[For those with some industry experience] When do you think Bannerlord will really leave Early Access?

[Konska_zlupka]

At this stage, everyone knows it won't be just a year from the initial EA release.

I know it.
You know it.
The devs know it.
The fish in the sea know it.

So the only real question is how much longer?

For those of you with some actual development experience... what's do you estimate is a realistic time for Bannerlord to actually leave EA?

never.

 

[Nalgasucia507]

The thing that I can't understand is that at least from the outside TW seems to be in no rush to get this game fully launched. I mean the faster they get it out the more units they can sell (to anyone who didn't buy in ea) and the faster they can start making dlc. I just don't understand the sedate pace they're on.

I think it's because it is a private company, run and managed by the founder of the series, in a different culture. He calls the shots, and every decision is analyzed by him. I think we, as a western audience, expect game design, planning and execution of a publicly traded company such as EA or Activision. Different expectations.

 

[stevehoos]

I think it's because it is a private company, run and managed by the founder of the series, in a different culture. He calls the shots, and every decision is analyzed by him. I think we, as a western audience, expect game design, planning and execution of a publicly traded company such as EA or Activision. Different expectations.

A mod that was just released adds marriages for clan members and a few other things. It took the guy two hours to make it. TW's is moving at an unbelievably slow pace. Again it's one letter of code to turn on Companion traits, maybe they do things differently, I don't know.

 

[Cri11e]

I think they will finish in mid 2021 with a 'rushed' ( ? ) base release. With no actual content added just polish of what we more or less already have.

 

[AndrewArt]

Rush bad

 

[Kingclontrooper]

I believe that Taleworlds will launch Bannerlord in 2021. Please...

 

[sniparsexe]

Let's assume that they won't hire more managers & developers (they are currently hiring some developers) Mid 2022 or Late 2022 is my estimation.

 

[Foxosaur]

I think there isnt a lot to add in terms of 'content'to say this is a full game. Thats my ignorance of Bannerlord hype before hand though. I don't know what was promised or planned for.

Comparing it to Warband now, there isn't much too it. Bannerlord probably adds a little more content now on top of a mahoosive beautiful engine. The much needed 'foundation' of Bannerlord is there and it runs great by itself now. Unlike pre 1.4.1 or close.

Could there be a a lot more immersion / content - undeniable. I hope more varied quests come in. And really it should have that before release.

Is there still a lot of fixes and bugs - yes but they'll iron out in time.

I think March is very doable. They are at a crossroads though or its already passed, where they can choose to go into fixes + dlc mode.

I hope I never play a game by a studio like Paradox again (Stellaris). I hate how they work and I've only been amongst their community 6 months. I have hopes they wont turn into PDS but will see. Im not against BL having DLC though.

 

[Adrivan]

The thing that I can't understand is that at least from the outside TW seems to be in no rush to get this game fully launched. I mean the faster they get it out the more units they can sell (to anyone who didn't buy in ea) and the faster they can start making dlc. I just don't understand the sedate pace they're on.

I'm working for a software company and I've been working on the same feature for like 6 months.... mainly because not enough people were put on the project, but also remote working during corona has made communication worse.

 

[babelfisch]

A mod that was just released adds marriages for clan members and a few other things. It took the guy two hours to make it. TW's is moving at an unbelievably slow pace. Again it's one letter of code to turn on Companion traits, maybe they do things differently, I don't know.

There is an interview on German Gamestar magazine with Armagan where he apparently explains why it took them so long. The interview is behind a paywall though.

 

[Twezie]

I think there isnt a lot to add in terms of 'content'to say this is a full game. Thats my ignorance of Bannerlord hype before hand though. I don't know what was promised or planned for.

Comparing it to Warband now, there isn't much too it. Bannerlord probably adds a little more content now on top of a mahoosive beautiful engine. The much needed 'foundation' of Bannerlord is there and it runs great by itself now. Unlike pre 1.4.1 or close.

Except its missing half the features of warband, how is that a complete sequel ? Sure bannerlord adds things but then again, half of those things dont work either. Like dynasty stuff where you would continue playing as your son - it takes like a couple years to conquer the map so when exactly am I going to play as my kid? Or the gang mechanics, pretty sure those are never making it in anymore - abandoned like so many other features.

