met an ennemy lord with 200 troops, both my friends will consider their own troops : 100 VS 200 and will flee. But we are in fact 3 * 100 VS 200, so we have numerous advantage and should fight. Please take this into account for your bannerlord AI.

The barter system allows ai Lords or the player to negotiate their way out of sieges etc. provided they have sufficient influence to deliver an acceptable alternative (i.e abandon the siege here & I’ll give you town x or your son (prisoner) in exchange).

When an army is gathered it becomes almost like a moving settlement, with its own UI overlay on the campaign map. The UI shows:
Army morale
Lords and their parties
Food supplies
Marching speed (players can see factors affecting the marching speed from a tooltip)

The UI also shows portraits of the lords which are currently a part of the army and their current relations with the player. Deep red means that they despise you, whereas bright green means that they are your favourite drinking buddy! If a lord has answered the summons and is travelling to join your army, or if they are currently away from the army on a mission, their portrait will appear greyed out with an indicator displaying their distance from the army’s current position, which is measured in days of travelling time. If you are an army commander you can click on a portrait to talk with a lord and give them a task to perform, such as scout ahead, bring food, bring reinforcements, bring horses, etc. You can dismiss lords to send them back to defend their lands or to trim the army and better manage your influence upkeep costs. If you are a member of an army, the army commander or other lords might have their own missions for you.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1457336536714336332

I read that as an army (excluding those greyed out on missions & the player when a subordinate) is a single party for ai purposes on the world map, meaning you engage them all rather than dance with individual Lords as in Warband.

 

[ArnulfFloyd]

Criticise Warband not have sense because game is even awesome, for me AI not is a important thing

 

[ombror]

TY NPC99, i've forgotten that.

 

[rohtvak]

This blog has upsetting undertones. To me, this easy access NPC menu on the overlay feels like an imerssion killer. I WANT to load the scenes and look for the NPCs in person. One of the commenters has said that looking for the NPCs would harm immersion, however the meaning of immersion is to make the player feel more apart of the game world. Being able to access dialogue with anybody in town doesn't make me feel more apart of the game world, rather like some alien who has everyone's cell phone number. This, "You can craft weapons without visiting the blacksmith" was heartbreaking. For, what other reason does the blacksmith shop "scene" exist I ask you? Navigating there through the streets of the city may take too long for some people, but at the very least it should be as it was in Warband. And while in warband it was a mere button click as well, at least you got immerssed in the scene each time you visited the NPC. Anyways thats just how I feel. Not an intentionally negative or naysaying post, much love to Taleworlds.

 

[Callum]

@Callum, was this blog Campaign map 2? hope it was not.

It wasn't.

Would you mind explaining what all these symbols next to the name of the town mean?

Also isn't Syronea next to a lake?

http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Calradia?file=Bannerlord_Map.png

if the map was altered ... it would be interesting to look at it

You will get to see the map at some point in the future, we have some more additions and changes we want to do before then though.

am i the only one disappointed in that settlement size, it looks smaller then the warband ones damn.

now you may argue that it's still in development, but towns being a major aspect in mount and blade with it's prequel only amounting to this size after years of development is pretty concerning

The screen is directly from the world map, not the actual town scene!

This blog has upsetting undertones. To me, this easy access NPC menu on the overlay feels like an imerssion killer. I WANT to load the scenes and look for the NPCs in person. One of the commenters has said that looking for the NPCs would harm immersion, however the meaning of immersion is to make the player feel more apart of the game world. Being able to access dialogue with anybody in town doesn't make me feel more apart of the game world, rather like some alien who has everyone's cell phone number. This, "You can craft weapons without visiting the blacksmith" was heartbreaking. For, what other reason does the blacksmith shop "scene" exist I ask you? Navigating there through the streets of the city may take too long for some people, but at the very least it should be as it was in Warband. And while in warband it was a mere button click as well, at least you got immerssed in the scene each time you visited the NPC. Anyways thats just how I feel. Not an intentionally negative or naysaying post, much love to Taleworlds.

There really isn't anything to stop you playing the game in that way. You can still enter the scenes to explore if that's what you would like to do.

