Mount&Blade 2: Bannerlord Confirmed [Interview with dev. Singil page 20]

[Wulfburk]

Looks good, i wasnt expecting the most perfect graphics anyway. All it matters is the gameplay, and tons of RPG aspects doesnt hurts as well. But if there is no coop campaign it will be an OUTRAGE!!!!!!!

[Dux]

It looks decent. I'm glad it is alive, I feared it was cancelled.
Graphics have never been the strong part of M&B, it is all about the gameplay.

One feature I would love is mortal lords and kings who actually die in battle and of old age and dynastic struggles. When a King dies, I want his heirs to fight over his kingdom in a full-fledged civil war.

[wolfbane751]

that would be awesome, though what about the player does the player age as well? hm would be interesting.

[Basileos Leandros I]

It looks good, M&B doesn't need shiny graphics to make it work, but this improvement is more than suitable. Looking forward

[Påsan]

that would be awesome, though what about the player does the player age as well? hm would be interesting.

Yeah, actually aging, founding a family and grooming a heir would be an awesome feature.


The site say 3 factions though. So I'm going to guess based on the screenshots Saranids/Swadia/Nords?

The promo art guy look like a nord anyway and the screenshots clearly show Oriental and high Medieval factions.

[Kamos]

I for one am just glad to hear or see anything at all from the project. I find it remarkable that this is really the first real move they've made in a year since the announcement trailer.

[Ulyaoth]

If it's based on the same realm as the first one, it should be Vaegirs, Swadians and nords, shouldn't it? Well I know about the first two, can't remember if the Nords, Sarranids, or Rhodoks was the other breakaway thing. Rhodoks were supposed to have rebelled from the Swadians I think so I don't think it could be them, Khergits were definitely said to have invaded after.

[Los San Patricios]

I think some people need to read the given text more closely. It doesn't say 3 factions total, it says 3 rival Imperial remnant factions. Or at the very least, the text could be interpreted like that just as easy as the 3 factions total thing people keep talking about on different forums.

This is what the text says:

The once-mighty Calradic Empire is in a state of decline. Warlike tribes have seized swaths of its territory. Client kingdoms have declared their independence. The Emperor has died without leaving an heir, leaving three jealous factions to scramble for power. Mercenary companies, bandit lords and nomads hover on the sidelines like vultures waiting for a meal.

The 3 factions is a continuation of the sentence about the Emperor dying without and heir. So it seems to me that the 3 factions are just the factions that are directly based on the the Empire, while the same text also clearly states that there are factions based on groups outside the Empire (or somewhat out side of it in the case of Client Kingdoms).



So we will have:
-Warlike tribes (plural)
-Client Kingdoms (plural)
-Three jealous factions that are formed by successors claiming the imperial throne.
-Mercenary companies (plural, though they might not be treated as multiple sub factions gameplay wise)
-Bandits lords (again, plural but might simply be the generic bandit 'faction' that was present in the last game)
-Nomads (might very well be a single faction, given that 'Nomads' can refer to a single group of nomads)

The mercs, bandits and nomads are presented as sub factions, but the tribes, client kingdoms and successors seem to be full factions.

It's not really clear if it's suppose to be a prequel or a sequel, the Empire and the decline of it suggests a early medieval setting, but that doesn't mean it has to be a prequel to the later medieval themed M&B 1 since it's a fictional setting anyway.

My guess is that, given the Fall of the (Western) Roman Empire/Migration period theme the game seems to have, the tribes are inspired by the different 'barbarian invaders' like the vandals and goths. If it's a prequel it might be proto-Nords and proto-Vaegirs, otherwise they might still take the place, thematically of these factions. Even though the discription is in plural, it might be different factions sharing a large common troop pool with only a few tribe specific units, but we'll see.

