author: Miriam Moszczynska
Village Management in Bannerlord - Another Display of Power of Mods
A mod is being created for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, allowing for more advanced village management. Players are impressed with the work that the modder put into the project. They even suggest that he create his own version of Bannerlord.
Admittedly, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is still in early access, but it's not hard to see that the game is being saved from oblivion by the modding community. One of them is user Bloc, who shared a video on his YouTube channel, presenting the Village Management Mod project, still under development.
Village management like in strategy games
If you felt that the options for managing settlements are insufficiently developed in Bannerlord, then Village Management Mod will be your dream come true. Thanks to the project, which is still in the works, you will gain such options as:
- Village micro-management - the project enables you to increase or decrease the value of taxes, army production and manpower;
- Division of villages according to geographical directions - in each (north, south, west and east) part of the map you can build structures. Here Bloc mentions that he specifically did not change the products that are produced in the respective villages because it is too complicated a system;
- Building a castle - it is visible on the campaign map and when entering a village. It increases the security of the settlement, makes raids more difficult and strengthens the militia. Icons of castles and their models are culture-dependent. In the game you will not encounter situations in which structures built with the help of modifications will differ in architecture from those already present in Bannerlord;
- AI-controlled rulers - can manage villages in the same way as the player. What actions they can perform depends on the amount of gold and random values. They can only build castles in villages that are frequently raided;
- Built structures can also be destroyed. If a player gets tired of a castle, he or she can raze it to the ground. This also applies to structures that AI-controlled enemies have erected.
It is worth mentioning here that TaleWorlds had plans to introduce these mechanics into the game, but abandoned it due to their complexity. Bloc himself mentions in the description of the video that the UI in the mod is based on TaleWorlds' original project from 7 years ago..
"You could make your own version of the game".
As you can guess, such an ambitious project was met with quite a warm reception. Under Bloc's video and on the official game forum we can find significant positive feedback.
"Shame on TaleWorlds for abandoning this idea because 'it's too complicated'. Modders are the MVPs of this game," wrote Alfonso M.
"I'll wait until Bannerlord comes out, and then I'll install all of Bloc's mods and play the version of the game that should exist from the beginning," wrote Ask.
"Bloc seriously, can you make another Bannerlord, because it looks like you can improve this game, you have a lot of mods that make the game much better. But modding is fine too lol," wrote Danny5.
Of course, there were also a more skeptical voices among the community. After all, not everyone wants access to an extensive village management system.
"That's the beauty of mods, players get to choose which ones to install. I don't want fortified villages, guard towers on the outskirts are enough for me," wrote archaicwarrior.
Opinions like the one quoted above may suggest that maybe it's better that TaleWorlds has eventuallt dopped the implementation of the extensive village management system. After all, not everyone is a fan of strategy games, and the Mount & Blade series is, after all, closer to the RPG genre. Although strategy fans might like the Crusader Blade mod.
Other modifications
If you are interested in modifications that created by players you will find a lot of interesting suggestions in the guide (more detail here). In the guide you will also find instructions on how to install mods for Bannerlord.
You may also like some of Bloc's other creations, which he presents on his channel. Not all of them are available for download, but they are definitely worth checking out.
The full release of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is planned for the second quarter of 2022. Although it is worth keeping in mind that the date may change, because the last information on this matter appeared some time ago. You can play TaleWorlds' game on PC and Steam Deck, where it is said to work great.
