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

 

[578]

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

That's great news, even if I dont get in. Players who dedicated time discussing this game on this forum since the announcement deserve this. New players will never be able to provide proper feedback considering the learning curve of a game. A warband veteran will be able to provide much more value to the combat system.

 

[Tydrain]

Just revived my 10 years old account, keep it up TW you're almost there

 

[lolbash]

Not just tournament players should be considered. New players who rarely play multiplayer can be accepted and give feed back on how Taleworlds can help ease new players into the multiplayer experience, increasing multiplayer population.

 

[SenorZorros]

I'm not interested in the Beta myself as a single-player guy but I don't really get why everyone is arguing long-term players should get the beta. Of course it's a nice "thank you" and you need some experienced players to test for exploits. But they don't form the main audience of a succesful game. I'd expect new or less experienced players would actually give as better overview of the general experience. Forums like these often overexpose the vocal minority of hardcore fans after all.

 

[dopey]

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

Sorry only 6v6 tournament winners are allowed in this 

 

[Mart00]

Beta when?
That asside I am pretty happy for all the mp fanatics out there and finaly getting to hear some actual news about the game.
The point system sounds like a great idea to me you could have strategies of the whole team being farmers and zurg rushing the fully kitted knight over and over.
This would also mean that there will be probably team compositions let's say one heavy armoured knight 3 archers and 2 lower point amount troops.
This would give opening to lot's of sp like strategy and composition in mp I am very excited for everyone who can play the beta (when it comes end of the year maybe?)

 

[Sundeki]

So long ago....

Spoiler

I'm not interested in the Beta myself as a single-player guy but I don't really get why everyone is arguing long-term players should get the beta. Of course it's a nice "thank you" and you need some experienced players to test for exploits. But they don't form the main audience of a succesful game. I'd expect new or less experienced players would actually give as better overview of the general experience. Forums like these often overexpose the vocal minority of hardcore fans after all.

Those players will get that opportunity at the end of the closed beta or during the open beta (if there is one, which is likely going to be the case). High skill players are more capable of finding issues with gameplay in that they're more experienced with the similar mechanics and have the highest likelihood of putting the most hours into testing the game, as opposed to the newer players which if you averaged out the newer player community's and the veteran community's total number of hours in the beta, I'd have no problems betting that the experienced players sink in many times as many hours on average.

Experienced players would also be more likely to share their opinions in places like this forum, per capita, as well. "Newbs" should get their access, but logistically the best option is for the experienced players to have the go first.

 

[578]

Most people see the beta as a chance to play the game which is not the goal at all. Beta is for balancing, new players cannot understand deep tactics, footwork, animation physic manipulation by playing the game for a few days (which is usually how long closed betas last). Competitive players and long-term forum users who have a lot of hours of warband should get in the first closed beta. New players will not have much feedback to give because they'll be busy dying, considering most newbs play this game rushing alone. Also there is no reason for accessibility. I am sure tutorials are there, handholding should be kept to a minimum. This is mount and blade, not call of duty. Then you can go a bigger beta and invite both long-term players and new. The first one has to be made for providing feedback.

 

[Phalnax811]

Single player Beta is the only thing that matters right now. If it's a multiplayer only beta, then my hype train will certainly derail. It's been slowing, for sure.

 

[Hulagu]

Most people see the beta as a chance to play the game which is not the goal at all. Beta is for balancing, new players cannot understand deep tactics, footwork, animation physic manipulation by playing the game for a few days (which is usually how long closed betas last). Competitive players and long-term forum users who have a lot of hours of warband should get in the first closed beta. New players will not have much feedback to give because they'll be busy dying, considering most newbs play this game rushing alone. Also there is no reason for accessibility. I am sure tutorials are there, handholding should be kept to a minimum. This is mount and blade, not call of duty. Then you can go a bigger beta and invite both long-term players and new. The first one has to be made for providing feedback.

