Getting Warband soon, have some questions

[Chompski]

Hey everyone. I'm a console peasant that's really excited for Mount and Blade: Warband's release later this month. While I'm definitely buying the game anyway (so no sugarcoating please), I wanted to go in with realistic expectations and don't want to accidentally mislead others that I may try to convince to get the game too.

I have two questions about the game. They're both complex/multiple parts so feel free to answer one or both as little or much as you please. I appreciate all help. Thanks.

Question 1: I saw a video of the beginning of the game. My question is, how much do these decisions effect the game in the beginning and onward? Are these choices mostly difficulty modifiers and for choosing starting skills/stats, or can I expect some distinct storylines and/or perks to picking certain social classes/professions.

Examples: Is there any incentive to pick a peasant over a nobleman, aside from added challenge (which I'll enjoy regardless)?

Would a nobleman simply have better renown/fame gain than a peasant? Or would they have different stories or perks?

Question 2: While I know building an army is a key aspect of that game that I greatly look forward to, is non-combat related characters viable and fun? Is there enough depth and playability as a pure merchant or a good sense of progression rising up the ranks in court? Or are they more of a side task- do generic quests/tasks to gain renown to one day become a nobleman, jarl, King, etc?

Bonus question: I've seen people put 1,000+ hours into this game. What sort of characters/playthroughs have people developed to play so long? Keep in mind consoles likely won't have mod support and I don't know what, if any, expansions we may get and what patch version.

 

[Ruthven]

Hey Chompski. Welcome. To answer your questions;

1) These choices affect very little in Warband. Nobles have a much easier time joining a faction as a vassal, and partially an easier time getting along with minor Lords at large. Women and peasants can get the same position, but they'll have to prove themselves a little bit more, and certain nobles will dislike lowborns or warrior women (but generally you don't want to associate with those lords anyways.) Your stats and starting equipment are of course affected, but it's a pretty small difference, and if you have true Warband skills the choices are almost meaningless.

2) I think it is for a time, but not really sustainable. The game is pretty fighting-centric. You can of course hire bodyguards etc and do this sort of thing, but a real problem becomes the difficulty in actually levelling up. Almost all the experience a player gains comes from personally getting kills in battles, so even though you can make a good amount of money by being a neutral merchant, you won't advance much of your own skills unless you're willing to get your hands a bit dirty. I find the court system pretty lacking in depth in Warband (compared to how I would like it, but not necessarily compared to other games of course) but by doing tasks for your king and other lords you could conceivably do fairly well in terms of earning fiefs etc, but I don't think it would be incredibly fun for a whole game.

bonus) Just "finishing" a game in Warband is a massive undertaking. You'll hit a point in the game when you have maybe 30% of all lands conquered, and after that it's obvious that you can take the rest. Your armies can tear through much larger enemy armies with ease, you weaken castles with archers then storm in with Huscarls. At this point you've essentially won, but actually conquering the rest of the land is still a huge task that will take hours and hours. But the people with 1000 (or even 10000) hours played are probably playing multiplayer, which I assume console release will support. I started playing the (singleplayer-only) original Mount&Blade waaay long ago, but even though it was the SP that brought me here, it's the multiplayer that makes this game so soul crushingly difficult, and so tempting to pour your time into. The absolute best of the best players will still die unlucky deaths all the freaking time. To say MP is hard is like saying attaining superpowers is "ambitious". You may have heard an adage that says it takes ten thousand hours of practice to master something, like an instrument or a language. Warband is easily at ten thousand and counting for quite a few people, and I don't think anybody has "mastered" it quite yet.

I hope you have fun though, really sucks you can't play mods, IMO the game really comes to life with their improvements.

 

[Cpt. Nemo]

1.

They are "mostly difficulty modifiers and for choosing starting skills/stats"
If don't pick beginning as a noble, you'll have to work before you may become a vassal. Not a huge change, you'll just have to earn that 200 renown instead of being granted it at the start.

