Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

BrotherWu

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I've read that they have like 80-100 people now.

My issue, as you said, is that they half-ass everything that they do and they don't prioritize core gameplay and basic engine issues. They're also ridiculously slow and markedly unambitious in feature development- constantly tinkering with piddly shit and fucking things up in the process. 15 months into EA and fucking troops still can't climb siege towers and UI menus lag for a lot of people. Modders are running laps around them.

Fag banners. 2-day marriage courting. No unique companions. Half-assed and out-of-place smithing. No feasts. No intrigue. Very little diplomacy.

I commend the art teams for the scenes and models. They're pretty good. Riding around and killing shit is also pretty good. I can't think of anything else I would call good.

Also they inadvertently released some elephant DLC models which caused an uproar. That was pretty funny.
 

Tuco

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The elephants in modded warband were hilarious. They were tanks that you could either whittle down or do a perfectly timed horse jump attack.
 

Octave

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Apparently, there's a popular MMO mod for bannerlord now.

From the twitch streams, it looks like it's a water pouring simulator with some rare combat.

Still, it seems to be more complete and less janky that I'd expect for something like this. It's also super unique as a concept somehow.
 

BrotherWu

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Apparently, there's a popular MMO mod for bannerlord now.

From the twitch streams, it looks like it's a water pouring simulator with some rare combat.

Still, it seems to be more complete and less janky that I'd expect for something like this. It's also super unique as a concept somehow.
The water carrying phase doesn't last long. You just have to build up some cash to get a party going.

They just had a pretty big update. The funny part is Taleworlds said it couldn't be done. Once again modders are running circles around them.
 

Octave

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The water carrying phase doesn't last long. You just have to build up some cash to get a party going.

They just had a pretty big update. The funny part is Taleworlds said it couldn't be done. Once again modders are running circles around them.
I think Taleworlds' problem is that they decided to make their own new custom engine. It's hard and they don't seem to be particularly good at it. So they're spending the majority of their time focused on things that aren't gameplay.

Of course they'll reject speculative online mode. It's not their bread and butter and they're in over their head as it is.

It's surprising we haven't seen many mount and blade style clones. "Sands of Salzaar" comes the closest but it's awful.

Kenshi maybe? But what is Kenshi? Kenshi is Kenshi, I guess.

Anyway, the genre could use some new blood.
 
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Rease

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I think Taleworlds' problem is that they decided to make their own new custom engine. It's hard and they don't seem to be particularly good at it. So they're spending the majority of their time focused on things that aren't gameplay.

Of course they'll reject speculative online mode. It's not their bread and butter and they're in over their head as it is.

It's surprising we haven't seen many mount and blade style clones. "Sands of Salzaar" comes the closest but it's awful.

Kenshi maybe? But what is Kenshi? Kenshi is Kenshi, I guess.

Anyway, the genre could use some new blood.
100% we need new blood. It seems like a no brainer.
Taleworlds had some good faith built up but they dropped the ball and didn't seem to learn anything from their first game imho. I mean without modders neither would have lasted as long as they did/will. It seems their shot callers just never graduated past the holy shit we struck gold by throwing darts at the wall.
 

Kalaar kururuc

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Prophecy of Pendor Bannerlord when?

looked up just that myself today, consensus reckons a year plus from early access, but it's all just guesses. I played the hell out of Pendor but not digging MB2 so far (although it's been a while and there have been loads of patches)
 
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BrotherWu

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Those fuckers are so inept and slow it is hard to say when it might exit EA. They have been giving more attention to modding lately so there is that.
 

BrotherWu

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1.7.0 update is out and it is a big one. New battle terrain system, order of battle system, fixed sieges, lots of other stuff.

 

Caliane

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1.7.0 beta, 1.6.5 live.

but, oh damn. people have been wondering where the Dec update was. I was hoping it was due to it being the big one.


Even 1.6.5 has alot of great subtle quality of life, etc. stuff. alot of people sleep on the stuff that is not super flashy.


Changes
  • A 15 days cooldown was added for tournaments in the same city.
  • Regular tournament prize values are scaled according to the number of nobles that participated in the tournament.

UI
Changes

  • Party role assignment improvements:
    • All roles and members are now shown separately.
    • The automatic assignment of party leaders to open roles within their party is now reflected in the UI.
  • The stack amount is now shown while crafting javelins in the crafting screen.
  • Added world map notifications that trigger when the player loses a trait.
  • Added pregnant icons to the encyclopedia and the clan page.
  • Hovering over names in conversations now opens a tooltip that includes the character's relation score with the player.
  • Added available quest names to character tooltips.

