I've been playing the game since the July Alpha/Beta and I must say that the game's making great progress, shows great potential and that I think TW does a good job. I'm talking about Multiplayer only.

At it's core it's the same Warband, but better. We have everything WB had: the speed damage bonus calculation, 4 directions for attacking and blocking, almost all more subtle features like feinting, chambering, kicking and crush through are there, even if they still require quite a bit of tuning, and on top of that we recieved combos, rapid acceleration/deceleration for cav, sideways moving for cav, shield bashes and stances. The only feature that was in Warband but I failed to noticed in BL is the ability to do an overhead with a polearm and not harm your teammates, which was extremely useful in teamfights and was used extensively in tournaments, but it might make a comeback. It's not a revolution, but an evolution of the combat system - exactly what the devs have promised us and once it's done being polished and fine-tuned I can safely say that I'll be able to sink in another 10 years in the game(but honestly, TW, don't take that long for the next sequel please).

The rapid acceleration/deceleration feature(on double W/S) for cavalry is probably my favourite feature as a cav player. Once I tried it I couldn't play Warband anymore, it instantly felt outdated and the horses there started resembling scooters. Add to that the obviously superior horse animation of Bannerlord and I was instantly sold. And since I started talking about animation - it's superb, those bucks spent on mocap were definitely worth it.

Now I'm not a fan of captain mode, but skirmish definitely feels fresh and is a lot of fun. I really hope TW is going to introduce ranked matchmaking soon so I could enjoy sessions against evenly-matched teams. And even though I miss the good old battle mode, as well as the old classes system that let you pick 8 slots of equipment, I'm fairly sure it'll be brought back with mods, so I'm not worried. And siege, well, I don't need to tell you how great it is, it's probably the only mode that received universal praise.

The devs themselves have demonstrated again and again that they listen to community feedback, but try to keep a cool head and have an opinion of their own. For example when I joined, the game had huge issues with blocking and skating - both of them were fixed, however the plea to remake the classes system received a hard no with reasonable explanation and a revelation that this decision wasn't made on a whim, but was a result of a hard and long debate among the developers. The cav nerf was unnecessary though imo.

And the devs also showed that they are willing to go at great lengths to improve the game using our feedback - the classes received a full redesign with the help and initiative from the community. I believe no one after that can say that the devs don't listen to the community without being dishonest. We could use a bit more info on what's going on behind the scenes, but it seems that they have their reasons to not reveal that and I respect that.

Overall though, I believe the game's going places and I'm happy to be on board.

Keep it up, TW!

I've been playing the game since the July Alpha/Beta and I must say that the game's making great progress, shows great potential and that I think TW does a good job. I'm talking about Multiplayer only. At it's core it's the same Warband, but better. We have everything WB had: the speed damage bonus calculation, 4 directions for attacking and blocking, almost all more subtle features like feinting, chambering, kicking and crush through are there, even if they still require quite a bit of tuning, and on top of that we recieved combos, rapid acceleration/deceleration for cav, sideways moving for cav, shield bashes and stances. The only feature that was in Warband but I failed to noticed in BL is the ability to do an overhead with a polearm and not harm your teammates, which was extremely useful in teamfights and was used extensively in tournaments, but it might make a comeback. It's not a revolution, but an evolution of the combat system - exactly what the devs have promised us and once it's done being polished and fine-tuned I can safely say that I'll be able to sink in another 10 years in the game(but honestly, TW, don't take that long for the next sequel please). The rapid acceleration/deceleration feature(on double W/S) for cavalry is probably my favourite feature as a cav player. Once I tried it I couldn't play Warband anymore, it instantly felt outdated and the horses there started resembling scooters. Add to that the obviously superior horse animation of Bannerlord and I was instantly sold. And since I started talking about animation - it's superb, those bucks spent on mocap were definitely worth it. Now I'm not a fan of captain mode, but skirmish definitely feels fresh and is a lot of fun. I really hope TW is going to introduce ranked matchmaking soon so I could enjoy sessions against evenly-matched teams. And even though I miss the good old battle mode, as well as the old classes system that let you pick 8 slots of equipment, I'm fairly sure it'll be brought back with mods, so I'm not worried. And siege, well, I don't need to tell you how great it is, it's probably the only mode that received universal praise. The devs themselves have demonstrated again and again that they listen to community feedback, but try to keep a cool head and have an opinion of their own. For example when I joined, the game had huge issues with blocking and skating - both of them were fixed, however the plea to remake the classes system received a hard no with reasonable explanation and a revelation that this decision wasn't made on a whim, but was a result of a hard and long debate among the developers. The cav nerf was unnecessary though imo. And the devs also showed that they are willing to go at great lengths to improve the game using our feedback - the classes received a full redesign with the help and initiative from the community. I believe no one after that can say that the devs don't listen to the community without being dishonest. We could use a bit more info on what's going on behind the scenes, but it seems that they have their reasons to not reveal that and I respect that. Overall though, I believe the game's going places and I'm happy to be on board. Keep it up, TW!