Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Aemar]

They're definitely aiming at that, otherwise getting kids would be pointless.

 

[moon knight]

Give me this fucking game

 

[deuxhero]

New version of Warsword Conquest mod is out. Extracting now.

 

[Edija]

New version of Warsword Conquest mod is out. Extracting now.

It's pretty good, only tried the Vampires but the Magic seems really nice. Also, the mod is overall more polished, less exaggerated in some sense. I can't really put my finger on it. Also a lot of the models are looking pretty nice, nicer than I remember.

 

[whydoibother]

Also, the mod is overall more polished, less exaggerated in some sense. I can't really put my finger on it. Also a lot of the models are looking pretty nice, nicer than I remember.

Do all the races still have all the typical features of a Warband game, such as orc peasants working their orc fields, the undead demanding food for morale, and other anti-immersion stuff that result in projecting Warhammer onto Mount&Blade?

 

[Edija]

Also, the mod is overall more polished, less exaggerated in some sense. I can't really put my finger on it. Also a lot of the models are looking pretty nice, nicer than I remember.

Do all the races still have all the typical features of a Warband game, such as orc peasants working their orc fields, the undead demanding food for morale, and other anti-immersion stuff that result in projecting Warhammer onto Mount&Blade?

I'm not totally sure since I haven't played a lot but some of it IS certainly still in. I haven't payed Zombies and Ghouls more than 1 gold piece, albeit that is stupid as well, and I'm not sure if they are eating. I think they are not. Although the totally immersion breaking dialogue is still there. I had a beastmen companion complain about enslaving people... A lot of the old MB vanilla dialogue is still in, I don't know why they keep it.

 

[Mark Richard]

Will there be dynasties/families in the game?

Players will be able to have family members and children. Time flows faster in Bannerlord (when compared to Warband) with a year currently set to 84 days (we will probably fine-tune this further before release). Also, you can start the game with siblings, nephews and nieces and they serve as potential heirs as well.

Can the player and/or AI lords permanently die?

Our current plan is to have this for both players and NPCs, but we will add an easy mode option to disable it for the player character. Players will be able to continue with a family member if their main character dies.

Really excited about the idea of permadeath and continuing on as the son or daughter. Maybe it'll be like Crusader Kings or Total War Britannia where your children act as your extra lives, but can also end up being a potential threat. I have this vision of being slain by my bastard son Markus the Black, and then jumping perspective to continue the game as my murderer.

 

[SlumLord]

New version of Warsword Conquest mod is out. Extracting now.

'Gender' instead of 'sex' during character creation.

Dropped, for being thinly-veiled marxist propaganda aimed at deconstructing long-standing nomenclatural norms pertaining to deeply ingrained biological realities which can't be altered through postmodern Orwellian doublespeak.

Spoiler

Damn son, those chaos cultists have really nice models! Gonna have to DL this and give it a spin. As an unrepentant warhammer fanboy, I thank you for the mod suggestion; no idea how I've never run into it before.

 

[Merlkir]

. A lot of the old MB vanilla dialogue is still in, I don't know why they keep it.

People underestimate the value of text and writing in mods. It’s hard to show off and is less glamorous than pretty 3D models. For non writers it’s also difficult and frustrating to do. So they mostly don’t.

 

[vota DC]

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

I hope AI can handle very short people. In reckoning mod children zombies are impossibile in melee for the ai and also very good to avoid bullets.

Anyway you don't have anymore old level system. A child with 12 strenght is weird, a child with 6 strenght or lower is is ok but with the old system a child starting with low stats at level 1 will be very weak once adult compared to starting character that starts as adult but is still level 1 and has better stats.

 

[Aemar]

Dev Blog 29/11/18

Spoiler

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

When you read the word “scene” you most likely think of a movie or play: a character does or says something in a certain situation and place; when that’s done, the scene is over. But in level design, the word has a different meaning. There, a scene is more like a scene in a pen and paper roleplaying game, where the dungeon master defines the space (say, a tavern), the context (bustling with people because there’s a huge storm outside), and the most relevant information game-wise: where the exits and entries are, what the important NPCs are doing… The narrator doesn’t actually write what the characters are saying or will say: what they do is create a space full of possibilities to play with.