Battles and Sieges
  • Added troop selection to keep battles.
  • Fixed a bug that caused siege defenders to go to an incorrect defending position to meet the attacking ladders/towers in scenes with multiple offensive climbing spots.
  • AI units no longer stop using siege machines when they receive damage.
Kingdoms and Diplomacy
  • Players can now create a kingdom through dialogue with governors.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)
  • Tournament Changes:
    • Tournaments are now auto-simulated after 15 days without player interaction.
    • The tournament winner will receive an elite reward (a reward that costs 5000 denars) if there are 4 or more nobles in the tournament (player included). The value of the reward scales with the number of nobles that participate in the tournament. If there are less than 4 nobles in the tournament, the winner will receive a random regular reward which costs between 1600 and 5000 denars.
    • If the winner is the player character or a clan member who is in the main party, the tournament prize will appear in the player's inventory. Otherwise, the value of the prize in denars will be given to the winner's clan.
    • Non-hero troop distribution has been changed to around 40% Tier 3 troops, 40% Tier 4 troops and 20% Tier 5 troops in both tournaments and practice fights. If there aren’t enough troops to hold this condition in the garrison, the remaining slots are filled with random Tier 3-5 troops.
Conversations & Encounters
  • Added additional lines for surrender demands and comments from NPCs that had participated in tournaments with the player.
Other
  • Ira is now shorter and has a slightly smaller build.

Combat
  • Increased the tendency of cavalry agents to couch lance.


Just some of the good changes in 1.6.5 itself. nevermind bug fixes.
 

Bandwagon

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I've never given this game a second look, but I watched some 20 minute long youtube video last night and now I'm pretty intrigued.

Do you have to micromanage to be able to win battles, or can I just control+A --> Attack move into the middle of a mob of baddies?
 

Blazin

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I've never given this game a second look, but I watched some 20 minute long youtube video last night and now I'm pretty intrigued.

Do you have to micromanage to be able to win battles, or can I just control+A --> Attack move into the middle of a mob of baddies?

You don't need to micromanage but it helps to have some strategy with how you use your archers/calv/inf . You could also just auto resolve fights and focus on tactics skill if you don't like doing the battles.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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You don't need to micromanage but it helps to have some strategy with how you use your archers/calv/inf . You could also just auto resolve fights and focus on tactics skill if you don't like doing the battles.
With this kind of stuff, I really just like building up the army and then watching the battle play out. I'm the laziest gamer on the planet.
 

Blazin

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With this kind of stuff, I really just like building up the army and then watching the battle play out. I'm the laziest gamer on the planet.

Lazy or impatient? You can definitely "general" the fight from the back line on horse back. For me the more frustrating issue with the game is the transition from the start to running your own kingdom can be pretty frustrating. I focus solely on blacksmith early on until I'm swimming in money then run around with 100 person army until you get bored of fighting looters and minor factions. Then join a faction as a vassal won't take long until you are given a fief. Then need to spend a good bit of time building it up , keeping garrison stacked so you don't lose it.

Play empire because you are then most likely to get a fief of your culture because if it isn't it can be near impossible to not get caught in a loyalty, food, prosperity death spiral.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Lazy or impatient? You can definitely "general" the fight from the back line on horse back. For me the more frustrating issue with the game is the transition from the start to running your own kingdom can be pretty frustrating. I focus solely on blacksmith early on until I'm swimming in money then run around with 100 person army until you get bored of fighting looters and minor factions. Then join a faction as a vassal won't take long until you are given a fief. Then need to spend a good bit of time building it up , keeping garrison stacked so you don't lose it.

Play empire because you are then most likely to get a fief of your culture because if it isn't it can be near impossible to not get caught in a loyalty, food, prosperity death spiral.
Maybe a little bit of both I guess? Based on what I saw in the video yesterday, it looks like you can build up your economy, recruit solders, gear them up, put them into squads and formations, etc. I'd spend a lot of time doing that, with the pay-off being watching them fight another army and seeing how well they do and what the strengths/weaknesses are.

If that's doable, I'll probably pick this game up. If I have to micro-manage my squads to make them use stimpaks, statis fields or force flanking maneuvers, I'd probably end up uninstalling after the first battle.

Warhammer was a disappointment to me for this reason.
 

Blazin

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Maybe a little bit of both I guess? Based on what I saw in the video yesterday, it looks like you can build up your economy, recruit solders, gear them up, put them into squads and formations, etc. I'd spend a lot of time doing that, with the pay-off being watching them fight another army and seeing how well they do and what the strengths/weaknesses are.

If that's doable, I'll probably pick this game up. If I have to micro-manage my squads to make them use stimpaks, statis fields or force flanking maneuvers, I'd probably end up uninstalling after the first battle.

Warhammer was a disappointment to me for this reason.
At the start of a fight you have some control on how your troops are grouped mostly by type. You then place them where you want them. You could simply tell them to "advance" at the start and they would move towards enemy. It tends to be better to occasionally position them. IE the entire group. They will fight without your input. If you just start a battle and send the charge command they will just run at the enemy and fight. The results will largely be based on the tier quality of the troops and numerical advantages/disadvantages. It's hard to say if it would be worth it to you. Watch some videos specifically showing battles.

This game is two games in one, the map strategy/rpg and the action battle game. It's a little grindy so you'll have to enjoy those basic gameplay elements to enjoy the game as it's a lot of doing the same things
 
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