Development Info Mount & Blade 0.700 released

[Balor]

Btw, they did not made ONLY the mounted combat.
In M&B, we have massive scale foot combat too, an overmap with roaming units that fight each other, a lot of towns (not fully decorated, but whatever), trading, randomly generated locations, etc, etc.
So, if Oblivion devs allocated a programmer like Armagan and modeller like Ipek towards making mounted combat, they'll have it done it a less then a year, that's for sure. Especially they don't have to model all those weapons, armor, environments, foot combat, physics (Havok is nice), sounds, etc, etc, etc.
So, the point is, it can be done, it was done, it’s really fun even when only thing you do is run around killing things (and since you have much more to do in Oblivion, that will literally never get old) and claiming otherwise is a lie.
Here, I've dumbed it all down so much, I guess even the most rabid Bethesda fainboi will understand it now.
And it has nothing to do with how good RPG M&B is. It’s a different subject. And yet, it sucks as an RPG. It’s still a beta, anyway.
But it’s mounted combat is top-notch (as well as foot combat, btw), so... (insert witty and sarcastic comment about Bethesda).
And who said that animations suck in M&B?
Well, compared to ones in Oblivion... hrm.

 

[Twinfalls]

Stop feeding the Troll (in this case, Kathode) with pointless jibing at Oblivion.

Mounted combat (lack of) is NOT the issue with Oblivion. That stuff is action shit.

The issue is the loss of skills, factions, depth, multiple MQs, originality, etc etc.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Jeez - Why the fuck to so many people seem to care about the lack of mounted combat in Oblivion? I don't get it! Yeah, sure it'd be nice, but it's not really that important is it?

The reason is pretty simple. It's because horses really don't add anything to the game if they don't do more than move faster than walking. When you have fast map travel for the places you've been, it makes the usefulness of moving faster wain the longer you play the game. So, that means the longer and longer you put off buying a horse, the less useful it becomes. At the same time, that's when the player will probably have the least amount of money to spend on the horse. So, because they can only move faster, the effectiveness of a horse is the least when you can afford to blow the money on it while being most effective when you can't afford it.

If horses allowed for easier combat, that would be something throughout the game that would be a benefit in owning one. Likewise, if horses had saddlebags and could help you haul stuff, it would be a benefit that lasted the entire game as well. Moving faster just isn't enough when you have map travel.

Think about Fallout 2. Why did you work to get the car after the first play through? Was it because it allowed you to move from town to town faster? I doubt it. I'd say it had much more to do with the car having a trunk after the first time through than it had to do with faster travel. The car remains useful through the game and in each play through after that as a means of hauling things.

Mounted combat (lack of) is NOT the issue with Oblivion. That stuff is action shit.

The issue is the loss of skills, factions, depth, multiple MQs, originality, etc etc.

I think an equal issue can be made for the implimentation of new stuff without much impact on gameplay such as horses and houses. Hell, those things could be modded in to the game with as little effort as Bethesda is putting behind them. You buy a house and what's it do? It's just the same as every other house minus having an NPC roaming around in there. That's all, and it's not really enough.

 

[Balor]

Hmm... I can swear you can use horses to carry stuff around, some of devs mentioned that.
Or I'm having memory hallucinations?

 

[Hazelnut]

Jeez - Why the fuck to so many people seem to care about the lack of mounted combat in Oblivion? I don't get it! Yeah, sure it'd be nice, but it's not really that important is it?

The reason is pretty simple. It's because horses really don't add anything to the game if they don't do more than move faster than walking. When you have fast map travel for the places you've been, it makes the usefulness of moving faster wain the longer you play the game. So, that means the longer and longer you put off buying a horse, the less useful it becomes. At the same time, that's when the player will probably have the least amount of money to spend on the horse. So, because they can only move faster, the effectiveness of a horse is the least when you can afford to blow the money on it while being most effective when you can't afford it.

If horses allowed for easier combat, that would be something throughout the game that would be a benefit in owning one. Likewise, if horses had saddlebags and could help you haul stuff, it would be a benefit that lasted the entire game as well. Moving faster just isn't enough when you have map travel.

Think about Fallout 2. Why did you work to get the car after the first play through? Was it because it allowed you to move from town to town faster? I doubt it. I'd say it had much more to do with the car having a trunk after the first time through than it had to do with faster travel. The car remains useful through the game and in each play through after that as a means of hauling things.

You mean horses will not gain us bagage space? (al la DF and the horse & cart) Hadn't quite cottoned on to that... that's a shame. I still think that I'll want a horse for moving faster when exploring - I'm not always gonna want to fast travel or will need to find someplace new. The first thing I did after playing MW for the 2nd time was make a small mod to increase running speed (of PC & NPC's) so that it didn't take so long to get around... hey, I only have a limited time that I can spend playing computer games!