The client kingdoms might be a 'hybrid' themed faction group, like Romanized Gauls for example, some Byzantine themed faction might also fit stylistically in the sense that you can easily give it a Graeco-Roman/Eastern hybrid look (that might not be necessarily historically correct, but still be called 'Byzantine' in style). Again, the description suggest multiple factions in this category, but they might (largely) share a troop rooster.

The successor factions. In my opinion the description clearly states that the 3 jealous factions are specifically those that are formed from within the empire after the emperor dies, and not 3 factions in general. Given the common origin these three factions, more than the previous faction groups might largely share the same troops, namely former Imperial Legionnaires (in Late Roman style). These factions might be quite distinct though, given that the different noble houses or alliances between different nobles/patricians that for these 3 factions might have a very specific theme. For example merchant cities that form a league, or a (group of) lord(s) that has(/have) largely economic allies in cities could become a proto-Rhodok faction in case of a prequel, or a thematically successor in the case of a sequel. A largely land and estate based faction formed by landowning lords/patricians. Making it the 'Swadia' faction of the game (again, ether prequel or sequel). Or a faction, given the Imperial Roman theme of the Empire, might be based on some successfull and popular general trying to take power. Making it the most military based (and therefor maybe the most 'Legionnaire' in style) but without much land or economic/diplomatic power.

The bandits and mercenaries might be made into little sub factions this time, or be similar to how deserters and bandits worked in the previous game.

The Nomads might be the Sarranid themed people we saw in the screenshots but maybe there is a second nomad faction (or the Sarranids are a client kingdom or something) that is more Khergit and, given the theme, Hun based nomad faction. I think that a Fall of the Empire/Migration period themed game should not be without it's Attila, besides a horse archer based faction would be nice for continuity purposes, since a M&B without a Khergit like faction wouldn't be optimal.

Anyway, I know there is a lot of speculation in my post, but my main point that the 3 faction statement should not, or at least not necessarily, be seen as a statement about the total number of factions in the game is not based on speculation but on reading the text on the official website.

[Påsan]

The equipment shown so far has been early medieval. The European city looks late medieval Italian while the Middle Eastern looks Arabic Muslim to me. Anyway the promo art guy with the mask looks like a ~~1100 Norman knight and the other guy with the round shield and nose guard helmet, furs and chainmail looks either about the same age medieval Scandinavian or Saxon, but clearly early medieval. I don't think you should read so much into the "Fallen Empire". It could mean the Frankish empire as much as the Roman, or just not be a direct analogue at all.

[TheBlackTower]

It look great, but all of you forget something importing, Mount & Blade is not about history is all about the best worriers in history and make all of them fight in the same place, hope the game don't take too long .

[ivan_the_terrible]

The character models look substantially better. Like, Skyrim-over-Oblivion better.

[Joseph Simonyi de Vitézvár]

The character models look substantially better. Like, Skyrim-over-Oblivion better.

Indeed it does, looks pretty good indeed!

[Heinz Guderian]

Oh man oh lord oh man oh lord. When this release please?

[Maximinus Thrax]

A short video of Armagan, the creator of Mount&Blade, showcasing what it looks to be the new inventory system, as well as the army and faction screens. It's been confirmed everything presented there was still WIP. Also please notice the empty seats...



An excellent in-depth analysis of the video above.

[Turkeys!]

I wonder if it will have the same pricing model as Mount and Blade, with people being able to buy it in beta. Have they said anything about that in interviews?

[Eneru112]

Absolutely can't wait for this game. I must've spent like 500 hours on warband.

[Cor De Ferrum]

About that, whats the reason they are going to change from the module system on MB2? Isnt it quite, well... perfect? I dont know how can they improve it...

No, it's not perfect. You can't run multiple mods at once, only one module at a time. So if you're two favorite mods aren't in the same module, then there's nothing you can do.

[Ulyaoth]

So you modify that into being able to click multiple modules big deal.

[Arian]

When this game will be released??!

[Denny Crane!]

It is looking likely that it will be 2015 and not early 2015. The sparsity of information suggests that.