This time last week we were all excited

[TheWitchIzalith]

I prefer it over Warband. Lived up to every expectation I set for it. :3

Right? I set very few expectations other than it was the successor of Warband, Ive sunk 45+ hours into it, restarted my campaign with every new patch. I'm having a blast.

Is it buggy and broken in places. Sure, but I'm having fun mastering the weapons, trying different playstyles, and so forth.

Seems to me that the people who aren't having fun are the ones exploiting the Combat AI, or the in game Economy. If you're going to insta marry a person and sell their loot for 500k, to cheese the game. Yeah I can see why you aren't having any fun, but that's on you for abusing exploits/game mechanics.

Still super excited for whats to come. The only realy fix I'm presently waiting on is the Mercenary contracts so I can be a sellsword in the south before joining up as a Vassal / King in the north

 

[imgran]

This time last week we were all excited for Bannerlord, wondering what it would be like, how it would compare with Warband. Oh how our dreams were crushed. I mean, it's ok, but it's not as solid as Warband.

My dreams are not crushed. The skeleton of a fantastic game is here, and I really hope that the devs don't ruin it with feature creep. Leave feature creep to the modders. :p

Just squash the worst of the bugs, fix the balance of national power, and get the values correct for goods and equipment. After you've got that, you've set up a perfect tabula rasa for the real powerhouse of TaleWorld games, the modding community.

This game has a bright future if people don't give up on it too quickly, and once the balance is actually sorted, may actually be ready for release sooner than we think, especially if they keep developing this aggressively.

 

[left2live]

Oh come on, why even post this when you know your view isn't universally shared? The game has 85% positive reviews on Steam and I personally think its far better than Warband. What are you trying to do, discourage the development team?

It's early access. I know critics don't like to hear that but it's true. Since it's such a large, community driven game, we are seeing a part of development that many games don't show. Of course there are features missing, that's the point. When testing, you don't test all the features at once because there's too many variables when something goes wrong. You start with the core mechanics and add more features once everything is working properly. Then when something breaks, you know it has something to do with the recently added feature. The Bannerlord engine is new, so there's a lot of ironing out to do. Why not make early access private? Because they get way more data this way and speeds up development.

I agree, bannerlords might be buggy but its EA and IMO its faaar better then warbans, especially since we have smithing <3

 

[guisadop]

I wasn't disappointed.

 

[lunelune2413]

This time last week we were all excited for Bannerlord, wondering what it would be like, how it would compare with Warband. Oh how our dreams were crushed. I mean, it's ok, but it's not as solid as Warband.

For Warband they already had Mount and Blades engine done and most of the base core done for the game and simply had to improve on it. Here they had to do everything from scratch, including multiple attempts to make a new custom engine from scratch. Think about how much they had to live up as well. Warband was a really popular game, so they had to take their time in making the EA a good release to live up to those expectations before the full launch. Considering the numbers on Steam are still a whopping 220.000+ players per day and a 85% positive rating, it seems like people are happy with what they made.

 

[iElek]

This time last week we were all excited for Bannerlord, wondering what it would be like, how it would compare with Warband. Oh how our dreams were crushed. I mean, it's ok, but it's not as solid as Warband.

Speak for yourself.

 

[MKLVN]

Whaaat?? Im having more fun with Mount and Blade than I’ve had in years thanks to Bannerlord.

Speak for yourself but after the last patch especially my late game has been awesome. Factions are balanced and even before the game stability 1.0.5 brought I had fun running around our new Calradia.

I could watch these death animations and ragdoll physics all day.

 

[Lespaul521]

For Warband they already had Mount and Blades engine done and most of the base core done for the game and simply had to improve on it. Here they had to do everything from scratch, including multiple attempts to make a new custom engine from scratch. Think about how much they had to live up as well to. Warband was a really popular game, so they had to take their time in making the EA a good release to live up to those expectations. Considering the numbers on Steam are still a whopping 220.000+ players per day and a 85% positive rating, it seems like people are happy with what they made.

This, exactly this. A new engine comes with a lot of problems. But I don't see anything at its core that's wrong with it (looking at you frostbite interaction physics).

 

[imgran]

This is a little like complaining that cake batter doesn't taste as good as finished, frosted, professionally decorated cake

 

[Deadh34d]

Speak for yourself bud, cause I'm having a blast. Best part is, the game is only going to get better over time. Are there rough edges or occasional head aches? Sure, it's an early access game, and these are things I expect from M&B anyway. Am I enjoying it as much as I do Warband? Abso-****ing-lutely.

 

[Abelardo]

I love how you speak as if you're the voice of us all, my dreams weren't "crushed" whatsoever, it was exactly what I expected, and I love it.

Anyone with the capacity to look into more than the next 5 minutes in front of them will notice the immense potential there is for modding with this thing, 5 years from now (and probably more) I'll still be enjoying the game, just as it was with warband.

If you've created an overblown image of what the game would be that's your own fault.

 

[1zironka1]

I'm just concerned that the devs won't try as hard now that they've been paid in (nearly) full. I hope they still have passion for their game.

Probably Bannerlord III will begin to do.

 

[SlyFox]

5 years from now (and probably more) I'll still be enjoying the game, just as it was with warband.

