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Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Turuko

Savant
Joined
Jun 12, 2019
Messages
352
Location
Verbobonc
Dickplomacy is gonna be glorious
RK once posted screenshots from a Lover's Lab mod of warband where you could take an imprisoned lord's other honor.
:prosper:
i think there are more than one with "Adult" content
but placing enemy Lords' wives,sisters,daughters in your brothels where they earn weekly gold for you is actually cool
letting your warband rape your prisoners too i guess
 

Dakka

Savant
Joined
Oct 3, 2017
Messages
225
Location
Hell
I'll be honest. If this was as good as the best mods for Warband plus better graphics, I would still be happy. This series has a gameplay formula that is extremely addictive to me. I'm kind of a Roman Empire nerd, so the inclusion of the splintered imperial Calradian factions is really exciting to me too. The fact that we will have so many more interesting systems to play with, plus being able to kill annoying lords for revenge or even for fun, makes me very happy indeed. That will allow mods to elevate Bannerlord to an even higher standard. The modding community for Mount & Blade is simply brilliant.

Of course this will be a very long process, but Mount & Blade has never been a game you just play once and then forget about like all those fad games that come out, get the masses all excited, and then fade back into obscurity where they belong. This type of game is an ongoing project by both the devs and community. Instead of some hack writer in a dark basement, the Mount & Blade story is written by our actions, both in and out of the game. Every so often I look for new mods or updates for mods for Warband, and often I have been pleasantly surprised, even after all these years.

Ladies and gentlemen, I could go on and on about this, but I'll just say that Mount & Blade is the most beautiful game concept I know. I can't wait to enjoy it fresh again.
 
Last edited:

curry

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
4,012
Location
Cooking in the lab
The more I hear about the multiplayer beta from players and read about the changes to grand campaign, the more it feels like the devs don't understand what made their game popular.
 

Vincente

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 16, 2018
Messages
799
Location
Location
Screenshot_20200213-092527.png
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,989
Location
Flowery Land
Well fuck.
Its delayed isn't it?

Nah, talking about the update after that as "then we will follow up on that just before early access" doesn't sound like it, at least not one of significance (Early April maybe, but not much more than that). I suspect the update on EA will be something like exact release date (When in March has yet to be specified, even though most assume 30th for the 10th anniversary or 31st for latest possible), what's missing from Early Access (We know a few thing from the store page but best to give a full list), what the rate will be for adding those missing things, and the proper procedure for submitting bugs and feedback.
 

theremin

Novice
Joined
Dec 3, 2018
Messages
5
Even being hungover and at work can't dampen my excitement for this game.

My heart says "1st week of March."

Anybody else just upgrade their PC out of antsy anticipation?

God, I hate work.
 

Butter

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
8,668
It might not even be in a state where I want to play it when it hits early access. I'll probably still D1P it, but I don't know if I'll touch it for months thereafter. I've got plenty of other games I can finish.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2014
Messages
410
Dev Blog 14/02/20
876dcee6768a106c3735fdda3da213f2155f071d.png

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

After a short hiatus with the developer blogs, we are back today with another one to discuss an overhaul to individual melee combat AI that was recently introduced to the game, including the ongoing multiplayer beta!

So, what exactly are we talking about when we say individual AI? Well, in a previous blog, we discussed the three different levels of combat AI that work alongside each other during battles, which we refer to as individual, formation and tactics. For those that missed that blog, you can check it out in its entirety here. But as a quick recap, we can break it down to say that:
  • Tactics: Responsible for providing a battle plan for the entire army.
  • Formation: Decides how the formation should try to carry out the battle plan as best as it can while prioritising and reacting to unfolding events.
  • Individual: Controls the actions of each unit on the battlefield (independently of each other), such as attacking and blocking.

The recent AI melee combat overhaul that we will be taking a look at in this blog focussed specifically on the individual unit AI, i.e. the AI that controls the combat actions of bots on the battlefield. So, let’s jump into it, shall we?!

