Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[PulsatingBrain]

It will release on the same day as Bloodlines 2.

I'd actually be fine with that. I tend to play a story based game in parallel with some sort of sandbox game

 

[Spectacle]

It will release on the same day as Grimoire 2.

Fixed

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Dev Blog 11/04/19
11 Apr @ 9:54pm - Callum

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Sieges are at the very core of the Mount & Blade experience. They are brutal affairs, the outcome of which can change the entire course of a war. And in Bannerlord, where villages and their respective resources are tied to castles, this is especially true, as the loss of a castle could result in the loss of a vital resource which is needed to feed the war machine.

In a previous blog, we discussed siege engines and the role they play in the initial stage of Bannerlord’s epic sieges. Breaching the castle curtain and gaining a foothold on the inner defences is of the utmost importance, however, in some instances, this isn’t enough to claim a castle outright. The defenders may rally what is left of their forces and retreat to the relative safety of the keep to make their last stand. In this week’s blog, we will discuss what happens in this exact scenario by taking a look at the tail end of sieges; the final push to capture the keep and secure, kill, or drive out the last remaining defenders.

Keep battles present players with a different challenge from the standard field battles that make up the majority of Bannerlord’s engagements. Cavalry is of no use, and ranged units are somewhat limited in how effective they can be, especially for the attacking force. This severely limits the tactical options available to both sides, and instead, the focus is shifted almost entirely to the game’s skill-based directional combat system in a brutal hand-to-hand showdown. Because of this, we knew we had to think carefully about the design of keep battles, in terms of both gameplay and immersion.

Our solution was to look towards the design of the scene to help to control the flow of the engagement. The scene where the battle takes place is that of the actual castle keep itself, so if you want to do a bit of reconnaissance before engaging in hostilities, then you can explore the lord’s hall of your intended target before going to war. However, you might notice a few changes when the time comes to assault the keep! The defenders don’t retreat to the keep to sit and twiddle their thumbs. Instead, they are in there preparing their defence for the final assault.

To make these changes to the scene, we make use of the same feature of our map editor that allows us to create varying levels of walls and defence structures for towns and castles. This system enables us to make changes to the layout and design of a scene on separate layers, with the game loading the appropriate layer when the player enters the scene. For keep battles, this allows us to create more believable scenes for battles to take place in, with tables, chairs and barrels hurriedly arranged into defensive barricades and choke points by the defenders. We also adjust the spawn points for the defending side to ensure that their ranged units are positioned in vantage points overlooking the lord’s hall, (think the Red Wedding, but with more red and less wedding!).

One issue that we had to consider while designing keep battles was unit numbers. With limited space being the deciding factor at play, we opted to make use of respawn waves for both the attackers and defenders, rather than trying to cram too many units into the scene. We want the gameplay to be fun and enjoyable, and if there isn’t space to swing your sword then it just becomes a frustrating chore to clear a keep rather than an engaging experience. In other words, in this particular instance, bigger certainly isn’t better.

The significance of keep battles should not be underestimated. All of the hard work that precedes this final bout can be for naught if the keep holds firm and manages to withstand the assault from the attacking force, and in turn, break the siege.


In next week’s blog, we will be talking to a member of our campaign team, Gameplay Programmer, Rabia Adıgüzel. If you have any questions you would like to ask her, please leave a reply in the comments section and we will pick one out for her to answer.

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[PulsatingBrain]

Dev Blog 18/04/19
18 Apr @ 7:55pm - Callum

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord’s deep and immersive sandbox doesn’t just facilitate an emergent narrative, it actively encourages it. And while the game includes quests and tasks to help guide you on your travels, ultimately, you are free to chart your own course and plot your rise to power using the many different game features at your disposal. In this week’s blog, we talk with, Rabia Adıgüzel, one of our campaign team programmers who is responsible for ensuring that these different features and systems work together, and provide you with an engaging and fulfilling experience during your adventures in Calradia!


