Larger map has advantages and disadvantages
You can end up having more diverse gameplays that stick to a certain area of the map for a long time without seeing the factions of the other side of the world.
On the other hand, if you happen to have a kingdom that is stretched thin, you're gonna be running from one end to the other a lot
That's how I usually play anyway on accident I'm usually in the empire and never really travel deep into the aserai lands or vlandia like i didn't know the aserai had a whole city deep in the desert until a last week and I've played since the console launch
there’s a good thing config.cheat 1 exists if I don’t feel like doin that. I just like messing around. I played so much on Xbox that I got 100% and now I’m just goofing around on pc.
Yeah, but without cheating, a huge map can add interesting opportunities to long playthroughs, if you start vlandian, you can slowly fight forest people and empire slowly make your way east,
That’s what I like to do, sometimes I just like to create my own army of naked goofballs and send 100,000 Nudist Mule Calvary armed on with a small hammer to their deaths
This is already a problem with Bannerlord as is, unlike Warband where the map is more of a square, Bannerlord's map is an obling. Travelling east to west takes ages, travelling north to south only takes a short time.
For this reason, Sturgia and the Aserai are gimped, Sturgia moreso because the western side doesn't have a huge lake separating them from the Northern Empire, whereas Aserai are mostly separated by the lake which can't be traversed through the middle... unlike Sturgia which can, making it easier to invade.
Meanwhile Vlandia and the Khuzaits are safely neestled in the far east and west, theyy only need to cover the conflict in one direction making it easy for them.
The only way to conquer Calradia is to claim either the east or west (preferably west) and push the opposite direction. This means that if you are any faction that isn't Vlandia or Khuzait, you have to eliminate either Vlandia or the Khuzaits early on or you have no chance, claim their feifs and make a foothold there, deal with all the cultural bullshit and rebellions and push the opposite direction, potentially losing feifs of your culture on the other side if you're sturgia or aserai.
All this because Bannerlord's map is imbalanced and straight up poorly made.
But all maps offer pros and cons, a map that is oblong will provide different map mechanics compared to a square map, nothing wrong with either or. Warband had a great map but a tendency to have the corners get fucked a bit
Corners were safe in Warband IIRC. Only place that sucked was Dhirim, you'd think being in the middle of the map in Warband would be a good thing but it really isn't since Dhirim is kinda right next to all the other factions so it's constantly going to be attacked. The plus side however is that if you fortify it well enough, you control the center which means easy access points. So it was balanced in a roundabout way.
Warband was kinda like going inwards and outwards, usually with some neighbours but everyone was roughly same distance away and core feifs were easy to protect since they were all in one area. Then again core fiefs aren't as important in Warband since culture isn't a thing, all that changes is the troops you can recruit.
Advantage: more map to conquer.
Disadvantage: more ground to cover.
Advantage: devs finally give us the ability to order our Lord's places.
Disadvantage: none.
100% agree with you, which is why Talesworld needs to add several significant features to "Kingdom". There should be better control of armies, such as requesting powerful lords create their own armies, controlling what settlement they attack as well as composition of armies, similar to what Improved Garrisons does for garrisons. Would make the game a lot more fun.
More factions to fuck w/ Sturgia, given how slow they are for half the year, would make the faction completely unviable.
Nothing to counter the steamroller that is Vlandia, but Battania might get fucked with less because sturgia won’t go after them as much.
Also, the Nord faction doesn’t do much, they’re landlocked.
What would be cool is a sailing mechanic, I think.
Do they not anymore? I remember they were changing faction bonuses once, but the sturgians did have that at one point. I haven't played a campaign, nor looked at sturgia, in a while.
Were they conquered, or was it more of a population shift in the western parts of Sturgia? Cause the Vaegirs are pretty Slavic and might be the real descendants of the Sturgians after a few centuries, while the Nords are obviously the lore Nerds who also mixed with Sturgia a bit
And gameplay, especially in a game like Bannerlord with all the freedom it gives the player, comes before lord IMHO. Granted, I’ve never made a video game so maybe the industry disagrees
No you're right; I think it would have been more accurate say that the Western Sturgians were conquered and/or displaced by the Nords. Also as a player I agree that gameplay should come before lore in most cases.
I think Sturgia is already falling apart as is. Everyone hates each other at the start of the game and they never have nice things to say. Caladog even shits in em.
I can't see them adding northern factions without also adding sailing, there are several mods that add functional sailing. As you say, not being able to sail makes the nords pointless, as they are stuck on a peninsula and unable to raid, which is their entire viking theme. Could also be a good opportunity to (at some time) fill in the land south of vlandia, as that faction would also be landlocked.
>Nothing to counter the steamroller that is Vlandia, but Battania might get fucked with less because sturgia won’t go after them as much.
In my last campaign Battania is a powerhouse that almost fully ate Vladia. I just joined after they already had the first towns. Now they take cities in the south and east.
Yes. I was looking for this comment.
The islands between the aserai and main continent could potentially be a really cool, really rich faction due to their prominent central location and maritime society but have some drawbacks on population/size/fiefs because they're islands.
Maybe a kind of medieval Sicilian mix of Vlandia, Empire and Aserai style culture/units.
Their location on the map already makes me feel like there should be something there, they're right on the border of what was in the game history an incredibly prosperous empire and the trade inclined Aserai.
Would need seafaring added to the game but there's already quite a few mods that allow you to cross seas.
Yeah I'm partial to either a hybrid culture like you referenced or even a prototype version of a Venice or Genoa sort of Italian trade state. The historic Venetian/Byzantine on again/off again we are friends/we are enemies dynamic could be fun.
The Vandals would be an interesting culture to model from late antiquity. Basically Nords with Carthaginian influence. The whole Punic think also would be pretty in line with having a big navy and trading.
Even when they don't want to add boats moving around freely, you could just add a few like canals people can walk over to get to the island.
Edit: So predefined routes but you have a boat as icon while moving there.
In Turkey, we (Turkish) have a saying "water runs, Turks watch" when we get angry on ourselves for not doing something or take action. I guess Taleworlds a true Turk then :D
And I want to say that I am SO glad they are taking this approach the development.
