Brutally Honest Bannerlord Review - Is It Worth It?
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
- I have sunk an ungodly amount of time into Bannerlord - Partly because I love the game and partly because of this channel. My review is blunt, brutally honest and fair. I've learned quite a few things after 3800 hours and in this video, I share my thoughts with you. Keep in mind, the full release is scheduled for late next month and some of topics discussed in this video may change!!
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So I originally wanted to cover this topic because I thought it would be a nice break for me from all the intense guides. Then I made a nearly 2 minutes intro that took a full day to do and had to scrap because it was too long lol then I spent 2 days going through all the guides and campaigns to make a list of what needs to be fixed still only to cut it down to 14 minutes. During the editing, I thought about doing what most everyone else does - talk over some stock footage or a single battle without much editing or effort. Then I decided you all deserve much better than that from me - so here I am at 4am once again working to get this beast out on time lol This is a long way of saying I love you all and I appreciate the support you've given me - I don't take you for granted and the extra effort on this one is for you! I hope you enjoy it - I laughed a bunch making it :)
You put such a hard work and love in everything you do here. Be sure, we ALL love your content and appreciate your work. Thank you!
If RUclips limited subscriptions to one channel per game, yours would be my Bannerlord subscription hands down. Thank you so much for all your hard work!
@@patrickbraz9449 As long as everyone is still enjoying them, I'll keep putting them out :D Thanks!!
@@emreask529 Luckily it's a pretty small pond to swing in haha I would have been eaten alive if it was Minecraft or something else :P
@@arrynroyce72 Thanks Arryn!! I appreciate that :) I'll continue to work hard to earn that sub!
This game has the potential to be my favourite game of all time. It is glorious. I like the suggestions about the end game. I usually get to a point where I just restart, because at some point in the campaign, total domination just becomes inevitable. An end times event would be amazing. Something to prepare for in the campaign long term, for the children...
Yeah I agree - I think I restarted 10 - 15 times before I actually completed my first campaign lol When I read your comment about total domination, it reminded me of Team America, Kim Jong trying to say it's inevitable lol
@@Strat-Guides white walkers invasion in the late game =)
@@Kalsimir maybe even dofferent events, sometimes mamluk invasion, sometimes a viking invasion, sometimes a mongol invasion
just add actual internal politics... its overdue and the main reason why i stopped playing a month after release
@@Kalsimir Well earlier after release the game pretty much had that ,the nation with the horse archers were snowballing the map hard mid game ,so they had to adjust that because you end always fighting horse archers
The same thing happened with Warband, vanilla is fun and all, but mods are what made it special. I must've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours immersing myself in Prophesy of Pendor, Perisno, and the last days.
I feel like the OGs from the franchise never really expected a complete or perfect game, but rather a platform where modders could create new and better experiences than the vanilla one.
I held off on trying mods for Bannerlord until the last couple of months, but I wish I had used them sooner! I agree with you, mods completely change the feel of the game and extend the playtime by quite a bit. I know some people complain about needing mods to make the game playable, but frankly I don't care - as long as the end result is the same :)
@@Strat-Guides what modes would you recommend?
@@Strat-Guides *cries in Xbox*
@@alexgrey5195 yup, this video needs to happen!
they have never really made good games outright they make very good foundations for modders to come and make good games. I'm very happy with bannerlord as a vanilla game unlike warband which I only like with mods. I cant wait to see some full conversion mods for bannerlord. I have 1000 hours on vanilla which is good value. God I love prophesy of pendor.
The late game invasion from an off map culture reminds me of a mod from warband where after a set amount of days a group from beyond the seas lands and starts invading with armies numbering by the thousands
It's effectively what ck2 outsourced dlc "sunset invasion" is.
Oh cool! I really hope someone makes a mod like that for Bannerlord at some point too. And maybe some other RNG events that would shake up the map!
I believe the name of that mod was perisno
Yeah, Perisno had it. What I also loved, is that the invaders had a small outpost present on the map from the very beginning, and you could do quests for them, improving your reputation and even joining them when they finally do invade.
@@ithidt6587 and one of your companions, shi jin, was the key to defeating them as he basically tells you of their weaknesses
Missing from Warband
- You used to be able to build improvements in villages.
- Kingdoms used to hold feasts alongside tournaments, which a fresh player could win and earn access into the feast.
- At these feasts you could dedicate your victory to someone of the opposite sex and try to court them, secretly visiting them and reciting bad poetry... now instead you just throw thousands of ducats at their parents(even the Empress' daughter you can just buy).
- Improvements in castles and towns used to feel significant, now they're just arbitrary and can easily be ignored.
- Lord personalities used to really matter and actually changed the behavior and activities of lords. They used to duel and hold rivalries with one another, with some lords even hiring you to intervene on their behalf. Some warmongery Lords would even stage incidents in order to incite war!
- Companions used to be unique with their own backstories, opinions on matters and questlines.
- Claimants used to exist which you could help reclaim their throne.
- Bandits used to periodically raid villages, which were a good way to boost relations and earn some supplies early on.
- Neutral parties like Manhunters used to exist, which stopped Bandits from running rampant everywhere.
- Historical biases against women used to make for fun challenge runs, now there is complete equality. Wonder what occurred between Bannerlords and Warband that caused so much misogyny in Calradia?
- Deserters were a type of Bandit which were far more threatening than normal ones. Now they're just a rank in the bandit upgrade tree.
- The ability to ask where a Lord currently is.
- Lords used to be much more reactful to all of your actions.
- No Jeremus bro! Like bro what like bro how could you bro miss out on the biggest bro Jeremus bro!
- Books used to exist which gave you skill boosts.
- (VC)There used to be ship management, sea travel and sea battles. In Bannerlords there is a big inland sea and an Island in the middle... just screams scrapped to me.
- (VC)It was once possible to establish a personal base, kinda like a personal settlement which throughout the game you could upgrade.
- (VC)You could work a simple job like farming, mining, etc.
- (VC)You could take the equipment of a captured Lord... I'm glad we can kill them now but it's dumb we can't loot them.
- (VC)You could start the game as a peasant to a King, skipping much of the early grind.
- (VC)You could actually hunt for wildlife to feed your army.
- (VC)You used to be able to decapitate your enemies.
- (VC)Populations and your soldiers believed in religions which impacted unrest, productivity and morale. Religious monasteries existed where you could convert, learn to read or just burn everything down for sweet sweet cash.
Scrapped/Unimplemented(?) from Bannerlords
- It was planned for settlements to grow from villages into cities, as well as the ability to raze them. This was downsized to the player only being able to found their own settlement... this was then scrapped.
- It was teased before early access that you could take over alleyways and begin extorting the locals(like the crime bosses currently do). This is STILL advertised on the storepage and it's not coming in the full release. WTH Taleworlds?
- Settlements used to have dozens of buildings and projects which could completely change how it operates and what it produces... this was scrapped for what we have now.
- You used to be able to individually increase/decrease taxes, militia training and forced labor.
- Laws were planned to be bigger and more impactful... Including managing slavery, (un)equal rights, foreigner rights, soldier pensions, etc. Laws we currently have didn't seem like arbitrary stat boosts and were seemingly planned to have unique mechanics tied to them.
- Religion was in someway planned.
