Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Modron]

They need Sawyer to teach them about managing scope.

As far as I am concerned the more feature creep the better, Mount and Blade games are things you play for decades.

 

[Bohrain]

On a more serious note, I think the real reasons for the delay are detailed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mountandblade/comments/9c8k99/turkish_interview_with_armağan_yavuztranslated/

Armağan: Our game is a complex game and maybe we are very perfectionist company. When these two factor comes together, some process can be prolonged. For example, our UI were made from scratch for 3 times but we are so happy about the third one. Another example is that we made our main map from scratch with a new techonology just a few months ago. So we can remake some features from scratch again and again until we are happy about it but I think we are at the end of the process of remaking things again and again.

Thing is, it doesn't matter if you are a perfectionist if you run out of funding.
If there is no cashflow you are forced to either publish something less ambitious or cancel the project altogether.
But if you have money coming in until the end of days, nothing prevents endless iterations.

 

[Aemar]

Taleworlds' HQ is located inside the compound of some tech university, and, because of that, local students have been accepted into the company as part of their internship. They work/worked for free, or so I heard. People working for free + government money + a ton of money from M&B franchise = Yavuz shouldn't worry about his company running out of cash, especially now that the development process is hopefully coming to an end. He's smart enough to know that he's sitting on a gold mine because of Bannerlord (one of the most anticipated games in years), and doesn't want to rush things by putting out a product that doesn't meet the customers' expectations. Taleworlds doesn't make use of a publisher, therefore Yavuz doesn't give a shit about deadlines.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

https://goodgamers.biz/development/turkish-minister-of-economy-visited-local-game-developers/

I blame it on Erdogan. He must have told them through the Turkish minister of economy (seen here playing Warband) that there is no point in rushing the development of Bannerlord, since, according to the article, the government support in the money department is quite significant.

I am not surprised that someone affiliated with Erdogan would use console controller to play games.

 

[deama]

Sorry guys, gotta crash the party.
deama
fantadomat, oi

 

[vota DC]

A great update
https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/83

three layers battlefield AI:
individual AI
formation AI
tactical AI

All of them moddable
That has huge potential. You can put Rommel (great AI) but give him french soldiers (flee when they lose 1% hitpoints or when they don't outnumber the enemy) and see the result!

 

[LESS T_T]

Nice animation: https://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1688181531860529780

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

3D artists give shape to the world we see and experience in a video game. But the devil is in the details, and sometimes what makes a game live and breathe are the small things: not the main characters and impressive buildings, but day-to-day objects such as tools, weapons, and clothes. Gameplay can be as immersive as can be to make you feel like a medieval warrior, but if you’re clothed in sweatpants and the world around you is made of cardboard, immersion jumps out of the window. Today, we talk with one of our 3D artists, Ülker Dikmen, who is one of the people responsible for making Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord not just beautiful, but also a believable world.


NAME
Ülker Dikmen

FROM
Ankara, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2012

EDUCATION
Psychology, Hacettepe University

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
3D Character Artist


WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“When I first started working at TaleWorlds back at the beginning of 2012, my job was to create a default character head and its morphs to allow players customise their characters in the character screen. Later, I started modelling hair and clothes and other character parts.

Nowadays, I mostly make clothes (especially for the women of Calradia!). Before I start a new costume, my team leader Özgür and I discuss what kind of an outfit is needed and then I roll my sleeves up for the serious business of making medieval fashion pieces! I start off in Marvelous Designer, where I draw sewing patterns and turn them into realistic-looking clothes. Then I move to ZBrush, where I add details like laces and stitches. After I complete the low poly version of the dress in TopoGun, the task of skinning and vertex painting for the cloth simulation begins. Once it's all done I import the costume into the game and check if everything works well.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I think it's not surprising that as an artist I like the beautiful graphics of the game the most. My favourite part though would have to be the character screen, where I could spend hours making my perfect character. I also enjoy walking in the beautiful villages and cities and hanging out in the tavern where I can enjoy medieval music.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“The most challenging task so far was to make the clothes look good, both when the cloth simulation is on and off. When the cloth simulation is on, I have to make sure the clothes are baggy enough to make room for the movements of the character. For instance, if the dresses are not baggy enough or have slits here and there, some body parts will show through the clothes. On the other hand, the clothes will look blocky if too baggy when the cloth simulation is off. So it's a difficult task to find a happy medium.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I’m editing my old costume meshes so that they work nicely with the cloth simulation (at the time I made those meshes we didn’t have cloth simulation so they need a bit of editing now).”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“Battania! Mostly because I love their shabby clothes and the dark and misty atmosphere of their settlements. Also, because blanket in Turkish is "battaniye", which evokes a cosy feeling!”

