Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog 12 - The Passage Of Time

Hello Bannerlord blog regulars and newcomers. In this entry, we are once again responding to your demands to hear more about single player gameplay - specifically, looking at the overworld map and some of the improvements made there. We revealed the map at Gamescom and mentioned some new features in the last blog. Here, we'll take what we've revealed and go into some more detail.

Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/14

 

[Mad Vader]

Edit: Lust mentioned a map text bug (or something like that) a while back, is that what the question-marks are? Seems strange he didn't address it in the blog. I guess it could be a way to hide the exact troop numbers from the player or something along those lines.

The Gamescom footage showed no problems regarding party numbers. Perhaps it's a bug.

Looks like a new feature tied to some observation skill.

 

[DanAngleland]

The question marks were present in the Gamescom footage over some groups, they are replaced by digits once the player party gets close enough, so it will be like MadVader says, related to an observation skill (like 'spotting' in Warband).

It was interesting to hear that ''Cavalry and ranged units in particular will have a harder time in rain or snow''. So this must be on the battlefield; presumably horses cannot gallop as quickly in snow or mud, and bows will have reduced power due to strings being sodden by rain. So fight the Khuzait in a downpour if you can!

 

[The Meddling Monk]

It was interesting to hear that ''Cavalry and ranged units in particular will have a harder time in rain or snow''. So this must be on the battlefield; presumably horses cannot gallop as quickly in snow or mud, and bows will have reduced power due to strings being sodden by rain. So fight the Khuzait in a downpour if you can!

Or Battanians.

 

[Askorti]

OMG just noticed on the SS that shows praven that actually... there ARE roads! GET HYPE

If I remember well, there were roads in Warband, though they were only decorations, this might be the same.

Was that only in the Mount & Blade and/or Warband?

In Warbands roads were not just decorations, they did work. Your character would always try to use a road as opposed to just walking next to it. I think it even gave you a small speed boost too.

 

[argon45]

That roads in Warband are trade routes. If you carefully look at the caravans in Warband, you can see they're following that roads. Warband World Map also show these roads.

 

[Mad Vader]

Nah, they were just a clumsy trick with pulling map triangles together tightly and coloring them brown, making travel around it pretty unpredictable. Real roads would have their own terrain type and texture.

 

[Rongar]

The topography of the map is not entirely consistent with Warband, in fact Bannerlord's map is somewhat more mountainous. The effect of this is an increase in the number of choke points.

Very interested how the choke points will be used, continuity of the map aside. Would this provide possibilities for ambushes or last stands, etc? Very eager to see how that will grow.

I'm also very intrigued to know.

One major change from Warband is how time progresses; the yearly cycle has been shortened to twelve weeks, which adds more importance to the changing seasons and ageing of characters.

I have been hating time-space schizophrenia since Guild 2 and Medieval II: Total War, because chars age and die faster than are able to do something like visit neighbor countries or produce something. Hope in Bannerlord balance between speed of moment, siege, other activities and aging won't be so frustrating.

Bannerlord shares the setting of Calradia with Warband but takes place 200 years earlier.

What does this mean beyond the lore?
Does it influence on historical age?
Will there be two-handed swords and plate-armors? What type of crossbows is to expect? Gunpowder? Power of walls and fortification?

BTW, how technologies will be spread among territory? Depending on economy or on culture or on territory?

When all of these steps are completed successfully, the prosperity of the settlements increases. What's interesting, though, is that because everything is connected in this way, disruption can be a very effective…

Ok with disruption, but will there be the other way? I.e. boost economy of a settlement. What will it give?
Will bandits become guerrilla for foreigners and mostly neutral for  locals?
What type of boost will receive local armies? Just quantity with mostly fixed proportion, proportion sometimes even against  numerosity, or maybe regime (e.g. irregular->regular army)?


Water…

On sceenshoot I see the bridge, but on video parties are crossing water without problem.
How will work? Well, will it be the same as in Warband (crosswalk non-ship fords and ship non-pedestrian rivers/ocean)? Or for instance will there be water that can be crossed (maybe with penalty) and be used by ships at the same time?

 

[Mad Vader]

Wow, one of the oldest modders that were actually good. Welcome back, sir.

