Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[AwesomeButton]

From reading around and doing some basic testing myself:

So the game really does not need anywhere near 8 gigs of RAM to run well (like 4 gigs for the application seems to be enough), it just reserves (or something) too much RAM and may even keep on increasing the reserved amount over time (or maybe it does have a leak additionally).
Once that reaches the limits (or near enough) of your amount of RAM, Windows starts fucking around with the page file.
If you have an HDD it may be preferred over any SSD regardless of page file settings (?) and then you get that thing with massive HDD activity and everything coming to a halt.
If only SSDs are present, then maybe their speed can mitigate the performance issues resulting from this, not sure.
If only HDDs are present, then you're completely fucked.
If you have a mixture, then unplug your HDD and see if that fixes the problem (if you have the relevant stuff on the SSD).

Either way mostly a developer issue, it seems, coupled with certain Windows behavior (although I'm not sure if that part can be fixed with some tweaks of the settings).

This game should be CPU bound in single player due to the A.I. even on relatively old systems, and their CPU requirements do seem to reflect that.

Should run like a dream (big sieges with intense A.I. stuff aside) once they finally fix this. Just disappointing to see such a big issue after such a long dev time.

One thing that should absolutely NOT be necessary is buying more than 8 gigs of RAM, at least not for this game... Even if 16 is a better baseline for win 10 users.
You also should not actually need an SSD at all (unless you want the faster loading times). 8 gigs of RAM and an HDD can run this fine if the bug is fixed, I think.

Wow man, wish I had read that earlier, I followed the advice of some very knowledgeable people here and stocked up on 32 GB DDR3 for my 6 y.o. motherboard.

Spoiler

 

[vonAchdorf]

I think it's only about executions.

And probably ageing - if that's already in.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I notice that Windows considers my HDD "Disk 0" and my SSD "Disk 1" in Task Manager, and then in Disk Management. I assume that's why the game is trying to cache stuff on the HDD, because why not be that stupid.

If you have an HDD it may be preferred over any SSD regardless of page file settings (?) and then you get that thing with massive HDD activity and everything coming to a halt.

Yeah... never underestimate stupidity folks.

 

[Van-d-all]

Does "Eneble death" even work? I mean, has anyone seen a character die in battle? I don't think I did and I'm over 50h in...

I think it's only about executions.

And AI doesn't execute, if modders are to be believed.

 

[Obsequious Approbation]

I think it's only about executions.

And probably ageing - if that's already in.

My character aged 1 year after 80 days or so. It is a mystery.

But I saw in the main map notifications that kids are apparently born to NPC's. Better kill them fast: maybe in 1440 days they'll be all grown up and leading armies at ya.

 

[AwesomeButton]

PC Gamer:

There's something appealing about almost being an NPC, but in this case you're an NPC that still has agency.

 

[Black Angel]

Do you allow yourself to get captured?

I don't think he would allow himself to get buttraped.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Wow man, wish I had read that earlier, I followed the advice of some very knowledgeable people here and stocked up on 32 GB DDR3 for my 6 y.o. motherboard.

Spoiler

Heh. Going through the steam forums (yeah, yeah, I know) and everywhere else the amount of "You need more RAM pleb" and "upgrade your toaster, your graphics card is from 2018 lol" -style comments is just crazy.

 

[Lemming42]

Oh my fucking GOD there's no way to recover the Dragon Banner after you give it away. I gave it to that dickhead Lucon on a whim and now I've decided he's a prick and I'd rather found my own utopian kingdom (Calradian Space Program guaranteed by 1100 AD with me in charge). But I can't do shit because I don't have the banner. I have the correct clan level but I can't find a way to start my kingdom.

Why can't I just ride up to a castle, beat the shit out of everyone inside, and declare myself its new ruler, as in M&B/Warband? Because I don't have the Dickhead Banner? Looks like my choices are either join Lucon or start a new game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Do you allow yourself to get captured?

I don't think he would allow himself to get buttraped.

I prefer those who weren't captured.

 

[Dakka]

I'm not into that kinky shit either, but you do you.

 

[deuxhero]

too bad Sturgians are more Rus inspired than Norse

It's because the nords haven't arrived yet.

