Mount & Blade II - Interview @ Games Totalwars

[HiddenX]

Eye spotted this interview with with Armaganom Yavuz about Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

We present our new interview with Yavuz Armaganom about his new creation - Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord II.

(For translation thanks Sasha Alexander from our group Vkontakte.)

Reporter: Could you tell us more about TaleWorlds? How great team?

Armagan: My wife and I founded the company in 2005, and over the years it grew, we now have more than 50 people. We are very passionate about games, and our core philosophy of creating games that we would like to play themselves.

Reporter: What about game development in Turkey?

Armagan: Development of a video game is a new sector for Turkey and there is still a shortage of experienced game developers. On the other hand, there are a lot of passionate young people who want to make a career in the gaming industry and we are fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a young and talented team.

Reporter: Why Bannerlord? Does the name "Bannerlord" subcontext?

Armagan: We probyvali different names, and we felt that it was the name of Bannerlord unikallnym. An important role will be played by the family and retainers. We'll talk about it soon! And, of course, as the game is now called Bannerlord, we were obliged to sdobavit editor banners.

Reporter: As the game will look like as a whole, it will be more like the first part, or it will be something new?

Armagan: The Bannerlord will be a lot of changes compared with the first part of our game, but the point of the game will be the same. We walked all over the mechanics of the game and the campaign tried to change the design of every detail, so that the campaign will igrkom smoothly plunge into the game world. In addition, there are significant improvements in animation and combat system. Improved graphics This is only onachalo.

Reporter: What is the most significant improvement in Bannerlord from the previous game?

Armagan: Frankly, we expect that the views on this will vary from player to player. We commit the same time every aspect of the game.
In general, one of our most important goals is exploring various aspects of the game.
A new game engine, New Horizon

Reporter: From the developer blog, we learned that you are using the "indoor game engine." On soklko it good for?

Armagan: We are very proud of our new game engine which we developed from the ground up for quite a long time for Bannerlord. It has a very easy to use and powerful editor, as well as the latest technology such as DX11, natural shading, aggressive use of multi-threading, and many others. Unfortunately, far too early to give exact figures, but it will be very well optimized, and we hope it will serve us and our community for many years.

Reporter: Many question arises on account of the size of the battle. I have confidence that my GTX660 can survive with 500 hundred people / horses in battle. Will work smoothly on medium game configurations?

Armagan: Performance is a priority for us, we want to see in our game, playing as many people as possible. We're trying to do that all the graphics settings can be changed, so have the players with less powerful configuration could also naslazhdatsya game. In addition, Bannerlord come a large number of performance improvements in comparison with the Warband, including the active use of multi-threading and re-design of some calculations.
We have not yet decided what will be the minimum requirements, but GTX660 definitely will play in the main settings.

Reporter: The game will be as friendly to the modders as the first part?

Armagan: Actually, we strive to modding was easier in general. This is one reason why the development of the game took longer than we expected, the system that we have come up with not only work well, but should also be easy for modders.

Reporter: The game will be more focused on multiplayer mode or single player? Will the repose of character development in the style of MMO and whether the multiplayer part of the arena or «Online campaigns"?

Armagan: We have a high standard that we strive vyderzhatv single-player and multiplayer games. For us it is not a matter of choosing one over the other. Both modes must conform to our expectations. Unfortunately, we can not disclose additional information on additional networking opportunities at this time, but the style of the game arena, of course, is not going anywhere. There will be no character development MMO style in the classical sense, as it significantly violates justice and sporting interest. However, players will be able to monitor your progress and feel without getting an unfair advantage.

Reporter: Bannerlord will be the same as the open world in the first part? If so, you increase the scale?

Armagan: The Vannerlord certainly have a map of the open world. We still decided to scale proportions, but I can say that the area of ​​the card is approximately four times the Warband.

Reporter: Your team tries to bring more strategy to the game. Will it be done in Bannerlord in Total war?

Armagan: Bannerlord will have a large number of improvements in the management. AI It will also be greatly improved. The main focus of the game is still on a dive in his own character, so the battle will never feel like in a conventional strategy.

-> Original


More information.

 

[forgottenlor]

I thought Mount and Blade had a really fresh idea for an RPG, and I played it pretty passionately for between 15-20 hours. After that the generic nature of the NPCs and quests started to bother me, so I hope we see some significant improvements in that aspect of the game.

 

[Zloth]

Grew to 50 people, OK, that makes FAR more sense to me. When I first got Mount & Blade: Warband, people were saying it was made by a husband/wife team. That game is waaay too good for just a pair of people!

I liked the game quite a bit, though there's a rough spot when you get too big to catch fast-moving brigands but too small to take on proper armies.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

It was started as a two people venture that achieved a lot by themselves for M&B, M&B:warband expanding on their work.

For the other thing, M&B was based on characterization by action, while players prefer characterization by story.

The lord's life was supposed to be split in various tasks, including duties.

Bandits are a drain on the economy and one lord's duty was to ensure the tenants remain clear of bandits.
During peace times, dealing with bandits could be done with the appropriate party.
During war times, the duties of a vassal were supposed to go first to the lige, and the party proper to warfare.

This allowed to bring differences between various lords by the committment level they showed to different tasks.
Warlike lords expanded their time in wars and such neglect their holdings that grew infested with bandits.
Non warlike lords shortened their time in wars, and spend more time to tend their lands.

This system allows the characterization of a PC as the tendencies are reflected in politics. When putting a claim to kingship and recruiting lords, the declared political leaning is checked against the record of the PC.

For example, a PC that spent time in wars, neglecting the holdings had the record to back up the warmongering political path.
It had not to backed the good natured political path etc

This approach is not expected to make it in M&B: BL.

 

[Darkheart]

And then there is Warband I sitting in my library for over a year now and I haven't even played it yet...

 

[ChienAboyeur]

An important role will be played by the family and retainers.

When devs try to go in a way players do not like, it is always hard to determine if devs will stick to their way and bend to players' desires.

This bit seems to indicate that TW are still on course, they've kept their direction. Family and retainers role growing in importance has been on the map for long with stuff like inheritance or delegation of tasks.

They do not give much information so it is hard to tell.

 

[souha13]

They sure are producing this game in a frustratingly slow speed. It gets me mad. I will vent my anger in some thread about trolls.

 

[Pladio]

I thought Mount and Blade had a really fresh idea for an RPG, and I played it pretty passionately for between 15-20 hours. After that the generic nature of the NPCs and quests started to bother me, so I hope we see some significant improvements in that aspect of the game.

I played the original for tens of hours, maybe hundreds.
There were so many different mods including a Story mod, a fantasy mod, a ship mod.

 

[forgottenlor]

I played the original for tens of hours, maybe hundreds.
There were so many different mods including a Story mod, a fantasy mod, a ship mod.

Yeah I only played the vanilla game. I maybe'll have to give it a try with a mod sometime.

 

[wiretripped]

I grabbed the Viking Conquest DLC a while ago, after reading some positive reviews, and have been meaning to give a spin. Anyone here have any impressions on that one?

Development on M&B 2 does seem very slow, and information sparse. Not holding my breath, to be honest.

 

[souha13]

Viking Conquest DLC now has a free update called "Reforged Edition". With it and all patches they have turned a very buggy release into a great mod. Perhaps one of the top 5 mods. Great graphics, atmosphere and action. It is however quite difficult and slow.