Apr 8, 2021

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Dejan

Main e1.5.9

Latest Changes:

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred due to following parties with no members after defeating an army.

Previous Beta Hotfixes:

06/04/21

Fixed Sturgian speed bonus while on snow getting calculated incorrectly.
Fixed a save-load problem that occurred while clearing heroes without skills in the save file during loading.

30/03/21

Singleplayer

Fixes

Fixed an issue that occurred when starting a conversation with a daughter-in-law/son-in-law while they were in the player's party.

Multiplayer

Changes

Lobby Chat System - Currently in test mode and only accessible by selected people.
Recent Players Tab in Friends List - Players are now able to see the recently played players in their friend list.
Intermission screen - In custom servers, players are now able to join the next server via an intermission screen rather than directly returning to the lobby screen.
Siege warmup time decreased from 5 to 3 minutes.

Both

Added Singleplayer and Multiplayer only startup executables.

23/03/21

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to prison break a lord.

Fixes

Fixed some inconsistencies in rich text icon rendering.
Fixed an issue with the daughter in the "Notable wants daughter found" quest.

16/03/21

Singleplayer

Fixes

Fixed DLSS settings not being shown in the options menu.
Fixed a physic model issue with sturgia_castle_gatehouse_a_l2's merlons.
Fixed an issue with helmet scaling inconsistencies.
Fixed an issue on the party screen that prevented the reordering of troops with drag and drop.

Changes

Revised bread cover types.

Multiplayer

Fixes

Fixed some level design issues on the Domogtul Castle siege map.

Both

Changes

Reduced Javelin and Throwing Axe shield-damage multipliers.

Initial Beta Changelog:

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when the player or the hideout boss killed one of the spectator troops during a hideout duel.
Fixed a crash that occurred when pressing Ctrl and + on an empty item stack.
Fixed a crash that occurred when switching weapon types in the crafting screen when secondary usage had been selected.
Fixed a crash that occurred when encountering parties on the campaign map.
Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to talk to a lord in a besieging army.
Fixed a crash that occurred when executing the last non-mercenary lord of a kingdom.
Fixed a crash that occurred while loading a game after activating the 'Lord Needs Garrison Troops' quest.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to a 'Know-how' perk bug after attacking a caravan.
Fixed a crash that occurred when entering a settlement after being held as a prisoner at the time of loading a save file.
Fixed a crash that occurred after the conversation with 'Tacteos' was finished.
Fixed a crash that occurred after the conversation with 'Arzagos' about 'Assemble the Dragon Banner' was finished.
Fixed a crash that occurred when the 'Conspiracy Base of Operations' quest was completed with the Hideout Boss dead.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to clans being created in the last phase of the main storyline not having their leaders set correctly.
Fixed a crash that occurred when loading an old save that started on the siege aftermath menu (which now contains pillaging options).
Fixed a crash that occurred by decision proposals made by eliminated or mercenary clans.
Fixed a crash that occurred after losing a battle with an army.

Save & Load

Fixed a bug that prevented saving on some game menus.
Fixed a bug that made some notables and companions disappear on load.

Localisation

Fixed missing reference links for non-English languages in the 'Concepts' texts of the 'Encyclopedia'.
Turkish translation updates.
Chinese translation updates.
Minor text updates.

Art

Added a new clothing item: 'Decorated Thick Tunic'.
Added a new cloak: 'Reinforced Neck Guard'.
Performance improvements to Sturgia level 2 gatehouse model.
Fixed cloth physics issues with the 'Northern Warlord Helmet'.

Animations

NPC characters now have a smoother transition from walking to running when escorting players.
Inventory animation refactoring has been completed. Characters no longer reset their animations when a new item is equipped.

Audio

Minor ambient sound fixes to scenes.

UI
Changes

Party Screen Change Values
- The party screen now shows influence, horse and morale change on top of gold change. Influence gain shows up while donating troops, horse change shows up while upgrading troops, and morale change shows up while recruiting prisoners. Players are now able to see exactly how much currency they will gain or lose when they close the screen with the 'Done' button.
UI Code Gen
- We've implemented a new system for UI screen initialisation and execution. This change improves performance and memory usage.
Gamepad Navigation Improvements
- Players can now navigate some selected screens with the Dpad.
- Initial menu and conversations with Dpad up and down. While on the campaign map, when the cursor is at the centre, players can click Dpad left, focus on the game menu and navigate the game menu with up and down. Clicking right and down at that stage will focus on the map bar and using Dpad left and right will navigate the map bar. From the centre, right will focus on the map notifications and up will focus on the portraits on the settlement overlay.
- This feature is currently only enabled with gamepads but will be implemented for keyboard arrow keys and the enter key for the click action in the near future.
Added a colour switcher button to the Banner Editor. This button will swap the current sigil colours with the background colours.
Changed keybind texts to key icons in the scoreboard and spectator screens.
Added conformity bar and tooltip to party prisoner tuples.
Moved governor assignment teleportation action to town management popup close to avoid unwanted teleportation of clan members.
Added a new illustration to the kingdom 'Diplomacy' screen background.
Added a new 'Issue Solved by Hero' notification to settlement events (notifications above the settlement nameplates) to inform the player about actions that AI lords are taking when entering a settlement.
Improved how rich text icons are displayed. They're now shown more clearly (e.g. gold icon in texts).
Added a warning (red text colour change) to map info bar party size label. It will now turn red if the main party is currently over the party limit.
Added ransom broker to the mission name markers (ALT key in tavern scenes).
Added a new rebellion map event icon.
Changed workshop names to reflect their names rather than their job names, this will make the naming consistent with other screens.
Improved visibility of the green arrow on the campaign map that shows up for gamepad navigation.
Added map notifications for gained traits.
Inventory menu + and - keys now buys/sells all when combined with Ctrl.

Fixes

Fixed small layout issues in the 'Recruitment', 'FaceGen', 'Options', 'Quests', 'Crafting', 'Character Developer', 'Encyclopedia', 'Gift fief', 'Inventory' and 'Education' screens.
Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong damage amounts to be shown in the combat log.
Fixed some input bugs with backspace in integer inputs.
Added the missing 'Create Kingdom' hint back to the Clan screen 'Create kingdom' button.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Last location' in notables' tooltips to appear twice.
Fixed a bug that triggered the 'X Bandit Hero died' notification.
Fixed a bug that caused the party speed tooltip to be different from the actual speed.
Fixed a bug that caused the menu text to appear incorrectly after a hostile action had been ended by a declaration of peace.
Fixed a bug that caused the raid icon to be shown after saving/loading the game in a recently raided settlement.
Fixed a bug that caused the pillaging options to not be clickable after sieges.

Battles and Sieges

Killing a lord on the battlefield no longer triggers relation penalties.
Fixed a bug that prevented routed agents from switching to run mode.
Spectator/ghost camera mode in missions now considers scrolling through more important characters first, such as generals, lords, companions etc.
Parties with a high wounded ratio now visit settlements more often to reduce the risk of being caught by enemies.
Fixed the prosperity loss calculations for pillaging
Fixed a pillaging related bug where the AI would take into account the settlement owner’s culture instead of the settlement culture when deciding what to do after a siege.
Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect AI formation behaviour.

Character Development System

Sandbox mode has been added to the game:
- Weight and build sliders have been added to both sandbox and campaign mode.
- Sandbox mode allows players to choose a starting age group.
- Sandbox starting positions on the world map are determined by the selected character culture.
'Pick Them off the Walls' and 'Make Them Pay' perks have been implemented.
Crafting stamina and stamina recovery rate now scales with the 'Smithing' skill.
'Leadership' skill effect on morale has been decreased.
Riding 'Veterinary' perk now halves the chance of a hero's mount dying or becoming lame after it falls in battle.
Leadership 'Authority' perk secondary effect has been changed to 'Increase party size limit by 5'.
Tactics 'Swift Regroup' perk primary effect has been changed to 'Decrease disorganized time for breaking sieges or raids by 15%'.
Scout 'Foragers' perk secondary effect has been changed to '15% reduction in disorganized state recovery duration'.
Fixed Smithing 'Sharpened Edge' and 'Sharpened Tip' perks.
Fixed Scouting Vanguard and Rearguard perks and perk effects.
Fixed a bug that caused mobile parties to be too fast when they had been called to an army with the Call to Arms perk.

