The Steam Awards “No Apologies” vote is live now -- gather your strength and prepare your vote!

You can vote for Mount & Blade: Warband in The Steam Awards here: http://store.steampowered.com/SteamAwards/#castvote_area




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The Steam Awards “No Apologies” vote is live now -- gather your strength and prepare your vote!

You can vote for Mount & Blade: Warband in The Steam Awards here: http://store.steampowered.com/SteamAwards/#castvote_area




Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

We are back with our series of interviews with TaleWorlds’ team. Today we want to introduce you to a very important role in every development team. Every time a game designer thinks of a cool feature or an animator creates a beautiful movement, there’s someone who has to find a way to make it happen and implement everything in the actual game. You are right, we are talking about the programmers, those code magicians that turn designers’ wishes into reality – and then fix all the issues that usually follow every change: a video game is a very complex system, and changing even the smallest thing can create unexpected problems!


Cem Çimenbiçer

Ankara, Turkey

2006

Computer Science

Team Leader (Combat / Animations / Network / AI)

“80% of my time is spent writing code. Then I also take care of integrating the code that other programmers wrote, a process during which I check and review these parts, and have a few meetings – our dedicated team, which we call Combat Team, has 2 short meetings every week to synchronise our development efforts.”

“I love how the game improved with the addition of all the new animation techniques we have implemented, and together with the newly added cloth system, the game feels more fluid and alive.”

“Inverse kinematics (which is a system of animation where you go not from how a particular bone is rotated, but from where a particular part of the body needs to be, and then the animation is built from that point back). This system results in much better visuals than what we had in Warband, however once you open this Pandora’s box, it is a huge workload to fine-tune this system, which took us a very long time.”


Chained Attack

“I’m currently working on tweaking the combat system and adding some new features based on feedback from our internal combat tests. One specific example would be trying chambering with a new gesture combo. I hope that it will be more intuitive and have a more satisfactory visual feedback. Apart from these, I usually work on our animation system, network system, individual and group AI, and core gameplay elements like basic movements.”

“You start the game without a faction, and usually you meet the Empire first, so I guess quite a few people will prefer the Empire as their favourite faction. But I like Khuzaits, because of the mechanics of horse archery. I really love that, and no other game gives the same feeling.”

“The major change in bow reloading and shooting animations is that, we used to leave the arrow in the quiver until the player starts readying to shoot. Now the arrow is taken from the quiver as soon as the player is available to do so. This reduces the time required to ready and shoot an arrow, and gives a decent timing advantage to the bowmen. If the player gets disturbed while taking an arrow from the quiver, this action gets restarted on the next availability. This stage difference is also done for the crossbowmen, so the reloading in crossbows is split into two: cocking the crossbow, and placing the bolt. First stage gets cancelled if the player moves during the action, but second stage allows movement. Bowmen are free to move at any stage.

Balancing of all weapons was made after this change, so this new system didn’t cause us too much trouble. By the way I should remind you that the balancing in both weapons and their usage animations are continuously made, so nothing that has been seen in the footages shown should be assumed to be final.”

“Until now, we mainly worked on the tactics of formations and armies, but not the tactics on 1v1 fights. I believe that we will add some variety on that only after we feel like the AI is good enough and missing only unique tactics. So far the AI has been buffed with improved ranged and melee accuracy, decision to use kicking, keeping distance according to combat states and so on. In the end, our aim is to expand the range of intelligence of AI in order to help new players more in combat, and create more challenge for the experienced players. With the addition of more complex army AI, you should also expect a hard time on even reaching the army commanders in the battlefield. And a challenging duel would be your reward (or punishment) when you penetrate the defences.”

“In Bannerlord we have quite a few more variations than in Warband. Combatants can be in a left or right stance, which means there are two versions of each and every animation. On top of that, there are two variations of each animation, one for very light and fast, and one for heavy and slow weapons. Any particular weapon uses a blend of those two animations according to its weight. The dirty way of fighting also got additional variety in Bannerlord. Kick works the same as Warband, but it would also be possible to bash with either a shield or weapon in hand.”


