Which leveling system do you prefer Warband or Bannerlord?

Which has the better leveling system?

  • Warband

  • Bannerlord


Results are only viewable after voting.

Users who are viewing this thread

They really need to adjust numbers, I prefer this new system btw. I think it is more uhh.. Realistic? Like in kingdom come. To progress, you have to work hard. I don't know why we don't gain XP in Tournaments and in training fields
 
I preferred Warband system by a mile, of course, but with some work this system may work as well. Remove cap to skill from focus and use it just to determine what perks you can learn; make all perks available and leave the number of perk points as the only limit; balance the speed at which you learn skills so that there are no longer skills too easy to learn and skills that take forever to level.

These are only a couple of ideas that IMO could already improve things a lot
 
This was the kind of thing I was worried about for a long time...that they have forgotten what made the original game so great and would bog the game down with "features" that get in the way.

From what I have seen of this leveling system it looks like it belongs in Diablo...forced "specializing" to the point of getting in the way of gameplay.
 
The current system is kind of disappointing. I like the general feel of increasing skills by using them, but there's so many caveats and bugs right now on it that it's still disappointing.

Remove the caveats and fix the bugs. Rework the perks entirely to ensure all of them seem to have enough impact to be noticeable and make decision perks more equitable. Then we can reassess the new system to see if it's an improvement.

If there are hard caps to the skills being learned, either by intent or de facto, I think they should be removed. Those who want to limit their character's total skill level can activate hero dying. Combined with the aging system, you literally have an organic total skill level limiter already in place.
 
The new system isn't new at all. It's been done numerous time in the past and it always suffers from the same kind of problem. When the rules have become this overbearing it's probably a sign that the game probably doesn't need a system anymore, and have to find a truly immersive, non-systematic way to develop a character.
 
Last edited:
As of right now? I think the Warband one is better for the obvious reason that it's got proper polish.

I see potential in allowing the skill to be ground out, but I feel like the classic skill point system + allocation works better for Mount & Blade, especially now with the plans for succession between characters and perma-death.

I feel like a hybrid version of the two could be achieved with you being able to grind out all the skills, but also being able to allocate skill points with diminishing returns like how we originally levelled our combat skills in Warband, where the skill point cost went up.

Currently, XP from anything is incredibly slow, tournaments and arena fights don't give you any XP in any skill, so you can't even grind that out yet, and there are some skills that are incredibly tedious or seem impossible to level (from my experience), namely Leadership and most dialogue-based skills, as I haven't been able to get into any real conversations with NPCs.
 
I actually like the new system. I think some of the XP factors could be broadened so there are more opportunities to learn some of the less common skills, but I love increasing my stats from actually using them. Maybe I just have not reached a high enough level, but at the moment, I really like it.
I like the new system in concept, but as implemented it's just burdensome. While it was by no means perfect i would be happy to go back to something morelike the conventional RPG system, except with experience added for making trades and persuasion checks
 
I like the new system - whereby DOING something improves the skill instead of generic stack if however you want. The old system involved going into "intelligence" to get +2 points to assign until you needed to start doing others as you capped out levels (whether scouting, medical, loot, leadership, strength, riding etc). Essentially, making yourself every roll in one.

My main criticisms of the new (from my perspective/opinion): How am I supposed to get my compatriots to be able to gain scout/leadership/stewardship levels if after 10+ hours they don't gain a single point to invest in the trait line to enable them to gain xp in it and become useful? THAT is too grindy (as is just gaining points myself) as 10+ hours later, nothing.

I do agree, gaining skill/trait points yourself is incredibly slow which means huge grind to actually be able to gain in any particular skill itself (rather than once you have some choices into it you can gain it passively. My stewardship is about 90 at the moment, without me actively doing anything other than having fiefdoms, whereas other skills are impossible to get going as I'm hoping to get a skill/trait point to invest to increment it past 0 so it accrues xp.

So I like the idea of benefits of increases in each trait in the skill pathway. What I don't like is the levelling up - it's too slow especially at low levels to be able to start to increase in traits. Meanwhile, companions just plain do NOT gain anything so you can't get them into roles such as steward/scout/leader.

Basically, it needs some balancing as it's detrimental to the game at present.

If that makes sense?
 
Basically, the new SYSTEM is better, but a few of the details and the overall balance are terrible. I was never fond of a system where you get better at trading, negotiating, or construction by swinging a weapon at adversaries.

