Which leveling system do you prefer Warband or Bannerlord?

Which has the better leveling system?

  • Warband

  • Bannerlord


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I agree there's nothing inherently wrong with the system but it needs massive tweaking.

Skill levels of 50-100 were considered low in M&B1 but here they require hours of dedicated grinding and are a massive chore to increase. Companions join with skills in that range and then never budge and thus never gain levels.

Some kind of mixed XP/direct learning system would be preferable I think. Restore the XP for levels and allow some bonus points each level the player can allocate wherever they want.
 
I've played every TES game from Arena to Skyrim, along with a long list of content mods.

I was blown away by how much better Oblivion and Skyrim are when playing with mods that replace the skill system with an XP system.




It's hard to judge how good Bannerlord would be with tuned leveling values, but the values for companions are surely too slow. I'm also wondering how many irrelevant skills I'll have to build up for them to max out their relevant skills. I'm wondering if I'll have to spend time making them all blacksmith up a bunch of junk swords so I can get enough perks / points to invest in strength/weapons

Anyone level up a companion twice in one playthrough?
 
I kinda wish there was a "hire level 1 companion" feature. Since the leveling is so slow and a lot of companions are mid-level when you find them, it's really hard to actually mold them into what you want. That'd also allow people to recruit the kind of party they prefer visually. I'm khuzait and I think it's kinda annoying that I'm running around with a norse-looking guy in my clan.
 
No, the new system is horrible and feels like a chore.
They could have as well give us classes to choose in the creation process.
Make classes that seem pointless to me? You make your own class, you don't have to learn every skill. Think of this way why would 1 person be masterful at everything? If you don't want to become a master smith then don't go down that path the same with everything else. I don't like crossbows or polearms so I don't go out my way to learn/use it.
 
I kinda wish there was a "hire level 1 companion" feature. Since the leveling is so slow and a lot of companions are mid-level when you find them, it's really hard to actually mold them into what you want. That'd also allow people to recruit the kind of party they prefer visually. I'm khuzait and I think it's kinda annoying that I'm running around with a norse-looking guy in my clan.
I think there should be level 1 compansions for sure, but then their backstories are for nothing. Theres a reason they're those levels. Level 1 is basic of adventure/soldier. I think you should be able to make your own companions with names and that so you can make them become your lords fi you choose to become King/Queen route.
 
Probably because it's harder to increase a high skill than it is a low skill. It's possible that the best means to level up companions quickly is actually to have them do whatever they're not skilled in.

They can't, though. At least none of the ones I got. They had zero stats and zero focus outside of their specific skill set. Even Meyla who has 60 Medicine still had no focus and no points in INT.

Wanderer companions seem to be mostly mid-tier immortal meat shields and nothing more.
 
I was totally fine with the grind being about renown, reputation and right to rule. This level by doing system, I haven't really dealt with this since Ultima online, Morrowind and Oblivion I downloaded mods to turn it into an exp based leveling system.
 
I think there should be level 1 compansions for sure, but then their backstories are for nothing. Theres a reason they're those levels. Level 1 is basic of adventure/soldier. I think you should be able to make your own companions with names and that so you can make them become your lords fi you choose to become King/Queen route.

I haven't noticed renown, but, let's look at Warband, level 1 companions cannot become good lords with decent armies, no matter what you do, until they are perhaps level 30 or so. They don't get renown, their super armor and skills you gave them don't mean **** in auto resolve, so they need like 10 in surgery or whatever, wound treatment and leadership and everything to be able to match what an AI lord can do.
 
I haven't noticed renown, but, let's look at Warband, level 1 companions cannot become good lords with decent armies, no matter what you do, until they are perhaps level 30 or so. They don't get renown, their super armor and skills you gave them don't mean **** in auto resolve, so they need like 10 in surgery or whatever, wound treatment and leadership and everything to be able to match what an AI lord can do.
In this game, it's not required what so ever I have 5 parties out with me so, in theory, a total of 6 armies, including mine. All these characters have 0 in medicine. Not 1. They're chasing lords and taking them prisoner and they're all in their 20s.
 
People seem to be saying Warband's leveling system was not a chore. That getting your skills or your companions' was not a grind. What the hell people ? Are your memories this short ? Of COURSE it was a bloody grind, and worst of all, the only way of leveling was by killing stuff, basically. Quests gave some too and, sure, not all quests involved heavy fighting, but damn.

The feeling I get from readingyou guys' posts is that you want to be quickly done with the core of your character's leveling and skills and then get onto the relations / renown grind. Basically, how Warband was played in theory (once again, skilling up in Warband definitely was a chore too).

A lot of the more obscure skills are easy to level up in Bannerlord. And at least, with this system, I get to choose the way I want to play with the confidence that the vast majority of productive actions will net me some advancement towards the next level. I LOVE the new system. Sure it takes longer to become a uber war machine, and sure it makes it more tedious to level companions up the way you want them to.

I will agree with one thing though : it could use balancing, and perhaps better means of leveling some skills (trainers and books, basically). Maybe make it faster in general ? Not even sure about that one, maybe put it as a setting?

