Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[LESS T_T]

Multiplayer Captain Mode gameplay:

Captain Mode puts players in command of their own detachment of troops in multiplayer battles of up to 5 vs 5. Captain Mode puts players in command of their own detachment of troops in multiplayer battles of up to 5 vs 5.

 

[Metro]

That's nice... now when the fuck is this being released? Did they seriously go past yet another major gaming convention without giving any more details on a release date?

 

[Merlkir]

They're not going to announce a release date until the game is done, they said so in the last update.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

There's a western mod for Mount and Blade?!? How did I not know about this...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

There's a western mod for Mount and Blade?!? How did I not know about this...

Yeah for the original and warband.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[LESS T_T]

http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/2307387167872657888

Dev Blog 24/08/17

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Today we start a series of interviews with the different team members of TaleWorlds Entertainment. Every video game is the result of the combined efforts of professionals with very different skills, and that applies to Mount & Blade too. Ours is a varied team, with people from different backgrounds: programmers, artists, musicians and writers (among others) from different parts of the world and varying cultures. Understanding their tasks and their daily struggle is a great way to learn more about games development in general – and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord in particular! Today we start with TaleWorlds’ founder and CEO: Armagan Yavuz. Every important decision passes through his hands; he is the one that makes sure that everyone and everything stays true to the original vision of the game. But it will be much better if he tells you about it by himself!


NAME
Armagan Yavuz

FROM
Ankara (Turkey)

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2005 (founder)

EDUCATION
Computer Science

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Lead game designer and game director

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“Most of my day is taken up by meetings. In the time not occupied by meetings, I do my tours around the office, and most team members call me over to their desks to show their work and get feedback, or to ask a question. I also play the game for a couple of hours to see if there are any problems. I no longer code as much as I used to and most of my tasks about coding involve directing other programmers and doing code reviews, however every now and then there is something that picks my interest so much, I give it a shot.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“What I like most is seeing how, as the campaign progresses, you as a player write your own story. I am also looking forward to finishing the game and seeing what kinds of mods will come out.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Looking back, the biggest challenge for me was deciding on the general directions to take early in Bannerlord’s development. Should we take the game to have a more fully fledged storyline, or should we aim for huge but less detailed battles? Should we drop the dynamic text and go for full voice over?

Decisions had to be made on the technical side too. We first needed to select which scripting system to use: C# (we picked this at the end), Lua, or something we would roll on our own. And then we had to decide how much of the code we wanted to move from our existing codebase and rewrite in the scripts. (At the end we ended up leaving only the combat engine and lowest level combat AI and write everything else in C#) We then needed to decide how to structure various components, how mods would work, etc.

Some decisions turned out to be exactly right while some caused problems and we had to backtrack and change them, costing a lot of time and effort. For example, we went through three different UI libraries and had to implement some screens several times over.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Today I worked on the design of how army coherence will be affected as an army stays in the field for a long time, and how a player can keep it together longer by arranging its composition and spending influence.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“I like to play with Empire, because they are going through a period of crisis, and their situation presents interesting questions and opportunities for the player.”

HAVE YOU TAKEN MAJOR INSPIRATION FROM ANY REAL (OR FICTIONAL) PLACES?
“Back when I had started working on the very first prototypes of Mount & Blade, I had the great fortune of seeing this from our window:

That’s Yoros castle, which is a majestic fortification that guards the northern approach to the Bosphorus. I have always been interested in historical places and over the years I was able to visit some wonderful examples, but I think that particular castle was the biggest inspiration instilling in me a great respect and interest in medieval craftsmanship and way of life.”

 

[Merlkir]

Mmm, Empire. Armagan knows what's up!

