Hey guys, as the title suggests I want to share some of my thoughts about Bannerlords Singleplayer Gameplay. First things first, just my thoughts about my way of playing it in english - not native, mild (very mild) dyslexia, dictionary at hand and old enough not to care verry much 
- but anyway.
Seconds things second. I play on a decent PC with maxed out settings, a 500er Battlesize, 3/4 damage to me and my party (to represent my own "blessed by luck" and "destined to rule" Perks ), everything else is set to realistic, perma death (by the way, does it just mean, you can die when you have an heir?). Nearly no crashes so far (apart from the Siege-Crash early on) and no issiues in field battles. FPS drops in sieges though but still playable (should be fixed at some point).
Down to Business: Gameplay
As I said, it's just me sharing my experience about my way of playing it. So I might have missed a lot of features. If so, please tell me
In the weeks befor release I decided, I wanted to start as an Aserai daughter of a Beduin Familiy. Stubborn, strong, loud and wild... And sadly here I found my first dissapointment. In Warband, playing as a female Character had a huge impact, especially early on. It gave you the opportunity to play a medieval kind of feminist (and a historican myself - yes there were medieval societys, where women could rise up an take power! Even if it was always a hard and often brutal rise), but with all the consequences. In Bannerlord your gender seems to have no impact right now, which is sad.
So I skipped the tutorial (might be a mistake?) and got straight to business, went down to Aserai territiory and of course, started to recruit my first lads (yes I wanted them to be 100% Aserai, because she's a proud one), as I needed protection, leading to the combat system. I've read about complaining, that it's to hard. I would disagree. The lack of auto-block is a win to me. Not because I'm handy on the battlefield, but because it feels right to me. That's what shields were made for, right? And loosing yours on the battlefield scares the sh... out of me. I like it. And as cheating is always an option, I like not to have it. If it's implemented, I think it should be as an onetime-option when creating a new game.
So, with not more than a group of 25 I started trading. What else should an Aserai do, right? Pack your Camels avoid Desert Bandits, kill some looters and learn the ways, slowy leveling up my trading skills (don't know, if it had any impact on prices though). I made good money and my little personal Caravan guard rose from Recruit (thanks for fixing that bug) to full on Mameluke Heavy Cavalry. 25 of them gave me a safe feeling and while I had three Caravans (seems to make no sense to have Companions in my Party as I barely found some with useful skills) independently up and running at that time, I decided to enter Unquids (is that right?) Service as a Mercenary. Why should I kill Looters and alike for free?
At this Point I barely did any quests. Partly because they feel repetitive (there are still few in the game I now), partly because there were so many broken but mostly because they are awful. I'm realy sorry to have to say that, but I think there is no point in the game where it feels more mechanic than the quests (of course also leveling up your troops is to grindy, but in my oppinion nothing compared to the quests). The idea behind it might be great. Relations are important and should be! But relations out of quests I feel not related to are kind of meaningless. Let's take the family feud. Love the idea as feuds were all over the place in medieval society and and completly integrated in something you might call a "problem solving process", with strict rules to it. Of couse I don't expect Bannerlord to be an accurate simulation of that! BUT they could have called the quest "Do A to increasese relation value with B and decrease relation value wtih C". And that's my feeling with all the quests right now. I instantly realize I'm in a game enviroment that needs to break down my actions to mathematical values and suddenly, everything gets as sexy as an Excel Sheet.
And let's address towns. How exited I was before launch. Wandering through crowded towns humming with people attending to their businesses. They might not be tripple A but I think they are beautiful. Beautiful but so dead. I'd expect beggars all over the place in a struggling town, Merchants running around in a prosperous one, smoke, stuff like this. They implemented the markers to find important places in town, but actualy, there are none. (Am I missing something?) Why give me a beautiful city with no point to visit.
Last but not least, what I still have to do: Getting married and having children. I'm ready now. But - and I'm shure that this one will soon be fixed, as it's the mortal blow to enjoying the game right now - snowballing! But of course, stating I wouldn't like the game already for all the things it does great or promisses to do so in the future because the mechanics are basicly good (I just don't want to see them), would be stupid after so many hours. I loved Warband and am pretty shure will love Bannerlord, when it's finished. As of now, I just like playing it and have great hopes for it
So I once again abandon my little Aserai girl with a lust of power and start a new game. Going north right now, investing my time in becomming a hated ugly bandit raider with no friends and a bad reputation. Let's see, how far Bannerlord let's me go down this rouge path.
