Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Tuco · Feb 21, 2020

I don't really have an opinion about early access, but I've been bouncing between warband and bannerlord recently and man bannerlord is a huge upgrade engine wise.

All the same fun mechanics and gameplay is there, but everything is way cleaner, way smoother, way prettier and way faster. The most surprising change is the low level unit ai is better. In warband you could flank a line of soldiers on your horse and pretty much lay waste to them, i did the same thing with a bunch of peasants last night and they all turned in unison and nailed me with their pitchforks and shit.

I was apprehensive before, now I'm super pumped to pay 50 bucks for early access.

BrotherWu · Feb 21, 2020

I don't usually do EA because it is mostly shit. I've had some good experiences such as Minecraft and Empyrion. Those types of games can make the shit worth it.

That said, M&B is pretty much the highest value game I have ever purchased due to replayability through mods. I fucking love the mod'd game. I mean, it is still way more clunky than it should have been but it has that playability element to it that really hits the spot for me. My troops are fighting a 2k vs 2k PoP battle in another window right now. Been on this playthrough like a 3-day drunk. Something about that game just rubs my peter.

If they can:

1) Make the interface less painful.
2) Slightly improve eye candy.
3) Add some depth.
4) Clean up some balance and quirky issues.
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Continue and improve mod support.

I'd pay premium no problem.

The bar is not high but those shitbirds have been dicking around for like a decade now. Hopefully they got it right.

Tuco · Mar 25, 2020

BrotherWu · Mar 25, 2020

The least they could do is release it a few days early and help save humanity.

BrotherWu · Mar 27, 2020

Just saw this pop up on Steam. A day early and discounted. Still trying to lower expectations due to early access. It's kind of an embarrassment, honestly, but at least something is coming out.

Tuco

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

After eight years of blood, sweat, and tears, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord's Early Access release is finally upon us. In just a few short days you will be able to gird on your sword, don your armour, summon your followers and ride forth to win glory on the battlefields of Calradia!

But before we move on to discuss the release of the game, we want to take a moment to talk about the current coronavirus pandemic. It probably goes without saying, but this certainly isn't the scenario we envisaged for the release of the game. However, we have tried to make the best of a bad situation and thankfully, with the help of our IT team, have been able to continue work on the project from home. This has come with its own challenges of course, but we are still very grateful and lucky to work in an industry where it is possible to work remotely, which we know isn't the case for many of you. It might seem like a pretty ideal time to release a game (after all, everyone is at home right!?), but we know that the current situation has placed a lot of people in a difficult position when it comes to balancing their finances and risking their health.

With that in mind, we have decided to make the game available for 10% off for the first two weeks of sale. In addition to this, anyone who owns any previous Mount & Blade title will be eligible for an additional 10% off in select digital stores. Also, you can breathe a sigh of relief because there won't be a delay... In fact, quite the opposite! We have decided to bring forward the release of the game to 10.00 am UTC, March 30th.

So, you know the release date and the price, but what content is included in the Early Access release?

In singleplayer, you will have access to Custom Battle and Campaign game modes. Campaign is a new and somewhat more structured approach to the Mount & Blade experience that blends a storyline and key events with the traditional sandbox gameplay that our players are familiar with. Campaign aims to provide players with clear goals and missions that can lead to a successful conclusion to a playthrough. However, if you refuse to take any direction and prefer to plot your own rise to power, you can simply ignore the campaign missions and go about your business!

During a campaign playthrough you will do most of the things that you would expect from a Mount & Blade game, including creating your own character with their own backstory; exploring a vast, re-envisioned continent of Calradia; hiring companions to accompany you on your journey; raising warbands and armies to devastate your enemies on the battlefield; conquering towns and castles; progressing your character skills and equipment; learning and mastering the game's much-improved combat mechanics; and commanding and fighting alongside your troops; among a host of other things, many of which have been featured in previous blog posts!

And while there is definitely plenty of content for players to dive into and enjoy, we must be clear in reminding you that this is an Early Access release. There may be bugs and glitches, there will certainly be balancing issues, some features may be missing or currently disabled, and certain aspects of the game might not receive full-support until later down the line. You can expect to see reused scenes (our eventual aim is that each town and castle will have its own unique scene) as well as other types of placeholder content, such as voice lines, animations, quests, etc.

