Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Turisas]

i'm playing europe 1200 for warband now... won't need a new m&b for about 5 years, thanks though

I played a very early version of it - how is it these days? Saw they've added a shitload of factions, but what are the other main differences to WB?

 

[Oesophagus]

They need to add some proper faction AI. I'm not asking for total war level planning, but factions should at least coordinate own forces and have some sense of self preservation

 

[Fens]

i'm playing europe 1200 for warband now... won't need a new m&b for about 5 years, thanks though

I played a very early version of it - how is it these days? Saw they've added a shitload of factions, but what are the other main differences to WB?

- map of europe (not complete yet... especially lacks byzantium and greece right now... also needs holy land) with a huge number of cities, castles and villages to conquer (some new castle designs)
- major and minor factions (unlike equal factions in wb)... includes micro knightly order factions in spain
- more companions to pick up (including ppl like robin hood and hildegard von bingen) with their own stories (but unfortunately no reactions to places unlike the wb companions)
- talk to the city guildmaster via city screen
- make the ai stock your cities/castles with troops (major improvement)
- order specific troops for your capital via minister menu (in chunks of 50 max per request, with an actual recruiter unit spawning at the place where you ordered your troops from and trying to reach your capital and sometimes getting killed off in the process)
- improved tournaments (if you get famous enough, you can join a team fighting for a specific house and compete in a higher tier tournament against other teams with better equipment and earn a lot more money than in the usual pitfights (which you get to fight with your own equipment, instead of tournament specific equipment as in wb))
- the pope asks for money before talking to you
- bishops ride into battle with their funny hats on
- religion included, but doesn't do anything, yet

[edit]
- also shitloads of new equipment

 

[Turisas]

Sweetness, gotta grab it right away.

 

[TOME]

I think they should fix auto battles. And making cavalry less awesome.

 

[Turisas]

Auto battles should never be even close to as successful as fights you lead. That's what you get when you send in the captains to lead and leave the general waiting.

 

[TOME]

But auto battles should yield same result as battles where the general just sits on his horse and admires his sword while all the troops are charging.

 

[Toffeli]

But auto battles should yield same result as battles where the general just sits on his horse and admires his sword while all the troops are charging.

Yup. Even with vastly superior forces, you could regurlaly end up losing highly upgraded knights if you auto-resolved battles, something which would never happen if you went to the battle mode, ordered everyone to attack and stuck fingers up your ass yourself.

 

[Turisas]

But auto battles should yield same result as battles where the general just sits on his horse and admires his sword while all the troops are charging.

If you want to be lazy, you should pay for it.


I don't think there's any mod that 'fixes' that, is there? The crappy results from automated battles are probably some hard-coded voodoo stuff.

 

[TOME]

It shouldn't be that hard to mod a third option to choose from. Maybe just a normal battle that is fast forwarded to the end, stationary general and everyone else charging?

 

[Father Walker]

Most likely the new game will have some small cosmetic differences and an extra 10 men on the battlefield. That's what they did with warband and it will be stupid to expect anything else.

Well, they've added multiplayer with Warband.

 

[Emily]

Most likely the new game will have some small cosmetic differences and an extra 10 men on the battlefield. That's what they did with warband and it will be stupid to expect anything else.

Well, they've added multiplayer with Warband.

they also added whole POLITICAL system, there was almost nothing in the original. Now you head fests, relations, marshal voting and so on.

 

[Black Shogun]

YES. YES. YES!!!!

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

They need to add some proper faction AI. I'm not asking for total war level planning, but factions should at least coordinate own forces and have some sense of self preservation

More than that they need some better combat AI. With Warband they bought themselves about 2 years respite, if they are actually serious about marketing a single player mode the M&B 1 standard will no longer be acceptable. Combat AI being both individual one-on-one (when to strike, parry) and group AI (2-1 up to the entire battle level). One-on-one was always basic, apart form speed at which they can swing and things like armor every enemy always behaves and is dealt with identically. Battle level was always non-existent

The thing you fags don't understand always trying to push your 4X, adventure gaming, board gaming and other crap into this game is that it will still be shit and will detract from the combat which is the one thing M&B originally did well.

