Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog 11 - Some Context

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hello all!</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As many of you may have noticed, we have been rather busy! Last week, we visited Cologne, Germany to attend Gamescom, the largest game conference in Europe. While there, we took appointments to demonstrate some Bannerlord gameplay to the world's media. Along with this, we released a few videos which were used as part of our presentation.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It has been great to see the excited response to the clips and we're very pleased that your feedback has been so positive! Of course, the game is still very much in development and so we had to make decisions about what to put in the videos and how it would be presented.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Here, we have compiled some of the highlights, along with a small smattering of new footage, which we want to present to you the community, along with a little explanation about some of the features.</p></br> Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/13

 

[Horrux]

A bit wary of the idea of hitting multiple people in one swing (could be cool for mods, especially fantasy mods, but for native? ) It doesn't sound feasible but maybe I'm mistaken. Other than that it all sounds good, a bit curious about how well this new system for villages will work in practise but the basic idea sounds nice.

I imagine it's for particularly strong weapons against low armor opponents. I have faith in TaleWorlds to keep some degree of realism.

Also, this blog is awesome, and Bannerlord is shaping up to be even more awesome than I had imagined. And that's saying something.

 

[DanAngleland]

One idea about the militia raising in villages; like high taxes and faster project work, it increases the rate at which villager happiness falls, but I think increasing the militia should also (or perhaps instead of reducing morale) reduce the overall production of the village (and therefore the tax income). I say this because increasing the number of villagers in the militia will mean they cannot farm, hunt or produce any goods. I suppose their inability to help maintain the village and do things like building fences would come under the morale umbrella, but production of food and other produce would reduce with fewer hands doing the work.

I'm still wondering what the 'accompanying' tab in the troop screen is for. We pondered in the main BL thread that it might be for caravans that the player is escorting.

 

[66austin1]

I actually had a question about a rumor going around the mount and blade community. The rumor is that bannerlord will probably have a 2-4 player campaign option. Is this true? and if not it was also said that bannerlord is being made with mods in mind so would it be possible (and probably easier than mount and blade warband) for someone to make a multiplayer mod?

 

[DanAngleland]

I actually had a question about a rumor going around the mount and blade community. The rumor is that bannerlord will probably have a 2-4 player campaign option. Is this true?

I've seen nothing to support such a thing, sorry. Is this M&B community somewhere other than the Taleworlds forum by the way? I haven't seen any mention of it here.

 

[Foster161]

Yes, as it happens.. every few years. A game emerges, that, against all odds, marks such a significant hole in the gaming history, that it will not be forgotten at least for several decades later. Such masterpieces include, for example, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, which is played and modified for more than a decade now, or Fallout, Mafia, CS, and so on. First Mount & Blade was among those games. A game with endless possibilities, free-to-live-in game world, brilliant multiplayer options, open for community modifications and providing more than hundreds of hours of gameplay.


It's been some years of drought, of waiting, of praying, but after reading this, eleventh blog, all all my hopes are back up, all bets are off, high stakes, high jingo, it is back on. The game of the decade is here to come.


Best regards and best of luck with the development, TW.

 

[Odenar]

A bit wary of the idea of hitting multiple people in one swing (could be cool for mods, especially fantasy mods, but for native? ) It doesn't sound feasible but maybe I'm mistaken. Other than that it all sounds good, a bit curious about how well this new system for villages will work in practise but the basic idea sounds nice.

I imagine it's for particularly strong weapons against low armor opponents. I have faith in TaleWorlds to keep some degree of realism.

To my knowledge people had a hard enough time cutting through someone's neck/throat in a planned execution. I don't really see how this would work unless you're just hitting them very shallowly in which case I wonder what is the point, with a forceful strike the first thing you hit would probably absorb most of the energy of the strike.

But we don't know yet how it will work in Bannerlord unless I missed something.

 

[Quixote]

OMG in love with the video.... I am wondering if there will be an option to have a Warband-like inventory screen? I actually really prefer the 3-columns over a "list view"

Bannerlord best game ever made 

 

[craftyguy]

Will there be support for Linux?

 

[Sir Pwn-A-Lot]

Looks immense, definitely worth the weight. So far the game is shaping up even better than I ever expected, like times better.

But for the love of god, keep people updated. I don't want to tell community manager how to do his job, but I'd sure like to see him do that damn job.

 

[argon45]

But for the love of god, keep people updated. I don't want to tell community manager how to do his job, but I'd sure like to see him do that damn job.

+1.

 

[Яowan]

Swinging through multiple targets? Hmm. Doesn't seem to be very realistic. Oh well, the game doesn't have to be realistic, honestly. After all, the game series is a (very) light fantasy game (if I've got that classification right) with a made up world and all that, though luckily no magic, dungeons and dragons...

