Poll: Mount & Blade, Opinions

[Capt. Crankypants]

After playing through the Mount & Blade catalogue of games, it's not hard for me to realise that the one I enjoyed and played most is by far the original Mount & Blade. It's beautiful simplicity just gives it so much replayability and enjoyment.

I didn't mind Warband, which fixed a few things and added a few things, but in MY opinion, ruined mounted combat with it's adaptive directioning. Warband would've been my standout favourite if they'd just left mounted combat alone...

Fire and Sword was a BIG leap, kinda sideways though. Firearms introduce an... interesting new mechanic, but can be just as annoying as they are amusing, getting shot off your horse over and over again by 40 simple peasants with crude muskets is hardly fun. I do like the pseudo-realistic factions, but I think they should stick to creating worlds of their own. The HUGE assortment of new armour, weapons and content is great, but the awkward mounted combat is still there, and I'm not toooo impressed with how the firearms affect gameplay.

Anyway, I just want to get a gauge of what the Escapists think, and include a few notes on your reasoning too.

 

[])rStrangelove]

To me this series has been the same for the past years, its just a bit more polished. All in all the games have their rough charm and style, but they fail to entertain me more than a couple of hours. They still feel like beta.

 

[The Madman]

As many fond memories as I have of the original Mount & Blade, going back all the way to the point there was only one city and the only real gameplay element was practice tournaments, Warband is pretty much an improvement over the original in pretty much every single way. It's the original game only with more and better!

Just an amazing experience all around. I also dislike the element guns add to combat, oh sure an arrow or crossbow could take down even the most heavily armoured opponents when it's a skilled archer firing a powerful bow/crossbow and scoring a direct hit, but when such things happened it felt, well, fair. With guns within the game as well as with real life there's just less an element of skill and heroism. Anyone can fire a gun after all, and seeing knights being taken down in droves by basic gun infantry is just frustrating and kinda sad.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

personally, I'd like to see the combat animations improve since there is barely any weight to each strike, but its a ton of fun none the less.

I like warband because of the multiplayer, primairly for gathering up your mates and fighting an onslaught of NPC opponents co-op style.
completely in character, that is.

 

[Cptntequila]

I also played all three and Warband is my favorite. For me exploring all of the various troop trees and building up my army was the best part of the game. In Fire and Steel I was not a fan of hiring mercenaries and then equipping them with better gear, to me it was a completely unnecessary layer that didn't actually improve anything. I prefer to pick a path and watch my troops advance.

I was never a big fan of firearms in the game whether it was through a mod for the original MB or Warband, so when the big change for Fire and Steel was just to change the map and add some guns I was less than impressed. The 3rd entry was an obvious cash grab. I had been playing modded versions of Warband that already had everything Fire and Steel added (new world, new troops, some bad quests) and charged me an additional $20. For free you can mod any copy of Warband to have everything Fire and Steel does and more.

Granted at $20 you cannot expect much but the developers could have at least updated the graphics to make it worth my while...

To sum up Warband + Free and easy to use mods > Fire and Steel - $20 from my pocket.

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

Mount and Blade: Warband. 83 Hours Played. Still going strong.
I'm looking to download Europe 1200, and I'm still working on becoming King in vanilla with my main character.
This is a game I just can't put down. There's a rudimentary economy, a hierarchy to climb in each kingdom, usurpers to fight for, bandits to hunt, ladies to marry and lords to befriend. Get bored of charging down an open plain on your horse, there's castles too.
It only gets better with modules.
I'm not going to lie, this game is by no means polished, it's somewhat buggy, and on paper it's a bit barren in terms of features. However, the multiplayer (LAN with a couple buddies and some bots is always fun), the skirmish mode, and the ultra open-ended "campaign mode" all make this game a must-buy for me.

I've got the three games ranked as follows:
1) Warband
2) M&B
3) With Fire and Sword

I prefer the Calradia setting, and I don't want any more ranged weapons in my Mountain Blade than there already are. The melee combat in M&B: Warband is what keeps me coming back time and time again. I love being able to "aim" my slashes and stabs with the mouse, and I'm currently in the process of mastering manual block at 'Fastest' combat speed. At that point, it's like a deadly game of Simon Says, except instead of pressing buttons, you're parrying and then bringing a claymore down on the head of your enemy. I mean that with the greatest and most lavish praise.

This is a game in which I am the most badass knight in all Calradia. I am the right hand of King Harlaus, the jackboot that kicked the Nord civilization back into the sea. Every Boyar fears my name, every Jarl trembles as I ravage their armies.

So my opinion is that I love it, top to bottom. Mount and Blade: Warband is the best 30 bucks I've spent on Steam EVER. Now if you'll excuse me, writing this post reminded me that I have 4 more kingdoms to overthrow, then a war to wage on my former allies. Eventually, I shall be King; My throne built on the bones and blood of a thousand Khergits, Nords, Vaegirs, Rhodoks, Sarranids and Swadians.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I've only played Warband and I don't really like playing it Native. Brytanwalda's where it's at for me. I love the Dark Age's setting and its weaponry, and the difficulty of the mod, while devilishy hard, is well implemented imo. It really feels as difficult as you would expect for the son of a farmer, or slave, or whatever, to become a noble and carve out an empire.