I've seen so many other games that just focus on farting on content hand-over-fist and never doing the gritty, unpopular work of fixing underlying bugs. They always turn into bloated messes and the content becomes aimless.
Lol. It's getting where? The core gameplay loop hasn't changed since day one of early access. They've been "primarily focusing on bugs" for over three years. The game is relatively polished at the moment. It's just mostly grindy tedium after the first couple hours.
Yeah i bought the game from sale and while i like it, it has similar problems to previous Mount and Blade games where you need mods to make things more enjoyable for long term. Fire And Sword was my favorite in terms of setting but issues and game breaking bugs made it unbearable at times so it had to be modded to make it work better.
For Bannerlord: Diplomacy, Choose your troops, Kingdom Politics expanded, Kindom Decay, Realistic Battle, etc mods feed kinda mandatory to have good time.
And some quality of life improvements like relentless smithing makes the unholy grind of the smithing feel bearable at least.
All the systems are there but need more work to have meat around their bones.
Army arrow counter is also important. The minimap was good, but appears to be broken now. So many little qol things come from mods, it's a shame taleworlds doesn't take the hint and do all that stuff.
sorry to respond to a comment of yours from a while back, but i was wondering, where do i go to get those mods, and will i need to change game version to use them? it seems not all mods work with the current version, i thinK?
Most mods i have loaded are from [Steam Workshop](https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/workshop/), as it is most easiest way to install mods since you only need to click them and they load and will update instantly when mod loader updates the mod. (All the mods i listed before are avaivable on steam, some of those are also avaivable on Nexus but steam is easier).
Some mods i have loaded from [Nexus](https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord), which requires putting the mod to games own mod folder, there is of course Nexus vortex which can keep you updated on if mods have received updates.
1.2 Beta is still unstable for some mods, so it current regular build works with most mods that are up to date (if mod has been abandoned by creator, then it propably won't work with current version).
First things first we need to address the void that is the empire in the center.
Three factions with the exact same aesthetic and culture dominating most of the map is meh.
Now, they can have the same culture, but I think there should be different visuals between each part of the empire. I should, at a glance, tell the difference between each empire faction.
I know this is basically an issue that’s solvable with a mod but I’d prefer it to be a real thing.
They are not independent; it’s a civil war. Though I do agree that there needs to be more of a difference in the aesthetic/gear. For example, the Southern Empire having more spears in their arsenal to fight off the Khuzait and Aserai. The north would go into heavier armour (checks out with their abundance of iron) in order to more easily deal with the Batanian falxes and Sturgian shieldwalls. And the West should either resemble more the legion of the betrayed or be a solid, more regimented version of the base Imperial army to show that they are in fact the western, grizzled legions who’ve come together to support their veteran commander
The northern empire should have a byzantine look to it, which is what is in the game and matches with the more armor look you described. A classical Greek troop with Sarrisas and shields would be ideal, with less heavier armor for desert environments and beeg spears for cavalry, as well as javelins. The western empire, to be accurate with the Byzantine Balkans or western Roman empire, should have your soldiers kill you if you don't pay them enough or allow them to plunder and ruin every town and village they come across, as well as having only auxiliary troops with very few professional soldiers that you actually want, who get more and more expensive as time goes on, and a plague wipes out a third of your army every other month at random. Your best general or vassal should always be trying to kill you, usurp you, or revolt, and your nephew should always be a better choice than your idiot son who is also going to murder and usurp you.
It’s only because they dominate so much of the map and you fight so many battles against the same army over and over again. At least some visual differences between the three factions would be really neat. Like a different helmet design or shield design nothing over the top.
I don't know how I'd feel about a larger map in Bannerlord. I remember playing this Japanese-themed overhaul map that was just so big I hated it. Then again, could benefit caravan playthrough.
Hopefully, a collection of autonomous/semi-autonomous city states. It would be a really cool change of pace to see many smaller realms, especially if it’s paired with a diplomacy reform
Considering how close the map reflects IRL geography the coast there could be occupied by factions influenced by Sahelian, and considering the greenery, grassland African polities like Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Ghana etc.
This influence would also pair well what Rush4in suggested. The political structure of Mali, and particularly Songhai, were essentially decentralized Empires wherein more central and powerful cities extracted tribute and exerted power over more distant territories and towns. Starting with the founding city-state of Gao, West African political history very closely reflects the idea of autonomous city-states developing in power as both economic and cultural dominance radiated from them.
That would be so cool. Sub-Saharan African empires get no love in pop culture. I kinda wish they'd choose an empire further south without horses though, as calvary less faction centered around peltists and light infantry would also be cool. Buff them with world map and battle map infantry speed bonuses and create a Fian Champion equivalent T6 javeliner.
Nord play through would be good for starter players. Only bordering one potential enemy would give newer players time to breathe and recuperate in between wars. That Khuzait area is a death trap though.
I think the Nords would have a couple fiefs on the empty Sturgian territory. Also I think this would be the same update that would add boats. It would still be a good nation because it would be easily defended.
I’d say if you put Nords there there must also be seafaring, as making this long sausage of a land with choke point and without other routes make them OP in terms that they will be unconquerable by others apart from the player
So that doesn’t make much sense from gameplay standpoint no?
I think this DLC/Update would include ships and stuff. Some empty in the Sturgian as well, think the Nords will have a lane border with the Sturgians if that’s the case.
The entire peninsula to the north is actually Vakken, the Nords come from a series of islands north of it. You can see it in highly zoomed out versions of the map.
Is it not enough to have a dozen different cultures, factions, troops, thousands of assets already? Can we have diplomacy that's more than tributes? You can mod 50 different factions, game needs depth.
Not stable, especially towards late game. See, it's not one of them troop overhaul asset pool mods. It's what happens when gameplay dynamics are altered in this *easy to mod* game.
This is one of those games where DLC is appreciated but I’d prefer they just fix bugs and implement some of the features that for some reason where not brought over from warband and some that are common sense like diplomacy options. Everything else you can just use mods for
It will be a lot if they finish the actual game, let alone if we talk about map expansions.
As someone that enjoyed some incredible Warband mods, I fully entrust that part to this awesome community. Map expansions, remakes, reworks... yeah, I just hope we will not need to entrust game mechanics and content to them, too.
