Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Merlkir]

Bannerlord is not currently being developed for consoles.

edit: I could be wrong, there were a few small sites reporting development on Consoles in 2015, but it seemed quite suspicious and no details were given.

There was 0 info on consoles since then.

 

[Valky]

Warband console port, if they aren't making one now for bannerlord, they sure as fuck will the moment it releases.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Years ago I was hyped for this...

 

[Merlkir]

Why is hype important?

People say that like it means something. Manage your expectations like adults and enjoy whatever comes your way.

 

[Dakka]

Why is hype important?

People say that like it means something. Manage your expectations like adults and enjoy whatever comes your way.

If people were that sensible, preorders would not be nearly so common.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why is hype important?

Spoiler

ELEX!

 

[LESS T_T]

Now they talk about gameplay: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1457336536714336332

Dev Blog 05/10/17

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week’s blog we would like to talk about an aspect of the game which many of you have requested we talk about for quite some time now: singleplayer. We decided that the most interesting way to do this would be to discuss different features and mechanics from the campaign in their own dedicated blogs. We hope that, over time, we can touch on many of the key aspects of the sandbox and give you all a better understanding of what to expect in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

In a previous blog[www.taleworlds.com] we briefly discussed a mechanic which is new to the Mount & Blade series, influence. Influence acts as a kind of currency in the game and can be earned by serving your kingdom in various ways: destroying bandits or enemy parties, raiding, capturing enemy settlements etc. Influence points can be spent to determine the outcome of some faction decisions and to make requests to allied lords. We have already shown you that influence can be spent to ask an allied lord to follow you, but one thing we are yet to discuss is how players can use our new army gathering system to perform this action on a grander scale.

So how does this work? Well, each allied lord has an influence cost based on the power of their party. Players can spend their influence points to summon allied lords to form their own army. It is the leader of the army which gains all of the influence for the army’s victorious deeds, e.g. capturing a city will result in a huge influence boon for the leader, so spending influence to build an army is actually an investment, and sometimes even a gamble. If an army leader can no longer afford to spend influence then the army will start to disband.

Army influence upkeep cost is based on several factors:

• If the army morale is high, then upkeep costs are lower (and vice versa)
  
• Distance from their hometowns, how long they have been fighting etc.
  
• Relations between the army commander and lords

As long as the army is successful in their efforts and the lord commander is keeping the other lords happy, then the army can go on marching for a long time. But if things don’t go so well, the army will quickly dissolve and lords will decide to abandon the campaign and return to their own lands.

When an army is gathered it becomes almost like a moving settlement, with its own UI overlay on the campaign map. The UI shows:

• Army morale
  
• Lords and their parties
  
• Food supplies
  
• Marching speed (players can see factors affecting the marching speed from a tooltip)

The UI also shows portraits of the lords which are currently a part of the army and their current relations with the player. Deep red means that they despise you, whereas bright green means that they are your favourite drinking buddy! If a lord has answered the summons and is travelling to join your army, or if they are currently away from the army on a mission, their portrait will appear greyed out with an indicator displaying their distance from the army’s current position, which is measured in days of travelling time. If you are an army commander you can click on a portrait to talk with a lord and give them a task to perform, such as scout ahead, bring food, bring reinforcements, bring horses, etc. You can dismiss lords to send them back to defend their lands or to trim the army and better manage your influence upkeep costs. If you are a member of an army, the army commander or other lords might have their own missions for you.

Another aspect of the new army system is that armies use pooled resources to support their campaigns. This means that if one lord brings some food, butter, for instance, then the rest of the army will be fed. Likewise, horses and mules are shared, increasing the movement speed of the entire army.

This new system allows for all lords to call on other allied lords and build their own army. Because of the large influence costs, it is of course easier for a king to do this, however there will certainly be times when some powerful lords will have more influence and money than their liege and will be able to amass their own powerful armies to take on a campaign. It also makes it possible for players to try their hand at army management relatively early in the game, before they have had a chance to climb to the top of a kingdom.

We feel that the new influence and army gathering systems better simulate the historical feudal system. When the player becomes part of a kingdom, they have obligations to their liege. This system allows players to pay for the benefits of being a lord by supporting their liege and fellow lords in military campaigns while building up influence within the realm to serve their own purposes.

In next week’s blog we will talk with Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. If you have a question you would like to ask her about her work, please leave a reply in the comment section and we will pick one out for her to answer.

 

[deama]

I donno about u guys but I'm skipping all these spoiler news and spoiler dev blogs!

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I donno about u guys but I'm skipping all these spoiler news and spoiler dev blogs!

I've never seen someone considering a feature to be something that can be spoiled. I don't think they've said anything about any sort of story campaign

 

[deama]

I donno about u guys but I'm skipping all these spoiler news and spoiler dev blogs!

I've never seen someone considering a feature to be something that can be spoiled. I don't think they've said anything about any sort of story campaign

If I don't know anything about the game's features then I can't simulate them in my head = still excited.

 

[Dakka]

I donno about u guys but I'm skipping all these spoiler news and spoiler dev blogs!