Weapon Push

“A custom skeleton system that would support different creatures would expand the creativity of our modders a lot in Warband. Luckily, just like many other moddable things in Bannerlord, this will also be possible to modify.”

“Actually, this is a quite wide question, so I will limit my answer to only the programming part of it. I started working here in TaleWorlds in 2006, but I officially joined the team in 2008. So I’ve been involved in development of Mount & Blade projects for more than 10 years. The number of programmers working on Mount & Blade games during this timeline increased from 2 (Armagan and me) to more than 20. When there were just two of us, the overhead of designing and discussions was extremely minimal, the codebase was smaller (Bannerlord codebase is 3x that of Warband, including the module system) and our quality expectations were lower. All of these factors helped us in implementing new features within a short period of time. In Warband we doubled our programmer count (to 4!) but everything else stayed similar. When we started working on Bannerlord, the increased number of employees forced us to act more professional in almost every area of the project. Renewed and automated integration tools, team based development, proper QA and testing, design meetings, regular meetings etc. were all introduced during the development of Bannerlord. I could say that, our team turned from “a group of ambitious guys” to “a game development studio” while developing Bannerlord.

Oh, and one strange fact is that the office has felt chillier each year. Most of the others don’t feel the difference, but I do, I really do!”




We would like to take this opportunity to say that 2017 has been a very, very exciting year for us. We went to E3 and Gamescom and had a great time there showing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. We have been talking to you week after week for some time now, and sharing an open conversation with you and getting your feedback has been extremely useful, invigorating and empowering (thank you guys!). And of course, Bannerlord is getting better and better, shaping up to be the great game that you deserve. 2018 is almost here, and we expect it to be even more exciting -- we can't tell you more as of now, but stay tuned: you wouldn't like to miss it! We wish all of you and your families a wonderful holiday and the best for the New Year. See you in a couple of weeks!

Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

We are back with our series of interviews with TaleWorlds’ team. Today we want to introduce you to a very important role in every development team. Every time a game designer thinks of a cool feature or an animator creates a beautiful movement, there’s someone who has to find a way to make it happen and implement everything in the actual game. You are right, we are talking about the programmers, those code magicians that turn designers’ wishes into reality – and then fix all the issues that usually follow every change: a video game is a very complex system, and changing even the smallest thing can create unexpected problems!


Cem Çimenbiçer

Ankara, Turkey

2006

Computer Science

Team Leader (Combat / Animations / Network / AI)

“80% of my time is spent writing code. Then I also take care of integrating the code that other programmers wrote, a process during which I check and review these parts, and have a few meetings – our dedicated team, which we call Combat Team, has 2 short meetings every week to synchronise our development efforts.”

“I love how the game improved with the addition of all the new animation techniques we have implemented, and together with the newly added cloth system, the game feels more fluid and alive.”

“Inverse kinematics (which is a system of animation where you go not from how a particular bone is rotated, but from where a particular part of the body needs to be, and then the animation is built from that point back). This system results in much better visuals than what we had in Warband, however once you open this Pandora’s box, it is a huge workload to fine-tune this system, which took us a very long time.”


Chained Attack

“I’m currently working on tweaking the combat system and adding some new features based on feedback from our internal combat tests. One specific example would be trying chambering with a new gesture combo. I hope that it will be more intuitive and have a more satisfactory visual feedback. Apart from these, I usually work on our animation system, network system, individual and group AI, and core gameplay elements like basic movements.”

“You start the game without a faction, and usually you meet the Empire first, so I guess quite a few people will prefer the Empire as their favourite faction. But I like Khuzaits, because of the mechanics of horse archery. I really love that, and no other game gives the same feeling.”

“The major change in bow reloading and shooting animations is that, we used to leave the arrow in the quiver until the player starts readying to shoot. Now the arrow is taken from the quiver as soon as the player is available to do so. This reduces the time required to ready and shoot an arrow, and gives a decent timing advantage to the bowmen. If the player gets disturbed while taking an arrow from the quiver, this action gets restarted on the next availability. This stage difference is also done for the crossbowmen, so the reloading in crossbows is split into two: cocking the crossbow, and placing the bolt. First stage gets cancelled if the player moves during the action, but second stage allows movement. Bowmen are free to move at any stage.