Clan and Party

Family members can now be commanded in missions along with companions.
Dungeon prisoners are now barterable along with prisoners in the party.
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to attack a clan member's party.
Fixed a bug that provided passive relations increases when leaving children in a settlement.
Fixed a bug that prevented family members from providing a passive relations increase when left in a settlement.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from assigning a new clan role if the previous one was assigned to a caravan leader.
Fixed a bug that prevented the player's brother from being able to be assigned as governor or sent to solve issues.
Fixed a bug that caused some troops to need a horse when upgrading to unmounted troops.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

Fixed being able to join an army through conversation after a truce.
Fixed a bug that caused a ruler’s clan banner to be incorrect after losing control of a kingdom.
Fixed a bug that led to unregistered dynamically created kingdoms.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

Added Prison Break:
- Players can break into enemy settlements to rescue clan and family members, vassals, friendly and neutral lords.
- After approaching a guard with a bribe to let you into the dungeons, the prison break mission will begin. The sum of the bribe depends on the ransom value of the prisoner, security of the settlement and 'Roguery' skill of the player.
- In order to break out the prisoner successfully, both you and the prisoner must defeat all the guards within the dungeon without getting knocked out. Higher security & wall level will make the break out harder by having more guards stand in the way of you and your escape.
- Should the prisoner get knocked out in the escape, you’ll have to fight your way out alone to save yourself. Leaving the prisoner behind could result in him dying on the dungeon floor or being locked up behind bars again.
- Should you get knocked out during the escape you’ll become a prisoner, or even worse, die.
Fixed a mission end condition ambiguity that caused the player to skip the bandit boss fight by becoming unconscious just before all the bandits were killed by the player troops.
Fixed a bug that prevented town workshop buildings from affecting town construction speed.

Quests & Issues

Removed randomisation when calculating issue difficulty.
Duration, crime rating gain, and troop requirements have been updated for 'Escort Merchant Caravan', 'Overpriced Raw Materials', 'Nearby Bandit Base', 'Rival Gang Moving In', 'Needs to Deliver a Herd', 'Needs Military Training for Retainers', 'Can’t sell product at a fair price', 'Needs Access to Village Commons', 'Needs Grain Seeds', 'Needs Help with Brigands', 'Extortion by Deserters', 'Lady's Knight Out', 'Army of Poachers', 'Family Feud' and 'Gang Leader Needs Weapons' quests.
Extortion by Deserters
- Fixed the Deserter Party getting stuck in or near the quest settlement after the player lost a battle against them.
- Fixed the Deserter Party moving too slow. Foot troops in the deserter party are now given Tier 2 horses of their culture to boost up party speed.
- Reduced the size of the Deserter Party to adjust quest difficulty.
Escort Merchant Caravan
- The quest has been redesigned and reimplemented from scratch.
Army of Poachers
- Changed/added some dialogues.
- The quest will now fail if the target village is raided or under raid.
Deliver a Herd
- The quest time limit has been increased from 5 to 30.
- The crime rating penalty has been decreased from 30 to 10.
- Herders were removed from the quest and quest dialogues were updated.
Company of Trouble
- The quest reward formula has been updated.
- The food steal chance and amount were decreased.
Needs Draught Animals
- The number of animals will be determined when the issue is created and will not be changed as long as the issue is active.
- The cost of animals formula has been updated.
- Fixed a bug that caused the number of requested animals to be different from the quest journal entry.
- Fixed a bug that caused the quest alternative solution reward gold to be given twice.
Scout Enemy Garrisons
- Only faction leaders will now be able to give the quest.
- The quest will affect the quest giver's influence -0.1 daily.
- The scouting skill requirement has been decreased from 40 to 30.
The Spy Among Us
- The base reward value has been increased from 300 to 500.
The Art of The Trade
- Fixed a bug that caused the quest giver to ask for 0 items and give 0 denars as a reward.
Needs Access to Village Commons
- Fixed a bug that prevented the rival party from spawning.
Notable wants daughter found
- Fixed a bug that allowed the hero to attack their companions in a duel.
Raid an Enemy Territory
- Fixed a bug that opened the encounter menu with the quest giver at the end of the conversation.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to get stuck in a mission after solving the quest with a lord solution.

Conversations & Encounters

Fixed a bug that caused the next dialogue to be broken after loading a game during an active persuasion attempt.

Other

Removed skill templates that overrode designated skill sets.
Removed non-civilian tagged weapons from civilian starting equipment.
Updated equipment and formations of the Bandit Bosses.
Sturgian Veteran Bowman now uses the Nordic Shortbow.
Removed the ability to recording campaign missions since it is not currently supported and causes crashes.
Fixed a bug that caused some heroes not to spawn after reaching adulthood.
Fixed some encyclopedia entries that had inconsistent spelling and missing place names.
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to kill shop workers in towns.
Fixed a bug that made new adults naked.
Fixed a bug that made disbanded parties' names "unnamedMobileParty".
Fixed a bug that caused all randomly generated starting player names to be Battanian.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer servers will be made available for a limited time for the beta version of the game.

Design & Balance

Fixed a bug that caused the wrong team to win in overtime.

Map Related

Added two new siege maps: Domogtul Castle and Ayzar Stronghold.
Xauna
- Improvements to the pit fence physics and other fixes.
Echerion
- Many physics improvements to corners and other fixes.
- Fixed the path material.
Baraveneos Encirclement
- Fixed an issue with the barricade changing its position when damaged near flag G.
- Lowered outer and inner gate HP. Slightly increased G flag gate HP.
- Some physics improvements.
Tsagaan Castle
- Solved physics problems on stairs.

Other - Miscellaneous

Fixed some troops from appearing as too old.

Server & Network

Fixed a crash that occurred when logging into multiplayer.

UI
Changes

Added a new option to disable "Network Alert Icons" and added a visual representation to describe each icon.
A confirmation popup now shows up while quitting a multiplayer game.
Added a 'Mute / Unmute all players' button to the multiplayer scoreboard.
Improved the visibility of player avatars and troop type icons both on the scoreboard and HUD.
Added scores to the Skirmish and Captain game mode HUDs.

Fixes

Fixed a crash that occurred while logging in or reloading player data in the multiplayer lobby.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Invite friend' button to disappear.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Spear Brace' icon button to appear incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Rename Clan' popup to stay visible after the clan had been disbanded.
Fixed a bug that prevented the removal of clan announcements.
Fixed a bug that caused 'un-mute all' to not function properly.

Both

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when enabling/disabling cloth simulation.

Art

Fixed castle gate colliders that were not fitting to the gate properly.
Fixed a bug that caused snow to flicker in some scenes.

Audio

Added the Sound Occlusion option. It's forced ON in Multiplayer and can be turned on/off for Singleplayer.

UI
Changes

Added a 'Reset to Default' button to keybinds category in the game options.
Extended the 'Turn Camera With Horse In First Person' option to include 'Always'.
Improved the readability of query popup texts.

Fixes

Official modules can now be enabled but not disabled through the launcher. This will address the issue where no modules would load. Players can now enable official modules from the launcher and open the game correctly. No more deleting LauncherData.xml!
Added some missing characters from Korean, Japanese and Chinese language fonts.
Fixed the combat log incorrectly showing a killing blow when one hadn't occurred.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Refresh Rate' option to be reset to the highest option in fullscreen mode.
Fixed the text for bastard swords and axes.

Performance

Greatly improved initial loading of the game by changing how font files are loaded and through other fixes and optimisations.
Fixed a memory leak that occurred after entering scenes.
Small Multi-Core usage improvements have been made.
Disk usage improvements have been made.

Animations

Cloth simulation for capes has been disabled when the agent has a shield on its back.

Combat

Fixed a bug that caused archers to ignore cavalry despite them being at the same distance as other troops.
Increased the firing range of archers that are targeting cavalry units.
Javelins now deal 75% of their weapon damage to shields (increased from 10%).
Throwing Impale perk now lets javelins penetrate shields as intended.
Throwing axes now deal 50% of their weapon damage to shields (increased from 10%).
Reduced the accuracy of crossbows while moving and added mount rear as a negative factor for accuracy.
Improved camera collision with objects such as walls and bridges.
Combat physics fix to prevent agents hitting each other at the same frame with kick or bash
Fixed an issue that caused the character to move forward when jumping without any other movement.
Fixed an issue that caused the wrong dying animation to be picked when an agent was killed with a heavy weapon.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to crouch while reloading the crossbow.

Other

Fixed a DLSS bug that caused some blurring.
Fixed a DLSS bug related to resolution scale causing a dark screen.
Fixed a bug that caused corrupted rendering with medium lighting quality.

Modding

Added new functionalities to the GI baking procedure.
Added new mission parameters to the sound manager panel.
Improved the body mask option for path barriers.
Fixed the resize terrain issues.
Fixed a bug that caused selection overlays to stay visible when helpers had been disabled.
Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to snap to the bottom right corner.
Fixed a bug that caused the world map terrain to be black in the editor.
Fixed a bug that caused decals to be visible even though their assigned layer had been disabled.
Fixed a bug that prevented texture's alpha channel sdf from being generated.
Fixed a bug that prevented reimporting of assets.
Fixed inactive 'Terrain' and 'Shadow' options on the visibility window.