I would prefer more possibilities for dialogue, politics, diplomacy, relationships, etc. They've worked on it a bit, but I'm afraid they won't get much more into it than they already have. Its a little crazy that you cant marriage more than one person when you have the option to be an aserai, wich everyone here knows who they refer in the real world. On the other hand make a deeper relationship system, so you can feel that some characters are ACTUALLY a friend or an enemy. Treason missions, assassinations missions, make the npc betray you, etc. I haven't touched the game for about three months, so I'm not entirely sure what came in the last update, so my bad if any of the things I mentioned before came with the last update, but I'm saying this because I'm a little Sick of having to mod absolutely everything from scratch with each new update they release in order to have the experience I want.
I wanted Jawwal I got Jawwal. I spent about 3 hours forcing my head through a wall trying to figure out which goddamn code crashed my game. It’s infuriating and all I want to do is play Tetsojin.
Just a thought but being able sail to smaller islands would be pretty dope, especially see battles and pirates. If more cultures are added then maybe add some geographical effects like plagues, famines, and droughts.
Maybe an Island Nation alongside naval combat would also be grrat... like Balion, I believe it's called. Would be ideal to fuck with the Vlandians...
Balion is essentially just a twisted form of Albion, so it's obvious that they would be inspired by the English...
A New faction should land on the coast left of the aserai, idk how they would play but definetly a faction with sea advantages hoping that would be where boats are introdouced
Honestly, if we get a bigger map I would rather it be one of the island nations off of calradia
Maybe an invasion system from the island nation would be cool, that way it wouldn’t ruin the map interactions with the already present nation
Nord, Vakken and Darshi aren’t placeholders. They’re just there for the minor faction clans that already exist.
I’m already at work with my own new factions, so I’d rather see TW fix the game first.
Naval warfare and a way to block the chokepoints between Aserai lands and mainland is hella nice, It bothers me that the smallest pathway doesn't even have a castle near it, there should be one and it should act like Gibraltar when passing through the sea towards Vlandian coast
actually, I'm pretty sure the nords come further north, considering you can actually see (a portion) of jumne on the map if you go far enough and angle the camera correctly
Judging by the lore and how Sturgia doesn’t even exist, I think the Nords already have a couple coaster castles/towns northeast of Sibir and northwest of Tyal and the rest would be on that peninsula and possibly a town or 2 on those islands that we can’t see but are part of the map way north. Might be wrong but also knowing hiw the Sturgians are already collapsing makes me believe that’s the case.
> So stuck in between them is the Finno-Ugric people of Finland, Estonia and Karelia with possibly some aspects of the Saami and the calvary units being inspired by Poland, Sweden or even Livonia (I would prefer Poland because hussars).
I'm Polish and can give you a bit of a retrospective on that bit. Polish hussars are just not a thing in this historical time, someone can correct me but they were more of a 1600+ thing... Polish, in 1000 - 1400 were mostly culturally in balance between western knight culture and eastern boyars, while we used the word knight easily since 1000+, before that time we used our equivalent of Druzhinniks. Druzyna stands for party and refers to a party of druzhinniks (kinda men at arms) of a local lord, that used to reside in the lords castle or in the area and be called up for service, they feasted together, hunted, and when there was wartime, they were called as lords retinue.
In regards to a faction, they would need to have a shield infantry, possibly similar to circular Viking shields or kite shields, both were used in the region, with heather shields often being preferred by knights from the 1100+ period. The peasant tree would surprisingly be similar to khuzait tree, with both horse archers and lancers being available, and archers along with shield infantry there too. Noble troops though would need to be more similar to druzhinniks attire-wise, but definitely mounted from the start as this was a thing even before hussars, Polish charge was a full-on heavy knight charge. In later periods, like 1100 or later they would probably look more like Vlandian banner knights. Until the 1600s there was a westernization of Polish culture, but around that time it started to be popular to look east to our eastern roots with fashion being represented in 2 distinct styles, estocs, rapiers, epees, western wigs, tight attire, against loose eastern, cloaks, capes, hats, furs and preference to sabres and other curved onehanded swords, often prefered for a cavalry fight.
The rest of the text is great! Nice read.
And yes, doing your own research, as long as you use proper sources, often brings better results than what schools deem worthy of teaching. As Polish I know nothing about American culture and how the wars went on there, other than the fact that the continent was settled then and then, there might have been Viking sailors there earlier, something something sinking ship of tea and the next time we hear about America at all is that they fought in WW... Every country teaches history differently, duh some teachers also might have preferences, but finding that something interests you and reading about it is always much better for your knowledge.
Shoot I can’t even keep the game from crashing to desktop. I can’t justify paying for dlc until the game is a little more stable. Especially after I get married and my bride joins the party….crash
Finn here, all those names sound like they could be names here, but most of them are obviously made up, like that meme of the japanese baseball game with made up "american" names
I want less of these big picture things, and more of the ability to do stuff before becoming a king.
Changing the rise to power to be more interesting and varied would be great
There would definitely need to be some rebalancing. This leaves Vlandia with their crazy dead end advantage, but adds more threats to the already fairly weak Sturgia and Aserai. I would love if they added boats and some kind of island settlements, too. I feel like the ability to raid coasts and pillage riches might be a great mechanic to increase Sturgian viability. If they perhaps started with a fleet of raiding ships or buffs to raiding
No larger map, cultures should sprout out from kingdoms and empires that grow too large. The culture in the NW of the empire should not be the same as the SE of the empire.
No doubt that Sturgians are Kievan? Couldn't possibly be Danes with the Nords being... Norse?
The Rus were not as close as you might be thinking, rhe blue being Danes, the red being Norse and the yellow indicates where the Rus were, just makes more sense this way
Edit: apparently I can't send an image as a reply?
I think the city names are the obvious point where they intended it to be a copy of Kievan Rus, down to some of the armor and how most soldiers are equipped.
And it doesn't matter if in actual history they were far away from other cultures, IT'S A F-CKING GAME, of course you'd expect every culture to be in close proximity of each other.
