Game News Mount & Blade's Long Strange Trip is Over

[Jason]

Tags: Mount & Blade

Medieval action/not-really-an-RPG title <b><a href="http://www.paradoxplaza.com/Mount&Blade/">Mount & Blade</a></b> has shipped out to stores and is now available on <a href="http://www.gamersgate.com/?page=product&what=view&sku=DD-TWMB">Gamers Gate</a>.
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<blockquote>New York - Sept. 16, 2008 - Paradox Interactive today confirmed that after several years of development, Mount & Blade, the widely-acclaimed action-RPG title for the PC, has successfully mounted North American store shelves. Mount & Blade will be available in European stores on Friday, Sep. 19th.
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"The launch of Mount & Blade is almost a bittersweet milestone for us," said Armagan Yavuz, Lead Developer, TaleWorlds Entertainment.
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"While we're sad to see our work of passion come to a close, we're thrilled with the end product, and we know that Mount & Blade will redefine the standards of independent game development."</blockquote>
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And stay tuned to find out the oh so lucky winners of our <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=174">Mount & Blade MS Paint Competition</a>.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I didn't follow the beta really. Did they ever insert an actual storyline into the game or is pretty much just a combat simulator still?

 

[chiefnewo]

I didn't follow the beta really. Did they ever insert an actual storyline into the game or is pretty much just a combat simulator still?

I'd like to know that too, actually. I played a relatively recent beta and while you could do quests and ally with lords and whatnot I don't recall any story reason to do so.

 

[The Dude]

It's pretty much a Pirates! rip off as far as stuff to do outside combat is concerned (though maybe with less elaborate quests and with a more active world). While the war system, the improved trading system and quests that came about in somewhat recent versions added quite a lot compared to the bare bones that were there prior to those additions, it still isn't a game for you if you want any main story what so ever. For me this isn't a problem per se, but I'd still wish there were more to do outside of combat since there's just so much potential simulationist world goodness to be had. Maybe that's just beta burnout though, I dunno. I'll still probably spend more time playing vanilla 1.0 compared to most so called "AAA" games, and when some of the better mods get ported I might have a hard time playing something else.

 

[aron searle]

So what is it, is it GTA on horseback?

 

[The Dude]

Pirates! on horseback.

 

[Romitch]

I enjoyed the beta when I tried it a while back (don't remember which version). How is Gamers Gate btw? I understand they use securom but I'm not sure if it works the same as the securom used in retail games (obviously without the cd checking part). Securom's never caused any problems for me, so I don't see it as a dealbreaker even if it is in both the boxed and digital versions of the game, but I like to know what I'm getting if I buy the game...

 

[-Garrett-]

Unless something has changed, GamersGate is simply selling regular license keys; you can also get one from TaleWorlds' own eSellerate store. The retail release is simply the downloadable installer on a CD (along with printed versions of the map and manual). Any of these methods will get you a license key which can be used with any installer for any version of the game. You can also purchase Mount&Blade through Direct2Drive, but I don't know if that gives you a normal license key or has the same copy protection. Direct2Drive titles tend to be incompatible with patches and so forth so that might not be the best option in the long run.

Mount&Blade uses Oreans' Themida authentication system; just like SecuROM you have to activate it online, but unlike SecuROM you have an unlimited number of activations (although you can only activate it on two hardware configurations within any 60-day period). After activating the activation information is stored in the registry; the game never "phones home" after the activation process is complete, and you can uninstall/reinstall and even have multiple copies installed without breaking the activation. You will only need to reactivate if you make substantial hardware changes; I replaced my motherboard without having to reactivate, so it's fairly flexible.

 

[Nedrah]

I like the DRM. It never got in my way, on the contrary, it actually makes reinstalling the game completely painless. Too bad that it, right up there with the intusive, pain-in-the-ass methods of DRM, doesn't work. As for the game itself.. well, M&B Native has never been where it's at. Content comes through mods.

 

[MisterStone]

This release is pissing me off, yo! I paid for this game a couple of years ago during beta development, but I can't legitimately download 1.0 yet. And yet people can buy keys and download full copies from gamersgate right now for 30 bucks. I feel betrayed, like many of the old skool beta development supporters... of course, we will all forget about this once we have the game at hand and are playing it.

 

[Nedrah]

of course, we will all forget about this once we have the game at hand and are playing it.

Not sure about that. I think they're making a mistake.