I hope even without combat (which I don't care about much) and bagage (why oh why?) I think I'll still want a horse so I don't have to resort to this kind of hack to keep my play time more interesting. Still you're right that they could be more useful.

The reason i don't care about mounted combat is that I'm more interested in less combat options and more consequences etc being in the game. As long as the game world reacts to MY decisions and play style then I'll be fairly happy with the game.

Mounted combat (lack of) is NOT the issue with Oblivion. That stuff is action shit.

The issue is the loss of skills, factions, depth, multiple MQs, originality, etc etc.

I agree.

 

[jasondragon]

I think that combat in oblivion will be exactly like morrowind with the exception of the perks.

I can't explain how much fun it is in Mount&Blade to go up against a swordsman with a quarterstaff and time dodges in sync with how the npc is swinging at you.

In frickin Oblivion you're just going to click block and make sure you face them, direction is irrelevant, whereas your swings can be different based on which wasd key you press.

Why didn't you make combat a little more interesting with the directional blocking instead of just adding perks and silly little spin combat moves?

 

[Crnobog]

So, can anyone tell me what do I need to do to actually play this game? You know, as opposed to staring aimlessly at that copy-protection-something-or-other error message.

 

[Balor]

Hmm, try asking that at official forums.
it worked fine for me, you know.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

I think an equal issue can be made for the implimentation of new stuff without much impact on gameplay such as horses and houses. Hell, those things could be modded in to the game with as little effort as Bethesda is putting behind them. You buy a house and what's it do? It's just the same as every other house minus having an NPC roaming around in there. That's all, and it's not really enough.

But it enhances the roleplaying experience! I mean, what kind of shit game doesn't let you roleplay as a house owner? Seriously! I WANT TO PLAY AS A KHAJIT ASSASSIN WHO IS AFRAID OF HEIGHTS AND JUST STAYS IN HIS HOUSE ALL DAY BECAUSE HE'S SCARED HE WILL BE ATTACKED BY ENEMIES OF THE ASSASSINS GUILD!!!

 

[Section8]

Was it MSFD who originally posted this? Anyway, its such a pissy argument. If Bethesda were only interested in gameplay functions that worked right, there wouldn't be any combat, there wouldn't be any dialogue, there wouldn't be any NPC's, and there wouldn't be a character system in Oblivion (based on their most recent work.) All you'd have is an environment, architecture, a construction set (to build your own environments and architecture) and maybe characters walking around like chickens to add some comedy.

Right is a pretty subjective term. I'm interpreting it to be "of an acceptable standard, of similar quality to the existing features." Sure, there's a lot of improvement that could be made to combat, NPCs and the like, but they're the way they are by design. They may be bland and uninteresting, but they aren't broken.

When you can afford to send off programers to study with geologists, as well as cut features and add new pointless features, the "lack of time, money and manpower" argument is bunk.

I certainly don't agree with the management and design decisions being made, nor the funding decisions, but what I do object to is the notion that the existence of Mount and Blade somehow proves the dev grunts at Bethesda are fucking hacks. The way I see it, you have an entire world of infantry/footsoldiers. The advent of cavalry completely changes the notion of combat, just like the advent of gunpowder would do likewise.

In addition to that, you have a game world that is 50% forest, and a whole swag of dungeons, so your mount is pretty much useless within a considerable portion of the game world, if you want to use it for anything but travel, and storage (which would be just plain stupid to omit as a feature.)

The lack of mounted combat is probably one of a very small set of production/design decisions I agree with in regard to Oblivion, and so I'm willing to defend it, if only because its an absolute rarity

I WANT TO PLAY AS A KHAJIT ASSASSIN WHO IS AFRAID OF HEIGHTS AND JUST STAYS IN HIS HOUSE ALL DAY BECAUSE HE'S SCARED HE WILL BE ATTACKED BY ENEMIES OF THE ASSASSINS GUILD!!!

Non-Linear!

 

[jasondragon]

But it enhances the roleplaying experience! I mean, what kind of shit game doesn't let you roleplay as a house owner? Seriously! I WANT TO PLAY AS A KHAJIT ASSASSIN WHO IS AFRAID OF HEIGHTS AND JUST STAYS IN HIS HOUSE ALL DAY BECAUSE HE'S SCARED HE WILL BE ATTACKED BY ENEMIES OF THE ASSASSINS GUILD!!!

absofuckinglutely hilarious...