- It was planned that you could do all sorts of idle activities, such as telling stories, meeting nobility, working as a guard, hunting, gambling, etc.
- Characters were planned to be much more reactful to your and possibly others' actions, a bit like how they were in Warband.
- Various unique companions akin to Warband were planned.
- Minor factions were planned to have their own bases where you could interact with their leader(s).
I really miss all of those war band mechanics. It seems like it wouldn't have been too hard to implement either, which is unfortunate, and since I'm on console I likely won't get to mod anything like those mechanics into my game. I gotta say though. The sheer battle sizes, and atmosphere of the battles is enough to keep me from going straight back to war band
If you miss all that, go play Warband instead.
@@Lusitano1 reading must be hard for you
And you could bet money on tournaments. Warband was such a good game.
In Warband, it was almost harvesting season. In Bannerlord, no indication of that time at all. What gives, TW?
It definetly feels like it's too hollow and they're hoping the mod community can fill in the gaps
And betting in the mod community is pretty smart.
I agree with you but I played vanilla warband for hundreds of hours and warband is way more hollow than bannerlord
@@Deathelement53 you were younger and had more time back then
@@jhonviel7381 I've already put more hours into bannerlord than warband so no. I have 540 hours in warband and 630 in bannerlord
@@Deathelement53 yes but the difference is that bannerlord had 10 years development and the team is more experienced than it was at warband times. Finally mods showing what you can implement have been out for years.
It's still only slightly less empty than warband.
I think that is what I enjoy most in my Bannerlord games - starting over. I just get bored 3 to 4 years in and want do a new build. But for some reason the "new" builds always end up being horse archers...No matter how hard I try for something else, plus commanding armies just cannot be done on foot.
Maybe if there was some type of commanders view or mode that would give you a better sight I would try a full melee on foot character.
Lol exactly - restarting is the best part. I really enjoy planning out my next character build and approach to the campaign.
It's like Skyrim, but instead of stealth archer, you inevitably become horse archer.
Try the RTS Camera mod if you are in to that
My current build is a weird experiment, but works very well: a heavily armored cavalry man using only a onehanded sword and a siege-crossbow/heavy crossbow - now shield, no lance, no bow. This makes shooting from horseback impossible but makes me a sniper once I dismount.
This forces me to plan my attacks ahead and let my horse archers provoke the enemy (F1, F4 instead of a suicidal F1, F3) while I wait with a small group of heavy cav until we flank the enemy and then charge, regroup, charge, regroup and ultimately retreat if the enemy does not go down. Then the process is repeated. It's mounted guerilla warfare.
Its called mount and blade for a reason = ) but yeah I do wish melee lord was a bit more viable too.
Outside of unhealthy amount of grind which I fixed with smithing and progression mods, I feel like factions NEVER dying completely and the fact that as you said after 2 to 5 years of in-game time, it becomes incredibly repetetive and boring. Even in Warband world was small enough so one campaign was indeed taking some time and battles were even worse, but it wasn't even quarter of its size in Bannerlord, which takes entire days on modded campaign and whole ass weeks on vanilla.
I'm sure there are a ton of good ideas that could be implemented to help the late game. I mostly took stuff that's already out there for other games or mods, but the devs would know what's more realistic to implement. I need to play Warband one of these day...
Bannerlord plays a lot faster than warband in general due to all the quality of life changes. The sheer amount of time just selling loot in warband is staggering since you cant have a huge inventory like bannerlord.
@Mantelar could you explain further?
@Mantelar you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what this game is and how it is played. It is first a foremost a medieval battle simulator, and then a light management game on top of that.
@Mantelar The provinces basically run themselves. You assign a governor, do construction work and just a focus to buff some numbers like loyalty, militia, prosperity etc. Different governors will give different buffs and so on.
But this is all late game stuff, you will spend about 7 hours just doing tournaments, investing your money and building renown, then when you do become a vassal, you will hold 1 settlement because the ai wont vote for you. They will give you castles but those aren't profitable like towns are.
So in a nutshell running provinces is all about having the right governor.
I really appreciate how you take the time to find the specific examples to back up your criticism. I love this game but the only thing keeping it fresh for me is the mods and they update it so frequently my mods can't keep up. I'll he happy when it's all the way finished and I really hope they add some smaller side stories, quests and events into the game
Thank you for noticing! I know a lot of other creators just throw up a random battle or stock clips from a trailer, but it just doesn't feel right to do that. It feels lazy :(
Once they release the steam workshop, I think the moding will get even better! I'm fine if the game stays as it is and moders finish the rest.
Steam workshop support is gunna be lit
I'm running a sandbox campaign, slow burn of grabbing rebellious towns... I'm enjoying it, but full release and Workshop is what I'm looking forward to.
The mod community really made M&B a hit... or multiple hits... I'm betting the replay value is similar here.
Yes! Steam workshop is going to be a game changer. I don't really care who is responsible for making the game fun - it should be the devs, but if it's the modders, then so be it. As long as it's fun :)
Viking conquest bannerlord edition would be bad ass.
Silly little videos for youtube? My man, you made all the time with you enjoyable.
For real, the sheer amount of dedication you put into them is easily shown when you play and whenever you bring something new to the table. Rock on!
I'm happy to hear that! I know how frustrating a game like this can be, especially if your time is limited. I appreciate the support :)
I want more village management. It still baffles me that there are more things to do with villages in Warband than in Bannerlord, such as adding buildings that boost production and quests that help boost the prosperity of a village.
Early on, Taleworlds did show some things of village management, back when each village was its own fief. Two different production facilities could be made (for example, Olives and Grain, or hides and a stable). A castle could be built, but in consequence, that village would lose one of its production facilities. But then, I guess to simplify the game, they cut down on the number of fiefs and just gave everyone a castle and two villages, which always felt like a weird jump to me.
I think they had a lot of plans for things to be added to the game, but it seems like they ran out of time/resources to complete those ideas :(
When they took that away before EA they stated the reason why.
Can't remember the specific reason now, but it either had to do with money management becoming fucked, or the change itself and converting did weird stuff. I'll see if I can find the reason why in a minute.
@@Strat-Guides They actually had time but they didn't think it was valuable to the gameplay now that the city management is more robust
@@Th1sUsernameIsNotTakendid you find it?
@@theredhunter4997 I never found the original source. You can google it and see people glad or upset they axed it though. Early devblogs (believe 10 or 11) even talk about turning villages into castles, and then into towns.
It could have been in a Q&A or something, but I'm not reading through all of those. But I do recall the reasoning for axing them to be the economy getting royally screwed because of it.
I did another quick skim but feels like they culled that video or post, or it's just not an obvious one it is in lol.
It’s like a mansion but with nothing inside
Forgive me if this comes out wrong, but IMO the only thing that keeps this channel from going into the stratosphere is the game itself. So many people pick it up and got bored after reaching the late game stage
I really wish the devs sees the real problem and addresses it, instead of adding more shiny capes & hats.
It's not too late to switch to PUBG or Minecraft... lol! I appreciate the kind words :) As I said before, this whole channel was supposed to be temporary and just to help me learn how to make videos, so in that respect it's been a great experience! But at some point, if the playerbase doesn't grow past the 15k monthly it's been at for almost 2 years straight then I'll have to move onto other games. But they will be things that are similar enough - like the Paradox games :)
too bad even game breaking bug they don't acknowledge and it on there side too.
