Statement regarding Plans for Singleplayer and Engine

[Timmortal]

@Duh_TaleWorlds @Callum could we please get an update on this roadmap? There are some features which were in Warband but are missing in Bannerlord, which I haven't seen the development team mention are making a return, and that's making me a bit anxious as to whether they've been forgotten. These features are:

* Feasts hostable by player and AI lords
* Ability to tell AI allied lords to go somewhere and attack/defend a location without you being present
* Manhunters and Deserters as roaming map entities
* Companions with fixed names and personalities (alongside the existing randomly generated ones)
* Fighting your way out in civilian outfit when failing to sneak into enemy-held locations
* Prison Break quest
* Denounce a Lord/Intrigue quest
* Village improvements (manors, messenger posts, schools)
* Courtship features: repeat visits, learning a potential lover's personality through gossip, eloping, dedicating tournament victories to them
* Lords challenging you to duels if you insult their honor or are competing with you for a lady's affections
* Books that can be purchased and read over time to gain levels in a specific skill
* Actual red "ginger" hair (not present - bugged?), fruits/chicken/pork/sausages/bread/spice
* Multi-stage siege battles where AI or player can choose to retreat to the keep if they lose the walls

1) feats in the old form would not make much sense in Bannerlord, it was a completely broken think in Warband that did far more harm that good often. I dont mind some roleplay feast thing, maybe where you can invite one or two lords, but the whole faction thing was a mess in Warband
2) This would be a nice little thing to put under the influence system.
3) There already are other lesser factions that have replaced manhunters, deserters are a thing in quests would never mind more small factions though i dont think its a big issue.
4) Dosent really fit into the new system, if you want it im sure there will be mods for it, the new NPCs already have their own stories, i would prefer that they expand on those to make them more varied and maybe let them have consequenses, maybe the guy fleeing from a lord, will actually have a certain lord who will be agressive towards you if you dont hand him over.
5) i hated that my self, but i dont mind it, so long as you actually keep your normal civilian sidearm instead of getting a stick.
6) Sure we will se more quests in general
7) read above
This is already a thing, its just tied to the main settlement in the new far improved system, could barely call this a feature in Warband
9) The old courtship system was terrible, i do hope they expand on the current one though, as its barely there, theres hints that there will be more to it in the future.
10) Would want this back aswell, also just so an npc lord cant just steal the partner you intend for yourself.
11) Books wont really fit into the new perk system the same way, though i would not mind them coming back in some form. Maybe as xp boosters.
12) Gingers are a curse upon the land... ahem ahem.., i mean seems a bit weird its not in there. as to more foods, they need to be barefull with the balance in game i would say, adding more variantion might cause issues.
13) Im pretty certain this is already planned, just not implemented, if i understand what you mean by it.

 

[five bucks]

1) feats in the old form would not make much sense in Bannerlord, it was a completely broken think in Warband that did far more harm that good often. I dont mind some roleplay feast thing, maybe where you can invite one or two lords, but the whole faction thing was a mess in Warband
2) This would be a nice little thing to put under the influence system.
3) There already are other lesser factions that have replaced manhunters, deserters are a thing in quests would never mind more small factions though i dont think its a big issue.
4) Dosent really fit into the new system, if you want it im sure there will be mods for it, the new NPCs already have their own stories, i would prefer that they expand on those to make them more varied and maybe let them have consequenses, maybe the guy fleeing from a lord, will actually have a certain lord who will be agressive towards you if you dont hand him over.
5) i hated that my self, but i dont mind it, so long as you actually keep your normal civilian sidearm instead of getting a stick.
6) Sure we will se more quests in general
7) read above
This is already a thing, its just tied to the main settlement in the new far improved system, could barely call this a feature in Warband
9) The old courtship system was terrible, i do hope they expand on the current one though, as its barely there, theres hints that there will be more to it in the future.
10) Would want this back aswell, also just so an npc lord cant just steal the partner you intend for yourself.
11) Books wont really fit into the new perk system the same way, though i would not mind them coming back in some form. Maybe as xp boosters.
12) Gingers are a curse upon the land... ahem ahem.., i mean seems a bit weird its not in there. as to more foods, they need to be barefull with the balance in game i would say, adding more variantion might cause issues.
13) Im pretty certain this is already planned, just not implemented, if i understand what you mean by it.