I wouldn't worry too much about that. One of the greatest advantages to the Warband formula is that it is very spoiler-resistant, especially when compared to more plot-driven games. If the emergent gameplay of Bannerlord will be even half as good as promised, it's basically a non-issue.

 

[DosBuster]

https://steamdb.info/app/261550/graphs/

Seems they're doing quite a bit of testing. We won't get a release date, they said they're going to be releasing to Early Access first (or at least mentioned they were considering it).

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I hope they will add robust economy and fiefs management system. That was the thing Warband lacked the most.

 

[Zanzoken]

The army management thing sounds promising. It was a major headache to get AI lords to work with you in M&B even if you were high renown, the marshall, and had good relationships.

Although creating a new system for this seems like overkill. Just set it so AI lords who agree to follow you are put under your direct control and it achieves the same purpose.

 

[Bohrain]

I hope they will add robust economy and fiefs management system. That was the thing Warband lacked the most.

That and it bothered me that there was really no incentive to develop your fiefs beyond buying silkworks and maybe one prison tower. Particularly bothersome for villages since you always get one in the borderline so building anything or buying cattle is never worth it, especially considering the opportunity costs.

 

[LESS T_T]

This week's dev blog is about horse armor (and a Q&A with an artist as they promised): http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1451707763642732866

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

A video game is made up of a number of key components which come together to create an interactive experience for the player. At the core lies the calculations and scripts which make the game operate and respond to the player’s input, but on the outer layer these operations need to be represented to the player in a way which makes sense and is easy to digest. This is where Graphic Artists step in, turning the cold plethora of numbers in to graphical representations of actions, characters and places to make the game visually come to life.

In this week’s blog we talk to Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. Nadide works on a number of different visual aspects of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, helping to relay information from the game to the player, in an immersive and appealing way.


NAME
Fatma Nadide Öçba

FROM
Kocaeli / Maşukiye, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2013

EDUCATION
Electrical Electronics Engineering + MSc in Medical Imaging (KTH, Stockholm) + 3D Modelling (Future Games Academy, Stockholm)

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
2D/3D Graphic Artist

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“My workflow consists of a number of steps to get an item from the design stage all the way through in to the game. I start by doing extensive research for references, with the vast majority of these being historical items, and they could be anything: books, pens, horse harnesses, torches, you name it… Then I prepare sketches or sometimes I photo bash, (this is a process where I gather photos which have the right colours, angles and references and then paint over them.) Following this I get approval from the game directors and turn these into 3D models for use in the game.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I am a big fan of the really nice level designs, as well as the new game features. Each time there is a new shader, the game looks more beautiful.

Also, when I saw the effects of the cloth physics for the first time I was so hyped! Seeing the clothes and armours move according to world physics was so satisfying.

I also love playing with the atmosphere settings, it makes the props look realistic, (I love testing my horse harnesses with the atmosphere, they look so shiny… so precioussssss.) Salute to the engine coders and technical artists!”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Sometimes, the integration of assets into the game can cause some minor problems, but I think I had the most difficulty with skinning my horse armours. I didn’t have much experience with skinning at the time, so it was a somewhat challenging, but fun, learning experience.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I am tearing castles into pieces right now for siege. This isn’t exactly the most fun process, especially when trying to break down wooden towers, however I think player’s will really enjoy the end result when they are demolishing enemy towers!”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“Aserai. I love the Middle-eastern, fairy-tale feeling to the cities of this faction. Dreamy.”

DURING THE DESIGN PROCESS, DID YOU SIMPLY DRAW INSPIRATION FROM OUT OF THE BLUE, OR DID YOU USE EXISTING HISTORICAL/FICTIONAL SOURCES? AND IN EITHER CASE; WAS IT HARD TO STICK TO A CERTAIN "PERSONALISED" DESIGN AND NOT COPY TOO MANY ELEMENTS FROM EXISTING DESIGNS?
“As I said before, we tend to stick to historical influences for our designs. But as an artist, of course, one would like to be creative, so I usually try to add small ideas and imprint my own personality onto the design. There are also cases that I have to be creative, especially when I can’t find reasonable or enough resources for a functioning model, and so I have to engineer it myself.”

 

[thesheeep]

An artist capable of all the steps from concept to finished 3D is pretty rare.

 

[Dakka]

Graphics aren't quite as exciting as the gameplay side of things, but I'm glad they've got someone good working on that too, nonetheless.

 

[Bohrain]

At least they are doing their homework unlike the Tyranny crew.
WISH THEY'D RELEASE IT THOUGH

 

[Zanzoken]

It's even more frustrating because M&B is perfect for Early Access. Most of the content is systemic so there is nothing to spoil.

Combat demo -> Basic version of campaign -> Add new features -> Full release

The community should already be playing the game. Even in a limited release you can find bugs, provide feedback, start learning how to mod. Devs should be smart enough to realize this.

 

[Latelistener]

Chill already. This is getting ridiculous.

 

[Dakka]

It's even more frustrating because M&B is perfect for Early Access. Most of the content is systemic so there is nothing to spoil.

