Dev Blog 25/04/19

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_87_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>Conducting trade runs between towns as a merchant has always been one of the most fun and profitable activities for players in our games. Bannerlord’s trade system improved on this aspect of the game in many ways, by displaying trade rumours on the inventory screen, tracking player profits, awarding trade XP accordingly to characters, etc. which makes playing as a merchant much more fun and rewarding.</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/107

 

[monoolho]

Only 200 on butter? 

Clearly not swadian/vlandian culture. A fief is only worthy once it spends over 2k a day on butter.

 

[Scyrius]

This looks really good, forget the Iron throne I am here for the Velvet and Spice empire lol

 

[chandler03]

I think I'm really going to enjoy this, I have always been one for making dat doee. Of course I like the feeling of leading massive armies into battle but I'd rather be a band of 10 dudes all stacked out with cool stats and just straight up beast. In warband I always try to do this as quick as possible, and it works for a little, but as the economy goes it it doesn't feel like it keeps up with the speed I do the things at. Eventually I'll end up getting tooken prisoner and or pay for safe passages which leads to me desperately searching Calradia for tournaments LOL. Overall NJ, can't wait to see it in game!!

 

[lordbedo]

totally useless blog we need release date

 

[Noudelle]

totally useless blog

no

we need release date

yes



Nice blog. I really like this part:

For our new system, we started by creating a table outlining how much a typical town would spend on different categories of trade goods and items. For example, a town with a prosperity of 5000 will allocate, say, 500 denars to spend on grain, 400 denars to spend on meat and 200 denars to spend on butter each day. The town then uses the budget allocated to each category to purchase items of that category from the market and consume them. Moreover, every time an item is consumed, it will give a bonus to one of the town stats. Consuming food items, for example, will increase towns food stores, consuming tools will increase productivity, consuming cheaper weapons and armour will increase the number of militia, while more expensive arms will improve the garrison. This mechanism means that low prices are quite beneficial to the town’s development and consequently its lord since towns with cheaper goods can obtain much higher bonuses with their budgets.

I'm hoping we can use this mechanic to our advantage. For example:

• Buy high-quality weapons cheaply in a certain town
• Sell said weapons in a town that you own, therefore reducing their price
• Lower price means more accessibility, the town can now buy more weapons than it previously could
• More weapons to "consume" improves the towns militia troops

 

[LonelyStep]

The price increasing after every purchase is bad design for one simple reason: you had to explain it.

 

[BayBear]

I look forward to creating my butter monopoly and watch as the populace suffers my reign. I shall be known as the supreme butterlord

 

[Iberian Wolf]

Quite interesting blog, the kind of thing I'm looking forward to. Hopefully the "settlement issues" mentioned on a previous blog will match nicely with the trading system!

 

[The_BlackThorn]

YUp. Item price increase needs to happen but only after you have left the shop, or a small price refresh timer. A shopkeeper isn’t going to raise/lower the price until your transaction is completed.



Also...  can I test beta? Kk thx bai.

 

[Amarokhan]

okay nice blog  i still do not like the fact that price instantly go higher as soon as you purchase let's say a blacksmith has 3 of the same sword i want to buy all the three swords for me and my two companions why do i have to pay a different price for each one? why don't i take the three swords for 250 denars instead of 300?  at least if you gonna keep it do not say it's realistic because it isn't.

I agree with you, but the way Callum explained it does kind of make sense. Rather than being at one blacksmith's shop, you've gone to all three blacksmiths in the town and commissioned a sword from each one, as obviously three people working on their own project will yield better results than one man working on three. Since you've visited three different shops with three different owners, they all charge a different price for the work (which is realistic). All of this is abstracted into one screen, as having to go to three different shops in character could get tedious.

All that being said, now that they've explained it this way I almost feel that this has to be part of the game. For example, you go to the weapon trader screen and get the usual screen, but each item has a number, how many units of that item are for sale from that particular shop. Two arming swords, same stats, for sale from two different shops at two different quantities, say shop 1 has 20 for sale at 100 denars apiece, while shop 2 has 5 for sale at 125 apiece. You could then buy 5 swords from shop 1 at one time, paying the 100 denar price. However, as soon as the transaction occurs, the price change happens, which could cause shop 1's price to then exceed shop 2, meaning if you then wanted to buy one more sword you would want to go to that one.

But that's just me being nitpicky I think

Why not simply make sure that prices do not change live as long as you are on the commercial exchange window and the price upgrade could be done only when you leave the merchant ? It would be a lot more logical and realistic and less frustrating while being I do not think it's too hard to implement

 

[Lord-Farquad]

@Callum_TaleWorlds

Can you please ask them to include a Collectors edition of game when it comes out.
As much as I like steam, I would rather own Bannerlord physically. More so, could you also suggest that they include a figure or collectible of some sorts. For example, a dude on a horse with his sword drawn, or the dude in the icon of Bannerlord would work.
I'd like to buy a physical Bannerlord because not only I, but most of us have been patiently waiting since 2012.