Balancing of all weapons was made after this change, so this new system didn’t cause us too much trouble. By the way I should remind you that the balancing in both weapons and their usage animations are continuously made, so nothing that has been seen in the footages shown should be assumed to be final.”

“Until now, we mainly worked on the tactics of formations and armies, but not the tactics on 1v1 fights. I believe that we will add some variety on that only after we feel like the AI is good enough and missing only unique tactics. So far the AI has been buffed with improved ranged and melee accuracy, decision to use kicking, keeping distance according to combat states and so on. In the end, our aim is to expand the range of intelligence of AI in order to help new players more in combat, and create more challenge for the experienced players. With the addition of more complex army AI, you should also expect a hard time on even reaching the army commanders in the battlefield. And a challenging duel would be your reward (or punishment) when you penetrate the defences.”

“In Bannerlord we have quite a few more variations than in Warband. Combatants can be in a left or right stance, which means there are two versions of each and every animation. On top of that, there are two variations of each animation, one for very light and fast, and one for heavy and slow weapons. Any particular weapon uses a blend of those two animations according to its weight. The dirty way of fighting also got additional variety in Bannerlord. Kick works the same as Warband, but it would also be possible to bash with either a shield or weapon in hand.”


Weapon Push

“A custom skeleton system that would support different creatures would expand the creativity of our modders a lot in Warband. Luckily, just like many other moddable things in Bannerlord, this will also be possible to modify.”

“Actually, this is a quite wide question, so I will limit my answer to only the programming part of it. I started working here in TaleWorlds in 2006, but I officially joined the team in 2008. So I’ve been involved in development of Mount & Blade projects for more than 10 years. The number of programmers working on Mount & Blade games during this timeline increased from 2 (Armagan and me) to more than 20. When there were just two of us, the overhead of designing and discussions was extremely minimal, the codebase was smaller (Bannerlord codebase is 3x that of Warband, including the module system) and our quality expectations were lower. All of these factors helped us in implementing new features within a short period of time. In Warband we doubled our programmer count (to 4!) but everything else stayed similar. When we started working on Bannerlord, the increased number of employees forced us to act more professional in almost every area of the project. Renewed and automated integration tools, team based development, proper QA and testing, design meetings, regular meetings etc. were all introduced during the development of Bannerlord. I could say that, our team turned from “a group of ambitious guys” to “a game development studio” while developing Bannerlord.

Oh, and one strange fact is that the office has felt chillier each year. Most of the others don’t feel the difference, but I do, I really do!”




We would like to take this opportunity to say that 2017 has been a very, very exciting year for us. We went to E3 and Gamescom and had a great time there showing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. We have been talking to you week after week for some time now, and sharing an open conversation with you and getting your feedback has been extremely useful, invigorating and empowering (thank you guys!). And of course, Bannerlord is getting better and better, shaping up to be the great game that you deserve. 2018 is almost here, and we expect it to be even more exciting -- we can't tell you more as of now, but stay tuned: you wouldn't like to miss it! We wish all of you and your families a wonderful holiday and the best for the New Year. See you in a couple of weeks!

Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

The Sturgian forests are forbidding and cold, but great wealth lies within. Wild honey can be found, and bog iron, but the real prize has always been fur. For centuries, brave traders ventured there to buy the pelts of fox, rabbit and ermine from the tribes of the woods. As the empire expanded eastward, that trickle of traders became a flood. Great towns sprung up on the rivers. Fortune-seekers came from the coast, from the steppes, and most of all from the Nordlands. Tribal elders made alliances with the newcomers, sealed by wedding vows, and with their share of the trading profits hired mercenaries to subdue other tribes. Sturgia became a collection of principalities, then a kingdom, the great powerhouse of the north.

The Sturgians are based on the federation of city-states known as Kievan Rus, located in today's Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Like many boomtowns, the Rus river cities attracted people from faraway lands. Predominantly Slavic communities were forming into states at a breakneck pace and borrowing institutions, religions, and ways of trade and war from their neighbours. Greek missionaries, Finnic foresters, Turkic and Iranian steppe tribes, and most famously the Varangian Norse all left their mark on the aesthetics of Russian art, arms and armour. We think the motifs and styles of Sturgian equipment – gilded and peaked helmets, furs and gold brocade, runes and gripping beasts and folk embroidery and Arabesques -- will make it some of the most spectacular in the game.



