While the combat has definitely been much improved, the game suddenly being playable at the most basic level has highlighted just how much the core design decisions have absolutely obliterated any chance multiplayer has at being successful long term. To recap.
Counter Arguments To The Things I Said
"The game is early access, so your complaints are not valid. Wait until it is a finished product."
- The Class System is a straight downgrade to that of Warband, and really any other game of the genre, in regards to both Balance potential and customization. The general thought process could work, but there is not nearly enough in place to make it worthwhile. In order for the current system to work you would need at minimum an extra 2 perk categories, along with every faction having access to at least a similar level of troop types. Half the factions not even getting true medium infantry is inexcusable, and warrants a complete overhaul of the system on its own. The devs have repeatedly said they will not budge on the class system despite it being disliked both by the players and by some employees within Taleworlds.
- Battle not being present is inexcusable, and demonstrates that the decision makers at Taleworlds have absolutely no clue what its players want out of multiplayer. Both the casual line-battle crowd and the competitive tournament crowd entirely relied on battle mode in order for their desired communities to remotely function. By not including this mode, an extremely large portion of the community has been alienated from the game. Saying battle couldnt be included because of the class system is a horse **** excuse, considering that the community didnt want the current class system either. The decision makers at Taleworlds COMPLETELY failed to factor in opportunity cost when designing the game. If a proposed system makes a key part of your game impossible...it shouldnt be included. Whatever taleworlds could gain by doing the class system the way it was done can not possibly be worth losing the Competitive and LineBattle crowd.
- The conscious decision to not give TDM static or team adjacency oriented spawns is mind boggling. The mode is complete cluster**** chaos due to the stubbornness in this regard. Adding some form of spawn adjacency would see it become a fun casual mode, but once again the decision makers have been steadfast in their refusal to listen to some very basic requests. Im nervous that Taleworlds has decided not to add this because they literally cant, and the implications that has on the usefulness of the map editor and the hope for future mods has me very nervous.
- Siege was, is, and will continue to be nearly impossible to play due to constant crashes. The flagship gamemode of the series being often unplayable is easily the primary reason for why the multiplayer side of the game is as dead as it is. As I have said before, trying to push out some siege tests a week before the game officially launched was a very risky way to go about it. Siege being unfinished was easily enough justification to leave the multiplayer side of the game in closed beta a little longer, and considering the product that players received on launch, having done so would likely lead to multiplayer being much more alive today. The numbers playing multiplayer currently are roughly the numbers you would expect from an invite only beta anyway.
- Captain mode being forced to rely on the same class system and balance decisions as every other gamemode is extremely detrimental for every gamemode. This has, and will continue to, create a cycle where the game goes from being properly balanced for captain mode and being properly balanced for everything else, entirely depending on which patch is live as the time. If Taleworlds cant even make the simple decision to create separate balance for vastly different gamemodes, frankly they shouldnt be the ones in charge of the said gamemodes or multiplayer. It does not matter how much effort ARVC or any other individual dev puts forth when they are shackled by extremely poor design decisions.
- The way the addition of crush through has been handled is a perfect example of every issue the players have with Taleworlds right now.
Taleworlds: "We are going to do (thing)"
Players: "We do not want you to do (thing)"
Taleworlds: "We have already had internal discussions and we have decided to do do (thing). Trust us, you will like (thing)"
*Thing comes out*
Players: "We do not like (thing)"
Taleworlds: "Oh, ok
. We will slightly adjust (thing)"
Players: "You are not understanding. We do not want (thing) adjusted, we dont want it at all. We made that clear before (thing) came out."
Substitute the word (thing) for the current class system, Skirmish as opposed to battle, Siege being a queue mode instead of in the custom server list, or crush through. Nearly an identical chain of events happened for every one of the things I just mentioned.
Counter Arguments To The Things I Said
"The game is early access, so your complaints are not valid. Wait until it is a finished product."
- With the exception of siege instability, every single thing I have talked about is a deliberate design decision that Taleworlds has repeatedly said they will under no circumstances go back on. The game could be the best running, most stable, refined, and polished product on the planet, and many of us would still not enjoy it because of the core decisions I mentioned. I intentionally did not talk about the lack of gamemodes like duel or capture the flag because those are things which could realistically be added, but even if they were, they both would still be hurt by the core design decisions I mentioned. Duel will never live up to its full potential while crush through is in the game, and CTF is yet another thing that would be hurt by the unbalanced by design class system.
- If a game did something very well, it is generally expected that the sequel will attempt to emulate that success. Warband did some things very poorly, but rather than focus on improving those things, the designers instead chose to nuke the entire formula and start from scratch. Not including anything resembling a battle gamemode is proof that the devs did not value what made Warband good or unique. I honestly have a hard time wrapping my head around this argument. So you are surprised? That we want the game which we want to be good? To be like this other game? That we thought was good??
- Yes they 100% will, but thats not even remotely what they should be doing. If Bannerlord was designed better, the mods could be used to add to the native experience, rather than completely replace it. The entire community being forced to download something Belendor threw together just to have a decent experience is detrimental to both the mod makers and to Bannerlord. Instead of focusing on improving the game and adding new and interesting game overhauls, like what Mercs, PW and CRPG did for warband, many of the best mod creators will be forced instead create a palatable "Native" experience just to establish a baseline for the rest of the mods to go off of. While this isnt a big issue for a PW equivalent, you are fooling yourself if you think CRPG or Mercs could function without first creating a functioning Battle and Siege mode, along with working adjacency spawns and a better form of gear selection. All things which the base game currently lacks and they will be forced to add on their own. Another important thing to consider is the new player experience. US_GK_Siege, MountAndSiege, POM, and IG_Battlegrounds was a gateway for many of us into the game. If all the most popular "native" servers are actually running on a native overhaul mod, that is a gateway which will not exist anymore. Unless we get very lucky and the existence of whatever mod gets created hits mainstream and becomes common knowledge as the thing you have to download in order get the multiplayer experience. If that doesnt happen, the majority of the multiplayer community will be completely cut off from new players, and will be unsustainable.
- I mean sure, yeah. Im a huge fan of Mount&Blade. It holds a special place in my heart. Watching Taleworlds completely flop these decisions really ****ing hurts. Its like watching your favorite sports team trade all of their picks away to draft a bust #1 overall. Its painful. I want my passion to become mainstream and for Bannerlord to be a huge multiplayer success. For like 3 days after launch we had that, and it proved the interest in the genre is there. Unfortunately, those new players quickly departed, and on the way out they cited the same decisions that im laying out now and that we warned against back in the Alpha as the reasons they left.
- No, I did not, and Im not going to either. If Taleworlds is allowed to have grammatical errors in THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CLASSES, Im allowed to have a few in the book I wrote on my own unpaid time.
![[VK] Shoomama](/data/avatars/m/519/519105.jpg?1594168185){kind=avatar}