Let 4X and strategy games be strategy games and medieval combat simulators be combat simulators.

 

[Metro]

No one's asking for 4x... I'd settle for 1.5x -- sorry but it needs to be something more than just a mere battle simulator. Not asking a lot to have meaningful town and castle improvements. Shit, Warband is so buggy that I had to quit my last game because you literally couldn't 'conquer' a rival faction. When they lost their last keep they'd still keep springing up and generating armies.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

No one's asking for 4x... I'd settle for 1.5x -- sorry but it needs to be something more than just a mere battle simulator.

WHY???

Not asking a lot to have meaningful town and castle improvements. Shit, Warband is so buggy that I had to quit my last game because you literally couldn't 'conquer' a rival faction. When they lost their last keep they'd still keep springing up and generating armies.

Um... OK, Warband is not meant to be a single player game. The fact you're even trying shows me there is something wrong with you.

I would also like to be able to design my cities in-depth in Civ4, allocate residential, industrial and commercial zones and make sure my subjects are well provided for with primary schools, shops and amusement parks. I'd like to have RPG character stats built in to SimCity and to be able to switch to 3D action mode dungeon crawl killing rats in the the city sewers. I'd love to take the role of the facilities manager at an X-Com base and carefully optimize the supplies of plastic forks and condiments and negotiate discounts on bulk shipments of toilet paper for the brave soldiers defending planet Earth.

Actually no I don't, because it would be retarded. Like you.

 

[Metro]

Um... OK, Warband is not meant to be a single player game. The fact you're even trying shows me there is something wrong with you.

I would also like to be able to design my cities in-depth in Civ4, allocate residential, industrial and commercial zones and make sure my subjects are well provided for with primary schools, shops and amusement parks. I'd like to have RPG character stats built in to SimCity and to be able to switch to 3D action mode dungeon crawl killing rats in the the city sewers. I'd love to take the role of the facilities manager at an X-Com base and carefully optimize the supplies of plastic forks and condiments and negotiate discounts on bulk shipments of toilet paper for the brave soldiers defending planet Earth.

Actually no I don't, because it would be retarded. Like you.

Man, you're a butt hurt little bitch outside of GD, aren't you? Anyway, your analogies are terrible. If M&B were meant to be a pure battle simulator then all you'd have the ability to do is pick one of the random scenarios available at the menu. There would be no overworld map, there would be no factions, there would be no castle and towns to capture and manage. There would be no treaties, no diplomacy, no quests, no recruiting, no troop training, no RPG elements for heroes, etc. Those features already exist and I fail to see how wanting them to be improved is 'retarded.' What is retarded is to deny there is a single player aspect to M&B. If this were purely meant to be multi-player they would have done something like Chivalry or War of the Roses but... they didn't.

Now, unless you have something intelligent to add: sit down, shut the fuck up, and go back to GD.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

What is retarded is to deny there is a single player aspect to M&B.

Do you realize Warband and Mount&Blade are two different games?

Yes M&B was original single-player and was never marketed in any focussed way (it was still in development, 'anything' was possible which is why many people supported it). The original core of the game was the skirmish battle and it has always been the most developed part of the game.

They half-heartedly tried to develop other things to expand their audience but as by 2008-09 it was pretty clear it was not gonna happen. Non-combat updates were maybe 10% of the focus throughout, only in the last couple of updates (post-'gold') they tried to rush some crappy faction stuff through for the retail edition. I know it was crappy because I myself had created a more in-depth economy mod with another guy using the old Module system. Pretty obvious the faction stuff at the last minute was 'ticking boxes' for the reviewers/promotional purposes.