I feel like you nailed exactly how I'm feeling. I love this game, it ties together multiple genres and games into one and does a great job. There are thousands of hours worth of replayability which keeps me coming back as it is highly addictive. BUT I do constantly burn out as I realize it's shortcomings. I think the scope was cast too wide as it's trying to take on too many things and only half implements them which leads to missed opportunities and frustration. I appreciated the development videos from TW early on but those quickly died off and communication has all but stopped which is disheartening.
Will I continue to play bannerlord when it comes out? Absolutely! I have faith there will be additional content post release that will hopefully tie some loose ends (not all ofcourse) or we'll leave it up to the modders to close some of the gaps.
I find myself dealing with the burnout as well. I think it helps that I spend 90% of my time now making videos and maybe 10% or so actually playing the game lol If I had to play it 10 hours each day for months on end I would probably jump out the window :) Yeah I think maybe people should keep their expectations low for the release and maybe get them back up next year with a little more time.
i remember there used to be a mod for warband where after some time an unknown kingdom would invade and start a conquest with no regard to diplomacy, it had a lot of fantasy units, but it was still a very good end-game challenge for the player, maybe something like this would be a good addition, if not a sea faring empire that would start guerrilla attacks on the kingdoms
That would be cool! I think whoever it is, they need to have a unit set that isn't on the map already.
@@Strat-Guides i believe the faction was called like the dark army and had skeletons and stuff , super fantasy but fun and difficult to fight
@@Ekxilled Prophesy of Pendor maybe?
@@ulfgarjulder878 no POP had massive warbands of peasants , i looked it up it was native expansion it added the invasion of the dark knights
@@Ekxilled PoP had massive armies that would periodically spawn though, and tear up caravans, villagers, and lords
Your ideas and ability to construct feedback is incredible. I'm not joking when I say that I honestly wish they'd hire you. Your experience with Bannerlord and your methodical way of testing out aspects of the game would probably be a huge asset to the team.
Thanks Sebastian! I tried my best to stay objective for this video, which is hard to do.
@@Strat-GuidesNow you have to do the subjective review and fill it to the brim with anecdotes and feelings
The dancing guy was pure content. Totally worth it.
hahaha and I love that he chose hardbass for his song! Thanks for watching :)
To be honest - every time you post a new video I'll watch it. Love your content man.
Thank you Fred! i apprecaite that :) I knew this video could have turned into a very boring reading of my list of grievances, so I worked extra hard to make it as entertaining as I could. Hopefully it worked lol
While in early access, we were able to evaluate the game according to its potential - which is limitless. As a full release we have to evaluate the product as it is - which is a mixed bag. Therefore, I'm afraid that it will go from one of the best early access titles ever to a mediocre full release.
That is a great point! Well said - and something that often gets lost. However, one counterpoint to that is that many game companies market their game and sell the product as if it was finished, so I have a lot of sympathy for people who purchase and regret later. I don't think it's the developers necessarily either, it's just the way the industry works now. Next month is going to be a big moment, hopefully TW doesn't fumble the ball lol I'll be rooting for them.
Bannerlords is one of the most addicting game,
it get all of the features from the renown RPG, but without any handholding, which allow us to create our own story.
if this game is mediocre, i have to really question your taste
i have a high suspicion that in the real world, people will perform worse than bannerlords AI, and perform the same hive mindedness,
because in real life, people are risk averse, if they could run, they will run, if they could follow other, they will follow others.
we can see the flaw because we're the commander, but they can't see their flaw because they're a part of the group, their view are limited.
and in real life people are driven with fear.
the game itself has achieve what other game can't, despite the misleading gameplay simplicity feel, it was actually a game with complex system,
everything is interconnected, which makes everything exponentially harder to implement.
with that complex system, everything that you implement, will result in bug somewhere else, it was hard to implement things without breaking things
what people forgot is that simulation game like this, especially with thousands of army was extremely uncertain and the system can be broken easily.
the fact that you can give them a precise command and they actually will do something without the system breaking all the time is nothing short of a miracle.
the biggest criticism i had is the Long Loading Time,
this is the big turn off, it makes exploring the town less appealing, this makes me avoid anything that will trigger the loading screen.
This game have the Solid foundation for the future expansion to be built upon
The thing is, we can all see the foundation for something truly great is here, the foundation for a dream game. One where the game truly feels alive, like nobles playing their game of thrones that you stay unaware of till you too are among those in the royal court (eg: ambitious nobles are prone to scheming, making plots with other nobles and betraying them or warmonger nobles always thirsting for conquest and raising vast armies the moment war is declared, even doing schemes of their own to start wars) to those of the local level, low level notables having their own squabbles and even village and town rivalries, where an A.I army doesn't get distracted and wander off but actually stays on target.
Where a faction that is on the losing side of a war may see clans break off, making separate peace deals to save their own skin and becoming sworn enemies of their former rulers. Where interfaction alliances, as you said here, become a real thing, which can also lead to more intrigue like finding ways to sabotage the alliance. Such as, the sturgians and vlandians making an alliance to fight a now united empire, so hire a cheap vlandian assassin to kill the sturgian king, assassin is found and the vlandians are blamed etc...
Yeah the structure or at least the idea they were going for is really unique. I think even if they fail in the long run, they will be the ones who laid the groundwork for others to come behind them to make it better. Like Doom and Wolfenstein back in the day, Duke Nukem, etc. lol Look at where gaming is now - so I can only imagine what games like this will look like in another 10 - 20 years!
Although, not having as many hours as you have, I've faced the same problems in general. Apart from the points you mentioned, I felt no challenge in trade after a while though. No rivals,no big problems, no problem of bandits if you have a big enough army etc. I think it'd be cool if you had to compete with certain merchants, or form monopolies or cartels and fight over some deals and contracts, lobbying nobles and so on. There is just so much potential for roleplay.
Yeah I agree, trade usually starts off fun, but after 2 years or so I get bored and do something else lol That would be cool! Maybe there could be trading contracts that you have to compete for and if you win, you get exclusive trade rights for that town for a certain good or something. Cool ideas you bring up, I like it!
I honestly hope and pray TW sees your content and heeds your reckoning; whole heartedly agree with everything you’ve said and sadly there’s still more to be said. I was so stoked to hear they were preparing for full launch in October but also devastated knowing the game in its current state is acceptable to their team for a full launch. Won’t stop me from playing it and loving the game despite. There is just so much potential.
I know they watch some of my videos, but not sure about this one. I think they are so busy getting ready for next month :(
bannerlord just lacks the magic of warband. I´ve waited a decade for this game and only played it like 50 hours since its realese
Realistic battle made my overall commanding experience 3x better as I could actually be tactical with my troops instead of sending my best troops into a meat grinder.
Agreed! RBM is my favorite mod so far because of that. I also like some of the unit overhaul mods that make most units lower tier and higher tier units are stronger, but much more rare. It makes battles a lot more interesting!
@@Strat-Guides Any mod that gives recruits even a weak shield is a blessing, a single round of arrows has always left my recruits half dead and/or little xp to promote by the end of any battles.
Btw, I don't think TaleWorlds would take issue with the ish you talked. You've provided them with a wealth of user experience feedback and consultant tier analysis. They should be thanking you for this! I have no doubt some devs have been watching all your content.
