Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

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BrotherWu

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Very, very few games along these lines DON'T have that same exact problem once you learn them.

Probably true, but I doubt it is to the same extent as Bannerlord. Go have a look at the forums and see what bugs and missing features people have been asking about for years. They just half-ass shit and constantly introduce and re-introduce bugs.

It's much prettier than Warband, of course, and adds a lot of QoL to the UI but it is missing a lot of the features that gave Warband its charm. Could have been amazing but is instead mediocre.

That's just my opinion so good for you if you enjoy it. I've mostly been waiting on them to deliver real content for a year or so.
 

Bandwagon

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I believe you and see a lot of complaints along those lines. I'm just a filthy casual that never makes it to end game in any game I play anyways, so that doesn't concern me all that much. All of my favorite games are either deeply flawed, unfinished, or both. I never play campaign in FPS or RTS games, end up abandoning the main questline in all open world games, etc.

Anyways, I ended up starting a 2nd campaign. I have a warband full of ~80 Khuz horse archers and all of my (5 or 6) companions are running caravans or workshops. I'm not sure what to do next because I don't want to start a war yet like I did in my first campaign, so I'm just following around one army and going on sieges and stuff, along with hitting every tournament I find. Charging people with a couched lance is a fucking blast, especially after winning one of the nice horses in a tournament. I can win pretty much any 1v1 fight in a tournament, but I get my ass handed to me when I have to face 2+ people at once.

I wish they found a way to make companions mean a little bit more to the player, like Xcom or Shadow of War does. Party members have personality that makes you get attached to them in those games. Especially xcom....it's painful to lose people in that game.
 

BrotherWu

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I believe you and see a lot of complaints along those lines. I'm just a filthy casual that never makes it to end game in any game I play anyways, so that doesn't concern me all that much. All of my favorite games are either deeply flawed, unfinished, or both. I never play campaign in FPS or RTS games, end up abandoning the main questline in all open world games, etc.

Anyways, I ended up starting a 2nd campaign. I have a warband full of ~80 Khuz horse archers and all of my (5 or 6) companions are running caravans or workshops. I'm not sure what to do next because I don't want to start a war yet like I did in my first campaign, so I'm just following around one army and going on sieges and stuff, along with hitting every tournament I find. Charging people with a couched lance is a fucking blast, especially after winning one of the nice horses in a tournament. I can win pretty much any 1v1 fight in a tournament, but I get my ass handed to me when I have to face 2+ people at once.

I wish they found a way to make companions mean a little bit more to the player, like Xcom or Shadow of War does. Party members have personality that makes you get attached to them in those games. Especially xcom....it's painful to lose people in that game.

I don't know of any mods that add personality to NPCs but there is a mod called Distinguished Service that allows you to optionally promote troops to companions when they meet certain conditions. I think it is something like max level and 5 kills in a single battle. When you promote them, you get to select their background and that usually makes them much more valuable than the randoms.
 

Caliane

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I don't love it when sandbox rpgs go overboard with scripted companions. you start to feel obligated to using them. all others become secondary.

Kenshi does a decent job with it. Multiple teirs, fairly seemless.

if you ment in terms of A.I. personalities. then yeah. that is something that is needed. Like, Cruel lords/companions, raiding villages more. Aggressive/defensive, etc. personalities that effect how they act in battle, or when leading parties. that would be great. And one of the issues with kingdoms atm. they all act the same.
 

Caliane

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1.1.5 live is up. small patch. nothing noteworthy really.

1.2 beta is the bigger news.
some major stuff.

  • Added 6 new battle terrains - West of Revyl, southwest of Quyaz, three terrains northeast of Razih and one around the town of Odohk.
  • Added a total of 4 new bandit hideout scenes for the desert, forest, seaside, and mountain environments.
  • Added 11 new dagger holsters.
  • Changed the static colors of cloth located on 61 armor pieces to heraldic colors (the used color now depends on the faction color).
  • Conducted minor improvements for various town & castle scenes (including global illumination).
Campaign Map

  • Weather and weather effects have been introduced.
    • Both rain and snow can now appear on the campaign map as well as in missions depending on the season of a specific region. Consequently, the grounds become wet or snowy and stay that way for a period even after the precipitation is gone.
    • Campaign Map Effects:
      • Wet/snowy grounds decrease mounted infantry and cavalry speed bonus components of party speed by 30%.
      • Wet/snowy grounds double the siege preparation time.
    • Mission Effects:
      • Wet/snowy grounds decrease the max speed of mounts and mount acceleration by 15%.
      • Active raining or snowing decreases the projectile speed of arrows and bolts by 20%, causing reduced damage and accuracy.
UI
  • Income/Expenses Tooltip
    • Income and expenses are now grouped and displayed in categories (Settlement, Workshop, Caravans, Garrison and Party, Tribute Payments,...).
    • For a more detailed view, you can still expand the tooltip by holding ALT.
    • Fixed a bug that caused the tooltip to expand beyond the visible screen.
Battles and Sieges

  • Introduced Formation Targeting.
    • The system allows players to target specific enemy formations with one or all of the allied formations.
    • Targeting is done by using the Charge or Engage orders. Simply look at the enemy formation’s sigil as you give either order.
    • Your troops will always prefer to attack the marked enemy over others under a target order as long as they can reach it.
    • To disable a target order, you can issue any attack or movement order. This includes Charge and Engage - if you don’t look at an enemy formation.
    • The order UI indicates the current targets of your formations.
    • The feature is only available in Singleplayer - but we intend to explore it for multiplayer in the future as well.
  • Reworked the Auto Battle Calculation system.
    • Mission and terrain types now provide bonuses or penalties for attackers and defenders.
    • For example, an attacking horse archer on flat terrain now has a large bonus but if you throw him into the forest that converts into a large penalty. Defending archers do great in a siege while attacking ones receive a penalty and so on.
    • Perks of the Army/Party leader that have a Captain effect now also give a bonus to all the troops under their command.
    • (more in official post, I truncated)
Clan and Party
  • The spouse can now get pregnant when traveling in the same party as the main hero (no longer requiring you to wait in a settlement).
Kingdoms and Diplomacy

