Mount & Blade: PC RPG.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Jesus those OFP cavalry units look horrid :D

I can only imagine how those things were animated lol.

Thanks a lot, clever remark.

[maturin 12]

Just (again) escaped from lousy river bandits...

Lance is terrible weapon in horseback. If i could just keep my hired troops alive for longer than 1 or 2 battles. I my self am tuned guite nicely: good horse, good lance and good two-bladed axe

I haven't had this fun for a long time in RPG.

If you are riding at top speed, your lance will lower by itself. Run into someone with that and it's practically guaranteed to kill them.

Keep your troops alive by giving them order. Tell infantry to Hold Position and Stand Closer. This will allow any decent group of fighters to withstand cavalry.

If you are leading a cavalry charge against infantry, tell them to Follow you. Then you can lead them through the enemy formation and have them disengage as you ride away for another charge. You won't lose horsemen if they never stop riding.

[Second 0]

If you are riding at top speed, your lance will lower by itself. Run into someone with that and it's practically guaranteed to kill them.

Keep your troops alive by giving them order. Tell infantry to Hold Position and Stand Closer. This will allow any decent group of fighters to withstand cavalry.

If you are leading a cavalry charge against infantry, tell them to Follow you. Then you can lead them through the enemy formation and have them disengage as you ride away for another charge. You won't lose horsemen if they never stop riding.

Lol That is like years old post. :D

Good points anyways but i personally do give them (cavalry) charge order. That way they scatter enemy ranks and keep them tied while my infantry charges at them. coherent mass of infantry is very destructive when it faces scattered formation. Suits well for my Rhodok army with only handful of cavalry, while i my self fight mostly with infantry.

[froggyluv 2130]

If you are riding at top speed, your lance will lower by itself. Run into someone with that and it's practically guaranteed to kill them.

This has been changed in Warband. Now you have to press "x" to lower the couch ability after a certain speed and it is much harder (and better imo) to get that insta-kill. The secondary "x" works for other weapons as well now such as the throwing javelin can be alternately used as a thrusting weapon.

So far the MP has exceeded my expectations in terms of fun gameplay and great team strategy. If you team up with 3-4 people who can work together as a unit you can do some major damage. Some servers informally have a honor-type system in which you don't interfere if 2 people are seriously dueling it out and I'm sure we'll see more inovations and hopefully realism mods as it leaves it's infancy. Overall, extremely addicting and satisfying battles!

SP on the other hand, has had a major global AI overhaul but still lacks from some pretty major bugs as the dev's were still creating new quests and what not the week before release.

The global AI now consists of:

-Nations have reasons for going to war and seeking truces

-Player can become King and make his companions vassals

-Player is encouraged to learn poetry and swoon the local honies into marriage as well as con her family members that he's worthy

-AI vassals have their own agendas and can be tried for treason by an AI faction

Other features:

-The entity group limit has been raised or erased

-Player can create up to 9 of his own Group names ie Knights;Bodyguards;Heroes ;Archers etc...

-New starting quests

-AI will give player a lot more information in general dialogue such as where enemies have been recently spotted etc...

- Player can now kick -doesn't do much damage, but can put a quick stun on a blocking opponent and give you a quick opening for attack.

Edited March 31, 2010 by froggyluv

[Aeneas2020 10]

i think im gunna get this...sounds interesting and ive been following development for years. I may have a bunch of questions though so i may be posting or pming people :D

[Barely-injured 0]

SP on the other hand, has had a major global AI overhaul but still lacks from some pretty major bugs as the dev's were still creating new quests and what not the week before release.

The global AI now consists of:

-Nations have reasons for going to war and seeking truces

-Player can become King and make his companions vassals

-Player is encouraged to learn poetry and swoon the local honies into marriage as well as con her family members that he's worthy

-AI vassals have their own agendas and can be tried for treason by an AI faction

Other features:

-The entity group limit has been raised or erased

-Player can create up to 9 of his own Group names ie Knights;Bodyguards;Heroes ;Archers etc...

-New starting quests

-AI will give player a lot more information in general dialogue such as where enemies have been recently spotted etc...

- Player can now kick -doesn't do much damage, but can put a quick stun on a blocking opponent and give you a quick opening for attack.

Wow that sounds amazing, unfortunately i did not have the time to check that beta mp (is it still going?). But anyways even for sp that sound like great deal of changes, so what are those major bugs that you talked about ? should I reach for my paypal account yet :D

[froggyluv 2130]

Well the MP servers are still at Beta (I believe) even though those that paid for it are at version 1.1. Could change at any time and might have already. Part of the problem is that the forums are so overloaded that it takes 5 minutes for a page to load :p

If you already own M&B you can download the MP Beta for free and use you original serial key if you still have it.

As far as bugs I've encountered:

- The scene needed for the starting quest (faction related), is a bandit hideout and 1 time it didn't appear on the map. You can bypass this but it is a nice way to start the game.

- Morale is majorly borked in that your mates are constantly losing it and it's very hard to increase. Some new features are that if you have, say some Nords in your party and then fight a Nord party, you'll take a morale hit from those troops. Another factor is even when you win a battle, if you take heavy losses your men will be bummed.:(

- Not sure if it was fixed since last Beta but leading men in sieges, I've had problems with my guys just standing idle on the siege ramp which of course can be a problem when said enemy is shooting said crossbows at them.