Well, knowing myself I'll likely put most of my hours into that editor, so I'm sold on that alone. Though I've still got concerns about how balanced game play will be, as two handed weapons seem to be the weapons of choice in the game as it stands (hitting multiple enemies, crushing through the blocks of weaker weapons, such as that looter in the video).

Still, I wish there was some sort of MP campaign. But then again, something that big would have most likely been announced a long time ago (and iirc they've said they'd like to add but can't/won't).

But for the love of god, keep people updated. I don't want to tell community manager how to do his job, but I'd sure like to see him do that damn job.

So this blog isn't keeping us updated? I'd say it is. Or would you prefer no blogs and info at all?

 

[JamesThompson]

Is this the only blog we're going to have for a couple of months? I feel like this one was only a re-cap over what we've seen at Gamescom. I hope that we have a blog (1-2 months time) explaining something that we haven't seen before, hopefully one about sieges.

 

[Sir Prince]

Though that is balanced by the power of larger, stronger weapons to hit more than one foe with a single swing!

I'm seriously disappointed. This is NOT the right way to go. Mount&Blade was supposed to be as realistic as possible while still keeping it fun. This is a step into the fantasy world direction.

And i was always marvelled by how you don't end up slicing through two raggedy weak peasants wearing cotton parallel when the one doing the hacking is a huge armored knight with an even bigger 2h sword. Taking in consideration the combat system, i think it's a huge step forward. Most likely the force behind the attack will be calculated somehow, so you won't have peasants blocking full-power attacks with their tiny torches and sticks.

Uh yeah.... that's not really how swords and human bodies work regardless of what armour they are wearing (even proper padded armour is pretty good protection, maybe not from a powerful 2h swing but still).

This change appeals to me either. While I don't mind it as much in many fantasy games, half the attraction to M&B is it's more realistic approach that you simply do not find anywhere else (except for the upcoming Kingdom Come). What I really want most from a melee combat game is your weapon to not just pass through an enemy model but react to hitting what is supposed to be a solid object of flesh, bone, and armour, though I don't expect that to be fully realised in Bannerlord.

Everything else sounds amazing though!

 

[olivaaa]

Waiting so long to hear anything of this game and it´s worth to! Now I can´t wait for release worse then before!
I played Mount and Blade since the very frist alpha and I´m proud to say that I was a testplayer of Warband!
I´m very happy to see how this game advance!

Looking forward to the next post at the developer blog I send greetings from germany!

 

[lordtjie6]

Damn, this game is teasing me for ages but still, every time I am enthusiastic for the end product
THIS IS QUALITY!

 

[Huzzar!]

has there been any mention of a release date yet?

 

[Odenar]

has there been any mention of a release date yet?

Armagan said in a gamescom interview that his guess is sometime 2016.

 

[Cao_Monk]

Is there something like the old "BattleTime" Mod that will be put into the game? Or say if I wanted my world to be open to some of my friends I could make a sever and run the world like that then have people join? D: oh man that would be awesome.

keep up the good works it looks great !

 

[Casp223]

Please tell me that they are gonna have coop!
Btw, AWSOME, AWSOME, AWSOME! Really looking forward to game release!

 

[DanAngleland]

crushing through the blocks of weaker weapons, such as that looter in the video[/b]).

Do you mean the second looter? I don't think they blocked; the clang you hear, I am quite confident, was the sword hitting the rock to the player's left.


Something that struck me when I was looking at the troop screen was this:

Spoiler

Notice in the top right of the screen where there are three values; one next to a chest, one next to a money bag (I think, it is obscured by the 'Work in Progress') and one next to an eagle. The eagle and money bag icons also appear at the top centre above the avatar of the selected troop, and have different values to the same icons at the top right. I think the top centre values may relate to the selected troop type, perhaps being his wages and.....I don't know what the eagle icon could mean for a troop type. But the chest in the top right, the million denars, is presumably the player's money, and I think now that the money bag is the total weekly wage cost of the party. That would make sense, since the money bag above the Vlandian Sergeant is 46 denars and the top right value 103. Given that he is clearly one of just two high tier troops, it makes sense that his wage would be almost half the bill.

Anybody have an idea on what the eagle might denote? It appears on the world map screen too, but I cannot fathom what it could mean for the Vlandian Sergeant.

Please tell me that they are gonna have coop!
Btw, AWSOME, AWSOME, AWSOME! Really looking forward to game release!

Yes indeed, they have precisely this. Chicken coops confirmed, every village scene will have ample chicken accommodation, have no fear.