I know it's never easy to hear negatives with things that you've spend so much time and resources on - especially passion projects.
I'm not sure how much of my videos they watch, but I do they watch some because as soon as I covered exploits, they were patched within a week or two haha Thanks for watching!
Idk. From what I have heard they can be a bit pissy when people suggest features for the game as it "doesn't fit their direction"
Since warband implies a massive nord invasion occurs at some point it would be cool to see that in real time in bannerlord
You kinda get that with Sturgia since they invade from the north
That's almost 6 months straight of bannerlord. Your review has merit sir lol
To me, the game being a jack of all trades (still miss alot of aspects here though) gives the game the potential to be absolutely perfect. But the thing that seems obvious to me is that the amount of resources and time for development that it will still take (even after the release) is insane and i don't think Taleworlds has enough manpower nor resources to make it a reality. Which is just a shame, because something so beautiful will end up withering away...
That's exactly the conclusion I came to as well! Such a great concept, but maybe a bit too much for a small dev team to tackle perfectly. I don't know what's going on internally at TW, but I still think they did a pretty good job all things considering.
The only realistic solution i can think of is do a co-development where you have different developers modelling and animating different aspect of the game on a same agreeable foundation so features dont become disjointed from each other. For example based off of a base M&B game you can have paradox working on the diplomacy side of the game, TW working on ingame map & battle scenes, Warhorse doing Smithing/minigames and NPC interactions. They can all either release it as a DLC or into the base game and just take shares of price.
Or you can just do the modding approach but that often leads to mods being deprecated after updates or quality issues, and not being compensated fairly for their work most of the time.
Mount and blade has always been games that are just made kinda sloppily and then modders come in and make a real amazing game on the foundation I think it will be the same with bannerlord, Bannerlord is actually a decently fun vanilla game unlike original or warband which without at least some QOL mods are really quite bad imo (vanilla warband doesnt even have death camera if you die in battle you are forced to auto resolve the rest) for instance
@@kopazwashere that's a lot of wishful thinking. The gaming industry doesn't really work like that. I doubt paradox or Warhorse would join the project without taking the executive helm and changing the game totally. Plus they probably have very different work cultures and ethics.
@@Tom-mk7nd M&B was produced by Paradox pre Warband era. They parted ways before the release of Warband, one might argue paradox was responsible for Warband and its succesfull design.
This game could cost $150 and still be worth every penny. There is A LOT to do and ways to play.
I definitely got my money's worth - no complaints on my end :D Nothing is perfect in life anyways lol
Is it worth what? People saying it isn't worth it with 1000+ hours are wondering if it's worth it? It costs $40 so if you get 40 hours it's $1 per hour, for those of you complaining with 1000+ hours, it cost you 4 cents per hour. What.
From what I understand, most people who are upset either expected a huge upgrade from the original or were following TW words to the T - which is completely understandable. If they say they will do something, it's reasonable to expect they will follow through, but that hasn't been the case. Personally, I know how businesses are in general so I tend to lower my expectations lol I'm happy with my purchase :)
Ever since I started playing Bannerlord I have watched your videos. Just wanted to let you know that your work is fantastic and has helped me to enjoy the game even more! Thank you for being an amazing part of the community.
I'm really happy to hear that! My main goal with the channel was to help people get past the steep learning curve :)
11:43 you basically described the nords in warband how they arrived. Now it would be cool to take part in the nords invasion and see if many of the kingdoms and yourself can try and hold em off.
Damn man I need to buy M&B and some of the DLCs... they sound so cool! I'm a little sad I didn't get to play them back in the day, but I wasn't even aware they existed (and I play A LOT of games...).
So spot-on with your comment about the excitement of starting a new campaign. Planning a new character's look, skills, thinking about their long-term build goals, and especially that moment when it's just you on a horse near the training field, the world at your feet. Thanks for making this video, Strat! Also, loved the shout out to mid 1990s X-Wing.
Hahaha man I spent so many hours playing those old Star Wars games! Those were the days... Thanks for watching :)
I really wish Taleworlds had a AAA budget. This is such a great game that can't reach its full potential because of finances.
Agreed, it would be interesting to see what they would do with more employees and funding!
If you are buying on any console, it’s not worth it. This is a definitely a pc game that requires mods to make it better. Console players do not waste your money.
Got it on the console some months ago and I definitely agree. I regret getting it, but I don't have a PC good enough to handle this.
The controls are janky to an extreme, the options are limited and without mods there's no way to fix the myriad of problems.
Not to mention the loading times.
This game sorely needs mods for console
I have my fun share with Bannerlord but some parts definitely still feel unfinished at this point for the October release. My main issue is with the campaign map AI and the lack of interaction options with nobles. There are quite a number of interaction options where you only end up with the disappointing "Oh, never mind." option. Mods are definitely there too enrich the gaming experience but IMO shouldn't be relied on to address issues that the developers should deal with themselves.
Yeah seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if October is just another "patch" to go along with a console release, but not really enough to leave early access. I suspect they are up against some internal deadlines and just need to get something out. I don't know what's going on internally so I can't say for sure, but I hope they continue to fix the game next year. So true, the NPCs all feel like they could be nameless, faceless and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between anyone because they literally all do the same thing.
All great suggestions for the singleplayer, though I do wish you had mentioned the failed execution on the multiplayer side, such as broken matchmaking. Another suggestion to improve the game in my opinion would be the inclusion of coop mode for the single player, as modders have already proven that that is possible, if difficult. One thing that I liked about the Clash of Kings mod for mount and blade warband was that there many incentives for exploring the campaign and city maps, I wish they added that for this game (bonuses being xp and equipment). I also wish they added book into the game that they had in Warband which would give you perks when you finished reading them.
Thanks for watching Micah! I have a whole section in my notes for MP, but I didn't feel it was fair of me to include it in the end because I only have about 10 - 15 hours of MP in total. I can share some thoughts here though - It was SO much fun when it worked. The crashing servers was really bad though. And the people playing online are a mix of amazing people & the worst of the worst internet scumbags throwing the N word around like it's "a" or "the". The matchmaking was 32 minutes out of an estimated 6 minute wait queue and I only could join custom servers.
I agree with you 1000000% - Co-op could easily be a DLC on it's own and I would pay full retail for it lol I would love to fight big battles with a group of friends or maybe an event with viewers!
one thing to add: at least in my opinion, albeit being super slow, the game actually got better with every patch. they take their time but they improve it everytime. good video as always.
they really have to implement some activities into town :D
Yeah I agree, they have made huge gains when it comes to performance. I remember back when it came out, every load screen was 0.5 - 2s load time and it got so annoying. Now it's silky smooth :)
Thanks for giving us an honest criticism and a few alternatives that fill part of the Bannerlord "genre". I think the only reasonable thing now is to test the enjoyment of playing Chivalry with your hands, Skyrim with your feet, and Hunie Pop 2 with your...well we'll see....all at the same time.
Looking forward to hearing you report back on your success.
Hahaha Honey Pop 2 steam coming soon... that would be hilarious!
You know now that I think about it. It's absurd that there's no ambush battles in bannerlord when the most important battle in bannerlord lore was an ambush battle
Ambushes would be really cool!
