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]

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

Not sure where this come from, lots of people play warband seriously including some multiplayer mods. Naked people have no place in a battlefield anyway.

 

[Scarf Ace]

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

Not sure where this come from, lots of people play warband seriously including some multiplayer mods. Naked people have no place in a battlefield anyway.

There's room for modes with a strict, balance-minded class/gear systems and room for ones that give you more freedom.
People like the silly side of multiplayer. There's no reason to sacrifice that for esports when both can coexist.

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.

The mechanical base of a large mode like siege is just as important to get right though. Not just for pure balance reasons, but for reasons such as performance and just general enjoyability.

 

[Insider]

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

Who said that?
[/quote]

The previous CM Franky boi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnGNojC8XrE

 

[Albertus Magnus]

I'm also curious for the UI for MP and its controller and hotkey friendliness.

 

[FLESHCER]

If it is gonna be a multiplayer closed beta; TW should pick the ppl who were playing Warband Multiplayer.

Of course, They are not gonna say that; Oh! You played Warband Multiplayer before come and check it out what we have on closed beta! I have no idea that how they are gonna elect the closed beta players but like I said before; TW should pick the people who were playing Warband Multiplayer before.

 

[Fietta]

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.

The competitive aspect of Bannerlord was (I believe) mainly influenced by us Warband competitive players. I'm sure new people to the game will give a good insight in if the gamemode's fun or not, but these are the sort of people who don't understand tactics, mechanical skill and just general awareness (In Warband's multiplayer). The testing phase would be for people who've played the game for a long time and understand what exactly to look for in the game. In the end it will be these 'hardcore' fans playing 1000s of hours on the competitive aspect of bannerlord. I guarantee there will be multiple chances to test the game anyways, it's just it'll firstly start with competitive warband players and slowly move more towards the larger community.

Us greedy competitive players want to get our dirty hands on the perk system to truly see if we will miss our beloved upgrade system, oh and Inverse.

 

[fadohacolu]

TW should pick the people who were playing Warband Multiplayer before.

Well im at 0 hours of MP, but if I start playing now 8/hrs a day it will take me just over a year to get there. Hopefully that will be in time for the beta!

On another note, I hope testers will be allowed to post some videos and screenshots for us to feast our eyes on.

 

[FLESHCER]

TW should pick the people who were playing Warband Multiplayer before.

Well im at 0 hours of MP, but if I start playing now 8/hrs a day it will take me just over a year to get there. Hopefully that will be in time for the beta!

On another note, I hope testers will be allowed to post some videos and screenshots for us to feast our eyes on.

I see but my suggestion is that; Do not even start playin multiplayer. It is full of toxic players.

 

[Fietta]

I see but my suggestion is that; Do not even start playin multiplayer. It is full of toxic players.

We're not toxic  OGL can be if you don't drop him a shield though...

 

[Yaga]

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

Yes, I played multiplayer too... But why me?.. 
I did not ask anywhere - that take me to participate in beta testing... 
...If only there is a need to evaluate the appearance of trees, shrubs and grass?.. Or need help to make a beautiful global map? 

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!

Wow! I saw the answer about me...   Thank you, Callum! 
---

Dear game developers! I have a suggestion for multiplayer - make it possible for players to kiss! I have not come into the game for a long time, but when I visited the MP, I remember how people fell in love to kiss each other and hug   

 

[FLESHCER]

I see but my suggestion is that; Do not even start playin multiplayer. It is full of toxic players.

We're not toxic  OGL can be if you don't drop him a shield though...

OGL and his vaegir arrows..toxic(est) thing ever..

btw i did not say that; all the players on the multiplayer section "toxic"
u r the cuttiest 

 

[Sundeki]

If it is gonna be a multiplayer closed beta; TW should pick the ppl who were playing Warband Multiplayer.

Of course, They are not gonna say that; Oh! You played Warband Multiplayer before come and check it out what we have on closed beta! I have no idea that how they are gonna elect the closed beta players but like I said before; TW should pick the people who were playing Warband Multiplayer before.

Yeah, an hours system would be useful some of the time, but there are large sections of the 3-4k+ community that don't have their hours logged on a platform e.g steam. I only put my Warband key on steam in 2015-2016, and those hours are logged at a measley 802, but 80%+ of my hours were logged in 2010/11/12. Unfortunately I have 0 way to prove that. I wouldn't mind so much if people like me were a very small percentage, but probably most of the very best Australian Warband players don't have their key attached to Steam either.

I'm sure there's a "Casting Couch" joke here somewhere.

 

[FLESHCER]

[quote author=Sundeki][...]
[/quote]
an hours system is not enough actually. the lads who is gonna observe.. they must be good at observin.
About the not registered keys; It will be disappointing but there is nothin to do right?

 

[Lord Rich]

The last thing you want is a beta entirely populated by people with 10000 hours. You need a spectrum of all experiences otherwise you will miss a lot of issues that new players may be coming up against when opening the game for the first time. There are still many mechanics and features in warband that people can only really learn by word of mouth and otherwise appear as random or buggy behaviour to a new player.

 

[Scarf Ace]

The last thing you want is a beta entirely populated by people with 10000 hours. You need a spectrum of all experiences otherwise you will miss a lot of issues that new players may be coming up against when opening the game for the first time. There are still many mechanics and features in warband that people can only really learn by word of mouth and otherwise appear as random or buggy behaviour to a new player.

This.

Also, having only heavily dedicated/competitive players do the testing might skew design choices in a direction only they like, at the expense of everyone else.

 

[Mart00]

Great to see the forum be mostly positive for this blog the last few blogs people were pretty negative.

 

[Mighty Potato God]

i wonder if they are going to pick people from the forums or invite through steam. Either way i'm not going to get picked 

 

[Elwaen]

Nice nice and what about the matchmaking system for multiplayer ? Mynes need to continue to create one or its implemented to the game ?

 

[Triune Impurity Rites 999]

Callum, I hope you and the other team members at taleworlds think about the kind of people that will be participating in this closed beta. I'm sure that I am in a majority when I say that you should choose the right people for it. When I mean the right people I don't necessarily mean media outlets and well known youtubers. It is absolutely a good idea to include those for they boost the popularity of the upcoming game and exponentially grow the Mount & Blade community. However, what I mean is that you should include those of us who have put hundreds/thousands of hours into the Mount & Blade games (both the original and Warband) and have been waiting years for Bannerlord to come out.

Sorry man, but I've been playing this game since 2005, possibly earlier. Doesn't mean I'd make a great beta tester. They need people who are responsible to report bugs, etc. I don't think the amount of hours you've played really conveys qualification.

 

[dijiTurk]

noice