As with other factions, we let history be our inspiration for Sturgia's politics. The chroniclers weren't shy about expressing their opinions about the different princes. Some rulers, like Vladimir the Great or Yaroslav the Wise, have come down to us as far-sighted rulers. Others, like Sviatopolk "the Accursed," accused of murdering his brothers, or Vseslav, the sorcerer-king of Pskov, were depicted as some of the more colourful tyrants in medieval Europe. Raganvad, the current Sturgian prince, is cut out of the latter mould: he knows how to punish but not how to reward, and he'll put to the test the old dictum that it is better to be feared than loved.

The commercial ethic was strong in early Rus, with the town veche or council ensuring that merchants had a major role in state policy. Danger and opportunity went hand in hand. A Muslim chronicler recalls how the Rus father of a newborn boy would show the baby a sword and tell him this would be his only inheritance: the blade would have to win all the rest of it. The Icelandic sagas, though geographically very far removed from the Rus, have also been an inspiration for the Varangians' ideal of businesslike warfare and warlike business, the kind of society where a father could say, "Son, you've been lazing around the fire all winter. Time to get up and show you can take some responsibility for your life. Go pillage someone."



The Rus employed both cavalry and archers, but the core of their forces in the early period was most likely formed infantry - also a Norse speciality. We've been working on the close-up foot-slogging side of Mount and Blade. Look out for high-tier AI opponents bashing you with their shield in the teeth, following it up with a blade going into your ribs. Disciplined infantry will be more likely to stay in formation, and will leave a space for a player in their ranks so you don't get crowded too closely by your allies.

Now, the Nords were a favourite faction in Warband, and we know a lot of people are drawn to Vikings - the blood eagles, the shipboard funeral pyres, the berserkers eager to join the feasting at Valhalla. Sturgia is Nordic-influenced but it's not really a Viking state: the Nordlands are off of the map (for the present, anyway) and they wouldn't really form the kind of proto-feudal kingdom that the Bannerlord factions represent. But, if players want to have a west Scandinavian-style play experience, the raiding, the companions, the ring-swords, two-handed axes, Valsgarde helmets, hauberks and raven banners will all be there. Among the Sturgian minor factions are the Skolderbroda, a mercenary brotherhood based on the (possibly legendary) Jomsvikings of the Baltic. The Finnic tribes meanwhile are represented by the Sons of the Forest, a semi- nomadic clan that practices swidden slash-and-burn agriculture in the depths of the woods. At any rate, there should be plenty of allies and plenty of enemies for players who want to win their inheritance with the blade, the Rus way, in this cold land of deadly opportunity.



In next week’s blog we will be talking with Lead Programmer, Cem Çimenbiçer. Cem is a true veteran of the company, having worked at TaleWorlds since the original Mount & Blade! Cem works on a number of different programming aspects of Bannerlord, including AI, networking and combat animations. If you have a question you would like to ask him, please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out for him to answer.


Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

The Sturgian forests are forbidding and cold, but great wealth lies within. Wild honey can be found, and bog iron, but the real prize has always been fur. For centuries, brave traders ventured there to buy the pelts of fox, rabbit and ermine from the tribes of the woods. As the empire expanded eastward, that trickle of traders became a flood. Great towns sprung up on the rivers. Fortune-seekers came from the coast, from the steppes, and most of all from the Nordlands. Tribal elders made alliances with the newcomers, sealed by wedding vows, and with their share of the trading profits hired mercenaries to subdue other tribes. Sturgia became a collection of principalities, then a kingdom, the great powerhouse of the north.

The Sturgians are based on the federation of city-states known as Kievan Rus, located in today's Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Like many boomtowns, the Rus river cities attracted people from faraway lands. Predominantly Slavic communities were forming into states at a breakneck pace and borrowing institutions, religions, and ways of trade and war from their neighbours. Greek missionaries, Finnic foresters, Turkic and Iranian steppe tribes, and most famously the Varangian Norse all left their mark on the aesthetics of Russian art, arms and armour. We think the motifs and styles of Sturgian equipment – gilded and peaked helmets, furs and gold brocade, runes and gripping beasts and folk embroidery and Arabesques -- will make it some of the most spectacular in the game.