If a new player will have to chance to play beta TW shouldn't put so many experienced player to the beta, probably newcomers will not have a chance to take a step and understand to game.

 

[578]

Most people see the beta as a chance to play the game which is not the goal at all. Beta is for balancing, new players cannot understand deep tactics, footwork, animation physic manipulation by playing the game for a few days (which is usually how long closed betas last). Competitive players and long-term forum users who have a lot of hours of warband should get in the first closed beta. New players will not have much feedback to give because they'll be busy dying, considering most newbs play this game rushing alone. Also there is no reason for accessibility. I am sure tutorials are there, handholding should be kept to a minimum. This is mount and blade, not call of duty. Then you can go a bigger beta and invite both long-term players and new. The first one has to be made for providing feedback.

If a new player will have to chance to play beta TW shouldn't put so many experienced player to the beta, probably newcomers will not have a chance to take a step and understand to game.

Τhe goal of beta is not to understand the game. Understanding the game is coming from putting hours into it. Betas are for balance feedback. It is not a chance to play the game and dive into the learning curve. And the long-term community can do it easier and faster.

 

[Sir Bogan]

So long ago....

Spoiler

You young bugger!

 

[Sundeki]

 

[Soter]

Did i read closed beta!!?? 
Been waiting for this so many years

 

[Orion]

Most people see the beta as a chance to play the game which is not the goal at all. Beta is for balancing, new players cannot understand deep tactics, footwork, animation physic manipulation by playing the game for a few days (which is usually how long closed betas last).

Warband closed beta started near the end of August in 2009, and remained closed for a few months. Only AAA bozos run days-long betas, and those are the betas that are preferrentially opened to streamers & youtubers because they're almost purely for advertisement & hype. The only bugs they will reliably catch are common crashes/freezes.

[quote author=Insider]Happy to know that players will have access to the game in some form before the end of the year[/quote]Who said that?

 

[Callum]

So probably "core" members like the battle of bucharest winners? As in I probably don't stand a chance 

Active participants of our community who will understand that this is very much a testing stage. We are looking at people with experience playing our games, especially those who will engage with us here on the forums and through other communications tools.

And just to clear it up, yes the BoB participants will be invited to take part. We made that promise to them at the time and we intend to keep it.

As much as I am excited about a closed beta, I can't help but feel a really bitter feeling knowing that we are gonna have 10+ blogs about only multiplayer and the beta being... multiplayer only.

The blogs will continue as normal, and we will keep covering a wide range of topics in them. No need to worry that they will switch totally to being multiplayer focused.

Do you have freedom to choose all the weapons and armor in Skirmish or are the equipments predefined?

We will talk more about classes in a future blog. But just to put your mind at ease, while the classes have predefined loadouts, we also have a perk system that allows you to change parts of your equipment.

A beta!? Great!!! Approximately how many people will you be inviting to this closed beta? I personally don't care much for multiplayer but I would love to see footage of it.

We will share more details about our plans for rolling out the beta and the game when the time comes.

With all this expression of excitement, I think some people have the impression we will be hearing details about the beta rather soon, whereas I suspect it may be months before more is said. Callum said there will be a number of future blogs on multiplayer; I would think that the beta details will be towards the end of that list of blogs, and no doubt all such blogs will be interspersed with the other types of blog- singleplayer features, dev interviews. This feels like an early heads up about something that is quite a way off in the future; it is, after all, mentioned only briefly at the end of the blog.

Wise words, people should take note of this and shouldn't get too hyped at this moment in time.

Multiplayer is of great interest to me. 6v6 is a good start, but I believe the heart of Warband is Seige mode and its grand assaults against castles. Such epic skirmishes capture the feel of single-player, and good multiplayer games are ones that extend the core mechanics of single-player into a multiplayer setting.

We have a number of different multiplayer gamemodes, ranging from smaller team-based ones like Skirmish through to huge chaotic ones like Siege.

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 don't mute anyone my friend, no need to worry about that.

