Will the game have more focus on lore, worldbuilding, and story?

[lolbash]

If I want to read about lore or stories I would buy a book, not a video game.

 

[Mad Vader]

If I want to read about lore or stories I would buy a book, not a video game.

How many hours do you have in SP? That might explain things.

 

[Revverie]

If I want to read about lore or stories I would buy a book, not a video game.

Cmon man are you always like this? And a game like this with absolutely no Lore would be crap, the whole point its to get you immersed in that Lore, how will that happen if it gives you no way to make you know it

 

[lolbash]

I don't need to know that Borcha was born in Ichamur or that the Rhodoks rebelled from Swadia or whatever to have fun beating bandits, lords, or siege castles. I would much rather that they put the effort writing stories into actual gameplay.

 

[Orion]

Yet the lore provides an explanation for why the world lets you do those things. Why are there bandits in the first place? Probably because war-torn regions are often full of opportunists looking to capitalize on the conflict. Why is there conflict? Bad blood between the Rhodoks and Swadians, which have a history of falling out. Games with an intense focus on action are often multiplayer-oriented and have short sessions. Counter-Strike does practically nothing to establish a setting, but it doesn't matter because each match is discrete and lasts less than 30 minutes on average. There's no time to get invested emotionally, and there's nothing to get invested in. RPGs, on the other hand, give you all the time in the world to invest yourself in them. They're the middle ground between action and adventure/storytelling games, and so it makes sense that they would have elements of both.

 

[Noudelle]

I don't need to know that Borcha was born in Ichamur or that the Rhodoks rebelled from Swadia or whatever to have fun beating bandits, lords, or siege castles. I would much rather that they put the effort writing stories into actual gameplay.

You're presenting this as if they can only do one of these. Plus, as Orion said above, the stories that emerge through gameplay will have more of an impact if they're set in a well-established world with concrete lore.

 

[vota dc]

In Warband wasn't very well implemented. For example Swadian are supposed to hate Rhodoks more than the others but gameplay wise is just another kingdom for them and reconquiring it isn't a bigger priority than invade Nords or Vaegirs.
For rebellion everything is random.
City information is quite good because city production is fixed, same for the armies information.

 

[HalfTauter]

I'd love if Bannerlord would have a more in depth lore side to it. It could be in the form of "books" (like in Kingdom Come Deliverance or Elder Scrolls), snippets in conversations (where you can eavesdrop interesting lore, or where an old enemy faction member scolds you out), maybe even have some unique monuments or historical buildings in cities that already show the lore themselves.

For quests, I don't know if lore specific quests would really work out. It stays a sandbox game, and the example that a "simple" side quest like "bring this loot there so we can make a Casus Belli against them" seems a bit far fetched. It's stuff you have to make up in your mind yourself, using common quests to achieve a goal lorewise. I could imagine a dynamic system in Bannerlord to "fix" this. For example, transporting goods, specifically contraband, to a place A where insurgents are living, brings down the relation of your faction with the faction where place A de jure is located. It's a dynamic system what I just described, where common side quests automatically have consequences to the factions that pertain to it. This spices up simple side quests, as they have consequences on a bigger scale, faction wise.

I am not so in favour of a specific story line, as I think Bannerlord should largely sandbox driven, but as said I love to have a deep lore behind the world of Calradia (I loved this about Elder Scrolls). It should be thought of how to intertwine this lore with the sandboxism.

 

[Attembourgh]

If I want to read about lore or stories I would buy a book, not a video game.

Similar to how we moved from scrolls to flipping pages on a book, video games are a new medium to help experience stories at a much more immersive pace, and this is an extremely far righted mind to be taking over a revolutionary technology. Video games are not just about mindless enemy killing.

I'd love if Bannerlord would have a more in depth lore side to it. It could be in the form of "books" (like in Kingdom Come Deliverance or Elder Scrolls), snippets in conversations (where you can eavesdrop interesting lore, or where an old enemy faction member scolds you out), maybe even have some unique monuments or historical buildings in cities that already show the lore themselves.