Glad we agree on 2, 5, 10, 11, and 12.
1: feasts were actually very good for the game in Warband, as they gave factions something to do other than be at war 24/7. This allowed the player to experience slight breaks of peacetime where they could do stuff, and also slowed down the rate at which powerful factions would snowball. Granted, they had a negative effect (being held when a faction was losing a war), but that's easily fixed by not letting factions hold feasts when they're losing wars, and hold feasts more often when they own large amounts of territory. That would make feasts an excellent snowball-balancing tool as well as a roleplaying addition.
3: Lesser factions didn't properly replace manhunters' role of reducing extremely big bandit stacks, and as such, fiefs being very poor is a big issue in the game partially because big bandit stacks can ruin trade. As for deserters, I know they're in one quest, but I'm talking about as an enemy on the map. You could run into deserters on the map and they had more powerful military equipment which made them more interesting enemies and was a nice change from fighting looters and bandits all the time.
4: People loved the fixed-personality companions in Warband like Jeremus because they were characters everyone would see in each playthrough, so you got more attached to them than randomly generated ones. I see no reason why it couldn't work alongside the new system, with a mix of random and non-random companions.
6/7: I agree we'll probably get new quests, I would just like a confirmation that those particular quests haven't been forgotten because they were good.
8: The new system doesn't let you invest on a singular village. In Warband you could really focus on one village as a strategic point by raising your reputation highly with it through constructing schools and doing quests for them, and it would give you massive troop recruitment in turn. Which also allowed you to feel very connected to one village.
9: The old courtship system had flaws but felt a lot more "romantic" than the current transactional system. I would like to combine the best elements of the old and new courtship systems.
13: It would be easy for them to confirm it if it's already planned, so that we know they haven't forgotten about it.

@JJ_Bambi Yes, I think these features returning would make it possible to truly call Bannerlord a good sequel to Warband, as opposed to a sidegrade.

 

[Timmortal]

Glad we agree on 2, 5, 10, 11, and 12.
1: feasts were actually very good for the game in Warband, as they gave factions something to do other than be at war 24/7. This allowed the player to experience slight breaks of peacetime where they could do stuff, and also slowed down the rate at which powerful factions would snowball. Granted, they had a negative effect (being held when a faction was losing a war), but that's easily fixed by not letting factions hold feasts when they're losing wars, and hold feasts more often when they own large amounts of territory. That would make feasts an excellent snowball-balancing tool as well as a roleplaying addition.
3: Lesser factions didn't properly replace manhunters' role of reducing extremely big bandit stacks, and as such, fiefs being very poor is a big issue in the game partially because big bandit stacks can ruin trade. As for deserters, I know they're in one quest, but I'm talking about as an enemy on the map. You could run into deserters on the map and they had more powerful military equipment which made them more interesting enemies and was a nice change from fighting looters and bandits all the time.
4: People loved the fixed-personality companions in Warband like Jeremus because they were characters everyone would see in each playthrough, so you got more attached to them than randomly generated ones. I see no reason why it couldn't work alongside the new system, with a mix of random and non-random companions.
6/7: I agree we'll probably get new quests, I would just like a confirmation that those particular quests haven't been forgotten because they were good.
8: The new system doesn't let you invest on a singular village. In Warband you could really focus on one village as a strategic point by raising your reputation highly with it through constructing schools and doing quests for them, and it would give you massive troop recruitment in turn. Which also allowed you to feel very connected to one village.
9: The old courtship system had flaws but felt a lot more "romantic" than the current transactional system. I would like to combine the best elements of the old and new courtship systems.
13: It would be easy for them to confirm it if it's already planned, so that we know they haven't forgotten about it.

