I really didn't want to be this disappointed

[VVyrd]

There's been without doubts management issues that have delayed the game - It was, after all, their first big game. Warband was made by 12 people, Bannerlord is being made by over a hundred. Did you really expect they'd have any experience managing such a big project and studio as if they were Ubisoft? And even those have incredible major issues when managing such projects - Just look at EA, most recently Anthem.

That being said, you have to keep in mind Taleworlds had to develop everything from scratch. This isn't Warband with a slapped-over engine upgrade and some fancy graphic enhancements. This an entirely new engine. That is, in essence, why it took so long. You really have no idea how hard it is to make an engine - Much harder if you try to make it moddable too. Or why do you think Bethesda is still re-using the same engine almost two decades old?

My point is, stop judging the game for how long it took to develop, but purely for what it is. Me, personally, I would not recommend this to anyone who was not a M&B fan or who cannot accept unfinished/unpolished games. Those people should really wait for full release. Right now, as with any early access game, the important is the core of the game. Is it fun enough for you right now? Then don't worry, it can and will only get better.

 

[Ikarooz]

I mean I was prepared with lots of newcomers complaining and not giving proper, objective feedback but its still very tiresome

 

[naiski3]

It IS an modernized Warband, with more features, and most of the major innovative changes are still in the works which they already told us.

Pretty sure Bannerlord actually has far less features than Warband had and little to no new ones.

 

[GhostTechGaming]

7 years of development and it simply feels like a graphical update from the first M&B.
I really, really wish I could fathom what the devs spent their time on.
Sure, the graphical upgrade is nice but hardly AAA.

Let me list a few reasons for my disappointment:
- Combat is clunky and lackluster. While this was true for the older games I'm sure most of us expected some innovation on this front.
- The menu-based system for commanding troops is cumbersome - again, I expected this to be improved.
- Gameplay-wise it feels like very little was improved upon from the original games. This feels more like a new map with some mods.
- Which brings me to the cost. Why on earth would you charge so much for a title that is in all respects simply v1.5 of your original game?

Minor complaints:
- Certain cities/towns have no ambient sounds making them rather lifeless.
- Town/City NPC's are as cookie cutter as you can get...and not in a good way.
- The Character Creator doesn't seem nearly as inspired and versatile as they lead us to believe during previous gameplay demos.

Again 7 years? As a fan and a paying customer I truly believe the community deserves some insight into how so much time could have been wasted on something that you had almost the entire blueprint for already? Don't get me wrong, I will still play and enjoy this game...but no more than the previous one as it is in many ways the same product and certainly not what anyone would have expected nearly a decade later.

See, this is why it is in early access, they can still make changes and fixes on a mass scale. We have the "Core" of the game do you like what the game offers? What would you change? Are the issues fixable or is it something that can't be fixed or you don't think they will change. I am being as optimistic as possible because a year from now is the full release "potentially" A year from now I can the game should be in amazing shape. When mod tools are released with this foundation, I can automatically say there is nothing to worry about. The devs spent a huge time on coding and reworking the engine. On the longrun we should get a complete and amazing game. I would already say it is amazing with just its core.

 

[Mynas]

I guess if people repeat in their brains enough times "combat is crappy" then it will be that for them.

People will always believe what they want to believe. Thankfully Dev team knows what to do and they will execute in time.

 

[Experimental]

Pretty sure Bannerlord actually has far less features than Warband had and little to no new ones.

At the moment, Banner does in fact have less features than Warband. lol

 

[Mynas]

See, this is why it is in early access, they can still make changes and fixes on a mass scale. We have the "Core" of the game do you like what the game offers? What would you change? Are the issues fixable or is it something that can't be fixed or you don't think they will change. I am being as optimistic as possible because a year from now is the full release "potentially" A year from now I can the game should be in amazing shape. When mod tools are released with this foundation, I can automatically say there is nothing to worry about. The devs spent a huge time on coding and reworking the engine. On the longrun we should get a complete and amazing game. I would already say it is amazing with just its core.

Completely agree

 

[naiski3]

See, this is why it is in early access, they can still make changes and fixes on a mass scale. We have the "Core" of the game do you like what the game offers? What would you change? Are the issues fixable or is it something that can't be fixed or you don't think they will change. I am being as optimistic as possible because a year from now is the full release "potentially" A year from now I can the game should be in amazing shape. When mod tools are released with this foundation, I can automatically say there is nothing to worry about. The devs spent a huge time on coding and reworking the engine. On the longrun we should get a complete and amazing game. I would already say it is amazing with just its core.

