Game News M&B 1.003 now available for download

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Mount & Blade

It'sss heeeereee. Mount & Blade finally has the 1.003 version available for release to all those suckers who've been funding the development over the years by buying the beta version. <a href="http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php?/topic,45208.0.html">Here's what Armagan had to say</a>:
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<blockquote>This has been such a wonderful ride and so many thanks are in order. If you'll excuse me, I want to start with my dear wife Ipek, the first artist I had the pleasure of working with, the sunshine of my life, without whose determination and hard work and wonderful courage this project would never start in the first place.
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I would also like to thank our dear team at Taleworlds offices, Ozgur, Cem, Pinar, Mustafa, Umit, and Serdar who have worked on the game with great enthusiasm and creativity, each bringing in their great talents and hard work into turning a humble indie game into a professional production. And many thanks to all the other wonderfully gifted people who have directly contributed to the game, Steve Negus, who masterfully wrote and designed all the different lord commentaries, richly characterized companions and claim holder rebellions, Ryan A. Span who again did a wonderful job, turning my amateurish lines into an excellent game dialog and text. We have had the great fortune of having the game's concept art made by a genius of an artist, Ganbad Badamkhand, and then our stroke of luck went further when another genius in his field, Jesse Hopkins, composed the brilliant sound track. Tassilo Egloffstein and Jade Henderson did the top-notch voice work. Then of course, we had all the creative ideas, and wonderful support from this community, so thank you all, our always so fun and witty administrators and moderators who give these forums its unique character, the brilliant community of modders, and of course everyone else who have contributed to these forums and supported this game. And last but no least, I want to thank our dear partners at Paradox Interact&#305;ve, Boel, Fredrik, Susana, Simon, Johan, Theo, Jeanette and all the team there for their friendship and for believing in us and our project and for all the help they gave us in realizing it..
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And now, without further ado, and with great pleasure, I present you Mount&Blade 1.003, the final release of our little indie game, which I believe, we made happen all together...
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<a href="http://files.filefront.com/mountandblade+1003+setupexe/;11835633;/fileinfo.html">Download from filefront (380.29 MB)</a>.</blockquote>
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Cue the hate about lack of story and wasted time focussing on improved graphics and motion capture in 3... 2...
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPGWatch</a>

 

[Fez]

The dialogue trees. That's another empty-feeling part of it that he obviously never got around to finishing.

 

[Skankster]

While I don't agree with the hate totally, I do believe that the devs lost their focus at some stage and couldn't decided what to do with the core game. Basically it ended with them deciding to go for the mainstream instead of staying with their original focus. This has pissed me off somewhat.

Of course, mods fix all things, amirite?

 

[flabbyjack]

I do believe that the devs lost their focus at some stage and couldn't decided what to do ... Basically it ended with them deciding to go for the mainstream instead of staying with their original focus. ...

What do you mean 'original focus'?

This title is great. It is fun to play and fight, unlike so many other RPGs, action games, whatev.
Mount & Blade - Best $10 I ever spent.

The real question is whether the team will pull off a financial success, or are they gonna get cock-blocked by every publisher and mainstream review site. You may be missing out on great Gamespot content! Yeah right...

 

[Spectacle]

I do believe that the devs lost their focus at some stage and couldn't decided what to do with the core game. Basically it ended with them deciding to go for the mainstream instead of staying with their original focus.

What on Earth do you mean? The focus in Mount&Blade has always been on fighting battles, and gathering an army to fight battles with you. That's exactly what the focus in 1.0 is as well.

 

[Skankster]

So, what names do you two fanboys run under on Taleworld forums?

It was originally going to be much more RPG oriented. Armagan even said as much on here many years ago. Then it went totally focused on more of a strategy/fighting game.

I didn't say it was not a fun game, but it could have been much more to my liking had Armagan continued to create the game in the vein that he started off on.

 

[Fez]

The game feels unfinished. It reeks of it and seems like it was a beta version suddenly slapped together in a hurry and shipped for release.