I would much prefer a hybrid system where you gain MOST of your improvements directly by "doing" (Bannerlord style), but where a few percent of those points are reserved for the player to distribute voluntarily to other skills (Warband style). Those points represent some of the various things you could be doing in the intervals between battles and other major actions in the game, but which are not shown.
 
The old system should exist on top of the current system, so you gain general xp points from anything you which you can freely use to upgrade skills. The best of both worlds in my opinion and it mitigates forcing players to cheat or doing metagaming strategies to powerlevel skills they don't actually want to use, but have to train to advance their character.
 
I like the new system.

How did you level up in warband ? By killing people. Quests did give XP (and i hope quests will give you skill xp in BL as well), but the best way to gain level was to go alone against sea raiders and kill them all solo.

How do you level up in bannerlord ? By doing things. Recruiting troops, trading stuff, selling slaves, fighting, riding, healing, talking, building, managing your party.

And even for combat experience. In WB you had to have the finishing blow to get the XP, so you would try to KS your own troops to level up faster. Here, death blows are irrelevant, you just need to play the game to progress in the skills you're using.

Now, I KNOW, that the skill system is absolutely broken :
- Half the perks are just not implemented
- The leveling of the skills are broken, and some skills impossible to level
- The grinding is WAYY overwhelming (no idea why they decreased the xp from slaves for roguery)
- The caps has to be adjusted, as you can softblock yourself if you're not cautious

but all those things are a result of the game being released from EA 4 days ago, and they will be fixed, i'm sure. The important thing is how much potential the system has, and how we, as a player community, can give feedback to point out the good things and the bad ones.
 
The new system is great... just need some adjustments, like reducing the grind, rearranging a few perks and probably removing the cap...but the foundation is there and it's definitely superior if you compare to the old system.

This, and also the leveling pace should be reworked, right now it is almost impossible to level companions the way you want to.

I like the new system.

How did you level up in warband ? By killing people. Quests did give XP (and i hope quests will give you skill xp in BL as well), but the best way to gain level was to go alone against sea raiders and kill them all solo.

How do you level up in bannerlord ? By doing things. Recruiting troops, trading stuff, selling slaves, fighting, riding, healing, talking, building, managing your party.

And even for combat experience. In WB you had to have the finishing blow to get the XP, so you would try to KS your own troops to level up faster. Here, death blows are irrelevant, you just need to play the game to progress in the skills you're using.

Now, I KNOW, that the skill system is absolutely broken :
- Half the perks are just not implemented
- The leveling of the skills are broken, and some skills impossible to level
- The grinding is WAYY overwhelming (no idea why they decreased the xp from slaves for roguery)
- The caps has to be adjusted, as you can softblock yourself if you're not cautious

but all those things are a result of the game being released from EA 4 days ago, and they will be fixed, i'm sure. The important thing is how much potential the system has, and how we, as a player community, can give feedback to point out the good things and the bad ones.

Exactly my thoughts.
 
As for companions, the problem is that they are just too high level when you recruit them, making them impossible to level up. The simple fix would be to make them lower level so that you can level them up (especially in fighting skills, where they pretty much all have around 60-90 in ALL skills).

It's like if in Baldur's gate every companion you found was already level 20.
 
As for companions, the problem is that they are just too high level when you recruit them, making them impossible to level up. The simple fix would be to make them lower level so that you can level them up (especially in fighting skills, where they pretty much all have around 60-90 in ALL skills).

This !!
 
I don't really see the issue with the pace of leveling (even though it is too slow), as it is clearly just not tuned and it's the most simple thing to fix. But the problem is with the system in the current state. I understand the appeal of every skill having their separate XP bar from doing that thing. But why do we then have levels or attributes or caps on those skills ? Right now, gaining a level gives me nothing. It doesn't change anything and feels completely unfun and unrewarding. The caps are also going to be circumvented by gaming them in some automated way. I still remember putting heavy vocabulary on a mouse and keyboard to run against a wall and cast rejurvinate in Oblivion. I'd like to not repeat that here.

So my suggestion would be to get rid of caps and revert back to XP system, where every action gives you XP (killing, crafting, trading, playing mini games, ...). Each skill can continue to gain levels by practicing, but once you level up you get e.g. 20 skill points to put anywhere, instead of focus points. I would also suggest that attributes should apply some bonus to their respective skills/perks. So with e.g. with 5 vigor your swing faster perk will give you 10% speed, while with 3 vigor it will give you 6%. Actual perks, their placement and the speed of the whole system can then be tuned.
 
Back
Top Bottom