Is the mod polished enough to play at this point?

[[BRE] Wilbert]

I had a around 300 hours in the old mod and I loved every second of it. I was wondering if the new mod had gotten far enough to be as good as the old one, and if I should plop phantasy_v155_full_b1.7z into my MB folder or wait a few more weeks/months.

 

[gsanders]

I had a around 300 hours in the old mod and I loved every second of it. I was wondering if the new mod had gotten far enough to be as good as the old one, and if I should plop phantasy_v155_full_b1.7z into my MB folder or wait a few more weeks/months.

  Old mod as in 2014 version?

  It is improved over all patch releases of v150 2018 mod; as for 2014, I think 2014 had as many open issues as this ever did.  I do not think if you have not played v150 2018 version you know enough about the 2018 changes though if you wont read forum fairly deeply so you can always wait a month for a better user manual.

  One new player can launch 100 questions, and reading the forums for the last few months answer 3/4 of those.  Obviously, a manual would reduce the amount of friction new users have with the mod.  Also, some people just gag at anything new -- for example, prejudice.  They think they should pack their party with orcs, undead, a few liches, and some drow, then are upset that the elf city locks its doors to them when they "aren't at war with the Elves".  Unfair!!  And this becomes a "bug" to them.  In my mind, its how it should be.  The city needs to be comfortable with the people in your party.  Its YOUR party.  The town doesn't need a reason to lock them (and you) out.  There is a tool to see how they feel about you before you even get to the city gates.  You can solve this by packing your party with people they approve of.  But if you didn't know that, you think its some big show stopper.  I see this daily at NexusMods -- things that aren't even bugs blown up by people who are unwilling to read this forum.  If that's you, don't download it, now or next millennium.  I don't need the stress, and its not a popularity contest.  i could care less if I have 10 users or 10,000.  But I think it is greatly improved over last year's code.
Opinions vary.  What I can say is Guspav has neither time nor energy for the mod right now; I put 9 months of changes into it, and if you wish you can think of it as a submod.  Its not bound by Guspav's rules and it does its own thing.  Once in awhile it does things better.  In my opinion.  And like a boutique mod, it has 30 to 50 real users and a few thousand downloads that tried it, got confused or lost, and quit.  Since then it changed more.  I can't say it will ever be "finished"; I can say it improves each week.  If you wish, come back in a year and see if its still being added to.

 

[Arsakes]

Mod feels  polished and self contained, there are experimental featuers - but u can turn them off.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

Just a side note, in the 9 months that gsanders has been working on it, single handedly, this mod has improved more than most mods with a full development staff do in the course of 2 years.

I wish I could help with a guide or wiki, but I just don't know much about that sort of thing and will soon be loosing my internet, and so will be stuck with downloading updates onto a thumb drive at the library then dragging/dropping into the modules folder at home.

 

[gsanders]

Just a side note, in the 9 months that gsanders has been working on it, single handedly, this mod has improved more than most mods with a full development staff do in the course of 2 years.

I wish I could help with a guide or wiki, but I just don't know much about that sort of thing and will soon be loosing my internet, and so will be stuck with downloading updates onto a thumb drive at the library then dragging/dropping into the modules folder at home.

That last line is really sad.  I ended up not able to reliably afford rent, medical, etc in USA so moved / escaped to East Europe 13 years ago, but internet here is about $18 a month for 54 Mbit/sec unmetered data + 120 channels IP cable TV + home phone. 

  As for a guide or wiki, I ended up thinking the ideal guide is a series of screen grabs to just show "this is what it looks like when you do THIS".  A few people started writing these: Imyungdae, SmurfinHell, and Tuidgy, plus there was a wiki stub made and a few others.  Unfortunately I changed the start so much that all their efforts got enfilade -ed (I went around the edge too fast and their lines were useless).  In part my apparently fashion disaster with the v156/155 start in black was to at least show how especially the rigale layer changed by what your choices were.  To me the sensible part was reading the gains from each choice in almost real time, making it easier to see without a long document what you get with what starting option.  But because it was sooooo simple, people claimed it was badly broken and not at all ready for launch.

