Dev Blog 29/03/19

[parsehtml]<p><img class="frame" src="https://www.taleworlds.com/Images/News/blog_post_83_taleworldswebsite.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="290" /></p> <p>While Bannerlord’s singleplayer campaign offers great adventures to all, for many players, nothing quite matches the excitement of testing their skills against human opponents in Mount & Blade’s engaging multiplayer matches. In this week’s blog, we want to take a look at Skirmish mode, which is a brand new multiplayer game mode for the upcoming Bannerlord...</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/103

 

[mgb519]

This blog implies that fans of M&B care about stupid f*cking PvP.

Most of us don't, do you even understand your own audience? Fix your **** and finish developing the game, or at least include some PvE or CO-OP gamemodes or else I will upload your game to thepiratebay so you get less money as we all play your multiplayer game for free.

Speaking as someone who never really even played multiplayer that much, I'm left wondering if some of these folks are aware that Mount and Blade: Napoleon exists, and is quite popular? Or that a bunch of mods also include multiplayer, or are multiplayer only? I understand if you're not into multiplayer, but Warband has been around for ten years and the servers are still far from empty. Hell, there are multiplayer only games that haven't been around a quarter as long which don't have the MP community that Warband has. It's your prerogative to not care about multiplayer, but don't go speaking for, as someone else put it, "99% of the Mount and Blade community." when you can't be bothered to see how many people in the MB community play online.

On an unrelated note, @Callum, even though I sincerely hope you don't need someone to say this, you're an awesome community manager. Keep it up.

 

[dororo]

你到底录取不录取我来自华?Are you admitted to China without admission?

 

[Achilles_TheIV]

你到底录取不录取我来自华?Are you admitted to China without admission?

Yes.

 

[AJIexander]

Thanks to Callum for the good news and interesting blog. I congratulate everyone!) I wish every clan and all players to get into the closed beta test!)

 

[Brujo106]

After dedicating more than 3000 hours to this game (3000 to multiplayer, around 500 events played and maybe 300 to singleplayer)
I have to say that not all fans of this game play only the campaign, many others we really like the multiplayer and the beta is great news, not only to test the multiplayer and its gamemodes, it is also useful to find bugs and glitches in the game mechanics.
But the beta will not help if you do not give access to EXPERIENCED PLAYERS, who detect these errors in the mechanics of the game. I think it would also be good if you gave him access to famous youtubers and streamers, to give the game publicity and attract new people (50% players with experience, 50% youtubers and streamers).

Btw I think a gamemode similar to battle royale would be attractive for new players. 

 

[부부를 넘어서 가자]

Finally a good blog pog

 

[Genuian]

If there truly is a beta, no matter what it is demo-ing, I'm going to be hyped. Keep up the good work Taleworlds!!

 

[fadohacolu]

I have never played MP, and was never very interested, but that Skirmish Mode does sound fantastic.

Also excited by the possibility of a closed beta... though I bet they'll only invite Yaga and no one else

 

[DtheHun]

So, multiplayer closed beta in some shape or form in 2019? 

I've got the hint. 6 or 9, there's not a big difference. But there's not even a year this time, soon is still soon. Only the reduced content of the first release is approved.

 

[Orion]

This is a fault of the AI, but Warband's multiplayer places intelligent minds behind those masses of bodies. Smart players who flank the castle walls, who breach the parapets and whose fights spill over into courtyards and throne rooms to claim the castle. Multiplayer Siege plays like the single-player fantasy.

You are also conviently forgetting the other half of the players in the same servers who consist of

-Racists/alt right wingers  trying to start fights on the text chat

-Mic squeaks and the guy vaping playing his music in his mic, while a vacuum cleaner is roaring in the background.

-Trolls who will try and throw the game, intentionally hitting teammates, directing siege weapons to aim at teammates, running over teammates with horses, interrupting archers wih kicks

-People who just simply don't care about winning the game, playing joke loadouts, running to get themselves killed, or hanging out with their friends at spawn point to do a funny visual glitch.

-Hackers and scammers

The Warband beta servers were moderated (I should know, being one of them), so this isn't really a legit concern. It's as much a concern as this forum being a platform for scat porn. Does it get posted? Yes, rarely. Does it get taken care of ASAP? Absolutely.

Seems like we're all forgetting one of the other key components of M&B multiplayer, which is that it never has and never will ship with a single game mode. Just because their flagship matchmaking mode will be 6v6 does not mean all modes will be 6v6. This has been hashed out in depth, repeatedly, so there's no cause for concern here.

Still MP was an afterthought, Original M&B was singleplayer only! haha 

To shamelessly self-quote: I should know.

But I see where the guy is going there, 6v6 is basically more of the same in a different platform, the groundbreaking innovation that M&B brought to the table were the large scale battles, so asking for Coop rather than same MP seen everywhere else seems rather sensible, I mean, it makes more sense to ask for the strong-suit of the game instead of the more generic already seen things. But consequently, MP supporting either COOP or large-scale battles for MP are so much more complex that after doing that making a 6v6 becomes easy, if not almost auto-creates itself considering how much harder it is to make an functioning MP for large scales...

See above regarding 6v6. As for requesting coop being more sensible, you'd be right if it weren't for the fact that we have multiple records of TaleWorlds devs saying it's not going to happen, at least with the initial retail release. If it's not in the retail release, then it's not going to be tested in the beta. That's a potential DLC/Expansion sometime after the base game launches, which might entail a beta of its own.

You're preaching to the choir, though. Coop is the one feature I want more than anything in Bannerlord, and I agree with the reasons you've stated for it being a quality suggestion.

To Lord Callum If you don't have me muted lol:

Will the closed beta servers be centralized, thus restricting people from different regions from playing on their own servers (this is assuming you add more people over time)?