As for M&B Warband it was only ever marketed as a multiplayer add-on. The only substantial changes over M&B are multi-player, a couple combat features (running, crouching, kicking), balance tweaks and improved combat animations.

Just look at any of the reviews. If you genuinely believed you were buying Warband for enhanced castle management simulation then I feel sorry for you, but it's your own fault.

 

[Oesophagus]

They half-heartedly tried to develop other things to expand their audience but as by 2008-09 it was pretty clear it was not gonna happen. Non-combat updates were maybe 10% of the focus throughout, only in the last couple of updates (post-'gold') they tried to rush some crappy faction stuff through for the retail edition. I know it was crappy because I myself had created a more in-depth economy mod with another guy using the old Module system. Pretty obvious the faction stuff at the last minute was 'ticking boxes' for the reviewers/promotional purposes.

They shouldn't have implemented it at all then. And the simple fact is that whether or not you like the sandbox mechanics, they're still there. I for one wouldn't be as interested in M&B if it was just a battle simulator, is it any surprise then that I want the RPG/strategy elements improved? There's the aforementioned War of the Roses, which I don't care about in the slightest, because it's just multiplayer deathmatch.

 

[Metro]

Do you realize Warband and Mount&Blade are two different games?

Yes M&B was original single-player and was never marketed in any focussed way (it was still in development, 'anything' was possible which is why many people supported it). The original core of the game was the skirmish battle and it has always been the most developed part of the game.

I'm talking about them as a single entity -- you're just quibbling semantics. They aren't making separate sequels for original M&B and Warband. No one views Warband in isolation. So, yes, any sequel to 'Warband' includes the single player elements of the game of which there are many and that is undeniable.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

You're wrong nobody sees Warband as a full sequel to M&B or a potential fully-fledged CRPG except you and a few other losers in this thread. The whole 'action RPG' classification is an in-joke M&B has been discussed on this board since 2007 when nobody was really sure what it would become.

I don't mind you wanting an RPG/management sim combined with twitch 3D medieval combat I just think it might be more productive to move on from your fixation with M&B... it isn't going to happen.

If you are really interested in a medieval game with combat, management, strategy, story and RPG aspects look up AD 1086

 

[TOME]

You're wrong nobody sees Warband as a full sequel to M&B or a potential fully-fledged CRPG except you and a few other losers in this thread.

I too consider Warband as a sequel to M&B. So does the loser that wrote FAQ on TaleWorlds website.

And if you take out the rpg/management aspects out of the game, what is left? Battle simulator that is entertaining for an hour.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

You're wrong nobody sees Warband as a full sequel to M&B or a potential fully-fledged CRPG except you and a few other losers in this thread.

I too consider Warband as a sequel to M&B. So does the loser that wrote FAQ on TaleWorlds website.

And if you take out the rpg/management aspects out of the game, what is left? Battle simulator that is entertaining for an hour.

Yet that is what people buy it for and get hundreds of hours worth. Compared with the 'RPG' element which is boring after 10 minutes. I know we're on the Codex and you're all autistic but if you don't like multiplayer combat games you can do something else, eg LARP your way through Morrowind for the 1000th time, that seems more up your alley

 

[Cassidy]

The main thing I would like to see is larger battles with more tactical options, such as grouping soldiers into units of similar troop types.

If mount and blade simulated pike walls and had proper formation orders it would already make a big difference. Some mods fixed it to an extent(like Sword of Damocles and Prophesy of Pendor), but the fact you can't order forces to specifically make infantry squares, phalanx, tercios, pike walls, cavalry wedges, etc, and to stay in complex formations during movement orders, sucks.

 

[Spectacle]

The subtitle "Bannerlord" does suggest that a substantial theme of M&B2 will be leading men in combat, not just twitchy hack&slash. I'd be very surprised if there isn't a substantial single-player campaign. Multiplayers are just a vocal minority, it's single player that really makes most games sell.