@JJ_Bambi Yes, I think these features returning would make it possible to truly call Bannerlord a good sequel to Warband, as opposed to a sidegrade.

I think we could agree on modernisations and compromises for many of these. I just think its the wrong argument to use that these are what Bannerlord needs, i do think/hope though that Bannerlord will get many of these minor filler content, du flesh out the game and make it feel more alive. I do get what you mean about named static companions, i just dont think it fits the new way they have done the game, I would be more interested in more static non noble notable maybe, so that forintance you could marry outside of nobility. but i see this as a future DLC feature, also tieing in to a "non noble" start (which i do hope will come with the sandbox mode of the game at launch or shortly after like with VC. The issue with static companions aswell is, should they be alllowed to be recruited by other nobles, should they have the same death chance as every other companion. I think it would work better with the story mode though, where i do hope it becomes as full as the VC story was, at some point, forintance the bandit you can choose to let go or kill could easily become a static companion, fitting better to a bandit playthrough, where as other choices might lead to different companions with different attitudes. We will see what we get in the future.

 

[Darkening Demise]

Festivals, Weddings, Keep Battles, and Camp. Reading books to gain skills, or having a certain book in your inventory giving you a skill boost.
There's a lot missing. I also never encountered learning poems from bards. Same thing for bandits they don't loot villages anymore. I miss teaming up with peasants to take on hordes of looters from Warband.

Also modding tools. Its been over a month since 'release at the end of the month' of August. Helms Deep is waiting!

 

[Mikez Cheuk]

Modding tool, please!

 

[lockefeer]

Also modding tools. Its been over a month since 'release at the end of the month' of August.

Yeah and they don't even give an explanation on why it was delayed.

 

[Massilian]

I've been playing Mount&Blade in one form or another since the first release in 2008. I downloaded pretty much every mod in existence but with this Bannerlord release, Taleworlds has far exceeded my expectations and I'm not a person easily impressed or easy to please to say the least. They used to call me 'slave driver' at work.
I want to thank all the developers who are working on this game. By gosh, GREAT JOB!

 

[stevehoos]

I've been playing Mount&Blade in one form or another since the first release in 2008. I downloaded pretty much every mod in existence but with this Bannerlord release, Taleworlds has far exceeded my expectations and I'm not a person easily impressed or easy to please to say the least. They used to call me 'slave driver' at work.
I want to thank all the developers who are working on this game. By gosh, GREAT JOB!

What features are there exactly that exceeded your expectations? The in depth village management? If you downloaded every mod in existence I find this hard to believe.

 

[Olympeus]

I've been playing Mount&Blade in one form or another since the first release in 2008. I downloaded pretty much every mod in existence but with this Bannerlord release, Taleworlds has far exceeded my expectations and I'm not a person easily impressed or easy to please to say the least. They used to call me 'slave driver' at work.
I want to thank all the developers who are working on this game. By gosh, GREAT JOB!

You have been playing M&B for 12 years and this was your first post on a forum account that is 20 minutes old?

 

[Timmortal]

You have been playing M&B for 12 years and this was your first post on a forum account that is 20 minutes old?

so? I have been playing since about 2009, I had an account on the old forums, did not use it for a couple of years or more, forgot about the username and password, and when i wanted to get access to it again, i found out it was on an old email i have not have access to since about 2012. Also you can love and play a game without ever spending a day on a forum, i often regret making an account here, did it to join what i remembered as a nice place to talk about Mount and Blade, but there are so many overly negative, doomseer people on here thats its not really fun or informative alot of the time.

 

[Apocal]

A whole lot of 2020 forum regs claim they were around for Warband. They are telling the truth, for the most part.

I mean, I technically played MB back in 2005 (on a friend's computer) and played Warband in 2010 before registering in 2015 so...