If so; will there be access to server files for those more distant regions at some point in the beta, if you aim to include those people?

edit: one more question if this does get answered:
Will there be Official Matchmaking servers hosted in Australia at full release?

I'm not Callum, but I can confirm that the Warband beta had North American and European servers on day one. The server files were made available during the beta for private hosts, though I don't think they were up on day one. I would expect a similar approach in Bannerlord. As for official matchmaking servers, I can't imagine they would ignore Asia and Oceania, especially with how many Chinese Warband players there are. The scale of their commitment remains to be seen, but I think it's safe to assume something will be provided.

 

[hansolo223]

Good addition, been dreaming of this kind of thing for years.
I was a Warband fan and joined Warband beta over 10 years ago. Avid fan of MP with thousands of hours and started my own clan.
Is this sufficient loyalty to join the closed beta? How do I prove myself for a beta key?
Do I need to duel someone to the death?

 

[shin]

Will the Multiplayer Beta be Skirmish exclusively or will the participants have access to the Duel Gamemode?

Will server settings and such be free to play around with or only TW official servers?

 

[Sundeki]

To Lord Callum If you don't have me muted lol:

Will the closed beta servers be centralized, thus restricting people from different regions from playing on their own servers (this is assuming you add more people over time)?

If so; will there be access to server files for those more distant regions at some point in the beta, if you aim to include those people?

edit: one more question if this does get answered:
Will there be Official Matchmaking servers hosted in Australia at full release?

I'm not Callum, but I can confirm that the Warband beta had North American and European servers on day one. The server files were made available during the beta for private hosts, though I don't think they were up on day one. I would expect a similar approach in Bannerlord. As for official matchmaking servers, I can't imagine they would ignore Asia and Oceania, especially with how many Chinese Warband players there are. The scale of their commitment remains to be seen, but I think it's safe to assume something will be provided.

Yeah, I've been around since that time too, me spotting the mention of a Multiplayer beta is what lead to me creating my forum account in the first place, even if I was months late.

I need to ask these questions because Australian gamers can't take anything for granted and, to this day, more often than not don't get their own servers and are actively ignored in betas. And much of the time we do get "Australian" servers they're hosted in Singapore or somewhere like that, which means the lowest ping most Australians can get is like 160 (New Zealanders in that case get ~200) which is simply too high to be properly competitive in a Mount & Blade game.
I was just hoping for some official confirmation because several people from Australia have been asking about Australian servers ever since it was announced there would be official competitive servers and nobody has been given any response.

 

[$agar]

Nice blog  and thank you finally for some multiplayer blogs.
Of course beta sounds incredible 

 

[Albertus Magnus]

Good news here! I remember being part of the Warband MP beta. It was such a fun and everything felt so nice and new.
I would love to be part of the Bannerlord beta as well, but we'll see who gets a seat in the front row.

I really love the 6v6 approach. Too many MP mods died because they we designed for higher player numbers (thus the few overly popular mods and gamemodes consumed almost all the players).
Gamemodes with fewer players necessary allow more MP mods to be active and alive at the same time.
(although I think, Bannerlord will also have massive MP battle servers, which will again consume all the players  )

edit: I just found, I forgot to celebrate my 10 years forum membership aniversary in February. 

 

[Iberian Wolf]

By reading some of the responses, I'm convinced people will nag at devs even when they'll have a release date

Couldn't have said it better...or could I?

That's grand lads. Even though MP doesn't catch my fancy, I'm happy for those who'll have the chance to try.

As a side note, I loved the picture as well. The Tailor's sign (spinning wheel?) looks very medieval...good job!

 

[CIIGES of the low lands]

Will the people (like myself) who won closed beta and early acces keys in the recent tournaments, actually get access to it?

 

[Bjorn The Dead]

A user from steam page: youtube gamers that have many subscribers are the ones who will get beta

Callum: Not at all. Longtime core community members are the people we will be looking to invite initially.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/0/1770385542770181273/?tscn=1553783927

 

[Insider]

Happy to know that players will have access to the game in some form before the end of the year

Multiplayer isn't my thing, but I'm happy to know the development of the most expected game of humankind history is nearing its completion (insert joke about grandkids playing the game, modders will fix it, or adding the line "we have an optimist here")

 

[Sir Bogan]

To Lord Callum If you don't have me muted lol:

Will the closed beta servers be centralized, thus restricting people from different regions from playing on their own servers (this is assuming you add more people over time)?

If so; will there be access to server files for those more distant regions at some point in the beta, if you aim to include those people?

edit: one more question if this does get answered:
Will there be Official Matchmaking servers hosted in Australia at full release?

I'm not Callum, but I can confirm that the Warband beta had North American and European servers on day one. The server files were made available during the beta for private hosts, though I don't think they were up on day one. I would expect a similar approach in Bannerlord. As for official matchmaking servers, I can't imagine they would ignore Asia and Oceania, especially with how many Chinese Warband players there are. The scale of their commitment remains to be seen, but I think it's safe to assume something will be provided.

Yeah, I've been around since that time too, me spotting the mention of a Multiplayer beta is what lead to me creating my forum account in the first place, even if I was months late.

I need to ask these questions because Australian gamers can't take anything for granted and, to this day, more often than not don't get their own servers and are actively ignored in betas. And much of the time we do get "Australian" servers they're hosted in Singapore or somewhere like that, which means the lowest ping most Australians can get is like 160 (New Zealanders in that case get ~200) which is simply too high to be properly competitive in a Mount & Blade game.
I was just hoping for some official confirmation because several people from Australia have been asking about Australian servers ever since it was announced there would be official competitive servers and nobody has been given any response.

I too would like this question to be answered. I think I might have got an invite to the Warband multiplayer beta all those years ago, but I'm not sure if it was on Aussie servers. So long ago....