CAN YOU GIVE US SOME DETAILS ABOUT THE CHARACTER CREATOR? HOW MUCH CONTROL AND CREATIVE FREEDOM DO WE HAVE? (FOR EXAMPLE, CAN WE CHANGE THE HEIGHT AND WEIGHT OF OUR CHARACTER?)
“The character creator gives the player absolute control over how their character will look. We have body type sliders to set the weight, build and height of the character. There are lots of skin, eye and hair colour options, and of course, lots and lots of face morphs to let you create your perfect character.”

WHAT IS THE MOST ENJOYABLE/EXCITING ASSET YOU HAVE WORKED ON? WHICH ASSET DID YOU HAVE THE LEAST AMOUNT OF FUN CREATING?
“I love making tattered and dirty clothes because I enjoy experiencing a depressingly dull and bleak atmosphere in games. Creating assets like this really excites me and makes my imagination run wild. Creating the character hair was my least favourite task because it’s very difficult and time-consuming to make a hair mesh look natural and beautiful.”

WHERE DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?
“I draw much of my inspiration from medieval TV shows and movies. We also have a large collection of medieval history books here at TaleWorlds which I check out when I lack inspiration.”

 

[deuxhero]

We have body type sliders to set the weight, build and height of the character.

sliders to set [...] height

 

[RK47]

1.2m Dwarf Archer Build, delivering arrow to the knees.

 

[Butter]

I just want to play this now. How is it not ready when they have all this seemingly finished content to show off?

 

[Modron]

1.2m Dwarf Archer Build, delivering arrow to the knees.

Given the way npcs cram in like sardines during sieges maybe a midget might be OP.

 

[Space Satan]

I draw much of my inspiration from medieval TV shows and movies

 

[Aemar]

I'll leave this clip from the Cable Guy here just in case Taleworlds needs to draw more inspiration from medieval TV shows and movies.

 

[Obsequious Approbation]

Dev Blog 08/11/18

Spoiler

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In the medieval ages, castles and strongholds were not meant to be dwellings, but military tools that were strong and easy to defend, positioned in choke points to protect an important region or trade route. Villages, on the other hand, were the population centres - places where people would dwell and sleep after a long day of work in the fields or herding their cattle. Towns were somewhat a combination of the two, but they were also very different (and complex) places. They had walls for defence and a high population count, but they were much more than just dwellings and defensive structures: they were the most important places around. Towns are where kingdoms forged their real power. Artisans worked raw materials into quality goods and merchants turned them into wealth. Courts were established in towns, so they were also the heart and brains of any realm -- where politics, conspiracies, and plots took place.

In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, towns are very much like their real-world counterparts. They are where industrial goods are produced, higher quality troops are trained, commerce flourishes, notable NPCs do their dealings and crime is prevalent. And this is exactly what our level designers try to reflect as they create each town scene.

In a previous blog, we looked at how we approach map design for castles, which share some similarities with towns (both have upgradable walls and both can be besieged). However, when it comes to design, towns are a completely different beast.

As we design the layout of each town, we tend to divide them into recognisable districts, so that players can develop an instinct for where they can find what they are looking for. This isn’t so much a rule that is set in stone, as we want to stay fluid in our approach to level design, but all of our work on these scenes share similar design principles.

• Marketplace - This is where most goods are traded. If you are looking for a shiny new helmet, supplies for a campaign, or perhaps some barding for your horse, then the marketplace will be your first port of call. The marketplace is also where you will find the local blacksmith, where you can design and craft your own melee weapons.
• Slums and backstreet - Dangerous places where smugglers and bandits gather to make money by illegitimate means, diminishing the resources and taxes of the town.
• Keep - Where you can find the nobles and governor of the town (as well as the prisoners!). One day, this is somewhere that you will hopefully get to call home.
• Military district - This is where the town guards and garrison gather, and where troops can be trained. Also, this is where the town’s stockpile is located to be used in times of need (such as a defensive siege).
• Tavern - This is where adventurers and drunks alike gather to share stories over a mug of mead. Some revellers are just a nuisance, others are sellswords that will fight for the right amount of money, and a rare few are companions that will follow you in your ambitions and help you to achieve your goals.

Gameplay
We understand that no matter how nice and immersive we make our towns look, walking around them creates downtime from your conquering and pillaging. For those of you who would like to rest between your various exploits, we have many small details to explore and discover in our towns. However, for those who are in a hurry, we group interactable NPCs together according to their roles for ease of access for players. And for those of you that don’t want to set a single foot in a town, we have the settlement menu, where you can access practically every function available in towns directly from the campaign map (barring a select few that we save for immersion).

