Dev Blog 08/11/18

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_65_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>In the medieval world, castles and strongholds were not meant to be dwellings, but military tools that were strong and easy to defend, positioned in choke points to protect an important region or trade route. Villages, on the other hand, were the population centres - places where people would dwell and sleep after a long day of work in the fields or herding their cattle. Towns were somewhat a combination of the two, but they were also very different (and complex) places. They had walls for defence and a high population count, but they were much more than just dwellings and defensive structures: they were the most important places around. Towns are where kingdoms forged their real power. Artisans worked raw materials into quality goods and merchants turned them into wealth. Courts were established in towns, so they were also the heart and brains of any realm -- where politics, conspiracies, and plots took place.</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/85

 

[Horik6697]

Very nice blog! Please continue feeding us with more screenshots!

 

[King Henry of Britonnia]

I Can not wait to lay my hands on the forts of those barbarian-like khuzaits.
We shall destroy their lair and slay the residents of those houses which they produce their warriors from.
And most importantly we must incinerate the smelly stables which they keep their war machines in.
(Hey...doesn't all this make us the barbarians?)

Yes, yes it does make barbarians out of all of us...I would at least show mercy to their families. I also have the desire to unite all of Calradia and end all the violence. This way, all of the different peoples can put their differences aside to work together for peace. I am excited and I cant wait to take walks in the variety of cities and towns that will be in the game. I really really like the new features such as the new dungeons and guards patrolling them, sitting on the throne etc. My first campaign will be with Vlandia, then the Empires, then Battania, then I shall begin my conquest of Calradia.

 

[HawkyX]

"(barring a select few that we save for immersion)." --> I think for example speaking to a lord?

That could be accessed through the quick menu too, most likely. But yeah, for example.

Other things I thought of: people in the streets, faction architecture, music in taverns, streets in times of peace and siege (like they said in this post)... we certainly won't see that through quick menu. And it helps immersion big time.

 

[Silen]

That amount of beautiful screenshots, top-notch.

 

[Oram]

wow, the map looks like it will be big! will this be the biggest map of all games!? Or the same size just shapes different with the add-on.

 

[LonelyStep]

Thanks for the blog. Those textures are going to get upgraded I hope, I am not going into a city with streched walled buildings. Loving the map so far though.

Seriously terrible, terrible textures.

Which image/building?

 

[grunwalder01]

I would really wish the back side of the city in hills are accesible and all cities are big as much as this. I would just walk and get lost in this beautiful place 

 

[Looter]

Beautiful scenery overall, you can see how much love and effort was put into these towns by the developers

 

[Grumpy181155]

Great blog and I just love the screenshots.  BL is looking seriously pretty. 

One small comment though.  In the first screenshot on the right hand side is an archway and the stone on the left of the archway appears to have a different level than the remainder of the shot.

Great blog though.  Thanks Callum. 

 

[WilliamTheIII]

This was a great blog and can’t wait for the finished project however, I have a couple questions?
1: How big overall are the cities?
2: During sieges will the player still be able to sneak/reinforce into a city to help defend it against invaders or will your troops be on the outskirts of the map and fight the enemy outside of the walls?
William

 

[Levente]

Nice blog, beautiful screenshots!
I  would like to know if it will be possible to access the towns/castles from multiple directions.
As far as i've seen, there is always one gate where you can enter the city in the campaign map. Is there maybe a gameplay reason for this?
Otherwise it would be really cool to have multiple (At least two) points where you can enter a fortified settlement, so they would be strategically important to defend if placed on river crossings, mountain passes etc.

 

[Rungsted93]

Nice blog Callum ! It really seems like you guys are on track now and doing some solid progress

Cool that the castles will also have upgradeable walls, would love if some at the start are nothing but small keeps.

Question for next week:

How does your AI/Animator system work since it can support up to 800 agents? (It's really impressive)

 

[JuanNieve]

I wonder how the reinforcements will work during a siege. Maybe, if an ally army is near to the city may appear on the battlefield after a while and spawn behind the enemy lines like gandalf XD

 

[Bjorn The Dead]

Sieges also play a big part in the design of a town scene. This comes both with technical and gameplay limitations, but also with opportunities! Small roads and buildings around town gates add variety to gameplay when the town is under siege, however, a shop that is filled to the brim with many intricate pieces of pottery would add performance complications. Our solution is to have a "siege state" for our scenes (which is easily achievable with our map editor). When a player deploys into a town that is under siege, they are greeted by deserted streets. The marketplace closes down, taking all of the colourful and fine goods with it, shops bar their doors and barricades are raised in the streets to help with defences.

This method not only helps us create immersion and ease the load on performance by removing elements that are unnecessary for a combat scene, but it also gives us more flexibility with our design. We can barricade off roads that are not related to siege gameplay to reduce overcomplexity or close shortcuts that might give an unnecessary advantage to either side while creating new choke points that would look out of place when there is no conflict.

After reading this, I think the ss is not something like I imagined which is figthing from the walls to the keep. What is your thoughts?

 

[lolbash]

"(barring a select few that we save for immersion)." --> I think for example speaking to a lord?

That is just as stupid as the "2000 denars chest" and "hidden OP armor" and "homeless man who gives you a quest that gives you 3billion denars and a town for free without having to siege it" idea requested by the community to shove exploration down everyone's throat.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I had a closer look at the screenshots (with another 3d modeller friend) and there are some very bad signs.

Spoiler

Look at the closest building. It's flat, essentially a fake building. Warband had these, but they were confined to the very edges of scenes. Unless this is just a mocked up scene for the blog only, it means this image is just window dressing and doesn't represent what the towns are going to be like up close.

What's more, there isn't enough space between buildings to fit a proper street system (with the exception of a very narrow street leading from the right side of the image to the castle, and they seem placed so that we see the front of them rather than to face the streets they're supposedly on. The trees are floating throughout the scene, and clipping with the building under the conveniently placed bannerlord logo.

Spoiler

This is a little hard to spot if you're not a 3d modeller, but the "normals" on the towers are messed up, meaning the lighting is broken. They're messed up in a specific way which can only be present if they've chosen to model the tree trunks at the corner of the tower. Why they decided to do this is beyond me. It adds nothing to the icon since it's not even a pixel wide, but makes it far higher poly than it needs to be. What's frustrating is that this would be a 2-3 minute fix, and is something 3d artists are trained to spot from day one.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Is this a warband texture? Where's the normalmap, seeing as the warband version didn't have one (or didn't have a good one, iirc?)? Is that warband ivy, too? Why reuse these textures which clearly aren't designed for PBR?

I love you guys and sorry for the hakarets and başarılar to you all but please guys i mean come on. Kemal would be spinning in his grave (he's a 3d modeller now, i hear)

 

[kraggrim]

Is this a warband texture? Where's the normalmap, seeing as the warband version didn't have one (or didn't have a good one, iirc?)?

Good spot. It has a crappy autogenerated one in Warband.

Tbh that whole screenshot kinda puts me off. Maybe it's just a bad composition but it doesn't look like a good atmosphere.

 

[FBohler]

I don't want to be nitpicky, but the last screenshot shows very dodgy modelling.

I've spotted more than 10 copies of the same building, which was a simple box with a stretched texture and no details at all.

If you're going to copy-paste stuff, make sure you're doing it with the best model!

 

[ChristianHarris]

Don't worry, guys. The models may not look amazing now, but the game's got three more years before it releases, so I'm sure it'll be fixed by then. 

 

[Noudelle]

hahaha
Very hilarious maymay my friend