Known Issues:
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/known-issues.401168/

Apr 2, 2021

One Year Anniversary Recap

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Callum

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

It seems hard to believe, but a whole year has passed since Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord was released in Early Access. And such a challenging year it has been, for everyone. We hope you are staying safe and healthy, and that the game was able to serve as an enjoyable distraction for you during these difficult times. We also want to express our gratitude to everyone that has supported us since the early access launch and provided us with many great suggestions and ideas that have helped us tremendously with the development of the game!

With that in mind, this first anniversary seems like the perfect occasion to take another look at the path we’re walking together. Initially, we had estimated that the early access period would last for about a year. And while we are happy with the progress that has been made so far, we feel that the game isn’t quite ready for its full release just yet. As such, our tentative estimate for the release is Q4 2021, however, development will continue for as long as necessary as we take the time to ensure that the game is fun and enjoyable.

On a connected note, many of you have been inquiring about the game coming to consoles. As we’ve always said, our focus right now is on finishing the PC version. Consoles will come later on – but they will come! When we have more information to share about that, you’ll be the first to know, so stay tuned to our website, forums, and social media channels.

With that cleared up, let’s move on to discuss what has happened with the game over the past year!

Stability & Performance

When Bannerlord first released, we were humbled by the sheer amount of players that chose to support us in early access. And while many of you were able to play the game without any major issues, there were those of you that experienced bugs, crashes and performance challenges.

This is something that we have worked hard to address, especially in the early weeks and months. To help in those efforts, we introduced a separate beta branch for the game which, thanks to some supportive (and patient!) players, has since helped to highlight and resolve many issues before they could make their way to the live version of the game.

Naturally, there still remains work to be done, but to date, the performance and stability of the game have improved by leaps and bounds. For instance, a recent internal profiling of a 1000 unit field battle played on a GTX 1660ti and i7 8700k averages around 27-30 fps (36 ms) on the EA release build and sits at 47-50 fps (21 ms) on the latest patch. Similarly, when it comes to the campaign map, a setup that we use for continuous testing (GTX 1080 and i7 8700k) experienced an increase from 80 to 90 fps in fast forward.

Average performance in field battles in e1.0.10 compared to e.1.5.8

Other technical areas have also seen much progress over this past year. Many spikes that caused stutters in gameplay were resolved, scene loading times were greatly reduced, DLSS was added, savegame compression was improved by around 80%, and the optimisation of texture streaming reduced pop-in and sliced roughly 10GB off the game size!

Gameplay

In the same spirit, we’ve made many improvements since launch to ensure that the basic gameplay is smooth and enjoyable. By utilising your feedback, we've been able to make some welcome changes on this front, with additions like quick map conversations, and the overhauled hideout troop selection window. This continued throughout the year with small, but impactful tweaks, such as; expanding quick conversations to settlements; the ability to categorise save files; and the addition of a range of menu shortcuts that, among other things, allow you to quickly switch tabs or move/upgrade/etc. entire stacks of items.

You can now initiate conversations on the campaign map

Another important area that we’ve made efforts to improve on is how the game communicates with you. Quite early on, a new visual system was implemented to display map events like raids, battles, and sieges on the UI instead of with 3D icons, in order to improve overall visibility. And in a similar vein, we later added mobile party trackers that allow players to better understand where their clan parties and kingdom armies are. It was also crucial to make the world more accessible by adding events like tournaments and quests to settlement nameplates, improving the various management screens, and introducing a number of new notifications and tooltips. Now, you are notified about things like threats against your fiefs or nobles resolving issues, and generally have more information about the world, as well as, your own actions.

A number of UI improvements have been made to display events clearly

Of course, it’s not all been quality of life updates. As early access has progressed, other content and features have been added and adjusted as well. This includes some subtle, but substantial things like balancing the prices, production, and availability of items and equipment in the market; reworking troop trees; introducing new item modifiers, including the lame horse feature; expanding conversations; and so on... At the same time, it also encompasses some more overt changes, like the many new quests or the overhaul of the prisoner recruitment system - which not only offers more interesting choices to you and ties them to the character system but also taught NPCs to do the same. Additionally, more recently we have seen the introduction of Sandbox mode and prison break, which offer new avenues for you to explore. And let’s not forget photo mode, which allows you to immortalise your epic (and silly) moments in Bannerlord!

Photo mode allows you to capture and enhance moments from your adventures

Character Development

Moving on, we want to discuss a topic that many of you care deeply about: the character development system. When the game first launched, we were faced with some difficult choices. Perks were incomplete, but we were also not entirely happy with their design at that point either. Initially, each perk had just a single effect, which made them interesting and useful for either the player character or for companions and AI nobles… but not both. In the end, we decided to revisit the design by reworking many of the existing effects, and added a second effect to most of the 300+ perks in the game, giving you more freedom and options when developing your characters and making it much less likely for any perks to go to waste. This decision didn’t come easy as it prolonged the time required to fill in missing content, but we believe it was the right choice as it made the game better in the long run.

There are now over 300 perks in the game!

Character progression and skills also saw some fairly substantial changes. Initially, character levels would grow based on skill levels, but this led to situations where you could harm your own progression unintentionally by focusing on just a few skills that would take longer and longer to develop. To solve this, the system was changed to be based on raw experience instead, which means that characters can grow even if their skill levels don’t increase. Alongside this, we expanded the ways in which you can gain experience, whether it be Combat in the arena, Charm in barters, or Roguery for robbing peasants. Having said that, we hear you and we agree that this should receive more attention still.

Beyond that, we also want to provide you with a greater number of customisation options, which so far have included additional colours for skin, hair, and eyes; a number of new hairstyles, with a barber to change them at; as well as, a much-requested option to control your character’s weight and build.

A number of Character Customisation additions have been added to the game

However, It wasn’t just heroes that needed some additional care! With the combat system and battle simulation generally favouring strong fighters, a situation arose whereby, unbeknownst to us, the development of troops in parties was skewed. Thankfully, you stepped in to let us know that it could be overly difficult to raise recruits to a higher level and, in response to this, we introduced a shared experience system that ensures that combat experience is more evenly distributed among your troops.

Finally, the interplay between the combat and character systems was revised. Originally, the combat AI level was derived from the NPC’s character level. However, that meant that any high-level character, whether it was a merchant or a warrior, would be a proficient fighter. This was changed to take into account the character’s skill level for their wielded weapon instead. It required some additional work with balancing troop stats and equipment, but, much like with Perks, it has improved the game in the long run!

Characters now take their weapon skill level into account for their wielded weapon

Clan & Family

A related area of the game that has seen quite a bit of development since launch is the Clan & Family system. In the past year, we created a healthier population with many new lords and ladies added, taught them to intermingle and marry, improved the coming of age for their offspring, and enabled natural death (along with a way to disable it, as requested by our Warband veterans!).

New options for clan leaders were also added. For one, you can now develop the skills of your offspring through the education feature as they grow older. Adult clan members, in turn, have become more useful, with expanded Captain, Party Leader, and Governor Perk effects. And even if you prefer to keep them safe, they can develop relations with locals when you leave them in a settlement. Or if you wish to arrange a marriage for one of your clan members - you can now do so!

You can now influence the development of your offspring at key moments throughout their childhood

Finally, AI decision making was worked on as well, leading to better target selection for parties and financial management for clan leaders, alongside various tweaks to deal with starvation and the ability to recruit from and trade with neutral, rather than just allied, settlements. Still, mismanagement and poor luck remain possible for both players and AI nobles and have been made much more impactful with the introduction of rebellions.

Unhappy citizens can now take up arms and seize control of their settlement

Kingdom & Armies

Of course, you may aspire to greater things than being just the head of your household, such as serving or leading a kingdom through the maelstrom of Calradian power struggles! The latter, in particular, is something that we wanted to enable early on with the introduction of the sandbox kingdom creation, as well as, the ability to hire mercenary clans to support your realm and a kingdom decision to handle succession.

However, whether you are a king or not, you should be able to influence major political and military actions which is why the war and peace barter was converted to a kingdom decision that vassals and rulers can both partake in.

Clan leaders now play a bigger role in kingdom diplomacy

Diplomacy, in general, has been a hot topic throughout development, with many ideas put forward. Our focus here has been to improve the decision making on the part of vassals and kings so that they act in interesting but also reasonable ways. Thanks to some pretty elaborate playtesting and feedback, they have improved quite a bit when it comes to self-preservation in war and peace decisions as well as when it comes to making more reliable, personality and relation-based defections, or rejections thereof.

Naturally, not all diplomacy takes place in such a courteous fashion. And so, army AI received much of the same attention that clan parties did. Leaders are now much less likely to pursue faraway targets and favour attacking holdings of people they dislike over those that they like. And to make things more interesting, a new decision was added to sieges as well! Pillaging allows conquerors to devastate, pillage, or show mercy to a settlement, which AI lords do based on their personality, available influence, and morale. This feature further adds to the dynamic of the world with settlement projects now on the line to be destroyed.