 

[LESS T_T]

This week's devblog is Gamescom roundup: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1441570767896168674

Dev Blog 31/08/17

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week's blog we would like to reflect on our experience at Gamescom 2017 and discuss our new multiplayer game mode, Captain Mode, which we invited visitors to play in a hands-on demo in Cologne. We are becoming quite the regulars at Gamescom, with this being our third time attending, however each visit has acted as a completely unique learning experience that has helped us to refine and improve both the game, and the way we go about approaching these kinds of events.

At this year's Gamescom we showcased multiplayer in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord for the first time. This is an aspect of the game which we have been working very hard to improve on. We recently announced that Bannerlord will feature a matchmaking system for the first time in the Mount & Blade series, with our aim being to offer players a fairer and more challenging multiplayer experience. We hope to expand upon and improve the existing game modes featured in previous Mount & Blade titles, while still offering something new and exciting.



Captain Mode puts players in command of their own detachment of AI troops in multiplayer team-based PvP battles. We designed the game mode to leave room for individual player skill to shine through, however teamwork and strategy will always put a team at a massive advantage on their path to victory. There are two ways in which teams can win the game: either through eliminating the entire opposing force, or by dominating the battlefield by holding flags. Flags are removed from the battlefield over time, the order in which can be influenced by the players, until there is only one flag remaining, which really concentrates the combat in to a climactic finale.

The feedback we got from our guests at Gamescom was amazing! Players really seemed to enjoy the pace of the combat and the tactical options on offer. We were also overjoyed to see how some players naturally started to communicate between themselves, organising strategies and coordinating team builds in an effort to win. This is precisely what we had hoped for when designing the game mode and it was really exciting to see the players respond in this way.

As with many other areas of our game, this game mode is still very much a work in progress. The UI for example is something that we are still working on and we are aware needs some improvement. We settled for something that would provide the players with all of the basic information that they would need for the demo and allow us to focus more on the actual gameplay.

It was amazing to see so many familiar faces at Gamescom, from our friends at Warhorse Studios (thanks for the beers guys!), to a couple of people who are a little closer to our hearts, and who we personally invited to come and test the game: “Purzelblume” and “Peter”!

It was great to be able to let two of our key community members test the game and give us their feedback in an honest and open dialogue. If you want to hear what they thought of the game then you should make sure to check out the interviews we conducted with them at the event.

Purzelblume Interview
Peter Interview



During the event we were invited to take part in a livestream with GameStar[www.gamestar.de] and Twitch[www.twitch.tv] which we thoroughly enjoyed. The videos from those streams can be found below.



Twitch VOD[www.twitch.tv]

Overall we feel that the event went extremely well. The feedback was great and players really seemed to be enjoying themselves while playing. This was the first time that we let players record their own footage from the game and we are confident that there will be some videos coming out in the near future which will show those of you who were unable to visit our booth just how exciting and fun Captain Mode is.



In next week's blog we will be talking to Ceren Üstündağ, Lead Programmer of the Campaign Team. If you have a question you would like to ask her then leave a reply to this post and we will pick one out to feature in the blog.

 

[Metro]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[LESS T_T]

This week is Q&A with campaign team lead programmer: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1441571497971353722

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Mount & Blade features a unique single player mode: instead of closely following a storyline, we want players to experience their own unique adventure on each playthrough. This presents us with a great challenge on both the narrative and technical fronts. We have to make different places, missions, characters and systems capable of responding dynamically to what the player wants to do, creating a rich and deep emergent narrative. As the lead programmer of the Campaign Team, Berat Ceren Üstündağ’s job is to implement these systems to create a campaign that can truly react to the player and allow them to be the captain of their own destiny.


NAME
Berat Ceren Üstündağ

FROM
Ankara (Turkey)

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2012

EDUCATION
Computer Science

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Lead Programmer (Campaign Team)

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“Mostly, I’m working on non-battle scenes like tournaments, towns, villages, taverns etc. For NPC agents, I work directly with the animators – we are trying to make them feel as real as possible so that you get the sense of a living world while walking around the streets of towns and villages. I also collaborate with the artists - I prepare scripted entities for them, and then they use these entities to prepare a scene for a game mission. Apart from that, I implement quests and work on some other campaign features.

