The M&B MP 'feel' from a veteran

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Hey everyone, just another long time M&B vet here sharing their unwanted opinions around. I wanted to share some of my perspectives regarding why I am concerned about the future of MP judging from its current state.

I feel as though with this new installation, Taleworlds has forsaken some of the core essence of what made M&B feel unique especially in contrast to the dime a dozen other medieval era games we have now circulating in the genre. I feel without these aspects, M&B MP is going to wither away by rejection of vets by me, and by those that you made these changes for in the aim of accessibility; who will just see this as another generic addition and eventually lose interest without toting any unique characteristics to keep them.

Listed below are some; but not all aspects that are currently harming MP from my perspective as well as why it is problematic for longevity of the game:

1.) Lack of Battle and Duel.
While these modes might not be everyone's favorite flavor, or even one they frequent; they provide the community a core competitive and social dynamic that is not found in any other game mode. These modes are the premier experience where your name or your clan can become recognized in the community by your feats; as well as serve as a primordial soup for the evolution of individual skill, teamwork and strategy. I cannot describe to you how many names I recognize and remember from warband because of their feats of strength I spectated in wonder; after my life had perished for the round, as they single handedly took on 7 people against all odds. Not to mention this returns in kind for myself with people who remember me for the same things in my moments of glory.

No one likes being snuffed out early in the round to spectate for 5 minutes, but this frustrating feature provides depth to the community that is fundamentally impossible without its inclusion.

2.) Trading individual gearing for character classes.
This one sounds trivial in nature, and I understand the direction Taleworlds wanted to take with this system, but from my perspective it only serves to deteriorate the game and community. It isn't too far reaching to say the current system is pretty much a repackaged version of what we had omitting the nuance of selecting items individually. This provides accessibility to newer players who might not understand the nuances in selection, however this change 'takes away' instead of adding.

To add on top of this, it actually serves to obfuscate the system to newer players instead of bringing them in. Warband was elegant in that you had 3 options for the combat triad which was intuitive and satisfying; Infantry, Ranged, and Mounted. This game in contrast, has several classes where their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations are not immediately obvious unless you have prior experience.

Finally, it limits individual freedom and community recognition by forcing players to select a package that takes the power of individuality and style away from them.

3.) Privately hosted dedicated servers.
I am sure this will be fixed, I remember the server files not released until later during the warband beta as well; but I cannot stress how important it is that the server files come out quickly.

4.) Lack of coat of arms selection.
Again, this sounds trivial but it is a reoccurring theme where individuality has been snuffed out which will only do more harm than good to the community. Something as simple as seeing "Aww not that shield again" recognizing someone's shield coat that consistently beats you makes you pay attention to people rather than 'just another body in the way'.

I don't want to ramble on any further than I already have as I very easily could but the main point I wanted to illuminate was the loss of individuality, community and freedom that is a reoccurring theme in this iteration of Mount and Blade that I feel is problematic to the longevity and development of the community.

I am hopeful for the future as it is still early access but I am worried from prior experience of Taleworlds not listening very closely to the dedicated community's issues.
 
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As warband beta player I agree with everything above. I only really played battle mode on a regular basis and the individuality of characters is what made the community.
 
Inappropriate behavior
just release the server files *SNIPPED* so the community can set things right like they always do, delete the trash matchmaking client while you at it and add the rank progression stuff to the community browser servers

forums will be ****posted to eternity until you listen to actual mp players for once and throw the boys a bone
 
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Nice post and I think it's the feeling a lot of warband players had throughout the beta as well. For your points, they were really sticky about no battle mode, and classes were here to stay. The classes one had a lot of discussion but there was no budging on it.

I do believe there is a world where classes still give the freedom of the gear selection if done right, basically pre picking what you'd have picked anyway, but I think still needs a bit of work there.

I believe they will get to duel mode in time, but no duel servers are really hurting. I'm secretly hoping duel servers allow the classless customization but, we'll see.

Eventually we'll get dedicated servers as well down the line.

There's even more you'll see as you play in terms of the combat. It's a shame we lost the beta forums, there were a lot of amazing posts about things that needed to be worked on in there from some really dedicated players.