  • Fiefless Kingdom Destruction
    • Kingdoms that lose all of their fiefs no longer linger around. Instead, they get destroyed.
    • The kingdom’s clans become independent, inheriting its diplomatic stances and relations. Over time, they can join available kingdoms or wither away if they fail to do so for more than four weeks.
    • Players can still persuade or kill enemy lords to the same end. However, they are no longer forced to choose between that, vying for peace or having to fend off an endless stream of attacks by an essentially defeated opponent.


Economy and Trade

  • Introduced Warehouses
    • This feature expands upon the existing workshop mechanics and seeks to provide you with a new trade gameplay loop - the ability to provide owned workshops with raw resources as well as the ability to collect processed goods from them.
    • Warehouses are storage units with limited stock capacity where you can stock any item. They’re accessible through the town menu.
    • Warehouse management can be done through the “Clan” screen under the “Others” tab. Here, you can determine whether a Workshop should use the inputs you manually provided and how many outputs it should store or sell directly on the market.


UI

Changes

  • Mouse scroll speed no longer depends on your resolution and framerate.
Combat
  • Reworked the Melee Combat AI
    • AI troops now fight less recklessly which, on average, increases the duration of combat. This was achieved by decreasing the attack frequency (especially when fighting multiple enemies), making the agents always block when within enemy strike range (when they are not attacking themselves), and through faster target reevaluation when hit by another enemy.
    • Agents now also detect the risk of becoming surrounded by multiple enemies and attempt to escape such situations.
    • Agents now preemptively raise their shields when moving towards enemy units that are preparing to shoot a projectile at them.
    • Improved Ranged AI and the Targeting System
      • Ranged agents no longer keep approaching the enemy during a Charge order. Instead, they get in range and open fire until the target itself gets close enough for melee.
      • Ranged agents also reposition if their view gets obstructed by a friendly troop or a tree.
      • The overall targeting system was refined to improve situations where AI agents would prioritize the player despite having more optimal targets near them. This benefits melee, ranged, and mounted troops.
      • Reduced the number of cases where agents tried to attack an enemy behind an obstacle.
      • Fixed a bug that caused horse archers to switch between melee and ranged weapons when given the “Engage” order with enemy formations far away.
    • Improved the Cavalry AI’s Aiming and Movement Systems
      • Agents now take into account their weapon’s reach when determining the attacking direction as well as try to attack the body part that would yield the most damage.
Alot more I skipped as well. bug fixes, and reworks, and mod notes.

 
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Randin

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Kingdoms and Diplomacy

  • Fiefless Kingdom Destruction
    • Kingdoms that lose all of their fiefs no longer linger around. Instead, they get destroyed.
    • The kingdom’s clans become independent, inheriting its diplomatic stances and relations. Over time, they can join available kingdoms or wither away if they fail to do so for more than four weeks.
    • Players can still persuade or kill enemy lords to the same end. However, they are no longer forced to choose between that, vying for peace or having to fend off an endless stream of attacks by an essentially defeated opponent.
Now that's a big one. Looks like I can dump one of my 'shit that needs fixing' mods next time I decide to play.
 

Tuco

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Caliane

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1.2.7 is LIVE.


this is like 7 months of Beta changes. beta had been updating, but live wasn't. This is weather, new maps, tons of new bandit camps(some of these are great), auto resolve rebalance, engi exp for seige weapons, just a ton of stuff all around.



I've not tried it yet, but I hear good things about banner kings mod. Adds factions, and lots of kingdom management stuff.
Banner Kings is a suite of features developed for Mount & Blade: Bannerlord. The modification focuses on adding depth to gameplay. This is done by expanding and adding layers of complexity to non-combat related features of the game. Inspiration for the mod systems is mostly drawn from games such as Crusader Kings.

Banner Kings is both a mod and a modding framework - it can be modded by other mods. Such mods can make ample use of its base systems such as Languages, BK Troop Spawn system, Titles, Books, Religions. The best example of an implementation of Banner Kings is Banner Kings: Cultures Expanded, the official lore interpretation and expansion by the BK team.

Links​

 
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Caliane

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damn, I had been playing 1.2.6 beta, and hadn't even noticed this.
Battles and Sieges

  • Introduced Formation Targeting.
    • The system allows players to target specific enemy formations with one or all of the allied formations.
    • Targeting is done by using the Charge or Engage orders. Simply look at the enemy formation’s sigil as you give either order.
    • Your troops will always prefer to attack the marked enemy over others under a target order as long as they can reach it.
    • To disable a target order, you can issue any attack or movement order. This includes Charge and Engage - if you don’t look at an enemy formation.
    • The order UI indicates the current targets of your formations.
    • The feature is only available in Singleplayer - but we intend to explore it for multiplayer in the future as well.
 

Randin

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Nice, I've been waiting for this one to go live before doing a second play through. The simple fact that kingdoms will now actually die off when they lose their land without needing a mod is a massive improvement to the game.

EDIT: Jesus Christ. Just took a look at the patch notes; I haven't looked at the full changes for the entire patch all lined up like that. I've read books shorter than those notes.
 
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Caliane

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edit: apparently still
No release date at this point.
 
Last edited:
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