 

[Foxosaur]

Except its missing half the features of warband, how is that a complete sequel ? Sure bannerlord adds things but then again, half of those things dont work either. Like dynasty stuff where you would continue playing as your son - it takes like a couple years to conquer the map so when exactly am I going to play as my kid? Or the gang mechanics, pretty sure those are never making it in anymore - abandoned like so many other features.

Please go ahead and list features Warband has natively that were not part of DLC or modded, and that at this moment, Bannerlord does not have.

 

[Piconi]

Please go ahead and list features Warband has natively that were not part of DLC or modded, and that at this moment, Bannerlord does not have.

If i may chime in with just the tip of the iceberg:

Feasts.

Reactive Handcrafted Companions.

Strategic command dialogue.

Deserters.

Manhunters.

Objective: Escape.

Prison Break quests.
Taleworlds has stated that this feature will be returning.

Intrigue/Denouncement quests.

In-depth Courtship.

Lord Duels.

Books.

Noble background.

Miscellaneous

Sword Sisters

Multi-stage sieges.

From a Top Suggestions thread, and here's the elaborate version

Spoiler: Expanded

Hi all. If we compare Bannerlord to Warband, which was made 10 years ago, we see Taleworlds has definitely improved the graphics and sieges and battle size and added a lot of depth to the game's simulation systems which is great. However, Bannerlord is missing many fun gameplay features from Warband, so it's actually gone backwards in those areas. These missing features include:

Feasts.
These big parties had benefits for gameplay and immersion. The player could hold a feast to gain popularity with lords, which involved a fun quest of gathering different food to serve your guests. Feasts made it easy to find lords/ladies to talk to by bringing them all to one place, created breaks between wars to give the player time to get things done, and made Calradia feel more like a real world and less like a 24/7 murderbowl. Feasts could be improved in Bannerlord by making factions who are losing a war not hold feasts, while powerful factions feast more often to celebrate their victories; this would assist in balancing powerful factions.
Reactive Handcrafted Companions.
While travelling, Warband's companions would sometimes tell you about the area, or ask you to make decisions, which made them really feel like companions, instead of silent mooks who only talk when you hire them. Also, people don't get attached to randomly generated wanderers like they did to personalities like Jeremus or Rolf who were the same in every playthrough. Keeping the random wanderer system, but also adding a handful of non-random companions with reaction dialogue and decisions to make, would give players stronger characters to identify with.
Strategic command dialogue.
You could suggest to allied lords that they should travel to and attack/defend a location while you went somewhere else. This allowed the player to make strategic decisions and feel more like a ruler. It could be balanced in Bannerlord by costing a small amount of influence to suggest an action.
Deserters.
In Warband they were roaming enemies on the map, providing more opponent variety than just looters or bandits, and being more challenging to fight due to their superior equipment. In Bannerlord they are only part of one quest.
Manhunters.
Bounty hunters that chased down bandits, and also had a unique troop tree you could hire to your army by rescuing them. This feature could be tweaked for Bannerlord: allow the player or AI lords to spend money to place a bounty in a fief with serious bandit troubles, and it will make Manhunters begin spawning in the area until a certain amount of bandits are defeated, allowing the player to go do more fun things instead of having to babysit their fief.
Objective: Escape.
When you failed to sneak into an enemy town, you had to fight your way out wearing only a civilian outfit, which was exciting and made sneaking feel risky.
Prison Break quests.
One of the coolest quests in the game, breaking a lord out of the center of an enemy stronghold by yourself and escaping before the guards killed you. This quest could use the Roguery perk tree. Edit: Taleworlds has stated that this feature will be returning.
Intrigue/Denouncement quests.
Political quests that allowed the player to roleplay as a scheming noble, and would be great for non-combat oriented builds in Bannerlord.
In-depth Courtship.
Warband's courting features created a more believable long-term relationship. Your love interest would sometimes send requests for you to come back and visit, you could talk to them to learn their interests and impress them, and even elope without approval from their family if they liked you enough. These elements could be added alongside the existing system.
Lord Duels.
If you insulted a lord's honor or competed with them for a lady's affections, they would challenge you to an arena duel.
Books.
These could be purchased and read over time to gain levels in a specific skill. This would be a good gold sink, as well as a way of leveling skills that the player doesn't often get a chance to use, such as Engineering.
Noble background.
In Warband you could choose to have a character born into a noble family, which made fitting in with the nobility easier and provided a roleplaying option. Since being from a noble family doesn't quite make sense with the tutorial clan, in Bannerlord a noble background could skip the tutorial quest but only be unlocked after completing your first playthrough.
Miscellaneous
"Ginger" hair colour was in Warband, but for some reason is missing in Bannerlord. Foods like Fruit, Chicken, Pork, Sausages, and even Bread are gone. Also gone are sexist lords who were hostile to and harder to impress as a female character.
Sword Sisters
Unique female troops that did not occur naturally in the game world, who you could add to your army by rescuing peasant women and training them into skilled fighters.
Multi-stage sieges.
The player or AI could choose to retreat to a town's streets, or castle's keep, if they lost the walls while defending a siege. This created an intense close-quarters battle in interesting environments.