  Well, I was going to tell myself I havent heard an encouraging word on forums since February-ish, but I think I saw one in your post today.
It's timely as today will be supremely stressful at my day job.  I don't have a plan B if that falls apart.  Certainly this isn't close to "ready" to take over.  There seems to be a huge issue with 1.173 that I will have to load and wade through.  But at least I have internet, and don't have to smuggle updates via USB stick. That's too close to homeless.  My heart for you.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

I appreciate it, I am having to move due to a death in the family, so the internet will be gone in 7-10 days, though I'm heading to(hopefully) a job interview this morning, and if I land it I will be able to afford internet at the new place. Otherwise, it's patty-cake with the library.

But, come hell or high water, I'll get my Phantasy fix, if it means hooking my computer to an exercise bike charger

 

[gsanders]

Back to the original topic,
  It came to me as I was on my morning commute that there really ARE two camps to this:
  A) "It works very cleanly" users are all running v1.172 Warband on PCs with probably > 4 GB system RAM and 64-bit Windows 7/10

  B) "its really glitchy and likely to immediately crash and burn" users are all running 1.173 Warband .

  Although I can complain that I feel already burdened enough just implementing the game without new problems, if for example 65% of the random populace is already at 1.173 and THEY have "mostly glitched experience" then I have no choice but to consider that a major crisis.
I'm going to GUESS the "glitches" reported have to do with the mostly Mount & Blade (pre-Warband) models used for Orc, Drow, Elf, Dwarf, and Undead skins and armors, with special focus on Orcs and Undead skins (already the two most "popular" new player choices - I guess its a "compensation" thing for young nerds to want to be Orcs or Undead); and female Drow armors.  All of these probably lack "something" Warband just assumes is present and doubtless Warband 1.173 displays faster/better whatever than 1.172.  Or maybe 1.173 has superior anti-piracy measures and thus Taleworlds wishes 1.172 would "just go away", about how I feel about v150 series Phantasy 2018.

  I'll bite the bullet and install 1.173 today and do some tests.  It seems, for the moment, my expectation of a big meltdown at work didn't happen after all, and once more I escaped the headsman.  I suppose this means I'm obliged to buy the office drinks (despite that I don't/can't drink) for my 57th birthday later this week instead of packing up my gear and going home, and that I can go back to doing this mod instead of something "useful", since there's nothing for me to do now - story of the last 13 years.  I better bring the office good luck; they have no better reason than that to feed me.  Ah well, neither here nor there.  I'll look for a real cause for 1.173 glitches and see if I can rig a test, probably starting with pure human areas and fights and transitioning to the older exotic models Orcs, Undead, and Drow/Elf.  I expect if I guessed correctly (and my hunches usually are good) I should be able to differentiate quickly the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I'm more worried about glitches in the background, perhaps from attempts at increased multi-threading, which tends to glitch rapidly in diplomacy based games when "force single threading" is not turned on at Warband "advanced" tab in configure.  I didn't have to do that on my rig, in 1.172, but I also have a huge memory pool which insulates me from memory leaks.  I was thinking a small PC might glitch sooner if there is a memory leak, and there does seem to be a message when I close Warband about some memory not being accessible.  It looked to be a box Windows opened in the background that didn't kill Warband but was meant to be a nag.

  Anyway, I write this to be transparent.  _I_ don't see problems, but that does not mean they can't exist.  Maybe I have to change the environment of my test to see problems others get instantly.  MY game sessions are remarkably clean.  But I also probably don't click the same either.  I probably don't play the most problematic classes or races.  I probably subconsciously have made blazing hand paladins the least glitchy and most rewarding, followed by elves which do have a lag from models but otherwise make for pretty battles, followed next by Drow which also have pretty battles, followed probably by dwarves then orcs, which have considerable toughness and strength.  Poor humanity is last, but at least they have a easy political life, having the most allies and the least threats from their neighbors.  As for feeding Alpha Hunter's phantasy fix, as long as my day job lets me do this I'll stubbornly resist better jobs, but its a slow death spiral.  I kind of hope  to take the mod to a new level by end of summer, but I still live week to week.  There is no tomorrow for me; but it's strangely alive and mind expanding today.  I hope to share even a little of what I see the mod might be able to do, even if its sometimes glitchy in dialogs or some quest right now.  It was worse a month ago, or 3 months ago, or 6 months ago. It probably will never be perfect.