I have short meetings twice a week with the rest of the campaign team, and there are times when I attend design meetings to discuss the technical details of game features.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I think I like the randomness of the world the most. There are factions, nobles and notables, relations between them, settlements with different specialities... All of these aspects change from game to game and we cannot know exactly where players will be and what they will face in that kind of unstructured gameplay. For example, our common quests are dynamically created by the current state of the world. This means that we don’t just spawn in characters or create the conditions for a quest, but rather that the game looks to see what is currently happening and offers a mission based on what is available.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“I think the most difficult part is trying to keep every feature moddable. This is something that we have to constantly keep in mind while we are adding a new feature or maintaining an implemented part of the game.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Currently I’m working on quests.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“I like all of them, but if I had to pick one it would be Battania. I enjoy the atmosphere of that faction's towns and villages.”

HAVE ANY CHANGES BEEN MADE TO THE RECRUITMENT SYSTEM?
“There have been many changes to the recruitment system. First of all, players can recruit base troops only from notables of fiefs. Some notables even provide higher level troops, such as archers or infantry, rather than just recruits. Depending on the relations with that particular NPC, they can provide a reduction in the recruitment cost or offer more troops for the player to hire.

Some special troops, such as Vlandian Knights, represent minor nobility. These kinds of units have completely different troop trees. In the instance of Vlandian Knights, they can only be upgraded from Vlandian Squires, who in turn can only be recruited from NPC nobles. With this in mind, it is wise to maintain good relations with Vlandian nobles if your eventual aim is to have Vlandian Knights in your party.

However, that’s not to say that you are restricted from acquiring heavy cavalry if your relations with the Vlandian nobility is too poor. You will still have access to Vlandian Men-at- arms, who are almost as skilled as Knights but aren’t as heavily armoured.”


In next week's blog we will be talking with Murat Türe, Lead Programmer of the Game Engine Team. If you have a question you would like to ask him then please leave a reply to this post and we will select one for him to answer.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

“There have been many changes to the recruitment system. First of all, players can recruit base troops only from notables of fiefs. Some notables even provide higher level troops, such as archers or infantry, rather than just recruits. Depending on the relations with that particular NPC, they can provide a reduction in the recruitment cost or offer more troops for the player to hire.

Some special troops, such as Vlandian Knights, represent minor nobility. These kinds of units have completely different troop trees. In the instance of Vlandian Knights, they can only be upgraded from Vlandian Squires, who in turn can only be recruited from NPC nobles. With this in mind, it is wise to maintain good relations with Vlandian nobles if your eventual aim is to have Vlandian Knights in your party.

This looks like they are being influenced by the Prophesy of Pendor. If that's true, then it's great for a game future

 

[LESS T_T]

This week's devlog is Q&A with lead engine programmer: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/3244137880934579683

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

A game engine is one of the core components of a computer game. Licensed game engines tend to offer a flexible approach to game development by providing a variety of options and features for a wide range of genres. However, developing your own game engine allows you to create exactly what you need for the task at hand. Granted, it is a monumental task to undertake, but we feel that the benefits far outweigh the time, energy and financial investments required to produce something which will allow us to achieve our goals and ultimately improve the quality of the final product. Our engine, which was built entirely in-house, focuses on the crucial needs of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. It is tailored to helping the game reach its full potential, which is something that would be hard to accomplish with another engine. This is what our engine team tries to achieve. Smooth gameplay, big battles and great visuals are their primary ambition. Murat Türe, Lead Programmer of the engine team, works on making Bannerlord optimised, moddable and huge, while retaining all of the key features which made our previous games so successful.