NAME
Rabia Adıgüzel

FROM
Bolu, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2017

EDUCATION
Computer Science, Hacettepe University

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Gameplay Programmer


WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“In the morning, I usually set a daily goal for myself according to my assigned tasks, like “I can finish this today!” or, in the case of major tasks, “I can make that much progress today!”. In general, I’m working on campaign-related stuff like town management, conversations, quests, character system, game menus, etc. But of course, we switch between tasks and help each other, both in our team and the other Bannerlord teams.

We have a short in-team meeting every day where we share information and updates with each other about what we are working on and the progress we have made. Sometimes I join design meetings about campaign-related issues. I also deal with the bugs that our QA team encountered during the day, which often involves a funny bug that I try to solve -- I don't know why, but they always come to me! :D”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“Not just about Bannerlord, but all of the Mount & Blade games; I really like that the game is the combination of different game types in a sandbox setting. Even if you start the game for the hundredth time, it always welcomes you with a different story.

There is more than one thing that I like in Bannerlord for sure. But I really like the little, tiny details that make a feature more powerful and intertwined with other features. For example, when you are in Khuzait territory, you see mounted bandits more often. This tiny detail supports the Khuzait cultural background and lore and is connected to the recruiting system. And another example; we already have quests and town management, but they are separate features as RPG and strategy elements. We implemented a tiny connector named “Issues”. When there is an “Issue” in a settlement, the settlement’s morale, food, prosperity, etc. decreases. If the player wants to solve this issue, he/she solves it with a quest. With this system, quests are not just an RPG element anymore and take on more of a strategic element.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“I think the most difficult thing that I dealt with is implementing the “Death” feature for the player. But, in all honesty, it was also very fun at the same time! I feel like a Shinigami when I arrange and calculate how and when people will die. I was ok for the NPCs, but for the player, when it came to switching to your heir, that situation generated too many bugs. So fixing those bugs was the difficult part but, *cheers*, thankfully they are all gone.

Another point to mention is that, and well, maybe it’s not the most difficult thing, but when we are developing the game we always have to think about modability. Including modding to the process makes development a little slower and harder, but when I think of all of the fantastic mods for Warband, it definitely makes it worth all of the effort!”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Currently, my main focus is the Save & Load system. We are switching to a better Save & Load system, which will be more flexible for updates, so the majority of my time is taken up by preparing the game for this switch.

In addition to this, I am also making improvements to the Death & Inheritance features.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“What I like doing the most on the battlefield is fighting with a two-handed sword on a fast, strong horse, that my enemies cannot catch. Although I’m not the best of players, I really enjoy this playstyle. And the faction that fits the best for my expectations is Battania!

I also feel like Battania is the most intertwined with nature. I mean, look at their kingdom banner, it’s a druid sign! :D

Furthermore, I like the way that they build their cities with a respect for nature.”

WILL THE CHARACTER AGE AND GET OLD SO THAT YOUR CHILDREN CAN TAKE OVER ONCE YOU'RE OLD AND DYING? DO YOU GET TO CHOOSE WHICH OFFSPRING YOU TAKE OVER AS?
“Yes! In Bannerlord, the player can die because of old age. At first, the player gets sick. Then the player’s hitpoints start to reduce daily. After a certain time, death occurs. During the decline of their health, the player can arrange his/her final wishes then, when the death occurs, the player selects an heir from one of his/her clan members that are suitable and mature. Then, the cycle continues. This process also applies by AI lords too.

Also, every mature hero can die on the battlefield (but this is optional for the player)."

WILL VILLAGES BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING ANY RESOURCE, OR ARE THEY DEPENDANT ON THE VILLAGE POTENTIAL?
“We have different types of production in the game, like different types of horses, fish, cheese, grain, etc. Villages can choose between a range of these village production types, but the distribution of these production types is based on the region of the village. For example, villages near the sea or a river can produce fish, but an Aserai village that is in the desert can not.”

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[Merlkir]

I feel like a Shinigami when I arrange and calculate how and when people will die.