We will be sharing more details about the beta and matchmaking at some point in the future.

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.

Cheers, I really appreciate that!

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

Well, we have done a lot of work on our trees so we need to make sure we get feedback on those from the main man himself!

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?

We plan to test a number of different game modes over time. And they will be on our own servers during the early testing phase.

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

In the most recent tournament we only ever promised game keys for the winners (excluding BoB). I can't make any promises about who exactly we will invite in initially. We plan to start out in a small and controlled environment and then look at inviting more people in over time.

--------------------

@Our Aussie freinds - I can't make any promises right now about where we will offer official server support, however, your feedback has been noted and it is something I will bring up during our next team meeting.

@Everyone - If I missed something from this thread, I'm sorry. We will be sharing more details about the beta, multiplayer in general, and our plans for rolling out the game when we feel it is time.

 

[Sundeki]

Ok, thanks for responding.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Though your comments are harsh, I share your disdain. Mount & Blade is a uniquely large scale experience, so why focus multiplayer development into small-scale bouts? It panders to the multiplayer audience of Chivalry instead of using the strengths of this new, large-scale engine to create a unique multiplayer experience that attracts players to this series.

I can 6v6 in CS and Rainbow Six: Siege, or do small scale medieval fights in failed titles like War of the Roses/Vikings or Chivalry. But where else can I have epic, medieval fights around the moats and into the parapets of stone castles?

A larger scale makes use of Mount&Blade class systems--archers, horses, two-handed weapons, siege weaponry, frontline sword and boarders. 6v6 cannot capture those elements. I understand there has always been a diehard competitive scene to Warband that favors these small-scale battles and limited respawns, and I am glad their competitive spirit thrives, but there is reason their scene is so small. Those small-scale battles focus on Warband's fighting and tactical gameplay, while gamemodes like Siege capture Mount&Blade's gameplay as a whole. I believe there is a broader market for large-scale, castle-sieging, respawnable and objective gameplay.

Eman hype!

Sieges are actually why I bought Warband in the first place, I remember googling literally "multiplayer castle sieges" and being utterly hype when a game actually existed that did it lol.

But, and obviously I'm biased here, but I don't think Siege is a good testing environment for game mechanics. The player numbers, huge scenes, and general chaos means smaller balance issues and bugs might go unnoticed. And in general, the huge multiplayer servers of Warband are both a blessing and a curse currently - they hog the player pool and most big population servers are just not very good at all. New players fire the game up and go to Mount&Siege or TG Arena and are met with a hundred high gold 2 hand spammers, with audio spamming I'LL DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL, and that's if the game even manages to load the map since they need custom modules a lot. A more small-scale entry point for players to learn the basics is vital too - this is why Duel got so popular. It would be good to get the very basics right, which starts with good mechanics, then build on that. Get that right and you can have competitive and big sieges both working well together.

 

[Frostic]

So probably "core" members like the battle of bucharest winners? As in I probably don't stand a chance 

Active participants of our community who will understand that this is very much a testing stage. We are looking at people with experience playing our games, especially those who will engage with us here on the forums and through other communications tools.

And just to clear it up, yes the BoB participants will be invited to take part. We made that promise to them at the time and we intend to keep it.

Thanks for your reply! Here's to hoping I might stand a chance!

 

[Scarf Ace]

Do you still intend to make all modes use this class & perk system?

If so, that'd be a massive mistake. Warband's multiplayer, especially on the more casual end benefits greatly from the free gear selection. The naked killing machine for example is an icon of M&B and anyone who dislikes that should stop being overly serious.
I think that outside of competitive the exact opposite should be done. Fewer restrictions, more choice (be it in gear or aesthetic customisation), and if technically possible, let players even bring self-designed weapons, within faction-based design parameters. I want to bring the most malformed, impractical polearm ever seen into battle.

There's no point in trying to strictly balance something when people aren't playing all too seriously anyway.