Mount & Blade

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Skott

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx

Originally posted by: Skott
Thanks for that info, endlessmike! Its still available for $5. I'll have to look into D2D's features and see about buying from them. Hopefully DLing from them wont be a problem. I'm used to buying a hard copy via brick and mortar store.

As someone who buys religiously from Steam most of the time, I've bought a few things from D2D over the past month or so with this big sale, and they seem like good people.

I actually won a Twitter Trivia contest they had and got a free $50 game on their site (chose to pre-order Dragon Age, but then they put up Borderlands, so I emailed and asked if I could change my choice, and they nicely agreed to let me).

I've downloaded all the games that I've bought there without a problem, not sure how things will pan out down the road after a couple of operating system reinstalls and I need to install something for the 3rd or 4th time, but they seem alright so far (although I'm not a big fan of IGN, which owns them).

Thanks for that info, Krakn. Good to hear some feedback about D2D.

I've had good dealings with them also. I recently reinstalled Splinter Cell: Double Agent that I bought from them. Couldn't activate it. They gave me more activation limits the next day (reported the problem the night before). They've always been fairly quick on support, usually within 24 hours.

 

[Skott]

Good to know, Pontifex. Thanks.

 

[Skott]

Well, I purchased and DLed the game. It took less than 4 minutes to DL. Gotta love broadband. Yay, FIOS! Got the 1.011 patch and applied it and it looks like I'm good to go. I'll give my impressions once I have had time to play around with it. Thanks all for the input and info! ::scampers off to go play M&B::

 

[Magusigne]

;

Originally posted by: Skott
Well, I purchased and DLed the game. It took less than 4 minutes to DL. Gotta love broadband. Yay, FIOS! Got the 1.011 patch and applied it and it looks like I'm good to go. I'll give my impressions once I have had time to play around with it. Thanks all for the input and info! ::scampers off to go play M&B::

This is truly a great game. I never regretted paying 20 dollars for it. It got boring for me in the long run due to the pace of the main game and lack of special effects. (I know its an independant developer and a 20 dollar game). The base of it is amazing.

I've recently been beta testing the multiplayer version, Warband, and it is quite fun. It will definately be deserving of another 20 dollars. :thumbsup:

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Skott
Well, I purchased and DLed the game. It took less than 4 minutes to DL. Gotta love broadband. Yay, FIOS! Got the 1.011 patch and applied it and it looks like I'm good to go. I'll give my impressions once I have had time to play around with it. Thanks all for the input and info! ::scampers off to go play M&B::

get the 2.5 graphics enhancement mod. makes it look a lot better

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Skott
Well, I purchased and DLed the game. It took less than 4 minutes to DL. Gotta love broadband. Yay, FIOS! Got the 1.011 patch and applied it and it looks like I'm good to go. I'll give my impressions once I have had time to play around with it. Thanks all for the input and info! ::scampers off to go play M&B::

get the 2.5 graphics enhancement mod. makes it look a lot better

You got a link for that? I've had this game for months and never played it. Got it on a Steam weekend deal.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Skott
Well, I purchased and DLed the game. It took less than 4 minutes to DL. Gotta love broadband. Yay, FIOS! Got the 1.011 patch and applied it and it looks like I'm good to go. I'll give my impressions once I have had time to play around with it. Thanks all for the input and info! ::scampers off to go play M&B::

get the 2.5 graphics enhancement mod. makes it look a lot better

You got a link for that? I've had this game for months and never played it. Got it on a Steam weekend deal.

it's on the forum for the game, under mods i think. took me awhile to find so let me se if i can find it again.


Here it is.
I downloaded all 3 parts, not sure if you actually need all 3 though. I do notice that sometimes the screen flickers badly with these mods but it goes away once you load another screen or something.

 

[Skott]

I played around with it today for a while before I had to go to work. I went through the tutorial and did two of the quick battles. So far I can only comment on the combat side of things and I know I still havent experienced all of it yet. Fighting on foot isnt too hard. Sword quarterstaff use is pretty basic fare as is using a shield. Not too difficult to learn. Its all about timing. Bow and arrow is a little harder. Hits aren't as easy as you may think even with the auto target. Fighting on horseback, now this is hard. LOL Not only do you have to line yourself up correctly, not too close nor too far away, but you have to control the horse too. Coordination and timing play a huge part in mounted combat. This is going to take me some time to master. It's fun though! I've only used sword and shield while mounted though. I need to get a spear/lance. I've read once you get a spear mounted combat is much easier but we'll see. The graphics are dated and kinda blah but not horribly bad. Just okay. Hell, I still play JA2 and its graphics, although outdated by today's standard, are fine by me. I dont mind the M&B graphics so far. Its all about gameplay anyway. I'll try that graphics mod Pontifex spoke of eventually but like I said, the graphics are not that bad and I can live with it.

