Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is already out in early access on Steam, and TaleWorlds Entertainment continues to roll out bug fixes and minor improvement patches. Bannerlord, in its current state, is a fantastic foundation for fans of the series to enjoy, but we know there's plenty more planned in the works.
Looking back at some of the dev blogs and teasers, we've rounded up some features that aren't quite what they should be, leading us to believe TaleWorlds will work on these once more pressing stability problems have been ironed out.
It's worth noting that plans can change, and TaleWorlds Entertainment may end up not adding one or all of the features we go over in this piece.
Banners?!
Banners are present in the game, but they're not currently enabled. You won't see your troops wave your flag around mid-battle, just yet. It's a feature the developer is actively working on perfecting, so Bannerlord will soon allow you to become lord of banners.
Fleshed out kingdoms
You can already create your kingdom and rule most of Calradia if that's your jam, but it hasn't been fleshed out as much as we've seen in developer blogs. TaleWorlds Entertainment acknowledged this, stating that the feature of kingdom management will be further bolstered as time goes by. For now, it's pretty barebones.
Crime and punishment
There's a rogue skill, which means you can become the next leader of the thieves guild or something. Bannerlord will eventually have a crime rating system that keeps track of your misdeeds and determines how the game world and its inhabitants will respond to them. Crimes in Calradia can range from smuggling goods, raiding caravans, and performing hostile actions during times of peace.
Criminals are expected to pay, quite literally, for their crimes. Fines are determined by the current Crime Rating of the character. However, although money can get you out of a lot of tricky situations, sometimes this won't be enough, and corporal punishment will be carried out. As for severe criminals that can't afford to pay for their crimes, they are introduced to the judicial executioner, who helps them to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Should you be a vassal, it may be possible to exert some influence to have said charges dropped, but fellow lords may not be fans after such action has taken place. After all, a man or woman should face the consequences of his or her actions, right?
Creating a lasting dynasty
Much like Tywin Lannister, from the Game of Thrones series, Bannerlord will eventually allow you to create a dynasty that lasts the ages. That's what TaleWorlds Entertainment has in the works and we can already see the fundamental foundations present in the game through marriage and children.
Players will be able to have family members and children. Time flows faster in Bannerlord (when compared to Warband) with a year currently set to 84 days (we will probably fine-tune this further before release). Also, you can start the game with siblings, nephews and nieces and they serve as potential heirs as well.
Eventually, Bannerlord will have a fully-featured aging system whereby your character will grow old much like the rest of the continent, switching out for one of your heirs once you succumb to old age.
Unique locations are ... unique
The goal with the map is to have a unique environment hand-crafted to diversify the locations better, and keep everything feeling fresh as you travel around. For the time being (as was the case in Warband as a whole), locations share maps and so you'll see a castle or settlement look identical.
More diverse pool of quests
Some quests are present in the game, but they're not incredibly engaging for the player. This is set to change as the developer adds more content to build up the catalog of available quests.
There has also been plenty of quality of life improvements already implemented for the quest system. No longer will you need to hunt down NPCs that have information as they will be marked in the user interface (UI) by holding the ALT key. The quest log UI has been revamped to make it easier to track all your current objectives, and completing quests won't just bag you experience and rewards, but will fundamentally change the map.
Clearing out that bandit camp may seem trivial, but it could cease the spawning of new bandit raiding parties, allowing trade to flow freely while your kingdom heads to war.
Community wishlist
Not all features have been officially sanctioned by TaleWorlds. We've also included some of the more popular features on the community wishlist.
Co-op campaigns
Multiplayer is a large part of Mount & Blade, but many truly enjoy and appreciate the open-ended sandbox mode. TaleWorlds Entertainment listened to feedback from the community and wanted to look into adding co-operative play in the campaign mode, and the plan is still in place to do so. This hasn't been confirmed but is indeed something they're looking into.
Adding co-op functionality to Bannerlord would increase the complexity and development time of the project considerably, and therefore it will not be included in the release. We can hopefully add it as a DLC after release. We think the only viable way to support this is to make a single party co-op where additional players can join the leading player's battles but cannot venture into the campaign map on their own.