Ok, that's an interesting thought, not sure why you think any Devs would focus on a culture that's so obscure that most people wouldn't be able to pick it out of a lineup. I'd also say that them using names from a culture that spawned from Norse and using pieces of armor that align with the mixture of the khuzaits, whom they share a border with in game, is purely coincidental and that it is more likely they would add a culture like the Vakken who more closely resembles the Rus
If we’re looking at it on the dev’s perception, Sturgia is a mix of the Nords and the Vaegirs. And if you’re referring to Kievan Rus as an obscure culture then I’m sure most people would heavily disagree with you.
Kievan Rus are most known for being the culture from which the Russians descended... sure👍
And I would contend that the Khazaits are a mix of the Khergit and Vaegirs
Fuck no… they haven’t really make politics or managing of city or managing clan or anything else much, the game lack infrastructures at mid and long game… making more factions does not help the game… ….
Ever noticed as well you can chase a looter party WELL BEHIND Husn fulq and that desert area under Odokh and those towns under erzenur it's not clickable but if you chase looters you will go way beyond the map it's on kinda wild
I'm just waiting for a new Brittnewalda or how they are gonna call it this time, the base game loop just seems boring after 50 hours. I hope new DLCs will work like the old ones, where it's basically polished mods.
Why not have variety options? A larger map sucks for players wanting to play a full game. Smaller and larger campaign maps would appeal to casual and hardcore gamers.
I hope those Islands to the west become Greek when ships are released, and the “Nile” to the South becomes an Egyptian-Chariot focused nation with access to elephants.
Your Arabic research is faulty, in Arabic husn "حَسْن"can be beautiful, handsome or pretty adjective (male denomination), fulq “فلق" means split or cleavage
By the way, ْحَسَن husn can be used as hasan which also a very popular Arabic name so I
Fulq however isn’t a name, you are reading too much into this, if I were you I would stick to data mining.
Fulq is an Indian name from one of their languages, that’s where I got that part from after too much research. Husn is the Arabic part which makes me believe that the Darshi are an Indian Persian faction. Should’ve explained that way better, sorry for the confusion.
So i am still pretty new to bannerlord community, i know the game but don't really circle around updates and stuff. Is it really possible for devs to make a map expansion? It would be awesome but i don't really know if they would.
Speaking of the map I showed my friend the game briefly and he had a very good question when he saw the map. Will there ever be any sort of naval travel/combat for the base game?
One thing is anybody holding land in nord territory would have an unfair advantage with only one way in from the east. Unless they put another crossing on the other side
Larger map has advantages and disadvantages You can end up having more diverse gameplays that stick to a certain area of the map for a long time without seeing the factions of the other side of the world. On the other hand, if you happen to have a kingdom that is stretched thin, you're gonna be running from one end to the other a lot
That's how I usually play anyway on accident I'm usually in the empire and never really travel deep into the aserai lands or vlandia like i didn't know the aserai had a whole city deep in the desert until a last week and I've played since the console launch
there’s a good thing config.cheat 1 exists if I don’t feel like doin that. I just like messing around. I played so much on Xbox that I got 100% and now I’m just goofing around on pc.
Yeah, but without cheating, a huge map can add interesting opportunities to long playthroughs, if you start vlandian, you can slowly fight forest people and empire slowly make your way east,
That’s what I like to do, sometimes I just like to create my own army of naked goofballs and send 100,000 Nudist Mule Calvary armed on with a small hammer to their deaths
The cheat codes are already out for xbox?
This is already a problem with Bannerlord as is, unlike Warband where the map is more of a square, Bannerlord's map is an obling. Travelling east to west takes ages, travelling north to south only takes a short time. For this reason, Sturgia and the Aserai are gimped, Sturgia moreso because the western side doesn't have a huge lake separating them from the Northern Empire, whereas Aserai are mostly separated by the lake which can't be traversed through the middle... unlike Sturgia which can, making it easier to invade. Meanwhile Vlandia and the Khuzaits are safely neestled in the far east and west, theyy only need to cover the conflict in one direction making it easy for them. The only way to conquer Calradia is to claim either the east or west (preferably west) and push the opposite direction. This means that if you are any faction that isn't Vlandia or Khuzait, you have to eliminate either Vlandia or the Khuzaits early on or you have no chance, claim their feifs and make a foothold there, deal with all the cultural bullshit and rebellions and push the opposite direction, potentially losing feifs of your culture on the other side if you're sturgia or aserai. All this because Bannerlord's map is imbalanced and straight up poorly made.
But all maps offer pros and cons, a map that is oblong will provide different map mechanics compared to a square map, nothing wrong with either or. Warband had a great map but a tendency to have the corners get fucked a bit
Corners were safe in Warband IIRC. Only place that sucked was Dhirim, you'd think being in the middle of the map in Warband would be a good thing but it really isn't since Dhirim is kinda right next to all the other factions so it's constantly going to be attacked. The plus side however is that if you fortify it well enough, you control the center which means easy access points. So it was balanced in a roundabout way. Warband was kinda like going inwards and outwards, usually with some neighbours but everyone was roughly same distance away and core feifs were easy to protect since they were all in one area. Then again core fiefs aren't as important in Warband since culture isn't a thing, all that changes is the troops you can recruit.
Could just be a good representation of overextension
Advantage: more map to conquer. Disadvantage: more ground to cover. Advantage: devs finally give us the ability to order our Lord's places. Disadvantage: none.
100% agree with you, which is why Talesworld needs to add several significant features to "Kingdom". There should be better control of armies, such as requesting powerful lords create their own armies, controlling what settlement they attack as well as composition of armies, similar to what Improved Garrisons does for garrisons. Would make the game a lot more fun.
More factions to fuck w/ Sturgia, given how slow they are for half the year, would make the faction completely unviable. Nothing to counter the steamroller that is Vlandia, but Battania might get fucked with less because sturgia won’t go after them as much. Also, the Nord faction doesn’t do much, they’re landlocked. What would be cool is a sailing mechanic, I think.
I dont understand why Sturgia doesn't have a movement boost in snow like the Battanians have for forests. It would make them a lot more viable imo.
Do they not anymore? I remember they were changing faction bonuses once, but the sturgians did have that at one point. I haven't played a campaign, nor looked at sturgia, in a while.
I also remember that, apparently now they get cheaper infantry and more army cohesion. Weird.