As with other factions, we let history be our inspiration for Sturgia's politics. The chroniclers weren't shy about expressing their opinions about the different princes. Some rulers, like Vladimir the Great or Yaroslav the Wise, have come down to us as far-sighted rulers. Others, like Sviatopolk "the Accursed," accused of murdering his brothers, or Vseslav, the sorcerer-king of Pskov, were depicted as some of the more colourful tyrants in medieval Europe. Raganvad, the current Sturgian prince, is cut out of the latter mould: he knows how to punish but not how to reward, and he'll put to the test the old dictum that it is better to be feared than loved.

The commercial ethic was strong in early Rus, with the town veche or council ensuring that merchants had a major role in state policy. Danger and opportunity went hand in hand. A Muslim chronicler recalls how the Rus father of a newborn boy would show the baby a sword and tell him this would be his only inheritance: the blade would have to win all the rest of it. The Icelandic sagas, though geographically very far removed from the Rus, have also been an inspiration for the Varangians' ideal of businesslike warfare and warlike business, the kind of society where a father could say, "Son, you've been lazing around the fire all winter. Time to get up and show you can take some responsibility for your life. Go pillage someone."



The Rus employed both cavalry and archers, but the core of their forces in the early period was most likely formed infantry - also a Norse speciality. We've been working on the close-up foot-slogging side of Mount and Blade. Look out for high-tier AI opponents bashing you with their shield in the teeth, following it up with a blade going into your ribs. Disciplined infantry will be more likely to stay in formation, and will leave a space for a player in their ranks so you don't get crowded too closely by your allies.

Now, the Nords were a favourite faction in Warband, and we know a lot of people are drawn to Vikings - the blood eagles, the shipboard funeral pyres, the berserkers eager to join the feasting at Valhalla. Sturgia is Nordic-influenced but it's not really a Viking state: the Nordlands are off of the map (for the present, anyway) and they wouldn't really form the kind of proto-feudal kingdom that the Bannerlord factions represent. But, if players want to have a west Scandinavian-style play experience, the raiding, the companions, the ring-swords, two-handed axes, Valsgarde helmets, hauberks and raven banners will all be there. Among the Sturgian minor factions are the Skolderbroda, a mercenary brotherhood based on the (possibly legendary) Jomsvikings of the Baltic. The Finnic tribes meanwhile are represented by the Sons of the Forest, a semi- nomadic clan that practices swidden slash-and-burn agriculture in the depths of the woods. At any rate, there should be plenty of allies and plenty of enemies for players who want to win their inheritance with the blade, the Rus way, in this cold land of deadly opportunity.



In next week’s blog we will be talking with Lead Programmer, Cem Çimenbiçer. Cem is a true veteran of the company, having worked at TaleWorlds since the original Mount & Blade! Cem works on a number of different programming aspects of Bannerlord, including AI, networking and combat animations. If you have a question you would like to ask him, please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out for him to answer.


Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
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Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

When you are playing online, communication is vital. Players must be able to interact with and respond to what their teammates and opponents are doing at that very instant in order to succeed. And before we proceed, no, we aren’t talking about VoIP or text chat (although those can be important too!). A dropped packet, an increase in latency or a high ping could be the key factor which results in defeat...

There are two options available when designing the online multiplayer aspect of a game: peer-to-peer and client-server. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. For Bannerlord, we feel that the client-server model (using dedicated servers) helps to make the combat more consistent and allows us to put players on a level playing field (with the help of a few little tricks, such as latency tools). We think that this will make for an overall fairer and more enjoyable experience for players.

But of course, none of this magic happens on its own! The client and the server need to be coded to communicate efficiently and effectively. And this is where Software Engineers like our very own Koray Kıyakoğlu step in, ensuring that the client and server can exchange data quickly and accurately to provide a fluid multiplayer gaming experience to players.