In this week’s blog, we talk with one of our level designers and video production artist, Gündüzhan Gündüz, who is currently working on scenes for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – thus creating the very places in Calradia where your adventures will take place.


NAME
Gündüzhan Gündüz

FROM
Ankara, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2014

EDUCATION
Hacettepe University - Graphic Design

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Level Designer / Video Production Artist


WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“My daily routine generally involves designing and creating scenes. I am responsible for creating various scenes, including villages, towns, castles, battlefields and arenas. I make use of historical references and geographical locations to assist me in this.

While creating terrain for the scenes, I tend to import projects from World Machine (software that creates realistic terrain formations) directly into our scene editor, or, on some occasions, I will use photogrammetry to provide me with a starting point.

In addition to this, at times, I will turn my hand to 3D modelling if I feel we are missing something from one of the scenes. I also record and edit footage for any videos that we create, including, preparing any animations that are needed for the videos, such as the logo intro.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“What I like the most about Bannerlord is that it has a much larger number of units and larger battlefields than previous Mount & Blade games. Fighting in larger areas allows for more tactical choice and freedom, which I think makes the game more enjoyable and fun.

Also, I think the seasons system in Bannerlord makes for a beautiful feature. The liveliness and vibrancy of the trees and grass in the spring after a cold harsh winter can really cheer you up!”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Readjusting the textures used in scenes in accordance with Physically Based Rendering was quite difficult in the beginning, however, a little practice helped to speed up the process.

Also, preparing the first siege scene that we used to showcase our replay editor, and producing a cinematic trailer as part of the process was quite a challenging, but exciting, experience.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“I am mainly focused on town and castle scenes at the moment, and more specifically, reworking town scenes and making improvements to them to ensure that they are compatible as siege scenes.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“My favourite faction is Empire. They are heavily influenced by Roman and Byzantine culture, which is something that appeals to me. I really enjoy creating scenes for this faction as I love their architectural style.”

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A SCENE IN BANNERLORD AND HOW DOES THIS VARY BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCENES LIKE STANDARD BATTLE MAPS, VILLAGES, CASTLES ETC.?
“We do our best to make each of our scenes unique and original, which means that each map takes however long it takes. But, as a rough estimate, I would say they can take anywhere between a day to a couple of weeks. It is certainly less time consuming creating villages and battle scenes than it is to create towns and castles, that’s for sure!

When it comes to towns they become a little more complicated, as we have to include areas that players can reach and explore, such as taverns, shops, blacksmiths and arenas. We also have to make these scenes siegeable, and of course, these scenes can be upgraded, so we have to ensure that they can be assaulted at each different upgrade level (1-3). On top of that, if we get some new update or revision that changes something, then naturally, these larger scenes take longer to fix.”

CAN YOU SHARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE FEATURES IN THE LEVEL EDITOR?
“Our scene editor has all of the tools that an artist could wish for. I especially like our terrain and layer paint systems. Also, the terrain and flora systems are integrated with the season system which is extremely convenient for us artists!”

 

[TemplarGR]

Is this the Half Life 3 of incline?

 

[Sarkile]

At this point I just assume this game is Erdogan trolling the West.

 

[Butter]

Holy shit I didn't know there would be seasons in this game.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

those devblogs just make it worse.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/1697191902714924486

Dev Blog 06/12/18

Spoiler

Greeting warriors of Calradia!

Becoming a noble is a major milestone in Mount & Blade games. It is the moment that your dedication and hard work is recognised and rewarded with land and title. In most cases, this will be in the service of a liege lord, however, we know that some of you prefer not to bend the knee and would rather carve out your own path in Calradia! But, regardless of how you obtain your own holdings, it is what you do with your new found gains that truly matters.

So, what makes obtaining your own fief such an important event in the game? Well, settlements are very much at the core of Bannerlord’s singleplayer campaign, and the majority of actions and events that take place in the sandbox revolve around them. They are the places where recruits are hired, wealth is built, and ultimately, what wars are fought over.

But, other than using them as a source of income, what can you actually do with your settlements?

Settlement Projects
Settlement projects are a way for players to improve their fiefs in a number of different ways. We can separate these upgrades into two categories: military and civic.

Military buildings, such as upgrades to the walls or the addition of a barrack, are all directly related to the settlement’s ability to play an effective role in times of war. Upgraded walls make the settlement harder to assault and a barrack enables the settlement to maintain a larger garrison to man those walls!

