TheRPGSite

So I got this off Steam and I gotta say, I am digging it.

The learning curve is steep, but once I got into it I enjoyed it immensely.

It's a medieval historical game (no magic), very sandboxy, where you can either adventure solo, or become the commander of a small mercenary company and raid towns, or you can do quests for a local castellan and eventually enter into a king's service.

I've also been enjoying this game for awhile now.  I played the demo several times hitting the level cap, but then could resist no longer and ponied up for the full game.  It has to be one of the most addictive games of this nature I've played in awhile.

It's not a game that just gives you things.  You have to earn every little thing along the way.  It's like a cross between an RPG, RTS and the Sims.  This is one of those rare sandbox games that actually feels like the world is moving on around you.  You could, just hold up in a city for a month and watch events unfold around you.  But that's not a month of just clicking and skipping ahead to that point.  You have to actually wait for that time to pass, though you can make it accelerate.  Sieging a city does take days if you want them to run out of food stores.

I really love this game.  It's a game where you, the player, needs to improve and learn along with just developing your character.  To liken it to an existing RPG I'd say this is pretty close to how Reign should feel.

See now, there's something we can agree on:  M&B is fucking awesome.  

Did you see the expansion is going into beta soon?

I'm soooo looking forward to an excuse to get back into that game.  Lance charges are soo fun.

This is one of those games that the more I play the more I'm enjoying it.  Even though the actual game play doesn't significantly change it just continues to feel better.  The more you play, the better you get which in turn allows you to continuously tackle on bigger areas of the game.  While you are still just swinging a sword from horse back the difference between a 1 on 1 fight and a 200 on 200 fight is awesome.

Quote from: J Arcane;316442See now, there's something we can agree on:  M&B is fucking awesome.  

Did you see the expansion is going into beta soon?

I'm soooo looking forward to an excuse to get back into that game.  Lance charges are soo fun.

Two things! Because I also am a huge fan of the lance charge.

I want to sing we are the world now.

Is the expansion multi-player only? I really game to unwind at 3am and am usually looking for an hour or so before bed, so multi-player usually doesn't work for me.

But if Warband has more weapons, armor, quests etc, I will buy it anyway.

Quote from: RPGObjects_chuck;318082Two things! Because I also am a huge fan of the lance charge.

I want to sing we are the world now.

Is the expansion multi-player only? I really game to unwind at 3am and am usually looking for an hour or so before bed, so multi-player usually doesn't work for me.

But if Warband has more weapons, armor, quests etc, I will buy it anyway.

Bah, I think it's both.  There's lots more than multiplayer, they're revamping the graphics engine, adding better sieges and stuff.  I haven't read as much as I'd like, but I honestly didn't care.  M&B + "expansion" = instant want.

This game has eaten up a lot of my time lately, especially once I discovered several modules out there.  Sword of Damocles 1.4 - Invasion is an awesome one where you start out as a deposed noble from another land.  Your home was overrun by invaders and you have one year to build a new kingdom, or join an existing one, to prepare for the invaders again.  In this module if you take a castle and you are not part of another kingdom you can establish your own kingdom (something that is coming in Warband as well).

Another one I have been playing a lot is Mongol Delta.  This one redoes the game to capture the feel of the Ghengis Khan era.  

Finally, 1257 AD is the last one I have been playing.  This one is a pretty basic re-imagining of the original module with some very slight differences.  It renames the kingdoms, when you enter a tournament you enter with your own weapons, and some other minor tweaks like that.  I haven't messed around with this one a lot since I'm kind of engrossed in the others, but I plan on it.  Some day.

The Prophesy of Pendor (http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,119.0.html) [sic] mod is fun as well. Renames the kingdoms, gives them new and shiny stuff, there's even armour designed for women. All those items make it slow to load, though.

Another entertaining mod, showing the versatility of the game, Gangs of Glasgow (http://www.mountfanblade.com/index.php?cat=addons&id=15).

Promotional video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmIz-vPaxPw).

   Gangs of Glasgow is a modern mod, set in 21st century Glasgow. It's satirical take on the brash, violent nature of Glaswegian gang culture makes this mod both humorous and enjoyable to play. Warning: Not for minors. For more information and a full list of features, visit the Mod's Thread, over at Taleworlds.

Feature list:

* 3 factions: United Workies (striking labourers) Strathclyde Police (polis) The Penny Mob (gangsters)
* A large and involving dungeon, featuring many moving scene props - lifts, revolving walkways, etc.
* Moving trains and vans
* A selection of firearms created by Geroj
* A wholly new soundtrack made specially by Adorno
* Some fight music and rubbish guns added by me
* All new audio dialogue (mostly abusive) for every party you encounter, plus new sounds in every scene, and ridiculous dialogue for most characters.
* A limited number of quests can be got from Bouncers outside Pubs, and from Nosey Gossiping Bastards in Towns.

That is outrageous! It's like Mount and Blade meets GTA.

One question, how do mods work with M&B? There don't seem to be any mod managers, which makes me leery of using mods.

When you download a mod, you unzip it into the "modules" folder of your M&B installation. That's all the installation the mod needs, it sits in the modules folder.

When you run M&B, a screen comes up on your desktop. There's a drop-down menu with all the installed mods listed - all the folders in the "modules" folder. Select the one you want to play, and there you go.

Next time you play, select that or any other mod.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;319352When you download a mod, you unzip it into the "modules" folder of your M&B installation. That's all the installation the mod needs, it sits in the modules folder.

When you run M&B, a screen comes up on your desktop. There's a drop-down menu with all the installed mods listed - all the folders in the "modules" folder. Select the one you want to play, and there you go.

Next time you play, select that or any other mod.

So when I start M&B, the menu that says "Native", Native is vanilla M&B?

Hmmm, that sounds no more complicated than running mods in Fallout 3.

Awesome!

Yes, that's right.

Things get funny names when Europeans arrange them. "Native" is the vanilla game, highlight others and you can play them. I recommend the Native Expansion module if you just want to play native, it tidies up some silliness in the vanilla version, lets you establish your own kingdom, and so on.

The other modules you just choose according to taste. Some are more polished than others, you just have to try them and see.

Native Expansion is up to v3 now.  It adds more to the game but also makes the game more difficult by improving enemy AI and tweaking out some of the equipment.  It all makes sense mind you, just that it ups the difficulty a little.  The additions to the base game are also great, especially the prisoner system.

The only thing I find odd is the whole Ghost thing if you die past level 7.  It doesn't really fit with the rest of the game.  But it's minor, and in no way takes away from the rest of the goodness from the Native Expansion benefits.

A new mod has been released, Song of Taliesin (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/board,106.0.html), set in Dark Ages northern Britain. Im just downloading it now, and it looks very good. There's a video preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG7HFOyFuJA).

They seem to have gone into quite some detail, with numerous new quests. As always with Mount & Blade, you get to customise your character and their appearance. It makes me want to tabletop game, of course ;)

Wow, I remember playing the beta of this years ago...the joy of riding around on horseback and bashing in the heads of helpless footmen kept me up to the wee hours of the morning far too often.

Guess I'll have to give it another whirl and see how it's evolved.