td_klondike
Knight
Dear Taleworlds,
I would like to tell you how much I appreciate M&B: Warband. I think the entire series is a breakthrough program, and one which is definitely needed in this period of sequels and IP franchises. The concept is unique and ambitious, but there is so much more that could be done. I would like to share with you some observations and let you know what direction I think you could go in to make a good game a legendary game. I would like to start by simply identifying some of the different aspects of the gameplay and address each of them in turn, both by praising what you have done well and suggesting things that could have been done better: they are combat, tactics, missions , politics, empire building/management, and user interface. I love the M&B franchise, and I would like to offer what I can to help it realize its full potential.
First, I would like to start with the combat system, since that is what the entire game seems to be built around. I have no suggestions. It’s by far the best swordplay combat system I’ve ever seen. The mounted combat is fantastic, as is the variety of weapons and attack types. You truly get a feel for momentum, and it feels great. There are many simple things that work so well in this system and they come together perfectly to create a great whole. I’ve read many good suggestions on the forums for small fixes, and while I don’t disagree with them, I think implementing them would not add so much to something with so much depth.
The combat tactics, however, is something that needs desperate attention. From reading the forums, it appears that many of your customers have some experience with the Total War series, which is known for doing to tactical military engagements what you have done to individual combat. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to use some of their successes as a model for improving your own. As it stands, M&B is somewhere between the first-person fantasy role-playing game and large-scale military strategy, but it doesn’t do either of them well. Although you level your character in the traditional sense, with stats and skills that improve their power, you never have any sense of the character’s importance. Conversely, in a situation where the character itself is not the focus, you would expect the mechanics of war to supersede the individual. However, it does not. You can’t properly order your troops to do many things which were proven in history to be effective, like shield walls, spear walls, cavalry formations, etc. As has been mentioned many times in the forums, it would be nice to be able order your spearmen to form a line with swordsmen on the flanks, and separate your cavalry into two groups to flank enemy positions after they’ve engaged the line. Right now, there isn’t even a line. Properly ordering a military from the first-person perspective would add so much to the experience.
Next, the mission system. This is where the game should shine from a first-person fantasy role-playing game, which I think M&B most certainly is. The mission concept is sound; it doesn’t follow a storyline, they are location based, as well as situational. There is tons of replay value there. However, they are muddy and repetitive, and don’t always make sense. It would be nice if you could arrange for the missions to be more pertinent to the status of the game, your associated faction (or lack thereof), and the status of conflicts in the world. For example, if you have no allegiance to any faction, you would receive mercenary contracts from merchants, lords, and possibly individuals. I also think army size should be a factor in determining missions. I don’t think a guild master is really going to ask a lord with 100 veteran soldiers to escort cattle. Receiving these missions breaks the immersion and makes you want to abandon the mission system entirely. That’s a mission for a small band of maybe 10-30 mercenaries. It would also be interesting to receive more missions for small bands, like the “clear the bandit camp” missions. Create something that’s designed to be for you and your companions, where their faction background might actually even be important. For example, if you have a companion with a Swadian background, and you receive a mission to rescue a lord from a Swadian dungeon, create additional gameplay tactics if you have the Swadian hero in your party. I also think that you could create many more village quests for a small party like that. Train the villagers would be one of these. You and your companions raise a small band of villagers from just villagers to footmen and skirmishers, and then you have a tough fight against the raiding bandits. Right now, you have to do some tedious training exercises for a really simple fight (assuming you still have a hundred soldiers).
The politics concept is great. It’s necessary in a game like this, and I think you did a great job with it. The concept of renown, of personal relations, as well as right to rule and controversy add a lot. Once you become a king or a vassal, you really feel like you’re a part of the political world in Calradia. One thing that I think contribute something to the immersion and the sense if the individual character would be if you encountered all the characters one at a time, rather than having instant access to all the characters, their families, and their property. Make politics a game, where you have to get to know other lords personally. Maybe the first encounter is in the battlefield, fighting bandits, or maybe it’s in their castle, when you offer to sell your services as a mercenary. Let the character build from there, and carve out his or her niche in the world on a personal level. Make dialogue choices matter more. This would finally give the individual a sense of individuality.