- When you lose a battle, your companions will be taken prisoner into the enemies castle/town, and since your probably not strong enough to siege the facility, you can sneak into town and bribe a guard and try to bust them out. The whole scene is borked though, as your imprisoned mates will join you just by talking to them even though your supposed to have to fight to get them out. After leaving, my companions "doubled up" and existed both in my party and back in the prison cell simultaneously -mind warping.

Overall, you might want to wait if you want a polished SP experience. There are tweaks available to boost morale etc... but some of these bugs may turn you off. You can tell alot went into the behind the scenes political code (some of still showing as debug text), but the foundation is strong and will be brilliant when cleaned up.

Edit -just checked and most servers are still at beta 0.86. MP is freakin amazing, just got into a axe duel which lasted almost 5 minutes. If any of you guys jump on MP, let me know and we'll go a hunting! Or axe murder each other :p

Edited March 31, 2010 by froggyluv

[Barely-injured 0]

Well i couldn't figure out how to get that beta thing working with my original Mount & Blade license, so i decided that i should do what i was going to do later anyways and buy the game :D.

What can I say the multilayer is a huge blast. I didn't even expect it would be that much fun. Even though I was on the losing side most of the time I couldn't help but smile every time somebody shot an arrow into my face, or suddenly appeared with a horse out of nowhere and drove a lance into my chest, or axed my horse's legs while I am riding at top speed only to see my poor horse roll to the front like 5 times still going by the speed momentum, or better yet jumping just enough to axe me from the top of my horse in perfect timing, really I cant hold a grudge against a person killing me like that especially since I don't know how to do it :o

Single player seems to be fine so far. The opening quest is great. I didn't get to experience all the new features yet, but I didn't experience any major bugs either only a minor one where one time i was walking in town and the sound played was that of me riding a horse. So far so good.

One thing though their forums are a bit of a mess right now (or maybe it is always like that ? ). Where do you go for the latest patches and updates ?

[froggyluv 2130]

Glad your loving MP as much as me :D

The thing I really love about it is that when you get hit or die, you can "feel" where you made the mistake. Unlike some games erhm BFC2, you can pretty much gauge where you stepped wrong into a swing or exposed yourself. I've been "in the zone" where I could hit everything and always seem to evade a hit. Other times, not so much.

The forums is a complete mess right now and they're trying to put it on a new server. To get patches, if you still have the original M&B, it has the "go to Taleworlds" option on the loading screen and on that front page, will be a patch download link without having to go into the forums.

[sic-disaster 311]

Thanks a lot, clever remark.

Dont take me wrong, i actually played that mod for OFP, but i also know how hard it is to animate things (most mods changing soldier animation in OFP made them suck too, let alone a horse).

And i had forgot how the mod looked, by todays standard it just doesnt look that good. Kinda reminds me of RTS units from Empire Earth or something.

[Barely-injured 0]

Oh Yeah.

Very true froggyluv about what you said on dieing especially when everybody is using manual blocking, you can tell if you did something wrong or if the other guy is more skillful than you.

You know this game got me thinking how most of my gaming enjoyment is coming from eastern Europe these days:

Obviously we have ArmA 2 from the Czech republic,

This Mount and Blade from Turkey,

Men of War from the Ukraine I believe,

And The Void and DCS: Blackshark from Russia.

Makes you think where the future of PC gaming might be...........:rolleyes:

[CW001 10]

I LOVE this game so much. Multiplayer is brilliant. Single player is brilliant. Custom battles are brilliant. Buy it.

[Daddl 10]

I haven't played this in a long, long time. Has the single player game improved (as in: 'does it have a real story now?') or is it just the old increase you warband occupy the fortresses, make money, fight bigger and bigger enemy hordes? It was fun that way, but I'd loved to have the unique melee combat combined with a real story instead of random missions by local lords and generic fights.

[maturin 12]

Oh Yeah.

Very true froggyluv about what you said on dieing especially when everybody is using manual blocking, you can tell if you did something wrong or if the other guy is more skillful than you.

You know this game got me thinking how most of my gaming enjoyment is coming from eastern Europe these days:

Obviously we have ArmA 2 from the Czech republic,

This Mount and Blade from Turkey,

Men of War from the Ukraine I believe,

And The Void and DCS: Blackshark from Russia.

Makes you think where the future of PC gaming might be...........:rolleyes:

Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R from Ukraine?

[That guy 10]

yup, stalker is from Ukraine

it seems like all the worth wile PC games are European, or at least not from the US.

also add cryostasis, and The Longest Journey series to amazing games from europe :)

yeah I only discoverd M&B a few months back. i had alot of fun with it, but could not devote enough time into the game to really get into the meat of it. looking forward to playing it when i can get another gaming PC. I have got quite a list of games for it too :p

[froggyluv 2130]

I haven't played this in a long, long time. Has the single player game improved (as in: 'does it have a real story now?') or is it just the old increase you warband occupy the fortresses, make money, fight bigger and bigger enemy hordes? It was fun that way, but I'd loved to have the unique melee combat combined with a real story instead of random missions by local lords and generic fights.