2.
They are 'more of a side task- do generic quests/tasks to gain renown to one day become a nobleman, jarl, King, etc"
Being a successful merchant takes some time and experience, but is nowhere near deep enough to be a primary gameplay loop. It's really just a good way to make loads of money early game, while allowing you to explore the map and complete quests for towns, villages and lords along the way.

Bonus
While mods are often the biggest reason, multiplayer (including Native) is another major excuse to put loads of time into the game. It's unique, fun, and very difficult to master.
That being said, many people, myself included, put hundreds of hours into Native singleplayer. Even without mods, there are many different playstyles and self imposed challenges to try. Horse archery, 1 handed and shield, two handed, footknight, using only one faction, claimants, starting your own faction, companions only, to name a few.

 

[Chompski]

Thanks for the replies thus far.

As I said, I'm getting the game regardless. I just tend to hype games up for myself.

I wish the devs were a little more vocal about the console versions. The Xbox version comes out September 16th and despite some digging, they apparently have said much about it: about possible DLC, patch version, future support, PC to console differences, etc.

 

[Cpt. Nemo]

Thanks for the replies thus far.

As I said, I'm getting the game regardless. I just tend to hype games up for myself.

I wish the devs were a little more vocal about the console versions. The Xbox version comes out September 16th and despite some digging, they apparently have said much about it: about possible DLC, patch version, future support, PC to console differences, etc.

You probably already know they showed it off at Gamescom. They said in a facebook post that it has everything that's in the PC version, save for no mods and 64 player multiplayer max (IIRC). I believe they also said that they updated the graphics a bit.

 

[Chompski]

They just said some similar things on Twitter as well. I read into the game a bit but I wasn't appear of such high reception.


Another question if you don't mind:

How fun/viable is it to be a bandit? Is that a role recognized by the game or would you essentially form your own faction and raid villages with a little role playing?

 

[Phalnax811]

Just to give you another answer....

1: Beginning choices affect perks and proficiencies. Look up Warband starting stats and you'll find guides.  I always start as a noble because I like having a coat of arms from the start - otherwise your shields will be a boring default.  I always chuck lots of points into leadership for larger parties though I recently tweaked Base Party size of 30 to 100. So next game I might not go that route. I doubt you'd be able to do that on consoles :/  Starting as a woman is fun too though they ain't the prettiest.

2: Combat is the most exciting part of the game. There are however plenty of non-combat quests. Just stay away from the herding since its annoying...unless the town is nearby.  Learning trade routes and prices is also pretty rewarding. Curaw Iron >> Wercheng >> Wercheng Salt >> Rivacheg >> Rivacheg Silk to somewhere else.  You can find cheap dates on Sarranid border towns and sell them elsewhere. Cheap Velvet in one of the Rhodok towns.  If you find fur cheaper than 200, snatch it up and someone will buy it for double.  Or raid the village and take all they have....unless you are recruiting from the same faction.

3. Being a Bandit could be fun but unless you have a massive party of horsemen (to clarify, I mean that a party of horsemen travels faster than a party with infantry), you're Warband won't survive battles from the people or entire factions you p*ss off. Unless you only raid in Rhodok territory but plan to stay up near the Vaegirs. I only pillage villages/caravans of factions I'm at war with.

 

[fragonard]

Beginning choices can be important for character development under certain circumstances by saving attribute requirements. For example, if you can live with 3 riding and 3 Weapon master, you can start as a Noble/apprentice/squire/forced out and have only 6 agility. Or, if you need 4 riding but not other agility skills, you can start as Nomad/apprentice/squire/forced out and have just 7 agility. Saving up to 5 attributes makes a big difference in some builds that focus on Intelligence and/or charisma.

 

[erennuman_mb]

How fun/viable is it to be a bandit? Is that a role recognized by the game or would you essentially form your own faction and raid villages with a little role playing?

I don't think being a bandit is enjoyable when you can't be friendly with other bandits. Also, raiding villages will make the lord and faction hate you. It might be fun though, I never actually tried it because of these reasons.