Don't lose hope though, I think looking at the state of SP, that taleworlds wasn't as far along as we all thought they were. I'm hoping once the EA explosion of players and crashes they are finding start getting fixed, we'll hopefully again start moving in a better direction and get it all wrestled together.

It is a shame though to lose the population surge you get in MP during release time.
 
Nice post and I think it's the feeling a lot of warband players had throughout the beta as well. For your points, they were really sticky about no battle mode, and classes were here to stay. The classes one had a lot of discussion but there was no budging on it.

I do believe there is a world where classes still give the freedom of the gear selection if done right, basically pre picking what you'd have picked anyway, but I think still needs a bit of work there.

I believe they will get to duel mode in time, but no duel servers are really hurting. I'm secretly hoping duel servers allow the classless customization but, we'll see.

Eventually we'll get dedicated servers as well down the line.

There's even more you'll see as you play in terms of the combat. It's a shame we lost the beta forums, there were a lot of amazing posts about things that needed to be worked on in there from some really dedicated players.

Don't lose hope though, I think looking at the state of SP, that taleworlds wasn't as far along as we all thought they were. I'm hoping once the EA explosion of players and crashes they are finding start getting fixed, we'll hopefully again start moving in a better direction and get it all wrestled together.

It is a shame though to lose the population surge you get in MP during release time.
Long time no see, good to see you around still. I am still hopeful, but judging from last time around I am very worried about Taleworlds willingness to tune things correctly. I remember several discussions from warband beta and throughout its life where we as the dedicated community saw problems and put forward suggestions and pleaded for changes that fell on deaf ears which ultimately led to the abandonment of the the dedicated competitive scene. I agree with everything you said, and will still hold out for hope.
 
Long time no see, good to see you around still. I am still hopeful, but judging from last time around I am very worried about Taleworlds willingness to tune things correctly. I remember several discussions from warband beta and throughout its life where we as the dedicated community saw problems and put forward suggestions and pleaded for changes that fell on deaf ears which ultimately led to the abandonment of the the dedicated competitive scene. I agree with everything you said, and will still hold out for hope.
1) battle is by far the ****tiest gamemode there is. If you die early you can afk for 20 minutes. With 200 people the server is so laggy idk how you can even call that competitive. The problem is that skirmish has unbalanced matchmaking.
2) picking gear wasnt a good system
 
battle is by far the ****tiest gamemode there is. If you die early you can afk for 20 minutes. With 200 people the server is so laggy idk how you can even call that competitive. The problem is that skirmish has unbalanced matchmaking.

Literally none of the games ever had 200 player battle mode servers except NW/MM, in native warband battle even if you died instantly somehow the wait was like 5 minutes max and it was usually hovering around 20 vs 20 on reasonably sized maps. don't talk about things you know nothing about
 
1) battle is by far the ****tiest gamemode there is. If you die early you can afk for 20 minutes. With 200 people the server is so laggy idk how you can even call that competitive. The problem is that skirmish has unbalanced matchmaking.
2) picking gear wasnt a good system
As far as I have seen, no one is asking for 200 player battle. 20-50 player is the sweet spot.
 
Add clan banners and along with this sorting teams by banner after 1st round, even 100vs100 battles will be balanced and organized.
This is a cool feature that was used in c-RPG mode and worked really well :smile:
 
1) battle is by far the ****tiest gamemode there is. If you die early you can afk for 20 minutes. With 200 people the server is so laggy idk how you can even call that competitive. The problem is that skirmish has unbalanced matchmaking.
2) picking gear wasnt a good system
200 people on a server is not as taxing as you think. You were probably playing a server from a different region
 
I've got about 1200 hours in Warband mostly playing Siege, my combat skills transfer over well into Bannerlord I don't notice much difference in how the combat behaves other than a little lag, the main gripe is the randomness of the class selection and not being able to fulfill roles that I find fun to play. The majority of my siege games in Bannerlord are spent as a weak archer trying to gain enough points to unlock the melee roles. Lame.
 
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