Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord cover
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord screenshot
PC PS4 XONE PS5 Series X Steam Gog Epic
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Tactical, Adventure

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 04/05/21)

Main e1.5.9



Multiplayer



Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused horse sounds to disappear in some cases.


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

Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 29/04/21)

Main e1.5.9



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a stone pile with a mouse while the order screen was open.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to use an anvil in a civilian mission.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when creating a new lord party.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred during the Prodigal Son quest if the quest target escaped the house before the player killed the thugs.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred after giving the "gather all companions" command.

Fixes

  • Missing attributes have been restored on family members' encyclopedia pages.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the "Fortitude Tonic" perk to increase hero death chance in battles.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the toggling of selected formations with the CTRL key.
  • Fixed a bug that caused various inconsistencies in the number of used warhorses when upgrading the troops while having two or more warhorse types in the inventory.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the player's clan to be removed from the kingdom if the kingdom's ruler had been weakened.
  • Fixed a bug that caused stuttering while moving the camera.
  • Fixed a memory leak issue.
  • Fixed a shader loading leak.
  • Fixed a granite async loading issue.


Multiplayer



Changes

  • Optimized the sound occlusion system in order to reduce major FPS drops.


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

Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 21/04/21)

Main e1.5.9



Multiplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred after the initial Skirmish match loading process.

Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused the multiplayer lobby to freeze for several seconds during login.

Changes

  • Both range and melee troops AI has been improved in Captain mode. It will now make more accurate attacking and defending behaviour decisions.


Both



Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused ranged units not to swap to a melee weapon when the player charged towards them.


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

Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 14/04/21)

Main e1.5.9



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the launcher.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when talking to an army member.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to edit the gold amount on the barter screen.


Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the colour grade selection from working correctly in photo mode.
  • Fixed the incorrectly displayed name of the army leader in the pillaging menu which occurred if the army leader had died during the siege.




Multiplayer



Changes

  • Improved stability of the intermission screen.


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

Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 09/04/21)

Main e1.5.9



Multiplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when connected to a server in between games.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when selecting a team.
  • Fixed a crash related to updating gold amounts.


Modding



Crashes

  • Fixed a ModelViewer crash in the Editor.


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

Patch Notes e1.5.9

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/

One Year Anniversary Recap


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

Resource Editors


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.

[previewyoutube="Cku_EIgNUj8;full"]

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.

Creative Competition Winners


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.

[previewyoutube="Cku_EIgNUj8;full"]
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!


Untitled by nedimcanincebay

Congratulations to all of the winners! (x10)

nick_canard
https://twitter.com/nick_canard/status/1365402322692542465

thurel0
https://twitter.com/thurel0/status/1364629763634192386

EnvinyaTelconta
https://twitter.com/EnvinyaTelconta/status/1362796256574263296

pietergeusens
https://twitter.com/pietergeusens/status/1351330653854437378

kazzeth
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLss8m4BC6j/

panzerfaher9
https://twitter.com/panzerfaher9/status/1350790339863474176

Osmanli_Tokadi6
https://twitter.com/Osmanli_Tokadi6/status/1349820793241399298

Kaan56774574
https://twitter.com/Kaan56774574/status/1319323650802188290

ramzaventura
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKSjhJspZr6/

AllNamesTakeAlr
https://twitter.com/AllNamesTakeAlr/status/1365386031202250757


We’ll be reaching out to all of the winners for your details so we can arrange delivery of the prizes, so please make sure to have your DMs open!



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!

Hotfix (e1.5.8) & Beta Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 30/03/21)

Main e1.5.8



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a story mode related load crash.


Changes

  • Updated pillage behaviour to support instances where the encounter leader dies.


Multiplayer



Changes

  • Improved clan game orchestration system.


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


Beta e1.5.9



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a story mode related load crash. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)


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.
  • Improved clan game orchestration system. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)


Both



  • Added Singleplayer and Multiplayer only startup executables.


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

Hotfix (e1.5.8) & Beta Hotfix (e1.5.9 - 23/03/21)

Main e1.5.8



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when using a language mod pack.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when pillaging a settlement after the defenders had sallied out.
  • Fixed a scene loading crash that was related to the common area.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when navigating or closing the encyclopaedia screen.


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue that caused the camera to get stuck when a ballista was destroyed.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented town workshop buildings from affecting town construction speed.


Multiplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a map.


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


Beta e1.5.9



Singleplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that occurred when using a language mod pack. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when pillaging a settlement after the defenders had sallied out. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)
  • Fixed a scene loading crash that was related to the common area. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when navigating or closing the encyclopaedia screen. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to prison break a lord.


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue that caused the camera to get stuck when a ballista was destroyed. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)
  • Fixed some inconsistencies in rich text icon rendering.
  • Fixed an issue with the daughter in the "Notable wants daughter found" quest.


Multiplayer



Crashes

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a map. (Also in e1.5.8 hotfix.)


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