- but anyway.Seconds things second. I play on a decent PC with maxed out settings, a 500er Battlesize, 3/4 damage to me and my party (to represent my own "blessed by luck" and "destined to rule" Perks
), everything else is set to realistic, perma death (by the way, does it just mean, you can die when you have an heir?). Nearly no crashes so far (apart from the Siege-Crash early on) and no issiues in field battles. FPS drops in sieges though but still playable (should be fixed at some point).Down to Business: Gameplay
As I said, it's just me sharing my experience about my way of playing it. So I might have missed a lot of features. If so, please tell me
In the weeks befor release I decided, I wanted to start as an Aserai daughter of a Beduin Familiy. Stubborn, strong, loud and wild... And sadly here I found my first dissapointment. In Warband, playing as a female Character had a huge impact, especially early on. It gave you the opportunity to play a medieval kind of feminist (and a historican myself - yes there were medieval societys, where women could rise up an take power! Even if it was always a hard and often brutal rise), but with all the consequences. In Bannerlord your gender seems to have no impact right now, which is sad.
So I skipped the tutorial (might be a mistake?) and got straight to business, went down to Aserai territiory and of course, started to recruit my first lads (yes I wanted them to be 100% Aserai, because she's a proud one), as I needed protection, leading to the combat system. I've read about complaining, that it's to hard. I would disagree. The lack of auto-block is a win to me. Not because I'm handy on the battlefield, but because it feels right to me. That's what shields were made for, right? And loosing yours on the battlefield scares the sh... out of me. I like it. And as cheating is always an option, I like not to have it
. If it's implemented, I think it should be as an onetime-option when creating a new game.So, with not more than a group of 25 I started trading. What else should an Aserai do, right? Pack your Camels avoid Desert Bandits, kill some looters and learn the ways, slowy leveling up my trading skills (don't know, if it had any impact on prices though
). I made good money and my little personal Caravan guard rose from Recruit (thanks for fixing that bug) to full on Mameluke Heavy Cavalry. 25 of them gave me a safe feeling and while I had three Caravans (seems to make no sense to have Companions in my Party as I barely found some with useful skills) independently up and running at that time, I decided to enter Unquids (is that right?) Service as a Mercenary. Why should I kill Looters and alike for free?At this Point I barely did any quests. Partly because they feel repetitive (there are still few in the game I now), partly because there were so many broken but mostly because they are awful. I'm realy sorry to have to say that, but I think there is no point in the game where it feels more mechanic than the quests (of course also leveling up your troops is to grindy, but in my oppinion nothing compared to the quests). The idea behind it might be great. Relations are important and should be! But relations out of quests I feel not related to are kind of meaningless. Let's take the family feud. Love the idea as feuds were all over the place in medieval society and and completly integrated in something you might call a "problem solving process", with strict rules to it. Of couse I don't expect Bannerlord to be an accurate simulation of that! BUT they could have called the quest "Do A to increasese relation value with B and decrease relation value wtih C". And that's my feeling with all the quests right now. I instantly realize I'm in a game enviroment that needs to break down my actions to mathematical values and suddenly, everything gets as sexy as an Excel Sheet.
And let's address towns. How exited I was before launch. Wandering through crowded towns humming with people attending to their businesses. They might not be tripple A but I think they are beautiful. Beautiful but so dead. I'd expect beggars all over the place in a struggling town, Merchants running around in a prosperous one, smoke, stuff like this. They implemented the markers to find important places in town, but actualy, there are none. (Am I missing something?) Why give me a beautiful city with no point to visit.
Last but not least, what I still have to do: Getting married and having children. I'm ready now
. But - and I'm shure that this one will soon be fixed, as it's the mortal blow to enjoying the game right now - snowballing! But of course, stating I wouldn't like the game already for all the things it does great or promisses to do so in the future because the mechanics are basicly good (I just don't want to see them), would be stupid after so many hours. I loved Warband and am pretty shure will love Bannerlord, when it's finished. As of now, I just like playing it and have great hopes for it So I once again abandon my little Aserai girl with a lust of power and start a new game. Going north right now, investing my time in becomming a hated ugly bandit raider with no friends and a bad reputation. Let's see, how far Bannerlord let's me go down this rouge path.