It was promised to be more RPG like than this, so the fanboys can back down on that. I guess we're just suckers for believing him and giving him money though?

Speedtree, motion capture and so on is more important to some strange folk than anything else in a RPG.

 

[mondblut]

Hm, I followed M&B since .632, and its focus always was Elite on horseback with large scale mounted combat. I don't remember the devs ever promising an epic storyline and dramafag dialogues. M&B is a game for men, not girls

 

[MF]

Two Quotes from Armagan from this very board :

"Uhm... Our game is not really a story-based RPG. It is more of an action-RPG and takes its strength from gameplay mechanics and combat. (Actually there isn't a story yet but there will be. Embarassed ) So the model is not that inappropriate for us. But it is true that it wouldn't match well with story-based games."

"The name "Warrider" somehow didn't give me the right feeling for the game. It is perhaps more action-ish than I would like it to be. I like Mount&Blade much better."

Well, guess he lied. Even the context from Pirates! is richer. Calradia doesn't do it for me, and there is no story. I like the game, but I've played .751 enough to be fed up with it now. The final version is nothing new, and I don't enjoy playing this because I know it's pointless. There is no surprise over that next hill, just more fed-ex quests.

Fortunately, I only paid 8 bucks and it was 8 bucks well spent.

 

[Skankster]

Hm, I followed M&B since .632, and its focus always was Elite on horseback with large scale mounted combat. I don't remember the devs ever promising an epic storyline and dramafag dialogues. M&B is a game for men, not girls

Well you had better stay away from all those nasty, girly games like Fallout then!

What has made this version such a big download by the way? Is there a motion captured horse included?

 

[MF]

What has made this version such a big download by the way? Is there a motion captured horse included?

Just bullshit. New graphics, new animations, new music. The only new eye-candy that I like is Ganbat's new art. Motion captured horses aren't included, but they used an existing library of horse movements.

 

[youhomofo]

I used an existing library of your mom's vagina. TO PUT MY PENIS IN! Lawlz

 

[flabbyjack]

I used an existing library of your mom's vagina. TO PUT MY PENIS IN! Lawlz

So you finished playing 'hide the apple' and that's where it was? That's kinda strange she was in the library I thought your mom couldn't read.

 

[LCJr.]

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.taleworlds.com
Forums doesn't like the * apparently. You'll have to copy and paste the link.

From the main page.

May 13 2006 and before.

The Story
An absorbing storyline featuring vivid characters adds to the excitement of the game. Natural dialogues and intuitive quests will set you on track and establish the atmosphere.

June 13 2006 and after.

Characters and Quests
An absorbing world featuring vivid characters, realistic dialogues and intuitive quests adds to the excitement of the game and establishes the atmosphere.

 

[elander_]

Isn't Turky one of those countries where you can get a bunch of wifes? He should get a wife with a degree on literature who can also write to add interesting characters and dialogs for him.

 

[dagorkan]

Honestly I don't see the big difference between those sentences LCJr, you're nitpicking, if they'd had added a story it would have been half-assed anyway and nobody would have followed it since the spirit of the game is Elite/Pirates and that's always been the primary design theme

As for RPG, it isn't one but it's a great action game and action games are made better with good grafix and audio so it wasn't a complete waste. I've criticized the devs myself but realistically I never expected the deep story, dynamic economy, interesting quests or other gameplay features which mods have provided. They delivered the action and hopefully with M&B 2 will be able to add multiplayer, and that would be worth another $30 to me (though I paid around $12).

And get real, most of you bitches loved to play Stalker, Gothic and the Witcher and spammed RPG discussion with those. You're just bitching about M&B because it's become popular.

 

[aboyd]

Honestly I don't see the big difference between those sentences LCJr, you're nitpicking, if they'd had added a story it would have been half-assed anyway and nobody would have followed it since the spirit of the game is Elite/Pirates and that's always been the primary design theme

Wow. That's being an apologist.

 

[Kingston]

I think the disappointment is due to the fact that the "What could have been" -factor is pretty high on this game.