Conquerors can now pillage, devastate, or show mercy to their new subjects

Combat & Battles/Sieges

One of the staples of the Mount & Blade series is the combat system, and there’s no question that we want to continue to use the early access period to further improve it with your input. There have already been a number of notable additions since the start of early access, such as autoblock, cheering, target locking, an additional radial order wheel, and the ability to wield (some) crossbows on horseback. And, as other systems like perks have made progress, complimentary mechanics, such as the ability to assign captains to formations, have been introduced to make use of them.

You can now celebrate your victories alongside your troops!

At the same time, we have received a lot of feedback about field battles and siege missions, and we have used this to address many issues and improve the behaviour of agents and formations. The overhaul to formation and tactics AI, for one, introduced new unit categories like skirmishers to better handle troops with throwing weapons. It also taught mixed formations to shuffle their shield bearers to the front in a shield wall, and improved the tactical response to things like chokepoints, ranged fire, and the composition of enemy forces. Similarly, the weapon selection of agents is smarter and their understanding of weapon length and positioning was improved. Having said that, sieges, in particular, remain an active part of development and will continue to see improvements.

Formation and tactics AI have been overhauled

The skill-based directional combat system wasn’t forgotten either, and, with the help of collaborative play-testing and suggestions from the community, has seen significant improvements to attacking, blocking, animations, and movement. The readying and aiming durations of ranged weapons like bows, crossbows and throwing weapons were also reworked and tied to weapon speeds, adding more variety between ranged weapons of the same kind. Together these changes make for a more fluid and challenging experience in both singleplayer and multiplayer.

Multiplayer

The importance of multiplayer to the game cannot be stressed enough, and we showed that to be the case when we first introduced you to Bannerlord with a closed beta before the early access launch. Using player feedback and bug reports, we were able to improve many aspects of the game in preparation for EA, and since then multiplayer has gone through quite a few changes. While we worked on combat, class, and game mode balance, 3 new Captain, Skirmish, and Siege scenes, as well as, 2 new Team Deathmatch maps were added.

New scenes have been added to all multiplayer game modes

These changes were accompanied by a number of UI improvements, which can be seen in places like the map loading screens and additional HUD elements. Additionally, new and impactful gameplay features, such as spear bracing and sound occlusion, were also implemented.

Spear bracing allows you to dispatch enemy horses with ease!

Alongside these additions to the game, a number of social features were added to support the community. On the one hand, we enabled Anti-cheat, introduced penalties for quitting matches too often, and added a global mute, as well as, an in-game reporting system with detailed game and chat logs to help maintain a healthy and fair environment.

And on the other hand, we introduced mechanics like the match history that enables you to find information about your recent matches, which not only provides match details but allows you to keep track of people you have played with and increase your circle of friends. This was complemented by the introduction of the clan system which lets you band together with your friends for some casual play, or compete in competitive clan matches against other teams through a dedicated clan match system. And thanks to an in-game clan roster, it’s easy to keep track of and manage members, or transfer leadership of the clan. Finally, the clan leaderboard allows you to track your clan’s overall competitive performance in clan matches.

The clan leaderboard tracks each clan’s wins and losses in competitive clan matches

Art

Since the start of EA, we’ve been adding and improving content to make the game more engaging and alive. To this end, over 20 new settlement scenes have been added for you to bring into your domain, with many, many more in the pipeline. In addition to this, 26 new battle terrains have been introduced in preparation for the upcoming battle terrain system that was recently announced. At the same time, all of the game’s existing scenes, and, in particular, the campaign map, have received a lot of TLC in the form of fixes and tweaks, alongside other improvements, like new icons and models.

There’s a number of new settlements for you to conquer and explore

But of course, you need to be able to look and act the part when you are out on your adventures, which is why we continued to add to the already extensive selection of clothing, armours, weapons, and crafting pieces with the addition of many new items.

The game’s armoury has been expanded with the addition of many new armours

Our efforts to further immerse you have extended to other visual aspects of the game too, such as with the various new and improved animations and the many new faction and event themed artworks that have been added to settlement menus.

New faction and event themed artwork have been added to settlement menus

Audio

Next, we want to move on to discuss something that is just as important at drawing you into the world as the sights, which is the sounds. In the effort to improve Calradia’s soundscape, numerous new ambiences were added, while existing ones were further detailed. In addition to this, a number of new music tracks were added across the game.

Alongside these, a broader range of selectable voice types was made available for your characters, and missing shouts for charges and retreats were added. Similarly, to further improve the feel of battle, a number of additional shouted warnings were introduced. And for multiplayer, alongside the addition of sound occlusion that we mentioned above, most of the sounds’ audibility has been thoroughly overhauled. Beyond these, there are countless minor revisions all around the game’s audible world.

https://cdn.taleworlds.com/upload/news/mp-a-lobby-khuzait.mp3

Modding Tools

Last, but certainly not least, we have the modding tools.

Modders have always played a key role for the Mount & Blade franchise and provide a great deal of joy and inspiration to players and developers alike. Even within the first few days of Bannerlord’s Early Access, you were hard at work to bring your creations to players. And despite not having any tools, you were able to push Bannerlord to one of the top games in terms of mods created and downloaded.

Scene Editor

So we were really quite excited to release our initial set of modding tools into early access after the closed testing, workshops, and discussions with a number of you ended. The current kit includes a powerful scene editor with many tools and a range of resource editors. Together they allow for the creation of many of the same assets that are part of the game - as well as entirely new ones!

Scene Editor Toolset

Entity Placement Tools
Terrain Import, Export, and Editing Tools
Navigation Mesh Tools
GI Baking Tools
Level System Editing Tool
Path Editing Tools

Resource Editors

Resource Browser
Material Editor
Mesh Editor
Texture Editor
Body Editor
Cloth Editor
Atmosphere Editor
Skeleton Editor
Particle Editor
Model & Animation Viewer

And what better way to celebrate the occasion than with our first big creative contest? There were certainly some challenges with the tools being fresh out of the oven, but you didn’t let that stop you, and even helped to improve the editor - all while creating some truly amazing scenes!

However, with all that being said, there’s still much to be done with the tools, API, and general documentation. We want to assure you that this remains one of our goals and that we will increase our efforts in this regard.

Whew, well that was certainly a lot to get through, even after all the cuts! If we missed out any changes or additions to the game that you personally enjoyed, please make sure to leave a reply in the comment section below to let us know what it was!

And finally, we have a message for those of you that have been following development a little more avidly throughout early access and are more interested in where the game is heading rather than the path it has taken. We felt that trying to squeeze such a big discussion into this particular post would have detracted from both topics, and ultimately, we wouldn’t have been able to give it the attention and respect that it deserves. As such, we decided that we would discuss some of the future plans for the game in a follow-up post in the near future.

Until then, we want to thank you once again for your amazing support throughout early access, and we wish you the best of health.

Mar 30, 2021

Creative Competition Winners

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Callum

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

After a lot of careful deliberation, we are finally ready to announce the creative competition winners! You can check out the video below to see some of the amazing entries or you can skip ahead to the text version below if you prefer to read.

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Back in October, Bannerlord reached a pretty significant milestone in its Early Access journey with the beta release of the first batch of modding tools. To celebrate the occasion, we issued a challenge by inviting you all to flex your creative muscles in the form of 3 different competitions, with some fairly significant prizes up for grabs!

Today, we are pleased to be able to share some of the amazing entries that we received with you, as we announce the winners!

But, just before we do, please allow us to spend a moment to acknowledge the skill, effort, and dedication shown by each contestant in creating what have turned out to be some phenomenal works of art for us all to enjoy! The immense quality of the entries made judging the contests extremely difficult but really rewarding at the same time! Thank you for your amazing contributions, you should all be very proud of your work!

Scene Design Contest

First up, we have the Scene Design Contest which challenged modders to create a Bannerlord themed village scene that took into consideration design guidelines set out by our level designers.

We want to start by saying just how blown away we were by the entries! There was so much craftsmanship on display in terms of visuals, and a lot of thought and consideration was given to gameplay, which was great to see. We are really pleased and encouraged by some of the creative ways in which people have used our tools to create some stunning effects, and we have certainly picked up an idea or two along the way!

And just before we move on to look at those winners, we want to give a special thanks to community members Macbeth and FoozleMcDoozle for their assistance with the contest. Thank you!

And so, without further ado…

3rd Place

In third place, and winner of the Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Processor we have, Methking, with their scene, Kingstranding.

Kingstranding by Methking

We feel that this scene has a really smart layout, with small touches like the stream that leads from the spawn towards the village centre, helping to guide the player, to be well thought out. This scene also takes into consideration immersive details, such as scene props reflecting seasonal changes, along with other touches, like the great use of sound around the scene and the small easter eggs dotted around for us to find!

2nd Place

In second place, and winner of the Intel® NUC 9 Extreme Kit we have, Yurek, with their creation, Meteora Terra.

Meteora Terra by Yurek

This visually stunning scene uses simple rock meshes in a really smart way, and compliments this with some skilful texture blending to create a really unique and charming mountainside village. The choice of colours across the scene gives a natural and authentic feel and there are some really nice additional touches, such as the points of interest on the map, the water effects, and the backdrop.

1st Place

And in first place, and winner of the BANNERLORD CUSTOM PC by Intel® is BeefBacon, with their scene, Craglowe.

Craglowe by BeefBacon

We really like how each part of this scene feels visually distinct, which, along with the different levels to the scene, makes it easy to navigate and enjoyable to explore. There are also many nice touches that impressed us, including the great use of colour on the buildings, the nice use of tactical positions for agents, and what was possibly the only use of the road decal that we saw from all the entries!

Scene Pack

You can check out the winners, along with all other entries to the Scene Design Contest over on our forums, where we have screenshots of each map on display and a Scene Pack available for you to download and enjoy!

2D Art Contest

Next up, we have the 2D Art contest, where we invited you to create a Bannerlord themed artwork using anything from oils to pixels. And honestly, we were not prepared for what was to come... All of the entries were nothing short of spectacular and to choose just three was a momentous task. We can’t stress enough just how amazed we are by the level of talent on display!

3rd Place

In third place, and winner of the Mount & Blade II Custom Razer Gigantus V2 Large Mouse Pad we have an untitled piece by @omerburakonal

Untitled by Equin0

We really like the composition of this artwork and how dynamic it is. We also appreciate how it manages to encapsulate and evoke the overall Mount & Blade feeling. And those clouds... Wow!

2nd Place

In second place, and winner of the Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Processor we have @heymangame with a page from their hand-drawn Calradia’s Chronicle picture book.

Untitled by heymangame

The intricacy and attention to detail in this artwork is nothing short of outstanding. We really love how this piece brings to life the game lore and allows us to relive the journey through camaraderie, travel, war and conquest!

1st Place

And in first place, and winner of the Intel® NUC 9 Extreme Kit we have @KleiosCanvas with their depiction of the Battle of Pendraic.

Battle of Pendraic by Katrin Moondaughter

We were really impressed by the great use of colours in this work and, in particular, the stylistic and traditional mix resulting in a vibrant but readable work that is packed full of small details to enjoy.

Screenshot Contest

Last up, we have the winners of the Screenshot Contest who were challenged to capture an iconic moment from their adventures, and managed to grab themselves a Mount & Blade II Custom Razer Gigantus V2 Large Mouse Mat for their efforts!

And finally, thank you once again to everyone that took part. We consider ourselves to be really fortunate to have such an amazing and talented community and we look forward to exploring more events and competitions like this with you in the future!

Mar 10, 2021

Patch Notes e1.5.8

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Callum

Main e1.5.8

Latest Changes:

Singleplayer

Fixes

Fixed a crash that occurred when the player was killed while locked onto a target during a practice fight.
Fixed ghosting in DLSS mode.
Fixed an issue that caused an endless loop after the kingdom screen was opened.
Fixed an issue with sieges being lifted prematurely (attackers were repeatedly visiting nearby towns to heal their wounded troops, creating a siege heal loop).
Translation/language files in unselected mods are no longer loaded.

Multiplayer

Fixes

Fixed an issue with slow walking speeds when taking control of a unit in Captain Mode.

Previous Beta Hotfixes:

04/03/21

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when a value that was higher than is allowed was pasted in integer input fields.
Fixed a crash that occurred when capturing the last settlement of a kingdom that was a target in the conspiracy phase of the main storyline.

Fixes

Fixed a DLSS related issue with the resolution scale causing a dark screen.
Fixed a DLSS related issue with medium shading quality causing corrupted images.
Fixed an issue with some settlements being unselectable due to the horizontal layout in the 'Gift Settlement' menu.
Fixed an issue that made some notables disappear when loading save files.
Fixed an issue with thumbnails failing to load.
Fixed an issue that caused conversation tag weights (that affect dialogue variation) to be set improperly.

Changes

Minor improvement to opening times for Clan, Character, Inventory and Party screens.

26/02/21

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when a crossbow was equipped by cavalry agents.

Fixes

Fixed an issue with AI archers failing to fire at mounted enemies until they were too close. Now they will start shooting sooner.
Fixed an issue with 'Guaran' using the wrong civilian outfit templates.
Fixed an issue with decreased troop count in common areas.
Fixed an issue with thugs offering mercenary services in common areas.

18/02/21

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when the player or hideout boss killed spectator troops during a hideout duel.
Fixed a crash caused by loading an old save that starts immediately with the siege aftermath menu, (which has been changed in new versions and contains pillaging options).
Fixed a crash caused by average item price calculations.

Fixes

Fixed an issue that directs the player to a peace menu while raiding a settlement even though no peace occurs.
Average gold amounts of towns are increased.

16/02/21

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that could occur after winning a battle.

Fixes

Increased the probability for NPC parties with a high ratio of wounded troops to visit a settlement and rest.
Reduced the rate at which notables' recruitable troops upgrade.
Fixed an issue with the colour grade selection in photo mode.
Fixed an issue that blocked the loading of item thumbnail images.
Leadership Authority perk's secondary effect is changed to 'Increase party size limit by 5'.
Tactics Swift Regroup perk primary effect is changed to 'Decrease disorganized time for breaking sieges or raids by 15%'.
Scout Foragers perk secondary effect is changed to '15% reduction in disorganized state recovery duration'.
Fixed an error that caused caravan and garrison parties to not show up in the clan parties list.
Fixed a bug that could sometimes result in non-clickable pillaging options after sieges.
Removed relation penalties for killing a lord on the battlefield.

10/02/21

Singleplayer

Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to disappear on the campaign map.
Fixed an issue with hordes of bandit parties being spawned on the campaign map.
Fixed a bug that changed disbanding parties' names to 'unnamedMobileParty'.
Fixed the prosperity loss calculations for pillaging.
Fixed an issue with the AI taking into account the settlement owner culture instead of the settlement culture when deciding siege aftermath actions.
Fixed a bug that caused lords to act like non-lord parties upon loading a save.

05/02/21

Singleplayer

Fixed a bug that caused the cursor to permanently disappear on the campaign map.

Initial Beta Changelog:

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred at scene load.
Fixed a crash that occurred when an uninitialised inverse kinematics data was accessed for human characters.
Fixed a crash that occurred when pasting a crafting weapon in the smithy.
Fixed a crash that occurred when pressing 'transfer all' in the inventory.
Fixed a crash that occurred when initiating a campaign map encounter.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to invalid items in towns.
Fixed a crash that occurred when marrying your daughter to a hero.
Fixed a crash that occurred after clicking the 'you are my prisoner now' dialogue option while raiding a caravan.
Fixed a crash that occurred when creating a new rebel clan.
Fixed a crash that occurred when immediately sieging a settlement after leaving the training field.
Fixed a crash that occurred while initialising the last phase of the main storyline.
Fixed a crash that occurred when the barter amount was 0.
Fixed a crash that occurred while loading a saved game after taking the 'Lord Wants Garrison Troops' quest.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to uninitialised parties in some old saves.
Fixed a crash that occurred when a mission ended.
Fixed a crash that occurred during battles.
Fixed a crash that occurred after finishing quests that create special quest bandit parties.
Fixed a crash that occurred in sieges when the player died while controlling a formation which had previously been AI-controlled and the formation was attempting to retake a position.

Performance

Improved campaign map loading performance.
Optimised memory allocations to reduce frame drops on the world map.
Optimised performance and memory usage in the animation system.
Fixed some trade screen related memory leaks.
Improved army deployment performance for field battles.

Localisation

Chinese language updates.
Turkish language updates.
Minor text fixes.

Art

Added 9 Battanian helmets.
Removed shoulder armours that caused clipping issues on Sapling, Sprout and Vlandian Caravan Master units.
Body armour weights have been recalibrated according to armour types and armour values.
Armours no longer have adjectives which define their origin, e.g Southern, Northern, etc.
Made a number of visual improvements on various architectural prop models.
Fixed an issue that caused the player character to have their fists open on the campaign map.

Animations

Added three cheering animation variations. Different cheering animations will now play depending on the result of the battle.

Campaign Map

Campaign map mouse right-click and middle-click behaviour has been changed to hide the cursor and keep it at the same location.
Improved visibility of the 3D gamepad cursor on the campaign map when zoomed out.
Improved Vlandia settlement models and textures.

UI
Changes

Added a new casualty report option for non-hero troop kills/deaths.
Added a new option, Track Attacked Settlements, that automatically tracks settlements in the player's faction that are under attack. The 'Only Leader' option only tracks these settlements if the player is the leader of the faction.
Added a 'Lock Item' button to smelting items in the Smithy along with a warning if the player tries to smelt a locked weapon.
Inventory items of the same type are now arranged by their value when sorted by 'Type'. Same value items are sorted alphabetically.
Added a 'Continue Campaign' button to the main menu that loads the latest save game.
The player party now shows at the top of the scoreboard in battles.
Siege event icons on settlement nameplates are now visible during the bombardment phase.
Governor assignments in the Clan screen will now take place when the screen is closed to prevent unwanted teleportations of clan members.
Added a confirmation query to the game options on 'Cancel' if any changes have been made.
Improved the readability of generic inquiry popups.
Added a failed quest icon to the quests screen.
Added an escape menu to the character creation stages.
Removed the 'Enable Map Notifications' option since some notifications aren’t dismissible and are required for progression.

Fixes

Fixed a visual bug that caused the stone icon to show up incorrectly on the equipment selection radial.
Fixed a configuration bug that caused some options to be set incorrectly.
Removed 'Shops in Settlement' text from the Town Management screen if the settlement is a castle.
Fixed an issue with smelting items being sorted differently when a weapon was smelted.
Fixed some inconsistencies with hero portrait and conversation equipment.
Fixed a bug that caused wanderers' locations to appear incorrectly in the encyclopedia.
Removed incomplete language options from the game menu.
Fixed an issue with siege icons failing to disappear when loading the game.
Fixed an issue with the combat log which caused extra damage from skills & effects to be reported incorrectly.

Battles and Sieges

Added Pillaging: Players and AI can now choose to 'Devastate', 'Pillage' or 'Show Mercy' to settlements that have been successfully sieged.
- 'Devastate' and 'Pillage' can damage the prosperity and projects of a settlement, as well as, diminish the power of notables in towns. Naturally, the previous settlement owner won’t be too happy about the destruction of their former home. However, the participants of the siege will see their coffers and party morale rise. Still, lords and ladies may or may not approve of the action depending on their traits.
- 'Show Mercy' allows the winners to take over the settlement without causing too much harm to it or its inhabitants. While this is expected for settlements of one’s own faction culture, showing mercy to foreign settlements will cause unrest among the troops. Just as with the other choices, some nobles will approve or disapprove of the action.
Improved the battle formations spawn system. Formations will now spawn within one of the four flanks during open field battles (from front to back order):
- Center Flank: Skirmishers, Heavy Infantry, Infantry
- Rear Flank: Ranged Units, Civilian Units
- Left Flank: Heavy Cavalry, Cavalry,
- Right Flank: Horse Archers, Light Cavalry.
Players can now assign different troop stacks to different formations to change flanks and deployment order.
Fixed an issue with siege weapon auto-deployment that caused some ranged siege weapons and special archer positions to be left unused.
Fixed a siege issue that caused attacking troops to run into walls until they routed after primary siege engines (towers and ram) were destroyed on all lanes.
Formation AI siege behaviour scoring has been revised significantly, allowing all AI formations to attack or pull back when the situation demands it.
Fixed a condition that caused incorrect calculation for formation AI behaviour selection.
Fixed an issue that prevented AI troops from selecting the correct weapon due to the distance of the enemy through nav mesh.
Fixed an issue that mixed up the positions of the crossbow holster and bolt when spawning in scenes.
Fixed various deployment spawn errors.

Character Development System

Added all of the remaining combat-related engineering perks (10 in total).
Fixed various perk problems with Athletics, Riding, Throwing, Polearm and One-Handed skill trees.
'Pick Them of the Walls' and 'Make Them Pay' perks have been implemented.
Fixed a bug that caused security-related perks to give negative security to settlements.
Minor bug fixes to Medicine and Leadership skills.
Fixed the 'Duelist' perk secondary effect which rewarded the player with 300 renown for winning a tournament.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to get free 'Charm' skill.

Clan and Party

Fixed a bug that prevented family members from being assigned to increase relations in a settlement.
Fixed an issue with the player's siblings being shown as naked and in the wrong education stage.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from being able to donate prisoners.
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to take troops from other non-clan parties.
Fixed a bug that prevented the heir menu from opening if the main hero died while sieging.

Armies

Improved a calculation to make AI parties more decisive when engaging enemy parties on the world map.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

When a settlement's diplomatic state is changed (because of a change of owner, or a new war or peace declaration), all hostile parties that are inside will now leave the settlement. All hostile heroes without parties will be taken prisoner. All non-hostile heroes will be released.
Mercenaries will now leave a kingdom if they do not get paid for several days because the kingdom is bankrupt.
Kingdoms experiencing financial difficulties will now recruit minor factions less.
War/peace AI has been improved so that clans make more logical war/peace declarations. The importance of distance between kingdoms has been increased for these decisions. Kingdoms further apart tend to avoid war/peace/tribute deals between each other in most cases.
Fixed a bug that prevented failed rebellion clans from being destroyed after 30 days.
Fixed a bug that caused rebellion clan leaders to have the 'King' title in their name.
Initial position selection for dynamically created kingdoms has been improved.
Fixed a bug related to all player kingdom prisoners being bartered with the player automatically which lead to faulty notifications.
Fixed a bug that caused a lord to barter all of his gold for the player's daughter.

Economy and Trade

Changed the outcome from slaughtering horses from 4 meat and 2 hides to 3 meat.
Added plural forms of trade items, e.g. 'Tyal horses' and 'amphorae of oil'.

Crafting

Fixed a bug during the loading phase that resulted in crafted items appearing in tournaments and not being removed from towns.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

200+ power headman notables now provide elite troops.
Fixed an issue that caused artisans to constantly lose power.
Notables at villages which are bounded by a castle now gain more power each day compared to others.
Fixed several bugs related to board games.
Fixed a bug that showed a recruitment label on lords even if they didn’t recruit at a settlement.

Quests & Issues

The deserter party in 'Extortion by Deserters' quest will no longer lose members due to starvation.
Some dialogues have been updated related to the 'Art of The Trade' quest.
Fixed a minor agent spawn rotation problem while spawning guard agents in the 'Gang Leader Needs Weapons' quest.
Reenabled the 'Spy Among Us' quest.
Fixed a bug that caused an incorrect quest log to be shown in 'Overpriced Goods and Art of The Trade' quest.
Fixed a problem that prevented Issues from being completed with modified items such as 'Lame Desert Horse'.
Fixed the 'hideout spotted' log of the 'Conspiracy Base of Operations' quest.
Fixed a bug that set the relationship with the tutorial village's headman to -99 when the tutorial was finished.
Fixed a bug that prevented quest troops from the 'Train Troops' issue from entering hideouts.

Conversations & Encounters

Fixed the position of the player when speaking with the advanced melee trainer.
Fixed incorrect text showing when ransoming enemy lords.
Fixed a problem that caused the conversation to become stuck while talking to the ransom broker in a tavern.
Fixed camera issues when opening a conversation with a companion through the party screen.
Fixed a bug that prevented conversation hero guards from spawning in 'parley' and 'request a meeting with someone' conversation missions.

Other

XP needed to upgrade to tier 4 and tier 5 troops has been slightly increased.
Passive XP for troops in NPC clans has been slightly reduced.
Fixed an issue with mercenaries and minor faction troops having the wrong skill templates.
Haramis now upgrades into Veteran Farises.
Sea Raider Chief's athletics and riding skill values have been swapped.
Barbers no longer carry weapons.
Corrected the clearing of missiles attached to corpses while clearing the scenes, especially in tournaments.
Fixed a bug that caused heroes with a child to have another child in quick succession.
Fixed a bug that caused dead heroes to be shown in the characters location list.
Fixed an issue that led to uninitialised temporary parties to exist longer than intended, causing nobles to remain as prisoners indefinitely.

Multiplayer

Design & Balance

Changed the defender morale effect when the attacker has the Keep flag from '6 / sec' to '[number of flags captured] / sec'.

Map Related

Echerion: Physics improvements and critical fixes. Smoothed out the corner at flag B.
Xauna: Some visual fixes, physics improvements and winter fixes.
Baravenos Encirclement: Improvements to one of the side tower ladders and its surroundings. Fixed a problem with horses getting stuck at flag G.

Other - Miscellaneous

Clan Leaders can now appoint up to 3 Clan Officers. Clan officers can do everything the Clan Leader can other than appoint/demote other Clan Officers or delete the Clan.
Replaced the number of people waiting in the queue with an average wait time.
Added bell sounds to skirmish to indicate when morale is low.

Performance

Fixed an issue that caused stuttering when going through an open gate.

Server & Network

Fixed a crash that occurred when logging in.

Both

Audio

Added an option under 'Audio > Sound in Background' to lower the game volume while the game is out of focus.

UI
Changes

Added 'Enable Death Icon' option.

Fixes

Fixed a bug prevented chat from working with the Numpad enter key.
Fixed an issue with incorrect damage amounts being shown in the combat log.

Performance

Improved the performance of siege battles.
CPU memory usage has been reduced.

Combat

Improved cavalry calculations to take velocity into consideration when switching to two-handed polearm weapons.
Mounted agents will no longer needlessly change weapons when moving short distances or rotating their mounts.
Agents will no longer throw their last throwing weapon if they have no other melee weapon.
Revised weapon score calculation to:
- Make agents choose between multiple polearms more effectively.
- Take enemy armour into account when selecting a weapon.
- Improve weapon reach consideration.
Attacking and blocking with a game controller is now working correctly with all possible options.
Missile trails have been moved to the sticking point of the missiles in order to show the throwing axes and knives projection correctly.
Bastard swords and axes now work like polearms with shields (forced two-handed without a shield and forced one-handed with a shield, no longer requiring the pressing of the X button).

Other

Fixed a bug that caused the 'Refresh Rate' option to be reset to the lowest option in fullscreen mode.

Modding

Added path duplication and fixed some bugs related to path and barrier renaming.
Fixed a bug that caused an error when the 'Show Entity Physics' option was selected on the visibility window.
Fixed a bug that caused an error when deleting a path point.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash when the 'Calculate Ambient Occlusion' button was clicked on the vertex paint menu.
Fixed a visual bug that caused selected meshes to be invisible in the vertex painting mode.
Added CTRL+TAB shortcut for switching between the last selected debug rendering mode and 'Shaded' mode.
A small warning icon has been added to thumbnails in the resource browser to indicate the ones that have issues.
Fixed an issue that caused the texture editor to show textures too bright.
Performed a refactor to make special parties use special components according to their status. E.g. bandit parties will use bandit party components, caravan parties will have caravan party components, etc.

Known Issues:
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/known-issues.401168/

Mar 10, 2021

Beta Patch Notes e1.5.9

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Callum

Beta e1.5.9

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when the player or the hideout boss killed one of the spectator troops during a hideout duel.
Fixed a crash that occurred when pressing Ctrl and + on an empty item stack.
Fixed a crash that occurred when switching weapon types in the crafting screen when secondary usage had been selected.
Fixed a crash that occurred when encountering parties on the campaign map.
Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to talk to a lord in a besieging army.
Fixed a crash that occurred when executing the last non-mercenary lord of a kingdom.
Fixed a crash that occurred while loading a game after activating the 'Lord Needs Garrison Troops' quest.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to a 'Know-how' perk bug after attacking a caravan.
Fixed a crash that occurred when entering a settlement after being held as a prisoner at the time of loading a save file.
Fixed a crash that occurred after the conversation with 'Tacteos' was finished.
Fixed a crash that occurred after the conversation with 'Arzagos' about 'Assemble the Dragon Banner' was finished.
Fixed a crash that occurred when the 'Conspiracy Base of Operations' quest was completed with the Hideout Boss dead.
Fixed a crash that occurred due to clans being created in the last phase of the main storyline not having their leaders set correctly.
Fixed a crash that occurred when loading an old save that started on the siege aftermath menu (which now contains pillaging options).
Fixed a crash that occurred by decision proposals made by eliminated or mercenary clans.
Fixed a crash that occurred after losing a battle with an army.

Save & Load

Fixed a bug that prevented saving on some game menus.
Fixed a bug that made some notables and companions disappear on load.

Localisation

Fixed missing reference links for non-English languages in the 'Concepts' texts of the 'Encyclopedia'.
Turkish translation updates.
Chinese translation updates.
Minor text updates.

Art

Added a new clothing item: 'Decorated Thick Tunic'.
Added a new cloak: 'Reinforced Neck Guard'.
Performance improvements to Sturgia level 2 gatehouse model.
Fixed cloth physics issues with the 'Northern Warlord Helmet'.

Animations

NPC characters now have a smoother transition from walking to running when escorting players.
Inventory animation refactoring has been completed. Characters no longer reset their animations when a new item is equipped.

Audio

Minor ambient sound fixes to scenes.

UI
Changes

Party Screen Change Values
- The party screen now shows influence, horse and morale change on top of gold change. Influence gain shows up while donating troops, horse change shows up while upgrading troops, and morale change shows up while recruiting prisoners. Players are now able to see exactly how much currency they will gain or lose when they close the screen with the 'Done' button.
UI Code Gen
- We've implemented a new system for UI screen initialisation and execution. This change improves performance and memory usage.
Gamepad Navigation Improvements
- Players can now navigate some selected screens with the Dpad.
- Initial menu and conversations with Dpad up and down. While on the campaign map, when the cursor is at the centre, players can click Dpad left, focus on the game menu and navigate the game menu with up and down. Clicking right and down at that stage will focus on the map bar and using Dpad left and right will navigate the map bar. From the centre, right will focus on the map notifications and up will focus on the portraits on the settlement overlay.
- This feature is currently only enabled with gamepads but will be implemented for keyboard arrow keys and the enter key for the click action in the near future.
Added a colour switcher button to the Banner Editor. This button will swap the current sigil colours with the background colours.
Changed keybind texts to key icons in the scoreboard and spectator screens.
Added conformity bar and tooltip to party prisoner tuples.
Moved governor assignment teleportation action to town management popup close to avoid unwanted teleportation of clan members.
Added a new illustration to the kingdom 'Diplomacy' screen background.
Added a new 'Issue Solved by Hero' notification to settlement events (notifications above the settlement nameplates) to inform the player about actions that AI lords are taking when entering a settlement.
Improved how rich text icons are displayed. They're now shown more clearly (e.g. gold icon in texts).
Added a warning (red text colour change) to map info bar party size label. It will now turn red if the main party is currently over the party limit.
Added ransom broker to the mission name markers (ALT key in tavern scenes).
Added a new rebellion map event icon.
Changed workshop names to reflect their names rather than their job names, this will make the naming consistent with other screens.
Improved visibility of the green arrow on the campaign map that shows up for gamepad navigation.
Added map notifications for gained traits.
Inventory menu + and - keys now buys/sells all when combined with Ctrl.

Fixes

Fixed small layout issues in the 'Recruitment', 'FaceGen', 'Options', 'Quests', 'Crafting', 'Character Developer', 'Encyclopedia', 'Gift fief', 'Inventory' and 'Education' screens.
Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong damage amounts to be shown in the combat log.
Fixed some input bugs with backspace in integer inputs.
Added the missing 'Create Kingdom' hint back to the Clan screen 'Create kingdom' button.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Last location' in notables' tooltips to appear twice.
Fixed a bug that triggered the 'X Bandit Hero died' notification.
Fixed a bug that caused the party speed tooltip to be different from the actual speed.
Fixed a bug that caused the menu text to appear incorrectly after a hostile action had been ended by a declaration of peace.
Fixed a bug that caused the raid icon to be shown after saving/loading the game in a recently raided settlement.
Fixed a bug that caused the pillaging options to not be clickable after sieges.

Battles and Sieges

Killing a lord on the battlefield no longer triggers relation penalties.
Fixed a bug that prevented routed agents from switching to run mode.
Spectator/ghost camera mode in missions now considers scrolling through more important characters first, such as generals, lords, companions etc.
Parties with a high wounded ratio now visit settlements more often to reduce the risk of being caught by enemies.
Fixed the prosperity loss calculations for pillaging
Fixed a pillaging related bug where the AI would take into account the settlement owner’s culture instead of the settlement culture when deciding what to do after a siege.
Fixed a bug that could cause incorrect AI formation behaviour.

Character Development System

Sandbox mode has been added to the game:
- Weight and build sliders have been added to both sandbox and campaign mode.
- Sandbox mode allows players to choose a starting age group.
- Sandbox starting positions on the world map are determined by the selected character culture.
'Pick Them off the Walls' and 'Make Them Pay' perks have been implemented.
Crafting stamina and stamina recovery rate now scales with the 'Smithing' skill.
'Leadership' skill effect on morale has been decreased.
Riding 'Veterinary' perk now halves the chance of a hero's mount dying or becoming lame after it falls in battle.
Leadership 'Authority' perk secondary effect has been changed to 'Increase party size limit by 5'.
Tactics 'Swift Regroup' perk primary effect has been changed to 'Decrease disorganized time for breaking sieges or raids by 15%'.
Scout 'Foragers' perk secondary effect has been changed to '15% reduction in disorganized state recovery duration'.
Fixed Smithing 'Sharpened Edge' and 'Sharpened Tip' perks.
Fixed Scouting Vanguard and Rearguard perks and perk effects.
Fixed a bug that caused mobile parties to be too fast when they had been called to an army with the Call to Arms perk.

Clan and Party

Family members can now be commanded in missions along with companions.
Dungeon prisoners are now barterable along with prisoners in the party.
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to attack a clan member's party.
Fixed a bug that provided passive relations increases when leaving children in a settlement.
Fixed a bug that prevented family members from providing a passive relations increase when left in a settlement.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from assigning a new clan role if the previous one was assigned to a caravan leader.
Fixed a bug that prevented the player's brother from being able to be assigned as governor or sent to solve issues.
Fixed a bug that caused some troops to need a horse when upgrading to unmounted troops.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

Fixed being able to join an army through conversation after a truce.
Fixed a bug that caused a ruler’s clan banner to be incorrect after losing control of a kingdom.
Fixed a bug that led to unregistered dynamically created kingdoms.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

Added Prison Break:
- Players can break into enemy settlements to rescue clan and family members, vassals, friendly and neutral lords.
- After approaching a guard with a bribe to let you into the dungeons, the prison break mission will begin. The sum of the bribe depends on the ransom value of the prisoner, security of the settlement and 'Roguery' skill of the player.
- In order to break out the prisoner successfully, both you and the prisoner must defeat all the guards within the dungeon without getting knocked out. Higher security & wall level will make the break out harder by having more guards stand in the way of you and your escape.
- Should the prisoner get knocked out in the escape, you’ll have to fight your way out alone to save yourself. Leaving the prisoner behind could result in him dying on the dungeon floor or being locked up behind bars again.
- Should you get knocked out during the escape you’ll become a prisoner, or even worse, die.
Fixed a mission end condition ambiguity that caused the player to skip the bandit boss fight by becoming unconscious just before all the bandits were killed by the player troops.
Fixed a bug that prevented town workshop buildings from affecting town construction speed.

Quests & Issues

Removed randomisation when calculating issue difficulty.
Duration, crime rating gain, and troop requirements have been updated for 'Escort Merchant Caravan', 'Overpriced Raw Materials', 'Nearby Bandit Base', 'Rival Gang Moving In', 'Needs to Deliver a Herd', 'Needs Military Training for Retainers', 'Can’t sell product at a fair price', 'Needs Access to Village Commons', 'Needs Grain Seeds', 'Needs Help with Brigands', 'Extortion by Deserters', 'Lady's Knight Out', 'Army of Poachers', 'Family Feud' and 'Gang Leader Needs Weapons' quests.
Extortion by Deserters
- Fixed the Deserter Party getting stuck in or near the quest settlement after the player lost a battle against them.
- Fixed the Deserter Party moving too slow. Foot troops in the deserter party are now given Tier 2 horses of their culture to boost up party speed.
- Reduced the size of the Deserter Party to adjust quest difficulty.
Escort Merchant Caravan
- The quest has been redesigned and reimplemented from scratch.
Army of Poachers
- Changed/added some dialogues.
- The quest will now fail if the target village is raided or under raid.
Deliver a Herd
- The quest time limit has been increased from 5 to 30.
- The crime rating penalty has been decreased from 30 to 10.
- Herders were removed from the quest and quest dialogues were updated.
Company of Trouble
- The quest reward formula has been updated.
- The food steal chance and amount were decreased.
Needs Draught Animals
- The number of animals will be determined when the issue is created and will not be changed as long as the issue is active.
- The cost of animals formula has been updated.
- Fixed a bug that caused the number of requested animals to be different from the quest journal entry.
- Fixed a bug that caused the quest alternative solution reward gold to be given twice.
Scout Enemy Garrisons
- Only faction leaders will now be able to give the quest.
- The quest will affect the quest giver's influence -0.1 daily.
- The scouting skill requirement has been decreased from 40 to 30.
The Spy Among Us
- The base reward value has been increased from 300 to 500.
The Art of The Trade
- Fixed a bug that caused the quest giver to ask for 0 items and give 0 denars as a reward.
Needs Access to Village Commons
- Fixed a bug that prevented the rival party from spawning.
Notable wants daughter found
- Fixed a bug that allowed the hero to attack their companions in a duel.
Raid an Enemy Territory
- Fixed a bug that opened the encounter menu with the quest giver at the end of the conversation.
Fixed a bug that caused the player to get stuck in a mission after solving the quest with a lord solution.

Conversations & Encounters

Fixed a bug that caused the next dialogue to be broken after loading a game during an active persuasion attempt.

Other

Removed skill templates that overrode designated skill sets.
Removed non-civilian tagged weapons from civilian starting equipment.
Updated equipment and formations of the Bandit Bosses.
Sturgian Veteran Bowman now uses the Nordic Shortbow.
Removed the ability to recording campaign missions since it is not currently supported and causes crashes.
Fixed a bug that caused some heroes not to spawn after reaching adulthood.
Fixed some encyclopedia entries that had inconsistent spelling and missing place names.
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to kill shop workers in towns.
Fixed a bug that made new adults naked.
Fixed a bug that made disbanded parties' names "unnamedMobileParty".
Fixed a bug that caused all randomly generated starting player names to be Battanian.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer servers will be made available for a limited time for the beta version of the game.

Design & Balance

Fixed a bug that caused the wrong team to win in overtime.

Map Related

Added two new siege maps: Domogtul Castle and Ayzar Stronghold.
Xauna
- Improvements to the pit fence physics and other fixes.
Echerion
- Many physics improvements to corners and other fixes.
- Fixed the path material.
Baraveneos Encirclement
- Fixed an issue with the barricade changing its position when damaged near flag G.
- Lowered outer and inner gate HP. Slightly increased G flag gate HP.
- Some physics improvements.
Tsagaan Castle
- Solved physics problems on stairs.

Other - Miscellaneous

Fixed some troops from appearing as too old.

Server & Network

Fixed a crash that occurred when logging into multiplayer.

UI
Changes

Added a new option to disable "Network Alert Icons" and added a visual representation to describe each icon.
A confirmation popup now shows up while quitting a multiplayer game.
Added a 'Mute / Unmute all players' button to the multiplayer scoreboard.
Improved the visibility of player avatars and troop type icons both on the scoreboard and HUD.
Added scores to the Skirmish and Captain game mode HUDs.

Fixes

Fixed a crash that occurred while logging in or reloading player data in the multiplayer lobby.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Invite friend' button to disappear.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Spear Brace' icon button to appear incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Rename Clan' popup to stay visible after the clan had been disbanded.
Fixed a bug that prevented the removal of clan announcements.
Fixed a bug that caused 'un-mute all' to not function properly.

Both

Crashes

Fixed a crash that occurred when enabling/disabling cloth simulation.

Art

Fixed castle gate colliders that were not fitting to the gate properly.
Fixed a bug that caused snow to flicker in some scenes.

Audio

Added the Sound Occlusion option. It's forced ON in Multiplayer and can be turned on/off for Singleplayer.

UI
Changes

Added a 'Reset to Default' button to keybinds category in the game options.
Extended the 'Turn Camera With Horse In First Person' option to include 'Always'.
Improved the readability of query popup texts.

Fixes

Official modules can now be enabled but not disabled through the launcher. This will address the issue where no modules would load. Players can now enable official modules from the launcher and open the game correctly. No more deleting LauncherData.xml!
Added some missing characters from Korean, Japanese and Chinese language fonts.
Fixed the combat log incorrectly showing a killing blow when one hadn't occurred.
Fixed a bug that caused the 'Refresh Rate' option to be reset to the highest option in fullscreen mode.
Fixed the text for bastard swords and axes.

Performance

Greatly improved initial loading of the game by changing how font files are loaded and through other fixes and optimisations.
Fixed a memory leak that occurred after entering scenes.
Small Multi-Core usage improvements have been made.
Disk usage improvements have been made.

Animations

Cloth simulation for capes has been disabled when the agent has a shield on its back.

Combat

Fixed a bug that caused archers to ignore cavalry despite them being at the same distance as other troops.
Increased the firing range of archers that are targeting cavalry units.
Javelins now deal 75% of their weapon damage to shields (increased from 10%).
Throwing Impale perk now lets javelins penetrate shields as intended.
Throwing axes now deal 50% of their weapon damage to shields (increased from 10%).
Reduced the accuracy of crossbows while moving and added mount rear as a negative factor for accuracy.
Improved camera collision with objects such as walls and bridges.
Combat physics fix to prevent agents hitting each other at the same frame with kick or bash
Fixed an issue that caused the character to move forward when jumping without any other movement.
Fixed an issue that caused the wrong dying animation to be picked when an agent was killed with a heavy weapon.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to crouch while reloading the crossbow.

Other

Implemented and enabled a CPU benchmark, which can be accessed via the game options from the main menu.
Fixed a DLSS bug that caused some blurring.
Fixed a DLSS bug related to resolution scale causing a dark screen.
Fixed a bug that caused corrupted rendering with medium lighting quality.

Modding

Added new functionalities to the GI baking procedure.
Added new mission parameters to the sound manager panel.
Improved the body mask option for path barriers.
Fixed the resize terrain issues.
Fixed a bug that caused selection overlays to stay visible when helpers had been disabled.
Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to snap to the bottom right corner.
Fixed a bug that caused the world map terrain to be black in the editor.
Fixed a bug that caused decals to be visible even though their assigned layer had been disabled.
Fixed a bug that prevented texture's alpha channel sdf from being generated.
Fixed a bug that prevented reimporting of assets.
Fixed inactive 'Terrain' and 'Shadow' options on the visibility window.

Known Issues:
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/known-issues.401168/