Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord News

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

As you know, we are currently at Gamescom showcasing both the single-player and multi-player of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. The event has been absolutely amazing so far, with thousands of people visiting our booths to play the game in the business and public areas of the show.

Today, things have just wrapped up over in the business area and we are hoping that you will get to see a lot of footage from the mid-game of the sandbox campaign in the coming days. Over in our multi-player booth in Hall 9, we are still going strong and will be open until Saturday evening for people to come and play multi-player in the form of Captain mode.



Earlier in the week, we made the announcement that many of you have been waiting for. But for those of you that missed it, we will leave it to the creator of the Mount & Blade series, Armagan Yavuz, to share with you.

https://youtu.be/nQykXaM7l-U
In the coming weeks, we will be talking more about what you can expect with the early access and what it means for both you, our community, and for us. For those of you that simply can't wait that long, head on over to beta.taleworlds.com to apply to take part in Bannerlord's multi-player closed-beta.

https://youtu.be/yCk6Jk7DvrA
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

It is that time of year again where we head off to Gamescom to showcase Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. However, this year, things are a little different... For the first time ever we will be presenting the game in both the business and public areas of the event. This means that anyone with a ticket can come along to one (or both!) of our booths to play the game for themselves. This is a completely new experience for us and we are sure there will be many unforeseen challenges that crop up, but, so far, our preparations have been going well and we are really excited to be able to show the game in (somewhat) its entirety!

Last year, we took the early-game of Bannerlord’s vast sandbox campaign to the business area of the show, along with 3 premade characters to ensure that players didn’t miss out on any gameplay by spending all of their allotted time in our deep character creation system. This year, guests will be able to choose between the same 3 premade characters, but with a bit of a twist! This time around, we see the characters 10 years on in their adventures, putting players squarely in the mid-game of the campaign.



This comes with a shift in focus for this year’s demo, with an emphasis put on the large-scale, epic battles and sieges that are unique to Mount & Blade games. However, with this being a sandbox game, players will still be free to choose their own path and roam the continent of Calradia, experiencing many of the different features that we have detailed throughout this series of blogs. Of course, we will be at hand to offer advice and guidance, but players will be largely left to their own devices which should lead to some interesting and diverse content coming out for you all to enjoy.

Over in the public area, players will be able to experience the multiplayer side of the game in the form of Captain mode, a team-based PvP game mode that puts players in command of their own detachment AI troops. Captain mode is just one of the new multiplayer game modes to be introduced in Bannerlord, but we feel this particular game mode is a good representation of what Mount & Blade games are all about: putting players in control of their own AI troops that they command and fight alongside in large battles.

Next week, will give you an update directly from Cologne to ensure that you don’t miss out on anything that we have to show or announce during the event, so make sure to check back then!



Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to ASUS! ASUS is the official Gamescom 2019 hardware partner for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

We would also like to thank Razer for providing peripherals for our guests to use in the business area of the event.

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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

As development on Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord steadily proceeds, we are constantly looking at how best to allow players to interact with the game’s many features. One big change in this regard is the way that we are handling sieges. Sieges are key events in Mount & Blade games, and we are making great efforts to improve this aspect of the game in Bannerlord.

As we discussed previously, sieges in Bannerlord encompass a lot more than simply waiting until the attacker is ready to initiate an assault (as is the case with Warband). There is an active back and forth between the besiegers and the besieged as they seek to gain an advantage over one another or hamper each other’s progress, even on the world map. This raised some important questions that we had to consider. Should these changes be abstracted in images and text or should there be something more tangible? And to what extent should the level of control be for players?

We felt it would be best to provide players with a relatively high level of access and visual representation to make the initial stages of a siege more engaging for both attackers and defenders. When a settlement is besieged, a siege camp is set up by the attacking force, with individual tents being placed down for each attacking lord. Following this, both sides have the ability to construct siege engines to be used in both a bombardment phase that takes place on the world map and the final assault that takes place in a scene. Each settlement has a limited number of slots assigned to it, which players can select between and choose which siege machines to build and in which order. This should be given some tactical consideration as siege machines will automatically target whatever is closest to them.

