Everyone keeps screaming its been 10 years. when you see someone scream that, or about the team size, or the fact that updating is slow, most of the time I can't tell if actually making demands and complaints under such ignorance or just trolling? its been somewhere between 6-8 years because the first two were just testing with the old engine, mentioned in the earliest interviews about Bannerlord shortly after announcement. They started with engine building instead of also compiling assets because they probably weren't ready to add to the team, and you really didn't see the massive studio they have now until the last few years. Topping that off, large teams of developers actually lose time on an increasing curve, due to needing a lot of coordination efforts. A team of 30 does not make 3x the content of a team of 10. Don't get me started on contract workers either the quality and efficiency on their assignments is highly variable based on teams too. Patching for Warband wasn't consistent either, starting with weekly patches and moving onto monthly they really haven't changed their aproach to it since then, and their lack of information in the community isn't honestly anything different either too. Tale-worlds has always been pretty independent, but they did a good job, so not many cared.
6-8 years on a scratch made engine seems totally reasonable. especially factoring the game was not originally intended to have multiplayer, now suddenly 2-3 years ago they had to halt and factor that into the game because up until the outcry about multiplayer being separate like their Original-to-Warband release they now felt they had to include them in one go. Not to mention of those 6-8 years using the new engine, they were messing around with some really ambitions ideas such as ( Things like the settlement system they had planned to originally have where a village was upgraded to castle or city via purchasing particular upgrades and buildings, and that they were constructed on the map or destroyed (actually removed) by razing.) things like these were cut, and/or simplified early on because of how difficult it was for "AI" and "economy balance," one of the things that didn't get cut though is the custom weapon system.
All this said, I feel like there isn't enough to do, the game needs to evolve from simply "open world" to "Sandbox". Besides war, what else can I do? absolutely everything revolves around war, and has no purpose but to fuel it. and while it is the main focus of the game, in Warband at least we had some politics, feasting, marriages, royal squabbles over people courting the same ladies, rivalries involving duels for honor, etc. they weren't a staple feature of the game but they broke up some of the monotony. especially the feasts and lordly squabbles.
And that is the part that worries me, we don't know what the finished product will be anymore, the roadmap for development on the forum is really outdated, will we get the feasting? Will politics evolve past a menu-screen with voting, will I be able to kidnap and threaten people for votes or they will never see the child again? can I forcibly marry a widow to gain their land? can I use my relationships with lords to garner favor in votes? will I be able to create internal power struggles for the throne? The game has no long-term roadmap and while I don't think we HAVE to have one it would be nice to at least have a list of things they are CONSIDERING with no obligations, hell "no obligations" could be at the top of the roadmap in like 128 point font, bolded. I'd be happy.
Then there is the issue of completed features, among which statements have been made that fast paced siege battles are the intention, and i feel that inherently just makes defending so unfair, more than being starved out already does, I mean your supposed to starve me out, or take serious losses trying to take it forcibly. That's why i have a castle, so you can't just boop my snoot and say its now yours.
In the end, I stopped playing to see where it's going, I already had my fill of what it has to offer and it WAS fun, but its not enough to be highly re-playable for me. not yet.