NAME
Murat Türe

FROM
Ankara, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2013

EDUCATION
Computer Engineer

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Lead Programmer (Game Engine Team)

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“When I arrive at the office, the first thing I do is check my mail. I am in constant communication with each department of the development team to ensure that any issues relating to my work are highlighted. Then I proceed to check any newly opened reports from the QA team, who work tirelessly to find any problems with the game and the engine. Following that I check the previous night's automated performance test reports, which we use to gather data over a period of time to help us monitor game stability and to check the impact on performance that any recent changes have had. After gathering all of this information I relay it within my team so that we can resolve any problems and make improvements to the engine.

Throughout the day, I attend code design meetings, work on code reviews and write additional code in my spare time. I also create my own performance profiles for the game using various configurations. For example, I will test huge infantry sieges to record the performance of a very specific situation. I will then repeat the tests using cavalry or ranged units to track any changes.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“My happiest moments while developing the game are when a new optimisation is working and I see the FPS counter rise. We are striving to make the game run as smoothly as possible on a wide range of systems and it gives me great satisfaction and pride in my team to see how the game is constantly improving.

Visually I really enjoy our new cloth simulation system, but I must admit that the particle effects in big battles are my favourite.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Improving stability, performance and visual quality at the same time, without sacrificing any of them. We devised a way to handle this using a detailed integration system, lots of automation, and with our hard working QA team!”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Currently, I am checking and improving the performance of medium to very low hardware configurations. It is important to us that players get to experience a smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience. We are constantly trying to refine the engine to ensure that this is the case.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“My favourite faction in the game would have to be Khuzait, for cultural reasons.”

HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE ENGINE FOR BANNERLORD TO THE ORIGINAL ONE?
“I will try to explain the major improvements with respect to the old engine.

The rendering and postFX system has been revamped. We have a Physically Based Rendering engine which ensures that the materials in the game are visually appealing and consistent. Better Depth of Field, High Dynamic Range imaging, Screen Space Reflection and Ambient Occlusion techniques have been added and optimized. A GPU simulated cloth system has been introduced, (which has a general material system that supports different kinds of meshes,) enhancing the animations and visuals of the game.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord relies even more on CPU usage than Warband. Hundreds of characters, more advanced animations, an Inverse Kinematics system, individual AI, formation AI, combat calculations, (which do not change in respect to distance or visibility,) and many other requirements really increase the burden on the CPU. In order to accommodate this, our optimisation efforts are more heavily focused on the CPU. We generally try to use Data Oriented Design, which enables us to achieve high amounts of parallelism and core usage. Currently, 60-70% of the frame is fully parallel, which means it can, and will, use all of the cores of current and next gen CPUs for the foreseeable future, (the old engine generally used to use 1, or at most 2 cores.) This means that as new, higher core count CPUs begin to emerge, Bannerlord will scale well with the new hardware and players will be able to test bigger and denser battles. Currently our aim for battle sizes on current generation high end gaming CPUs is at 800 characters, at 60FPS.

The size of scenes is generally around 4 km square, which is much larger than in Warband, and scene creation is much faster. We developed lots of new editing tools for objects, terrain and flora for the scene designers to use. We have an advanced terrain system which can support up to 16 layers per scene, with no restriction on layers used per node. Also, the designers now have access to a scene upgrade level system, (a scene masking system which is used in siege scenes to allow level 1-3 castles to be placed in one scene,) and a new weather system, (which is used for creating different weather versions of the scene.) With all of the CPU and hard drive optimisations we try to achieve <1 second loading times on these bigger scenes.”

 

[Grampy_Bone]

That's nice, when's the release date?

 

[LESS T_T]

This week's devblog is more exciting, it's about modding support: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1464090667824385857

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Mods have always been a huge part of the Mount & Blade experience. Over the years, our talented and dedicated modding community has created some amazing mods which have expanded on concepts and features in our game, such as Diplomacy[forums.taleworlds.com] and Pre-Battle Orders and Deployment[forums.taleworlds.com], or completely overhauled the game to create unique and engaging gaming experiences, such as Brytenwalda[forums.taleworlds.com] and Prophecy of Pendor[forums.taleworlds.com]. Some of them have brought RPG elements and character progression into a multiplayer setting, (Persistent World[forums.taleworlds.com], cRPG[c-rpg.net]) while others are just plain silly and fun, (Gangs of Glasgow[forums.taleworlds.com]).