Some of these things seem small on their own, but combined, they create a major improvement in variety and immersion.

Now, I know Bannerlord is in Early Access and obviously won't be feature complete yet. The problem is that we are halfway to the Early Access Release target, and Taleworlds still hasn't said anything about these features. If Taleworlds is genuinely committed to making Bannerlord to the community's expectations, then based on various threads on these forums and elsewhere, the community clearly expects Bannerlord should have all the good features of Warband. So in that case, can we please have a confirmation that Bannerlord will be a proper sequel to Warband?

BTW, TW should have deffinitely integrated some ideas both from the most popular mods (as they have hired some of those modders to work as their developers) , AND from their DLCs , which should have been a natural (mandatory) evolution (as DLCs are their own product in one way or the other after all).

Press F to pay respects to all the features, those that were in Warband and not transfered to Bannerlord, as well as for those new ones initialy intended for Bannerlord but scrapped.

 

[Foxosaur]

Meh okay, they did exist, I wouldn't call them significant pieces of work to add in though. Most of them easy enough to put in prior to March.

 

[Piconi]

I guess then you are lucky not knowing about the lack of all the other not mentioned features (or considering them non-important), and about the planned features that were scrapped.
I envy you

 

[relam10]

Well. This is not an objective question since only Taleworld knows this answer.

When will be out of EA? When THEY think the game is ready to be out of EA.

When does community want bannerlord to be out of EA? When it has most of missing features we want.

If they think the game is ok right now fixing a little IA, sieges, adding rebelions, child education and few balances, the game can be out of EA by march of 2021.

So the answer here is... are they happy with the game right now taking in account thoose little fixes?

 

[FlagsDontLie]

If they keep up the slowest developement Ive ever seen in gaming history the game will be finished around 2035!
Remember the game WAS in PRE Early Acces for over 8(!!!) Years.
Now just add another year bcs it was released in April then its 9 Years in Developement.

The game is not nearly 50% finished. So add another 8 Years at least to it.
Then DLCs, which will take 2 Years for 1 DLC if they dont overthink their slow developement.

And now there will be hunderd of ppl telling im a flamer but im a realist thats all.

Merry Christmas to all Christian brothers & sisters <3

 

[black_bulldog]

If they keep up the slowest developement Ive ever seen in gaming history the game will be finished around 2035!
Remember the game WAS in PRE Early Acces for over 8(!!!) Years.
Now just add another year bcs it was released in April then its 9 Years in Developement.

The game is not nearly 50% finished. So add another 8 Years at least to it.
Then DLCs, which will take 2 Years for 1 DLC if they dont overthink their slow developement.

And now there will be hunderd of ppl telling im a flamer but im a realist thats all.

Merry Christmas to all Christian brothers & sisters <3

As pessimistic as I am I'm calling bs on this one. They couldn't financially support themselves and be in ea for 8 years. They'd either close their doors before that or put it out no matter how unfinished it was and move on to another project.

 

[Adrivan]

Remember the game WAS in PRE Early Acces for over 8(!!!) Years.

I think they simply started gathering ideas and exploring options for a new game, I doubt they were in actual active development in all of those 8 years.
I mean.. warband was a pretty big success, but I dont think it was enough to maintain a development team 8 years. Programmers are expensive, even in Turkey.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I think they simply started gathering ideas and exploring options for a new game, I doubt they were in actual active development in all of those 8 years.

There were already screenshots of the game and assets by 2013, and I remember they were hiring in 2010 / 11.