Just checked, there is actually a nord culture in the game files, just not implemented. I suppose they are the "sea raiders" we see around the game? Anywa, they have random names and everything, so I was able to mod companions with this culture. Not sure if it would bug anything down the line(will not try to make any of these companions lords or anything, they don't have troop trees and such I think).

There is also a "Darshi" culture which is supposed to be off-map and inspired by Ethiopia. There is an unimplemented NPC hero companion who is supposed to be a monk from this culture.

Nord culture is implemented, it's just one of the handful of cultures that's (currently?) exclusive to a single minor clan. You can see this in the encyclopedia. What the culture actually does for a minor clan, I've got no idea.

 

[Black Angel]

Do you allow yourself to get captured?

I don't think he would allow himself to get buttraped.

I prefer those who weren't captured.

So you mean you prefer those who were sedated?

I'm not into that kinky shit either, but you do you.

What about getting them to drink from your skull? Kinky enough for you?

 

[deuxhero]

I've got to say, one change I really like but haven't seen a lot of people mention is the HP values that are all ~100. This allows for easily estimating how much damage your attacks are doing to the enemy.

 

[Hellion]

New patch is out, 500+ kb.


Versions
Native: e1.0.0
SandboxCore: e1.0.7
Sandbox: e1.0.7
Storymode: e1.0.7
CustomBattle: e1.0.7

Spoiler

Multiplayer Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred while entering a multiplayer game.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that happened when parsing a player's nickname for the death card.

Singleplayer Crashes

• Fixed a crash relating to the player’s party failing to disband after the player was caught trying to sneak into a settlement.
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the player laid siege to a settlement and the owner defected to an allied/neutral kingdom.
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when the player pressed the “Exit to Main Menu” button.
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes happened upon the completion of the “Weaken/Unify Empire” quest.
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when leaving a scene after activating the “Overpriced Raw Materials” quest.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when leaving a scene after choosing to solve a quest with the lord solution.

Character Development System

• Rebalanced two trade perks that increased the selling price of items by 5%. They now reduce trade penalties by 5% instead.
  
• Balanced combat experience gain for tournaments and practice fights.

Battles and Sieges

• Plunderable gold from each lord after a battle is capped to 10K.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

• Clans that own a settlement will no longer be able to join a kingdom as a mercenary.
  
• Reduced the drop rate of horses as loot by 65%.
  
• Lords with an excess of 100k denars now act as if they have 100k when purchasing horses for their party.
  
• Fixed the bug where individual lords or armies would keep attacking the player after agreeing on a safe passage or a peace barter.

Clan and Party

• Fixed a bug which caused only Sturgian companions to be spawned and hireable in taverns.

Quests & Issues

• Fixed a rare bug in the main storyline conspiracy phase.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

• Tournament maximum bet amount is reduced to 150 from 300 and odds for the player are now reducing after each tournament win. Max odds are increased to 3 from 2.
• Tournament prizes pool now includes all items (weapons, armour, and horses only) which have a value between 250-2000 (average 500).

Other

• Khuzait Heavy Lancers skills are recalibrated to their initial level.

 

[ArchAngel]

New patch is out, 500+ kb.


Versions
Native: e1.0.0
SandboxCore: e1.0.7
Sandbox: e1.0.7
Storymode: e1.0.7
CustomBattle: e1.0.7

Spoiler

Multiplayer Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred while entering a multiplayer game.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that happened when parsing a player's nickname for the death card.

Singleplayer Crashes

• Fixed a crash relating to the player’s party failing to disband after the player was caught trying to sneak into a settlement.
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the player laid siege to a settlement and the owner defected to an allied/neutral kingdom.
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when the player pressed the “Exit to Main Menu” button.
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes happened upon the completion of the “Weaken/Unify Empire” quest.
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when leaving a scene after activating the “Overpriced Raw Materials” quest.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when leaving a scene after choosing to solve a quest with the lord solution.

Character Development System

• Rebalanced two trade perks that increased the selling price of items by 5%. They now reduce trade penalties by 5% instead.
  
• Balanced combat experience gain for tournaments and practice fights.