In this week’s blog we would like to reach out to our modding community by answering a selection of questions from our official forums[forums.taleworlds.com] which were compiled by a key member of our community, our modding moderator “Duh”.


1. What language will be used for modding?
We are using C# as the scripting language. Data files are generally formatted in XML.

2. Which IDE will have support (like Visual Studio Express) from TW?
You can use any version of Visual Studio 2015 (e.g. Community edition)

3. Can you provide us with screenshots and/or a list and description of the various tools that you use and that may be made available to modders?
Scene editor
Mesh editor
Material editor
Model/Animation viewer
Skeleton editor
Replay editor
Particle editor
Atmosphere Editor
Cloth editor
Path editor
Resource Browser

Also, the runtime performance profile tools that we use will be available for modders. They will be able to check the performance impact of their changes.

4. Will modding tools be made available prior to release and/or as part of an early access?
Not decided.

5. Will we have a TW developer working with the community to support modding (learning, tools, tutorials, feedback, etc.)?
We will share a documentation site and we are planning to make some tutorial videos. Also, we will be taking feedback and engaging with users on our forums.

6. With Warband the list of hardcoded features lessened as time progressed. Will this be the same for Bannerlord as you decide over time what should and shouldn't be hardcoded?
Most probably.

7. Will there be an in-game/engine tool/camera to create FMV sequences?
We will provide a replay editor.

8. Will we be able to launch/select several mods (like elder scroll games) or it will be one module at a time (like Warband)?
The game will support multiple mods at the same time.

9. How will (texture) folder structure be handled? Is it still a single folder like in Warband with all textures placed together or will it have subfolders for things like ground textures, armours and such? And if so will the subfolders name and structures be moddable?
You can use any number of folders for resources but it is a flat system, so we don’t support subfolders within folders.

10. How is the code split between hard-coded (engine) and modsys (open to the modding community)? What level of access do we have to the game UI code, AI, etc.? Could you provide us with an example of what will likely remain hard-coded?
Unlike Warband, the vanilla game scripts will not be directly modifiable by modders. However, it will be possible for modders to add new scripts as plugins and also have modifications for XML data files. In Warband, we had the problem that, whenever we released a new version or patch, almost all existing mods would immediately become incompatible with the new version and modders had to go through the lengthy process of reapplying their changes on the new version’s scripts. Moreover, it was impossible for players to run multiple mods in conjunction. The new system will make modders’ lives much easier and also support multiple mods.

By changing XML files, it will be possible to modify or add/delete most types of game objects such as items, characters, factions etc. Of course it will also be possible to add new assets such as meshes or textures.

Modders will be able to add new campaign behaviours, mission behaviours and quests. Campaign behaviours are executed while the player is spending time on the campaign map, whereas mission behaviours are executed when the player is in a scene. For example, if you want to create some extra bandit parties every few days, you can do that with a campaign behaviour.

Modders will also be able to change most of the formulas used in the game. For example, if you want to add a special item that makes you move faster on map, you will add the item through an xml file, and also modify the formula for campaign map speed so that it returns a higher number if a party is in possession of the said item.

Modders who want to change an existing behavior (like party members deserting when morale is low) will have two options: Either they will modify the default formula, or if that’s not adequate for some reason, they will be able to disable the default behavior entirely and add a new one from scratch.

11. Will we be able to seed a randomized number? This is highly important in order to seed a randomized process and utilize pseudo-data. Is it possible to procedurally generate the terrain/towns/castles/villages/NPCs?
You can use random seeds and any kind of random number generator.