 

[five bucks]

You have been playing M&B for 12 years and this was your first post on a forum account that is 20 minutes old?

I started playing WB in 2012, and only registered here very recently. I believe him. I do think that his expectations must have been pretty damn low if he thinks Bannerlord broke them, though.
@Massilian Since I first heard about Bannerlord all I wanted it to be was Warband with better graphics, better sieges and mod tools, but it's actually gone back in multiple ways from Warband in terms of gameplay content. I thought my expectations were very reasonable, low even, and with 6 months to go before release my basic expectations still haven't been met and I have little hope that they will be.

 

[RobustTurd]

I just re-read the roadmap for the first time since it was released in May. It seems like the patches are more or less following this roadmap set by @Duh_TaleWorlds which is of course appreciated. The problem is that the roadmap is fundamentally unambitious in terms of content. Even if the finished game has all the features and 'completes' the roadmap, it still falls short of providing anything substantially new compared to earlier installments of the game.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I understand what you're saying and I, too, didn't expect Taleworlds to change Mount&Blade in ways that is hardly recognizable from its parents
but I see that in a good way. Let's face it, Warband - and the original, as much as I loved them, were far from perfect - hence ALL the mods that popped up changing game mechanics. Granted, Bannerlord isn't perfect either ( and yes yes, many things are "missing" compared to the earlier versions ) but, by golly! they really did a great job nonetheless. When I see the work involved - and starting from scratch was ballsy - I cannot but give the devs two thumbs - and two toes - up !
The game is more than playable, even now in early access. For me, even if the devs left Bannerlord as it is now it would already be several notches above anything they'd done before and I wouldn't ask my money back.
Do I want to see more added into the game in the future ? Of course! But by god, I'm not one to complain knowing that a small group of people have worked their asses off for 10yrs to bring me a better - kick ass, really - version of M&B.
I'm sorry, I can only congratulate Taleworlds on their work. They haven't earned my ire, quite the contrary !

Every time someone praises singleplayer bannerlord in its current state I genuinely can't understand why. What are you doing in the game that is still interesting after all this time? This isn't a rhetorical question, I genuinely want to know. What keeps you playing?

 

[Younes]

so? I have been playing since about 2009, I had an account on the old forums, did not use it for a couple of years or more, forgot about the username and password, and when i wanted to get access to it again, i found out it was on an old email i have not have access to since about 2012. Also you can love and play a game without ever spending a day on a forum, i often regret making an account here, did it to join what i remembered as a nice place to talk about Mount and Blade, but there are so many overly negative, doomseer people on here thats its not really fun or informative alot of the time.

That's how every big game becomes. You will never find a big game with a overly positive community.

 

[NPC99]

Every time someone praises singleplayer bannerlord in its current state I genuinely can't understand why. What are you doing in the game that is still interesting after all this time? This isn't a rhetorical question, I genuinely want to know. What keeps you playing?

We're all different. For me, Singleplayer Bannerlord has the same vibe as Warband and WFaS. While it was a technically superior game, Blood & Gold Caribbean didn't quite have that feel. Provided I ignore exploits/loopholes and resist the temptation to conquer Calradia, I can grid out a personal narrative while enjoying the journey through great worldmap and mission scenery. I'm sure the game would be much further ahead, if TW hadn't set its minimum PC specs so low. Hopefully, if they finally manage to optimise Bannerlord for potato PCs, it will allow bigger battles etc. on decent equipment.

 

[Nalgasucia507]

Thank you for that question. I don't really ask myself why I keep playing M&B because I simply love to start the game up, create my character and dive in to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. I also love to experiment with things - would this or that work ? What if I did this or what if I didn't do it...?

I'm an artist before everything else I'm proficient in - Phone / Data / Alarm / Security Access Network Integration and general tech repairs ( laptops, pc's, consoles, flatscreens...) and have dabbed in 3D Rendering and Coding with various - though now old - game engines before being left in the dust by Microsoft's DX as my personal time dwinddled due to work, and as such, I truly appreciate the work involved in creating such games. I still remember the literal headaches I'd get trying to make this or that work with game engines but I loved it.