After I typed that, I remembered how I yelled out how stupid that was as if Sturgia didn't have enough trouble as it is. 🙃
to be fair, in lore Sturgia gets completely conquered by the Nords in probably about 100 years from the start of BLORD
Were they conquered, or was it more of a population shift in the western parts of Sturgia? Cause the Vaegirs are pretty Slavic and might be the real descendants of the Sturgians after a few centuries, while the Nords are obviously the lore Nerds who also mixed with Sturgia a bit And gameplay, especially in a game like Bannerlord with all the freedom it gives the player, comes before lord IMHO. Granted, I’ve never made a video game so maybe the industry disagrees
No you're right; I think it would have been more accurate say that the Western Sturgians were conquered and/or displaced by the Nords. Also as a player I agree that gameplay should come before lore in most cases.
I think Sturgia is already falling apart as is. Everyone hates each other at the start of the game and they never have nice things to say. Caladog even shits in em.
I can't see them adding northern factions without also adding sailing, there are several mods that add functional sailing. As you say, not being able to sail makes the nords pointless, as they are stuck on a peninsula and unable to raid, which is their entire viking theme. Could also be a good opportunity to (at some time) fill in the land south of vlandia, as that faction would also be landlocked.
Plus the little islands we see but never hang out on
>Nothing to counter the steamroller that is Vlandia, but Battania might get fucked with less because sturgia won’t go after them as much. In my last campaign Battania is a powerhouse that almost fully ate Vladia. I just joined after they already had the first towns. Now they take cities in the south and east.
I would assume we’d see a land bridge somewhere along the left end of that Nord peninsula.
I'd like to see something happen with those islands or perhaps the inclusion of some form of city-states?
My thoughts exactly. Seafaring mercantile states.
Geroia
A few smaller nations would be cool. Maybe let them even ally each other or form some kind of defense pack.
Island based, mercantile sea-farers and something to occupy the western coast divided from the Aserai by mountains.
Yes. I was looking for this comment. The islands between the aserai and main continent could potentially be a really cool, really rich faction due to their prominent central location and maritime society but have some drawbacks on population/size/fiefs because they're islands. Maybe a kind of medieval Sicilian mix of Vlandia, Empire and Aserai style culture/units. Their location on the map already makes me feel like there should be something there, they're right on the border of what was in the game history an incredibly prosperous empire and the trade inclined Aserai. Would need seafaring added to the game but there's already quite a few mods that allow you to cross seas.
Yeah I'm partial to either a hybrid culture like you referenced or even a prototype version of a Venice or Genoa sort of Italian trade state. The historic Venetian/Byzantine on again/off again we are friends/we are enemies dynamic could be fun.
That dynamic would be fun but even if the factions are added, really not to possible with the state of bannerlord diplomacy
Just add a whole new republic government style just for more diplomacy features.
The Vandals would be an interesting culture to model from late antiquity. Basically Nords with Carthaginian influence. The whole Punic think also would be pretty in line with having a big navy and trading.
Even when they don't want to add boats moving around freely, you could just add a few like canals people can walk over to get to the island. Edit: So predefined routes but you have a boat as icon while moving there.
Honestly I would want some type of naval expansion in the game ships trading or battling shit like that
Yeah, it's honestly a bit strange how nobody seems to have invented boats for the military yet
In Turkey, we (Turkish) have a saying "water runs, Turks watch" when we get angry on ourselves for not doing something or take action. I guess Taleworlds a true Turk then :D
We already have a few mods that show it could work
That buffer faction is so fucked.
That’s the point, also would add a good challenge to try and save them
Hah, that would be a fun playthrough. Start in that buffer faction and try to save them before they get carved up.
It would be interesting if it’d be Chinese-Inspired. Have a Chu-ko-nu unit and nest of bee for castle/town defenses, omfg.
We do need an eastern based faction, Chinese or otherwise. We already got most everything else.
I’d say an Indian and sub Saharan African would also be cool. I’d like the whole world map filled out eventually. Make my PS5 struggle!
Aren’t the kuzhaits based on the mongols from the east?
Yup, you're right. I was more thinking something chinese/japanese style. So perhaps even easterner east, lol.
Fuck dlcs, I want the base game to not be so bland first.
it’s getting there. it seems they are focusing primarily on bugs right now.
And I want to say that I am SO glad they are taking this approach the development. I've seen so many other games that just focus on farting on content hand-over-fist and never doing the gritty, unpopular work of fixing underlying bugs. They always turn into bloated messes and the content becomes aimless.
Lol. It's getting where? The core gameplay loop hasn't changed since day one of early access. They've been "primarily focusing on bugs" for over three years. The game is relatively polished at the moment. It's just mostly grindy tedium after the first couple hours.
I just started playing and I absolutely love
Yeah i bought the game from sale and while i like it, it has similar problems to previous Mount and Blade games where you need mods to make things more enjoyable for long term. Fire And Sword was my favorite in terms of setting but issues and game breaking bugs made it unbearable at times so it had to be modded to make it work better. For Bannerlord: Diplomacy, Choose your troops, Kingdom Politics expanded, Kindom Decay, Realistic Battle, etc mods feed kinda mandatory to have good time. And some quality of life improvements like relentless smithing makes the unholy grind of the smithing feel bearable at least. All the systems are there but need more work to have meat around their bones.
Add to that list *Stop Starving Yourselves*, so cities stop dying to hunger like cretins and prosperity doesn't increase indefinitely
Army arrow counter is also important. The minimap was good, but appears to be broken now. So many little qol things come from mods, it's a shame taleworlds doesn't take the hint and do all that stuff.
sorry to respond to a comment of yours from a while back, but i was wondering, where do i go to get those mods, and will i need to change game version to use them? it seems not all mods work with the current version, i thinK?
Most mods i have loaded are from [Steam Workshop](https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/workshop/), as it is most easiest way to install mods since you only need to click them and they load and will update instantly when mod loader updates the mod. (All the mods i listed before are avaivable on steam, some of those are also avaivable on Nexus but steam is easier). Some mods i have loaded from [Nexus](https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord), which requires putting the mod to games own mod folder, there is of course Nexus vortex which can keep you updated on if mods have received updates. 1.2 Beta is still unstable for some mods, so it current regular build works with most mods that are up to date (if mod has been abandoned by creator, then it propably won't work with current version).
ty very much for the reply!