 

[kraggrim]

The question marks were present in the Gamescom footage over some groups, they are replaced by digits once the player party gets close enough, so it will be like MadVader says, related to an observation skill (like 'spotting' in Warband).

I see, re-watching the gamescom video and you're right. I could only spot single digit parties there (might have missed some) so couldn't tell how number of question marks relates to actual troop numbers.

Edit:A prisoner stack doesn't seem to mean another question-mark anyway:

Spoiler

Something I noticed while I was looking:

Spoiler

"Demo character gained 1 skill point in Infantry Command".

So some skills may be handled like proficiencies now? And separated between troop types possibly too.

 

[DanAngleland]

Bannerlord shares the setting of Calradia with Warband but takes place 200 years earlier.

What does this mean beyond the lore?
Does it influence on historical age?
Will there be two-handed swords and plate-armors? What type of crossbows is to expect? Gunpowder? Power of walls and fortification?

In blog 7 we learned that the architecture, weaponry and armour of the game would be based on the approximate real world period of 600AD-1100AD. That said, we know there are some two handed swords in the game and some crossbows. We have seen both in screenshots (just one for xbows if I remember rightly, from 2013, it is on the main site) and also the Gamescom map screenshots showed a garrison including Imperial xbowmen.

 

[KhergitLancer80]

I couldn't see the khuzait settlements on the map can anyone describe it ?

 

[captain lust]

Khuzait settlements are in the background. The camera view in the video is facing east, from a fair central/north position on the map.

 

[Lord Brutus]

I want this game so bad I just hope I live to see it.

 

[NothingHere]

Whoa!! 

 

[Red River]

Not literally, but it's simulated through increased prosperity, therefore more/cheaper town goods. It's possible that they made a literal conversion of some raw to finished goods (like they wanted to in Warband's player enterprise, according to unfinished code), but I'm not sure it makes much difference from player's viewpoint.

If anything, I was looking for them to simplify the economic model, as the one in Warband is a well-intended mess that still doesn't make economic warfare viable. Instead, they are expanding on it.

Either way the new system seems like it will be more transparent, which for me is an improvement at any rate.

I don't see how economy will impact AI

 

[Shidan]

My guess on the question marks is that they are general representatives of party size ranges. Obviously I don't know numbers, and I'd be willing to bet those could have changed since Warband. But the idea is the same regardless of numbers. For some reason I doubt we're suddenly going to get 1000+ soldiers in armies so frequently.

So for example.

1-50 = ?

51-100 = ??

101-200 = ???

200+ = ????

 

[PeskyPanda]

I legitimately do appreciate these blogs and updates. I understand that TaleWorlds is a very small team and to pander to such a huge loyal following must be really hard.

However, with that said. I really want more updates or interactivity. Like, just someone from the TaleWorlds team saying "Just finished this tree texture, what do you guys think of it? -tree.jpg-" etc.

I know that might seem silly but as I said before, M&B has such a loyal following that I think that a lot of us would love anything extra. The blogs are just to few and far between. 

All in all, keep up the great work guys. I can't wait to play the finished product. 

 

[Varrak]

I think that road in picture is a west-east trade road (something like silkroad ?) for caravans to travel faster

edit : Great blog btw, personally i would like to see something about siege in next blog 

 

[Echtel]

One major change from Warband is how time progresses; the yearly cycle has been shortened to twelve weeks, which adds more importance to the changing seasons and ageing of characters.

I have been hating time-space schizophrenia since Guild 2 and Medieval II: Total War, because chars age and die faster than are able to do something like visit neighbor countries or produce something. Hope in Bannerlord balance between speed of moment, siege, other activities and aging won't be so frustrating.

This totally ruins sandbox feeling and takes away a big chunk of the fun for me. I hope if it is indeed the direction the Bannerlord is taking that we get an option to turn that off, or at the very least that they make it very easy to mod... 

 

[Varrak]

Ageing is an amazing feature for medieval games, it adds huge potential into game. Diplomacy-Heir system-Battle system etc will be different with that and it is simply amazing.

Demanding "not to add" thing does not make sense, some people will make a mod about "stop ageing" for sure. Making a mod for child-ageing system is far way harder than to making a mod about disabling this feature. Let them make, if some people don't want it, there will be mods for it.