Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

So is the game good yet?

 

[oldbonebrown]

There was a pretty good Captain (capture the flag, faction v faction, you control one squad of units) server up for a while

It had rebalanced troops that managed to make every unit viable, 20v20 players and up to 2K troops total on a big map. It wasn't ideal but I had some of the best multiplayer fun there that I've had in a long while on that server.
You could really notice the players getting better over the weeks, many matches would be so even that it would be down to just a handful of troops scrapping it out over the flag at the end with all the dead players watching and cheering it on.

All the things that held the experience back was lack of polish from taleworlds side. There is a big lack of multiplayer functionality.
I would have serious wars with some of the players out there on the field and not have a clue what their nickname was. Even when you killed or got killed by another player the notification would disappear so quickly that it was hard to pick up. Killing other players really should've been highlighted better.
But not only is it hard to pick up what a particular enemy is nicking, with so many troops and players on the map it was hard to keep track of even your own team. Some matches I sat on discord with others on my team, but it barely helped coordinating because I would loose track of them in game so easily.
Only the simplest of tactics were possible to get through over the in-game text chat. But the chat also just wasn't thought through, it does not even distinguish the two teams from each other in chat, every multiplayer game should color code the players after their team or something to that effect. The game (the particular server made this worse) also spammed a lot of information that pushed out player messages.
Perhaps what was needed was some type of commander role with oversight over the battlefield that could coordinate the teams. But for me what the game mode really needed was proximity chat. If I could've yelled slurs at my enemy on the field, I think this game mode would've been heaven.

But in the end the admin of the server couldn't bear having people pinging him on discord every time the server went down, he felt he was getting harassed, and shut it all down. The guy's favourite team was Vladia too, so go figure.

 

[Turisas]

^ Typical vlandian/swadian bitch behavior.

 

[oldbonebrown]

I think I posted a few pages ago that I had tired of this, but this never gets old

round 2 after running out of arrows and re-entering the battle

300 horse boys vs. 1000 camel humpers

no khuzait were harmed in the making of these images

 

[oldbonebrown]

It has been a bloody business conquering the world. The Khuzait conquered a large part of the empire and has been coming at me with armies of almost exclusively horsed men, same composition as mine - which is what I least want to fight. Especially gruesome has been the battles in the narrow valleys around Myzea where end-game armies have little room to maneuver and my army lacking any infantry to tank damage almost could not withstand the repeated battles

In just one of these battles I lost 50 of my 100 strong heavy cavalry.

One would've thought that word would spread, that despite having everything going for them to stop me, they were the ones to eventually break. But apparently the Southern Empire did not get the word -
Several castles later and I was besieging Jogurys, a much more open ground. I almost retreated when I saw the number that came walking towards me to defend the castle

then I spotted it, they brought only 300 horses to an open field battle

lmao

second round

third round

This day a total of 10 men of the Ögurêi Khaganate lost their lives.

 

[oldbonebrown]

The biggest flaw of how I have built my character is probably that he won't get the final Leadership perk as that would require a minimum of 7 points in Soc. Even though I find it cumbersome to command armies larger than 350 guys, that is not a good argument against morer being betterer. I should also have let a companion do the job of Scout so that I could get the final perk for that to make my army move faster on the world map.
Going two-handed instead of polearm is suboptimal since I lead a squad of Khan's Guard who use polearms for melee, but I simply prefer the two-handed weapon class.

Big hype for getting the final Medicine perk very soon +1hp to troops for every 2 skill points in medicine above 200
I really need a beefier army. Can't go around losing good men like this.

 

[oldbonebrown]

My mod stack if anyone is interested

Essentials to make mods run^

I recommend (Custom Spawns API+)LootersPlus, Dismemberment Plus, Fourberie, Realistic Weather, Responsive Soldiers, Improved Executions and AIExecutioner even for a vanilla playthrough.

LT_Nemesis is one that I just added, it makes enemy heroes shout curses at you on the battlefield. It is very good but also makes the game a little bit easier in that it makes Lords stand out more against their troops. A side effect is that it also changes the relationship system so that you have relations to individual lords instead of clans.

Improved Garrisons, DonateToGranary and Governors Handle Issues makes holding and managing a lot of towns a great deal less tedious. Possibly too easy if you are a masochist.