 

[Obsequious Approbation]

Dev Blog 25/04/19

Spoiler

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Conducting trade runs between towns as a merchant has always been one of the most fun and profitable activities for players in our games. Bannerlord’s trade system improved on this aspect of the game in many ways, by displaying trade rumours on the inventory screen, tracking player profits, awarding trade XP accordingly to characters, etc. which makes playing as a merchant much more fun and rewarding. However, we still had the feeling that something was missing, so we decided to dedicate more care and attention into the economy and trade system.

We like making everything in the game connected to each other, however, trade and item prices felt like it was only there to make the game playable as a merchant (and to be honest, it kind of was). We had implemented a rather thorough production system where everything in the game, from food to weapons to cows and horses, were produced in villages or town workshops. This created an uneven distribution of different trade goods in the world, and consequently, there was sufficient price variation across the map. However, we had a rather simplistic system for the consumption of goods where each town consumed a certain percentage of all available items, regardless of scarcity. This, of course, was quite unrealistic. (When faced with a shortage, people don’t tend to politely reduce their consumption to a lower level, they rush to hunt for and grab the last item on the shelf, prying it from the hands of a nice old lady if needs be!). So, while the system was suitably connected to other mechanics, it was grossly unrealistic. We needed a new system!

For our new system, we started by creating a table outlining how much a typical town would spend on different categories of trade goods and items. For example, a town with a prosperity of 5000 will allocate, say, 500 denars to spend on grain, 400 denars to spend on meat and 200 denars to spend on butter each day. The town then uses the budget allocated to each category to purchase items of that category from the market and consume them. Moreover, every time an item is consumed, it will give a bonus to one of the town stats. Consuming food items, for example, will increase towns food stores, consuming tools will increase productivity, consuming cheaper weapons and armour will increase the number of militia, while more expensive arms will improve the garrison. This mechanism means that low prices are quite beneficial to the town’s development and consequently its lord since towns with cheaper goods can obtain much higher bonuses with their budgets.

This system nicely ties town stats and management to the price of goods, but it is also great for merchant gameplay as it allows us to gauge prices in a realistic way. Instead of the rather simplistic price model we used to have, we now have a rather detailed model that determines prices based on supply and demand for each category in a given town. Higher demand from town consumption, workshops requiring raw materials, etc., will increase demand and push prices up, whereas the availability of higher quantities of items will increase supply and deflate prices. As a trader, you will hopefully feel that prices behave realistically during peacetime, as well as, in response to actions such as wars, village raids and sieges.

During the development of the new trade system, an interesting point came up. As you probably know, in Warband, as in many other trading games, the price point changes every time you purchase an item from or sell an item to the market. This sometimes feels counter-intuitive since as soon as you purchase a desert horse for 100 denars, you see that the price jumps to 106 denars. And once you pay that for the second horse, the price now becomes 113 denars. You were perhaps expecting a discount for buying multiple items in one go, but instead, you got a price hike.

We considered whether we should keep using the same mechanic for Bannerlord, and in the end, we decided that this was actually entirely realistic and therefore opted to keep it. Think of this not as how the price of goods change in a single shop (with a particularly annoying shopkeeper!), but rather as prices of the same type of good in different shops across the town. One horse merchant may have a pack horse for sale for 106 denars, another could offer one for 113 denars, and yet another who perhaps needs cash urgently will let you buy his pack horse for a mere 100. Being a wise shopper, you, of course, choose the cheapest offer. However, if you want to purchase a second horse, you will now need to take the next best offer, and so on.

And that concludes this week’s blog. Thanks for reading and hope to see you next week!

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[LESS T_T]

The game will be publicly playable for the first time at Gamescom: https://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1602629624657105514

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week’s blog, we want to take a small step back from the game to tell you about our plans for this summer’s Gamescom, something that we’ve been asked about many times in the past few weeks. Yes, we will be attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this August (no surprise there, eh!).

However, there is one key difference in our attendance this year. For the first time ever, we will be making the game available for people to play in the public area of the show. This means that anyone with a ticket will be able to visit our booth and experience Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord for themselves!

As you can imagine, this is quite a huge deal for both us and (hopefully) our community. We want to be fully prepared for this momentous occasion and ensure that players get to enjoy the game in all its glory. That’s why we’ll be showing one of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord’s exciting multiplayer modes in our public booth.

