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

 

[Dancal]

They have already given one. The game will definitely come in 2016.

there may be a chance that they release it before Christmas to sell more copies before people spend all their money on other games.

 

[Paronomasia12]

It'd be all over by Christmas.

 

[The Meddling Monk]

I still think that it would be wise for them to do it 2016.  But maybe we will see a Beta at the end of 2015/early 2016.

 

[Falconian]

I'm hyped as damn for this.
It seems to convey everything that people ever wanted out of a sandbox medieval videogame.
Perhaps too much emphasis on the UI sorting thing, honestly "inventory autism" isn't a bad thing and having everything sorted like an Excel sheet kind of breaks immersion - as useful as it is.
If there is any "quality of life" thing that I really missed in MB is for instance:
-  why can't I tell Borcha to pick a horse and run to Sargoth to tell them to build a prisoner tower?
- or instruct 10 soldiers to take my prisoners to nearby town, sell them and come back
- or send messager to tell Sargoth to move 50 huscarls to Thir
- or send my troops to a city, or send a messenger to pick troops from a city and bring them to me
- or send messenger to nearby Haen to hire recruits

Really, messengers are fundamental.
A lord/general shouldn't have to go to places himself to give orders, it's the main flaw of MB.
Everything was done through messengers IRL, the general himself doesn't have to go around to give basic orders.
If I'm campaigning, I should be able to issues all orders to villages, towns etc.
Without messengers, MB is largerly a chore simulator even if you are a major Lord of a King even.
A king who has to actually walk to a village to get recruits is just no.


As for all the complaints about weapons hitting multiple targets:

Spoiler

How's large weapons hitting more people is unrealistic?
Explain how you could hit only one person at a time in a situation like this:

You just blind-hit the other side and knock your weapon on multiple targets easily.
Weapons like with glaives, halberds, lances (on horseback) and pikes can hit more than one people easily, if anything it's actually hard to hit just one person with them.

With these polearms especially:

Not only when you swing, but when you thrust them into a mob as well you hit 2 to 3 people most times unless they are in loose ranks.
Hell against a packed formations I would throw my helmet in and it could bounce on several people.

Unless you're implying that Taleworlds is just going to do away with physics entirely and pull off a Korean MMO-style physics-less combat but from the videos of Bannelord it definitely doesn't seem to be the case at all.

 

[jokojoko22]

-  why can't I tell Borcha to pick a horse and run to Sargoth to tell them to build a prisoner tower?
- or instruct 10 soldiers to take my prisoners to nearby town, sell them and come back
- or send messager to tell Sargoth to move 50 huscarls to Thir
- or send my troops to a city, or send a messenger to pick troops from a city and bring them to me
- or send messenger to nearby Haen to hire recruits

Really, messengers are fundamental.
A lord/general shouldn't have to go to places himself to give orders, it's the main flaw of MB.
Everything was done through messengers IRL, the general himself doesn't have to go around to give basic orders.
If I'm campaigning, I should be able to issues all orders to villages, towns etc.
Without messengers, MB is largerly a chore simulator even if you are a major Lord of a King even.
A king who has to actually walk to a village to get recruits is just no.

I cannot second this statement enough. I completely agree. This was something that frustrated me, considering majority of my time was burnt up. If I had to follow the Marshall for a campaign, I didn't have the bloody time to do all these mundane tasks. A messenger system with diverse commands would be an awesome feature.

For example, in MB you'd be sent off by lords and kings alike to do their bidding. Hence 'do you have any tasks for me?'. However no one would ever ask you those kinds of things.
I suppose what'd be the most immersive is if they sort of added NPC's that literally acted like you do, for immersion, realism, and quality gameplay's sake.

 

[Intenseshifu]

I'm hyped as damn for this.
It seems to convey everything that people ever wanted out of a sandbox medieval videogame.
Perhaps too much emphasis on the UI sorting thing, honestly "inventory autism" isn't a bad thing and having everything sorted like an Excel sheet kind of breaks immersion - as useful as it is.
If there is any "quality of life" thing that I really missed in MB is for instance:
-  why can't I tell Borcha to pick a horse and run to Sargoth to tell them to build a prisoner tower?
- or instruct 10 soldiers to take my prisoners to nearby town, sell them and come back
- or send messager to tell Sargoth to move 50 huscarls to Thir
- or send my troops to a city, or send a messenger to pick troops from a city and bring them to me
- or send messenger to nearby Haen to hire recruits

Really, messengers are fundamental.
A lord/general shouldn't have to go to places himself to give orders, it's the main flaw of MB.
Everything was done through messengers IRL, the general himself doesn't have to go around to give basic orders.
If I'm campaigning, I should be able to issues all orders to villages, towns etc.
Without messengers, MB is largerly a chore simulator even if you are a major Lord of a King even.
A king who has to actually walk to a village to get recruits is just no.