Sieges also play a big part in the design of a town scene. This comes both with technical and gameplay limitations, but also with opportunities! Small roads and buildings around town gates add variety to gameplay when the town is under siege, however, a shop that is filled to the brim with many intricate pieces of pottery would add performance complications. Our solution is to have a "siege state" for our scenes (which is easily achievable with our map editor). When a player deploys into a town that is under siege, they are greeted by deserted streets. The marketplace closes down, taking all of the colourful and fine goods with it, shops bar their doors and barricades are raised in the streets to help with defences.

This method not only helps us create immersion and ease the load on performance by removing elements that are unnecessary for a combat scene, but it also gives us more flexibility with our design. We can barricade off roads that are not related to siege gameplay to reduce overcomplexity or close shortcuts that might give an unnecessary advantage to either side while creating new choke points that would look out of place when there is no conflict.

Overall, we try to design our town scenes to be believable and immersive, but also to compliment gameplay. We want players to be easily able to navigate the world, either through their player character or through UI elements (such as menus), and experience the sandbox in the way that they want to.

In next week’s blog, we will talk to Animator and Motion Capture Artist, Abdullah Nakipoğlu. If you have any questions you would like to ask him, please leave a reply in the comments section and we will pick one out for him to answer!

 

[Modron]

The Mount and Blade games have always had the most interesting castles/forts and next to nothing to do in them.

 

[Aemar]

Dev blog 15/11/2018

Spoiler

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Animations are a big part of video games, apart from the obvious reason (a totally still game wouldn’t be much fun, would it?), because they actually have a deep impact on gameplay. If animating a movie is hard work, just imagine animating something that will change and evolve depending on players’ input! Animations give you the visual cues you need to react to what’s happening on screen, especially in combat, so they need to feel natural and realistic. But at the same time, as a player you want to retain control over what’s going on, so animations need to be short and always keep the ability to change on the fly. Then you’ve got all the technical challenges related to motion capture – and that’s not counting animating animals such as dogs or birds, where MoCap is out of the question. This week we talk with one of our character animators, Abdullah Nakipoğlu, who will give us a sneak peek at the complex process of animating characters in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.


NAME
Abdullah Nakipoğlu

FROM
Ankara, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2011

EDUCATION
Animschool - Character Animation

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Animator / Motion Capture Artist

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“ Generally, my day-to-day routine consists of resolving issues with reported bugs, discussing new ideas or requested developments and preparing the prototyping of these ideas when necessary.

My duty as an animator is to prepare pretty much any kind of animation and implement it into the game. Sometimes it can be an animation of an animal, an attack/injury, the movement of various characters in settlements, or an animation of an icon on the campaign map. If a character animation is necessary, I start out by recording in our MoCap studio before cleaning the animation up by hand for the game. In the instances that we don’t use MoCap (like with geese/cows/dogs), I start by preparing the skeleton system before working on the animations, using any reference videos that I have gathered.

With Bannerlord, we are using our own engine that was developed in-house, and it is something that is constantly evolving and being improved over time. Unfortunately, this means that I sometimes have to revisit some older work that I have done. In such occasions, I generally try to make corrections using the available animations, but sometimes it is necessary to start from scratch.

When I have some spare time in between my duties, I spend as much of that time as possible playing the game to focus on the effects of the completed animations and to see if they give the impact that we desire or if there is any room for improvement. If I notice something, then I take some notes and make the necessary changes.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I have an interest in history and I like to read about and research ancient wars. Fighting on horseback, laying siege to a castle with your own army, fighting under the command of a general, being captured... With its rich and detailed world, Bannerlord offers all of these experiences and more! Furthermore, the game features a unique combat system that has been improved upon from Warband.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“I have faced many different problems and issues during the production process, that’s for sure!

I have found it challenging, but also compelling, preparing animations that retain a somewhat natural feel to them, but still, work within the boundaries of the game mechanics. Sometimes, we come across comments like, “can the movements be more natural?”, and it is true that we could create more detailed and animated animations to make them look and feel more natural. However, this would ultimately limit the control of the character for the player. For example, players can interrupt an attack at any time by issuing a block command, or they can move their character in any direction without waiting for an attack to end. If we were to create totally realistic animations then we would have to restrict or reduce the control of the player in these instances. It is also important in some instances that we over-exaggerate an animation so that it can be clearly seen and recognised by the player, such as with our fast-paced directional combat system. Ultimately, we try to keep any animations that would limit the control of the player to a minimum, allowing players to use and develop their skills within a control system that responds instantly.

Another example of a challenging project is the injury/stun animations. These animations needed to be prepared separately for each part of the body, in three different levels... for four different directions! These animations needed to be short enough not to limit the control of the player, while working in accordance with the inverse kinematics (IK) system. As the animation we prepared with MoCap recording is playing on the base layer, the reaction coming from the IK system is attached according to the area and direction of the attack in the upper layer. Preparing the MoCap recordings for all of these and cleaning the body movements that are inappropriate for the IK system was a difficult process.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I am working on the preparation of the newly added dog animations. In addition to this, I am making new MoCap recordings to make the falling animations from horseback more impressive.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“I don’t really have a favourite faction, but I think it would be fun to try to unite the continent of Calradia with the Khuzait Khanate.”