 

[Tuidjy]

  A) "It works very cleanly" users are all running v1.172 Warband on PCs with probably > 4 GB system RAM and 64-bit Windows 7/10

Yup.  That's exactly what both of my PCs are - 64 bit, Windows 7 and 10 respectively, and I downloaded 1.172 for Phantasy.

By the way, I do not think there is a memory leak.  One of my PCs runs Phantasy from Windows update to Windows update, i.e. I do not exit the game for a week straight.

And another "by the way".  A lot of the people running 1.173 are doing so because Steam updated it for them.  It may not be 1.173 itself, but the Steam overlay, which sometimes plays hell with buffer switching.

And finally, the reason so many people play orcs/dwarves/etc. and avoid humans may be simply because last time I checked, humans had MUCH worse stats and skills than other humanoids.  You literally lose 3-4 in stats and 6-8 in skills.

 

[gsanders]

  A) "It works very cleanly" users are all running v1.172 Warband on PCs with probably > 4 GB system RAM and 64-bit Windows 7/10

Yup.  That's exactly what both of my PCs are - 64 bit, Windows 7 and 10 respectively, and I downloaded 1.172 for Phantasy.

By the way, I do not think there is a memory leak.  One of my PCs runs Phantasy from Windows update to Windows update, i.e. I do not exit the game for a week straight.

And another "by the way".  A lot of the people running 1.173 are doing so because Steam updated it for them.  It may not be 1.173 itself, but the Steam overlay, which sometimes plays hell with buffer switching.

And finally, the reason so many people play orcs/dwarves/etc. and avoid humans may be simply because last time I checked, humans had MUCH worse stats and skills than other humanoids.  You literally lose 3-4 in stats and 6-8 in skills.

  At the risk of making a quote pyramid, I'll confess the observation of STEAM making a difference is a good call.  I dont execute Warband from Steam, I call it directly from Windows Explorer.  I had not thought about it beyond "all the problem users can't patch".... which is, after all, what Steam is for.  Steam brings the bulk of users to Mount&Blade Warband.    Probably I should be looking at Steam more.

  Someday [over the Rainbow] (wait stop, you're not Wizard of Oz)  I was going to mention someday I did plan to try to make a steam workshop since its obvious most users can't patch, because this mod is still far too "young" in its current "open alpha" for 2018, and will need frequent patches.
Compared to Christmas 2017 it came a long way but it has not stopped growing, and thus needs constant attention.  I'm pretty sure most users are burned out by now -- you're one of the last still here.  I probably scared the rest away.  But that's My "Dolg".  Or as my wife would say "on my head my <thrown> stones", for seeming fierce in forum.

EDIT:  I can confirm that Quests still have a hang in 1.173
  It isn't old models that are the issue, but just adding to the quest log.  I did close one quest script error but there is more to it.

 

[adrakken]

Well, I was going to tell myself I havent heard an encouraging word on forums since February-ish, but I think I saw one in your post today.

Sorry mate, havent forgotten about you. Life has been busy the last two months and before that was deep into the mod and thus wasnt replying here. Having done a lot of reading to catch up a bit before posting this I will say you are NUTS...you are doing the work of a team man, dont drive yourself crazy and stop trying to please everyone. Anyone doing what you are doing clearly is in a creation mood driven by the want/desire/love of their idea. That, is all that is important. There will be people that love it, like it, think its ok, dont like it or outright hate it. Ignore the later, they dont matter as they always exist for everything.

Do your thing, at your pace.

As for Steam. It has its pros and cons. The pro is that it exposes the game to more players...the con, which is MAJOR for this game is that it just loves to force updates that breaks mods which is why so few actually play it through Steam. Even games that "require" Steam to play it that uses mods like Skyrim, most people use a program that bypasses Steam so the game isnt "accidentally" updated because they dont want their mods broken.