 

[aaaa1]

these blogs are the anime filler equivalent to release date

 

[Do not look here]

Why not simply make sure that prices do not change live as long as you are on the commercial exchange window and the price upgrade could be done only when you leave the merchant ? It would be a lot more logical and realistic and less frustrating while being I do not think it's too hard to implement

That way, unless you have merchants remember the price they sold good to you for, you can make profit by simply re-entering shop.

I don't think that it is as much of an issue, I doubt we will be buying equipment in bunches that would make price hike noticeable and their explanation makes sense when buying bulks of goods. The three merchants of Warband is just a simplification of walking between market stands and guilds, so you shouldn't think of it like actually trading with a single person.

 

[archaicwarrior]

In reality, the more you buy , the less each item should cost .. but I can see how wealthy merchant players could take advantage of that ... so ..

BTW, please FIX "Tax inefficiency" cost  - Remove it .

Keep up the good work.

.

 

[Mad Vader]

Why not simply make sure that prices do not change live as long as you are on the commercial exchange window and the price upgrade could be done only when you leave the merchant ? It would be a lot more logical and realistic and less frustrating while being I do not think it's too hard to implement

That way, unless you have merchants remember the price they sold good to you for, you can make profit by simply re-entering shop.

I don't think that it is as much of an issue, I doubt we will be buying equipment in bunches that would make price hike noticeable and their explanation makes sense when buying bulks of goods. The three merchants of Warband is just a simplification of walking between market stands and guilds, so you shouldn't think of it like actually trading with a single person.

Not if there's a selling penalty (fixed or Trade skill dependent) and the goods price don't change dramatically on player buying and selling.
I think the most unrealistic part in Warband are the fairly big price changes when the player trades stuff. He's just another trader and shouldn't have that much impact.

 

[hansolo223]

Thank you for improving trade a bit but unfortunately the actual trade gameplay itself will still be shallow and boring. Basically look at trade rumours and grinding fetch/delivery quests.
Fleshing out a deep merchant gameplay system is beyond scope and not the main focus of bannerlord so it won't happen.
I hope someone will make a deep merchant mod. If not, I may try to make one someday. If you pay me money I can spend full time making it 

 

[AmateurHetman]

Shame we couldn’t have a few more screenshots or even a short video showing off some new trade features.

 

[Ikea Knight]

I prefer raiding to trading. It is simple and afterwards you can swim in blood, butter and guilt.
But because I am a rather nice guy, I never looted much in any of my playthroughs. Nontheless, I never was a big merchant either. Running from village to village, looking for cheap goods to sell in towns, was always quite tedious.
I had one playthrogh in Viking Conquest, in which I quickly became rich by selling wine and wool. Which was somewhat enjoyable, but it was a simple, dull trade route.
Trading in Warband is both too simple and too complex.
Looking a the dev blog, I really welcome the changes. Displaying rumors, and tracking profits, will make it easier to establish your own routes. And xp is going to make it even more rewarding.
But the thing I liked the most about the blog is, the consumption system. It seems to add to townmanagment, and that adds to the depth of the later parts of the game. Beeing a Lord was hardly a big difference to beeing a mercenary leader, except that you got some tax money, so I like that.

Unrelated to that topic, I would love to see a devblog about commands on the battlefield. I remember that there has been a blog on the AI, that it is more adaptable and all, but I do not recall if they talked about the units that the player commands. Information about the late game, aside from warfare, would also be very nice.
Anyway I am looking forward to next weeks blog.

 

[monoolho]

Instead of a price increase, maybe showing all instances of the available item for different prices on the trade screen, so you can choose the cheaper/next best thing in the screen instead of the number artificially going up when you buy.

Not that i would care that much anyway, except when buying horses to make cavalry troops or buying bulk equipment for companions.

 

[SenorZorros]

regarding price increases. The main issue seems that most people don't deal with buying up significant parts of the local or even global stock. When it comes to small-scale production buying more means economy of scale kicks in while since you are using relatively few resources you can treat the resource pool as infinite and the price as constant. However if you are for example buying 10% of the local stock of iron, a good the locals might need themselves, you decrease the supply and thus increase the rarity which increases the price of this product. It's a pretty sensible situation.
In the same vein, if there is a shortage and prices are high they will lower once you brought in new items. After all, the demand has been partially fulfilled and there is less urgency to buy.