Hello, warriors of the online world of Calradia!
We would like to share the latest news and the current progress of work on Bannerlord Online.
We are currently actively working on the Economy Update where we want to rethink many aspects of the game as well as diversify the gameplay.
The update has become a major challenge for us and is currently the biggest and most technically challenging one.
We have already shared the development progress in our work-in-progress channel on Discord (https://discord.gg/7ZGdaU678c).
We would like to remind you once again of the big mechanics that will be introduced:
We want to get away from the grind that is currently in the game. It is planned that access to good weapons and armor will not be through constant farming of bosses or treasure houses, but through completing weekly quests. We will release the first version of these quests in the Economy Update, and we will gradually improve them and add new ones. These quests consist of several cooperative stages, each with very different mechanics and available number of troops.
We want to get away from the grind in character skill training. There is no final solution at the moment, but we will consider options with a reduced amount of experience required and with weekly tasks to pump up certain skills to choose from.
We've been looking into ideas and wishes channel as well as collecting feedback you've sent us on Patreon, Afdian and VK. There are some serious problems which we will definitely work on and some of them will be solved in the Economy Update or after it:
We will try to publish frequent updates on development progress in the work-in-progress channel.
We plan to release the Economy Update in December, we will announce the exact date closer to the completion of the update.
We would like to share the latest news and the current progress of work on Bannerlord Online.
We are currently actively working on the Economy Update where we want to rethink many aspects of the game as well as diversify the gameplay.
The update has become a major challenge for us and is currently the biggest and most technically challenging one.
We have already shared the development progress in our work-in-progress channel on Discord (https://discord.gg/7ZGdaU678c).
We would like to remind you once again of the big mechanics that will be introduced:
- Redesigned villages integrated into the overall order system. Any player will now be able to order various resources (wheat, ore, wood, animal carcasses), as is now done in the wood-producing village.
- New types of villages.
- A companion system that will allow you to keep several companions in your squad and dress them as you wish. Companions can have a specific specialisation with useful skills and come in handy both in combat and as a clan manager.
We have also published a video where you can see the companions in action:
- A workshop system that will allow you to produce weapons and armor, and prepare dishes. You will be able to rent your own craft room in the city and set it up to efficiently produce products. Workshops are under active development and will be introduced later, once we get to the final stage in their production!
- A new chat system that will include the possibility of "linking" different objects in the form of links, sending personal messages to other players and a function to complain and block unwanted users! We've also posted a video showing some of the functionality:
- The food system. Hunting and growing wheat will make a great raw material for producing a variety of dishes. From simple bread to quality meat. Each dish has a different weight. Food that is difficult to produce will take up far less space in a squad's inventory, allowing you to travel longer to supply your army with food. Lack of food will cause units to desert.
- Transparent loot system. In the encyclopedia there will be a description of all the loot that can be dropped from the units on the map.
- Global Market. Buy and display items throughout Calradia. You'll be able to buy an item while in another town, but you'll have to collect it yourself when you visit the town.
- The introduction of the breakdown mechanic will increase the value of weapons and add normal progression for all players. Lower level items will make sense and it will be these items that will be available to newcomers at the beginning.
- Trading post system and their takeover! Trading posts will appear in mining villages, which will send caravans once an hour to trade with other settlements. Any player will be able to loot these caravans for rare resources, and clans will be able to capture a Prime caravan, which departs once per day. Capturing such a caravan will allow you to take control of an entire trading post and gain access to a large flow of rare resources. It would also give a PvP target that's sorely lacking at the moment and encourage clans to compete with each other. We are currently developing this system and will definitely introduce it as soon as it is completed.
We want to get away from the grind that is currently in the game. It is planned that access to good weapons and armor will not be through constant farming of bosses or treasure houses, but through completing weekly quests. We will release the first version of these quests in the Economy Update, and we will gradually improve them and add new ones. These quests consist of several cooperative stages, each with very different mechanics and available number of troops.
We want to get away from the grind in character skill training. There is no final solution at the moment, but we will consider options with a reduced amount of experience required and with weekly tasks to pump up certain skills to choose from.
We've been looking into ideas and wishes channel as well as collecting feedback you've sent us on Patreon, Afdian and VK. There are some serious problems which we will definitely work on and some of them will be solved in the Economy Update or after it:
- Validation of map files. We will add a full map content validation when loading battles to prevent cheating with file swapping.
- Synchronisation. We will make final synchronisation fixes to eliminate: invisible shots; leaving to the red zone and tournament arena walls; no axe/hammer strikes on multiple targets at the same time.
- The game ticket system. Nowadays it is not always possible to get an answer on your question. With the large number of questions in Discord, some of them get lost and go unanswered. We will add the possibility to ask a question directly in the game and see the status of processing of that question. No message will remain unanswered.
- Resetting character perks
- Revision of the riding skill. We will add new perks and also consider changing the speed bonus for high skill. We will post all riding changes on our beta server and make an announcement so anyone can try out the changes and leave feedback.
- Banner Editor. We would like to simplify the clan banner crafting and editing system, so that it will be possible to make minor adjustments to the flag image without having to collect a full set of resources for the banner. We will also add a picture reflection feature which is sorely lacking at the moment.
- Fixing long battles. It is now common to have a situation where several players are left against an enemy army, which greatly delays the battle. We have added a retreat option to save the time, however, this is not always an acceptable action. We are now considering several options: Limiting the duration of a wave by time. When the time expires (e.g. 5-10 minutes), a new wave will start and all players with an army will be respawned. We are also considering the option of controlling units even after a player has died. All these options we will try first on the beta server and collect feedback.
- Tournament balance. We will count tournament round winners differently, perhaps with the whole team qualifying for the next round.
- Complete rebalance of units. We plan to completely change the characteristics of existing units or create new branches of units in the game to make sure each faction has weaknesses and strengths. These changes will definitely make their way through our beta server and we will announce more details in the announcements.
- The hosting of battles on the Bannerlord Online servers. Right now, most of the time players' computers are used to calculate physics. We would like to expand the number of Bannerlord Online servers to handle various battles, primarily the sieges introduced with the castle update, but also other important battles such as PvP.
We will try to publish frequent updates on development progress in the work-in-progress channel.
We plan to release the Economy Update in December, we will announce the exact date closer to the completion of the update.