Release Plans

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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

August and September have been exciting months - Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord finally got its release date (October 25th), pre-orders opened for consoles and many of you came to say Hi at Gamescom and Pax.

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Gamescom2022

And while it is a major milestone for the game to come to consoles, our announcement made it clear that this won’t be the end of the journey. This is what we want to talk to you about today.

Road to Release​

As the release date approaches, we are preparing a number of additional updates that many of you have been eagerly anticipating.

For one, we really cannot leave our lords and ladies without a banner any longer. You may have already seen how they look in the recent demo footage, but, just in case, we have attached a screenshot below.

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Banner formations

The banners in the game will be equippable items that players and AI heroes can use to benefit the formations they lead in battle. Alongside them we will also be introducing new crafting pieces with cloth attachments. These won’t just allow players to create weapons with an extra bit of flair - they will add to the overall visual experience as troops are reequipped to carry them as well.

And while these changes will spice up our existing scenes, we have also been hard at work on new ones. Soon each of our 53 towns will be unique and the pool for castles, battle terrains and smaller locations like hideouts will also continue to be expanded. Of course, the world map will see further improvements as well.

To add onto this, we are finalizing a fundamental overhaul of the agent AI movement system, which helps NPCs deal with difficult terrain (like in sieges) and notably improves issues with congestion. It does so through a range of physics adjustments, better situational understanding and manners (waiting on the allies ahead) and by shifting away from a binary, cardinal input and towards a partial, 360 degree one - think keyboard vs controller. Naturally, you, the player, will still be able to play with either.

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Siege tower assault

Now, looks and movement are important - but so is audio. Accordingly, we are quite happy to say that AI characters will soon receive the first iteration of voice overs for storyline dialogues and greetings. Conversations in general will also benefit from a range of new and updated facial expressions.

Voice over, Imperial mentor Arzagos

Beyond these, the recently shared custom servers, battle mode and multiplayer modding will continue to receive support. Much like them, the steam workshop is also being tested with a number of our community members. Thanks to that, it should become available to you in the near future.

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Multiplayer battle event on a custom server

Finally, many of you have asked about achievements - they as well as steam trading cards, backgrounds and emoticons are scheduled to arrive with the game’s release.

Post-Release​

By this time all of the above should be in your hands and we look forward to your thoughts on these additions. Naturally, we are also quite excited to learn how you like the game on consoles.

Our intention at this point is to continue making improvements based on your feedback. Having said that, there are already plans for a number of specific features and tweaks that we can discuss with you now.

To begin with, we return to a classic - early in development we explored a prototype of the player not just clearing but taking over common areas from criminals. This will be coming to the game. It will work similarly to other enterprises (like workshops and caravans) that provide players with a passive income but will also have its own twist. As they are not exactly legal ventures, you will need to deal with our crime system. Yet it’s not all bad - operating from the shadows will allow you to keep going in hostile environments and, coupled with further encyclopedia “fog of war” updates, allow you to retain access to information you would otherwise not have.

In addition to this, you will see the introduction of more specialized combat options. For one, players are going to be able to sally out and launch a surprise attack on besiegers in order to destroy their siege engines. This will take place in the existing siege locations but follow a separate set of rules.

The regular siege assault, in turn, won’t be ignored either. We are working on a range of balance changes to tip the scales more in favor of siege towers and rams. For example, pushing ladders off the walls will be possible even when there are enemies climbing them - in Singleplayer and Multiplayer.

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Falling off the siege ladder

Naturally, there will also be various tweaks to other systems - whether that is the ability to target enemy formations, which has been requested by our captain mode community in particular, or the ability to place companions in specific formations in the “Order of Battle”.

And should your character grow too old and tired to continue the fight, a new location will allow them to hand over the reins to the next generation - or put an end to the clan. Whether a game over occurs due to a conscious choice like this, old age or ill tidings, it deserves a bit of ceremony. To a good degree, the ingame cutscenes and cinematics provide that. Yet wouldn’t it be nice to look back at what you achieved over the years? This is where game over statistics will come in - tracking your every step (or at least some of them) and providing a tally when your game ends or you finish the storyline.

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Game over statistics

In a similar vein, content creators are going to be able to make records of their adventures using our replay editor. While our focus has been with the game, the editor still saw progress and will likely be shared as part of the modding tools in the coming months.

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Replay editor

Overall, there are many more ideas that we are keen to explore as part of our regular developments. Some of these are smaller topics like balance tweaks to our auto-battle-resolution, companion variety, raiding, settlement projects or multiplayer classes and modes. Others concern improvements to control schemes and haptic feedback, modding tools, multiplayer taunts and maps, diplomacy decision making, the clan-kingdom lifecycle, the mission atmosphere and weather system, as well as a variety of quality of life changes such as party member sorting. And yet others will be more involved such as the claimant quest and the multiplayer spectator mode.