 

[Twinfalls]

When you have fast map travel for the places you've been, it makes the usefulness of moving faster wain the longer you play the game. So, that means the longer and longer you put off buying a horse, the less useful it becomes. At the same time, that's when the player will probably have the least amount of money to spend on the horse. So, because they can only move faster, the effectiveness of a horse is the least when you can afford to blow the money on it while being most effective when you can't afford it.

Likewise, if horses had saddlebags and could help you haul stuff, it would be a benefit that lasted the entire game as well. Moving faster just isn't enough when you have map travel.

Very true. And the problems you mention here are all because the geniuses decided to change things from Daggerfall.

Daggerfall's fast travel only let you go to city gates, not to any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

Daggerfall's cities were so huge that the horse really made a difference.

Daggerfall's horses let you carry more stuff. They let you also get a cart, which could carry even more stuff.

These guys have been standing on the shoulders of a giant, and have been beating that giant down until it's dead and buried.

 

[Tintin]

not to any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

You can only travel to locations which have map markers.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

When you have fast map travel for the places you've been, it makes the usefulness of moving faster wain the longer you play the game. So, that means the longer and longer you put off buying a horse, the less useful it becomes. At the same time, that's when the player will probably have the least amount of money to spend on the horse. So, because they can only move faster, the effectiveness of a horse is the least when you can afford to blow the money on it while being most effective when you can't afford it.

Likewise, if horses had saddlebags and could help you haul stuff, it would be a benefit that lasted the entire game as well. Moving faster just isn't enough when you have map travel.

Very true. And the problems you mention here are all because the geniuses decided to change things from Daggerfall.

Daggerfall's fast travel only let you go to city gates, not to any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

Daggerfall's cities were so huge that the horse really made a difference.

Daggerfall's horses let you carry more stuff. They let you also get a cart, which could carry even more stuff.

These guys have been standing on the shoulders of a giant, and have been beating that giant down until it's dead and buried.

That's why I keep saying that Daggerfall is STILL ahead if its time, but most of the people out there are graphic whores and got dumbed down, so Oblivion is going to be the greatest RPGs of them all because it has pretty forests, unified skills and magical compasses.

 

[Twinfalls]

not to any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

You can only travel to locations which have map markers.

Which is any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

 

[Second Chance]

Stop hijacking threads you dumbasses!

I loved Daggerfall too, and I want to try Oblivion as soon as it's out too, but leave this thread for Mount and Blade, for fucks sake.

 

[Psilon]

Well, every Oblivion thread brings in Mount & Blade (and probably should include Sacred as well), so why not bring Oblivion into a Mount & Blade thread?

 

[Tintin]

not to any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

You can only travel to locations which have map markers.

Which is any freaking spot anywhere on the map you've already been.

No, it's wherever you have a map marker.

 

[Crnobog]

So, can anyone tell me what do I need to do to actually play this game? You know, as opposed to staring aimlessly at that copy-protection-something-or-other error message.

So I downloaded the game again and it loos like that annoying 'feature' was fixed.
Damn, the combat is fucking sweet. Too bad there's not much else to this game, but it's fun nevertheless. A skirmish mode would be nice, where you could just pick your troops, set enemy strength and charge into battle.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

While you guys are rubbing oil on each other, 0.702 version is out.

http://www.taleworlds.com/download/moun ... pgrade.exe
http://www.taleworlds.com/download/mount&blade.exe

Here's the changelog for version 0.701:

Fixed troop raise quest bug: (Opcode = 20060)
Fixed horse fetching bug: (Illegal lvalue in statement; Opcode 20033)
Fixed sending companions to four ways inn bug: (Opcode = 20100)
Fixed instant re-attacking after attack has been parried.
Removed items from the chest in Zendar tavern.
Merchants are stocked with higher quality items now.
Only ranged troops carry bolts and arrows now.
Damage and range of bows and crossbows is reduced by 25% under rain.
Ranged Troop accuracy is reduced by fog and darkness.
Horses run slower under rain and at night.
Removed Armor skill
You no longer need to fight the kidnapped girl in the kidnapped girl quest.
Fixed quest XP awards.
Game brings up a verification dialog if you attempt to retreat an arena fight.
Fixed amount of gold looted from parties.
Reduced ruggedness of battlefields a little bit.
Experience gain from training skill increases non-linearly again.
New hand armor: Mail mittens
A few other fixes and improvements.

Please note that your existing savegames will not be compatible with this new version (Including those created with 0.700)


0.702 fixes the starting attributes and makes inventory management add +6 slots again. Also I used an older version of Themida to protect this executable to see how it will perform.

I didn't make a full installer. You need to first have version 0.701 installed on your system.