The besieging force has the option to build siege towers and battering rams, which are only brought to the front to be used during the assault phase. They also have an assortment of ranged siege engines at their disposal, which can be used to attack the enemy’s machines, soldiers, and walls during the world map bombardment phase, weakening the enemy before the battle begins. Each ranged machine performs differently and has varying levels of success depending on what the player is trying to achieve -- so while a ballista may excel at whittling down the enemy troops, they are ineffective against walls. Meanwhile, trebuchets can be used to dominate the defender’s machines and walls, but they are expensive to produce. Of course, players could always choose to conserve their supplies and refrain from building any machines at all, and instead, opt to starve their enemy out without taking any casualties. Likewise, defenders can choose to hunker down and avoid building any machines while they wait for a relief force to break the siege. However, this would leave the attackers free to bombard the walls of the settlement without reprisal.



Players now have complete control on the deployment of siege engines on the campaign map. The game shows hit point bars on siege engines and wall sections so players can follow the development of the ranged duel, can pull back damaged machines to reserve, and put them back to the frontline when needed. These new additions make the campaign part of the sieges much more interactive and interesting, turning them into an event that engages players from start to finish. No longer is it simply a case of bringing greater numbers and waiting for the assault to commence (although, that is still a possibility). Now, there are other aspects to consider and tactics to develop, which helps to make each siege stand out and feel unique.

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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

As you know, Bannerlord’s closed beta is well underway! Throughout the beta, we have been introducing new content while working alongside our community to gather feedback, find and fix bugs, polish technical aspects of the game, etc.

Meanwhile, gamescom is just on the horizon. This year’s event is shaping up to be our biggest one ever, with both multiplayer and singleplayer set to be shown in the public and business areas of the trade fair respectively. As we have discussed in previous blogs, these kinds of events are a huge undertaking and require a lot of planning and preparation to ensure that things go as smoothly as possible!

We know that many of you can’t wait to get your hands on the game, and we are aware that only a small fraction of you will be able to play it at gamescom. Likewise, we know that many of you are hoping to get into the beta and test the game out, but haven’t been invited or had a chance to apply to take part just yet (don’t worry, your chance will come!). So, with that in mind, and with this being the 100th dev blog in the series, we thought we would do something a little different and try and make the wait a little more bearable by showing you some raw footage of the Skirmish game mode directly from last week’s beta test. There are no fancy cuts or edits, so expect to see your fair share of bugs (and some terrible skills from our community manager...), however, we hope you enjoy the video nevertheless!

https://youtu.be/xJ7SCHZWevI
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a rags to riches adventure that encourages players to forge their own path through Calradia to climb to the top of the social ladder. How, or even if, they get there is completely down to their own choices and actions within the game. In previous Mount & Blade games, this rise to power revolves around a single character, but with the introduction of permanent death and clans in Bannerlord – two new features that work hand in hand to create a deeper, more immersive experience – some of the focus needed to shift slightly away from the exploits of an individual character. This is where the topic of this week’s blog steps to the fore: renown.

Veterans of our previous games will already be familiar with renown, but for those of you that are unaware, please allow us to explain. Renown is a system that represents how famous or well-known someone is in Calradia. In Warband, it was a kind of score that kept track of players’ accomplishments and opened up new avenues of gameplay for them – once they had made a name for themselves.

With Bannerlord, the key difference is that renown is now attached to clans rather than characters. Clan members can earn renown for their clan by performing a number of actions, such as completing quests, winning battles, or competing in tournaments. By acting in the name of their clan, they are effectively increasing the fame of the clan as a whole.

Gaining renown in Bannerlord will see the player’s clan progress through different tiers, which opens up access to greater capabilities and additional parts of the game over time. For example, to act as a mercenary for a faction, the player’s clan needs to reach the second tier before their offers will be given any consideration. Likewise, renown is also key when it comes to pledging vassalage to a kingdom. It acts as proof of the player’s capabilities and shows that they are ready to be involved in the grander events that are unfolding around them.

But, as with everything we are trying to achieve with Bannerlord, we weren’t content with simply repurposing an existing system without taking a closer look at how it could be improved to bring more to the game. With each tier that the clan reaches, they are rewarded with an additional party slot, an increased companion limit, and additional caravans that can work under the clan’s tutelage. Additionally, the player will be treated differently depending on the renown of their clan, such as with the order of battle.

This progression gives players breathing room to explore the game and take some risks, even in the face of death, because an eligible heir will be able to continue his or her parents legacy with the clan’s reputation intact. And, just to be clear, renown isn’t something that players will need to chase after to progress. Simply by playing the game, players will naturally accumulate renown over time through the different actions they perform.



We think that these changes to renown make for a more engaging gameplay system which works alongside and compliments the other new systems that feature in Bannerlord while providing players with a real sense of progression as their clan rises from obscurity to being known throughout Calradia!

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