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Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
- Thread starter Turisas
- Start date
Gregz
Arcane
Only applies to those destined for Valhalla.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2002
- Messages
- 17,068
I sing-a-long to manowar choruses at least once a week so I think I qualify
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
Today's devblog is Q&A with writer: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1647623139641323383
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
Mount & Blade is RPG, strategy, epic battles... and it's also a unique world which acts as the perfect framework for your own adventures and heroic deeds. Calradia, the continent where Mount & Blade takes place, is a low-fantasy setting deeply rooted in history: its past and factions are inspired by real kingdoms and conflicts of old, but it also adds its own doses of imagination. It's a delicate balance: you have to combine creativity and imagination with thorough research and interpretation of historical sources. The result, however, is worth all the efforts: Calradia may be a fictional place, but it feels as alive and real as our world. It takes a lot of talent and hard work to create such a place, and today we want to introduce you to a member of our team who plays an essential role in its creation: our writer and designer Steve Negus.
NAME
Steve Negus
FROM
Riverside, California.
JOINED TALEWORLDS
2007
EDUCATION
Political science. My main professional experience has been as a journalist, working in Egypt, Iraq and other Arab countries.
OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Writer/designer
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?
“In Iraq in 2006, where you couldn't go out except with a lot of precautions, I had a fair amount of time on my hands after work. I did a mod about the wars for Sicily in the 11th century. I'd wanted to experiment with dynamic low-intensity warfare, like raids and patrols. Armagan called me out of the blue and asked me to work for Taleworlds. Game design has been a passion of mine, ever since I was a little kid playing hex-and-dice wargames. If a genie had given me a wish in 1978 about what I wished the future could provide, I probably would have wished for something like Mount and Blade. I also loved being a journalist, but eventually that became more difficult with a family and with my wife pursuing a career in academia. So working on Bannerlord is really kind of a dream come true.
There is a fair amount of overlap between journalism and game design. Many of the conflicts I've covered resemble medieval wars, in that there's no chain of command that everyone follows. Barons and insurgent chiefs have a thousand believable excuses for not showing up at a muster point for a big offensive if they don't want to. If they do show, it's probably because they want to further their reputation, and improve their position vis-a-vis each other, as much as they want to defeat the enemy. Mao's dictum that politics comes out of the barrel of a gun is well-known but, out of its context, doesn't say much. Politics is very often the art of cajoling, pressuring or inspiring people to point their gun in the direction that you want. In a feudal or tribal society this is doubly so.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I like the low fantasy medieval setting. I love reading history, but I don't have that much of an interest in simulating a specific historical event. It's fun to read history looking for personalities or organizations that can be fit into the M&B world in some way.
I like the mix of RPG and strategy. RPGs really drag you in. You can wade into the landscape, the towns, the villages and of course the battles. But most RPGs are variations on a simple theme. Evil person does an evil thing and is punished for it. The hero may have some painful choices along the way about what collateral damage he or she does, but in the end fiction and fantasy often seem like a morality fable. Even in Game of Thrones, where goodness is punished and evil rewarded, there's still an author making a choice.
It's one of the deepest human contradictions, that we want to live in a world where a happy ending is guaranteed, but we also want our free will to matter. I think morality matters - it's a kind of force multiplier, to use the military expression, in politics and war. If a leader can pull off being good, which isn't easy, it helps but does not guarantee anything. You can try to be one of those leaders remembered as both virtuous and wise, like Pericles or Marcus Aurelius, and still have your efforts brought to naught by fortune.
In Bannerlord, there are about five types of morality that you can try to hue to - reciprocal loyalty to friends and kin, sticking to your word, courage and willingness to sacrifice for a cause, compassion toward those who suffer, and long-term utilitarian calculation - and they'll sometimes be in conflict. I think games can offer some unique perspectives on history, not simulating events or predicting new events but simply highlighting variables, and I hope this is what we can do.”
WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“I'm working from California, not Turkey, so my day is less structured than much of the rest of the team. I consult with Armagan twice a week and then write dialogs, code or development documents as the need arises.”
WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR?
“The game is not out and I don't know if we've solved this problem, but one of the big challenges is to have events that are generated by dynamic sandbox events, and are good strategies for the NPCs to adopt, but that also make sense to the player. An example of what we want to avoid, from Warband: we introduced feasts, which were a way that factions could spend resources to repair relations between lords that were damaged by the ebb and flow of war. The problem, though, was that the strategically ideal time to hold a feast was when you were in the middle of a war, which didn't seem right from a narrative perspective. So there are a lot of moving parts in the game, and we're trying to get them to work together in a way that makes sense from both a strategy and an RPG perspective.”
WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I'm currently working on dialogs for quests. These can get quite complicated, because we want to have lots of small quests that offer meaningful branching choices but may also be given out by characters with different personalities. We're also trying to work out a main storyline quest that absorbs the player but complements the sandbox struggle for power rather than seeming like two parallel games.”
WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“Aesthetically I love the Aserai, the cities and the deserts - that's partially why I chose to live in the Middle East - but I'm actually most excited about the Empire. It's based on the Byzantines but for its politics we've drawn a lot from the classical political legacy. The Greeks and Romans didn't really have ideologies, but they recognized certain styles or postures that leaders could strike. Populists/democrats had a passion for justice but could easily fall into mob groupthink. Oligarchs brought experience and stability but tended to confuse their class interests with those of the state. Monarchs brought a certain unity of purpose to a city-state but tended to be arbitrary and tyrannical. These weren't fixed, and leaders could switch or mix stances as the need arose.
Today most people believe in elections and the universal franchise and are thus what the ancients would probably consider very radical democrats, but there's a lot of debate about the kind of leaders we want, and I think we'll see the same assumptions and stances, the same trade-off of justice, stability and unity that the ancients dealt with. Bannerlord is absolutely NOT going to be an analogy for the present, the characters are all inspired by historical leaders rather than modern ones, but I think you may find the echoes to be interesting.”
DO COMPANIONS/HEROES HAVE AN EVEN MORE IN-DEPTH PERSONAL BACKGROUND THAN IN WARBAND?
“In Warband, we concentrated a lot of the elements of a traditional role-playing game into the companion system - they told you the lore, their preferences forced you to make choices, etc. In Bannerlord, we've spread the role-playing elements around more evenly. There are a lot more potential companions in Bannerlord, and they have backstories, but we want the companion system to feel more open-ended. We want for it to be possible for companions to die (and give the player, say, a motivation to avenge them) or, alternately, for a player to appoint lots of companions to lordships. To that end, we've taken out some of the pre-scripted companion interactions in favor of a more dynamic system. Also, more lords have backstories and those backstories matter more in how the game unfolds.”
Gregz
Arcane
So when will this get a retag to vaporware?
Shin
Cipher
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
- Messages
- 697
once they delay the release because of "micro issues" or their fucking manual
Hard to delay something that has no date.
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
You know, it's all about emotional engagement: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1647623773685801769
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
In this week’s blog we would like to introduce you to an improvement we have made to the dialogue system in Bannerlord: conversational animations.
Personalities play a large role in the politics of Calradia; some lords may approve of your course of action while others may find it to be distasteful. Forcing the player to make conscious choices based on this creates an additional layer in the strategy aspect of the campaign and adds overall depth to the roleplay element of our games. Discerning between those who will offer support in times of need and those who are likely to cause issues is a relatively subtle part of our games, but those who pay close attention to their relationships and plan accordingly will often have an easier time when plotting their rise to power.
Developing relationships with NPCs was, and still is, quite straightforward: complete a mission for them and they like you more, support their claim and they like you more... However, it was often hard to form any sort of emotional bond to these static and lifeless characters, and ultimately, conversations with NPCs always ended up feeling a little bland. In previous Mount & Blade games, your standing with a lord was shown through an information window which could be viewed during conversations, and, while this worked as a clear and simple way of presenting information to the player, it is something we feel had room for improvement.
In Bannerlord, we want players to feel immersed in the world and to become attached to (or despise) the different characters they will meet on their travels. We decided that one way we could achieve this would be to make a small addition to the conversation system to inject some personality into the characters.
In Bannerlord, an NPC’s behaviour is heavily influenced by their personality traits, but it is still somewhat dynamic in that it can be affected by their current circumstances. We developed a simple system which sets animations to the characters you are talking to based on their personality (among other things). To do this, the game looks at the NPC's personality traits, some situational parameters and aspects of the NPC's relation to the player to choose appropriate dialogue animations. It isn’t anything too fancy, and it doesn’t include any lip syncing or voice acting, however, we feel that it helps to make the world feel more alive.
To give you an example of how this works:
Here is a character (let's call him Yaga), who is unimpressed that you were unable to complete a quest he gave you.
Here is Yaga again, but after you have successfully completed his quest.
Just as with much of the rest of the game, we designed the system to be as moddable as possible. Animations are initiated directly from the dialogue, so modders will be able to easily override the animations used in existing dialogues and use existing animations for any conversations they create. It will also be possible for them to add their own animations to the system which we think opens up a lot of fun possibilities!