Diplomacy opens up a lot of small exploits to doing things which makes the game easier, but again, a lot less tedious. An example would be handing in quests by sending a messenger instead of traveling to the quest giver, or sending messengers to factions to quickly change your allegiance.

Improved Camels and Larger Camels is just fun, it makes camels a bit overpowered for the early game but that is needed because more camels on the battlefield is a great joy.

Simple Slow Motion fits very well into the game since there already is slow motion built in when commanding troops, but the mod of course allows you to be a complete degenerate in combat if you so wish. I like it for sitting on hills and just watching the combat rage on without having to have the command-UI cluttering the screen which I would otherwise constantly have to stay in slow motion.

Detailed Character Creation is sadly not much of an improvement over vanilla. Very slightly increases your choices in creating a character, currently crashes my game when I try to start a new campaign but works fine in the one I have going. Will not bother trying to make it work though it might just be a case of changing the load order.

 

[Zanzoken]

The biggest flaw of how I have built my character is probably that he won't get the final Leadership perk as that would require a minimum of 7 points in Soc. Even though I find it cumbersome to command armies larger than 350 guys, that is not a good argument against morer being betterer. I should also have let a companion do the job of Scout so that I could get the final perk for that to make my army move faster on the world map.
Going two-handed instead of polearm is suboptimal since I lead a squad of Khan's Guard who use polearms for melee, but I simply prefer the two-handed weapon class.

Big hype for getting the final Medicine perk very soon +1hp to troops for every 2 skill points in medicine above 200
I really need a beefier army. Can't go around losing good men like this.

Good reminder of how utterly shit-tastic this game's character system is.

It is rather awe-inspiring how they designed a system with

• Attributes
• Skills
• Feats
• Focus points / Learn-by-doing
• Personality traits

And yet ultimately every character ends up playing almost exactly the same regardless of attempted build.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Who is this arrogant prick bringing his pitiful warband against me?

He scarcely has more troops than I. Has he not heard of my deeds?

whelp

This is the fastest I've gone down in battle in a long while. It was surprisingly hard to find them on the map and when I eventually did cataphracts came at me from every angle.
My army of 100% fully upgraded noble cav and horse archers of course won on their own, but I lost a great deal more than in most battles.

I handed the guy over to ones of his enemies that cut him down to size.

 

[Ladonna]

What elements of this game are inferior to Warband?

 

[goregasm]

What elements of this game are inferior to Warband?

Now it's been a hot minute since I have played vanilla Warband, though I do have thousands of hours in it between mods and VC. I just reinstalled BL, but I always run it with RBM and DEI.

There is a fair amount of "fluff" still missing. Feasts I think. The companions are kinda shit, randomly generated with no personality or clashes.

I think the bandits types are lacking, folks seem to have issues, or at least did with enterprises. Every NPC/lord is sort of samey, quests were a bit lacking still. I literally just reinstalled yesterday so some of that could be changed

I think the battle side is good, a big emphasis on cav which I find boring, but I much prefer the RBM and DRM mods, sieges are fun.

It really depends on the type of warband player you are. I much preferred Brytenwalda and VC over Warband and I find Bannerlord fun but lacking in many of that more granular type of experience.


It came out as a mile wide and a foot deep, it's probably 3 feet deep now.

I don't think it's a bad experience but I do find myself losing interest in playthroughs more than I did with warband, that could be just due to M&B fatigue, I spent a ton of time on the franchise in the past 5 years between modding and playing.

 

[Ladonna]

What elements of this game are inferior to Warband?

Now it's been a hot minute since I have played vanilla Warband, though I do have thousands of hours in it between mods and VC. I just reinstalled BL, but I always run it with RBM and DEI.

There is a fair amount of "fluff" still missing. Feasts I think. The companions are kinda shit, randomly generated with no personality or clashes.

I think the bandits types are lacking, folks seem to have issues, or at least did with enterprises. Every NPC/lord is sort of samey, quests were a bit lacking still. I literally just reinstalled yesterday so some of that could be changed

I think the battle side is good, a big emphasis on cav which I find boring, but I much prefer the RBM and DRM mods, sieges are fun.

