Preview Telefragged praises Mount & Blade

[LlamaGod]

then set off (cause the lance is a useless piece of crap in the arena and I ended up with it way too much).

if you're on a horse with a lance, charge until your guy puts the lance under his arm, then charge towards a unit and just ram the tip into them (dont press any attacks, just aim the tip and spear them).

It does quite a large amount of damage.

Dang no wonder they seemed like a broken weapon, I just kept using attack. Well anyway, I'm more of a sword/shield/bow guy myself. There is something very satisfying about grabbing a corsair horse, the running full steam with my shield up, knocking a bunch of guys down and then just, zip, zip, zip, with arrows to their heads. Mastering the art of headshots with the bow can turn a disadvantaged battle around. Plus it's a nice way to get a horse if you get the rider off with a few nicely placed shots (sometimes it's nice to have an old FPS background :D). Seriously, this game is some of the best fun I've had in a while.

Seriously. It doesnt even bug me there isn't a storyline done yet, I just go around and do shit and it's a ton of fun. I'm an archer too, I got up on a very very steep hill and then like 4 units slowly worked their way up and I kept sniping down at them, getting head shots or enough shots to kill them. It looked bad ass when I was later chasing an enemy up there, just this big hill covered in bodies will arrows all sticking out of them all over

 

[Balor]

And for Oblivion fanboys, who ask: Why M&B deserve so much respect, and Oblivion - hate for pretty much same features (nothing to do, twitchy combat, etc)?
Cause M&B:
a. Made by 2 people, not multi-million corporation.
b. Is has crossbows, spears and mounted combat (no Patrick Stewart!!!, though, what a shame).
c. It does not position itself as 'One true RPG to rule them all!'., most importantly.
Neither it has a history of much better prequels.

My two cents, just in case .

 

[Proweler]

Yea it's a good game, but combat on the ground is lame, the AI is dumb, there is no story and balance is poor.

For example the Black Kegerit Raiders can be owned by a group of low level footsoldiers while having a few ranks in strategy while an eqaul amount of trained horseman (again having a few ranks in strategy) can't.

So after a verry enjoyable 5 hours of play I decided not to buy this game because I've seen it all.

 

[Balor]

Yea, 'rush and kill' AI is one of the weakest points of the game.
Hopefully, that'll be changes with introduction of formations and other, more appropriate group be haviour.
Having bandits swarm you is one thing, but having army doing the same is not that good.

 

[LCJr.]

M&B has an excellent modding community. I've found Last Days enjoyable and I'm about Tolkiened to death here lately. But IMHO the one to watch is Lombard Leagues. If they get the political scripts working the way they want it's going to be a very interesting mod.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Pat showed this game off to me and I was pretty damn impressed. I just bought it today and all I can say is "Wow." The combat is excellent, fluid and very well balanced. I wouldn't mind if more action RPGs used this sort of combat. Of course, there's more than just horse-mounted combat like everyone makes this out to be, trading and such is heck load of fun and so is capturing and selling slaves. This game is anything but a one-trick pony (ouch, sorry).

Can't wait to try out some of the mods.

 

[Pete]

So anyway:

• Mount & Blade: Combat, Gameplay foussed.
• Oblivion: Soil Erosion, Patrick Stewart focussed.

Bethesda's resources are divided along the lines of their priorities. It's just that their priorities suck, from a gaming point of view. From a technology point of view, they're great.

I don't think it is fair to say that our priorities "suck from a gaming point of view." In The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, we've been working hard to improve gameplay elements that fans of the series have asked for. In regards to the topic at hand, we've re-vamped combat completely to be more fluid and natural.

In developing the diverse game experience that is present in Oblivion, our priorities are long and varied. Many different aspects of gameplay are covered and had a significant amount of resources devoted to them: Magic, Stealth, and Combat. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion had to cover the whole enchilada, and then some.

 

[LlamaGod]

im betting $5 Mount and Blade will end up still being more fluid and natural.

I read a preview of Oblivion combat and magic sounds retarded, too.

lol leet fps fireball/rocket shooting

 

[Mantiis]

im betting $5 Mount and Blade will end up still being more fluid and natural.

I read a preview of Oblivion combat and magic sounds retarded, too.

lol leet fps fireball/rocket shooting

How about you bag Oblivion when you go out and buy it instead of spewing forth drivel about how shit it is going to be WITHOUT HAVING PLAYED THE GAME.