For $5 I think I'll like this game just fine. How many games actually have mounted combat? Very very few even in this modern day. As for people saying it gets boring after a while... To be honest they all get boring after a while. Even the games I most cherish got boring to me after a while. Granted some took longer than others before I got bored but what really matters is how many do you come back to time after time? Anyway for $5 I think I'm gonna get my money's worth no matter how long I play it. if they keep improving this game through expansions and patches then some day its going to be quite wonderful to play. Assuming you like these types of games.

Time to go hack and slash at enemies again...


Edit: Ponti, what are your system components that you are running the game on? I'm using a rig similar to the one in my sig. E6750, P5K-VM mobo, 2Gb RAM, Windows XP Pro, 8800GT video card, but using a Dell 19" LCD for portability. Yeah, I know its 19" but its the biggest LCD that will fit in a gym locker. LOL Anyhoo, just was curious what you had as a comparison.

Edit2: If I'm understanding the mod thread correctly the HDR mod is the cause of your flickering problem. It also causes blurring and a harmless error message upon exiting the game supposedly.

 

[minmaster]

don't do the HDR mod, i find it messes up lighting too much outside battle scenes. do get the 2.5 Graphical enhancement mod though.

i find a shield and a nice 1-handed sword the best on horseback for close combat. lance is okay but it's only good if you can couch damage and sometimes when you get bogged down with swarms of enemies you can't use your lance/polearm. 2 handed weapon leaves you vulnerable to projectiles so i never go for it. but archery is really deadly once your proficient in it and horseback archery. it will help you take down armies even when you have little health because you can engage enemies at a distance.

the main issue with this game is the siege sequences. the AI is kinda dumb when they defend so you can just shoot arrows at heads of enemies and win a siege on your own. another thing that bugs me is AI companions not being smart and rushing into a wall of infantry on horseback into a halt and getting killed. also, it's hard to make them use certain weapons in certain situations and that's a bit frustrating (oh and companions won't couch with lance if you give them shields).

regarding getting the timing right to land hits, you will learn fairly quickly and once you do, you will be lethal and turn into 1 man army. if you want combat challenge, you should sign up for warband expansion beta (i think they let pretty much everyone in). i am pretty good vs AI on single player but i don't stand a chance in multiplayer; it's on whole new level as far as proficiency with timing/coordination is concerned.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Skott
I played around with it today for a while before I had to go to work. I went through the tutorial and did two of the quick battles. So far I can only comment on the combat side of things and I know I still havent experienced all of it yet. Fighting on foot isnt too hard. Sword quarterstaff use is pretty basic fare as is using a shield. Not too difficult to learn. Its all about timing. Bow and arrow is a little harder. Hits aren't as easy as you may think even with the auto target. Fighting on horseback, now this is hard. LOL Not only do you have to line yourself up correctly, not too close nor too far away, but you have to control the horse too. Coordination and timing play a huge part in mounted combat. This is going to take me some time to master. It's fun though! I've only used sword and shield while mounted though. I need to get a spear/lance. I've read once you get a spear mounted combat is much easier but we'll see. The graphics are dated and kinda blah but not horribly bad. Just okay. Hell, I still play JA2 and its graphics, although outdated by today's standard, are fine by me. I dont mind the M&B graphics so far. Its all about gameplay anyway. I'll try that graphics mod Pontifex spoke of eventually but like I said, the graphics are not that bad and I can live with it.

For $5 I think I'll like this game just fine. How many games actually have mounted combat? Very very few even in this modern day. As for people saying it gets boring after a while... To be honest they all get boring after a while. Even the games I most cherish got boring to me after a while. Granted some took longer than others before I got bored but what really matters is how many do you come back to time after time? Anyway for $5 I think I'm gonna get my money's worth no matter how long I play it. if they keep improving this game through expansions and patches then some day its going to be quite wonderful to play. Assuming you like these types of games.

Time to go hack and slash at enemies again...


Edit: Ponti, what are your system components that you are running the game on? I'm using a rig similar to the one in my sig. E6750, P5K-VM mobo, 2Gb RAM, Windows XP Pro, 8800GT video card, but using a Dell 19" LCD for portability. Yeah, I know its 19" but its the biggest LCD that will fit in a gym locker. LOL Anyhoo, just was curious what you had as a comparison.