It really depends on the type of warband player you are. I much preferred Brytenwalda and VC over Warband and I find Bannerlord fun but lacking in many of that more granular type of experience.


It came out as a mile wide and a foot deep, it's probably 3 feet deep now.

I don't think it's a bad experience but I do find myself losing interest in playthroughs more than I did with warband, that could be just due to M&B fatigue, I spent a ton of time on the franchise in the past 5 years between modding and playing.

Thanks for that.

I still play Warband off and on between games. It is one of my go to relaxation games. I have played VC and Brytenwalda a few times, and also play a little Fire and Sword on the original game when the mood takes me. The sequel doesn't seem like it has enough going for it to bother picking it up yet. I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[whydoibother]

I think there's also a bit of a meta problem, like MMORPGs suffer:

If you actually try to RP, and go with the flow, and not plan or optimize, the SP still delivers.
The MP has the problem that StarCraft II or Quake 3 Arena had for me, where its difficulty to break into the existing community of killers, and its not very educational to just get pwnd repeatedly.
I'll do fine trying to hold back, ambush people, use thrown weapons, pick someone to move along with, etc, but I can clearly see that's not how others play, and if I just run into someone to 1v1 duel I get wrecked. And I for sure am not going to sit down and study how to be better at Bannerlord, if it doesn't happen naturally through play I won't work for it.

But the game itself is fine. Meta issues, I think.

 

[thesecret1]

The sequel doesn't seem like it has enough going for it to bother picking it up yet. I'll keep my eye on it.

The battles are a straight upgrade over Warband, amd substantial one at that. The balance is pretty garbage in places, but the core is great. My advice is wait for some of the big mods (In the name of Jerusalem 2, Shokudo, etc) to come out, as they're bound to fix balancing and provide a lot more interesting overworld - vanilla has a lot of issues there, but luckily, none of them seem like something that couldn't be fixed by mods.

If you actually try to RP, and go with the flow, and not plan or optimize, the SP still delivers.
The MP has the problem that StarCraft II or Quake 3 Arena had for me, where its difficulty to break into the existing community of killers, and its not very educational to just get pwnd repeatedly.
I'll do fine trying to hold back, ambush people, use thrown weapons, pick someone to move along with, etc, but I can clearly see that's not how others play, and if I just run into someone to 1v1 duel I get wrecked. And I for sure am not going to sit down and study how to be better at Bannerlord, if it doesn't happen naturally through play I won't work for it.

But the game itself is fine. Meta issues, I think.

Nah, the overworld is pretty bad. Plenty of features that Warband had are not present here, companions are generated and thus generic, economy was still broken last time I checked, lord AI is still retarded, etc. Now to be fair, Warband vanilla had many of these issues too, but that's why one didn't bother with vanilla, and instead played with mods.

 

[oldbonebrown]

The only thing that truly sucks about the game is how reinforcements work. If it was just that it sometimes spawned in enemy units on top of yours I could live with that, but the chaotic way it dumps your new reinforcements into your squads is just not workable.

If it's a serious battle you simply have to retreat once they arrive so that you can regroup, but the random reinforcements can make even a retreat hazardous.

Another aspect that makes the system suck is how you can't select which troops to bring into battle when there are too many units to spawn them all in. It can be very frustrating how I as the commander has no say in if I want to bring a sucky garrison into a battle over my elite cavalry just because I happen to be fighting near a castle.

 

[Zanzoken]

The only thing that truly sucks about the game is how reinforcements work. If it was just that it sometimes spawned in enemy units on top of yours I could live with that, but the chaotic way it dumps your new reinforcements into your squads is just not workable.

If it's a serious battle you simply have to retreat once they arrive so that you can regroup, but the random reinforcements can make even a retreat hazardous.

Another aspect that makes the system suck is how you can't select which troops to bring into battle when there are too many units to spawn them all in. It can be very frustrating how I as the commander has no say in if I want to bring a sucky garrison into a battle over my elite cavalry just because I happen to be fighting near a castle.

If you're only talking about the battle system, then yeah.

I would add that the way they tried to implement army battles doesn't really work. The friendly AI has no idea what it's doing, and since you only have a fraction of your troops available you can't do much to swing the tide of the battle. Joining up with a large army is great if you're looking to reduce payroll, otherwise it sucks ass.

