Dev Blog 08/02/18

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="http://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_26_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>A thousand years ago, the Calradoi were one of a dozen tribes living in the hill country between the southern sea and the Battanian woods. Over time, they subjugated their neighbours, forcing them into a confederation of city-states. Perhaps they were slightly fiercer than the others, or just lucky, or perhaps it was the one tradition that set them apart - the Calradoi had no kings. Ever since the hero Echerion slew the tyrant Cypegos, the institution of the monarchy was banned, in theory at least. There was an assembly of free citizens that met occasionally, a senate of elders (in practice the largest landowners) that sat permanently, and - when it was absolutely necessary - supreme command could be invested for a short time in the person of an emperor, a title that back then meant little more than the right to lead an army.</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/45

 

[Surkan]

cant wait to see this feature in the game!

 

[HUMMAN]

Good, a good lore can make this game even great, legendary. You can be new lotr, got, in a game!

 

[Ask]

Lore like this doesn't interest me too much, but next blog sounds good anyway. Just wish it wasn't in two parts :/

we dont know how many parts there will be.

Yes we do.

For the next feature in our blogpost series on Bannerlord's factions, we shall look at the Empire. Because the Empire is in some ways the centre of gravity of the game, we're going to divide this blog into two parts.

 

[Duchess Skye]

An empress huh? This could be interesting. Will you be able to marry her as a male player?

In fact, will you be able to marry kings as a female? With the ability to kill off lords, I'm guessing kings fit into that category too. So if a king dies and an unmarried lord gets crowned, you should be able to marry him.

 

[Duchess Skye]

Good, a good lore can make this game even great

Something your grammar clearly isn't 

 

[Revverie]

If you have not done any research about it please refrain from giving your opinion and do some research first. There is politics in the game.
Your comment just annoys me because I see these a lot from new people. It should not be too hard to research before forming an opinion .
There is also no reason to think that there wont be any political features since it was lacked alot in Warband and was realised by the developers.
After all, Bannerlord is much bigger , deeper and better version of Warband.

https://youtu.be/B04FrvZ1mI8?t=113

What you are doing helps create a cloud of miss information that gets bigger every time someone says it to a friend of theirs. It gets carried around until people start thinking that it is a fact. I know this is not your intention , so that is why I am trying to explain it to you. Do not get me wrong.

For Arenicos sake don't get that triggered mate, it's just a random peasent

 

[Odin boarhelm]

I stand with Garios! Who's with me??

 

[Sebidee]

Boring blog, why not post a video or something for once? We've seen no footage of the game for 6 months.

 

[Varrak]

I would like to see a Senate in the game.

 

[Bergil]

Boring blog, why not post a video or something for once? We've seen no footage of the game for 6 months.

We've seen gifs!

 

[Ki-Ok Khan]

If you have not done any research about it please refrain from giving your opinion and do some research first. There is politics in the game.
Your comment just annoys me because I see these a lot from new people. It should not be too hard to research before forming an opinion .
There is also no reason to think that there wont be any political features since it was lacked alot in Warband and was realised by the developers.
After all, Bannerlord is much bigger , deeper and better version of Warband.

https://youtu.be/B04FrvZ1mI8?t=113

What you are doing helps create a cloud of miss information that gets bigger every time someone says it to a friend of theirs. It gets carried around until people start thinking that it is a fact. I know this is not your intention , so that is why I am trying to explain it to you. Do not get me wrong.

For Arenicos sake don't get that triggered mate, it's just a random peasent

It was particularly important for me to say it because I looked at his profile and saw that he was 14 years old. If he does not learn it now to form opinions with research , he will have a lot of headache in the future. I just thought that it was an important thing to learn particularly early in life. Hopefully he learns something from what I have said.

 

[DanAngleland]

Callum said, on the Steam forums, that it's going to be a surprise subject, not the empire blog.

lol

Spoiler

Good blog anyways

Where do people get this stuff from? I am always reading that I said X or Y, but then when I ask them to find the source they are misinformed. 

Maybe I said that two weeks ago but I certainly didn't say it last week in regards to this week's blog.

Mount &amp; Blade II: Bannerlord [EN] English
Feb 5 @ 10:25am In topic What will we see in next blog?
Originally posted by Thupack:
Maybe, maybe not. Callum ignored everyone that asked about it.

Why would I give away the surprise beforehand?

That was 3 days ago, sir, with all due respect.  Though you definitely didn't say it wasn't going to be the empire blog.

.....Someone asked what the next blog will be about- because they didn't know what it would be. Callum replied that he would not confirm what it would be- this makes it a surprise, the uncertainty. You ask your mother whether you are eating the Empire for tea tonight, she replies "Maybe, maybe not, it's a surprise"; you wait and see what she serves you and that is the surprise, whether she serves you the Empire or egg and beans. Both are surprises because she would not tell you which she was making, she never confirmed or denied she was cooking the Empire for you, so the first time you know what you are getting is when you sit down at the table.

I like the lore, and the screenshots look good (the woman's face looks a little vacant and a bit...strange in the bottom screenshot, though the man in the foreground has a characterful look). Love the buildings- but what is the arrow on the sign for? It looks a bit incongruous to me, though I don't know what signage might have looked like in those times.

Also, it would be great if the guard in the town would carry his spear in hand rather than have it on his back- or perhaps have only sword and shield, or else a shield with the spear. I think it would look better rather than seeing the spear sticking up from his back like this.