I would like to be optimistic about this as well but honestly a lot of the "core" of the game actually feels worse than Warband. It looks a little nicer, runs way worse, siege AI is totally busted, etc. I'm hard-pressed to find a single improvement over Warband and it makes me wish they had just taken Warband and added a few new features to it.

 

[BlackRainZ]

Actually this is how I feel. Right now the game feels a lot like Native Warband, but missing a few features like Enterprises, while adding in a few features that I am not sure are actually better like aging and dying. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was really expecting Taleworlds to have incorporated most of the best features from all the mods over the years but many, if not more are shockingly not in the game. Bannerlord 2 is fun to play, but there is nothing new enough, different enough, to make it stand out from playing Warband, especially since so many of the Warband total conversion mods are so feature rich compared to Bannerlord 2.

The game does have enterprises though. Another piece of misinformation.

 

[Noviix]

There's been without doubts management issues that have delayed the game - It was, after all, their first big game. Warband was made by 12 people, Bannerlord is being made by over a hundred. Did you really expect they'd have any experience managing such a big project and studio as if they were Ubisoft? And even those have incredible major issues when managing such projects - Just look at EA, most recently Anthem.

Right look at Anthem, the game that released way too early because EA rushed the developers. They rushed Bioware to try and make something they couldn't in a timeframe that they could not meet. Why is this behavior okay?

Bannerlord literally pushed up it's release date by a day, 24 hours of last minute bug fixing, ironing out simple quirks which there are plenty of, stuff that should have been an easy fix and we should have never seen, but nope here's Bannerlord one day early.

I'm just saying when you delay a game for years, give no release date, finally make a release date, push up the release date, and then release a far from anything but a beta product that you're susceptible to a lot of deserved criticism.

They could have just delayed the game an additional year, never given us a release date. and we'd be chilling because we've already been Stockholm Syndrome'd to death with delays for Bannerlord.

Some people like to play unfinished games I guess but me personally, I don't want another DayZ Standalone clone.

A good example of Early Access is something like Subnautica, a small project that needed some traction if it were meant to go anywhere. They instantly converted sales into updates and the game improved at a rate like no other seen on steam, especially in it's indie-ish survival genre. I just don't have that kind of faith for Bannerlord, mainly because of dev response or the lack there of.

If they ran out of money and needed to release it so be it, but I want mine back.

 

[Prifter]

I have to admit, I was expecting....more I guess but if I have to be honest what made Warband so fun over the years was really the mods, not the native game. That being the case, I think the game will really start to shine once the total conversions come on line. Still like many, I was kind of expecting....more (hehe)....out of Bannerlord even in early access. I mean there are features like buying an enterprise that aren't in the game. Also I was kind of expecting them to have taken all the great features from all the great total conversions and integrate them into Bannerlord 2, things like Freelancer for example. With so many years to develop the game, I figured all this and more would be in, even at early access.

Unfortunately, I am not certain, but I don't think this game is going to become what I was hoping it will be, until a few years pass and total conversion mods finally release.

Enterprises are in the game and they're very unbalanced lol. Making like 50k denars everyday

 

[Mynas]

Right look at Anthem, the game that released way too early because EA rushed the developers. They rushed Bioware to try and make something they couldn't in a timeframe that they could not meet. Why is this behavior okay?

Bannerlord literally pushed up it's release date by a day, 24 hours of last minute bug fixing, ironing out simple quirks which there are plenty of, stuff that should have been an easy fix and we should have never seen, but nope here's Bannerlord one day early.

I'm just saying when you delay a game for years, give no release date, finally make a release date, push up the release date, and then release a far from anything but a beta product that you're susceptible to a lot of deserved criticism.

They could have just delayed the game an additional year, never given us a release date. and we'd be chilling because we've already been Stockholm Syndrome'd to death with delays for Bannerlord.

Some people like to play unfinished games I guess but me personally, I don't want another DayZ Standalone clone.

A good example of Early Access is something like Subnautica, a small project that needed some traction if it were meant to go anywhere. They instantly converted sales into updates and the game improved at a rate like no other seen on steam, especially in it's indie-ish survival genre. I just don't have that kind of faith for Bannerlord, mainly because of dev response or the lack there of.

If they ran out of money and needed to release it so be it, but I want mine back.

Lol, no faith in Bannerlord. You dont know anything regarding TaleWorlds and their history. They will deliver. But if you want a refund, get it and begone from this forum. Good riddance!

 

[MKLVN]

Pretty sure Bannerlord actually has far less features than Warband had and little to no new ones.

Far less? Mind naming 3 of them that Bannerlord is missing?

 

[Noviix]

Lol, no faith in Bannerlord. You dont know anything regarding TaleWorlds and their history. They will deliver. But if you want a refund, get it and begone from this forum. Good riddance!

