Dev Blog 24/08/17

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-GB" src="http://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_04_taleworldswebsite_575.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p>Greetings warriors of Calradia! Today we start a series of interviews with the different team members of TaleWorlds Entertainment. Every video game is the result of the combined efforts of professionals with very different skills, and that applies to Mount & Blade too. Ours is a varied team, with people from different backgrounds: programmers, artists, musicians and writers (among others) from different parts of the world and varying cultures. Understanding their tasks and their daily struggle is a great way to learn more about games development in general – and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord in particular! Today we start with TaleWorlds’ founder and CEO: Armagan Yavuz. Every important decision passes through his hands; he is the one that makes sure that everyone and everything stays true to the original vision of the game. But it will be much better if he tells you about it by himself!</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/22

 

[JuJu70]

“Today I worked on the design of how army coherence will be affected as an army stays in the field for a long time, and how a player can keep it together longer by arranging its composition and spending influence.”

TBH, if they still code things like that, that's not overly encouraging.

 

[Octaviux]

Meaningful troop control is one of the things I'm looking forward to most in Bannerlord.  I found it didn't really matter in WB outside of charging from higher ground with cavalry or positioning archers on a hill top.  An idea on spicing up the dev blogs would be to share one new screenshot each week in them.  With holiday weeks it would be less than 50 screenshots if the game ends up being a year out yet for example.  Could have several weeks in a row where it is different angles of the same city or castle for instance so it's not a huge investment in getting them ready.  Would be an great morsel for us to look forward to in addition to any info you provide in the blog.  That's a dream to be able to look out a window and see a real castle on a hill every day.

 

[Mad Vader]

Schedules and clearly defined goals are generally needed if you want to move forward. And this is what the team over at Taleworlds is lacking, at least from what I understand.

I've been telling them this the whole time, but would they listen? Nooo, they are strong and independent and plans are for wimps.
Joking aside, I've been into project management for quite some years and the statements about no deadlines and such are simply incomprehensible to me. How do you know what are you doing and when you will be done? It simply sounds as an excuse not to manage this properly.
If they are not careful they might end up hiring outside management help to keep them focused and on track. It happened to Star Citizen.
I might be available. 

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

I swear back in March at some point someone around here said this game was in "final touches"

Was that someone a TaleWords employee? With a big red flag under their name? And the word "Developer" in their title? If not, then you're probably the butt of somebody's joke. Any updates about the game's development and release will come through official channels, not through "someone around here" BSing about the game.

BTW, did you hear that you can access secret Easter Eggs in M&B by pressing alt-F4 right after a major battle?

 

[Varrak]

I swear back in March at some point someone around here said this game was in "final touches"

Was that someone a TaleWords employee? With a big red flag under their name? And the word "Developer" in their title? If not, then you're probably the butt of somebody's joke. Any updates about the game's development and release will come through official channels, not through "someone around here" BSing about the game.

Actually, it was Armagan Yavuz who said that "we are finishing final touches" in E3, more than once.

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Actually, it was Armagan Yavuz who said that "we are finishing final touches" in E3, more than once.

Then it must be true!

 

[Orion]

C# scripting? **** yeah. Being called a Microsoft fanboy for learning C# over Java is finally worth it.

TBH, if they still code things like that, that's not overly encouraging.

How do you figure? I can't think of many potentially dependent systems, so it seems to me like it's something that could be made near the end of development with ease.

 

[Gurkhal]

Good stuff, but if truth be told I had hoped for about the twice the length.

Women keep telling me that too for some reason.

That's signature material.

 

[Dektarey]

May I make a humble suggestion?

How about adding more deathsoundfiles? A good amount would be like... 30+

I mean, it's M&B: You'll constantly hear the few deathsoundfiles playing, and they'll get very repetitiv after a while.

Without a good amount of variety many people, including myself, could decide to turn of the sound while in combat completely, which in turn made the hard work of the soundteam pointless.

But anyway, good luck and keep up the great work.

 

[Shemaforash]

C# scripting? **** yeah. Being called a Microsoft fanboy for learning C# over Java is finally worth it.

because they are so different 

 

[kalarhan]

C# scripting? **** yeah. Being called a Microsoft fanboy for learning C# over Java is finally worth it.

because they are so different 

until you have worked with at least 20 languages you are still a newbie in the industry anyway 

 

[JuJu70]

C# scripting? **** yeah. Being called a Microsoft fanboy for learning C# over Java is finally worth it.

