Camels, cities and story. Can a Camel be the Roach? Mount&Blade 2 Interview

Will the spear-equipped cavalry still be as powerful as before, or have you decided to nerf ‘em?

In current tests, this type of unit does not seem to be OP’d – it has lower attack range and soldiers on the ground can use their own spears to throw the rider off the horse.

As for exploration, I noticed a caravan of camels on the map. Will our character be able to ride a camel on the battlefield?

Yes, you can ride camels. Also, we've added mules. However, they are not ideal for combat and do not contribute to the military potential.

Can I name my camel?

Currently, there is no such option, but we are thinking about it.

How big is the map? How long will it take to get from one end of the map to the other?

It depends on many factors. If you speed up the time, in theory it will take you a minute or two. In practice, however, you will always encounter various obstacles or some enemies.

Is there any room in Mount & Blade 2 for a major storyline? Or are you just creating a huge historical sandbox?

As you can suspect, there will be a main storyline, although it's main purpose is to give the player reason to play in the sandbox. You won't witness any linear experience, where you have a complex story progress based on a specific script. Instead, you get a general objective and you have to accomplish it.

This storyline will have a particular ending?

Even a few, yes.

What new activities await in the cities?

First of all, we tried to make cities much more vivid. We wanted to combine this with the fundamental premises of the game – action and strategic struggle for a position in the political system, and because of that, you will find important personalities in every town: rich merchants, criminal bosses, the leaders of factions... These are important characters in the community, and maintaining proper relationships with them will be crucial. They're the main focus of most quests available in the city. It is not always possible to make everyone happy. Sometimes it will be necessary to choose a side. We still have a lot of interesting missions, quests and activities in the cities, but we tried to make them in line with the player's long-term objective, instead of offering simple tasks and traditional rewards.

THIS IS NOT GTA

Cities in Bannerlord look, unfortunately, average at most. The fact that there is a whole lot of them, in various sizes and styles, is a great advantage, but the ones I've visited, looked pretty empty and felt desolate. There is not much activity there at all, although some of this cities were simply unavailable – for example, I didn't manage to play a board mini-game in a local inn, because it has not been implemented yet. We will certainly find some other things to do in the cities, but in any case, most NPCs are simply props that are supposed to create an illusion of a living city.

What role does the gender of the character play? Are we treated differently when we play as a woman?

Gameplay basics and mechanics are almost the same, although there are some differences. For example, if you play as a woman, you can get pregnant and have children. There will be a few more such cases, but in general, when you play as a woman, you can do exactly the same thing as men.

What modes will we get in multiplayer? Cooperation, commanders' battles, or maybe battle royale?

For now, we have announced two basic modes that are already available. One of them, similar to the Napoleonic Wars commander's battle mode, can be tested by players, here at gamescom. Of course, there are still a lot of different possibilities. Battle royale? Who knows, why not.

COMMANDER BATTLE?

In the aforementioned mode two teams face each other with several players in each team. However, each of them commands a group of soldiers controlled by the AI in the same way as in the single player campaign. Let's add that in the case of Bannerlord, this mode is not called a commanders' battle mode, but a Captain Mode.