No it's not that I don't have faith, I'd just rather put my money somewhere else in the immediate timeframe that I'm stuck at home for an unknown amount of months/weeks.

If you wouldn't mind not being a complete asshat to me because of my criticisms of the game.

They haven't delivered in quite the chunk of time, they haven't answered many complaints even during the MP beta.

I've been in the beta for months now and have yet to see any significant improvements within the last 3-6 months.

When Early Access was released it really felt like they just put the MP beta right alongside the SP trial.

You're a complete and utter fool trying to dissuade actual criticism. For once look at the other side of things and don't be blinded by the fact that the game you waited half your lifetime for finally ****ing released so you could have a semblance of a successor to warband.

 

[Noviix]

Far less? Mind naming 3 of them that Bannerlord is missing?

Kingdom Management, Battle in MP, Profiles in MP, A good and balanced fleshed out system for multiplayer item useage/classes (I won't say be rid of the class system, but it's either improve it significantly or toss it imo), custom servers, fleshed out NPC dialogue, balanced factions, way more armor sets. And it's not only about what's missing, it's the fact that a lot of what's there is copy and pasted from Warband but it's either worse or exactly the same and not fit of a sequel title.

 

[Mynas]

No it's not that I don't have faith, I'd just rather put my money somewhere else in the immediate timeframe that I'm stuck at home for an unknown amount of months/weeks.

If you wouldn't mind not being a complete asshat to me because of my criticisms of the game.

They haven't delivered in quite the chunk of time, they haven't answered many complaints even during the MP beta.

I've been in the beta for months now and have yet to see any significant improvements within the last 3-6 months.

When Early Access was released it really felt like they just put the MP beta right alongside the SP trial.

You're a complete and utter fool trying to dissuade actual criticism. For once look at the other side of things and don't be blinded by the fact that the game you waited half your lifetime for finally ****ing released so you could have a semblance of a successor to warband.

Begone fool! Get out.

 

[BlackRainZ]

My problem isn't with criticism, but with the false information going around. I see so many people complaining about things which are either completely wrong or they don't know what they are talking about. People who keep either spreading wrong information or jump to conclusions. For example saying there are no enterprises when there are. Or saying there are 30 days in a year, when there are 84 days in a year. And yes, someone said that. Or getting mad about aging but not knowing what happens or if anything happens when you age. How about we actually learn first what is in the game before claiming things aren't in the game or getting mad about things that aren't true?

 

[BlackRainZ]

Kingdom Management, Battle in MP, Profiles in MP, A good and balanced fleshed out system for multiplayer item useage/classes (I won't say be rid of the class system, but it's either improve it significantly or toss it imo), custom servers, fleshed out NPC dialogue, balanced factions, way more armor sets. And it's not only about what's missing, it's the fact that a lot of what's there is copy and pasted from Warband but it's either worse or exactly the same and not fit of a sequel title.

Again, more misinformation. Do you know for certain there is no kingdom management? The main quest gives you the option to become a king. There may very well be kingdom management at that point. So why are you saying that? I have yet to see that there isn't any. There is kingdom management when you join a kingdom, the features are there so maybe there is something. The rest of your stuff is mostly balancing which are not missing features, so more false news.

 

[Noviix]

Again, more misinformation. Do you know for certain there is no kingdom management? The main quest gives you the option to become a king. There may very well be kingdom management at that point. So why are you saying that? I have yet to see that there isn't any. There is kingdom management when you join a kingdom, the features are there so maybe there is something. The rest of your stuff is mostly balancing which are not missing features, so more false news.

No actually it's not misinformation, it's literally on the ****ing steam page.

There was also a post that just covered the fact that he couldn't form a kingdom despite taking cities.

And after re-reading your post and mine, I don't think you know what most refers to considering I only said two things about balancing.

 

[Dianoctis]

Please not again.

Look. "Early Access" and "Sap" need to stop being made into a synonym. It has been more than enough time for more innovation than this. The issue is no big box developers want to take this on, and that in its turn is because a truly awesome modable game of this type more or less makes game dev obsolete.

What I like, and what I want to know more about, is the modability. That is what will make or break this game for me. Can people keep making it better and better without being forced to go back and back and back to paid DLC?

I am enjoying the game so far, btw... So. FWIW, don 't really agree with the OP's sentiments, but understand their view.

Although modders clearly made warband better, I think you really underestimate what kind of effort it takes to create a game like this.
People seems to forget that modders build on an entire already existing complex infrasctructure that is the game itself.

Don't get me wrong i'm not undermining the modders work one bit, they put crazy amount of hours and effort to make these awesome mods, but it's still different than creating an engine and an entire fonctionning game.