As a long-time fan of Warband, I agree with everything you said on the video. Bannerlord is almost a Masterpiece, does everything warband did but bigger, but that's the issue at times. However considering the modding culture of the previous entries I don't see anything wrong with using mods to fix the shortcomings of the main game. Smithing is dope AF tho
Yeah I don't mind relying on mods to make the game whole. The best part is you can try all kinds of mods and have much more replay value!
The character creation and skill tree is really awesome IMO and the crafting is something I hope others take forward. And your criticisms are on point.
Yeah it really does feel like an RPG! Thanks for watching :)
Got a mod the other day for full plate and started a new campaign with all the full plate cheated in. It's incredibly fun, especially on seiges when you break the shield wall at the gates with your double handed axe like an old timey tank
Much appreciate your review!
And I'm happy to say, it seems the release Dev update (#11) touches on some of the AI concerns you mentioned.
Definitely still one to watch and jump back into every now and then!
I'm really starting to like this game, the large battles look great, what little of the castles, walled towns and villages I've seen look do good. I just wish M&B had more depth; more to do inside the keep (Great Hall). Bringing allies (or not) inside for a "Face to Face" could help pass agreements, sway favors, Influence vassals to change their mind even help temporary alliances. Think, sometimes a quill, a glare, a smile, a dagger or a gift (kind or malign) could gain, change more than a thousand swords. Sometimes the wrong people are making the decisions, having friends in Low places and the shadows could change that possibly without anybody knowing you stated it. People in the dungeon(s) are going to be mad at somebody, use that. Mount & Blade does look like a great game, the systems seem to be understandable and I'll probably get it but it could be more than just fighting in the fields (everybody has fighting). By the way, Strat your video's are great.
If i had spare time and enough patience i would definetely make a global mod for bannerlord. I like your ideas but I want to contribute
I love the concept of this sandbox but a lot of things are unpolished or lack usefullnes
-Making an overhaul for your army in tiers because lets be honest the basic ones suck except high tiers. Came up with a Escape from Tarkov idea of "researching unknown items" and when you start an empire you can try to make an entire overhaul of your army. Like when upgrading a unit it to a new tier there would be your custom one near a default faction unit
- Making laws that dont just change numbers and taxes but ones that give you amount of control over your dynasty inheritance and control over all politics like saying your vassals to do smth (patrol, attack, create an army of lets say 500 troops, trade and bring money to your state or refill garrisons of someone's town etc) and ofc automation of politics like who to give town and whose dynasty is a priority.
- The Crisis mechanic from Stellaris like you've suggested that a big army would invade your world but will eventually slow down to not conquer everything but this army should have unique troops
- Rework perks because it doesnt give you active abilities e.g. an ability to counter attack or dodge attacks would be nice or making your horse to rear up or use back legs and attack someone when you're stuck
- Make to live rebel factions. Like become a rebel, create a rebellion and attack city guards to take over a town would be awesome.
- Rework sieges. Attrition should be a real thing. Mb we could make operations to poison water in town or to blackmail caravans to bring poisoned food. Destroy their morale and then attack. Or like in Total War Warhammer you can start a fight and make opponents units to betray and fight on your side! I want to attack from a different side of a city. Like a main army attacks front side but a small group would sneak on walls and like a shock troops will destroy those damn wall archers from the rear!
- I want to see my officers in battle (where they are and are they alive at least) and what they're doing on map, cos' sometimes they call tactics like charge or advance but they're not doing anything or doing dumb things. And ofc KIlling officers and Commanders should lower morale of an army significantly . After 200 hours of playing and focusing on catching lords i havent seen that their morale drops or smth, there should be feedback on morale thingie like above with ArmyVSArmy line with percents
- I want to have more quests that can change balance on the world map like sabotaging, creating events to hunt down lords on intel and executing them, placing spies inside enemy lines that will betray them once the time is right
- I want sea battles. I mean we have sea raiders and Vikings as a factions and there're no sea battles still. There're no sieges from ships, like we have towns like Diathma i want to swim to them in ships and conquer them. Create a ship in Varnopavol and swim to Diathma would be cool
- I want to have "Legendary" teachers after you get like 300 perk level that will teach you some OP thing. Like blacksmith would give you unique recipies of teach you how to make a sword of shit tier parts to be as good as tier 5. Or engineer would teach you how to make a trebuchet that throws corpses (good old Ivan the Terrible strat) to cities to lower their morale!
- I want to create an army camp outside siege battles for example to train my units or to give orders to my officers to gather supplies from nearby villages/towns while im training my units
- I need dismemberment in this game, like if damage and speed is high enough to cut off an arm if i hit it or head.
- I want interrogations like if I capture a lord and after successful interrogation i would gain a buff to attack for example if im fighting against the lord that he was talking about.
- Tournaments still suck cos' after early game like 2 hours they're useless, there should be something to encourage player to be the top 1 on the leaderboard and higher you are you will get better prizes and more renown.
There're lots of things that needs a rework but those above should be a good start :D
Wow there is a lot to unpack here! I'm a fan of Tarkov so that drew me in :) Thanks for sharing!
The problem with bannerlord: it has the potential for greatness with all the good things that it has going for it, but it is held back by poor implementation of some key mechanics:
The leveling/skill system quickly turns into an unrewarding grindfest.
You don't feel your character grow as you play the game; you increase the struggle for ever diminishing rewards until you get artificially hardcapped due to lack of attribute and focus points.
Then you die and start from scratch again.
Crafting your own weapons is a cool idea...you can finally make the weapon you want...if you are willing to sink hours and most of your gold into trying to unlock the right parts. AND manage to drive your skill high enough to be able to forge legendary items with random stat bonuses.
The economy is completely broken. If you don't utilize exploits, you will be broke forever.
Workshops won't do much for you, unless you pick the same three shops out of your large pool of options for EVERY city.
Ideally you can hope for a modest long term profit.
Caravans are a waste of your time and money. You can count yourself lucky to break even.
Companions are randomly generated, have zero personality, and, more often than not, have terrible stats which makes them nearly useless and hard to level.
On top of that, you can only have a limited number of them in your clan, but you need them to hold castles and cities for you. That also raises another issue: culture!
Don't have the right "steward" companion for the job? No problem: just dump him and begin the grind anew...otherwise your city will revolt, no matter what you do.
Last gripe: quests and overarching story.
I've rarely seen lower effort writing for a project of that magnitude.
Feels like the writer couldn't be bothered.
On my first playthrough I just started my own kingdom and took over the map, relying mostly on imperial troops. Second time I wanted more of a challange and decided to become a vassal for the Sturgians and help them expand.
But I am now so tired of the stupid AI that im starting up a third game, where its just going to be me and my companions, each with their own party (no caravans) and NO lords/vassals! In fact im probably going to execute everyone I defeat. Wish me luck!
Lol I know what you mean. It can make you pull your hair out!
As of writing this I have 777 hours on Bannerlord (nice number)
This video is spot on, along with the latest videos I watched that highlighted some of my main issues. For me the worst part of Bannerlord is the late game stage, and sadly, the one I wish to enjoy the most.
The AI is atrocious in its decision-making, and the climate of constant warfare (I play as a vassal) becomes a bit annoying for me. I do quite enjoy battles, especially since I've been playing around more with formations, but I wish I could also have some time to rebuild my army before one of our frontiers crumbles to any other faction.