12. How has the Dialogue system been improved? Is the Dialogue system dynamic?
There is a very powerful string processing system, (you can pretty much embed programs into the string itself.) Dialogs, game menus, and everything text related can make use of that.

13. How many factions can this system support? Are there easy mechanisms to create/modify factions?
You can add as many factions as you like. Technically, creating factions is just a method call, but of course making them interesting would be the harder part!

14. Will battlefield AI (Both the troop AI and the strategic AI) be accessible or hardcoded?
Lowest-level troop AI is hard-coded, but you can customize it somewhat by changing aggressiveness, maximum speed etc. You can also give AI target movement points.

Formation AI and overall battle AI is extendable and modders can add new tactics and AI behaviours.

15. Will troop and party pathfinding AI be accessible or hardcoded?
Pathfinding will be hardcoded. You can turn faces on/off in a navigation mesh though, so there are ways to control path-finding behaviour.

16. Assuming that the AI takes into account terrain - will we be able to translate this understanding of the battle scene into a graphical representation? In other words, while you decided against a minimap in the main game, do you intend to provide us with a framework and/or operations that will enable us to generate a simplified visual representation of unit locations, terrain details and possibly even AI strategy?
It will be possible to draw graphical primitives on screen. Also, one can render multiple scenes on the screen for other uses. (As long as they are lightweight, they won’t affect the overall performance that much).

17. Will there be greater control over the core variables and Booleans of the core combat mechanic? For example, will we be able to directly edit the code used for horse charge damage, hit detection, AI movement and so on?
It will be possible to change certain variables, but a lot of constants may remain hard-coded.

18. Will it be possible to alter where the AI aims with ranged weapons?
You can give them an entity to target.

19. Is it possible to combine designed elements with procedurally generated elements into the same scene?
Of course. Script components can be used to add, alter or remove stuff from the scene. Materials, other scripts, physics and polygon attributes can be changed at run time.

20. How does the AI pathfinding work? Will sceners have to create AI meshes for their scenes?
Yes, scene makers will need to create navigation meshes. The scene editor has a tool to create the nav-mesh automatically but results vary and we generally prefer to create them manually.

21. Is there an inbuilt method to voxelize the scene in order to use cheap ray-tracing for global illumination?
No.

22. Are seasonal effects generated or will they have to be manually added? Will it be possible to preview them in the editor?
You can definitely preview what the scene will look like in different seasons and different atmosphere settings in the editor. You can set alternative terrain materials and alternative foliage for different seasons. It’s all very customizable.

23. Will it be possible to make caves/ tunnels in the map/scene editor? Will it be possible to alter terrain during play and/or will modders have the tools to enable/alter such a functionality?
For tunnels and caves you need meshes, the terrain system does not support them. We do not currently support dynamic changes to terrain height-maps during the game.

24. What is the biggest scene the editor can handle?
Depends on the power of the computer and available RAM. Our typical scenes are not too large because we want scenes to load quickly and not take an excessive amount of hard disk space. We experimented with larger scenes on a few occasions but this is not something that’s a priority.

25. Do you think the level editor will support multi-user working? I.e. Cooperative scening over a server.
No. The editor does not support that.

26. How will movable scene props/objects be handled? Will they meet the same limitations as they currently have in Warband (e.g. polycount, collision detection, etc.)?
The physics objects for dynamic rigid bodies will have some polygon count restrictions.

27. Will we be able to simulate the flow of time in a scene without forcing a re-entry? (Morning-Noon-Evening-Night)
The atmosphere system is not designed to update in real-time, so you cannot simulate that without stutters. Maybe you can darken the screen, change the atmosphere and then do a fade in.

28. How will scene files be organized and managed in Bannerlord? Will terrain codes and scene prop files remain separated?
We divide scene files into two groups. One is the editable data for the scene editor (some binary, some text) and the other one is loading time optimised binary files.