 

[Chompski]

Thanks again for the replies everyone. While I didn't want to extend the OP further, I did want to know a bit about game mechanics and knowing about perks and such allows me to further look into that.

 

[Cpt. Nemo]

Thanks again for the replies everyone. While I didn't want to extend the OP further, I did want to know a bit about game mechanics and knowing about perks and such allows me to further look into that.

This guide should be able to answer nearly all the questions of game mechanics you could ever have for Warband. For "perks", scroll down to skills in the guide.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121687291

 

[Chompski]

A few smaller questions:

-Roughly, how long is an in-game year in real life time? I hear of people conquering the whole continent(?) in about an in-game year. Obviously won't be the same for every person and playthrough.

-Are there difficulty modifiers aside from the questions asked at the start of a character? I saw someone bringing up someone's difficulty as a percentage.

-What's the base server size for multiplayer? Consoles appears to be 16 v 16. If that's a downgrade from what the devs originally designed the map/gametypes on PC for, MP might feel underwhelming. Especially siege, which looks pretty fun.

 

[erennuman_mb]

A few smaller questions:

-Roughly, how long is an in-game year in real life time? I hear of people conquering the whole continent(?) in about an in-game year. Obviously won't be the same for every person and playthrough.

-Are there difficulty modifiers aside from the questions asked at the start of a character? I saw someone bringing up someone's difficulty as a percentage.

-What's the base server size for multiplayer? Consoles appears to be 16 v 16. If that's a downgrade from what the devs originally designed the map/gametypes on PC for, MP might feel underwhelming. Especially siege, which looks pretty fun.

1. I think each in-game hour is either a second or 10 seconds. But of course I'm not sure.

2. The starting questions has nothing to do with difficulty. The difficulty is based on the game settings such as Campaign AI, combat AI, block control, etc. You can see the percentage on the right. Having realistic saving also significantly increases difficulty.

3. Warband supports 64 players by default, but some dedicated servers can have up to 222.

 

[Cpt. Nemo]

I remember reading somewhere that consoles will have up to 64 player battles.

 

[Chompski]

I would imagine 64 players should be possible on a 6 year old game even with some graphical upgrades.

Everywhere I read though, says: "Fight alone or in the online multiplayer mode with up to 32 players."

They seem to all be copy and paste bullet points from one original source. I won't get excited for 64 but it could be a matter of wording and will be the case.

 

[Cable]

1 hour is 1 second if you press time manually; for the accelerated time its less than 1 second.

 

[killer-blead]

To answer your bonus question:

Bonus question: I've seen people put 1,000+ hours into this game. What sort of characters/playthroughs have people developed to play so long? Keep in mind consoles likely won't have mod support and I don't know what, if any, expansions we may get and what patch version.

Most players who pick a long term build invest their points in Charisma and intelligence.

Charisma is mostly picked for the leadership skill, which allows you to hire more soldiers, lowers their wages and improves their moral. Or Trade and prison management for beter money making.

Intelligence is invaluable for any long play time as your healing skills would allow you to regenerate the health of your character, heroes and soldiers much faster and has a max of 40% chance of making lethal attack non lethal. Furthermore there are skills which would provide you with more information about parties (tracking) allow you to move faster on the map (speedfinding) give you a advantage in battles(tactics) Allow you to persuade people (Persuasion) Lets you build faster for your fiefs and during sieges (engineering) trains your soldiers which provide them with daily experience (trainer) and increases your inventory (inventory management).

Strength and agility is very fun to have a high skill off, but having the choice of 1 super soldier or 1 super army, most people prefer to have the army.

 

[fragonard]

Very true except 10 surgery gives an 81% chance of being non-lethal.  10+4 bonus +25 starting chance.

 

[Chompski]

Thanks again for all the help from everyone.

The game has been a lot of fun. Perhaps a little grindy at times but the combat and battles are very fun.

While I'm sure they want to focus on Bannerlord, I wouldn't be against them porting DLC, at least single player-focused ones, though I won't get too excited and I'm getting enough play time regardless.