Combat demo -> Basic version of campaign -> Add new features -> Full release

The community should already be playing the game. Even in a limited release you can find bugs, provide feedback, start learning how to mod. Devs should be smart enough to realize this.

The main problem with public beta access in general is that most users don't bother with actually testing the game and reporting bugs and prefer to use it as a way to play the game early. Why bother with that when they already have professional testers? Bugs can hurt the reception of the game, and there will surely be plenty if they release the game in an unfinished state. It's better to release when the game is good and ready.

Besides, haven't you had enough of companies releasing unfinished products?

 

[Iznaliu]

The main problem with public beta access in general is that most users don't bother with actually testing the game and reporting bugs and prefer to use it as a way to play the game early. Why bother with that when they already have professional testers? Bugs can hurt the reception of the game, and there will surely be plenty if they release the game in an unfinished state. It's better to release when the game is good and ready.

This always grates me when people complain that Early Access games have bugs.

 

[LESS T_T]

This week's dev blog is about Battania faction: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/3023464665635013201

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

The misty hills of north-western Calradia are dominated by the Battanian clans, the original inhabitants of much of the continent. Their hilltop fortresses have born witness to countless wars fought to resist outside invaders: first the Empire's legions, and more recently the rising Sturgian and Vlandian kingdoms. They are masters of the longbow, the night raid, the sudden wild charge out of the woods. They idolise valour, but especially like it when mixed with a bit of mischief - the cattle thief who can whisk an entire herd into the fog; the champion who dines with a rival tribe, and, regaling his hosts with an anecdote of battle, produces from his bag the skull of one of their kinsmen that he took as a souvenir.

As readers have probably guessed, the Battanians are inspired by the Celtic peoples of Western Europe - in particular, the Picts, Irish, and Welsh of the early medieval era. So we'd like to take this chance to discuss how history influences our design. Mount and Blade's Calradia is a low-fantasy setting that we think gains from cleaving fairly closely to history. Our physics-based combat system, for example, gives a well-balanced sword or a hard-hitting axe the characteristics that you'd expect by looking at it. A murderous-looking ascent up a cliffside to assault a fort should be murderous in the game, thanks to an engine that gives defenders the ability to rain down rocks and arrows on attacking forces.

Because of this design philosophy, we try not to introduce any social institutions that would be impossible to find in the technological and economic setting we describe. But we also don't mind borrowing a bit from other times and places outside our core setting, the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the Dark Age Celts built some mysterious and majestic structures, like massive roundhouses and complex concentric fortresses, but did not build major cities. By then, they'd been pushed back to the margins of Europe, where big cities were hard to sustain. Back in Caesar's day, however, the Celts still lived closer to the economic heart of the continent and created impressive towns known as oppida on key trade routes. So you won't find an exact archaeological antecedent for our Battanian settlements, which mix later Celtic architecture with earlier Celtic town layout. But we think the result will be both visually impressive and credible, sort of an alternate version of how Celtic settlements could have evolved had history been slightly different.

Lots of our characters, too, are based on history - or legends, at least. For example, the Battanian king Caladog is partially inspired by Gruffydd ap Llywellyn, who dominated much of Wales in the 11th century. He was a very colourful figure, ruthless yet possessed of a wicked sense of humour. He is famous for quipping, when accused of having killed off all his competitors for the kingship, "I merely blunt the horns of Wales' sons lest they injure their mother." The charismatic silver-tongued rogue, who'd steal your cattle and then extemporise a poem about it: this was a bit of stereotype of Celts among the English at the time. It's actually a common view that inhabitants of peaceful but despotic kingdoms held of tribal peoples who had a strong oral tradition and enjoyed freedom but little security. Boastful, cunning, resourceful, but perhaps a tad too cussed and individualistic for their own good -- the Battanians aren't an efficient conquering machine like some of their neighbours, but no one makes war with more flair.

Bannerlord gives us some new features to bring out the uniqueness of its cultures, but we're especially excited about minor factions - mercenaries, nomads and outlaw leagues that have their own agendas that aren't part of the struggle for power. One of the Battanian minor factions is the Wolfskins - a society of young warriors who have left their clans to live a life of freedom (and violence) in the woods. So long as they live 'as wolves' - eating no cooked meat, sleeping under no roof, and wearing no woven cloth - they are exempt from the laws of men. The Wolfskins are inspired by the Fianna, a fighting brotherhood who were the stars of a major Irish saga. It treats them as heroes, but they also have a dark side, extorting money from clans who are interested in mundane things like marriage and crops and don't have time to fight all the time. Simon Young, a historian who wrote a brilliantly entertaining reconstruction of "darkest Britain," AD 500, suggests that the Fianna may in reality have given rise to legends of werewolves. The Code of the Wolf however is our own invention.

In next week’s blog we will be talking with Technical Artist, Gökalp Doğan. If you have a question you would like to ask him please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out for him to answer.

 

[Iznaliu]

AD 500 makes for quite an interesting read, despite several decisions I disagree with.