Idiocy.

 

[LlamaGod]

the preview said to shoot fireballs you have to pre-guess people and fire to where they are moving into ala rocket launchers in FPS games.

SHOOT AT THEIR FEET!!111


And why would I buy Oblivion just to re-assure myself it sucks? I can just say it sucks already.

 

[Abernathy]

To be honest, we don't know.

But it's a pretty safe bet - I really haven't been impressed with the recent crop of games from the major developers, it's all been the same old shit regurgitated with prettier pictures!

And if Morrowind's any kind of measure - thanks, but no. Daggerfall crapped all over it.

I mean really, most delelopers promise the world and deliver shit - Bethesda is promising shit in the first place!

And Pete expects us to be impressed?

I don't think so.

 

[Balor]

I mean really, most delelopers promise the world and deliver shit - Bethesda is promising shit in the first place!

Well, you sound as though Bethesda is honest. WRONG!
Since when 'Trust us, it'll be cool!' became 'promise of shit'?
On the other hand, they seem to stick to this mantra because any other word slipped turns out to be the abovementioned 'promise'.

 

[Modo]

I`ve bought M&B too, i`m already level 20.
The combat rocks!! It really has feeling and fun all over!
When u charge those guys, impale one with teh lance, draw the sword and chop one horse`s and then gallop to circle around and turn again with lance in hand, that feels really great.
It`s quite realistic, and the world reminds me very much of a very old game, Comqueror, it has an "old-school" feeling somehow.
Definitely worth the 14 $ and i hope they`ll put a good story and nice diallogues too, and organize that world around a bit, they`ve certainly stepped in on the right way.

 

[LlamaGod]

yeah, i've been playing the current version alot, I got to about level 12 and now i've been playing The Last Days mod alot now, around level 10 in that.

It's a Lord of the Rings mod that takes place around the end of the third book, in the Gondor and Rohan regions with a little bit of Mordor.

Besides being interesting, it adds cool stuff to the day night cycles and theres a war between the factions and you can join to either side and fight the others, and even decrease their power and wipe them out.

You'll see battles happening all over and stuff, and you can do quests for the faction leaders and gain rank within your faction.

So its got all the good stuff from Mount and Blade plus new stuff to give you more goals to work towards, its also a little bit harder.

 

[HardCode]

While we can't expect the first game to be anything more, we shouldn't expect the second game to be so fucking much less.

My new signature. This statement is uber-truth.

 

[HardCode]

At some level the decision has to be made whether or not such expense can be justified on a feature that isn't necessarily integral to an RPG... and whether or not you think it's a good decision or not, the answer tends more often to be no.

How integral to an RPG is Soil Erosion? I'm not saying that you are defending Oblivion design decisions (and mine is a rhetorical question), but I had to bite off of that statement.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

At some level the decision has to be made whether or not such expense can be justified on a feature that isn't necessarily integral to an RPG... and whether or not you think it's a good decision or not, the answer tends more often to be no.

How integral to an RPG is Soil Erosion? I'm not saying that you are defending Oblivion design decisions (and mine is a rhetorical question), but I had to bite off of that statement.

Considering how many named procedural content as one of the key hopes for the future of the genre, it may not be integral, but I consider it one of the best design decisions for Oblivion - because thats all it is, a procedural landscape generator.

The Oblivion bashing over mounted combat is predictable, and the glee that M&B does it with such elgance is understandable (I actually feel the same way ) But as a RPG site this really shouldn't be high on the topic list - No game can do everything, and there are other features much more critical to the RPG-ness of Oblivion that should be fosused on: the skill system, dialogue, and quest design.

Oh, and M&B rocks, but it's an action game. So far. If they come up with a cool story and quest it's going to be the most awesome indie game in years.

 

[Section8]

Besides being interesting, it adds cool stuff to the day night cycles and theres a war between the factions and you can join to either side and fight the others, and even decrease their power and wipe them out.

I'm hoping we'll see something like that in vanilla Mount and Blade. It should be a lengthy and difficult war of attrition, where you are more involved in the logistics than siege warfare itself, but I'd love to be able to help my Swadian brothers take over towns and such.

Considering how many named procedural content as one of the key hopes for the future of the genre, it may not be integral, but I consider it one of the best design decisions for Oblivion - because thats all it is, a procedural landscape generator.