 

[sqeecoo]

You know, I never felt Armagan was capable of writing up a good story - just the impression I got from the (nonexistent) lore, the dialogues, quests and factions.

So I actually like it this way: he made a sandbox, fun game without muddling it up with a silly story. Now even lazy modders will be able to insert a story into the game with minimal adaptation, and the game is flexible enough to lend itself to total conversions. As long as we now see a lot of good mods like in the 0.751 days, I'll be more than happy.

 

[LCJr.]

Honestly I don't see the big difference between those sentences LCJr, you're nitpicking, if they'd had added a story it would have been half-assed anyway and nobody would have followed it since the spirit of the game is Elite/Pirates and that's always been the primary design theme

I actually believe you when you say you can't tell difference between "it will have a story" and "what story?". Anyone else I'd have my doubts.

I've already said I don't mind it not having a story. I posted that for the benefit of those saying they never intended to have a story.

This is Armagan's original vision. Possibly the oldest version of Warrider/M&B posted as this years April Fool's joke.
http://www.mbrepository.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=6&lid=722
Fantasy complete with undead and a storyline.

 

[Fez]

The problem with a lack of lore and storyline is that it hampers the quests and dialogue, both of which are so basic as to be barely clinging on to existence. At times it feels on a par with "you have to burn the rope".

It needs more variety. By the time you've conquered even one other kingdom you'll have seen the same missions regurgitated dozens of times for your consumption once more. It ends up consisting mostly of grinding on a par with MMORPGs. "Kill ten mudcrabs and return to me" gets old very quickly and wasn't particularly clever to start with.

 

[The_Pope]

I just tried supporting a pretender, and the game gets a whole lot more depth when you're running a rebellion instead of running errands. It even makes the persuasion skill useful.

 

[The Dude]

I fucking loathe you haters, but the truth is that this isn't a Codex RPG, and shouldn't be posted as an RPG. The closest thing to this (in a way) is Midwinter, and it should be treated as such. This shit is better than 999% of your fucking mainstream AAA shiu gamed, so fuck uou.

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Fuck uou too.

 

[-Garrett-]

Games change during development. No game ends up exactly as the developer intended. Daggerfall, for instance, has a variety of useless items (Khajit Suits, candles, etc.) that presumably had a purpose at some point during development. Similarly, early previews of Deus Ex mention the inclusion of the White House, which was going to be an accurate replica based on real floor plans, as well as more ambitious versions of New York and Area 51; unfortunately, according to Warren this "just proved to be unfeasible. There was no way any then-current renderer was going to allow us to do all that. The design had to change." Armagan's original vision for Mount&Blade was a generic medieval fantasy game with zombies and a necromancer, and at that point his ideas for a storyline would have presumably centred around defeating the necromancer, discovering the player character is a king's lost heir, or some similarly "epic" plot.

Honestly, I can't think what plot Armagan could have come up with that wouldn't be a tired stereotype, or how plot advancement could work in a true sandbox without the player losing his place or feeling like he was being forced to advance the plot in order to continue using the sandbox (this was a problem with previous open games such as Ultima VII). This is why plot-based sandbox-style games such as Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed tend to only give the player access to a small part of the game world at first, with other parts being unlocked when they first serve some plot purpose. By the time the whole world is unlocked the player has generally become familiar with how to get around the world and where to go next to advance the plot.

Mount&Blade is widely regarded as an RPG, but then again so are Diablo, Final Fantasy, and virtually any other game that has character stats (some even say Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is part RPG because of its use-based skill advancement). Some even refer to the Legend of Zelda games as RPGs even though they lack skill advancement and other traditions of the genre. Once a game has earned a particular label it's stuck with it, and many times the more ambitious games won't fit properly into the core definition of any one genre. The same problem occurs when referring to Deus Ex as an FPS; shooting things from a first-person perspective is certainly a central element of the game, but at the same time it is completely different from games like Halo and Half-Life 2, and is even noticeably different from recent FPS-with-skills games like BioShock.