EDIT : I also want to say, after reading some stuff about having companions that are "blank slates". It would indeed break immersion for me to find grown adults with absolutely 0 skills. However, we have (or will soon have) the ability to have children ! Isn't that exactly what we need here ? If you want an elite doctor in your clan, just get your first character to make moneyz so that you have the resources for it.
 
The speed in which the individual skills level needs to be looked at, i.e. hastened. As well as the amount of skill improvements it needs to level up, and the amount of attribute points gained. Right now it just feels not fast enough, even for stuff you do a lot and passively. Raising attributes should also get a +5 to +10 bonus to each skill.
Further the number of actions that contribute to a certain skill need to be improved and broadened. Like I still have no idea how you could even level Charm, Leadership and Scouting for more than very tiny amounts for one action.
Certain actions should also count towards multiple skills, which they might do already. Like there is no reason why drawing a bow or general fighting should not also contribute to your athletic score. Or riding on minimap should also slightly level scouting, tactic and leadership and so forth. Solving quests in certain ways should also increase skills, like if you talk poachers out of fighting you gain 2 points of Charm, Roguery and Leadership, to accomodate not fighting and gaining combat skills. If you have a shop it should passively skill trade, as selling stuff oneself (maybe it does already).
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One thing people might not fully grasp though is that the amount of focus points put into directly influence the time it takes for skills to level. I have seen multis go from 2-10. The issue is that the limits slow you down fast.
Just like in the Elder Scrolls Series, this approach has advantages and does add immersion. I mean you start in this world as just a random dude. It makes sense that you choose your focus and have certain abilities that might change through your adventure. It is authentic to do stuff that you like and then you get better at it.
In comparison to an XP based system where you can save up your things and dump it into one stat to suddenly be the master engineer. The grind would also not disappear, instead of "grinding" something that you will need further down the line, you would instead repeat the most tedious task that you can imagine for a long amount of time (like headshotting large groups of T1 troops from 5m away) to farm XP and dump it into skill X.
 
People seem to be saying Warband's leveling system was not a chore. That getting your skills or your companions' was not a grind. What the hell people ? Are your memories this short ? Of COURSE it was a bloody grind, and worst of all, the only way of leveling was by killing stuff, basically. Quests gave some too and, sure, not all quests involved heavy fighting, but damn.

The issue is pacing and rate of progress.

In M&B1, you were always gaining XP, slow and steady, with the rewards being consistent, appreciable, and relevant. Even at high levels you could run down some bandits and collect some XP. That doesn't happen in Bannerlord.

In this game, you don't get much XP from doing fun game activities. If you want to level up, you have to stop doing fun things and find hoops to jump through to get the levels. This is what players refer to as a "grind." There's also the issue with it being infeasible to grind some skills that just don't get checked very often. How often are players going to do charm checks? Enough to level up to 250? In M&B you could level these ancillary skills to have them when you needed them, now you need to force them through unintuitive behavior in order to have them ready.

M&B: Fight, adventure, quest --> gain levels
Bannerlord: Fight, adventure, quest ---> gain nothing
 
Game could use Skill “Books”. An “Illuminated Manuscript on Medicine” would give you X Medicine points a day for a month. Then you finish it. Can only read one book at a time. Cannot re-read a book. Can purchase new books of same skill.
 
I love the concept of learning your skills by doing them, instead of just leveling and putting points in. But it may need to be improved a little instead of being this grindy.
 
What's the core of this game? It's battle! But we can only get limited experience from battle. Believe me, in this new system, many player will be tired of battle soon. Saddly.
 
People seem to be saying Warband's leveling system was not a chore. That getting your skills or your companions' was not a grind. What the hell people ? Are your memories this short ? Of COURSE it was a bloody grind, and worst of all, the only way of leveling was by killing stuff, basically. Quests gave some too and, sure, not all quests involved heavy fighting, but damn.

The feeling I get from readingyou guys' posts is that you want to be quickly done with the core of your character's leveling and skills and then get onto the relations / renown grind. Basically, how Warband was played in theory (once again, skilling up in Warband definitely was a chore too).

A lot of the more obscure skills are easy to level up in Bannerlord. And at least, with this system, I get to choose the way I want to play with the confidence that the vast majority of productive actions will net me some advancement towards the next level. I LOVE the new system. Sure it takes longer to become a uber war machine, and sure it makes it more tedious to level companions up the way you want them to.

I will agree with one thing though : it could use balancing, and perhaps better means of leveling some skills (trainers and books, basically). Maybe make it faster in general ? Not even sure about that one, maybe put it as a setting?

EDIT : I also want to say, after reading some stuff about having companions that are "blank slates". It would indeed break immersion for me to find grown adults with absolutely 0 skills. However, we have (or will soon have) the ability to have children ! Isn't that exactly what we need here ? If you want an elite doctor in your clan, just get your first character to make moneyz so that you have the resources for it.
What level are you and how many times have your companions leveled up?
 
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