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, with some slightly misplaced priorities, and a completely ludicrous marketing push.

Procedural landscape can be as realistic as you like without being a worthwhile gameplay space. The two don't preclude each other, certainly, but it just evidences a slightly mislaid priority amid a swarming ocean of other questionable priorities.

And it was only through developer contact that we actually learned that the oft touted "soil erosion" was actually part of a procedural landscape generator. The articles just said "we sent someone to some uni to learn about how soil erodes," without any mention of what good that does for the game.

So while the actual "soil erosion" bit is pretty much superficial, it's good to know that Bethesda see some value in procedural content.

 

[HardCode]

Bah. Another good gaming opportunity ruined by another bad notion that copy protection should run hidden drivers on your system. I am not installing this game because the Themida copy protection installs drivers that run on Windows startup. Fuck that. I am so against so called copy protection that is going to fuck with my hardware on a kernel level. I'll tell ya what. The game is $14 ... I'd send them $28 if I get a CD with a CD Key embedded in the disk. No way am I loading that shit.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, with some slightly misplaced priorities, and a completely ludicrous marketing push.

Procedural landscape can be as realistic as you like without being a worthwhile gameplay space. The two don't preclude each other, certainly, but it just evidences a slightly mislaid priority amid a swarming ocean of other questionable priorities.

The point of procedural content is to have more resources for both aritistic and gameplay fine tuning. Wether they made good use of it only the final game will tell. Still, I expect Oblivion to be, if not a deeper game and maybe not even a better RPG, at least to be a better written, better polished, more entertaining, and yet still a LARGE game, partly because of this feature. So its a pretty good priority I think.

And it was only through developer contact that we actually learned that the oft touted "soil erosion" was actually part of a procedural landscape generator. The articles just said "we sent someone to some uni to learn about how soil erodes," without any mention of what good that does for the game.

Don't know what you have been reading, but to me the meaning of this feature was pretty clear from the very first review I read.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

So while the actual "soil erosion" bit is pretty much superficial, it's good to know that Bethesda see some value in procedural content.

You know what I'd like to see? A specialist team set up within Bethesda solely to use existing engines they've built and just focus on and create content. I really would've liked to see Morrowind's engine used for a few more things for example, rather than re-worked and pushed to the extremes for Oblivion so much that it doesn't run on anyone's PC and then used to deliver a potentially mediocre story. Ditch that "better engine" mindset that's better left in the hands of Id and just focus on making really cool and interesting worlds and stories set in those worlds with the engine that exists. Meaning, if the engine doesn't support it, you don't do it.

I don't think it is fair to say that our priorities "suck from a gaming point of view." In The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, we've been working hard to improve gameplay elements that fans of the series have asked for. In regards to the topic at hand, we've re-vamped combat completely to be more fluid and natural.

Have Bethesda hired these guys? No. Therefore Oblivion's combat can only suck by comparison.

In developing the diverse game experience that is present in Oblivion, our priorities are long and varied. Many different aspects of gameplay are covered and had a significant amount of resources devoted to them: Magic, Stealth, and Combat. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion had to cover the whole enchilada, and then some.

Covering the enchilada doesn't serve much purpose when it's a rotten enchilada.

FAKE PETE.

 

[Balor]

@ HardCode
Are you one of those that are convinced that CIA is responcible for fall of Mayan empire? :D

 

[HardCode]

@ HardCode
Are you one of those that are convinced that CIA is responcible for fall of Mayan empire? :D

Don't be an ass. Anyone with a little technical savy knows that the more stuff stuck into the Windows kernel is more potential for system fuck-ups. As it is, drivers from major manufacturers like Nvidia or Creative and potential go awry and mess up a system (albiet very rarely). The last thing I need is some driver that limits hardware functionality. As bad as some game programmers are, I am sure that copy protection programmers are just as bad. However, the game isn't embedded into Windows core functionality like Themida is.

It's a matter of my principles and programming ethics: You don't fuck with someone's system to get your program to run - you learn to program better.

Shit like this kind of "copy protection" falls into the spyware/adware category the way I classify things.

 

[LlamaGod]

blahblahblahblah

it works fine for me, so I dont really care.

 

[Balor]

Anyone with a little technical savy knows that the more stuff stuck into the Windows kernel is more potential for system fuck-ups.

I know. But I'm willing to take this risk.