In terms of multiplayer content, you can expect a continuation of the recent multiplayer beta, which features 4 different game modes: Skirmish, Captain, Team Deathmatch, and Siege. We will continue to work on multiplayer throughout Early Access by introducing new features, game modes, and other additional content. We expect to enable our community to host private servers closer to the full release of the game.

Our current plan is to localize the game into the following languages: French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish and Turkish. However, during EA, localisations for these languages may be missing entirely or may be incomplete. Other languages may be added later.

If you would like to experience everything that Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has to offer, then we strongly encourage you to hold off on buying the game until the full-release.

Finally, we would like to announce that we are officially drawing a close to this series of blogs. With the game on the verge of release, we would prefer to switch our attention and limited resources to work alongside our community. Of course, if we feel that we have something newsworthy or a new feature that we want to highlight and discuss, we will share a post, but for now, this will be our last scheduled blog post.

We wish you all the best during these difficult times and hope you and your family stay safe. Now go wash your hands!

Tuco · Mar 27, 2020

BrotherWu said:
Just saw this pop up on Steam. A day early and discounted. Still trying to lower expectations due to early access. It's kind of an embarrassment, honestly, but at least something is coming out.

We'll see how embarrassing it is after it comes out, lol.

One good thing about sandbox games is that a broken singleplayer campaign quest is much less of a gamestopper than a highly story-driven game where you're totally blocked because Dr. Pumpernickle doesn't recognize that you have a the Golden Apple.

I played around 10 play throughs of Warband from vanilla to lightly modded to heavily modded. Early Access is just a first playthrough of many (hopefully) to me. I'm justp issed it's coming out Monday instead of right now.

BrotherWu · Mar 27, 2020

Yeah no shit. Like what are two more weekend days going to do for you? Launch that bitch on a Friday and your sales will light up like pinball machine.

edit: And by embarrassment, I'm just saying that this thing has gone on so long and they still have to release it as EA. Really shitty project management. And, I agree, modding is where the real fun begins.

Punko · Mar 27, 2020

Gifting 1 copy of M&B warband to whoever posts their steamID first.

Caliane · Mar 27, 2020

I was trying to figure out if I had a CDkey, or something for the last M&B I owned somewhere.. or if I pirated it.. or anything. did they give out M&B for free when Warband was released? never did warband, and i feel like I got M&B for free, and late to the party.

BrotherWu · Mar 27, 2020

Nevermind I read that as Bannerlord (assumed beta key)

Punko · Mar 30, 2020

This releases in 3 hours according to steam.

BrotherWu · Mar 30, 2020

Trying to buy it now but Steam is shitting the bed.

Denaut · Mar 30, 2020

Been looking forward to this for years, but I think I am going to wait a week (sale lasts 2 weeks) to get a good read on stability before picking it up. I have probably 1000 hours logged in the other 2 M&Bs between them.

Punko · Mar 30, 2020

BrotherWu said:
Trying to buy it now but Steam is shitting the bed.

Bought it from humblebundle, had key 2 mins after.

Of course steam won't let me activate it, because its angry I slammed its store before.

Real flashback towards steam launch days.

Flobee · Mar 30, 2020

Grabbed this and DLing now. Hope it's not shit, but its exactly the kind of game I have a ton of time for at the moment

BrotherWu · Mar 30, 2020

DLing.

Punko · Mar 30, 2020

Started here also. Hope it will be worth the 10! year wait.

Zaide · Mar 30, 2020

Been watching some streams and it looks pretty good! I am very tempted to DL it but I’ve already preordered RE3 Remake for this Friday. Fml.

BrotherWu · Mar 30, 2020

Just finished the tutorial. So far, looks pretty good. Interface is not perfect but far ahead of Warband. My only complaint so far is that swordplay doesn't feel quite right on horseback. Maybe just something to get used to.

Flobee · Mar 30, 2020

Died to my second set of raiders in tutorial. I am god awful at this game

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

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