 

[tofulove]

i played all 3, i have to say the best by far was warband, fire and sword was a disappointment, new it was never going to pick up in multi player, but the variety of gear in multiplayer was very bad.

 

[Ruwrak]

If I am not captured by impossible odds the first 5 minutes I'm cool generally with Warband.

Fire & Sword is just hilarious at lan parties

 

[Llil]

I like Fire and Sword a lot. The mercenary camps and how the player can send trade caravans are especially good additions to the game. The firearms do cange the focus of the battles completely, so the game has a very different feel to it than Warband. I don't know which one I like more, but FaS definitely wasn't as big of a disappointment for me as it was for some people. Also, the patches have added things like volley fire and being able to play as a female character, which is great.

The multiplayer in Warband is easily better than in FaS, but I can't really decide which has better single player. Possibly FaS. And the original Mount & Blade is just Warband, but not as good.

 

[Zhukov]

I thought Warband was an improvement on the original in every way except one. They did something unfortunate to the mounted AI. in the original M&B big cavalry-on-cavalry battles would be nice and flowing, with guys chasing each other every which way. But in Warband they all just charge into a big clump and hack at each other.

Never played F&S.

Regarding the series as a whole, eh... I can forgive the lack of polish, but the grinding is too much for me. The basic gameplay is fun, but I always get tired of it by the time I've conquered a quarter of the map.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

Mount and Blade: Warband. 83 Hours Played. Still going strong.

The melee combat in M&B: Warband is what keeps me coming back time and time again. I love being able to "aim" my slashes and stabs with the mouse

148 Hours of Mount & Blade. =P

And yes, exactly. This is what I feel many modern RPG games miss. I don't know how an extremely BASIC, almost Beta, super-large-scale-RPG like Mount and Blade can get the tactile satisfaction of hand-to-hand combat so right with mouse diectioning, while other titles like Fable and TES just miss the mark. It's why I never went sword & shield in TES, and always opted for Marksman + Stealth, or Magic.

Anyway, I'm hoping for a new instalment (anyone know if there is a possibility of this?) where everything just works.

Hmm, let's throw that up in the air too. What would you guys be after in a new installment?

Also, anyone who hasn't tried Mount and Blade, and/or Warband should definitely jump on steam and grab one. Man, when they were on sale for $5, best value ever.

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

Anyway, I'm hoping for a new instalment (anyone know if there is a possibility of this?) where everything just works.

Hmm, let's throw that up in the air too. What would you guys be after in a new installment?

In one of the first couple issues of PC Gamer digital, they have a round table with a few different developers. IIRC, one of them was from Taleworlds, and let slip that there is going to be a sequel to Mount and Blade, creatively titled "Mount and Blade 2".

As for what I'd like to see in a sequel:
-Better graphics
+I don't need fancy graphics, but some improvements to the engine, models, textures, etc. would be much appreciated. I really like the modular body parts that make up the characters, as it allows everyone to have a different randomized face or random armor. What I don't like is when I can see the entirety of my guy's giraffe neck floating roughly an inch above where his shoulders/chest stop, or when you ride down a steep hill and your character leans so far back on his horse that he's floating. I'd like to see some better landscapes, with some randomly generated landmarks besides just trees. Blood and Steel mod was a step in the right direction in this regard.
-More weapons, armor (especially heavy armor), and horses with heraldic armor.
-Which reminds me, I want MOAR Heraldry! Not really any specific stuff, just more chances to wave my stupid flag in people's faces. I want to wear armor with my crest on it, wear a shield with my crest on it, hold (or have an NPC hold) a banner with my crest on it, and ride my horse, with heraldic mail I painted myself. If you've ever seen some of the horses from Europe 1200 or Blood and Steel, you've got a decent idea of the kind of horse covering I'm talking about. I like to tart up my Player Character before I go into battle.
-MORE VARIETY OF ITEMS N SUCH IN MULTIPLAYER.
+Basically, I like the class system from Warband, but in game modes like FFA deathmatch or whatever, I'd like to have the option of not choosing a faction, and being able to mix n match armors and weapons from each faction.
I'd also like more opportunities to waggle my banner in people's faces in multiplayer too. Heraldic mail for players/horses in multiplayer would make me such a happy panda.

Since heraldry came up so much, I'd like a change to how it's handled. I'd like to be able to earn my banner (I don't know if you can, besides being the son of an impoverished noble, because I've never tried. That would require going more than 10 seconds without a cool picture on my shield), and I'd like to be able to design it myself. The ones they made are cool and all, and I don't expect them to allow us to import pictures into the game. I'd just like to have the option to take some primitive shapes and letters and simple pictures and create my own banner/heraldic armor/horse armor in a little in-game editor.
I'd fight a hundred armies of men with dicks and balls on their shields if it meant I could re-create my real life Coat-of-Arms to go on my shield. That, or a cool dragon or something.