Lowering the skill ceiling in Bannerlord's combat killed its long-term appeal (for me)

I, like many here, waited a long time for Bannerlord. Got several thousand hours' worth on Warband, and much of it was on MP.

I've heard and read many views on Warband's combat, and a lot of it really flies in the face of what made it appealing for players who have invested so much time over the years: its skill ceiling. I always love deceptively simple systems where it is easy (enough) to learn yet difficult to master and Warband was one of the games which epitomized this in my experience.

When Bannerlord came out, I dove into it... and immediately discovered to my dismay how artificial delays on attack releasing and blocking were implemented which completed reduced the combat to base spamfests with no method to the madness. I don't know what has changed since then (I've just made my first foray into M&B stuff for months) but it doesn't look like much has been addressed despite others' outcry when it was launched.

I honestly haven't been able to touch Bannerlord much since then. No matter how many features are added, if the fundamental system is broken (which resulted from attempts to fix what wasn't) then they are superfluous.

Yes, there was awkwardness in WB's combat such as floor stabbing and thrust turning but such could have been addressed without neutering the overall experience.

Nowadays I can hardly find any MP for WB itself (being Northwest NA doesn't help at all) and it's left a hole where I once had a reliable go-to game.

Anyway, I simply wanted to say my piece and make peace with the fact this game I had waited 8 years for may have been an error on my end to have awaited it with such blind anticipation. I'm not expecting anything more than perhaps some good back-and-forth in the comments, but months of bitterness has to end now.

Submitted November 28, 2020 at 07:39PM by Xanathane https://ift.tt/37kLZ8C