 

[NPC99]

This blog has upsetting undertones. To me, this easy access NPC menu on the overlay feels like an imerssion killer. I WANT to load the scenes and look for the NPCs in person. One of the commenters has said that looking for the NPCs would harm immersion, however the meaning of immersion is to make the player feel more apart of the game world. Being able to access dialogue with anybody in town doesn't make me feel more apart of the game world, rather like some alien who has everyone's cell phone number. This, "You can craft weapons without visiting the blacksmith" was heartbreaking. For, what other reason does the blacksmith shop "scene" exist I ask you? Navigating there through the streets of the city may take too long for some people, but at the very least it should be as it was in Warband. And while in warband it was a mere button click as well, at least you got immerssed in the scene each time you visited the NPC. Anyways thats just how I feel. Not an intentionally negative or naysaying post, much love to Taleworlds.

TW is just providing alternatives to cater for differing playing styles. You can ignore the menus and only speak to the NPCs when you meet them in scene if that’s what you choose - options etc will remain the same either way. For my first run through, I’ll start with full immersion and explore every scene. If TW have done an exceptional job on the scenes, my playing style may stay that way, otherwise I’ll start using menus to accelerate time.

@Callum_Taleworlds thanks for your clarifications/confirmations. How soon can we expect the new website and forums?

 

[Do not look here]

Adding to that, devs seem to hint at having more stuff to do in towns. To me it seems that if you're visiting solely for its functions (recruit, buy/sell, find a specific person you need to talk to) you're only couple of clicks from doing that. But then if you want to get involved with local politics, like in an example of taking out back alley bandits for merchants quest they mentioned in previous devblogs, it's boots on the streets for you. I also hope for little things like TLD's townsfolk and their gossip which included easter eggs and even some quests. And, besides, it looks like towns will be just more fun to visit on their own, considering the lively streets we saw and that your own companions seem to mingle in as well. It would be amazing, though maybe too worryingly RPGish for some, to be able to learn more of a companion's backstory because you found them drinking and they opened up. Or help them in some quarrel that turned into brawl with the local river pirates.

Bottom line is, if you want exploring towns to be a thing, make it sound interesting instead of coming up with ways to force players to do it.

 

[ArnulfFloyd]

I am with defending Warband from criticisms, a engine from 2010 not will be compared with one from 2018, people has obsession with improved combat AI, I am different to them and I not wait Bannerlord so much

 

[lolbash]

隐藏

This blog has upsetting undertones. To me, this easy access NPC menu on the overlay feels like an imerssion killer. I WANT to load the scenes and look for the NPCs in person. One of the commenters has said that looking for the NPCs would harm immersion, however the meaning of immersion is to make the player feel more apart of the game world. Being able to access dialogue with anybody in town doesn't make me feel more apart of the game world, rather like some alien who has everyone's cell phone number. This, "You can craft weapons without visiting the blacksmith" was heartbreaking. For, what other reason does the blacksmith shop "scene" exist I ask you? Navigating there through the streets of the city may take too long for some people, but at the very least it should be as it was in Warband. And while in warband it was a mere button click as well, at least you got immerssed in the scene each time you visited the NPC. Anyways thats just how I feel. Not an intentionally negative or naysaying post, much love to Taleworlds.

TW is just providing alternatives to cater for differing playing styles. You can ignore the menus and only speak to the NPCs when you meet them in scene if that’s what you choose - options etc will remain the same either way. For my first run through, I’ll start with full immersion and explore every scene. If TW have done an exceptional job on the scenes, my playing style may stay that way, otherwise I’ll start using menus to accelerate time.

+1

This is also a replayability issue.


Lets say I am on my 70th playthrough of Bannerlord. Do you think I give a crap about how the scene of Chariz is beautiful and how the women toot the flutes when I have already seen it for the 70th time? Do you think I care about collectables or the incentive rewards in the back alley that gives me stat boosts when I have already found them all in my 2nd playthrough?

If you are forced to explore scenes, this is a chore to plough through, as already proven in multiple Warband mods.

I have a feeling that the people speaking against shortcuts have never played warband for more than one playthrough.

 

[Callum]

@Callum_Taleworlds thanks for your clarifications/confirmations. How soon can we expect the new website and forums?

We are still working on them but it should be in the not too distant future I imagine.

 

[NPC99]

@Callum_Taleworlds thanks for your clarifications/confirmations. How soon can we expect the new website and forums?

We are still working on them but it should be in the not too distant future I imagine.

Sounds promising. 
Do we get to keep our forum icons? I can’t imagine @Rainbow_Dash without his MLP icon.

 

[lolbash]

Im waiting until september comes, so I can finally go back to a normal name.

So enjoy my MLP theme for now until my name change.

 

[kalarhan]

We are still working on them but it should be in the not too distant future I imagine.

*cough* Gamescom *cough*