I would be interested. Playing with just my cousin and myself on comms makes a difference. The only problem is that it is hard to get on the same team sometimes.

Yes, one of the new features is that you can melee with any throwing weapon by pressing 'x' I believe. I have not used it yet though. I usually carry War Darts and I doubt I would do much damage with those in melee - lol.

It's really a shame (understandable, but not informative...) that all the discussion even on the official forum centers around MP features.

Did GFX change from normal M&B?

I'm sure with the full version, it will be easy to set up your own matches and have the server admin pick teams like any other multiplayer game. Right now it seems like the public servers are a free-for-all.


This SP beta forum might be helpful. Some posts have some interesting details. http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/board,148.0.html
Its a shame that the SP is a closed beta unlike the original M&B. I happily purtchased it as a beta, .89 or something.


A little bit. Better textures and HDR, but the models look the same. They don't look great, but at least it lets you run large battles with a mid-level computer.

Thanks, last time I checked there they didn't even have a dedicated SP Beta forum.

If no new GFX effects/shaders are being used (bump mapping would be nice...) then I think for SP I can happily live with classic M&B.

Though some of the new features don't look that exciting, I think there are lot of new SP campaign features that will make it worth the upgrade. It seems like it will be more dynamic and have more types of player-NPC interactions.
Not to mention lots of new weapons plus a new faction.

I just found out my newish PC can handle (playable) 500 combatants on the field. This game is just awesome. Anyone knows how much Warband will cost?

Hey muscat, where did you figure that out? What are your system specs?
Wirh stock M&B you were limited to 100 or something. My old PC ran M&B reliably with about 200 soldiers using a small addon to remove the limit. I'm wondering if Warband uses better code or multi-core support to allow more.

I haven't read anything about the cost yet. I'm guessing $30 like the original.

You can pre-order for $30 at Amazon. It also looks to be released March 16.

http://www.amazon.com/Mount-Blade-Warban...5590&sr=8-1

Just saw it for the same price ($30) at Direct2Drive. It is saying access to the beta on Mar 17, and game release on Mar 30th.

http://www.direct2drive.com/2/9170/product/Buy-Mount-and-Blade:-Warband-Download

Sorry, I was talking about the original M&B. My previous PC (althonx2 5000BE) ran with 200 soldiers like yours. But it always is unplayable in map with lots of hills and trees regardless of number of soldiers (unless is like 10). My current PC (i5-750) is playable (~30fps) with 500 soldiers and does not slow down with hills and trees. So apparently, M&B scales very well with faster PC.