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Knight at Arms
1 year ago, Taleworlds made a Future Plans post, which told us some of the features they wanted to include in the game, and an estimated release date of Q2 2022.
We're now in Q3 2022. The release date was missed again. The planned features are only half done. There's been no patch for nearly 2 months, and silence from Taleworlds. And Bannerlord still has many serious gameplay problems and some missing features, many of which have not been acknowledged.
So, one last Future Plans post is needed, to reveal to us Taleworlds' plan (if they have one), and acknowledge they are aware of all the game's problems and are going to make Bannerlord a good, fun sequel to Warband that fulfills all its promises.
Here's an example of how it could look:
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
Welcome to our second Future Plans post, which is our final plans for the game. Here's how much progress we've made since our last post:
* Battle Terrain System: ✴️ We are working on field battle scenes and have 72 to go! Scenes will keep being added after release!
* Companion Peerage: ✅
* Order of Battle: ✴️ We are improving troop sorting based on player feedback!
* Banner Bearers: ❌ Coming soon!
* Party Templates: ✅
* Cut Scenes: ✅
* Sally out mission: ❌ On hold for now.
* Claimant Quests: ❌ Coming soon!
* Voiced Greetings: ❌ We are finding a terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator to voice Sea Raider greeting lines!
* Simulation Deaths: ✅
* Respec perks: ✅
* Retire Character: ❌ On hold for now.
* Ambient Sound System: ❌ In progress!
* Steam Workshop mod support: ❌ In progress!
Our estimate of having the game ready for release by Q2 2022 missed its mark, and we'd like to apologise for the delay, but we have good news: the delay will be worth it!
In addition to the features we showed in 2021, we promised "more surprises." We have finished deciding how to complete the game. Our aim is to fulfill Bannerlord's pre-release promises, and return missing features from Mount & Blade Warband, so Bannerlord will deliver on all expectations we set. Here is the full, final list of features we plan for Bannerlord to have by release.
CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES
We first teased this much-anticipated feature in 2016, and now it's finally ready! Once the player has defeated an alley gang in combat, they now have the option to start a Criminal Operation in the alley. This is like a workshop, but rather than creating goods, your thugs will rob people to make you money for free! On the downside, it raises your Crime rating, and reduces the security and propserity of the town.
Here we have a demo of this feature:
MINOR FACTION BASES
Minor faction bases, from our 2016 demo, will make minor factions actually do something useful! At these hidden bases, you can do quests to improve your relations with a minor faction, talk to a leader to hire them as mercenaries, recruit unique troops directly, and the minor factions can recruit their own special troops into their armies. Or you can destroy their base to wipe out the minor faction, if you so choose!
KINGDOM MESSENGER
Many players complain it takes too long to find and recruit lords. In Warband, lords visited your capital city, making recruiting lords easier. This was too hard for Bannerlord's more complex AI, so we are working on a system where playes can send out messages by talking to a Minister in their lord's hall, which should make the kingdom phase of the game less irritating and make players feel more like a real ruler.
FEASTS
The beloved feature of Mount & Blade Warband makes a return! The AI will hold feasts during peacetime, which you can attend to gain relation with the guests, and talk to many nobles in one place about marriages or quests; you can also host a feast of your own to gain influence and reputation, or just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere!
After just 1 day of work, here is how the feature looks:
MANHUNTERS
Bandit infestations around the area of a fief can sometimes get massively out of control. These bounty hunters, returning from Warband, can be hired by lords or the player to patrol their fiefs and clean up crime... at a cost! They also have a unique troop tree you can recruit, perfect for capturing prisoners.
After just 1 day of work, here is how the feature looks:
SURPRISE ENCOUNTERS
"You have fallen into a trap!" Returning from Warband, the player can sometimes be ambushed by bandits when they visit towns at night, creating an exciting fight for your life in an interesting setting!
After just 1 hour of work, here is how the feature looks:
REPLAY SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLAYER
First shown in 2020, when it had basic functionality and was lacking UI elements, it is now ready for release. The replay system will allow players to save video of their multiplayer matches!
Here is a demo:
BUGFIXING, BALANCING AND COMPLETING EXISTING FEATURES
In addition, we can confirm work continues on major gameplay issues such as: constant war declarations, tribute calculations favouring the loser, defeated kingdoms not dying off, meaningless votes, nobody ever surrendering, slow player and companion skill levelling, non functional personality traits, noble relations being useless, arrows doing too much damage to armour, the AI's inability to use spears and lances, archers' inability to hit circling horses, jittering unit collision, weapon imbalances, incomplete morale, troop trees lacking variety, the inability to target a specific enemy formation, bugged rain effects, unimplemented town, castle and field battle scenes, lack of variety in siege and hideout music, completing the mod tools, fixing our multiplayer servers, and fixing bugs, performance issues, and crashes.
EXPANSION
After release, we will also work on a paid DLC expansion for the game, Mount & Blade: Nordland, which will introduce the Nords faction, ships, naval travel and combat, and other features!
Hopefully, this Future Plans post should have answered all your major questions about the future of Bannerlord, so now you can stop asking us
Thanks for reading, and have fun. My name is Callum Newell, and my favourite bandit is the Looter.
This is purely a hypothetical post, and not a real statement from TW.
Credit to @Bloc for his gameplay demos of how missing Warband features would look in Bannerlord, which prove it would only take 1 day's work for 1 person to implement them in the game.
A post like this would give me and many other players and buyers confidence that Taleworlds knows all the issues with the game and has a complete plan for solving them. @Callum @Dejan Have you folks got any Future Plans post in the works similar to this?