As for all the complaints about weapons hitting multiple targets:

I love this idea ?. Its kind I said before
You need to do less stupid stuff!!

 

[Alfredthegreat]

Best blog yet

 

[LordNichlas]

sounds nice

I still think that it would be wise for them to do it 2016.  But maybe we will see a Beta at the end of 2015/early 2016.

 

[Louis The Last Breton]

Unless you're implying that Taleworlds is just going to do away with physics entirely and pull off a Korean MMO-style physics-less combat  but from the videos of Bannelord it definitely doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I see what you did there   

 

[Lazrul]

Pretty much the same combat system as Warband, what a disappointment.

The combat in Warband is 10x better than the combat in Skyrim.

How is it a disappointment?

Ahaha

 

[Narlan]

The messanger stuff would not just be fun, it would be more realistic. If warband was 100% realistic, if you go to Praven to help for a siege, and you change your mind. What would happen in real life ? Well, you send a messenger to the forces sieging Praven informing that you can't come, your messenger has to get back to you however, so you instruct your messenger of your new destination. What would happen if for an other reason you have to change your mind a second time ? Your messenger would not find you back, so you send a new messenger to the second destination to inform the first messenger of the new destination. That sucks, but this is what would happen in real situation before the invention of radio. That really force to think about the importance of planification into the strategy. In real world, you could not tell were the heck is your allied if he doesn't show up at a battle. If you send 10 people to escort a prisoner... then they get killed, you would never know it... this again SUCKS but this is how the world worked at this time.

 

[Odenar]

As for all the complaints about weapons hitting multiple targets:

Spoiler

How's large weapons hitting more people is unrealistic?
Explain how you could hit only one person at a time in a situation like this:

You just blind-hit the other side and knock your weapon on multiple targets easily.
Weapons like with glaives, halberds, lances (on horseback) and pikes can hit more than one people easily, if anything it's actually hard to hit just one person with them.

With these polearms especially:

Not only when you swing, but when you thrust them into a mob as well you hit 2 to 3 people most times unless they are in loose ranks.
Hell against a packed formations I would throw my helmet in and it could bounce on several people.

Unless you're implying that Taleworlds is just going to do away with physics entirely and pull off a Korean MMO-style physics-less combat but from the videos of Bannelord it definitely doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Do you think steel weapons work like light sabers?

 

[RoboSenshi]

I'm hyped as damn for this.
It seems to convey everything that people ever wanted out of a sandbox medieval videogame.
Perhaps too much emphasis on the UI sorting thing, honestly "inventory autism" isn't a bad thing and having everything sorted like an Excel sheet kind of breaks immersion - as useful as it is.
If there is any "quality of life" thing that I really missed in MB is for instance:
-  why can't I tell Borcha to pick a horse and run to Sargoth to tell them to build a prisoner tower?
- or instruct 10 soldiers to take my prisoners to nearby town, sell them and come back
- or send messager to tell Sargoth to move 50 huscarls to Thir
- or send my troops to a city, or send a messenger to pick troops from a city and bring them to me
- or send messenger to nearby Haen to hire recruits

Really, messengers are fundamental.
A lord/general shouldn't have to go to places himself to give orders, it's the main flaw of MB.
Everything was done through messengers IRL, the general himself doesn't have to go around to give basic orders.
If I'm campaigning, I should be able to issues all orders to villages, towns etc.
Without messengers, MB is largerly a chore simulator even if you are a major Lord of a King even.
A king who has to actually walk to a village to get recruits is just no.