Ultimately at the end of the day, we still steamroll the other factions, but I don't feel any sense of reward because it takes years to properly conquer a single region, since we're fighting on all fronts. The AI seems to take into consideration only its total manpower when making diplomatic decisions, but not its territory, so despite having 22k in power, what good is it when you're using a fraction of it for each different faction, especially when yours makes frontier with the Khuzaits and the Battanians? That can be up to 2 weeks in travel.
One of the things that makes me quite sad too is the fact that I'll never get to see my children come of age, most likely because my character will succumb to boredom and I'll start a different campaign. Rinse and repeat. The faction you grow is bland, and your territories serve to give you money to pay your troops and get extra ones for war. The main problem with Bannerlord, I believe, is that it lacks personality. You simply don't care about the world that surrounds you. The characters have traits, but it changes little about them and how they behave. In that department, Warband had a lot more flavour, god bless Harlaus and his feasts. You simply can't get invested in Bannerlord the same way you did with Warband.
That is my opinion on Bannerlord. The game is beautiful and the Mount & Blade series do have a very special place in my heart, and that is why I'm critical.
In conclusion: For me, 50€ is a good price for nearly 800 hours of gameplay, but even I suffered from sometimes months-long hiatuses, because even though I always end up comming back for Bannerlord, it becomes boring after a certain time. Still, I can't say I'd go out of my way to recommend Bannerlord to most of my friends.
🧈/10
Nice, time to go to Vegas and play some slots lol!
Yeah I think we are on the same page - I've had several month-long breaks as well. The only reason I have not in the last year is because of this channel. That said, I think I got my money's worth already so anything they improve on is gravy :)
for me it 30$ at first i give up due to bug that dev keep claimed it mod i use (but root cause is governer change which also include in base game and bypass by mod ongovernerchanged) compare to paradox interactive there ask me all detail and acknowledge it there bug not mod i use. few day that bug is fixed.
this game gonna live but not because of dev it because of modder am sure of it
@@user-wf9ht5tw6v I agree! I personally am only gonna start using mods after the full release because it was pretty annoying for me with the updates that would make mods useless. I believe modders will carry Bannerlord a lot, I just didn't want to include it in my comment since I was sharing my experience with the vanilla game
May not have as much hours into Bannerlord, but I have sunk many hours into Mount and Blade and other few games that struck the right chord. Skyrim is unpolished when compared to the whole Mount and Blade franchise. I never felt so upset when I first found out that my pirated copy of wFaS was one of it's kind when I was very young. I eventually bought all, except the first one, years later.
The deep-ish melee combat was ground breaking for me. When For honour and other such games has these melee system in place, I will always first compare it to Mount & Blade. They never quite hold up to the fun and sometimes straightforward tactics when it comes to blocking or parrying. Even with auto-block, you are never invincible and can easily die to timing and the speed of the weapon.
The whole skirmish map was my "Skyrim" moment. It had so much you could do! You could just walk in town, manually find the NPCs you want or explore the sights. Or you could even fast travel and talk to NPCs directly without the boring trek. The static and companion NPCs in skyrim feels feel very static-y, but in M&B, you could command them, give them a fief, let them influence the map on their own, and even get into battles not started by you. The dynamic AI is really cool. Plus, guns in a relatively medieval time is really a fun idea!
I especially love the bar fights, the night bandits when you decide to do a night walk in town, and the occasional thug and gang fights
The fact that you could become the ruler and influence the map while also having the option of being a first person, third person, and a top down-esque mode in a strategy game is very original. Every other game felt like a let down compared to how much feature and unique experience the whole series brings. It is especially a drag at times when I remembered that there is no M&B for the past 8 or so years, until Bannerlord.
This is a work of love by Taleworlds!
I only build my companions as ranged so they tend to survive when they are with me.
Yeah I think that's the most reliable way to do it. It's just tough because a lot of good perks at in the melee skill group :(
I have bought Bannerlord two years ago for full price but I have yet to pass the tutorial.
I have no regrets, lol.
No regrets!! Best way to live life :)
Love-hate is pretty good description for most of us that have sunk a couple hundred hours into this game. Most of us see the great potential of Bannerlord, but know all too well it's many shortcomings.
For me the greatest shortcoming is the lack of depth in personalities with NPCs. You have traits, different kingdoms, etc. but all the NPCs are basically the same. There's no conflict, no rivalries, just endless war. So much life could be breathed into game by having characters acting according to their traits. i.e. a Cowardly Lords would surrender easily, maybe Dishonest Lords would be more prone to rebel forming splinter Kingdoms, etc. Stuff like this would help a lot with the tedium that comes from the late game. And in theory it shouldn't be too hard to implement as most of this would be simple checks or score based.
Unfortunately I cannot recommend Bannerlord in it's current state and most of my gamer friends are convinced my pining for this game is misplaced. There's serious balance issues that have gone completely unaddressed. IMO you need mods to make this game worthwhile, and while there are some good ones, there isn't a current collection yet that makes this the game it should be IMO. I tempted to throw my own hat into the ring of modding, but for me it'll really depend on how good the release version is, and if there's even any interest for the game within the wider community.
I think it's a mix of pissed off and frustration because of the wasted potential. They still have time to bring it back, but they won't get too much before people give up on it for good :(
Yeah that's a good point about NPCs all pretty much being the same. You could swap them out and not even know the difference.
For sure, like I said I totally understand where others are coming from - Just for me personally I've had so much fun playing the broken mess they presented us with that I can recommend it for SOME people. I just hope it gets there in the end - I think we are all on the same page with that part at least!
So, 9 months later... how is it?
Well, in my game as an example I am playing as a Vlandian Noble (I don't plan on conquering the world or anything, just thought i'd join a kingdom and try and help it out the best I can) Currently we've taken all of Battania, most of Sturgia (Sturgians have Tyal left and a few other castles) and parts of the Western Empire. Usually we cannot stay out of wars because when Sturgians declare war on us, the Aserai follow suit, and then after that so does a lot of the Empire. We have a lot of lords and a lot of soldiers but right now the game feels like we've gotten to a point of stagnation, We'll be in a war, take some land, another Kingdom declares war so we're met with 2 options: Go and defend from Kingdom #2 and possibly lose what we just took, or defend what we just gained while possibly losing land to Kingdom #2.
It might be different if you're a Kingdom leader, but I honestly think the games gotten to a good point where the AI tries its hardest to fuck you over if you start to get to large.
The problem with being the leader is it will cost you thousands of influence to down vote wars and peace, so you're still at the mercy of the AI lol
Love you, love this! You're making me wanna go back to it, just to play in my downtime mind you, you've got the guides covered ;)
Hey Dom!! Hope all is well with you on ER. Yeah man, it's still fun even with all the warts lol I think later next month will be the important moment to watch for. I really hope they address some of these issues, but even if they don't it would be cool to see you back in action!
Spot on with this review. I love this game and typically don't make it past having a stable kingdom before restarting. I have yet to raise a child to adulthood.
Thanks for watching! Hopefully they address some things next month.
I feel like moving on the campaign map should take much much more in game time (allow for more speed up options). It should take considerable time to muster and move an army. Starving our defenders never happens since it only takes a few days at most to traverse from one end of the map to the other. And only 1 day to traverse your own realm in most stages. Ergo reinforcements ALWAYS come. And sieges become sucker punchy-bud rushes
I died laughing when you mentioned ''All these gems on steam''.