Koray Kıyakoğlu

Trabzon, Turkey

2012

Computer Engineering (BSc), Computer Animation and Game Technologies (MSc)

Software Engineer

“During my early days at the company I mostly focused on tasks on the multiplayer side of Bannerlord, such as game mode prototyping, online services and organizing internal gameplay tests.”


A character from one of the first multiplayer tests


A character from the latest build

“As the studio expanded, I found time to focus on the other parts of the game, such as refactoring gameplay code, redesigning GUI middleware, making different aspects moddable etc. I have always been the developer who addressed the .NET related issues and I eventually ended up as "the C# guy" in our studio.

Besides work, our studio has a very casual environment. From time to time, we organize social events like barbecue parties or steakhouse runs. I can say to our community with great confidence that if any of them end up working here, it will become their second family.”


Developers slacking off instead of finishing the game...

“Even though I like most of the new features the game will bring, as an engineer, I like it's technical side more than anything. And the thing I like the most is its advanced modding support. I'm sure Bannerlord will become one of the most modded games out there.”

“When I first started working at TaleWorlds, I saw that our game engine was heavily integrated and dependant on game code. It was making our development process difficult and slow. I suggested that we draw a clean abstraction between the engine and the rest of code. With the help of the engine team we’ve managed to separate those systems, opening up the possibility of making different games using the same engine.”

“Well, unfortunately I'm unable to answer this question because it will ruin the surprise for our community! But from a technical point of view I can say that I'm about to finish removing the unnecessary parts from our dedicated multiplayer game servers. That way it will include less code, which will make it easier to port to different server operating systems.”

“I actually don’t prefer one faction over any of the others.”

“The final player numbers for multiplayer haven’t been set just yet, however we are aiming for even higher numbers than Warband 'unofficially’ supports.”

Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

When you are playing online, communication is vital. Players must be able to interact with and respond to what their teammates and opponents are doing at that very instant in order to succeed. And before we proceed, no, we aren’t talking about VoIP or text chat (although those can be important too!). A dropped packet, an increase in latency or a high ping could be the key factor which results in defeat...

There are two options available when designing the online multiplayer aspect of a game: peer-to-peer and client-server. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. For Bannerlord, we feel that the client-server model (using dedicated servers) helps to make the combat more consistent and allows us to put players on a level playing field (with the help of a few little tricks, such as latency tools). We think that this will make for an overall fairer and more enjoyable experience for players.

But of course, none of this magic happens on its own! The client and the server need to be coded to communicate efficiently and effectively. And this is where Software Engineers like our very own Koray Kıyakoğlu step in, ensuring that the client and server can exchange data quickly and accurately to provide a fluid multiplayer gaming experience to players.


Koray Kıyakoğlu

Trabzon, Turkey

2012

Computer Engineering (BSc), Computer Animation and Game Technologies (MSc)

Software Engineer

“During my early days at the company I mostly focused on tasks on the multiplayer side of Bannerlord, such as game mode prototyping, online services and organizing internal gameplay tests.”


A character from one of the first multiplayer tests


A character from the latest build

“As the studio expanded, I found time to focus on the other parts of the game, such as refactoring gameplay code, redesigning GUI middleware, making different aspects moddable etc. I have always been the developer who addressed the .NET related issues and I eventually ended up as "the C# guy" in our studio.

Besides work, our studio has a very casual environment. From time to time, we organize social events like barbecue parties or steakhouse runs. I can say to our community with great confidence that if any of them end up working here, it will become their second family.”


Developers slacking off instead of finishing the game...

“Even though I like most of the new features the game will bring, as an engineer, I like it's technical side more than anything. And the thing I like the most is its advanced modding support. I'm sure Bannerlord will become one of the most modded games out there.”

“When I first started working at TaleWorlds, I saw that our game engine was heavily integrated and dependant on game code. It was making our development process difficult and slow. I suggested that we draw a clean abstraction between the engine and the rest of code. With the help of the engine team we’ve managed to separate those systems, opening up the possibility of making different games using the same engine.”

“Well, unfortunately I'm unable to answer this question because it will ruin the surprise for our community! But from a technical point of view I can say that I'm about to finish removing the unnecessary parts from our dedicated multiplayer game servers. That way it will include less code, which will make it easier to port to different server operating systems.”