The idea of empire building is a gameplay element that was invited when you created the option of starting your own kingdom. To an extent, it was there previously with respect to managing villages, castles and towns, but now that you can rule an entire kingdom, the importance of being able to properly manage gets magnified tremendously. I would like to see a kingdom management section added, where you could micromanage as little or as much as you liked. Balancing caravan size against profit, establishing trade routes, and managing village prosperity versus loyalty are all things which could help with the feel of “Empire”. There are also so many aspects which could be incorporated into the game to create an actual sense of empire. For example, cultural influence would be a nice touch. If you have a lot of bordering properties, loyalty is increased, but if you have one distant outlying territory under the influence of another faction, loyalty would be difficult to foster and defense would be difficult. Uprising would be likely, and the influencing faction may have an easier time with sieges, and income would be pathetic from the village/castle/town. You may also make it so that villages are likely to belong to whichever faction has controlling influence. For example, if you REALLY want to start an empire, and you capture a castle, that’s all you get. The associated village still belongs to whoever you captured the castle from, and will continue to do so until you gain more ground influentially. You could make it so that castles have a large impact on influence, and villages and cities combined have more of an effect on income. And again, owning your own kingdom should affect politics and missions appropriately.
Lastly, user interface could use an overhaul. I’m not just talking about menu graphics here, although that is an aspect. Giving combat orders is downright anti-intuitive. It would be nice to have a command bar along a part of the screen or something. There are so many games out there that have systems for giving orders that I can’t understand why M&B has taken so many steps backwards in this. In my profession, the user interface between man and machine has become one of the most important factors in designing and certifying new technology. Granted, this is a game, but usability is no less crucial to its success. I get that you actually have to ride into town to see the village elder or the guild merchant; but make it an enjoyable experience, then. Populate the town, add interesting things to do in town. Or, don’t make us ride into town. Right now, it’s a chore. Make it fun or take it out. This element repeats itself in many, many aspects of the game. If you want to talk to a lord in a castle, you just have to ask for him (after a few menus). If you want to talk to a lord in a city, you have to enter his hall. Why? The majority of the time that I talk to lords, is because I want to know the location of someone else. Make this a quickly accessible feature from the root dialogue menu: streamlined usability. It doesn’t take away from the immersion, it adds to it by removing constant reminders that you have to navigate through a clunky user interface.
I would like to reiterate that I love this game. Because of my geographical location, my internet is too slow to play multiplayer, so I don’t have any comments about that. I played the first M&B with a variety of mods, and I think the Warband single player is a big improvement. However, it’s no time rest. You have more publicity now, and a growing fan base. This is the time to pick up the ball and run with it. I wish you all the best of luck, and I eagerly anticipate any and all improvements.
Thank you,
A Loyal Fan
I would like to tell you how much I appreciate M&B: Warband. I think the entire series is a breakthrough program, and one which is definitely needed in this period of sequels and IP franchises. The concept is unique and ambitious, but there is so much more that could be done. I would like to share with you some observations and let you know what direction I think you could go in to make a good game a legendary game. I would like to start by simply identifying some of the different aspects of the gameplay and address each of them in turn, both by praising what you have done well and suggesting things that could have been done better: they are combat, tactics, missions , politics, empire building/management, and user interface. I love the M&B franchise, and I would like to offer what I can to help it realize its full potential.
First, I would like to start with the combat system, since that is what the entire game seems to be built around. I have no suggestions. It’s by far the best swordplay combat system I’ve ever seen. The mounted combat is fantastic, as is the variety of weapons and attack types. You truly get a feel for momentum, and it feels great. There are many simple things that work so well in this system and they come together perfectly to create a great whole. I’ve read many good suggestions on the forums for small fixes, and while I don’t disagree with them, I think implementing them would not add so much to something with so much depth.
The combat tactics, however, is something that needs desperate attention. From reading the forums, it appears that many of your customers have some experience with the Total War series, which is known for doing to tactical military engagements what you have done to individual combat. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to use some of their successes as a model for improving your own. As it stands, M&B is somewhere between the first-person fantasy role-playing game and large-scale military strategy, but it doesn’t do either of them well. Although you level your character in the traditional sense, with stats and skills that improve their power, you never have any sense of the character’s importance. Conversely, in a situation where the character itself is not the focus, you would expect the mechanics of war to supersede the individual. However, it does not. You can’t properly order your troops to do many things which were proven in history to be effective, like shield walls, spear walls, cavalry formations, etc. As has been mentioned many times in the forums, it would be nice to be able order your spearmen to form a line with swordsmen on the flanks, and separate your cavalry into two groups to flank enemy positions after they’ve engaged the line. Right now, there isn’t even a line. Properly ordering a military from the first-person perspective would add so much to the experience.