My interests in gaming have more to do with esthetics and mechanics than the "fun" I want to have while playing, although it's there too and I expect it when I pay for a game and in that regard, Bannerlord doesn't disappoint me, quite the contrary, I'm enchanted.
The artwork is formidable. I would love to have some of those cut-scene paintings on my walls.
The level of detail - again, from an esthetic standpoint - is simply fantastic. The new worldmap is just... wow! And your character is the same on the worldmap than in the 3D renderings ? Haha! THANK you Taleworlds!
The battles are much more streamlined and the A.I more intelligent. Gone are the days where 50 soldiers all would act like one NPC, doing the same things all in unison.
The NPC's are livelier ( yes, there needs to be more to them and YES I'd like to be able to learn poems from the bards, yes and yes!) but I think they're working on that and even if they don't, that's not a game breaker for me.
The towns feel more alive and combining village improvements together with the towns was a brilliant idea. Less galloping around the map and more streamlined planning. Saves me time! Thank you Taleworlds!
The equipment - weapons, gears, clothes, armors - now have a real feel and function to them individually instead of simply being there so that the character isn't naked.
The weapons crafting is great and will get even better in the future.
The character creation is fantastic and with the mod it's simply stupendous!
And don't get me started on the music. It's the kind of music I'd want to hear in a Conan movie ( with all due respect to Basil Poledouris - may his soul rest in peace )
And there's MORE to praise, much much more!

I'm so sorry I can't really describe to you what I feel about this game the way I want to. English isn't my first language but I hope that I have made myself clear enough as to why I keep playing this gem of a game.

+1 brother. Soon we will have more too!

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I'm an artist before everything else I'm proficient in

[...]

My interests in gaming have more to do with esthetics and mechanics than the "fun" I want to have while playing,

Same here. I often buy mediocre games if they look good. But bannerlord isn't one of them. It's on the list of the ugliest games I own*, along with Cities Skylines and Medieval 2 Total War. The art (design wise and skill wise) is all over the place, which is far, far worse to look at than it being uniformly mediocre, like warband.

*Actually my sister bought it despite me telling her she wouldn't like it, and now we're in October and neither of us have played it since may.

+ The lighting is marginally better than warband.
+ The foliage is better, but there are world-class environment artists everywhere these days, and the trees in warband were horrible.
- The water reflections are worse (anybody who uses SSR on an ocean plane should be institutionalised).
- The animations are clunkier and harder to read. They are designed on the idiotic premise that there has to be a short wind-up before every action. Before we all complained about it, there was also inertia while running, meaning you would slide all over the place.
- Most of the armour looks terrible. It's simultaneously overdesigned and overly shabby and asymmetric. Characters wear brown muddy rags with lumps of fur slapped over them, but somehow also have gold engravings on their helmets. Most of the metals are completely different colours, with some of them looking like the artists didn't know the workflow they were supposed to be using.


What's really funny is how it seems to have gotten worse over the last 10 years. I challenge you to find a bannerlord character who looks better than this screenshot from 2013 (right):

Now look what we have:

You may think I'm just nitpicking here, but if you are satisfied with the game in its current state then I can't even shrug my shoulders and say "that's just your opinion" because I honestly cannot fathom not being frustrated that 10 years has led us to this. There is hardly anything to do in bannerlord, and with no overhaul mods it blows my mind that there are still 10,000 per month people letting their single chance at life tick away to a terrifying oblivion while they commit looter genocide for the 1000th time. There are a million things that give my brain more dopamine than playing this game in its current state, including washing the dishes and filling out tax forms.

 

[Terco_Viejo]

This video is gold

 

[Blood Gryphon]

This video is gold

Damn now I got this on repeat as I work.