Edit2: If I'm understanding the mod thread correctly the HDR mod is the cause of your flickering problem. It also causes blurring and a harmless error message upon exiting the game supposedly.

E8400 Core2Duo overclocked to 3.6 Ghz
Asus P5Q Pro mobo
4 GB RAM
2x Radeon 4850s 1GB in Crossfire
Onboard sound

 

[Skott]

Yeah, I dont think I'll bother with the HDR mod. Read some about the problems people were having due to it. Also I get the feeling you want a top of the line rig to run it and even then you'll have some problem most likely. Anyway for now I'm replaying the quick battles to get my skill play up before starting a real game and I'm reading through the M&B message boards to read up on how best to play the game. Lots and lots of info there. It is an open end game world so I need some (lots actually LOL) tips and ideas on how best to start. There's no manual for this game so reading up on what to do to get started is a must it seems.

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: pontifex
played some more. bought a lance and that makes battles 10x easier, lol. I'm at a point where none of the towns give me quests. I joined the Vaegirs as a mercenary and have a troop of followers but pretty much anything they have me do just annihilates me. I don't it.

The travel takes forever and battles are fairly boring. It's always the same thing.

The key to winning battles is having high lvl (well trained) troops. Troops gain xp through fighting battles and they get some xp once per day based on your training skill + your hero's training skill. That's why training is one of the most important skills and you'll want some points in it on pretty much all your heroes (it stacks). As your troops get xp you can upgrade them. Example upgrade path: Vaegir recruit>Vaegir footman>Vaegir Veteran>Vaegir horseman> Vaegir Knight. I've won 100v100 battles taking almost no losses because my party was mostly high/max level and they had mostly recruits.

If you mouse over another party on the map it tells you how many of each type of unit they have so once you learn the upgrade paths for all the faction (thus knowing how powerful each unit is) you'll know if you want to fight or run away.

Large sieges are difficult, as the CPU usually has hundreds of troops in a town. What I do is first raise a large army of high level troops. I'll attack the town knowing I will lose because they outnumber me so much and have the advantage of fortifications. Since my troops are so much higher lvl then they are, I still kill more of them then I lose. Once most of my troops are down I retreat. Since I have one hero with very high surgury/first aid skills (you only need one) a lot of my troops are just injured, not dead. I then recruit/train more troops and attack again, and do it a 3rd time if necessary, and eventually I win, because they don't reinforce nearly as fast as I do.

Also, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread, but get the battle sizer mod! Without it, if you get in a battle of say 200v200, it will just be repeated battles of 25v25, because the default battle size is 50. With battle sizer, you can set it to as much as your system can handle. I have mine set at 400 (200v200) and it mostly runs fine with occasional slow down. I love massive epic battles, and another bonus is the battles don't take as long, since all 200 are fighting at once, instead of 25 at a time.

 

[vesuvius333]

Does anyone know if the hegemony mod is compatible with the latest version of m&b?

 

[minmaster]

Originally posted by: Skott
There's no manual for this game so reading up on what to do to get started is a must it seems.

manual and other goodies here:

http://taleworlds.com/mb_download.html

oh and battle strategies are very important when fighting large armies. the basic rule most go by is:

hold your archers up top a high ground, preferably a nice hill. enemy units, especially cavalry will struggle to reach the archers.

hold your infantry near the archers and order a charge as the enemy approaches the archers, thereby protecting your archers and creating wall of footmen against enemy cavalry and infantry.

the cavalry i usually make them follow me, then order a full charge as we approach them, then order a follow me after the initial charge so that they don't get bogged down in infantry and get butchered. your initial charges should always be from the flanking position. this ensures the most survivors and guarantees being able to land hits on a large # of enemies. mounted on chargers, this attack is really deadly as you don't even have to swing a weapon, just run over them a few times as they're all lined up nicely for you.

sometimes, i'll hold everyone back near the battle chest, and i'll go off on my own, behind- flank them with my arrows until they realize i am there. you can pick off some units before the real battle starts this way.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: minmaster

Originally posted by: Skott
There's no manual for this game so reading up on what to do to get started is a must it seems.

manual and other goodies here:

http://taleworlds.com/mb_download.html

oh and battle strategies are very important when fighting large armies. the basic rule most go by is:

hold your archers up top a high ground, preferably a nice hill. enemy units, especially cavalry will struggle to reach the archers.

hold your infantry near the archers and order a charge as the enemy approaches the archers, thereby protecting your archers and creating wall of footmen against enemy cavalry and infantry.