 

[Takesis]

Excellent blog!
Lore seems really in-depth and interesting. Love the parallels between actual history of Rome and how emperor Arenicos resembles both Julius Caesar and Basil II. Cataphracts (that lamellar and pouldrons look very byzantine, love it!) are beautiful and architecture is gorgeous aswell.

He praised the Calradian republican ideals as the pinnacles of human achievement, yet married the daughter of a petty king from the lands east of the empire to shore up an important trade route, formed an elite bodyguard of foreign mercenaries loyal only to him, and turned a blind eye when cults began to worship him as a sacred monarch.

It seems like varangian guard is confirmed which is neat. 

Time was running out. Arenicos was getting older. He needed to make some sort of decision, and soon. And then, returning to his palace in the southern town of Lycaron after his latest victorious campaign on the borders, he asked for some time alone in his chamber to nurse a splitting headache; when his guard checked in on him a few hours later, he was lying dead in a pool of blood.

So is Lycaron the Rome/Constantinople of Calradia?

Anyways, great job TaleWorlds! Looks like the game is shaping up nicely. Can't wait for next blog!

 

[Falcon_lover2]

Great job! Very excited. Looking forward to next week Devblog.

 

[Takesis]

Anyways, a question:

Which heavy cav is stronger Imperial Cataphract or Vlandian Knight ?
Ofc it would be better if they had pros and cons compared to each other.

The impression I've got from various videos and blog screenshots is that cataphracts have marginally better armour but do not use shields as vlandian knights do. I do seem to recall a blog telling that vlandian knight is the best heavy cavalry unit. Maybe in-game cataphracts are slower than their vlandian counterparts which would make sense historically. Oh and maybe the lances have different lengths?

 

[AmateurHetman]

Anyways, a question:

Which heavy cav is stronger Imperial Cataphract or Vlandian Knight ?
Ofc it would be better if they had pros and cons compared to each other.

The impression I've got from various videos and blog screenshots is that cataphracts have marginally better armour but do not use shields as vlandian knights do. I do seem to recall a blog telling that vlandian knight is the best heavy cavalry unit. Maybe in-game cataphracts are slower than their vlandian counterparts which would make sense historically. Oh and maybe the lances have different lengths?

I imagine vlandian knights make use of couched lancing. Historically Byzantine cataphracts didn’t charge like the Norman knights they may have fought against. Cataphract charges were at a fast trot and basically a metal wedge being driven slowly into the enemy. Norman knights charged at a gallop with couched lances to hit the enemy like a hammer.

 

[RKStranger]

The screenshots are great! BTW how is the website thing going? I am not hoping for a release date but I would really love to get more high-resolution screenshots. If the website is coming soon with lots of media content, that would be even better.

 

[Gurkhal]

Anyways, a question:

Which heavy cav is stronger Imperial Cataphract or Vlandian Knight ?
Ofc it would be better if they had pros and cons compared to each other.

The impression I've got from various videos and blog screenshots is that cataphracts have marginally better armour but do not use shields as vlandian knights do. I do seem to recall a blog telling that vlandian knight is the best heavy cavalry unit. Maybe in-game cataphracts are slower than their vlandian counterparts which would make sense historically. Oh and maybe the lances have different lengths?

I imagine vlandian knights make use of couched lancing. Historically Byzantine cataphracts didn’t charge like the Norman knights they may have fought against. Cataphract charges were at a fast trot and basically a metal wedge being driven slowly into the enemy. Norman knights charged at a gallop with couched lances to hit the enemy like a hammer.

While this is true I'm pretty sure that the cataphracts will use charge at full speed just like Vlandian knights. I don't think they re-write AI (or whatever is needed) in order to get 100% accuracy on this detail. Not to mention that it will probably cause an uproar among the player majority for what they see as something weird or stupid, regardless of how historically correct it would be. Not to mention that given the, to my knowledge, very limited effect that morale has in this series, it will essentially just mean that the cataphracts are overwhelmed by infantry rather than break these to flight. In this game killing power is everything while causing routs is fairly unimportant.

 

[Revverie]

It was particularly important for me to say it because I looked at his profile and saw that he was 14 years old. If he does not learn it now to form opinions with research , he will have a lot of headache in the future. I just thought that it was an important thing to learn particularly early in life. Hopefully he learns something from what I have said.

Then let me correct myself: he's just a random 14 yo, the last place where he's going to learn something is in a game forum, and the last place where his opinion will count will be a... Game forum, he will learn in time like we all do, let him ****post in peace

 

[FBohler]

Architecture and some animations look great. And unlike the past videos the graphics look alot better. Maybe because of the lightning. Perhaps you changed something about it?

There is a different kind of filter on the city screenshot. is it just me or did you play with the picture afterwards. What exactly is going on ? Is it because of the seasons? Will there be different kinds of lightning for each season? Why am I asking all these questions?

Hi all, I'm one of the engine programmers.

We did have "SSDO" (Screen Space Directional Occlusion) before but we weren't happy with quality/performance ratio so we have implemented a better method but it is not merged in to development environment yet, so screenshot has no AO.

This is a quote from back in early September.  I believe that the high quality of the screenshots is due to to the updated occlusion system being fully implemented and finished.

There isn't any noticeable AO in these screenshots.
The easy way to detect AO evidences is by looking at the character's armpits and feet.