“I actually don’t prefer one faction over any of the others.”

“The final player numbers for multiplayer haven’t been set just yet, however we are aiming for even higher numbers than Warband 'unofficially’ supports.”

Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

They came from overseas, mercenaries and adventurers, speaking the tongues of many lands, taking the empire's silver to guard the frontiers against the unsubdued tribes of the interior. They took their name from one of their first warlords, Wilund the Bold - Valandion, in Calradic - and became known as the Vlandians. Their heavy cavalry, second to none, ran down the Emperor's foes from the Aserai wastes to the distant steppes. But the empire never had as much silver as it needed, and treasury officials soon learned that it could pay its mercenaries with land grants and titles. This was perhaps not the most far-sighted of policies. The Vlandians settled, married, planted farms, and built fortresses. It was not difficult, during the recent interregnum, for Osrac Iron-arm to declare himself king, independent in all but name. He seized the imperial capital of Baravenos and the lands along the coast, and that was how the west was lost to the empire.

The Vlandians are based on the feudal states of early medieval Europe, in particular the Normans, the Norse raiders who settled in France then carved out kingdoms for themselves in England, Sicily, and the Holy Land. The Normans stunned their Byzantine and Muslim adversaries with the fury and discipline of cavalry charges with couched lance which, in the words of 12th century chronicler Anna Comnena, "could pierce the walls of Babylon." The knights combined extraordinary discipline in training for war with the tenacious pursuit of any land they could possibly conceive a claim to. Any grey area in feudal inheritance law was grounds for war. The careers of William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard of Sicily, or the Crusader Bohemond were one of endless conflict: sometimes conquering more lands, but just as often over the relatively petty disputes of vassal against liege, brother against brother, father against son.



The Vlandians control slightly more territory than the other factions, but we've seeded the ground for a lot of internal dissent among them. The world-weary Vlandian king, Derthert, will have to deal with barons who are more interested in pursuing their own agendas than fighting under his banner. Mount and Blade: Warband also tried to model this "herding cats" aspect of medieval warfare, but some people found the implementation, in which lords could wander off on their own accord, to be frustrating. In Bannerlord, the new Influence mechanism will let the player spend influence to keep large armies of quarrelsome vassals in the field - but that resource is limited.

The Vlandians will have their share of minor factions. As with the Battanians and Khuzaits, these serve to emphasize the origins of the kingdom. For example, players who wish to emulate the adventurers who founded the Vlandian (and Norman) kingdoms can seek their fortunes with the Company of the Golden Boar, mercenaries who are based on medieval outfits like the Catalan or Free Companies.



Vlandian arms and armour are based on that of Western Europe from the 9th to the early 12th centuries. This was a period of relatively fast evolution, and leaves us with some balancing issues. For example, there are textual references to what appear to be two-handed swords in this period, notably as wielded by Swabian mercenaries at the 1053 battle of Civitate, but as far as we know no artistic depictions or specimens. Two-handed swords were a popular weapon in Warband, so we're including them - but we're ensuring they're relatively rare, a hero's weapon rather than standard equipment. There's also come controversy about how frequently crossbows were used in the 11th century and before, but we're erring on the side of inclusion. Their use should help the Vlandians be as effective defending fortresses as the Normans were historically.

The couched lance charge is a deadly tactic - as it was, clearly, on the medieval battlefield. But it becomes much more effective when it's performed by a good rider on a powerful horse. In Bannerlord, we're trying to ensure there's a trade-off between specializing as light or heavy cavalry. Light horses will be noticeably more manoeuvrable but also more averse to physical contact. And even the best heavy cavalry should think twice about crashing into a wall of spears - even the Normans could not break the shield wall at Hastings, instead wearing it down with combined arms and feints. Still, used properly, a force of Vlandians can be a steamroller - just be sure to keep them focused on your enemies instead of your own lands.