To address the elephant in the room, and some of the questions that came with it, we are certainly also open to DLCs as they are a great way to provide you with additional content that does not fit into the base game’s scope. Having said that, it will be some time before we release any DLC, it will be a gradual shift in development and it will not be mutually exclusive as the base game will also continue to receive updates.

As a testament to that - there is no particular DLC that we want to announce right now. However, we are observing and discussing many of the topics that you are passionate about.

In this regard, we also want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone that has supported us throughout the early access period. The game has come a long way and it wouldn’t have been possible without you and your passion for Mount&Blade.

We look forward to taking the next steps of this journey with you - as well as anyone that may join us on the way.


You can pre-order the game on consoles here:
PlayStation EU | PlayStation US | Xbox
 
That was my fault. I made a post to goad them into making another "future plans" post, and it specifically mentioned DLC. So I think they were referring to that. Also some other people have asked about DLC too.
Everybody asks about DLC, its just what people expect from games now. Addressing it was the right thing to do.
 
Everybody asks about DLC, its just what people expect from games now. Addressing it was the right thing to do.
Yes, I think it is reasonable to address the concept of DLC. They didn't even specifically say they were working on it, just that they might at some point in future. So that's fine.
 
That was my fault. I made a post to goad them into making another "future plans" post, and it specifically mentioned DLC. So I think they were referring to that. Also some other people have asked about DLC too.

They already tested making the player unable to see how many enemy troops he has to fight, Mexxico told us this was tested in early development. Apparently it made the game too unfun, so it was scrapped. You never knew whether the enemy had 1000 troops or 100, so you could go headfirst into unwinnable battles and would just have to re-load the save to get out of it.
No, i am not about totaly unseen, im about to JUST SOME info about enemy party, i gave an example higher - just show the player that enemy has 70-100 troops but not the right number of each troop type
 
The promised release features look a bit ambitious for TW given the slow pace of development. At least they listened to some common complaints and suggestions. That would dull the edge off the drama with the release bugs, crashes and other mishaps.
The lesson here is: contractual deadlines sharpen minds and make people work harder. It took a console game distributor to force a release on all platforms.
 
Does anybody know anything about the number of soldiers on the battlefield, will there be the possibility to extend to more than 1'000 on the battlefield?

Other than that, any information about a potential redesign of the faction troops? I mean, with new equipments that were released along the EA.
 
Great news. However, a decent obituary also needs stats on battles won and lost and a kill tally.
I agree, there should be an obituary or an epilogue of sorts that describes what you did in life (how many battles with over 1k men and sieges you won, how many tournaments you won, how many masterwork weapons you created, how much profit you earned, etc.), how you were in life (your traits detailing your personality and your actions in life such as executions, raiding villages, devastating towns or clearing bandits and thugs,etc.), your family and friends (who you're married to, how many kids you have, your companions. etc.), your social status (nobody, wealthy trader with 1M$+, bandit/criminal, mercenary, lord or ruler) and finally a brief epilogue for the character (for example, if we died, it should say who succeeded us and that we are watching our child or spouse from above, if we retire as a mercenary, we bought a tavern in a tavern of our culture, if we retire as the ruler, it says that we are happily watching our child/spouse ruling over a peaceful realm while while laze about, etc.).

This alone can bring so much life to the game. Hopefully TW will expand dialogues (e.g. asking lords about what they think of the war) and also add some lines to companions so that tell that they approve or object to our actions and tell us of significant memories/lore about settlements when we near a settlement that is personally related to them. With the addition of these, I believe that the game would feel so much more alive.
 
Pretty glad they added an End Game Stat screen -been asking for one forever now. Only things I would ask for is a few illustrious type Titles based on your Legacy. Example: If you cheesed alot of battles with Retreat or just happened to alot anyways -you could have a Family Legacy name of "Weasel" or "Chicken" and vice versa if you won a lot of Low-Chance victory as "Brave", "Battle tactician". Duel alot of other lords "The Duelist" etc... this would make you think about your legacy during every battle as how it would effect your legacy Titles. Stats are nice but dont really tell a story and youd be surprised how much grind a player will put up with if it somehow has an overall effect.
 
Pretty glad they added an End Game Stat screen -been asking for one forever now. Only things I would ask for is a few illustrious type Titles based on your Legacy. Example: If you cheesed alot of battles with Retreat or just happened to alot anyways -you could have a Family Legacy name of "Weasel" or "Chicken" and vice versa if you won a lot of Low-Chance victory as "Brave", "Battle tactician". Duel alot of other lords "The Duelist" etc... this would make you think about your legacy during every battle as how it would effect your legacy Titles. Stats are nice but dont really tell a story and youd be surprised how much grind a player will put up with if it somehow has an overall effect.
Yes, they should add a biography/epilogue depending on your traits, social standing, clan tier, family members, whether you died or retired and actions in life (raiding, successful sieges, profit from trading, profit from selling prisoners and slaves, etc.)
 
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@Dejan @Duh_TaleWorlds I didn't see anything about improvements to hiring mercenaries in here, I'm begging you guys to find a way for us to hire mercenaries without having to hunt them down in person. No one has time to search for the leader of a mercenary group when they are in multiple wars trying to fend off enemies. The AI gets to remotely hire mercenaries, let the mercenaries at least send us offers to hire them when we are in wars where our strength is lower than our enemies.
 
I hope is not too far but It would be great if you guys put a bit of effort into how the names are pronounced.
Arzagos, an imperial name, should not have an English pronunciation and should use the Latin vowel sounds.

It will truly elevate the vice over if only proper names have a pronunciation matching the culture.
Arzeigous sounds even more like a made-up name when pronounced in such a phoned-in way.

Let the accents shine!
 
We're investigating the crashes and stability remains a high priority for MP. It helps a great deal if you open a ticket in the MP technical support board when that happens and try to explain it in detail.
I don't say bruh a lot but bruh. My ticket is this: The servers crash, as in they cease to be, every 1-2 games, literally without fail. It used to make it to 3 rarely but I haven't seen that happen in some time (even then it wouldn't make it through the match). It is as simple as that.

If you want to reproduce the issue play multiplayer for like an hour, it will probably crash up to three times. Every time a server crashes there's a chance someone will stop playing the multiplayer forever. That is exactly what will happen to new players en masse at release. It has been what's happening and it has been pushing the player count lower and lower and lower. This has been happening for literal years, my friend. I haven't played on a full server in months. Siege in East NA at least is completely dead. My brother in Christ do you understand how absurd it is that you're asking me for a ticket right now?

To be clear: I love this game when it works. When it gets going it's some fantastic fun. I feel Insane when I think about this. If these servers didn't crash as they do now I firmly believe Multiplayer would have a very respectable player count. If players were allowed to build up in a server and maintain momentum rather than getting squashed and dispersed every 30 or so minutes. Please use whatever power you have to get this fixed before release or Multiplayer will really be dead.
 
I don't say bruh a lot but bruh. My ticket is this: The servers crash, as in they cease to be, every 1-2 games, literally without fail. It used to make it to 3 rarely but I haven't seen that happen in some time (even then it wouldn't make it through the match). It is as simple as that.

If you want to reproduce the issue play multiplayer for like an hour, it will probably crash up to three times. Every time a server crashes there's a chance someone will stop playing the multiplayer forever. That is exactly what will happen to new players en masse at release. It has been what's happening and it has been pushing the player count lower and lower and lower. This has been happening for literal years, my friend. I haven't played on a full server in months. Siege in East NA at least is completely dead. My brother in Christ do you understand how absurd it is that you're asking me for a ticket right now?

To be clear: I love this game when it works. When it gets going it's some fantastic fun. I feel Insane when I think about this. If these servers didn't crash as they do now I firmly believe Multiplayer would have a very respectable player count. If players were allowed to build up in a server and maintain momentum rather than getting squashed and dispersed every 30 or so minutes. Please use whatever power you have to get this fixed before release or Multiplayer will really be dead.
Gotcha, I genuinely understand your frustration and the situation in-game. At this point, I can pretty much say what I've said before, we're working on the crashes, we're investigating them and we're working towards improving the situation.

It's true, I haven't had the chance to play much MP in the past 2-3 weeks but I have relayed the feedback regarding the connection & lobby issues. We have already made some server-side improvements to mitigate these issues and continue to work on them. The next patch will also contain further server-side and client-side stability improvements.

I invited you to make a thread because it's our standard route of ensuring bugs & crashes reported by the community get received, examined and fixed and I would still encourage you to do so. Nonetheless, I will check up on the internal status of server crashes tomorrow.

Unrelated but just read your guide on the siege mode, great info but also shame on you for promoting backcapping!!! :grin:
(don't bombard me, I realize it's part of the game mode design)
Also, this section opens up all sorts of imagination routes...
Watch out for spears but don't fear them. Unaware Spearmen are also easy prey, but be very cautious when engaging them from the front. You should probably leave them alone until you can catch them engaging your teammates, but when you see no other option, consider how long the enemy spear or pike is compared to your own. If it's longer, do whatever you can to stay away because if they know how to use it, you're at a dangerous disadvantage. If yours is longer, you still have to be careful in keeping yourself and your horse out of range while using your range advantage to hit.
 
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