No I wouldn't say it has a genuine story. M&B has always been about sandbox gameplay + amazing melee and any attempts at a real story always seem pretty half-baked in my opinion.

Again the political system and AI lord behaviour is much better in that they don't have the ADHD to the same extent as the original ie. chasing peasants when they should be on a war campaign. I'm not that deep into the Sp for the simple fact that there are too many bugs for me at the moment as well as the MP taking up all of my time.

There have been many fantastic mods such as Prophecy of Pendor (great back story and interesting new map) as well as Sword of Damocles ( best functional kingdom management features, real auto-calc, and a global roman invasion after 1 year), for the original which in a sense still outshine Warband's Sp at the moment.

[maturin 12]

The randomized, non-stop machinations of the lords and factions is a story in itself/

[froggyluv 2130]

Well I've been playing Warband MP just about everyday since it came out and it just never gets old. The new catch for me is Manual Blocking as opposed to the standard Auto-Block -what a difference!

Really, it's a whole new game with manual/chamber blocking which requires a whole new skill set and a pretty steep learning curve. Sure the newby's may beat you once in a while with standard mouse bashing/swing spamming. But counter their moves without a shield with a nice chamber block and it's just about the most satisfying thrill in any game i've played.

Even in Sp, I'll never go back to auto-block as that'd be missing half of the games fun.

[Barely-injured 0]

Well I've been playing Warband MP just about everyday since it came out and it just never gets old. The new catch for me is Manual Blocking as opposed to the standard Auto-Block -what a difference!

Really, it's a whole new game with manual/chamber blocking which requires a whole new skill set and a pretty steep learning curve. Sure the newby's may beat you once in a while with standard mouse bashing/swing spamming. But counter their moves without a shield with a nice chamber block and it's just about the most satisfying thrill in any game i've played.

Even in Sp, I'll never go back to auto-block as that'd be missing half of the games fun.

I know it is great......the thing is I wish that mp servers would have the block settings standardized for everyone.... At first I used to go with manual block only, but was frustrated when playing in servers with everyone on autoblock. I dont mind autoblock as long as everyone is using it, so I switched back to auto since manual servers usually force it for everyone.

But recently I discovered the joy of Duel servers. At first I was hesitant because I feared that people in the duel servers are probably the best hardcore players in the game. When I tried it however, I discovered that it is not intimidating at all and there are people from different levels of skill and best of all everyone respects everyone else (aside from the occasional ruin-it-for-everyone horse rider/archer). Still I noticed that the #1 person in a duel server usually have the rest beaten by a huge margin....indeed hardcore...grrr...:pistols:

By the way froggyluv since you seem to use the same name in M&B I think I have seen you a couple of times on some servers. In M&B I use the name "Chazz"

[froggyluv 2130]

Yep, duel servers are amazing. I was also a little intimidated by guys/girls who spend countless hours of the day harnessing their chamber blocks and insane feints and while I mostly do die at their hands, it really is a great place to improve your melee skills. A good tip is to go to a duel server before a standard battle server and your confidence will be soaring!

Yes thats me, POM_Froggyluv :p

You can always find me on the POM_Central server as well as NK_Duel -I'll look out for ya.

[Erratic 10]

I've never played the original Mount & Blade but I have infact tried Warband, it just asn't fun for me. I knew the basics blocks and basic attacks and that was it, I played for about ten minutes and I know you should give games longer but I was really bored after ten minutes haha.

[froggyluv 2130]

I've never played the original Mount & Blade but I have infact tried Warband, it just asn't fun for me. I knew the basics blocks and basic attacks and that was it, I played for about ten minutes and I know you should give games longer but I was really bored after ten minutes haha.

Well to each his own I suppose :)

I've become pretty obsessed with the combat and really love the fact that practice in each combat domain be it: Swordplay, polearms, archery, cavalry really pays off. Just when i think I've gotten pretty good, I get raped by some guy who uses totally different strategy which keeps my incentive high to keep learning new tricks or at least, master my old ones.

[sparks50 0]

A new Mount & Blade game is on its way. You have to see the trailer, its fantastic.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/01/31/mount-blade-with-fire-and-sword-announcement-trailer

http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1145516p1.html

Edited February 2, 2011 by sparks50

[froggyluv 2130]

Its actually made by different devs (Russian?) but was picked up by Taleworlds for publishing with Armagan's blessing.

I've heard that the original made for M&B was pretty buggy and that this is the Warband port now using Havoc. Could be good, but guns have been introduced in so many free mods already that I'll wait and see if this is worth the price of admission.

Boy my wife was right, judging by my last post timestamp - I do play this game way too much!

[privatenoob 0]

But the best thing this is: GO SWEDEN GO!

Oh this is going to be epic, Mount and blade warband SP is really fun,

although I cant get the mods I want to work with it.

I think I tried the demo twice before getting into the game,

at first I was like "wtf is this" but now Im loving it.

Here is another preview:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/8587-Preview-Mount-Blade-With-Fire-and-Sword