29. Is Armour created the same way as you have shown the weapons to be created?
The crafting system only works for melee weapons. Armour, shields, bows and crossbows cannot be crafted.

30. Does this mean that creation of arms and armour now are internal to the game superstructure and if so, does this support independent artists from adding their own weapons and armour to the game?
Crafted and non-crafted items are added in different ways, but modders can add both. For crafting, modders can easily add new crafting parts. They can also add new weapons by editing an xml file only, specifying which parts the new item is made of.

31. Will we be able to add custom skeletons and new bones? If yes, would it be able to support static object bones for real time animations (e.g. destruction effects)?
Yes, you can add custom skeletons to meshes.

32. Any information on model dimensions etc.? Poly count?
Poly count is very varied but we use LOD meshes heavily.

33. Any information on average texture sizes? Will 4k be supported?
Average texture size is 2k. You can add 4K textures to the game.

34. Will every piece of equipment have physics options (tassels, cloth, etc.), including weapons?
Not every piece probably, but modders can add it to all types of equipment. Weapons can have them as cosmetic only, so no flails with cloth system.

35. Will we have access to shader source files?
Not decided.

36. What level of moddability can we expect for the new PBR engine? PBR relies less on the shaders and textures themselves and more on skymaps, screenspace posteffects, and the location and detail of lights. Can we expect to be able to implement dynamic GI, for example? Can we expect GI and SSR at all?
We have good variety of post effects, and you can probably add new post effects. We have SSR. It should be possible to add dynamic GI in theory but in practice it can be very hard or even impossible.

37. Can we force certain body parts/bones to play specific animations and apply ragdoll physics on them? (Useful to simulate various injuries on different body parts)
Sorry, the game engine does not support that.

38. What modelling/viewing program(s) will or should be used for Bannerlord?
For basic polygonal modelling, our artists use mainly Max, Maya and Blender and we will document work flows for these. We also use a ton of other tools for sculpting, painting textures, viewing etc.

39. What tools support animating campaign map icons?
We have some script components, which can add simple looping animations to entities in any scene. It is not as complicated as the animation system of characters in battles.


In next week’s blog we will be talking to Meriç Neşeli, QA Lead and Game Designer. If you have a question you would like to ask then please leave a reply in the comment section and we will pick one out for him to answer.

 

[LESS T_T]

Q&A with QA: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1487735200390658855

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Before a product goes to market, it is important that it has been thoroughly tested to confirm that it is working as intended and that it will meet the expectations of the end user. This is especially true for PC games, which are targeted at wide range of hardware and software configurations, with the aim of providing users with unique, fun and engaging gaming experiences. This is where the unsung heroes of the gaming industry step in, quality assurance (QA) testers. The role of a QA tester is to identify and report any issues with the game, ranging from game-breaking bugs through to obscure and hard to replicate glitches. This is often repetitive and tedious work, but it is vital in order to ensure the quality of the final product. In this week’s blog we talk with QA Lead and Game Designer, Meriç Neşeli, who oversees our dedicated and hardworking QA team.


NAME
Meriç Neşeli

FROM
Istanbul, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
February 2015

EDUCATION
Computer Engineering

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
QA Lead and Game Designer

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“In the morning I organise and allocate the day’s assignments for the rest of my team. Our daily tests revolve around testing features for both the game and the game engine. We test the functionality of newly added features and track general development day-by-day to ensure that the game is still stable after changes to the code.

In the afternoon I attend a meeting with members of our various teams. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the development process and establish which features need our immediate attention in testing. Naturally, the QA team gets to spend a lot more time playing Bannerlord than the rest of our colleagues which means that we have a somewhat deeper understanding of the current state of the game than others. We get to see the long term effects of design decisions and offer our feedback. If a feature is still interesting after hundreds of hours of gameplay then that is a good indication that the right decision was made during the design stage.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I like a wide variety of things about the game; battle strategy, the teamwork required in multiplayer, the different factions - each with their own distinctive culture... There is just too much that I enjoy to narrow it down to a single choice.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Balancing troops. In Bannerlord, each faction has their own unique troops. Although unique troops offer some advantages over regular troops, we still have to strike a balance with how these units compare to similar troops within their own faction, and how they will perform against units from each of the other factions.