Civic buildings are focused more on the production and economic capabilities of the settlement, with buildings such as a carpenter’s hall, which helps to increase production in the settlement, or a vegetable garden, that provides a steady supply of food. However, some civic buildings offer bonuses which you could consider to be more military focused. For example, a granary allows the settlement to store more food, which will help it to hold out longer during a siege.

Settlement projects can be constructed in both castles and towns, with villages receiving bonuses from the castle or town they are connected to. With the massive increase in settlements that we have in Bannerlord, we felt that having to micromanage settlements all the way down to the village level would, over time (as your territory grows), become overbearing and tiresome to manage.

Settlement projects require manpower for the construction phase. We use a formula that determines how much progress is made with the construction each day based on the population of the settlement. And for those with a large purse, you can draft in some additional manpower to help speed up the construction!

Projects can be queued, meaning that you don’t have to worry about losing time with production if you are preoccupied with other tasks when the current project is completed. And if you manage to complete all of the projects in a settlement, or feel like you don’t need certain ones, you can invest this manpower into daily projects which will slowly develop different aspects of your settlement. The daily housing project, for example, will increase the population of the settlement by 1 each day.

Overall, we feel that settlement projects are a great way for players to tailor their fiefs to perform specific functions within the kingdom. Settlements deep within your territory might be better suited to producing food or bolstering your finances, whereas a castle bordering a hostile faction might be better suited to becoming a military stronghold from which to protect your lands and project your strength. Ultimately, we think that they give the player more tactical choices in terms of gameplay, and much greater control over (and hopefully a more engaging connection to) their fiefs than what we had in previous Mount & Blade games.

Governors
Our final point of discussion regarding settlements is the addition of a Governor role. The governor role allows you to offload the burden of managing your fiefs to a trusted clan member. They will handle all aspects of managing the settlement, providing the fief with small bonuses in the process, leaving you to focus on crushing your enemies!


In next week’s blog, we will be talking to Gameplay Programmer (Campaign Team), Selim Çam. 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!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/261550/announcements/detail/3409686392263105897

Dev Blog 13/12/18

Spoiler

Greeting warriors of Calradia!

In video games, game design must come first. It doesn’t matter if a game has awe-inspiring art or wonderful writing if its gameplay is clunky, repetitive or downright boring. In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, game design is king too – we want it to be as open, full of possibilities, dynamic, and engaging as a sandbox can possibly be. But that doesn’t mean anything if you can make game designers’ ideas come true. Gameplay programmers take care of that: they turn ideas into reality, creating game systems by implementing game features in the actual game. That takes understanding the feature itself by heart as well as writing the code to make it work as it was designed. Today we talk with Selim Çam, one of our gameplay programmers, to find out what he’s working on for the single-player campaign of Bannerlord.


NAME
Selim Çam

FROM
Izmir, Turkey

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2018

EDUCATION
Software Engineering

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Gameplay Programmer (Campaign Team)


WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“"As a Gameplay Programmer on the Campaign Team, my role involves designing and implementing various gameplay features, such as quests, character perks, kingdom decisions, the barter system and so forth. Some tasks require elaborate design meetings to discuss the feature thoroughly, so I spend some of my time attending the meetings if we are having any.

When the game design is decided, the code needs to be designed as well, to define and clarify how it will work. I try to ensure that it meets the specifications of the game design while still maintaining our internal programming paradigms. At this point, if the current design is deemed not feasible, we try to come up with a better solution by making changes. Once I have a clear view of the design, I start programming the feature, which makes up the majority of my time.

For major features, I often discuss the code structure with my team lead where we exchange ideas and try to get a better view of the feature.

Also, throughout the day, the QA Team reports bugs that they've encountered while testing the game. If it is something related to the campaign side and I'm available, I take a look to debug and fix the issue. Sometimes it takes many trips between the QA and Campaign rooms in quick succession. It can be exhausting from time to time but I enjoy the rush!”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“I really like the fact that the game presents a sandbox environment to the players in which they are free to choose their path, whether it's fulfilling the fantasy of becoming a king leading vast numbers of men or being a prominent merchant that controls the economy of the realm.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“In Bannerlord, we are essentially creating a living medieval world in which parties travel from one settlement to another, raid settlements, buy and sell goods, lay sieges and all sorts of things that you would expect them to do. When that's the case, it can be daunting to track down a bug with unknown origins. Also, the trickiest bugs are not always easily recreated due to their indeterministic nature.

