Just Warband with better graphics...

[Rhoetus]

I find myself going back to play Warband again, enjoying the many mods and freedom it has when compared to Bannerlord, and it occurs to me:
Would Bannerlord have been better if it was really just Warband with better graphics? Maybe bigger armies as well?

Don't get me wrong, I like Bannerlord, paid full price for it and I feel I've gotten my money's worth. But i have like 2000 hours in Warband, and I find myself preferring that game to this one.
Am I alone in that sentiment, or does anyone else think the same way?

[Action Man]

This is my first MnB game. What in Warband makes you like it more? You said mods, and I imagine Warband would have a lot more given that it's been released for so much longer.

[Sandro]

The graphics may be higher definition than the first game, however the art direction is a total abomination. The faces are atrocious, the clothes look like plastic cardboard, the color scheme is flat out off. Overall there's zero harmony in the art direction of this game. The first game is miles better on this aspect.

[Rhoetus]

Originally posted by Action Man:

This is my first MnB game. What in Warband makes you like it more? You said mods, and I imagine Warband would have a lot more given that it's been released for so much longer.

The mods are great, and add a ton, but I think I'd rather play vanilla Warband to vanilla Bannerlord.

I don't know that i could really put a finger on what it is that distinguishes them in my mind.
One problem is the crafting. The idea of starting a new playthrough and having to do all that clicking in order to research all the weapon blueprints is... daunting.
Meanwhile, on Wb, I'd start a new campaign at the drop of a hat. "I want to try bizarre thing X!" so i do, compared to "I want to try a different starting faction, but I don't know that my mouse will survive another crafting grind..."

I know I don't HAVE to do weapon crafting, sure, but it is fairly integral to the game.

What else is there... companions maybe? I don't know if they made much difference to me, but the old ones did seem to have some sort of personality.

I dunno. Maybe the mods make the major difference and in ten years when Bannerlord has a mod scene as thorough as Wband I'll wonder how I ever played such a backward game as Wband. That'd be great, but it doesn't yet exist, so I find it hard to judge off of that.

[Kypamop]

Bannerlord is just unfinished and unpolished.
Crafting needs to be just removed from the game, and reused for some npc crafters in city blacksmiths.
Economics is not great. Trade goods seem to be ok, but everything connected to crafting system is bad. Gear costs so much that no soldier or even lord could afford it if they had to buy gear for themselves.
Many perks unfinished, unbalanced etc.
Leveling system is not great overall. Old system from Warband was much more balanced.
Also Bannerlord map is not as balanced as Warband map was. Maybe devs plan to add ships and it will change everything, but I never heard any promises from them about it, so I doubt it will happen soon.

If devs spent time on polishing PC version instead of porting it to xbox, the game could be in much better state.
They were doing too many changes that broke the mods in every small patch, so many modders got tired and quit.

[Kypamop]

There are so many small things that I did not mention.. Like conquered citites rise cause u r from other culture and u got no good way to prevent it without playing certain builds, etc.

[Deerock]

Originally posted by Sandro:

The graphics may be higher definition than the first game, however the art direction is a total abomination. The faces are atrocious, the clothes look like plastic cardboard, the color scheme is flat out off. Overall there's zero harmony in the art direction of this game. The first game is miles better on this aspect.

Yeah, I felt in Warband you had larger freedom when creating face, unlike Bannerlord where faces are more generic and similar, also the art style are like some games from Bethesda. "Bethesdalord"

[Machiavelli]

Bannerlord is way better vanilla wise. That's an objective fact. You are expecting a decade of mods from Warband to appear in Bannerlord is quite unrealistic. Don't get me wrong, I love Warband. But Bannerlord has alot of features that make it more smoother.

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by Kypamop:

There are so many small things that I did not mention.. Like conquered citites rise cause u r from other culture and u got no good way to prevent it without playing certain builds, etc.

It so much hard work to throw in a gov of right culture, run daily festivities and get security up right? What certain builds do you need for that? Or maybe, just learn how the game work? -)

[justfaded]

This IS mostly just warband with better graphics.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

...
Would Bannerlord have been better if it was really just Warband with better graphics? Maybe bigger armies as well?
...

IMO, No.

I think that if many of the larger bits of the game were made a bit less biggerer... it'd be a better game.