You my friend get a cookie. +100

 

[Froi]

I'm hyped as damn for this.
It seems to convey everything that people ever wanted out of a sandbox medieval videogame.
Perhaps too much emphasis on the UI sorting thing, honestly "inventory autism" isn't a bad thing and having everything sorted like an Excel sheet kind of breaks immersion - as useful as it is.
If there is any "quality of life" thing that I really missed in MB is for instance:
-  why can't I tell Borcha to pick a horse and run to Sargoth to tell them to build a prisoner tower?
- or instruct 10 soldiers to take my prisoners to nearby town, sell them and come back
- or send messager to tell Sargoth to move 50 huscarls to Thir
- or send my troops to a city, or send a messenger to pick troops from a city and bring them to me
- or send messenger to nearby Haen to hire recruits

Really, messengers are fundamental.
A lord/general shouldn't have to go to places himself to give orders, it's the main flaw of MB.
Everything was done through messengers IRL, the general himself doesn't have to go around to give basic orders.
If I'm campaigning, I should be able to issues all orders to villages, towns etc.
Without messengers, MB is largerly a chore simulator even if you are a major Lord of a King even.
A king who has to actually walk to a village to get recruits is just no.

You my friend get a cookie. +100

Make that 2 cookies .  I really hope they plan on implementing a system like this, and if they weren't one of the devs better read this lol.

 

[jokojoko22]

As for all the complaints about weapons hitting multiple targets:

Spoiler

How's large weapons hitting more people is unrealistic?
Explain how you could hit only one person at a time in a situation like this:

You just blind-hit the other side and knock your weapon on multiple targets easily.
Weapons like with glaives, halberds, lances (on horseback) and pikes can hit more than one people easily, if anything it's actually hard to hit just one person with them.

With these polearms especially:

Not only when you swing, but when you thrust them into a mob as well you hit 2 to 3 people most times unless they are in loose ranks.
Hell against a packed formations I would throw my helmet in and it could bounce on several people.

Unless you're implying that Taleworlds is just going to do away with physics entirely and pull off a Korean MMO-style physics-less combat but from the videos of Bannelord it definitely doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Do you think steel weapons work like light sabers?

Nobody thinks they work like lightsabers, but you're still hitting the people all the same. It doesn't have to go through them. There can still be recoil, but it does damage to all hit.
It's called physics.

 

[redwood36]

As for all the complaints about weapons hitting multiple targets:

Spoiler

How's large weapons hitting more people is unrealistic?
Explain how you could hit only one person at a time in a situation like this:

You just blind-hit the other side and knock your weapon on multiple targets easily.
Weapons like with glaives, halberds, lances (on horseback) and pikes can hit more than one people easily, if anything it's actually hard to hit just one person with them.

With these polearms especially:

Not only when you swing, but when you thrust them into a mob as well you hit 2 to 3 people most times unless they are in loose ranks.
Hell against a packed formations I would throw my helmet in and it could bounce on several people.

Unless you're implying that Taleworlds is just going to do away with physics entirely and pull off a Korean MMO-style physics-less combat but from the videos of Bannelord it definitely doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Do you think steel weapons work like light sabers?

Nobody thinks they work like lightsabers, but you're still hitting the people all the same. It doesn't have to go through them. There can still be recoil, but it does damage to all hit.
It's called physics.

In the scenario depicted it would be very hard to hit multiple opponents since they too have pole weapons. This prevents the large swiping motions that are required for multiple hits. Instead they would predominantly use thrusting movements in such a formation.  It's also called physics.

 

[RH7Y]

Maybe you all would be happier if you start seeing it as a balance choice and not as a realistic feature.

 

[Odenar]

Nobody thinks they work like lightsabers, but you're still hitting the people all the same. It doesn't have to go through them. There can still be recoil, but it does damage to all hit.
It's called physics.

How are you imaging them hitting multiple people? You're gonna have to explain these physics because I can't see how hitting multiple people agrees with things like momentum and friction. If you swing your weapon into something it's gonna stop. If you thrust your weapon forward it's either gonna miss or you're gonna hit a person and then draw it back. Push and draw cuts won't really affect more than one person unless they line up perfectly and basically let you either. Are you imaging that people are gonna line up for you precisely for you to make very precise swings to make very fine surface cuts that might not absorb much energy? But I'm not even sure it's gonna work well under those conditions. Maybe in some rare scenario you could hit two people (at least one of them in a superficial way), but I'm not even sure how that would work out and I really can't see how you would hit more than that.

Maybe you all would be happier if you start seeing it as a balance choice and not as a realistic feature.

I am not sure it would be all that great for balance either, two-handed is already a very powerful choice.

 

[Xplosion]

People who complain about hitting multiple targets with a single hit are a vocal minority. I imagine most players, myself included, would have no problem with it.

 

[Odenar]

People who are happy about hitting multiple targets with a single hit are a vocal minority. I imagine most players, myself included, have a problem with it. 

Anyway hopefully Goker is correct and it really is only surface cuts and probably not very effective. We'll see how it really works in practise.