We feel that this small addition will help to make the world feel more immersive and add some extra character to the various NPCs that populate Calradia. It is only a minor change, but it is something that works for our style of game and we are sure that the modding community will find some inventive uses for it!
In next week’s blog we will be speaking with Graphic Artist, Özgür Saral. Özgür is the lead of our art team and oversees all of the visual aspects of the game. If you have any questions you would like to ask him, please leave a reply in the comments and we'll pick one out for him to answer.
- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Messages
- 8,363
There clearly is a game. It may not be feature complete, but the stuff they've been showing to journalists at trade shows looks a lot more finished than the original M&B was when first released to the public. And I had an absolute blast playing that and seeing how the game evolved with each patch.
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
This week's devlog is Q&A with lead artist: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1654379802493867674
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
TaleWorlds has grown over the years into a medium-sized studio with over 70 people, but not so long ago this used to be a very, very small team. Today we want to introduce you to a veteran of the company who was one of the first to join Armagan Yavuz when he was creating the original Mount & Blade: our lead artist Özgür Saral.
Özgür has been with us since then, working on every game in the series, making him one of the main people responsible for the look and feel of Mount & Blade – and his work has left a profound impact on Bannerlord, of course!
NAME
Özgür Saral
FROM
Trabzon, Turkey
JOINED TALEWORLDS
2005
EDUCATION
Business Management
OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Lead Artist
WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“I spend a large part of my day determining the priority of the necessary work and ensure that it is designed up to standard. I delegate the designed tasks to the appropriate team members and find solutions for any issues that arise for any tasks that are in progress. I make up shortages, such as with modelling and scene design etc., with any spare time I have.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“What I like the most in Bannerlord is the realistic and detailed visuals (thanks to our new game engine!).”
WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“In the early stages of Bannerlord, we used to face problems because our editors were being rewritten and this was affecting our workflow. We managed to overcome this problem by using an alternative schedule. Now, we have our final editor which has become one of the most valued tools at our disposal.”
WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I am currently working on particles for castles (walls, edges, towers, gates etc.) to make them frangible and to ensure that all of the levels are consistent. Ensuring that particles are compatible with each other is really important in order to prevent both the prolongation and general mess during scene design.”
WHAT FACTIONS DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“My favourite faction in Bannerlord is Aserai. This faction has a warm climate and to see details like adobe houses, fabric sunshades and date palms reminds me of the mystical atmosphere of the east. Generally, it is the architectural and cultural details which make me feel attached to Aserai.”
HOW WILL WOUND AND BLOOD VISUALS CHANGE FROM WARBAND – BOTH ON MODELS AND ON THE PLAYER CHARACTER WHILE USING 1ST PERSON VIEW?
“Our current blood system works together with the particle system. Each particle (like sword blows, running in the mud, etc.) can leave blood and mud-like effects by sticking onto surrounding objects. The blood meshes, designed in accordance with physically based lighting, help us to obtain more realistic details when compared to Warband.”
HOW DO THE DIFFERENT TOWNS AND VILLAGES DIFFER FROM WARBAND?
“Towns and villages are more attractive and crowded than in Warband. There are more constructions which reflect the factions and more colourful streets that are home to gangs that you can fight.”
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
Reading recent pages of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance thread made me realize I didn't post this week's devlog! It's about the Empire: http://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1654380436149344064
Greetings warriors of Calradia!
For the next feature in our blogpost series on Bannerlord's factions, we shall look at the Empire. Because the Empire is in some ways the centre of gravity of the game, we're going to divide this blog into two parts. At the start of the game the Empire is divided into three factions engaged in a civil war. But before we describe the three factions and what they stand for, let us look at how the conflict started....
A thousand years ago, the Calradoi were one of a dozen tribes living in the hill country between the southern sea and the Battanian woods. Over time, they subjugated their neighbours, forcing them into a confederation of city-states. Perhaps they were slightly fiercer than the others, or just lucky, or perhaps it was the one tradition that set them apart - the Calradoi had no kings. Ever since the hero Echerion slew the tyrant Cypegos, the institution of the monarchy was banned, in theory at least. There was an assembly of free citizens that met occasionally, a senate of elders (in practice the largest landowners) that sat permanently, and - when it was absolutely necessary - supreme command could be invested for a short time in the person of an emperor, a title that back then meant little more than the right to lead an army.