Damn, just imagine 5 years from now! We'll be riding around in the 1800's wild west fighting Indians one day, killing orcs in Middle Earth the next, shooting Tywin Lannister with a crossbow and seeing him gloriously ragdoll with our 2 year old 2023 computers the one after ?

All these complaints are very temporary. Don't you worry, child.

 

[BattanianDruid]

I am still having a great time. I got lucky and received no crashes at all and performance has been solid. Even if this was a full release it wouldn't be the worst full release of a deeply anticipated game I've ever experienced. That honor goes to Total War: Rome 2.

But this is early access. Not a full release. For an early access this is great and the more I play the more giddy I become for what is coming later.

When I first commanded my own cavalry contingent in a massive army vs army battle all I could think of was how amazing the Lord of the Rings mod is going to be. The future of Mount and Blade is looking bright to me.

 

[Freemarf]

People complain too quickly, there is a year left to finalize the game.
I do not worry because the body of the game is there, it is missing only a few bug fixes and new additions for a year !
Look at how many bugs were resolved in such a short time and now just imagine what is coming soon

I'm not exceedingly worried because the first impression is good, better than I was fearing it would be. And I do have well in mind that early access means an unfinished product (plus I think they have been very clear and transparent about what's in and what's not in).

However I am rather concerned at the state of the game even taking the EA status in full account. The graphics is barely sufficient, I wasn't expecting any next-gen miracle, but jesus christ the characters look like fat bozos, who the hell designed the bodies and what were they smoking? Things like the sky in most instances looks like nothing more than a gradient of blue. Some other things like finding out proper companions (with backstory and personality) are not even in yet just made me freeze. Writing companion dialogues literally only take the time to write a few lines, without wanting to disrespect the writers and their work, how the hell are not real companions in after what 8 years of development? What have they been doing all this time?

I know it comes off as harsh but really the more I play, even though I'm not disliking the game, I keep wondering what the hell did they spend the past years on.

 

[vito397]

Can confirm. I expected the best game of my entire life based entirely on my wishes, but instead not only were my dreams crushed; Armagan himself came to my house, beat the hell out of me and kicked my dog.

If only they announced earlier that the game was incomplete at this state hmmm, maybe an early access or something hmmmm

 

[JimmyCakes]

However I am rather concerned at the state of the game even taking the EA status in full account. The graphics is barely sufficient, I wasn't expecting any next-gen miracle, but jesus christ the characters look like fat bozos, who the hell designed the bodies and what were they smoking?

I think the main issue is that the default character presets all come across unrealistic and cartoony so everyone ends up looking in that style and being very broad. Each faction should have realistic presets from the start

 

[SvarteOrm]

It's great to finally be able to test the game.
I think they have made a good job so far but I also expect a lot more to come during early access.

I will probably play a bit more and then wait for the game to be finished and then go at it again.

 

[VikingBALL]

I'd like to remind you of something. There is this game, praised by many as the best game of the century, called The Witcher 3.

Upon release (full release. Not early access or beta) it was nicknamed "The Glitcher 3". Horrible bugs, crashes, stuttering, crazy stuff happening ALL THE TIME preventing many from playing, even those that had built warmachines just to play that long awaited game.

Now ? The game is incredibly stable, has 2 DLC that got praised for their quality, and is a monument of the videogame industry. And the people that cried on forums that this game was a scam and a scandal are now praising it as the best experience of their life.


Here we are not even at full release. We are one week past the EA release, which, like it or not, means exactly this : "This game is not finished, has bugs and issues, and may not work". If your dreams was to have an EA product working like a fully released product, yes, your dreams were crushed, but your dreams were unrealistic to begin with.

Let me tell you what "my dreams" were for this game.
- I wanted to find the M&B spirit that i enjoy so much. I did, and i'm waiting for more.
- I wanted to find out what new features were included. I did, and i'm waiting for more (because there WILL be more).
- I wanted to find out about the new factions we were teased about. I did, and i'm waiting for more.
- I wanted to see if devs would listen to critics and pleads. They did, and i'm waiting for more.

So concerning this game, our "dreams" did not get crush, they have been expanded, because the M&B Bannerlord experience has, in truth, only begun, and considering the premise that has been given to us, i think it's safe to say that it will be a fun ride.

If, however, you think that getting a game piece by piece, and not being able to play it instantly is frustrating and "dream crushing", let it rest for a few months, stay away from EA, and come back at full release, and chances are you'll not be disappointed.

Thank you sir for writing my thoughts for me <3 Let's all play the unfinished game and report any bug we find. Let TT have time to react to the flaws and whatnot and fix them in due time. Seriously TT have to make an enormous effort to **** this up, like yeah stuff is broken but damn i'm enjoying this game already

 

[Freemarf]

I think the main issue is that the default character presets all come across unrealistic and cartoony so everyone ends up looking in that style and being very broad. Each faction should have realistic presets from the start

My guess is what they screwed up is actually the design of the armors. If you look at the naked character in the char creation, it's not great, but it looks more or less ok. Put any armor on him and he becomes god-awful, with a goddamn beer belly and disproporionate arms. It really bugs the **** out of me because it completely kills my immersion. I'm surprised to be honest I don't see more people pissed off with this, to me it's almost a deal breaker.