Damn, you earned yourself a subscriber.
We already have lore in game regarding a mughal/Persian faction that's not implemented yet. You can find it on one of the easternmost towns. We should honestly have a massive invasion from the east at some point in the game, aswell as a Nords invasion.
Much in the spirit of Medieval 2/Barbarian Invasion Hordes
That would be really cool! It goes well with the Amir Timur campaign I did a few months back :)
@@Strat-Guides Just imagine proper Elephants and their unstoppable charge damage. Could be a beautiful way to counter the player's shield walls. Knowing this game though, I doubt it could be done the way players would like to see them behave (so total war elephants, honestly.)
@@keerf255 or even if you didnt upgrade your castle Walls a few of them could destroy them
Another pet peeve of mine is the endless supply of massive armies your enemies can muster.
You can swipe away doomstack after doomstack, but it doesn't matter because they Just. Keep. Coming.
Yeah that was one of the big points I decided to cut from the video, but I think it's an important one. I would much rather have a ton of pressure to win that ONE big battle that will decide the war, rather than 5 - 6 within a month long period. The AI would have to be MUCH better for this to work though, as it stands the whole map would be dead to a group of 300 fians with no losses lol
As one with only around 300+ hours, your videos have been a huge help! I even started recording campaigns because this game really is what you make of it!
Sweet, I'm happy to hear they were of use :) Thank you for watching!
I think Bannerlord would be more interesting if they took the time to develop deeper Feudalism mechanics, kind of like Crusader Kings. If characters and noble families had conflicting vassalage ties and claims to different castles and towns, that would encourage internal as well as external conflict. Similarly, if there was a chance that during succession the holdings would have to be divided between different heirs and/or the succession would be challenged, that would make holding your empire together all the more challenging. Last I played Bannerlord, all those internal faction mechanics still felt extremely superficial. I don't even know if AI-instigated rebellions can happen. And the minor factions are cool, but they more or less function as mercenary companies, pretty much devoid of content.
Yeah CK3 mechanics would be AMAZING in Bannerlord. I feel like adding the combat system to CK3 would be easier than porting all those mechanics into Bannerlord. Maybe we can get the CK3 modders to go to town!
Honestly the absolute biggest issue about Bannerlord is that Kazuit archers stacked will simply obliterate any army regardless of how long it is. I've beat armies of 1500 with only 400 horse archers.
Agreed, there seems to be not enough accuracy penalty for them. Esp since the accuracy is based on speed and not maneuvering. IMO the accuracy should go way down if you have to turn or change speed. That is, if you should be allowed to aim while turning at all
@@thatfish3951 They're only so good because they have double the arrows of any other archer. If they were capped at one quiver like others it'd level everything out. They'd still be overpowered but right now I literally just spam for kazuit horse archers and it's impossible to lose
IIRC off map invasion was something planned in very early M&B1 (Zombie Haralus early). The dark knight armor is a remnant of it.
Interesting, did they not implement it then?
@@Strat-Guides Early M&B1 ("Warrider") is a VERY different game. Note the "Zombie Haralus" part.
That would've been so cool
Total war warhammer 3 has the end times events that you can pick and choose from. It's really good. Basically a faction(s) randomly get super strong and try to take over the world. They declare war on everyone and get super aggressive
Bought it about 4 weeks ago and cannot put it down. I agree with a lot of what you said, but I'm enjoying it for what it is. I loved your suggestions on making it deeper. Hopefully they'll add some of those ideas to the next game or somehow implement them into this one.
I've waited ages to get a PC and this, Crusader Kings 3 and ARMA 3 were at the very top of my list of games I want to play. None of them disappointed AT ALL. Masterpieces in their own right
That's a great list you made! I might add in EU4 personally :P
I am one of the first fans of this game. I started playing this game a decade before it was released to public. Everything you say is true and important but devs didn't give a flying shit about these issues, I personally spoke to some of them and they literally said that. They rely on modders to this game to become perfect.
this review could perfectly describe my warband experience years ago. the one thing i that made me go back to warband time and time again was the setting mods such as LotR or historical europe. hopefully bannerlord gets these immense fan works as well
I never got to play the originals, but it's interesting to hear how many people say that. Looks like they have a formula then lol
Warband, Bannerlord,,, these games have always been like a single player MMO experience with that kind of a grind
Yeah that's a good way of putting it - MMO grind for single player.
Thanks for sharing the insightful and honest feedbacks! I love the game and these late game issues have been my biggest headaches too that drive me away from playing it although I started playing Bannerlord since the beginning of early access. Probably I still need to wait a bit to dive into the game again, just not now.
Thanks for watching!
Stellaris has the endgame crisis mechanic and its fun at first, but it can get old fast. And it kinda forces you to play in a certain way, though you can customize it. Still, I'd take that over nothing, specially combined with other random events to keep things spicy.
There are ways to fix the 500 vs 500 meat grinder, such as making npc use formations, and each formation giving great bonuses. Square could give 50% reduced dmg taken, standard formation could be 25% less dmg taken, 25% more dmg dealt, etc. Formations exist in real life because it helps with cohesion, and prevents troops from becoming confused. Ai don't have that problem, so the only way to simulate reality, is to give the mbonuses.
That's a great point - and one that I consistently forget to do in my own campaigns lol Thanks for bringing that up!
"Massive invasion from an off map culture that would spawn 5000 troops and start taking fiefs to establish their own kingdom" - you've just described how Prophesy of Pendor mod worked in Warband :D
I played Warband for 900 hours, and Bannerlord for 80 hours. Hoping to see good things after full release! I am also optimistic about mods. Warband had great mod developers, I am sure Bannerlord will too!
Agreed, I'm really looking forward to full release so we can get to the good mods :)
nothing to add. perfectly summed up the good and the bad. very well done
Thank you!! It's sad to say, but I think most of us (the Bannerlord community in general) are on the same page with what needs to be done but it may not be possible to get there in a reasonable amount of time. I hope I'm wrong! It's still a fun game though, at least for me.
That Rings of Power moment 😂😂😂 I really hope “someone” comes across this video sooner than later! Great job!
Haha it was so bad I had to include it. It really did remind me of the AI :)
Don’t insult the AI too much :)
@@osetrinushka I'll have to make a Galdriel character and let the looters destroy her to make up for it lol
12:45 "Troops fight more methodically almost as if they fear death" Queue the one green soldier looking straight up, axe held high, charging at the enemy army....backwards...
Hahaha he got a little too tunnel vision, although I bet that happens a lot in war :P
7:43 actually, if you get to 1v1 a companion in a tournament you can endlessly block their hits and let them farm xp so that's one funny way to max those skills up
That's a good point, although hit XP is quite a bit less than kill XP but it's a very safe way to do it. I need to test that out to see how much XP / min it ends up being. Thanks for the tip!
@@Strat-Guides you're welcome :)
at lower level skill its rises up rather quickly, but later on it takes longer to level. whats for sure is that it's a very reliable way to level those skills. bonus for having your companion leveling up allowing you to put focus points where needed
I'm going to say it, but it's the truth. Viking Conquest was the superior game of bannerlord and warband. Good story, good Kingdom management, buy in, exploration, interesting character and fun combat.