It is extremely hard to weave lore into gameplay with just having books and conversation snippets, there needs to be interaction with the gameworld, and the MC. This route would simply only make the lore less interesting to read.

 

[Attembourgh]

I am not completely against more open quests, I am just saying that more drama or action is needed to spice up what would otherwise be a "move from point A to point B" quest, to make them more memorable. I sitll can't remember a memorable quest in my time playing Warband, other than one where I had to deliver cattle to my marshal party, halfway across the map, before they fought a siege and took over the castle, right when I was about to deliver the cattle, forfeiting my quest rewards. What a terrible quest, not a good way to remember a game. 

 

[KucukEniste]

I don't want a story driven game with a bad story (im looking at you kingdom come deliverence) but if i found out the name of the Nervous ManTM i just delivered justice is ROLF i would entartained more than killing nameless man.

 

[vota dc]

Nervous Man has a name, it is written in dialogue and quest log! I would give him the generic peasant name and make him act like a peasant so you can kill the wrong guy and fail the mission.
Lords should give an accurate description (face, weight, habits, if he limps or not) and taking the correct one should be detective work.
Dumb people should spend tons of money to get clues for detective work and other quest like tracking bandit lair also some quest could fail anyway, for example common hunter can help you finding forest bandit lair but he won't be able to help you with the Ali Baba band that is in the magic cave and you will fail if tracking, spotting and intelligence are all low.

 

[orgrinrt]

Nervous Man has a name, it is written in dialogue and quest log! I would give him the generic peasant name and make him act like a peasant so you can kill the wrong guy and fail the mission.
Lords should give an accurate description (face, weight, habits, if he limps or not) and taking the correct one should be detective work.

In general, more contextual interactions with the commoners would be a huge plus, but this kind of detectivework would go long ways to make the experience more immersive. It'd be neat to have some of them lie too, so e.g if a tall guy with mustache gives you some information, you'd then have to ask around like "is this tall fellow with the mustache reliable?" and then deduce whether or not to trust him or the people who endorsed him. This'd play well with the persuasion system too I bet. And as said, the possibility of detaining/killing the wrong guy would really hammer in the concept of choices and consequences that they have been mentioning across the dev blogs.

 

[Mad Vader]

I liked that quest. It gave you an incentive to explore the village scene looking for someone that sticks out.
However it was a bit of a letdown to resolve it with simple combat. For example, he could have started running when he saw you and maybe escaped at a map edge if you were not quick enough.
I'd hate to see in Bannerlord that your branching quest choices are reduced to persuasion mini-games, simple bribes and simple combat. Quest are interesting if they offer new gameplay you can't get anywhere else.

 

[KucukEniste]

Nervous Man has a name

I was trying to tell his names were indifferent to you it just a quest for 300 denars and improving relations with lords. But what if one of your companions knew him from childhood etc. (In previous blogs they said something about generated companions so it not too hard to implement this ) It woulnt change the games genre and add a little story to the game.

 

[vota dc]

It would be great.
Also not all hidden bandit could just hide:
-Some could start a new band (they don't rob but they ask money to the village like mafia) and have already some villagers on their side
-Some could hide and be difficult to spot but quite easy to recognize since they are far from other villagers
-Some could be good liars and even give you wrong advices pretending to help in the hunt of the bandit
-Some could be retired and peaceful but popular among the village and you get the reputation drop if you kill them (it is strange you get it even when they are scum) helping them could make you popular among the village but piss off the lord
-Some could be just dumb and being always drunk attacking everyone
-Some could be ninja and try to stealth kill you

 

[Roccoflipside]

Well the reason you get a reputation drop for killing the nervous man, even though he's a murderer, is he's not in the town where he did the murdering. He killed someone in x town and fled to y village where his family is, family most likely being more than just parents/siblings, more like a clan.