 

[Balor]

This release is pissing me off, yo! I paid for this game a couple of years ago during beta development, but I can't legitimately download 1.0 yet. And yet people can buy keys and download full copies from gamersgate right now for 30 bucks. I feel betrayed, like many of the old skool beta development supporters... of course, we will all forget about this once we have the game at hand and are playing it.

Well, I've got the full version from the ftp, used my age-old serial I've got personally from Armagan (hah!), and everything is fine... unfortunately I don't have time to play at all, though.

 

[Dementia Praecox]

What a shitty release.

Armagan hasn't posted anything on the boards yet. Even the mainpage isn't updated.Those mocap money would've been better spent on a PR-advisor.

 

[Oarfish]

Meh, it really is nothing but a bit of graphical and animation polish over 9.6 as far as I can see. Hopefully the last days might actually ship sometime soon so there's a game to play with the engine.

 

[-Garrett-]

Meh, it really is nothing but a bit of graphical and animation polish over 9.6 as far as I can see.

One of the most significant changes is that sieges on the world map now work as intended; parties now jump into a siege battle immediately (instead of waiting outside for days going "siege, siege, s--OH LOOK, A CARAVAN!" and usually losing interest); while this might sound simple on the surface, what it means is that fiefs can change hands rapidly without any player intervention. In my first game the Nords were fighting three factions and had lost several fiefs within the first couple of weeks without me doing anything, which is impossible in 0.9xx. Marshalled armies can now sweep across the map, capturing several fiefs in a single campaign, and making a palpable impact on the enemy.

I haven't been able to play all that much at the moment, but from what I've seen it's now quite possible for a faction to fall naturally even if the player is in it. It's great to have a "living" game world where meaningful events can and will occur without the player's involvement.

 

[Oarfish]

I hadn't noticed that I guess I'll try playing it without looking for giant unicorns and spaceships. Not seen any new content at all yet though.

 

[Fez]

I'm guessing everyone has been downloading the press release version?

This release seems to have been a big anti-climax though. What is Armagan thinking?

 

[The Dude]

He's always been pretty low key, at least the last year or two. It's deffo a bit strange that he hasn't even made some comment about the game's release though. Maybe he's finally taking a real vacation? Who knows...

 

[HardCode]

I doubt he'd be on vacation during the retail release. He would have to be on hand for any emergency patches and stuff.

 

[Spectacle]

I think there's some issue where Paradox doesn't want Taleworlds to post a downloadable release for the people who bought the beta yet, since it presumably has weaker copy protection than the boxed or gamersgate versions, and would thus end up cracked earlier. I guess Armagan is staying away from the forum until he can announce a release, since otherwise he'd have lots of shit heaped upon him by impatient fans,

Of course, the press release copy paradox themselves leaked is already cracked and available on bittorrent....

Now that there's a final, stable release, we can expect all the modders who have honed their skills modding the beta to put out some great stuff, so there should be lot's of fun ahead. I'm not one of those complaining about the lack of plot in 1.0 though, the combat is so fun, and the game is dynamic enough that the story is created as you play.

 

[feta]

I've been playing .960 for a couple of weeks now and I fail to see how one ver more could be considered a finished product.

Great potential and everything, but far from what it could really be.

 

[Fez]

The new rag dolls and death animations are nice. It's good that you can use a couple of the small crossbows on horseback now. I can't say I've noticed a great deal of changes this time (other than the WORTH THE BUDGET motion capture and textures). People seem to swing the swords in the same awkward puppet-style fashion, so I don't know what happened to the motion capture there.

So far the game itself seems to remain largely the same as .960, with yet more unneeded graphics enhancements when what the game really needed was story, RPing or content. Perhaps I'll uncover some more goodies as I get into it.

 

[Thrombone]

Looks like the taleworlds 1.0 download will go up tomorrow, or something.
http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/ ... 123.0.html

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to announce that we'll make the final release ready for download tomorrow Monday 19th. We will also release the first bug-fix patch which not only fixes some minor bugs, but also has improved performance and optimizations.

My deepest thanks to you all for supporting us all this way and making M&B possible.

See you tomorrow,

 

[thesheeep]

It will be available for download tomorrow Monday 19th.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to announce that we'll make the final release ready for download tomorrow Monday 19th. We will also release the first bug-fix patch which not only fixes some minor bugs, but also has improved performance and optimizations.

My deepest thanks to you all for supporting us all this way and making M&B possible.

See you tomorrow,

armagan is quite the weirdo


Oh, looks like I was not the 1st

 

[Unradscorpion]

I like it how they ripped off the Darklands char gen. Is there any other RPG with one of those?