the cavalry i usually make them follow me, then order a full charge as we approach them, then order a follow me after the initial charge so that they don't get bogged down in infantry and get butchered. your initial charges should always be from the flanking position. this ensures the most survivors and guarantees being able to land hits on a large # of enemies. mounted on chargers, this attack is really deadly as you don't even have to swing a weapon, just run over them a few times as they're all lined up nicely for you.

sometimes, i'll hold everyone back near the battle chest, and i'll go off on my own, behind- flank them with my arrows until they realize i am there. you can pick off some units before the real battle starts this way.

wait, how do you even have time t plan anything, let alone get your troops situated? Every battle just has the enemy coming straight for you and your troops initially just want to run straight at the enemy also. I know that you can control your troops, but it doesn't seem like you have time to do it.

 

[minmaster]

you do have time a lot of the time, especially if you are facing large armies. unless they think they can easily dispose of you, they often slowly advance, and wait for you to make the first move. during this time you set your army up. often times, the enemy will indeed send out few calvalry units by themselves in a near suicide scouting run. but most of the time, if you have a formidable army, they will not rush you all at once.

first, bind the "view orders" key to one of your mouse buttons. i use one of my side mouse buttons for this, because this is one of the most used buttons during battles. once you get the hang of it, you should be easily hitting the F-keys and # keys to issue specific commands to specific unit types. it takes a bit of fighting in battles but you'll get the hang of it eventually.

oh and like someone said, get the battle sizer and increase it by at least 50%. i have mine set at 175, some people have it at 3-400, but battles are more fun and truly epic when there are gazillions of units all over the battlefield. be warned though, if your system can't take it, it will crash,

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: minmaster

Originally posted by: Skott
There's no manual for this game so reading up on what to do to get started is a must it seems.

manual and other goodies here:

http://taleworlds.com/mb_download.html

oh and battle strategies are very important when fighting large armies. the basic rule most go by is:

hold your archers up top a high ground, preferably a nice hill. enemy units, especially cavalry will struggle to reach the archers.

hold your infantry near the archers and order a charge as the enemy approaches the archers, thereby protecting your archers and creating wall of footmen against enemy cavalry and infantry.

the cavalry i usually make them follow me, then order a full charge as we approach them, then order a follow me after the initial charge so that they don't get bogged down in infantry and get butchered. your initial charges should always be from the flanking position. this ensures the most survivors and guarantees being able to land hits on a large # of enemies. mounted on chargers, this attack is really deadly as you don't even have to swing a weapon, just run over them a few times as they're all lined up nicely for you.

sometimes, i'll hold everyone back near the battle chest, and i'll go off on my own, behind- flank them with my arrows until they realize i am there. you can pick off some units before the real battle starts this way.

Thanks for the link, Minmaster. I'm still working on my mounted battle technique. Crazy horse doesnt like to go where I want. I swear I need a steering wheel instead of a w-a-s-d- key set up. LOL

 

[Sureshot324]

wait, how do you even have time t plan anything, let alone get your troops situated? Every battle just has the enemy coming straight for you and your troops initially just want to run straight at the enemy also. I know that you can control your troops, but it doesn't seem like you have time to do it.

The first thing you want to do is tell all your troops to hold position (they always charge by default). You then usually have quite a bit of time before the enemy reaches you. I find battle strategy doesn't really make THAT much difference in this game. If you just let your troops charge then your cavalry will reach the enemy way before your inf/archers which is bad, but if you just find a nice spot on top of a hill and tell all your troops to hold position (order them all to follow you, then order them to hold position when you reach the spot) that's all you really need to do

 

[minmaster]

it definitely makes a big difference when facing overwhelming odds, like your 100 vs 4-500.

 

[JSt0rm]

a heavy charger, a sword of war, a bow (and the skills to use it) and a heavy lance are all you need on the field of battle.

A sword of war and a good bow are all you need to take a city. I kill hundreds alone.

 

[Skott]

So far I'm really liking this game. My 1st character, Sir Nobb of Noobia, is Lvl 15 and He has a small group of 12 Nord infantry, 10 Vaegir archers, two companions, Deshavi and Jeremus. So far Sir Nobb is just riding around and killing Looters, Sea raiders, Forest bandits and the like. Gaining levels and making some cash. Turned down two offers of vassalage so far. Waiting to get higher levels before picking a faction and going to war. 14str, 15agi, and now pumping up Int. There is still a lot I havent done in the game. Basically I'm still learning things as I go. Haven't had a lot of time to play but now I have a long weekend to put in some serious playing time. Was it worth $5? Most definitely!