Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Immortal]

Hahaha, those Rhodok crossbowmen. Jesus fuck. Let's just say I never tried to siege Rhodok castles. I still remember the horror the first time they slaughtered my 100 mamlukes on the ladder.

Vaeger archers are worse if you play with a mod like Native Expansion. It adds a more robust troop advancement tree with elite units. Ivory Archers for Vaegers... ten can destroy a few hundred melee in a siege.

I always fuck Swadia first. They can't defend for shit.

 

[Ninjerk]

Being a real man doesn't help your army much if you die halfway through the fight

real niggas don't die

 

[Metro]

Thread needs a vaporware tag.

 

[LESS T_T]

A new dev log: https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/14

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog 12 - The Passage Of Time

Hello Bannerlord blog regulars and newcomers. In this entry, we are once again responding to your demands to hear more about single player gameplay - specifically, looking at the overworld map and some of the improvements made there. We revealed the map at Gamescom and mentioned some new features in the last blog. Here, we'll take what we've revealed and go into some more detail.

Bannerlord shares the setting of Calradia with Warband but takes place 200 years earlier. The map is also expanded to include regions further to the east and south of that in previous games, resulting in a map which is around three times larger. Land features and even some settlements from the previous games are recognisable. By sharing the same world, the two games become part of the lore of Mount & Blade in a wider sense. While the series' lore was kept to a minimum in Warband, being left to hints in dialogue, Bannerlord features its own storyline that will add some additional depth to the factions.

In addition to acting as the setting, providing the context for Mount & Blade's magnificent battles, the overworld map is also where a large chunk of gameplay lies. With Bannerlord, the approach is to provide more information to the player with the map itself and the HUD presented while travelling. Taking the icons as an example, it is now possible to see what a village produces by looking at its icon. These change dynamically over time to reflect different production facilities constructed in the village, or additions of buildings like castles. On the HUD, more information is presented to the player, including morale, food supplies, gold and more. We are currently restructuring the HUD to provide even more information without making it too overwhelming.

Characters and locations on the map make up what we call “parties”. All parties on the map, whether they are lords, bandits, hideouts or anything, have a function in the game's sandbox simulation of a feudal world. Here is a basic explanation of how the economy works:

-Villages produce goods based on what types of production they have in place (e.g. Sheep farms produce sheep, cheese, wool etc.)

-Peasants take goods produced in their village to sell in the local town by repeatedly travelling directly between the village and the town on the map.

-The raw materials are taken to towns and either consumed or processed into secondary goods (e.g. wool into clothes, sheep into meat) via workshops.

-Goods in towns are bought by caravans to be sold elsewhere for a higher price, caravans will assess the situation and try to maximise profit from their journey over the map.

When all of these steps are completed successfully, the prosperity of the settlements increases. What's interesting, though, is that because everything is connected in this way, disruption can be a very effective approach when dealing with an enemy or rival. A simple example is that raiding enemy villages or preventing peasants from making their journey to the local town impoverishes towns due to their lack of goods to process for trade. More indirect benefits can be received by, for instance, aiding a bandit group near to the fief of a rival noble from the same faction, trying to limit their income and gaining a leg over them in the faction standings. Since everything is simulated in this way, no matter what you do, it has a knock-on effect in the world. Manipulating this to your own ends is key to making progress in the game but AI Lords will also attempt to create problems for opponents, in an effort to better themselves.

The topography of the map is not entirely consistent with Warband, in fact Bannerlord's map is somewhat more mountainous. The effect of this is an increase in the number of choke points. It will be hard to avoid conflict, for instance, when traversing narrow passes through mountain ranges that may be riddled with ambush spots or enemy patrols. Tactically, the map offers many more options for controlling areas that serve as trade routes. Battles are often fought in the game to contest key choke points with the goal of securing passage for trade caravans and other parties. As a player, it is important to consider what kind of warfare you are likely to end up in, before sacrificing relations with a faction. If your speciality is skirmishing on foot over rough terrain, you might for example avoid engaging the Aserai, who will have higher mobility in the open desert.

The map is changed, not just by the activity of the player and NPCs but also by the passage of time. Changing seasons affect the weather and transform the landscape sending snow creeping south during winter. Significant gameplay effects, of the changing conditions, are felt in the effectiveness of different troop types. Cavalry and ranged units in particular will have a harder time in rain or snow. One major change from Warband is how time progresses; the yearly cycle has been shortened to twelve weeks, which adds more importance to the changing seasons and ageing of characters.

Click here to see the video.