COULD YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS OF ANIMATING HORSE ARCHERS IN THE GAME? DID YOU USE REAL HORSES?
“A MoCap recording process for horses would be a quite demanding job. The data coming from the markers located on the muscles of a horse can get quite messy and that data would need to be deep cleaned before being used for the bone motions. If we were using a muscle simulation, this data could be extremely helpful, but alas, we are not, and so we make the horse animations (as well as all other animal animations) by hand instead.”

WILL THERE BE SPECIAL CINEMATIC ANIMATIONS? (LIKE THE WEDDING IN WARBAND, WILL WE SEE OUR FUNERAL ETC.?)
“Yes, there will be in-game “cutscenes” that are similar to those in Warband.”

THE MODDING BLOG LISTED A NUMBER OF TOOLS THAT YOU WILL MAKE AVAILABLE TO THE MODDING COMMUNITY. COULD YOU TELL US WHAT SOFTWARE YOU USE WITH THE MODEL/ANIMATION VIEWER AND ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE THAT YOU USE TO CREATE ANIMATIONS?
“There are some innovations in our game engine that definitely makes our workflow easier and will surely be liked by modders. The engine allows us to add multiple models and skeletons to the scene at the same time and check the animations in a new model viewer window. When we make changes to the source file of the animation, these changes are also updated in the engine simultaneously. It is also possible to observe the speed of the animation, the skeleton that the animation is connected to, or to create our own scene by adding static objects in this window if we want.

In the process of preparing an animation, we use Motion Builder to prepare motion captures. In addition to that, we use 3ds Max and Maya. We use the common .FBX extension to add animations to the game, so I think that modders will not run into any problems.”

''Still no release date... WTF man...''

 

[FreeKaner]

They are waiting for a more favourable USD/TRY rate before releasing it. Which will happen in about 6 years in my calculations.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

*after my calculations

Spoiler

 

[Obsequious Approbation]

Dev Blog 22/11/18

Spoiler

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Great news! The first baby in Calradia has been born! Yay!

The mother, is us, the player, a woman named Boudicca: a caravan raider hailing from the misty foothills of Battania. On our travels (read: raids), we managed to steal the heart of Usair, an Aserai warlord who sports a proud moustache.

The proud parents, Usair and Boudicca

On the 20th of November, 1084 (the year of the Camel), the heavens blessed our union with the honour of parenting the very first child on the shores of Calradia!

Please, allow us to introduce our daughter, Ruwa, who as of now is still a babe, but we spared no expense and commissioned the best portraitist in the court of Unqid, the Sultan of Aserai, who believes she will look something a little like this by the age of 10.

Ruwa (the Children of Men)

Her beautiful face was derived from the features (facekeys) of her father and mother, with a small amount of randomness thrown into the mix. And thus, she has a unique face(key) which will retain traits of her parents into adulthood. And, it is not just the facial traits that she will inherit from her parents, but also our wealth and lands too, which we worked tirelessly to accumulate through entirely legitimate means.

As she grows, we will be able to spend more time with her, interact with her, share our experiences and skills with her, and develop her into a fine young woman.

Clan Boudicca is much more complete now!

On a more serious note, we are extremely excited to be able to share this with you. Children are something we have been working on for some time now and to finally see them implemented and working in-game has been a really rewarding experience. We have plenty to talk about in terms of dynasties and how children will work as a feature in the game, but we will save that for a later date.

Campaign team celebrating the birth of Ruwa. Oh, and that’s a cake, not a pile of pancakes!

In next week’s blog, we will talk with Level Designer / Video Production Artist, Gündüzhan Gündüz. If you have any questions you would like to ask him, please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out from him to answer!

Discuss this blog post HERE

I'm already looking forward to some Codexian LP's.

 

[Metro]

Six years later... where the fuck is this game?

 

[deuxhero]

So they've got child models, do they have child soldiers?

 

[Merlkir]

The girl has a sword.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Six years later... where the fuck is this game?

It is being forged in Heaven above, Brother. Have faith!

 

[Aemar]

The mother, is us, the player, a woman named Boudicca: a caravan raider hailing from the misty foothills of Battania. On our travels (read: raids), we managed to steal the heart of force ourselves on Usair, an Aserai warlord refugee who sports a proud moustache.

Fixed.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

So they've got child models, do they have child soldiers?

You can continue to lead your Kingdom after your death, playing as your child, so I assume so. Although maybe ascending to leadership requires adulthood first. I don't think they've clarified that