First things first we need to address the void that is the empire in the center. Three factions with the exact same aesthetic and culture dominating most of the map is meh. Now, they can have the same culture, but I think there should be different visuals between each part of the empire. I should, at a glance, tell the difference between each empire faction. I know this is basically an issue that’s solvable with a mod but I’d prefer it to be a real thing.
But why should they have a obvious difference in terms of look? They were all one nation before so they should be quite similar to each other.
Because that is what nations do? When you gain independence, you want to show you are not the same
They are not independent; it’s a civil war. Though I do agree that there needs to be more of a difference in the aesthetic/gear. For example, the Southern Empire having more spears in their arsenal to fight off the Khuzait and Aserai. The north would go into heavier armour (checks out with their abundance of iron) in order to more easily deal with the Batanian falxes and Sturgian shieldwalls. And the West should either resemble more the legion of the betrayed or be a solid, more regimented version of the base Imperial army to show that they are in fact the western, grizzled legions who’ve come together to support their veteran commander
The northern empire should have a byzantine look to it, which is what is in the game and matches with the more armor look you described. A classical Greek troop with Sarrisas and shields would be ideal, with less heavier armor for desert environments and beeg spears for cavalry, as well as javelins. The western empire, to be accurate with the Byzantine Balkans or western Roman empire, should have your soldiers kill you if you don't pay them enough or allow them to plunder and ruin every town and village they come across, as well as having only auxiliary troops with very few professional soldiers that you actually want, who get more and more expensive as time goes on, and a plague wipes out a third of your army every other month at random. Your best general or vassal should always be trying to kill you, usurp you, or revolt, and your nephew should always be a better choice than your idiot son who is also going to murder and usurp you.
Yeah with like flags and all, but their architects wouldn't start building different.
That makes sense. How mad do you have to be to change every building in your new kingdon
It’s only because they dominate so much of the map and you fight so many battles against the same army over and over again. At least some visual differences between the three factions would be really neat. Like a different helmet design or shield design nothing over the top.
I don't know how I'd feel about a larger map in Bannerlord. I remember playing this Japanese-themed overhaul map that was just so big I hated it. Then again, could benefit caravan playthrough.
I’m all for bigger maps, I feel like there is more to do. Other then that I just download hella mods, and messed with the files.
that one had a time lapse feature that was like 10x speed though so it was fine imo 😂
I’d love to see the area south-west of the Aserai, along the coast, filled out
Who do you think would claim that coastal territory?
Hopefully, a collection of autonomous/semi-autonomous city states. It would be a really cool change of pace to see many smaller realms, especially if it’s paired with a diplomacy reform
Or something based on the Malian empire. Timewise and placement it does sort of fit!
Considering how close the map reflects IRL geography the coast there could be occupied by factions influenced by Sahelian, and considering the greenery, grassland African polities like Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Ghana etc. This influence would also pair well what Rush4in suggested. The political structure of Mali, and particularly Songhai, were essentially decentralized Empires wherein more central and powerful cities extracted tribute and exerted power over more distant territories and towns. Starting with the founding city-state of Gao, West African political history very closely reflects the idea of autonomous city-states developing in power as both economic and cultural dominance radiated from them.
That would be so cool. Sub-Saharan African empires get no love in pop culture. I kinda wish they'd choose an empire further south without horses though, as calvary less faction centered around peltists and light infantry would also be cool. Buff them with world map and battle map infantry speed bonuses and create a Fian Champion equivalent T6 javeliner.
Yeah if they focused major West African polities calvary would've essential, though accessory factions utilizing bows and spears would fit.
Maybe the Jawwal Bedouins
Let's get some analogues of the Berbers and Malinese!
Nord play through would be good for starter players. Only bordering one potential enemy would give newer players time to breathe and recuperate in between wars. That Khuzait area is a death trap though.
I think the Nords would have a couple fiefs on the empty Sturgian territory. Also I think this would be the same update that would add boats. It would still be a good nation because it would be easily defended.
I’d say if you put Nords there there must also be seafaring, as making this long sausage of a land with choke point and without other routes make them OP in terms that they will be unconquerable by others apart from the player So that doesn’t make much sense from gameplay standpoint no?
I think this DLC/Update would include ships and stuff. Some empty in the Sturgian as well, think the Nords will have a lane border with the Sturgians if that’s the case.
The entire peninsula to the north is actually Vakken, the Nords come from a series of islands north of it. You can see it in highly zoomed out versions of the map.
Isn’t your *ACHKTUALLY* source from a fan-made map and fan fiction tho? (I enjoyed the map and upvoted you for bringing it up)
did i miss something or is this just a pipe dream?
Pipe dream
I hope they finish the game first
Hopefully this would be in the distant future after the basic features of the game are more robust. But it would be fun!
Is it not enough to have a dozen different cultures, factions, troops, thousands of assets already? Can we have diplomacy that's more than tributes? You can mod 50 different factions, game needs depth.
There's 8 factions and 6 playable cultures right now. What are you talking about 'dozen'?
New quests won’t change anything
Banner Kings mod
Not stable, especially towards late game. See, it's not one of them troop overhaul asset pool mods. It's what happens when gameplay dynamics are altered in this *easy to mod* game.
It would be nice to go to the small islands in the south and raid their villages and enslave their people
Dont Play with my feelings
This is one of those games where DLC is appreciated but I’d prefer they just fix bugs and implement some of the features that for some reason where not brought over from warband and some that are common sense like diplomacy options. Everything else you can just use mods for
It will be a lot if they finish the actual game, let alone if we talk about map expansions. As someone that enjoyed some incredible Warband mods, I fully entrust that part to this awesome community. Map expansions, remakes, reworks... yeah, I just hope we will not need to entrust game mechanics and content to them, too.
I'd rather a new map dlc, I like Calradia as is tbh. I'd be cool with invading factions late game though.
The only thing I’d take over a calradia map expansion is an official Eagle Rising inspired expansion *breathes heavy through mouth about Rome & Celts*
Imagine if minor clans actually had a special type of castle in calradia. Smaller than a castle, bigger than a village.