Each faction has their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to army compositions. For example, Empire’s core units are heavy infantry, which are more durable than other infantry in Calradia. We need to select their perks and equipment in a way which will provide them with this advantage, yet exposes them to risk. In this case, the weakness of heavy infantry is shock infantry, such as the Falxmen of Battania. A good strategy to employ with Empire is to use infantry and ranged units in close proximity so that they can provide support to each other against their counter troop types.

Another balancing issue is the cost of troops, which is set according to the power of the unit. In Captain Mode we had to handle this a little differently because money doesn’t feature in this game mode. We decided to alter the troop count instead of the price, with the reasoning that all players have the same amount of funds and therefore the stronger units should have fewer soldiers because their recruitment and upkeep costs would be higher.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Answering these blog questions, (just kidding!) I'm currently working on setting civilian equipment for lords. Lords will wear helmets and heavy armour in battle, but you will see the same lords wearing robes or silk tunics in a lord's hall. The aim of this is to make the world feel more realistic and immersive.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“Battania. Battanians have tattoos and battle paints giving them the look and feel of Celts. They have well skilled, armoured archers and many of their troops use two-handed weapons, (the archers included!) I find the atmosphere in their large and sparsely populated cities to be fascinating, and even though the cities are mostly ruinous, walking around them feels relaxed.”

WHAT KIND OF PROCESSES DO YOU GO THROUGH WHILE TESTING SCENES AND CAMPAIGN?
“There are two types of tests which we use. The first one is automated tests which are run by code. Some of them are unit tests, others performance tests, there are visual tests, etc. We have several computers running these tests at all times. The second type of tests are manual tests, which are performed by the QA team. We prepared a document for manual tests which includes testing steps for each scene and feature. We currently have 5 people working in the QA team and we focus our work on our field of experience, for example the editor tester checks engine features daily.”

WHAT WAS ONE OF THE STRANGEST OR FUNNIEST BUGS THAT YOU’VE EXPERIENCED DURING QA?
“There was a bug at one stage where everyone in towns, some of them naked, madly started attacking the player! The screenshots came out to be almost like a renaissance painting.”

 

[Shin]

i dont give a shit about their fucking updates if ithe game itself isnt releasing within 2 years

working ages on a game doesn't make it good per se, just ask cleve

and I wouldnt be mad if they were doing mad insanely ambitious shit; but instead they're pretty much retexturing fucking M&B:w;

WHAT THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG?!

 

[JarlFrank]

How do these faggots even have the budget to delay the game this long? I know M&B sold like hotcakes but come on, seriously? Don't they wanna release it finally so they can get more money?

 

[Metro]

WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS GAME?!?!? COME THE FUCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Saxon1974]

How do these faggots even have the budget to delay the game this long? I know M&B sold like hotcakes but come on, seriously? Don't they wanna release it finally so they can get more money?

I wonder that too. Warband was how long ago like 7 years? Can't be selling that much after first year or so.

 

[Metro]

Doesn'tmeananything = resident Taleworlds shill?

 

[Toffeli]

WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS GAME?!?!? COME THE FUCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe Erdoğan is holding it as a hostage to punish us filthy Europeans.

 

[Latelistener]

WHAT THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG?!

Console versions, maybe. They want to release it simultaneously on all platforms, just like Warwhorse with their Deliverance.

 

[Valky]

They're going after the console audience when the series started on PC. I had hope 3 years ago that this would be a great game but now I only expect it to be sewage.

 

[Nutria]

Now they're taking Americans hostage to exchange for Gulen. The treacherous bastards. Next they'll say they won't release this game until they've got their hands on him.