Battles and Sieges

• Plunderable gold from each lord after a battle is capped to 10K.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

• Clans that own a settlement will no longer be able to join a kingdom as a mercenary.
  
• Reduced the drop rate of horses as loot by 65%.
  
• Lords with an excess of 100k denars now act as if they have 100k when purchasing horses for their party.
  
• Fixed the bug where individual lords or armies would keep attacking the player after agreeing on a safe passage or a peace barter.

Clan and Party

• Fixed a bug which caused only Sturgian companions to be spawned and hireable in taverns.

Quests & Issues

• Fixed a rare bug in the main storyline conspiracy phase.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

• Tournament maximum bet amount is reduced to 150 from 300 and odds for the player are now reducing after each tournament win. Max odds are increased to 3 from 2.
• Tournament prizes pool now includes all items (weapons, armour, and horses only) which have a value between 250-2000 (average 500).

Other

• Khuzait Heavy Lancers skills are recalibrated to their initial level.

Uh oh, seems devs don't like players running around with 1+ million gold :D

 

[Dakka]

What about getting them to drink from your skull? Kinky enough for you?

Take me for a casual, do you?

 

[ArchAngel]

I wonder if it possible to execute all lords or if new ones spawn as you murder them.

 

[Black Angel]

What about getting them to drink from your skull? Kinky enough for you?

Take me for a casual, do you?

So, getting wet for harvesting seasons, is it?

 

[Dakka]

So, getting wet for harvesting seasons, is it?

You know it.

 

[AwesomeButton]

So you mean you prefer those who were sedated?


What about getting them to drink from your skull? Kinky enough for you?

 

[vonAchdorf]

The fief distribution system is argh - the enemy captures my castle, I conquer it back and who gets it? Some rando who was not involved. I didn't even see a voting.

 

[Alienman]

Wondering one thing, just to make it clear. You can't upgrade or build anything in a village right? Just so I'm not missing anything here.

----------

Another thing, I have to say I really enjoy the field AI. How the battles goes back and forth, and that it does not become the all out death mosspit in the middle a la Warband.

Had a really cool battle (which I lost) where the archers and horse archers skirmished for a really long time, there was also small infantry engagements before the real one. It felt so fugging good, like playing Total War against a fairly competent player but with boots on the ground. Here is a picture from that battle:

Spoiler

Yeah, just a tip for some that might not know. But "ADVANCE" order is 10 times better than "CHARGE". Infantry remain in formation and don't scatter. Archers will skirmish, they will approach the enemy and automatically pull back when getting too close. Same for horse archers. Not sure what it does for regular cav though.

 

[AwesomeButton]

If you have a mixture, then unplug your HDD and see if that fixes the problem (if you have the relevant stuff on the SSD).

This was the first thing I tried, but when I disconnected the HDD I wasn't able to set any kind of swap file on the SSD, and the game was crashing because there was no paging file. Then I reconnected my HDD again and didn't research it any more.

Now I gave it another try and it turned out I wasn't able to set a paging file size on the SSD because it needed errors repaired. I actually had to run ScanDisk on the SSD before I was able to set a paging file on it.

Now I can finally play normally, by disconnecting my HDD so the game doesn't use it for memory paging. The game is much better when it runs smoothly.

What you read about the game just reserving space and filling up indefinetly, was apparently correct. I played for 70 minutes with an SSD swap file of min 4 - max 8 GB from the SSD, and I never had a crash.

 

[Zanzoken]

Does "Eneble death" even work? I mean, has anyone seen a character die in battle? I don't think I did and I'm over 50h in...

I think it's only about executions.

Well you can still execute people even if Enable Death is disabled, and I believe the tool tip specifically says that it allows heroes to die in battle. I've had the same experience as you though -- it's enabled for my current run but after dozens of battles I still have yet to see a lord be killed. So pretty sure it's bugged / not implemented yet.

Also if the game is aiming to achieve CK2 style gameplay that takes place over generations, they need to add more women and more robust marriage / childbirth mechanics. It seems like each kingdom only has 4 or 5 eligible bachelorettes, which is not enough for all the male lords to marry and replace themselves if they are killed. Contrast that with Warband where I'm pretty sure every lord had at least one daughter or sister that could be married off.