The individual AI in Bannerlord comes with its own combat/melee levels. This approach allows us to have a diverse range of fighters on the field of battle, with well-trained knights outperforming unskilled peasants, not just because of their equipment, but because of their proficiency in hand-to-hand combat.

However, it was apparent through our playtests that our previous individual melee AI was a little tame, appearing almost buggy and inactive at times with its actions by taking too long to make and act upon decisions, regardless of their combat level. It was clear that we needed to improve upon this to ensure that each encounter on the battlefield engages players in a way that feels more natural and challenging.

So, after many PvE duels to highlight the flaws with the old system, our AI team got to work on improving the individual AI! But, before we move along to discuss the changes that were made, let’s take a quick look at some of the different melee levels of the previous individual AI.

oldlevel1.gif

oldlevel24.gif

oldlevel40.gif


Clearly the AI was a bit lacking, even at the highest level. The decision making wasn’t as advanced as it needed to be, with the AI deciding to attack when it should be on the defensive, or falling for/failing to adjust to very simple attack feints.

In order to improve the performance of bots in combat, it was clear that the individual AI not only needed to be able to process and react to the constant stream of data being sent its way but should also consider additional factors when making a decision about what action to take.

So, to start, individual AI now considers its opponent’s blocking direction when deciding its own attack direction, and this applies at all melee levels. As the melee level begins to increase, the bot starts to have a greater understanding of the combat mechanics of the game and the fight which they are involved in. This includes stun durations, combat timings and enemy equipment, while also giving greater consideration to the orders issued to it by the formation AI that sits above the individual AI.

That all sounds well and good, but what does any of that actually mean? Well, allow us to give an example:

A bot has been told to hold in a shield wall formation, so it should act defensively and try to maintain its position. However, the defensive order given doesn’t affect how proficient the bot is in combat, i.e. it will still attack and defend according to its combat level, therefore, it should still try and exploit any opening that it gets and will attack if an opportunity arises. The formation order simply dictates that bot should play more conservatively/defensively.

The bot is then issued a charge order. The bot now decides to act in a more aggressive manner, pushing towards enemies to engage them rather than holding a position. During the fight, the bot is looking to see if there is a window for an attack, or whether they should defend an incoming attack. While making this decision, it is considering what their opponent is doing. If the enemy is holding an attack in place, the bot will respond with the correct block direction. If the bot successfully blocks the attack, it now knows that it has a window in which to reply with its own attack. However, while readying the attack the bot recognises that their opponent is blocking in the correct direction, and therefore decides to switch its own attack direction to avoid the attack being blocked (unless the enemy is holding a shield, in which case the bot will realise that switching their attack direction isn’t too important as the shield can block blows from different directions). Depending on the combat level of the AI, it will make and carry out these decisions in a quicker amount of time, albeit still with some slight variation to make it feel less robotic.

These changes definitely lead to more intense bot fights the higher the melee level gets, providing a much greater challenge experienced players. However, if all this sounds a bit scary to you, don’t worry too much as you will be able to change the combat skill of bots in the game options.

Rather than trying to explain it further, maybe it’s better if we just show you!



And that’s it for this week’s blog. We will be back next week with an announcement about the Early Access release. The week after, we would like to answers some questions from our modding community, so if you have any questions you would like to ask about modding in Bannerlord, please leave a reply in the comments below and will pick some out to answer.

We will be back next week with an announcement about the Early Access release.

Fingers crossed for no delays and something that is actually playable in SP.
 

vota DC

Augur
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
2,321
Seems great news that blocking direction Is affected by skills. In warband proficiency just means faster attack so many mods to have powerful lords or companions just gave them tons of hp or super customized armors and they performed as hitsponge with a fast attack. Now even without superequipment they can perform very well with improved blocking and also perks will help too.
Game could be more difficult for player too.
 

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