Co-op campaign (Same party companions)

[some kind of bird]

Has anyone talked about this lately? Is it going to be a thing or are they discussing it at all?

A huge draw for me was the idea of playing with some friends who could control certain groups of my party, like captain mode, who move around with me in the overworld inbetween battles, and/or visiting towns and taverns.

[TaleWorlds Community Team]

Co-op is something that we have discussed and explored internally but decided is something that wouldn’t really work in a Mount & Blade game with the way that the game mechanics are set up. As such, we currently have no plans to work on any sort of co-op campaign mode at this moment in time.

[Core]

@OP It's widely and repeatedly discussed since launch in 1-2 topics every week and a widely popular request if not most, so yes.
I'm pretty sure they'd do it if it was possible at all.

[Core]

@TaleWorlds Community Team: Sorry to side track with one single complaint.
Why did you change the shortcuts we had been using since warband :(

[Daniel Burke]

A coop can work in Mount &Blade.

2 players.

You can join the army of a player or you can have your own army.

If there is a battle involving the two players. Then no problem.

If there is a battle only involving one player. Then the other player will play as an ally or enemy NPC.

If there is a player in a conversation with an NPC. Then pause for the second player. Or at least let him see your conversation and you can even make some suggestions that will be colored.

If there is a player in a map scene. Then the other play will play as a random NPC and he will be in the same map scene. They can play minigame or discuss with NPCS.

[Clovis Sangrail]

I love the way all these co-op nerds, with their years and years of game development experience, think that programming co-op would be easy-peasey.

[some kind of bird]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

I love the way all these co-op nerds, with their years and years of game development experience, think that programming co-op would be easy-peasey.

Someone did it in a mod for Warband you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ savant. Also no one said it was "easy peasy." We threw out concepts to point out that it was silly to imply it's "impossible." It isn't. A modder did it. It's just slow and unmanageable because it requires running a server instead of having a consistent lobby (because officially, they never created co-op modes); in addition to constant save-editing by the mod itself. You can just say you don't have any friends to play with, though that's obvious with your attitude. Humble yourself a little bit.

It's just a duct-tape solution that would be better resolved officially and implemented. There is already captain mode in the game and controlled specific types and groups of troops. It isn't a stretch to have a single companion controlled by another player mid-campaign exclusive to battles.

But whatever man. I always see a bunch of stupid e-sports ads pushed by the devs for this game. I think their efforts would be better served elsewhere but it's not my game. That's the only kind of multiplayer I cared about.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by some kind of bird:

Has anyone talked about this lately? Is it going to be a thing or are they discussing it at all?

A huge draw for me was the idea of playing with some friends who could control certain groups of my party, like captain mode, who move around with me in the overworld inbetween battles, and/or visiting towns and taverns.

That's an "idea." It's not a gameplay feature many would actually participate in, though.

There are great many ways a game like Bannerlord could incorporate multiple players. However, none of them are particularly "good" in gameplay terms and some would decidedly be "not worth the effort." For a full co-op experience of worthy quality, the resulting mess would not resemble a "Warband" play experience.


In short - I't just not worth it and the results would be less than optimal for a gameplay experience. No matter how much some players may want it, it would not make for a good game for everyone else. And, if they had to make two different modes of play it'd be largely a wasted effort.

[some kind of bird]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Originally posted by some kind of bird:

Has anyone talked about this lately? Is it going to be a thing or are they discussing it at all?

A huge draw for me was the idea of playing with some friends who could control certain groups of my party, like captain mode, who move around with me in the overworld inbetween battles, and/or visiting towns and taverns.

That's an "idea." It's not a gameplay feature many would actually participate in, though.

There are great many ways a game like Bannerlord could incorporate multiple players. However, none of them are particularly "good" in gameplay terms and some would decidedly be "not worth the effort." For a full co-op experience of worthy quality, the resulting mess would not resemble a "Warband" play experience.


In short - I't just not worth it and the results would be less than optimal for a gameplay experience. No matter how much some players may want it, it would not make for a good game for everyone else. And, if they had to make two different modes of play it'd be largely a wasted effort.

Where's the proof that not many would actually participate in a lobby-based co-op companion controlled campaign? You shouldn't even need to create a seperate mode for it, just have the companion function as AI normally if the other person isn't there, right?

I wasn't implying matchmaking or something like that. I think the campaign would be fine if you just had friends there, making decisions with you like a companion would, and fighting alongside you/controlling specific troops, just like they do in other large scale battles. It doesn't need to be expansive to add a ton of flavor to the campaign, that's what playing with other people could be like.

Originally posted by Core:

@TaleWorlds Community Team: Sorry to side track with one single complaint.
Why did you change the shortcuts we had been using since warband :(

I don't think it's fair to say that it's impossible if it's already been done. It'd probably be easier to do with a team.

[Mazzle Dazzle]

Originally posted by TaleWorlds Community Team:

Co-op is something that we have discussed and explored internally but decided is something that wouldn’t really work in a Mount & Blade game with the way that the game mechanics are set up. As such, we currently have no plans to work on any sort of co-op campaign mode at this moment in time.

The battletime mod while it was supported did allow for co op companions. I personally found it to be the most fun I've had with mount and blade. 2 manning 30 sea raiders on 100% difficulty was something I never expected to do but I did it with my bro in battletime. We also had a battle vs horribly outnumbered sarranid sultanate. I understand that similar things can be done in pure multiplayer but 2 bros bashing people with hammers to fill up on slaves and then selling them for profit was super enjoyable.
I assume the big concern your team has is what the other player does during the free time/ world map travel phase. To refute, first, simply making the other person sit and watch isn't as bad as you would think especially if there is voice chat. Elite dangerous has multicrew and that is basically all you do and it isn't rewarding at all and yet still many people use it and find enjoyment in it. Second, you could add some other small perks like you let them look through their character/companions inventory and pick stats change equipment and just watch the other person run along the main map. You don't need to grant them full agency for it to be a great feature. The other alternative is just "host" a battle the way battletime did and let players queue up to play as the available random grunts to help out or hinder the other player. Simply knowing I was playing with and helping/hindering another person playing through the game is good enough to be satisfying and I believe it is to others as countless people Sunbro in dark souls for the sheer enjoyment of helping others or play as a red phantom to hurt randos. Implementing the queuing mechanic while you are playing your own personal game would probably be the ideal though if that method was chosen.
I certainly don't think its impossible or unfun and the most important thing, nothing currently exist that fills this niche which would mean that you would.