Next, the mission system. This is where the game should shine from a first-person fantasy role-playing game, which I think M&B most certainly is. The mission concept is sound; it doesn’t follow a storyline, they are location based, as well as situational. There is tons of replay value there. However, they are muddy and repetitive, and don’t always make sense. It would be nice if you could arrange for the missions to be more pertinent to the status of the game, your associated faction (or lack thereof), and the status of conflicts in the world. For example, if you have no allegiance to any faction, you would receive mercenary contracts from merchants, lords, and possibly individuals. I also think army size should be a factor in determining missions. I don’t think a guild master is really going to ask a lord with 100 veteran soldiers to escort cattle. Receiving these missions breaks the immersion and makes you want to abandon the mission system entirely. That’s a mission for a small band of maybe 10-30 mercenaries. It would also be interesting to receive more missions for small bands, like the “clear the bandit camp” missions. Create something that’s designed to be for you and your companions, where their faction background might actually even be important. For example, if you have a companion with a Swadian background, and you receive a mission to rescue a lord from a Swadian dungeon, create additional gameplay tactics if you have the Swadian hero in your party. I also think that you could create many more village quests for a small party like that. Train the villagers would be one of these. You and your companions raise a small band of villagers from just villagers to footmen and skirmishers, and then you have a tough fight against the raiding bandits. Right now, you have to do some tedious training exercises for a really simple fight (assuming you still have a hundred soldiers).
The politics concept is great. It’s necessary in a game like this, and I think you did a great job with it. The concept of renown, of personal relations, as well as right to rule and controversy add a lot. Once you become a king or a vassal, you really feel like you’re a part of the political world in Calradia. One thing that I think contribute something to the immersion and the sense if the individual character would be if you encountered all the characters one at a time, rather than having instant access to all the characters, their families, and their property. Make politics a game, where you have to get to know other lords personally. Maybe the first encounter is in the battlefield, fighting bandits, or maybe it’s in their castle, when you offer to sell your services as a mercenary. Let the character build from there, and carve out his or her niche in the world on a personal level. Make dialogue choices matter more. This would finally give the individual a sense of individuality.
The idea of empire building is a gameplay element that was invited when you created the option of starting your own kingdom. To an extent, it was there previously with respect to managing villages, castles and towns, but now that you can rule an entire kingdom, the importance of being able to properly manage gets magnified tremendously. I would like to see a kingdom management section added, where you could micromanage as little or as much as you liked. Balancing caravan size against profit, establishing trade routes, and managing village prosperity versus loyalty are all things which could help with the feel of “Empire”. There are also so many aspects which could be incorporated into the game to create an actual sense of empire. For example, cultural influence would be a nice touch. If you have a lot of bordering properties, loyalty is increased, but if you have one distant outlying territory under the influence of another faction, loyalty would be difficult to foster and defense would be difficult. Uprising would be likely, and the influencing faction may have an easier time with sieges, and income would be pathetic from the village/castle/town. You may also make it so that villages are likely to belong to whichever faction has controlling influence. For example, if you REALLY want to start an empire, and you capture a castle, that’s all you get. The associated village still belongs to whoever you captured the castle from, and will continue to do so until you gain more ground influentially. You could make it so that castles have a large impact on influence, and villages and cities combined have more of an effect on income. And again, owning your own kingdom should affect politics and missions appropriately.
Lastly, user interface could use an overhaul. I’m not just talking about menu graphics here, although that is an aspect. Giving combat orders is downright anti-intuitive. It would be nice to have a command bar along a part of the screen or something. There are so many games out there that have systems for giving orders that I can’t understand why M&B has taken so many steps backwards in this. In my profession, the user interface between man and machine has become one of the most important factors in designing and certifying new technology. Granted, this is a game, but usability is no less crucial to its success. I get that you actually have to ride into town to see the village elder or the guild merchant; but make it an enjoyable experience, then. Populate the town, add interesting things to do in town. Or, don’t make us ride into town. Right now, it’s a chore. Make it fun or take it out. This element repeats itself in many, many aspects of the game. If you want to talk to a lord in a castle, you just have to ask for him (after a few menus). If you want to talk to a lord in a city, you have to enter his hall. Why? The majority of the time that I talk to lords, is because I want to know the location of someone else. Make this a quickly accessible feature from the root dialogue menu: streamlined usability. It doesn’t take away from the immersion, it adds to it by removing constant reminders that you have to navigate through a clunky user interface.
I would like to reiterate that I love this game. Because of my geographical location, my internet is too slow to play multiplayer, so I don’t have any comments about that. I played the first M&B with a variety of mods, and I think the Warband single player is a big improvement. However, it’s no time rest. You have more publicity now, and a growing fan base. This is the time to pick up the ball and run with it. I wish you all the best of luck, and I eagerly anticipate any and all improvements.
Thank you,
A Loyal Fan