One time, the QA Team encountered a caravan party that decided to lay siege on a settlement... while it was inside! Caravans shouldn’t be able to lay siege at all, and they most definitely shouldn't be able to attack a settlement that they are inside of. Nothing made sense!

Luckily we had a way to recreate the bug easily. But that was the only easy part. I remember tracking every step of the involved parties, frame by frame, to find out what caused the issue. Turns out it wasn't that hard to fix, but it sure took enough time!”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“"Currently my main focus is on the Children feature we've recently announced. To be more specific, the transition of babies into childhood and children into adulthood, where they will be positioned, how the player will interact with them etc. Besides that, I'm doing some adjustments to the Barter feature.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“I've always had an affection for Battania since they remind me of the Gauls and I'm a big fan of Asterix!”

ARE THERE ANY STRANGE OR FUNNY BUGS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY DEALING WITH?
“Absolutely! While the children were being implemented into the game, the work-in-progress build turned some of the townsfolk into tiny kids with full body armour and battle equipment. It was hilarious watching them walk around with shields twice their size and their tiny arms carrying gigantic spears. We shared a good laugh with the team.”

HOW LINEAR WILL THE CAMPAIGN BE? HOW MUCH FREEDOM WILL WE HAVE TO MAKE CHOICES THAT AFFECT THE WORLD?
“For a medieval game that fuses elements of strategy and action RPG gameplay, the campaign is as non-linear as it can get. Players are completely free to choose their own actions. The game does not force you into a fixed path. You can do any quest that you find enjoyable. If you are not really into fighting, you can play more like a trader than a warrior, establishing productive enterprises, sending out caravans and proposing kingdom policies that support merchants etc. If you are more of a warrior, you can amass a colossal army and conquer the whole realm. You decide who you’ll marry, how your clan will persist through generations and which child of yours will inherit your legacy.

Since there are no exact ways to play the campaign, each player will experience Bannerlord uniquely, which is what we all love about the Mount & Blade series.”

 

[Aemar]

The world map looks great, like a miniature version of an actual geographical area - iirc one of the first things they exhibited for Bannerlord was a demo of how easily they can create realistic terrain. I can tell the whole map has been reworked since the last time they showed us bits of it, the locations seem less crammed than before.

 

[whydoibother]

Hopefully this doesn't make it too complex for amateurs to create custom maps for mods. I still remember the failure of Neverwinter Nights 2 to capture the Neverwinter Nights 1 modding scene, because of the added complexity to the kit.
The game looks great regardless, and JUST RELEASE IT ALREADY FUCK SHIT FUCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[vota DC]

In the demo at gamescom most of player perk were labeled as work in progress. Also many skills have very few perks. Now this devblog explain why: gameplay programmer joined in 2018.

 

[moon knight]

gameplay programmer joined in 2018.

It kinda makes sense tho, they were mostly buildng their engine.

 

[Metro]

So just another five years and the game will be finished?

 

[Merlkir]

Doesn't he say he's implementing quests? That's more like "scripter". Still programming, but I doubt they're doing a lot of work on the engine itself these days.
You absolutely need scripters even at the end of the process. (to fix bugs)

 

[Butter]

I predict that this game will actually release in 2019, with minimal advance warning.

 

[vota DC]

So just another five years and the game will be finished?

Well gameplay is a big word. The guy just did perks, skills were already present. Base combat (skills) needs to be polished, but part of gameplay needs to be implemented. Some combat perks are 90%, other just 50% and the tactical/scout/diplomatic/medic perks don't work at all and were cut from the demo....that doesn't mean unpolished, that means they are so incomplete to be unplayable.

I predict that this game will actually release in 2019, with minimal advance warning.

Of course!
They are turks, not too different from ancient mongols so blitzkrieg is their trademark.
The game will be released playable but unpolished like M&B 1.
Right now they are investing much time on character's outfit to maximise future output because
Armagan----->Turk language remove the g (Erdoan instead of Erdogan)----->Arman---->Armani---->fashion

 

[A horse of course]

Are there any good overviews of the current state of Warsword? Last time I played the mod was something like five years ago.