It's one of those situations where there is no one big flaw that makes it a deal breaker, but there's just enough niggling little annoyances that pile up together that can give a player pause about whether they want to boot it up and deal with them for the day's session. What's worse, every player has their own preferences about how exactly they want to play their medieval sandbox game, so you can't please everyone with one base experience.
For that reason, I think focusing on mod support is actually what would improve Bannerlord the most. Getting mods on the Steam workshop would do the most to bring features to the players that they want so badly they'll do the unpaid work of creating that content themselves. Normally it's bad to rely on modding to "fix" the game, but games like Bannerlord shine best when they are whatever the player wants them to be.
That's a good point - one thing on it's own is no big deal but altogether is. Well stated!
I wouldn't be upset if they stopped developing the base game and just made sure the mod support was there.
Honestly, considering how SaS is the heir to Freelancer which was almost essential to many mods back in warband, it's TW's fault that they didn't implement the mechanic in vanilla. At the same time, they REALLY had a good decision in taking a page from Skyrim and support multiple mods in a load order.
I hope that over the last few months of minimal and infrequent updates Taleworlds have been saving up for the full release. Hopefully it breathes some fresh air into this game.
Either they have been saving up or they've been focusing hard on the console release... I have imagine what else they could have been doing all these months with nothing coming out lol
the last updates they have made ( reinforcement , battle terrains , and all the gud shit in 1.8 was ok) . it seems they have focused on stopping the siegue jittering , but man , we need more dept in this game , and way more character.
@@Strat-Guides it console i presume. i see there team member it too small for do both
@@cseijifja It seems like they prioritize some odd things - I never really thought siege jittering was that big of a deal compared to the siege AI in general like them not going up the ladders, coming back down the ladders to go through the game (even though they are already in the town lol) and other things. But at least they don't act like they are going into convulsions now hehe
@@user-wf9ht5tw6v Yeah that's what I figured, but I hope they have something saved up for us on the PC too.
That's like $0.01 pretty hour, seems worth it.
Lol that's a good way of looking at it :) Much cheaper than a lot of other things!
5:19 beating up gangsters is the only reason to walk around town
That part is pretty fun, ngl
My biggest complaint is how hard it is to fund an army and that you cant just simply decline a settlement you dont want to recieve
Lets hope the developers see this video! I absolutely love the late game ideas, hope they implement some of these or do something about the late game!
Thanks for watching! Let's hope :)
The off map invasions would be cool. They could even make ship raiders come from the ocean area of the map. I’m here with one town and even i’m worried about how the end game will feel.
Steam workshop, and a slowdown of updates (since they tend to break mods) will let modders solve most remaining issues. Being able to go full bandit king and take over bandit hideouts, being able to expand town/castle upgardes as well as have upgrades in the small settlements etc, more things for players to do in towns themselves, more activities related to sneaking into towns (maybe sabotage during a siege for example). All of these things will probably be handled by modders in the future.
I hope once they get to full release, it won't go back to the fast and furious patches lol I felt so bad for the modders trying to keep up!
That moment when you spot half of your Steam library in the “romance” section 👀 0:57
Haha different strokes for different folks :D
bought it 2 weeks ago, have 100+ hours in it and i fucking love it but they really need to make an option to overthrow your faction leader
Nice!! The easiest way to get rid of the leader is get him captured in battle and thrown in a dungeon and then make sure he dies on the subsequent attempted break out lol
@@Strat-Guides yeah i heard something of like killing him in a battle could also work but id like an option that when i have enough relation with a clan leader in my faction and enough influence i can get a dialog option with them where i can plot against our leader to overthrow him and maybe start a sort of civil war or something
@@TheBusbyBabes Kill him during a break out, sabotage his army by making battles fail... I killed my own empress in my last playthrough which triggered a new election and made my clan the new leading clan of the southern Empire. ;D
Haven't watched the video yet but if it ain't worth it after 3800 hours then there has to be some deep self hate going on.
Haha good logic :)
one thing i really wanted to do was verse my friends and see who could become the first one to rule the map
imo warband being a jack of all trades is what made that game so much fun to mod. Tell me what other game has a ww1 mod, a lord of the rings mod, and a star wars mod? and Multiplayer support baked in? Vanilla warband is pretty solid, but I've spent a large majority of my time playing the multiplayer and single player mods. Full Invasion 2 being one of my all-time favorites.
I strongly agree that bannerlord desperately needs additional flavor like random events when adventuring or meaningful reasons to explore cities, or more fleshed out companions like warband, but it sounds unlikely that we're gonnna see these things this far down into development which is a shame.
Super shallow in many of its departments and a decent battle simulator cum sandbox rpg (combat perks and armor not roleplaying of any sort) is how I would describe single player Bannerlord.
The hype for this game disgusts me.
The devs made too much money for too little work.
They bit off waaaay more than they could chew, so they ended up half-assing all the new concepts and ultimately made the game a convoluted mess that's not fun.
Well, obviously is was, because 3500+ hours were definitely not used to research for this video. I'd say likely 300 we're from enjoyment and the last 800 or do may have been for the video.
A good chunk of that time was spent doing research and recordings for all the guides I've made, but at least half of that if not more were spent playing for you're right - I approve lolI just wish it was better since there are some glaring issues still.
@@Strat-Guides ooooh, yeah I gotcha. Also I apologize for my last comment, just now realized how shitty it sounds and could have been worded far better lol. A good video as well!
EDIT: I decided to buy Bannerlord. I'm hooked. Like, "oh it's 5AM" hooked. ...
I played lots of hours of Conquerors Blade until I realized they were going to make every new season worse than the last, in terms of overpowered units and a minimal sense of a campaign experience. Has anyone here played Conqueror’s Blade and can attest to any of the best parts of that game being retained in this game? Because I could have made Conqueror’s Blade my “forever game” if it was managed better.
I felt in love with M&B Warband a couple of months ago (thanks boring August) when I saw the game on PS5 plus program for free. I've heard about it but never tried it because I'm (was) a console player. After tons of hours playing a 2010 game on my powerful PS5.. 😂 I heard about M&B coming to consoles next month and I couldn't be happier. I watch tons of videos to see what's the PC version of the game looking and.. oh dear, when I saw how the mods improve the game (even creating new worlds like the GOT one) I cancelled my PS5 preorder, look up for a decent computer and here I am.. I got the PC a week ago, bought the game, downloaded nearly 40 mods, and a 100 hours later I can say I'm very happy with my M&B 2 machine (only steam and the game installed) and it wouldn't be the same experience with the default game.. NOT EVEN CLOSE!
Oh nice! Yeah I think on PC is a much better experience for most games, especially FPS type games. And you're 100% right about mods and I hope they plan on adding modding support for the console version at some point! Otherwise a lot of people will be missing out.
@@Strat-Guides TBH I still use the controller for almost everything but navigation on the map 😂 so FPS will have to wait.. step by step..
Thanks for replying!!
I want the battles to be like rome total war, not a moshpit, experienced soldiers should be able to engage well, protect themselves and fight smart, also how am i losing top tier soldiers to 20 looters when auto-resolving battles with 200 army, we should be able to stomp them in the ground without losses or wounded soldiers
I agree with everything, especially the auto resolve. It's infuriating!