For obvious reasons, play sessions in these events need to be time-limited in order to accommodate as many people as possible – and because of that, and because of the huge scope of the single-player mode, it would be impossible for visitors to experience even a glimpse of what the sandbox has to offer. However, multiplayer modes are more intense and concentrated, and allow you to experience first-hand the very core of the game: the combat system.

With that being said, we will still be taking along the singleplayer sandbox campaign which we will be showcasing in the business area of the show, so you can expect to see a wide range of screenshots and videos covering most aspects of the game around that time.

This is clearly a massive undertaking for us, so we are devoting most of our time and effort into ensuring that things go as smoothly as possible at Gamescom. Thankfully, all of the work being done on this front brings us ever closer to the release of the game, so it is time well spent! To prepare for this, we are currently running daily meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss the key features of the game which will be showcased at the event and in the multiplayer beta while providing our team with a clear and efficient way to communicate with each other and provide live feedback on the current state of the game.

But, why are we announcing this to you so early? Well, we have received quite a few messages from community members asking us if they would get to play the game if they were to attend this year. We are well aware that it can be quite difficult to make arrangements to come to an event like this, both in terms of time and money, so we wanted to give you all a heads up well in advance so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not to attend.

We will talk a little more about what to expect from us at Gamescom in a future blog, as well as, discussing our plans for the upcoming beta. But for now, thanks for taking the time to read this short update!

 

[Aemar]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

 

[Modron]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Hopefully this will tide you over until then

 

[Catacombs]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Literally no half measures.

 

[Aemar]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Hopefully this will tide you over until then

 

[vota DC]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

I wonder did the bri...I mean the "funding" for the release require that they put Ergodan in the game?

 

[FreeKaner]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

"Noble" in Turkish is "ayan". "Sanjakbeyi" is bannerlord, which is more like "knight".

 

[Vincente]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

"Noble" in Turkish is "ayan". "Sanjakbeyi" is bannerlord, which is more like "knight".

Shouldn't ''governor'' be a better term for ''Sanjakbeyi'', than ''knight''?

 

[FreeKaner]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

"Noble" in Turkish is "ayan". "Sanjakbeyi" is bannerlord, which is more like "knight".

Shouldn't ''governor'' be a better term for ''Sanjakbeyi'', than ''knight''?

Not exactly, sanjakbey were themselves cavalrymen and raised troops, other landed cavalrymen were united under the banner when going to war. Beylerbeyi could be governor-general. Vali is probably closest thing to governor.

 

[Quillon]

sanjakbeyi sounds like liege lord

 

[Vincente]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Erdogan has already it.
Now nobles (in turkish the word is sanjak--->bannerlord) will have it in gamescom.
Next will be plebs.

"Noble" in Turkish is "ayan". "Sanjakbeyi" is bannerlord, which is more like "knight".

Shouldn't ''governor'' be a better term for ''Sanjakbeyi'', than ''knight''?

Not exactly, sanjakbey were themselves cavalrymen and raised troops, other landed cavalrymen were united under the banner when going to war. Beylerbeyi could be governor-general. Vali is probably closest thing to governor.

I'm sure sanjaks were given to nobility, especially sons of the sultan and other beys, until XVI. century?

 

[FreeKaner]

I'm sure sanjaks were given to nobility, especially sons of the sultan and other beys, until XVI. century?

Not really, "nobility" in the way of Europe did not exist in Ottoman Empire, that is there was no aristocracy. "Nobility" existed in the way of "notables", although "nobility" also means that it took a different meaning in English.

The primary administrative division was an eyalet, secondary administrative division was a Sanjak. Sanjaks were numerous and specific Sanjaks were given to some of the particular people in the top of the hierarchy, including Beylerbeyi of Rumelia and Beylerbeyi of Anatolia (I.E the governor-generals of the two core eyalets) but overall there were a lot of them. Sanjaks were given to chief amongst the cavalrymen and timars were made of landed cavalrymen in general, timar holders were gathered around their sanjaks during war.