In next week’s blog we will be speaking with Software Engineers, Dündar Ünsal and Koray Kıyakoğlu. Dündar and Koray work alongside each other to ensure that the front-end (client) and back-end (server) of Bannerlord communicate efficiently and effectively. If you have a question you would like to ask, please leave a reply in the comments section and we will pick one out for them to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

They came from overseas, mercenaries and adventurers, speaking the tongues of many lands, taking the empire's silver to guard the frontiers against the unsubdued tribes of the interior. They took their name from one of their first warlords, Wilund the Bold - Valandion, in Calradic - and became known as the Vlandians. Their heavy cavalry, second to none, ran down the Emperor's foes from the Aserai wastes to the distant steppes. But the empire never had as much silver as it needed, and treasury officials soon learned that it could pay its mercenaries with land grants and titles. This was perhaps not the most far-sighted of policies. The Vlandians settled, married, planted farms, and built fortresses. It was not difficult, during the recent interregnum, for Osrac Iron-arm to declare himself king, independent in all but name. He seized the imperial capital of Baravenos and the lands along the coast, and that was how the west was lost to the empire.

The Vlandians are based on the feudal states of early medieval Europe, in particular the Normans, the Norse raiders who settled in France then carved out kingdoms for themselves in England, Sicily, and the Holy Land. The Normans stunned their Byzantine and Muslim adversaries with the fury and discipline of cavalry charges with couched lance which, in the words of 12th century chronicler Anna Comnena, "could pierce the walls of Babylon." The knights combined extraordinary discipline in training for war with the tenacious pursuit of any land they could possibly conceive a claim to. Any grey area in feudal inheritance law was grounds for war. The careers of William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard of Sicily, or the Crusader Bohemond were one of endless conflict: sometimes conquering more lands, but just as often over the relatively petty disputes of vassal against liege, brother against brother, father against son.



The Vlandians control slightly more territory than the other factions, but we've seeded the ground for a lot of internal dissent among them. The world-weary Vlandian king, Derthert, will have to deal with barons who are more interested in pursuing their own agendas than fighting under his banner. Mount and Blade: Warband also tried to model this "herding cats" aspect of medieval warfare, but some people found the implementation, in which lords could wander off on their own accord, to be frustrating. In Bannerlord, the new Influence mechanism will let the player spend influence to keep large armies of quarrelsome vassals in the field - but that resource is limited.

The Vlandians will have their share of minor factions. As with the Battanians and Khuzaits, these serve to emphasize the origins of the kingdom. For example, players who wish to emulate the adventurers who founded the Vlandian (and Norman) kingdoms can seek their fortunes with the Company of the Golden Boar, mercenaries who are based on medieval outfits like the Catalan or Free Companies.



Vlandian arms and armour are based on that of Western Europe from the 9th to the early 12th centuries. This was a period of relatively fast evolution, and leaves us with some balancing issues. For example, there are textual references to what appear to be two-handed swords in this period, notably as wielded by Swabian mercenaries at the 1053 battle of Civitate, but as far as we know no artistic depictions or specimens. Two-handed swords were a popular weapon in Warband, so we're including them - but we're ensuring they're relatively rare, a hero's weapon rather than standard equipment. There's also come controversy about how frequently crossbows were used in the 11th century and before, but we're erring on the side of inclusion. Their use should help the Vlandians be as effective defending fortresses as the Normans were historically.

The couched lance charge is a deadly tactic - as it was, clearly, on the medieval battlefield. But it becomes much more effective when it's performed by a good rider on a powerful horse. In Bannerlord, we're trying to ensure there's a trade-off between specializing as light or heavy cavalry. Light horses will be noticeably more manoeuvrable but also more averse to physical contact. And even the best heavy cavalry should think twice about crashing into a wall of spears - even the Normans could not break the shield wall at Hastings, instead wearing it down with combined arms and feints. Still, used properly, a force of Vlandians can be a steamroller - just be sure to keep them focused on your enemies instead of your own lands.



In next week’s blog we will be speaking with Software Engineers, Dündar Ünsal and Koray Kıyakoğlu. Dündar and Koray work alongside each other to ensure that the front-end (client) and back-end (server) of Bannerlord communicate efficiently and effectively. If you have a question you would like to ask, please leave a reply in the comments section and we will pick one out for them to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch