Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord’s deep and immersive sandbox doesn’t just facilitate an emergent narrative, it actively encourages it. And while the game includes quests and tasks to help guide you on your travels, ultimately, you are free to chart your own course and plot your rise to power using the many different game features at your disposal. In this week’s blog, we talk with, Rabia Adıgüzel, one of our campaign team programmers who is responsible for ensuring that these different features and systems work together, and provide you with an engaging and fulfilling experience during your adventures in Calradia!
NAME
Rabia Adıgüzel
FROM
Bolu, Turkey
JOINED TALEWORLDS
2017
EDUCATION
Computer Science, Hacettepe University
OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Gameplay Programmer
WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“In the morning, I usually set a daily goal for myself according to my assigned tasks, like “I can finish this today!” or, in the case of major tasks, “I can make that much progress today!”. In general, I’m working on campaign-related stuff like town management, conversations, quests, character system, game menus, etc. But of course, we switch between tasks and help each other, both in our team and the other Bannerlord teams.
We have a short in-team meeting every day where we share information and updates with each other about what we are working on and the progress we have made. Sometimes I join design meetings about campaign-related issues. I also deal with the bugs that our QA team encountered during the day, which often involves a funny bug that I try to solve -- I don't know why, but they always come to me! :D”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“Not just about Bannerlord, but all of the Mount & Blade games; I really like that the game is the combination of different game types in a sandbox setting. Even if you start the game for the hundredth time, it always welcomes you with a different story.
There is more than one thing that I like in Bannerlord for sure. But I really like the little, tiny details that make a feature more powerful and intertwined with other features. For example, when you are in Khuzait territory, you see mounted bandits more often. This tiny detail supports the Khuzait cultural background and lore and is connected to the recruiting system. And another example; we already have quests and town management, but they are separate features as RPG and strategy elements. We implemented a tiny connector named “Issues”. When there is an “Issue” in a settlement, the settlement’s morale, food, prosperity, etc. decreases. If the player wants to solve this issue, he/she solves it with a quest. With this system, quests are not just an RPG element anymore and take on more of a strategic element.”
WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“I think the most difficult thing that I dealt with is implementing the “Death” feature for the player. But, in all honesty, it was also very fun at the same time! I feel like a Shinigami when I arrange and calculate how and when people will die. I was ok for the NPCs, but for the player, when it came to switching to your heir, that situation generated too many bugs. So fixing those bugs was the difficult part but, *cheers*, thankfully they are all gone.
Another point to mention is that, and well, maybe it’s not the most difficult thing, but when we are developing the game we always have to think about modability. Including modding to the process makes development a little slower and harder, but when I think of all of the fantastic mods for Warband, it definitely makes it worth all of the effort!”
WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Currently, my main focus is the Save & Load system. We are switching to a better Save & Load system, which will be more flexible for updates, so the majority of my time is taken up by preparing the game for this switch.
In addition to this, I am also making improvements to the Death & Inheritance features.”
WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“What I like doing the most on the battlefield is fighting with a two-handed sword on a fast, strong horse, that my enemies cannot catch. Although I’m not the best of players, I really enjoy this playstyle. And the faction that fits the best for my expectations is Battania!
I also feel like Battania is the most intertwined with nature. I mean, look at their kingdom banner, it’s a druid sign! :D
Furthermore, I like the way that they build their cities with a respect for nature.”
WILL THE CHARACTER AGE AND GET OLD SO THAT YOUR CHILDREN CAN TAKE OVER ONCE YOU'RE OLD AND DYING? DO YOU GET TO CHOOSE WHICH OFFSPRING YOU TAKE OVER AS?
“Yes! In Bannerlord, the player can die because of old age. At first, the player gets sick. Then the player’s hitpoints start to reduce daily. After a certain time, death occurs. During the decline of their health, the player can arrange his/her final wishes then, when the death occurs, the player selects an heir from one of his/her clan members that are suitable and mature. Then, the cycle continues. This process also applies by AI lords too.
Also, every mature hero can die on the battlefield (but this is optional for the player)."
WILL VILLAGES BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING ANY RESOURCE, OR ARE THEY DEPENDANT ON THE VILLAGE POTENTIAL?
“We have different types of production in the game, like different types of horses, fish, cheese, grain, etc. Villages can choose between a range of these village production types, but the distribution of these production types is based on the region of the village. For example, villages near the sea or a river can produce fish, but an Aserai village that is in the desert can not.”
The second floor finally has it's own unique tile set. The entire dungeon before today has been made up of an area called the Sunless Sanctum. Now there's a new variant that has it's own appearance, play style and soon traps. This is a very early version with just the basics. Within next week I will have added in more rooms and randomness as well as new traps. This includes changing boss rooms to match the new floor as well.
The Sunless Sanctum is tight quarters while the Cathedral of Worms is very large and open. It has tons verticality, the walls are huge and open for wall running. Columns are set up so that you can wall jump to take cover high above everything.
I have plans for the third floor which will be more mechanical but that won't be for a few weeks. The goal is to ultimately have five unique floors and the fifth floor having it's own boss or two for the end of the game. Each floor will be completely different.
I made a switch in engine versions recently that gave me huge options for optimization. It also included some unwanted issues that I will have to work through such as changes to lighting and level loading speeds. There will be bugs for sure just please let me know in the community section or Discord: https://discord.gg/9RzDtAq
Added Slimes Adventure. This is unlocked after beating stage 275, you can send your Slimes on adventure (praise dan for the nice art).
Added Alchemy Lab Feature. While the Slimes are adventuring they will find differents colors that can be mixed into 500+ Recipes to gain differents bonuses affecting every part of the game (they aren't all unlocked right away).
Fishing skill maximum has been raised to 100 allowing you to catch more fish.
11 Bait added to the fishing, some can't be unlocked till future update for balance reason (they will unlock as people progress).
16 Fish added (1 or 2 can't be caught before next update) to go with the new skill limit and the differents bait.
22 Cooking recipe added (yes not less, some are hidden and need to be unlocked with a high fishing skill).
38 Perks (new kind of perks) added to the plaza shop with a cost scaling unlike the usual one.
9 Unique Perks related to Slimes / Slimes Adv / Alchemy Lab added.
2 normal Perks also...
3 Exp Misc purchase related to to Slimes / Slimes Adv / Alchemy Lab added.
1 Dungeon as reward for completing OPM2.
1 Generator after stage 350 is beat.
Blade Storm Challenge got new reward for completion 2,3,4 & 5.- Level 15 Training allows you to slowly change your slimes personality to be more aggressive or more tame.
Slimes now earn offline time that can be used with the Exp Injector, slimes gain their full experience and training experience.
Slimes wants are now more limited based on your progression. They still will want some things you have not unlocked yet.
2 Potions been added, 1 to increase the slimes exp, slimes adv exp & slimes juice and 1 to increase the perks earned when prestiging or with baby.
3 Items in the Soul shop related to the Slimes Adventure & Alchemy Lab.
2 Idlers also added related to Slimes Adventure & Alchemy Lab.
Soul Shop Slime Potion has been added into the Slimes Wants (the 5k flat potion has been removed and every unused one has been refunded.
Auto Conjuring can now turn on/off each conjuring individually by right clicking on any of them (red = off / green = on).
Auto Plaza is now twice as fast at least until you run out of mana.
Offline gathering was limited at 2 days, now it doesn't have a limit anymore.
Offline boss auto allow limit raised to 100 (50 previously).
Reincarnation bonus after doing TL3 are now correctly saved (also fixed a bug with the 4th bonus).
Fixed steam chat not notifying you of disconnections (hopefully).
Fixed the cooking recipe STR/DEF now should show OFF/DEF.
Fixed a display bug with Gold/s Exp/s not counting OPM/NRC reduction.
Fixed a display bug showing the wrong perk earned from prestige if you had bonuses.
Fixed the offline battlefield dungeon not working.
Fixed Bait 11 not showing Equipped when selected.
Fixed the Exp shop still showing Training Crossbow (it will now display the new Spell unlocked).
Fixed the Inventory width is now remembered.
Fixed the Inventory sort filter should now properly restore on loading.
Fixed a bug with the Stage Auto not going back to the proper stage when dying.
Dear cultists! We are pleased to announce that on the 25th of April we are launching a kickstarter campaign for the game Lust from Beyond! It's no secret that this is a big moment for us. Lately we have been painstakingly (and ecstatically) polishing the demo of our latest project, and we can't wait to show it to you.
Lust for Darkness was our first game, so we thank you for the trust you've given us. We are doing everything we can, to make our next creation better technically and artistically - we believe that this way, our blasphemous ideas will resonate even stronger! :) We hope that you can notice our progress at first glance after turning on the demo.
But let's get down to specifics!
If you support us on Kickstarter you will be able to:
- get Lust from Beyond at a lower cost compared to the release price
- play an exclusive demo (right on the first campaign day!)
- have an impact on the creation (e.g. by giving us feedback after playing the demo or more directly: by buying a reward allowing you to, for example, design your own ingame location!)
IMPORTANT: for those who decide to support us on the first campaign day, there is a special reward that gives you the full game, the demo, and lots of additional content for a relatively low price! Also, this reward will contain an exclusive available only on the first day.
We have already gotten a lot of assurance of support on kickstarter, for which we thank you in advance! Remember, that by doing all that we contribute to the development of the erotic horror genre.
Also: we have a modest teaser for you - the full gameplay trailer will be out on the day the campaign starts.
The focus this last week has been to make the new AI more versatile and easier to use. There is now a module called the "adjuster" that sits between the behaviour and the manoeuvre routines and adjusts the waypoint to take acount of various things such as desired altitudes, avoiding other vehicles, pathfinding around sea or land. I'm quite pleased with the result of this. I've also expanded on the functionality of the breadboard (and made an AI version of the breadboard) that can be used to automate the switching of different behaviours. A lot of bugs have been fixed.Various usability improvements and simplifications have been made to the UI, and a few more AI behaviours (including a ramming AI) have been added.
v2.4.2 [Add] <Breadboard>: Added altitude type selection to the altitude input module v2.4.2 [Add] <PID>: GP PID now has a simple axis responder that controls the fake set point v2.4.2 [Change] <AI>: The addition of an automatic manoeuvre routines has been disabled, as many mainframes are for weapon control only and don't want one. v2.4.2 [Fix] <AI>: [BUGS-699] Projectile avoidance additional routine crash fixed v2.4.2 [Fix] <Avatar>: [BUGS-712] Fire control computer and weapons go unresponsive after avatar death v2.4.2 [Fix] <Blocks>: [BUGS-711] Tooltip for air rudder and air elevator added, and alerts user when parts placed upside down. Many tooltips updated. v2.4.2 [Fix] <Blocks>: [BUGS-722] Fixed a crash in the equation editor v2.4.2 [Fix] <Linux>: [BUGS-721] Ensured the LUA .so files ship with the linux installers v2.4.2 [Fix] <Missiles>: [BUGS-701] The 2x2 large missile hatch now mirrors correctly v2.4.2 [Fix] <Story>: [BUGS-713] Most story mission events were pre-triggered and would not trigger again. Fixed now. v2.4.2 [Fix] <UI>: [BUGS-700] Pressing the preset buttons in the game config tab of the options UI now triggers the reevaluation of the game's config after the options have been changed v2.4.2 [Fix] <UI>: [BUGS-715] Fixed an issue with the display of fixed width tooltips v2.4.2 [Fix] <UI>: Interaction with sub objects in build mode easier now v2.4.3 [Add] <AI>: Added a universal waypoint adjustment module in between the behaviour and the manoeuvre v2.4.3 [Add] <AI>: Added in some new AI behaviours, including a ramming one v2.4.3 [Add] <AI>: Ramming AI has a new slider for disabling the adjuster when within a certain distance of the target v2.4.3 [Add] <AI>: Six axis manoeuvre routine has a new 'look ahead distance' for configuring the way the vehicle points v2.4.3 [Add] <AI>: The projectile avoidance additional routine can now target all vehicle movement axes (not just A/B/C/D/E) v2.4.3 [Add] <Breadboards>: Added orientation input to the breadboards- providing roll pitch and yaw of the vehicle v2.4.3 [Add] <Lua>: Added GetAIMovementMode and GetAIFiringMode functions to replace AIMode field. AIMode now returns only 'off' or 'on' v2.4.3 [Add] <Lua>: Added GetPowerFraction and GetElectricPowerFraction functions v2.4.3 [Add] <Lua>: Added PowerFraction and ElectricPowerFraction to FriendlyInfo v2.4.3 [Add] <Modding>: Construct modules can now save data packets in the same way as the blocks do by overriding the UniqueSetId field and declaring the packets in the class v2.4.3 [Add] <PIDS>: Added set point adjust (number added to the set point) and a set point multiply terms to the PIDs. This will make it easier to tweak the pitch of your vehicle so that it maintains altitude. v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: Added some refinements to the Responding module UI v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: Added to UI sliders so they don't change length as you are dragging them v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: Added tooltips to help show that it is possible to resize and move the UI windows v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: Provided toggles to hide a) misc axes, b) custom axes, c) secondary/tertiary drives d) strafe hover. This helps to declutter the UI v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: The AI UI now shows the details of one of the routines, alongside the main window v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: The LAMs UI has been updated- option to copy to all LAMS and copy just the color to all LAMs has been added v2.4.3 [Add] <UI>: You can now right click the preset button to add the preset without removing other settings v2.4.3 [Fix] <AI>: When you issue patrol orders the rotation is now used (important for six axis manoeuvre routine) v2.4.3 [Fix] <Blocks>: [BUGS-726] Sub vehicle spawner no longer resets to default when put into play v2.4.3 [Fix] <Blocks>: [BUGS-80] Pulsed LAM beams now color correctly v2.4.3 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: [BUGS-731] Issues with the removal of turrets and spinners fixed (removing the block under them caused de-sync issue) v2.4.3 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: [BUGS-733] Missile component changes now syncronise over the network correctly v2.4.3 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: [BUGS-734] ACBs now run on the clients right up until the point of making the change- this ensures all the UI data is correct on clients v2.4.3 [Fix] <Weapons>: [BUGS-736] setting restraints relative to parent construct now shows the correct visualization of the constraint setting arrows
You can save up to 40% on select Crown Packs and The Elder Scrolls Online Collection during our limited-time April sale. Find out everything you need to know here.
Crown Packs on Sale
From now until April 22, you can acquire Crown Packs at the following discounts:
21,000 – 40% off
14,000 – 35% off
5,500 – 30% off
3,000 – 25% off
1,500 – 20% off
Head to our Buy Crowns page to make your selection and pick up a bargain.
You can use crowns to acquire items such as mounts, pets, costumes, consumables, Crown Crates, and more from the in-game Crown Store. You can see what is currently available in the Crown Store on our website.
Get the Collection at 40% Off
If you’re a new player looking to jump right into ESO or a veteran player with a friend that’s interested in the game, the ESO Collection is also on sale for a limited time.
The Elder Scrolls Online Collection includes the ESO base game, Morrowind Chapter, Summerset Chapter, and four DLC game packs, including Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood.
The sale will run from April 18 to April 22 for PC/Mac.
Pick Up a Bargain This April
Whether you’re looking to stock up on Crowns or begin your adventures in Tamriel, you’re bound to find a deal during our April sale. Don’t forget, most of these bargains end on April 22, so don’t miss out!