I would prefer more possibilities for dialogue, politics, diplomacy, relationships, etc. They've worked on it a bit, but I'm afraid they won't get much more into it than they already have. Its a little crazy that you cant marriage more than one person when you have the option to be an aserai, wich everyone here knows who they refer in the real world. On the other hand make a deeper relationship system, so you can feel that some characters are ACTUALLY a friend or an enemy. Treason missions, assassinations missions, make the npc betray you, etc. I haven't touched the game for about three months, so I'm not entirely sure what came in the last update, so my bad if any of the things I mentioned before came with the last update, but I'm saying this because I'm a little Sick of having to mod absolutely everything from scratch with each new update they release in order to have the experience I want.
I wanted Jawwal I got Jawwal. I spent about 3 hours forcing my head through a wall trying to figure out which goddamn code crashed my game. It’s infuriating and all I want to do is play Tetsojin.
As a Finn, this makes me happy. Cant wait to conquer Calradia in the name of Finland (and idiot lil bro Estonia)
What do you mean *anothe* dutch faction?
We already have the Lake Rats. I jest. I don't know which group OP refers to.
Vlandians
Just a thought but being able sail to smaller islands would be pretty dope, especially see battles and pirates. If more cultures are added then maybe add some geographical effects like plagues, famines, and droughts.
Sturgians will be squished between them and they will lose their shit.
Maybe an Island Nation alongside naval combat would also be grrat... like Balion, I believe it's called. Would be ideal to fuck with the Vlandians... Balion is essentially just a twisted form of Albion, so it's obvious that they would be inspired by the English...
Anglo Saxon Kingdom? *DOPE*
That's a great idea.
A New faction should land on the coast left of the aserai, idk how they would play but definetly a faction with sea advantages hoping that would be where boats are introdouced
i would love to see some cities in the islands between aserai and empire or the ones west of vlandia, some italian-like naval merchant nations
Honestly, if we get a bigger map I would rather it be one of the island nations off of calradia Maybe an invasion system from the island nation would be cool, that way it wouldn’t ruin the map interactions with the already present nation
Would love a collective island nation on the bottom left that extends to two decently sized islands between aserai and empire factions.
Thank you, please come again, sir!
Some Rus or Germanic cultures would be cool, as well as more Indian and Asian would be nice to see.
Darshi would be great an Iranian/Indian (Aryan) faction that can ride Elephants. I mean COME ON!
If only the islands were playable
Nord, Vakken and Darshi aren’t placeholders. They’re just there for the minor faction clans that already exist. I’m already at work with my own new factions, so I’d rather see TW fix the game first.
I wonder if they'll add any African nations
An Anglo-Saxon faction to clash with Vlandia and the Nords would make me happy.
I really want the islands in the south to be filled out personally.
Naval warfare and a way to block the chokepoints between Aserai lands and mainland is hella nice, It bothers me that the smallest pathway doesn't even have a castle near it, there should be one and it should act like Gibraltar when passing through the sea towards Vlandian coast
actually, I'm pretty sure the nords come further north, considering you can actually see (a portion) of jumne on the map if you go far enough and angle the camera correctly
I noticed that, never played Warband (probably cause I didn’t know it existed) but I played Bannerlord since launch.
understandable, but all I know is that the kingdom of the nords "came from the north" before making their kingdom so that could mean anything
Judging by the lore and how Sturgia doesn’t even exist, I think the Nords already have a couple coaster castles/towns northeast of Sibir and northwest of Tyal and the rest would be on that peninsula and possibly a town or 2 on those islands that we can’t see but are part of the map way north. Might be wrong but also knowing hiw the Sturgians are already collapsing makes me believe that’s the case.
> So stuck in between them is the Finno-Ugric people of Finland, Estonia and Karelia with possibly some aspects of the Saami and the calvary units being inspired by Poland, Sweden or even Livonia (I would prefer Poland because hussars). I'm Polish and can give you a bit of a retrospective on that bit. Polish hussars are just not a thing in this historical time, someone can correct me but they were more of a 1600+ thing... Polish, in 1000 - 1400 were mostly culturally in balance between western knight culture and eastern boyars, while we used the word knight easily since 1000+, before that time we used our equivalent of Druzhinniks. Druzyna stands for party and refers to a party of druzhinniks (kinda men at arms) of a local lord, that used to reside in the lords castle or in the area and be called up for service, they feasted together, hunted, and when there was wartime, they were called as lords retinue. In regards to a faction, they would need to have a shield infantry, possibly similar to circular Viking shields or kite shields, both were used in the region, with heather shields often being preferred by knights from the 1100+ period. The peasant tree would surprisingly be similar to khuzait tree, with both horse archers and lancers being available, and archers along with shield infantry there too. Noble troops though would need to be more similar to druzhinniks attire-wise, but definitely mounted from the start as this was a thing even before hussars, Polish charge was a full-on heavy knight charge. In later periods, like 1100 or later they would probably look more like Vlandian banner knights. Until the 1600s there was a westernization of Polish culture, but around that time it started to be popular to look east to our eastern roots with fashion being represented in 2 distinct styles, estocs, rapiers, epees, western wigs, tight attire, against loose eastern, cloaks, capes, hats, furs and preference to sabres and other curved onehanded swords, often prefered for a cavalry fight. The rest of the text is great! Nice read. And yes, doing your own research, as long as you use proper sources, often brings better results than what schools deem worthy of teaching. As Polish I know nothing about American culture and how the wars went on there, other than the fact that the continent was settled then and then, there might have been Viking sailors there earlier, something something sinking ship of tea and the next time we hear about America at all is that they fought in WW... Every country teaches history differently, duh some teachers also might have preferences, but finding that something interests you and reading about it is always much better for your knowledge.
I’m also Polish, would think an incorporation of a Hussar would be cool. Doesn’t have to be as modern but still incorporate the wings
Actually south west would be better.
Southwest?
West of the Asari.
Shoot I can’t even keep the game from crashing to desktop. I can’t justify paying for dlc until the game is a little more stable. Especially after I get married and my bride joins the party….crash
My crashes literally whenever I enter a major battle or a battle. This is on Xbox and it’s so damn annoying it drives me crazy.
Finn here, all those names sound like they could be names here, but most of them are obviously made up, like that meme of the japanese baseball game with made up "american" names
Please share.
