Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Blog Updates
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TaleWorlds' official Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord website is hosting a number of new blog entries, including updates on character hair design, the game's engine improvements, and the focus they're putting on the AI and interface. An excerpt from that last piece:
The campaign sub-team focuses on the systems within the sandbox game that take place on the world map and in the settlements, as well as the interface and the campaign AI, with work on the in-game missions (such as tournaments, battles, sieges) shared across both teams. Much work has been put into the behaviour of the campaign AI, meaning that lords make more sensible decisions with unique influences simulating personal motives and faction obligations. Lords and ladies will sometimes group up into multiple armies, rather than Warband where it was always a collection of all the lords. Not only is the system more realistic but it will create much more variety in the campaign gameplay, fighting in multiple locations on multiple fronts, leading to more interesting choices and depth to the player's actions.
Development of this kind is incremental and behaviours need to be gradually corrected and improved over time, to include new actions. An example of this is ambushing. The mechanic and gameplay of ambushing itself needs to be developed but for a real implementation into the game, the AI needs to be programmed to make sure that lord and bandit parties also make use of ambushing in realistic ways. This adds extra layers to the development of a non-linear game like Mount&Blade, obviously creating complications but a necessary part of creating the games that we want to create and our players enjoy.
One area that could be called lacking in previous installments in the series is the interface. In the new game, most screens have undergone a complete revolution both graphically and functionally. The approach is to have graphical interfaces that are attractive, informative and simple to use with drag and drop being the most natural and intuitive method usable in almost any situation; combinations of control, shift, left and right clicking will allow acclimatised users to maximise efficiency and speed. During meetings, we go through and discuss the details of all these operations, taking care to make sure that the final product will offer a completely smooth experience.
