...is due out 30 March!! Can't wait for 64 player online cavalry charges

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48700/

SWEET!

Cant wait

I'm not buying anything else until then. Probably my most anticipated release on the near horizon. I'm really excited about the improvements for commanding groups. I read that you will be able to make custom groups. Example: Before, it was not very useful fielding heavy cavalry and horse archers at the same time, since all cavalry would move as one group. This is going to open up alot of possibilities for the strategic-minded. I think I will concentrate on charisma and leadership for my first character and try playing it more as an RTS. Of course, it always tempting to draw your sword and ride into the fray. I love M&B!

an interesting read about the combat mechanics.

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,87133.0.html

YAY!!

After reading that thread, I was poking around the forums.

Apparently, I am authorized for the beta.

You might be too if you have purchased Mount & Blade. Find your CD-Key (if you have the Steam version, get it by right-clicking the game in your game list), and enter it here to see if you are authorized:

http://beta.taleworlds.com/download.aspx

Downloading now...

Sweet! I am downloading the beta now as well. I know what I will be doing tonight...

Hey, thanks for the heads up I am in too and downloading now

Thanks MojoFlow! I had no idea that's all that was needed to get the beta. Won't be able to play with it til tomorrow night, but I'm downloading now.

I got it downloaded and installed, but won't have a chance to take a look until tomorrow night at the earliest.

Too many games...

Thanks MojoFlow

Good tip...but now I just spent 10 minutes of my Saturday night being totally and utterly thrashed online. Ego -100 points. I did not even land one blow, though I saw the "respawn in 3 seconds" dialogue an impressive number of times.

This will be a beast to be any good at online.

it's a fun game

Ohhh... That's the Mutliplayer only demo. The SP demo is a closed beta.

Don't worry. The dynamic SP campaign will be really good.

I played last night for a good 3 hours. My cousin and I were on comms through Steam. We only played on one Battle server the whole time. Despite being thoroughly thrashed several times I enjoyed it very much and was sad when I looked up to see it was waaaay past my bedtime. My best kill-to-death ratio was 2-2. I was usually something more like 2-7, but it was fun.

Here's one screen shot showing the results of my skillz - lol

Is the beta still multiplayer-only?

I'm curious what SP improvements they add, not sure if it's worth the switch from M&B "Classic".

I can see I just found something else to waste my time.

I'm really gonna have to give this one a try, though I may just stick to SP.

Yes, the beta is multiplayer only. It is alot of fun though. My cousin and I did deathmatch tonight. That is pretty much a free for all blood-bath of chaos. But you respawn in 5 seconds and get to try out all kinds of weapons. It was good practice. I am loving this game and I will definitely be buying it when it comes out.

Here's a screenie from tonight. This time it was me who did the killing. I head-shotted a guy with my "War Dart." This is why lawn darts were not a good idea - lol.

Thought I'ld just take a quick peek last night, ended up playing for two hours. Tons of fun. Really liked the castle assault/defend games. Usually used an archer and played a supporting role, which was still fun. Once I ran into a small room with shooting window only to find an enemy crossbowman with sword drawn. We went round and round, trading parries and blows for what seemed like minutes. I thought i was a goner until a fellow Nord ran up from behind and stuck an axe thru his noggin.

The sword swings are timed different from the original M&B, so I'm still getting used to that. Can't wait for March 30th. I'm gonna pre-order.

I know it's been mentioned before, but once it's released, would would anyone be interested in getting together for some more coordinated teamplay? I have had fun playing on the servers, but can't help wondering how things would go if my team moved in groups with an experienced commander in charge. The matches online are basically just 2 rabbles attacking eachother willy-nilly.
Maybe we could figure something out by this summer? Just a thought I wanted to get out there. AFAIK, May-August I'll be able to play once or twice a week at about 9pm EST.

BTW, I found out you can now melee with throwing axes. I could sense the suprise from an enemy archer who was calmly pelting my shield from about 15 meters, when all of the sudden I started hurling large, sharp objects at his head! He freaked and started running around like a scared hen until one landed in his back. Also, I once stopped a charging horseman with a very lucky throwing axe shot at no more than 10 meters. It was awesome to see him fall from the horse to my feet as his steed continued on by. I'm sure he thought he was gonna just ride up and skewer himself a Huscarl.

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.

It's asking me to input the keycode from M&B full version everytime I launch M&BW beta, anyone else get this?

Nope. It only asked me once.

Just a reminder Warband is coming out tomorrow. I am going to buy it from the developer site (so all money go to developer).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2iRIXOOLu4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxPknU_TBBo

We need a SimHQ banner.

Got a preorder from Amazon coming to me. Looking forward to this one.

I bought it from Steam last week which gave me access to both the single & multi-player betas. I have spent a lot of time playing that game since.

Just bought the game from taleworlds. Now I have to wait to finish work, watch the kids, get the kids to sleep, then download the game and install...the wait...

I heard the single player game improved quite a bit, added some very interesting quests (rescue mission?), you can being a king, married? (don't know if this add anything).

you and me both...


I heard that having a spouse will give you someone to help manage the kingdom, which will be nice. And you can even start a new faction, so I've heard. You can grant lands to your named companions and make them vassals, lots more stuff too. But the best part of the game is always gonna be the combat...

After playing alot of multiplayer over the past month, I've become really impressed with the new combat mechanics. Much smoother, the animations look alot better. I really like the fact that if you block a large, heavy weapon with a small sword or something, you get stunned. I mean, how can a small blade stop a great bardiche with no ill effects? And with large blunt weapons, you can even hurt folks hiding behind shields. If you think about it, if you tried to block a 50lb sledge with a shield, you're at very least gonna end up with a broken wrist. And you can kick, which is not overly useful, but it can break a swing/block stalemate once in a while.

Anyways, I'm gonna be up late tonite, hopefully playing and not re-trying to download. :P

It seems like the AI is better at combat now too. In the original M&B I could win those pick up matches in the arenas with a level 3 character pretty easily. I find it much more difficult now and my guy is at level 6. I am actually having to feint my attacks and the AI will still get in chamber blocks occasionally. Kicking is really useful against the AI though.

I have also received couched damage in battle! I do not remember that ever happening in the original M&B.

Multiplayer is a hoot. I saw arthur666 online once in a siege battle but he quit before I had a chance to get his attention in text. We need to get something organized and jump on TS and have some fun playing Team Deathmatch or something.

How big is the steam download? Amazon is showing no sign of shipping my order, I'm thinking about just cancelling and going through steam when I get home.

I don't know about steam but it is a little over 500MB downloading directly from taleworlds.com. I played the single player game a few hrs last night, this game is positively positive!! I have been watching some duel videos on youtube, some players really got skills. It is safe to say this is one of the best game I ever played (and I played since b&w monitor). Simple game mechanics, lots of depth, sign of a good (great) game.

Ya, I think the Steam download was under 600mb.

Really? That seems almost shockingly small for a modern game. Definitely doing the download then. 600 mb is just a few hours worth even on my crappy connection.

Oops, I lied. I just checked and it is 715mb. Still pretty small, relatively speaking; Empire: Total War is 15gb...