We're now in Q3 2022. The release date was missed again. The planned features are only half done. There's been no patch for nearly 2 months, and silence from Taleworlds. And Bannerlord still has many serious gameplay problems and some missing features, many of which have not been acknowledged.
So, one last Future Plans post is needed, to reveal to us Taleworlds' plan (if they have one), and acknowledge they are aware of all the game's problems and are going to make Bannerlord a good, fun sequel to Warband that fulfills all its promises.
Here's an example of how it could look:
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
Welcome to our second Future Plans post, which is our final plans for the game. Here's how much progress we've made since our last post:
* Battle Terrain System: ✴️ We are working on field battle scenes and have 72 to go! Scenes will keep being added after release!
* Companion Peerage: ✅
* Order of Battle: ✴️ We are improving troop sorting based on player feedback!
* Banner Bearers: ❌ Coming soon!
* Party Templates: ✅
* Cut Scenes: ✅
* Sally out mission: ❌ On hold for now.
* Claimant Quests: ❌ Coming soon!
* Voiced Greetings: ❌ We are finding a terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator to voice Sea Raider greeting lines!
* Simulation Deaths: ✅
* Respec perks: ✅
* Retire Character: ❌ On hold for now.
* Ambient Sound System: ❌ In progress!
* Steam Workshop mod support: ❌ In progress!
Our estimate of having the game ready for release by Q2 2022 missed its mark, and we'd like to apologise for the delay, but we have good news: the delay will be worth it!
In addition to the features we showed in 2021, we promised "more surprises." We have finished deciding how to complete the game. Our aim is to fulfill Bannerlord's pre-release promises, and return missing features from Mount & Blade Warband, so Bannerlord will deliver on all expectations we set. Here is the full, final list of features we plan for Bannerlord to have by release.
CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES
We first teased this much-anticipated feature in 2016, and now it's finally ready! Once the player has defeated an alley gang in combat, they now have the option to start a Criminal Operation in the alley. This is like a workshop, but rather than creating goods, your thugs will rob people to make you money for free! On the downside, it raises your Crime rating, and reduces the security and propserity of the town.
Here we have a demo of this feature:
MINOR FACTION BASES
Minor faction bases, from our 2016 demo, will make minor factions actually do something useful! At these hidden bases, you can do quests to improve your relations with a minor faction, talk to a leader to hire them as mercenaries, recruit unique troops directly, and the minor factions can recruit their own special troops into their armies. Or you can destroy their base to wipe out the minor faction, if you so choose!
KINGDOM MESSENGER
Many players complain it takes too long to find and recruit lords. In Warband, lords visited your capital city, making recruiting lords easier. This was too hard for Bannerlord's more complex AI, so we are working on a system where playes can send out messages by talking to a Minister in their lord's hall, which should make the kingdom phase of the game less irritating and make players feel more like a real ruler.
FEASTS
The beloved feature of Mount & Blade Warband makes a return! The AI will hold feasts during peacetime, which you can attend to gain relation with the guests, and talk to many nobles in one place about marriages or quests; you can also host a feast of your own to gain influence and reputation, or just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere!
After just 1 day of work, here is how the feature looks:
MANHUNTERS
Bandit infestations around the area of a fief can sometimes get massively out of control. These bounty hunters, returning from Warband, can be hired by lords or the player to patrol their fiefs and clean up crime... at a cost! They also have a unique troop tree you can recruit, perfect for capturing prisoners.
After just 1 day of work, here is how the feature looks:
SURPRISE ENCOUNTERS
"You have fallen into a trap!" Returning from Warband, the player can sometimes be ambushed by bandits when they visit towns at night, creating an exciting fight for your life in an interesting setting!
After just 1 hour of work, here is how the feature looks:
REPLAY SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLAYER
First shown in 2020, when it had basic functionality and was lacking UI elements, it is now ready for release. The replay system will allow players to save video of their multiplayer matches!
Here is a demo:
BUGFIXING, BALANCING AND COMPLETING EXISTING FEATURES
In addition, we can confirm work continues on major gameplay issues such as: constant war declarations, tribute calculations favouring the loser, defeated kingdoms not dying off, meaningless votes, nobody ever surrendering, slow player and companion skill levelling, non functional personality traits, noble relations being useless, arrows doing too much damage to armour, the AI's inability to use spears and lances, archers' inability to hit circling horses, jittering unit collision, weapon imbalances, incomplete morale, troop trees lacking variety, the inability to target a specific enemy formation, bugged rain effects, unimplemented town, castle and field battle scenes, lack of variety in siege and hideout music, completing the mod tools, fixing our multiplayer servers, and fixing bugs, performance issues, and crashes.
EXPANSION
After release, we will also work on a paid DLC expansion for the game, Mount & Blade: Nordland, which will introduce the Nords faction, ships, naval travel and combat, and other features!
Hopefully, this Future Plans post should have answered all your major questions about the future of Bannerlord, so now you can stop asking us
Thanks for reading, and have fun. My name is Callum Newell, and my favourite bandit is the Looter.
This is purely a hypothetical post, and not a real statement from TW.
Credit to @Bloc for his gameplay demos of how missing Warband features would look in Bannerlord, which prove it would only take 1 day's work for 1 person to implement them in the game.
A post like this would give me and many other players and buyers confidence that Taleworlds knows all the issues with the game and has a complete plan for solving them. @Callum @Dejan Have you folks got any Future Plans post in the works similar to this?
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