 

[gsanders]

Well, I was going to tell myself I havent heard an encouraging word on forums since February-ish, but I think I saw one in your post today.

Sorry mate, havent forgotten about you. Life has been busy the last two months and before that was deep into the mod and thus wasnt replying here. Having done a lot of reading to catch up a bit before posting this I will say you are NUTS...you are doing the work of a team man, dont drive yourself crazy and stop trying to please everyone. ...

  Its unfair to Tuidgy and a few others that DID say something nice to claim months passed without kind words.  Actually I get a few here and there.  I just also get depressed.  The mod is one of these "agony and ecstasy" (not the drug) things -- I like sharing a new feature (and thats all it is - a sharing of "hey, this is on my desktop.  its a few minutes old but I thought you'd like it").  I feel surprised when I discover, hell no, most people dont like change, and in any case some people just really don't think there should be a mod that is "unfinished" in this section.  They want some flashing red neon sign saying "danger, will robinson" or some such warning them its in alpha still, forever.  Yes, but its able to be played.  Sort of.  Kind of.  "Mostly".  Except quests.

  I'm grateful you turned me onto to NexusMods, which I enjoy using.  Moddb takes an infernal amount of admin effort to put up patches -- its like every patch is a new mod and needs a half hour's effort to justify why its there.  NexusMods I'm up in 90 seconds, tops.  Plus I have the full 5 MByte/sec bandwidth on my upload, about 6 times the speed of Moddb.  And NexusMods lets me be my own admin, which Moddb won't do.  In all these things I thank you.

 

[HunterAlpha1]

Hm, guess I'll have to roll back to 1.172, which is something I hate doing, I generally prefer to try to make the newer version of whatever game work.

 

[gsanders]

Hm, guess I'll have to roll back to 1.172, which is something I hate doing, I generally prefer to try to make the newer version of whatever game work.

  Next update is Friday 27th April.  Until then don't ask lords for new quests, although you're welcome to finish any that are auto-assigned to you such as Tournaments or helping the farmer you met at a tavern.  Those are safe.

  I have enough pressure already so anything the community feels upset about can wait until next week.  I'm working on any quest OR 1.173 issues this week, and so far have dealt with 1 script error that starts with the "collect taxes for me" quest, which will ruin every quest that follows once opened.  There may be one other issue; in the test sent me fixing the one that was obviously broken still allowed the game to hang the next quest opened, so there may be several layers to change. 

 

[Hedin]

It's been polished enough to be very enjoyable for some time now - jump in and play! I'm playing other things at the moment but check in on this mod intermittently to check progress. There really isn't anything else like it. gsanders is doing amazing work.

 

[OldGreyBeard]

Using WB 1.173.
The 156 series is definitely polished enough to play at this point. Be sure to UPDATE to LATEST PATCH!

The 155 series works well, unless you play the enhanced tournaments. This may be a 1.173 issue. If you want to play the 155 series, be sure to turn off the enhanced tournaments in the CAMP menu ASAP, or don't enter any tournaments.

Exporting / edit / importing a character to get "I am a god!" stats will make the battles unstable. Mostly because "haste" is something your mages cast on you any chance they get, and at some point, the hit/damage calculations hit a wall and crash. If you've got something like 300 AG and get hasted a couple of times ... well ... FTL movement is right out!

 

[Akesh the Cursed]

I had a around 300 hours in the old mod and I loved every second of it. I was wondering if the new mod had gotten far enough to be as good as the old one, and if I should plop phantasy_v155_full_b1.7z into my MB folder or wait a few more weeks/months.

I played the 2014 version a long time ago and man, that was a really great mod but it did have it's fair share of bugs.

Fast forward a few years and I started playing v150 P7 and it was a vast improvement in my opinion.

I am now currently playing v156 b7 and I can assure you it is polished and well worth your time. I have encountered a few minor bugs but have never had the game crash or have
had anything frustrating happen. Source: I am about 30 hours into my current campaign and now just entering mid-game activities.