The forums were filled with requests by Warband fans for a sequel that was "just Warband, with better graphics." Those were largely either a vocal minority or just fans who weren't thinking things through... After all, what did we know the environment would be ten years later??

Warband, with a "modern" engine with all the expected frills that games brought to us up to the point it would be released is... what was expected.

If you wanted a new "Frogger" game that was brought up to speed with modern graphics and, let's say you added "modern gameplay and QoL features," what would it be?

(Leaving the answer up to you, but I can nearly guarantee you that the Frogger successor title you would think up, which might be pretty good (or horrible :)), would not be what TW would have thunked up. Now, to figure out how to fit in "Lilly-Pad Blacksmithing" with three thousand seven hundred and eight eleven individual components... and a static screen for the player to stare at while they burn wood.)

I wrote more than I intended, as always. I could go on, in depth, but I'll leave with this:

There is too much, done too poorly, with little depth, or too much depth and coding, in Bannerlord. It would be a better game if many of the larger mechanics, relative to player interaction, in the game were simpler and all of the very shallow mechanics, as of now, quite a bit deeper. They focused very hard while thinking "complexity equals depth," on things that only someone who juggles numbers and databases all day would think was "cool." But, they're probably not things a Butterlord would think was cool... (I can't speak for all, of course.)

Many players will love the game. There's no other franchise and no other game, as of yet, that provides this type of gaming experience, after all. People who are new to it and looking for a combat ARPG with a Battlefield Experience will eat it up. Butterlords will mostly just wait for a good Total Conversion mod and/or other mods before investing themselves very much. If it remains largely as it is, I'm not sure TW will be attracting a lot of Butterlords to their sci-fi game.

[Aya]

Personally, I haven't the attention span to play the singleplayer modes of either game (most of my WB hours are on MP, all of my Bannerlord hours are on MP)

Both games suck to play if one or both teams decide to spam the ever loving hell out of archers, but I've found Bannerlord players to have a lot more honor in regards to playing the melee game like a melee game. That said, it's unfortunate that TaleWorlds have decided to have certain factions be clearly better or worse than others, with Vlandia being good at everything, Aserai having terrible anti-armor capabilities, Sturgia being even worse in that regard, and Empire just being the absolute worst.

[stecph]

I wish it was like Warband! They only had to copy/paste the main features in any of the ovehauls and they would have made a really good game (what most people expected,minus a minority of vocal fanbois).
As is,BL is indeed beautiful and with an amazing music,but shallow and not really immersive.

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by stecph:

I wish it was like Warband! They only had to copy/paste the main features in any of the ovehauls and they would have made a really good game (what most people expected,minus a minority of vocal fanbois).
As is,BL is indeed beautiful and with an amazing music,but shallow and not really immersive.

Sorry to shatter your fantasy, But your idea of "most people" doesn't pay the bills... Nothing keep you from keep play warband and have fun with that, overhauls and all.

[Machiavelli]

"minority". the game is sitting at very positive reviews dude. granted, most of them never played Warband, but the majority seem to like Bannerlord with its flaws. That's been the case for bloody 3 years.

[ShadowFox]

Originally posted by Rhoetus:

I find myself going back to play Warband again, enjoying the many mods and freedom it has when compared to Bannerlord, and it occurs to me:
Would Bannerlord have been better if it was really just Warband with better graphics? Maybe bigger armies as well?

Don't get me wrong, I like Bannerlord, paid full price for it and I feel I've gotten my money's worth. But i have like 2000 hours in Warband, and I find myself preferring that game to this one.
Am I alone in that sentiment, or does anyone else think the same way?

Warband was fantastic and zero regrets for the thousands of hours I have in it but in my personal opinion bannerlord has more to offer me at this time, I have about 1100 hours I think in this one and it could just be that I did EVERYTHING I wanted to do in warband whereas bannerlord is still evolving and theres still things I havent tried or done to death yet. I respect anyones feelings or opinions and both are wonderful games, I hope that in 5 years bannerlord is as smooth as the lord of butter and has a huge and vibrant community of gamers and modders :) Some people complain that bannerlord is too similar to its predecessor but for me thats how I prefer my IP's with some upgrades and new stuff and bigger maps etc etc but you KNOW its related. Some companies try to reinvent the wheel and end up losing everyone that originally enjoyed their game in the process