There's also the rework they did to grouping where you have to fiddle around with sliders instead of just assigning troops to the groups you want. It's retarded and unnecessary to the point where I'm genuinely confused why anyone could ever think it was a good idea.

However, these are minor issues compared to the awful quality of the campaign and overall roleplaying experience. I am withholding final judgment until some of the big overhaul mods are released, but the devs fucked that part up so bad that I'll be surprised if the modders can fix it.

 

[oldbonebrown]

However, these are minor issues compared to the awful quality of the campaign and overall roleplaying experience. I am withholding final judgment until some of the big overhaul mods are released, but the devs fucked that part up so bad that I'll be surprised if the modders can fix it.

Though there are a myriad of ways they could be improved I have no major problem with the campaign and I have never had a better time roleplaying with a sp game than with this one.

 

[Zanzoken]

Congrats on being easily amused? I guess if you are content to autistically grind the same battles for 500 hours and create a LARP in your head for all of the stuff that would give any meaning to the fighting, then Bannerlord is all right.

 

[oldbonebrown]

The game is a very good canvas to project on, but it was was not easy at all to paint 800 hours of the same battles with as much meaning as I have. You seem to lack the roleplaying chops to do it.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Anyone still playing this? Is it still shit?

And I saw there's a big GoT mod being developed. Has anyone played it yet? Is it gud? Any other gud content mods?

 

[thesecret1]

Anyone still playing this? Is it still shit?

And I saw there's a big GoT mod being developed. Has anyone played it yet? Is it gud? Any other gud content mods?

All the big mods are still in their early stages. Playing them (the ones that released at all) is on par with being an alpha tester. There's quite a number of really good looking mods, but it'll be another two years or more before they'll release anything that can be considered a complete experience

 

[Akachi]

Honestly, it's sad to say Bannerlord would become much more playable if modders removed from it rather than add to it.

Gut the skill system, it's an abomination, make it a simple point and XP system like Warband and maybe make some of the perks automatic bonuses for certain skill levels and other things, like how Prisoner Management skill level is hidden and tied to party size in Viking Conquest, where Shield skill is also tied to Weapon Master the same way. Remove the formation system if possible, at least from players, and replace it with the simpler Warband system that actually lets you control your army and make your own groups and control your formations. Remove influence completely. Remove the AI lord personality traits that don't do anything but fool you into thinking they might, along with everything else that's similar. Etc.

Bannerlord feels like a piece of anemic abandonware trapped inside of bloatware, waiting to have its fat surgically removed to reveal the skeleton trapped within that yearns to be saved and built upon.

All the big mods are still in their early stages. Playing them (the ones that released at all) is on par with being an alpha tester. There's quite a number of really good looking mods, but it'll be another two years or more before they'll release anything that can be considered a complete experience

Can you list some of them? Any look particularly promising and likely to actually be finished one day?

 

[thesecret1]

Can you list some of them? Any look particularly promising and likely to actually be finished one day?

In the name of Jerusalem 2 and Shokuho both look like they'll be awesome. From fanasy side, The Old Realms (a Warhammer mod) looks pretty good and its early access can be played now. There's also that GoT mod, and a LotR one, although with that one I'm a bit sceptical whether it'll release.

The problem with the mods out there already is that they're all spending an enormous amount of time and effort on making beatiful and detailed models of armors and weapons to fit their setting instead of changing the mechanics, so you're left with essentially a vanilla reskin. This is likely why it's talking so damn long for anything good to come out - everyone's stuck making a gorillion assets. Also scale. Modders went crazy over how BIG they can make the map, so having 5x or more the amount of cities than vanilla isn't anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Zanzoken]

TCs are cool but honestly I'd be happy with a proper vanilla rebalance mod. Essentially "here is what the game would be if the devs were actually competent and good at game design".

The problem with 99% of projects like that is most modders aren't content to just fix the vanilla issues. They have to layer in a bunch of bullshit of their own, half of which is unnecessary or just adds clutter. That's how I always felt about the Floris mod for Warband, for example.

Even something that just reverted all Bannerlord systems back to Warband would be an improvement, as Akachi pointed out above.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

All the work that needs to be done and the best we get is Hot Butter.