TBH, if they still code things like that, that's not overly encouraging.

How do you figure? I can't think of many potentially dependent systems, so it seems to me like it's something that could be made near the end of development with ease.

I would consider this a core feature of the campaign, so it tells me the campaign part is still not being close to being finalized. Which is why I guess they only show battles.

but then I could of course be wrong.

 

[mr.master]

They could also be preparing show it in its all glory so they wait a bit, especially if there are still features that need to be added or finished off. If there have certain features that have to be done before they want to show it fully

 

[kalarhan]

I would consider this a core feature of the campaign

they can have a simple/generic system in place that works well (like Warband). And now they are experimenting with more advanced mechanics that may or may not prove to work well and be fun. If the new experiment fails they can simple delete it and go back to the current system.

example:
1) current system: basic, player manages stuff like food and morale
2) idea: lets add more interaction and use this as a way to spend influence (new currency)
3) try idea. Good? Use it. Bad? Go back to 1

it is not like game design is done in order or can't be improved over time

 

[Mad Vader]

Agreed that the SP campaign is unfinished. So much scripting and they are ambitious.
What could go wrong?
This could go wrong:
- they could lose focus and spend too much time on dating sims and board games while the tactical AI is still too easily exploitable
- any and all features can explode in scope, because unmanaged programmers rather write code than weigh costs and benefits
- bugs, bugs, bugs - the number of bugs rises exponentially with code complexity, we should all expect a very buggy initial release (beta on Steam, I believe)

 

[JuJu70]

I would consider this a core feature of the campaign

they can have a simple/generic system in place that works well (like Warband). And now they are experimenting with more advanced mechanics that may or may not prove to work well and be fun. If the new experiment fails they can simple delete it and go back to the current system.

example:
1) current system: basic, player manages stuff like food and morale
2) idea: lets add more interaction and use this as a way to spend influence (new currency)
3) try idea. Good? Use it. Bad? Go back to 1

it is not like game design is done in order or can't be improved over time

I have no doubts they have Warband code as a basis. However, this indicates to me that influence system is not finalized, I would say it most likely in its baby stage, so that makes campaign far from finished.

could also mean that things get coded according to whim rather than a plan

 

[kalarhan]

could also mean that things get coded according to whim rather than a plan

I guess you didn't read the blog, where it says that they drink all night, have crazy dreams, then in the morning try to code anything that they can remember from those dreams.

best game designer process evar

 

[Salmonsy]

Agreed that the SP campaign is unfinished. So much scripting and they are ambitious.
What could go wrong?
This could go wrong:
- they could lose focus and spend too much time on dating sims and board games while the tactical AI is still too easily exploitable
- any and all features can explode in scope, because unmanaged programmers rather write code than weigh costs and benefits
- bugs, bugs, bugs - the number of bugs rises exponentially with code complexity, we should all expect a very buggy initial release (beta on Steam, I believe)

Or they finish the code stuff somewhere 2018, then look at the graphics and decide
Whew lads, can't release a game that looks like this in 2018
-But god-emperor Armagan, to update the graphics in a meaningful way we'd have to tweak the engine
Then make it so!
-The update on the engine broke several features, the game isn't playable anymore!
Well, better start from scratch then.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[HUMMAN]

I think while us veterans are interested in sp; it is easier to impress public with battles. Even in PC gamer single player half of the show was battle.

 

[monoolho]

Good stuff, but if truth be told I had hoped for about the twice the length.

Women keep telling me that too for some reason.

That's signature material.

This.


We can clearly see the difference between the community response in the forums and in the Steam discussions. It hurts.
Still, I'll repeat what I posted there because it's the truth.

Yavuz answered my question, I felt greatly honored now.
Yoros Castle is a really cool place, kind of reminds me of Alegrete Castle in Portugal but way bigger, though it must be just because they're castles and have rounded corners. Wish there were places like this in America (the continent, not the country).

Really curious about the rest of the team now. Waiting impatiently for next thursday and the week after.