There existed a ruling class in Ottoman Empire but it was institutional and their property defaulted to the state on their death, although by convention the positions could be taken by sons or sons-in-law it wasn't a guarantee. There were also a bureaucratic and scholarly class, often overlapping. There wasn't aristocracy and nobility in European sense. In the sense of European nobility, closest thing is an "Ayan", that is, notables from important families who were rich or important one way or another. Usually educated and well-connected. They sometimes did became governors but those were vali.

Of course it depends on time period and throughout 17th century the timars were phased out and the Sanjakbey became more like officers responsible for raising troops rather than being cavalrymen that other landed cavalry gathered around. However people generally know the "classic" Ottoman organisation through Mehmed the Conqueror and Suleiman the Magnificent. Sanjaks were also present in other Anatolian Turkish tribes and confederations before Ottomans.

I think you are mostly thinking perhaps of 19th century, when Sanjak was just an administrative division. Attended by a governor, but at this time they weren't really called "Sanjakbeyi", bey became just a general honorific.

In either case, in medieval and "classic" Ottoman era, sanjakbeys were first and foremost militarymen and the most apt comparison to knights in Europe. Although the distinction remains that they didn't own the land or the people in it.

 

[Nutria]

Just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, after reforms in the late 1800s the sanjaks were a lot bigger than in medieval times and basically just shared the same name, but were a different idea?

 

[FreeKaner]

Just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, after reforms in the late 1800s the sanjaks were a lot bigger than in medieval times and basically just shared the same name, but were a different idea?

They weren't different idea per se, they just lost their military organisation purpose and only retained their character as administrative divisions. Smaller sanjaks were also just incorporated into bigger ones as they were no longer necessary.

Here is what a bannerlord was in its original form:

Like other early Ottoman administrative offices, the sanjak-bey had a military origin: the term sanjak means "flag" or "standard" and denoted the insigne around which, in times of war, the cavalrymen holding fiefs (timars or ziamets) in the specific district gathered. The sanjkabey was in turn subordinate to a beylerbey ("Bey of Beys") who governed an eyalet and commanded his subordinate sanjak-beys in war. In this way, the structure of command on the battlefield resembled the hierarchy of provincial government.

[...] Sanjak governors also had other duties, for example, the pursuit of bandits, the investigation of heretics, the provision of supplies for the army, or the despatch of materials for shipbuilding, as the sultan commanded.

It was a military and paramilitary post.

What it came to be was, simply, an office of governship where the governor was no longer a military figure. The term sanjakbeyi, I.E bannerlord, was no longer in use by then.

 

[Zanzoken]

Meaning the ETA will be at least one year from now. This game will be either a complete disappointment or another total success just like Warband, no middle ground here.

Actually I think a neutral-positive response is the most likely outcome. What we will get is a slightly improved version of Warband with better graphics, better combat animations, and a few other minor cosmetic or mechanical upgrades. Most of the dumb filler they are advertising in these dev blogs will go unused and/or unnoticed.

People will say things like "it took 10 years to make THIS??" and they'll be right, but the game will still be pretty fun, so at the end of the day no one will be too upset by it.

 

[FreeKaner]

Yeah anyone expecting something mindblowing just because it took 10 years to make is delusional. It will just be a refined version of the warband formula, possibly with better multiplayer support. That is about it. I mean I'll play it because there is nothing like it in the market for purposes of being a warlord but it is obvious what is going to be the final product.

 

[Catacombs]

Yeah anyone expecting something mindblowing just because it took 10 years to make is delusional. It will just be a refined version of the warband formula, possibly with better multiplayer support. That is about it. I mean I'll play it because there is nothing like it in the market for purposes of being a warlord but it is obvious what is going to be the final product.

The 10 years part is what is so stupid about this whole thing. Grimoire took 20 years, built by one person. There's an entire team behind this game.

When Bannerlord comes out, it has to be most polished, bug-free game to ever be released on steam.

 

[Vincente]

The 10 years part is what is so stupid about this whole thing.

Turns out if you don't have deadlines, you keep adding and taking stuff out. Shall we call it the Troika Syndrome?