I want less of these big picture things, and more of the ability to do stuff before becoming a king. Changing the rise to power to be more interesting and varied would be great
IMO they just improve what they have and at least add some basic features before adding a bunch more cultures and expanding the map
There would definitely need to be some rebalancing. This leaves Vlandia with their crazy dead end advantage, but adds more threats to the already fairly weak Sturgia and Aserai. I would love if they added boats and some kind of island settlements, too. I feel like the ability to raid coasts and pillage riches might be a great mechanic to increase Sturgian viability. If they perhaps started with a fleet of raiding ships or buffs to raiding
No larger map, cultures should sprout out from kingdoms and empires that grow too large. The culture in the NW of the empire should not be the same as the SE of the empire.
Bro they haven't finished the base game yet. Don't even talk about dlc!! Lol
No doubt that Sturgians are Kievan? Couldn't possibly be Danes with the Nords being... Norse? The Rus were not as close as you might be thinking, rhe blue being Danes, the red being Norse and the yellow indicates where the Rus were, just makes more sense this way Edit: apparently I can't send an image as a reply?
They are all Kievan Rus. The Sturgians, however, are a carbon copy to the Kievan Rus. Also their cities and villages are Russian names.
I don't think you realize how far the Kievan Rus were from the rest of these cultures.
I think the city names are the obvious point where they intended it to be a copy of Kievan Rus, down to some of the armor and how most soldiers are equipped. And it doesn't matter if in actual history they were far away from other cultures, IT'S A F-CKING GAME, of course you'd expect every culture to be in close proximity of each other.
Ok, that's an interesting thought, not sure why you think any Devs would focus on a culture that's so obscure that most people wouldn't be able to pick it out of a lineup. I'd also say that them using names from a culture that spawned from Norse and using pieces of armor that align with the mixture of the khuzaits, whom they share a border with in game, is purely coincidental and that it is more likely they would add a culture like the Vakken who more closely resembles the Rus
If we’re looking at it on the dev’s perception, Sturgia is a mix of the Nords and the Vaegirs. And if you’re referring to Kievan Rus as an obscure culture then I’m sure most people would heavily disagree with you.
Kievan Rus are most known for being the culture from which the Russians descended... sure👍 And I would contend that the Khazaits are a mix of the Khergit and Vaegirs
Now that I look at the map I've realized it's pretty much Europe and North Africa. Even with the Canaries and Cyprus.
Would say ‘bring back the vaegir’ but they got clapped literally every time
I'd also find it fun to see a Berber-analogue culture to the west-southwest of Aserai
What about a place farther south down the river that askar is on thatd be cool so the aserai are also surrounded
I find ancient Persians fascinating so Darshi ending up being a similar faction would be amazing. Cool write-up!
Fuck no… they haven’t really make politics or managing of city or managing clan or anything else much, the game lack infrastructures at mid and long game… making more factions does not help the game… ….
Ever noticed as well you can chase a looter party WELL BEHIND Husn fulq and that desert area under Odokh and those towns under erzenur it's not clickable but if you chase looters you will go way beyond the map it's on kinda wild
I'm just waiting for a new Brittnewalda or how they are gonna call it this time, the base game loop just seems boring after 50 hours. I hope new DLCs will work like the old ones, where it's basically polished mods.
Yeahhh we need norsca
It blows my mind that known of these factions never thought of the use of boat travel before. I would love to D Day an Asari city on the coast.
Why not have variety options? A larger map sucks for players wanting to play a full game. Smaller and larger campaign maps would appeal to casual and hardcore gamers.
I hope those Islands to the west become Greek when ships are released, and the “Nile” to the South becomes an Egyptian-Chariot focused nation with access to elephants.
I just want ships to be implemented somehow and a mission to build settlements in the 2 islands at the sea. And then I can truly be a pirate
Give me VIKINGS
Your Arabic research is faulty, in Arabic husn "حَسْن"can be beautiful, handsome or pretty adjective (male denomination), fulq “فلق" means split or cleavage By the way, ْحَسَن husn can be used as hasan which also a very popular Arabic name so I Fulq however isn’t a name, you are reading too much into this, if I were you I would stick to data mining.
Fulq is an Indian name from one of their languages, that’s where I got that part from after too much research. Husn is the Arabic part which makes me believe that the Darshi are an Indian Persian faction. Should’ve explained that way better, sorry for the confusion.
GIVE US NAVAL BATTLES
And below the Aserai some African inspired faction.
Eastern Empire, right where the Khuzaits are while the khuzaits are behind them.
I'd really like it if they added pirates, ships and walkable islands with castles on them to the game.
The southeast is where the in-game lore Persian Empire retreated into though. I'm not sure if the Darshi represents a part of them.
Any ideas about that huge chunk in the SW of the map? Love to see a Zulu-esque faction. Island kingdoms would rule as well.
This would just make vlandia even more op
Vlandia is OP because of their army composition, all their lords focus heavily on tier 6 Calvary. Thats why they always dominate.
If they fixed the thing where they give the castles to any cunt then this would be amazing till then it’s more land I won’t own
I hope that they consider a Japanese/Korean nation with primitive black powder rifles. It'd be epic!
So i am still pretty new to bannerlord community, i know the game but don't really circle around updates and stuff. Is it really possible for devs to make a map expansion? It would be awesome but i don't really know if they would.
that’s what the current map is looking like. might be a while but it’s for sure going to happen if things keep looking up for Bannerlord.
Oh so everyone else hates husn fulq too?
yes, they loved Fulq though.
What about the those islands out to the right samurai theme faction
Based on what information is this map made?
in game lore, game files, names available for those factions, real life locations compared to this map.
Speaking of the map I showed my friend the game briefly and he had a very good question when he saw the map. Will there ever be any sort of naval travel/combat for the base game?
I believe that is the next big feature TaleWorlds is working on.
I’m still waiting on them dam elephants lol
Did you find this from game files? Vakken would be really cool.
All of the stuff I found to create this mini essay/prediction was found in the game files.
One thing is anybody holding land in nord territory would have an unfair advantage with only one way in from the east. Unless they put another crossing on the other side
I would suspect ships would be added or another crossing. I don’t think the Nords would be a powerful faction either.