In the visual above, we've included 168 screenshots, one taken at midday, each day, from the same angle, over the course of two in game years, running at 10 frames per second. One of the first things you might notice is how the snow advances and retreats during winter. It is also possible to spot the colours above the settlements changing, as they are taken over by different AI factions, battling it out with one another. Something that you may not (or may!) have noticed is how the shadows get longer during winter; this detail is the result of the simulation we carry out to lower the sun's position during winter.

The colours of the factions shown in the visual are subject to change but pre-empting the inevitable question, here is a list of those shown:


Blue – Sturgia

Green – Battania

Pink – Northern Empire

Orange – Western Empire

Red – Vlandia

Dark Grey/Brown – Bandit

Brown (just about visible) – Khuzait


Since we haven't shown a lot of the map yet, the visual actually hints at quite a lot which is, as of yet, unmentioned. We'll talk more about how character ageing works, along with some of the other effects of time moving faster, in a future blog. For now, thanks for reading! For the latest news and updates, don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

 

[Metro]

Blah blah blah where the fuck is this game? Been over three years since the teaser and they still don't have a release date.

 

[Alienman]

One of the great mysteries.

 

[xxxCatholicKillahxxx]

The Passage Of Time

 

[Ninjerk]

Have they perfected hair motion yet?

 

[Trojan_generic]

Mount & Blade, the game where you have mounts and blades, and the one who has more mounts wins.

Been playing the Fire & Sword, I totally fell from my chair when I saw what monster awaited me in Riga, Sweden:

 

[LESS T_T]

Devs will demonstrate the game at PC Gamer Weekender: https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/News/146

Today we are excited to announce that, in March, two of our team will be heading to London for the PC Gamer Weekender. This is a new event, hosted by PC Gamer magazine; there will be a variety of games, sessions, tournaments and workshops to play, watch and get involved with!

Our involvement is in the form of a demonstration for Bannerlord. Here is a quote from the session page:

TaleWorlds Entertainment is taking you through 40 minutes of unseen gameplay, from upcoming sandbox strategy action RPG Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, live on stage at the PC Gamer Weekender.

If you are able to make it to the event, great! Our session will start at 1pm on both the Saturday and the Sunday of the event (5th and 6th of March, respectively). You can buy tickets here.

However, we know the majority of you won't be able to attend, so don't worry. PC Gamer will be providing some video of the demo itself, that will be released afterwards and then we'll follow up, to help fill in some of the gaps in the weeks following.

Whether we see you there or not, we hope you like the new things we reveal at the event and we are looking forward to showing off even more of the game!

 

[Alienman]

Some videos of the demo... in other words, very select type of videos of stuff that we have probably seen before. Jesus. I don't think the game will come out this year either.

 

[Metro]

Blah blah blah where the fuck is this game? Been over three years since the teaser and they still don't have a release date.

 

[adrix89]

Blah blah blah where the fuck is this game? Been over three years since the teaser and they still don't have a release date.

Good games take 6-7 years to make or more likely never.

 

[TOME]

Good games have a working and interesting core on release and are perfected in the next 6-7 years.

 

[Merlkir]

 

[Spectacle]

Blah blah blah where the fuck is this game? Been over three years since the teaser and they still don't have a release date.

Good games take 6-7 years to make or more likely never.

Good games can easily be made in 1-4 years depending on the scope of the game. If development is taking more than 4 years you're either working part time or with an understaffed team, or you have problems with your process, and that might affect the quality as well.

It is rarely a good sign that a game is taking long to develop.

 

[Toffeli]

Blah blah blah where the fuck is this game? Been over three years since the teaser and they still don't have a release date.

Good games take 6-7 years to make or more likely never.

Good games can easily be made in 1-4 years depending on the scope of the game. If development is taking more than 4 years you're either working part time or with an understaffed team, or you have problems with your process, and that might affect the quality as well.

It is rarely a good sign that a game is taking long to develop.

Are you talking about AoD or Grimoire?

 

[Spectacle]

Haha AoD is of course an example on how a good game can take a long time to make when you're working part time or with a small team.

 

[LESS T_T]

PCG Weekender gameplay demo:



(21:40 for a massive battle.)

Edit: also, they'll do a demo at PCGamer live show in 16:00 GMT.

 

[Perkel]

finally some proper gameplay..


so what now ? .... 2020 ?

 

[adrix89]

I can't hear shit in the video.

Did they improve the battle AI?

 

[Space Satan]

Engine seems to be holding massive battle well.

 

[Alienman]

So damn many improvements. It looks fantastic! Agh... when will I get to play it!



Edit:

The city at 13 minutes in. I hope all the cities look like that. Some awesome attention to detail. Looks really alive compared to many other games.

 

[Turisas]

Engine seems to be holding massive battle well.

I've seen bigger. Hardly a "massive" battle.

 

[Morkar Left]

Besides better gfx and a fucked up inventory menu it looks basically the same as the first one.