From their heartland in the hills the Calradoi began to spread outward. As they did so, their political traditions – never written down – began to change. Soon, the army was in the field more years than not, and gradually the emperors stopped retiring at the end of campaigns. The senators meanwhile moved to the conquered provinces and acquired great estates. The capital moved from place to place, and the assembly of the people was called wherever the emperor desired. In practice, this was usually an army camp where his veterans could be relied upon to shout down any opposition. The question of succession was always a potential crisis. Usually, the emperor nominated an heir, the senate ratified his choice, and the people (meaning the army) acclaimed it. But this did not always happen smoothly, and then the succession was settled on the battlefield of a civil war.
Twenty years ago, a general named Arenicos donned the purple mantle worn by the emperors, and placed the laurel-crown-that-was-not-a-crown on his brow. His military record, his diligence in rooting out corrupt and inefficient magistrates, and the confidence he could inspire with a single speech made him a popular ruler. He also had the gift of being everything to everyone. He rose to prominence as a man of the people and the army, but he also worked closely with landlords and led them to believe he might restore power of the Senate. He praised the Calradian republican ideals as the pinnacles of human achievement, yet married the daughter of a petty king from the lands east of the empire to shore up an important trade route, formed an elite bodyguard of foreign mercenaries loyal only to him, and turned a blind eye when cults began to worship him as a sacred monarch. He spoke of a revived Calradia but kept his council on the details.
There was one shadow hanging over the reign of Arenicos - his reluctance to choose an heir. It was though he was casting around for someone who grasped his vision, but never found one. Traditionally, emperors looked in three places for their successors: their family, the elders of the Senate, and the upper ranks of the army. His one child, Ira, was a daughter. There had been ruling empresses of Calradia in the past, but Ira had a wild and irreverent streak. Her right to rule was championed by her mother, Rhagaea, Arenicos's foreign-born wife. “It is good for the children of emperor's to succeed their fathers,” her partisans said. “If we unite in loyalty to the imperial family, the civil wars will stop.” A faction of powerful nobles under the honourable but stiff-necked aristocrat Lucon demanded that the Senate choose the next emperor. "We understand politics and law,” they said. “Return to the old days; return power to us." Meanwhile, the wildly popular Garios, victor of wars against Battania and the Aserai, let it known that he expected his veterans be allowed to acclaim a new emperor. "The corruption of the powerful saps our strength," he told his men. "Let you, the soldiers, who bleed for this land, choose its rulers."
Time was running out. Arenicos was getting older. He needed to make some sort of decision, and soon. And then, returning to his palace in the southern town of Lycaron after his latest victorious campaign on the borders, he asked for some time alone in his chamber to nurse a splitting headache; when his guard checked in on him a few hours later, he was lying dead in a pool of blood. Immediately, Lucon convened a gathering of senators in his power base in the north and had himself declared emperor. Garios, campaigning on the Battanian frontier, stood before an assembly of his soldiers who cried out for him to don the purple. And Rhagaea emerged from the palace and addressed the throng that had gathered at the reports of the emperor's death. She raised before them the slain emperor's robe, drenched in his blood. The crowd cried out that she should be the empress, that the emperor's family must rule from this day on, and that she must take vengeance on his murderers - although who exactly that was, at this point, was mostly a matter of rumour. Civil war again loomed - and this time, with three equally balanced and determined factions eager to fight, it looked as though it might be more terrible than ever.
The Empire is the last faction - or rather, the last three factions - to be looked at in our series. It is based on the classical tradition of Greece and Rome and their medieval successor, the Byzantines. There was a lot of change in over 2000 years of history, obviously. Although the Roman Republic became a de facto empire under Augustus, vestigial remnants - like the Senate - persisted to the 1300s. Meanwhile, what started as a bureaucratic state, with prefects and governors appointed for very short terms, evolved into a de facto feudalism by the 11th century with Byzantine magnates ruling fiefs and having military obligations like any count or duke in the West. The rules of succession meanwhile were never set in stone, which suits our purposes in the game very well. If a player has his or her eye on the purple, there are lots of different ways of gaining legitimacy. The waning years of the Roman Republic, the time of Caesar, Antony, Octavius, Cleopatra, Cato the Younger and Cicero, have had a huge impact on Western political thinking and are a major inspiration for literature, so we've drawn a few characters from that era. But Byzantine rulers like Justinian and Alexios Comnenos who brought the empire back from the brink are equally fascinating personalities, as are the ruling empresses like Zoe and Irene.
Next week, we'll talk a bit about the new features and troop types we're using to represent the Empire in the game.
Got bored and left
Guest
I like that they took inspiration from the Eastern empire, rather than the last days of the Western part - the Byzzies don't get enough love.
FreeKaner
Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
I think them being developers outside of USA or Europe is to thank for that, in that part of world history of Eastern Empire is very neglected.
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