Open Letter to Taleworlds from a Multiplayer veteran

Introduction:

In this post I aim to find a way to allow both the Multiplayer community to thrive and grow, while at the same time freeing Taleworlds of the responsibility of updating and maintaining the Multiplayer mode.

Here I've not come to suggest gameplay or balancing changes, but to add simple additions that would give us more freedom and how and where we play. I hope and even beg the dev team to read this thoroughly, as I think it would be a positive change for everyone.

Current problems I think we're facing

Staleness. The last time Multiplayer has had a substantial update was years ago, and we've been playing the same maps and modes over and over, server still crash every few games making players ragequit or get frustrated. Of course the solution was simple: Custom servers. As a consequence of Custom Servers the community thrived using mods, clans had their own reunion places and event servers, we've got matchmaking skimrish custom servers which allows us to play how we want, and public Siege and TDM servers would allow us to make our own community maps and refresh the air making players interested in new content. Then what is the problem? Why won't players choose Custom TDM/Siege instead of Official ones? Well here's my take wether you consider it ridiculous or not:

Loot and Customization

(people want their drip man)

Loot was clearly meant to be earned by playing Skimrish and Captain official matchmaking, since they're the modes where you can earn it the fastest, but no one plays them anymore and the community considers them dead. TDM/Siege allows you to earn a little bit, but only if you play in the official servers. This means players interested in customizing their characters are forced to play the official servers, leaving the idea of playing a custom TDM/Siege as not worth it. Veteran players or people simply not interested in earning loot on the other hand play in the servers with higher player count, meaning custom servers get dry and die.

On the other hand, customization it's quite lacking, considering Singleplayer has such a rich amount of armours and capes to choose from, and not only that, but they're also incredibly expensive compared to the amount of loot you earn for each round you play.

How do I propose to solve this?

1. Allow Loot to be earned in Custom Servers.

2. Massively expand the customization pool with armours you already have made, allow players to customize their characters as they like, while still mantaining class limits (cheap troops, cheap clothing).

3. Either decrease the cost of clothing or increase the amount of loot earned by round.

This sound stupid and simple right? It's because it is. The snowball effect I believe this would cause is:

• Players will opt to play in Custom Servers since there's no need to depend on Official loot earnings.
• New siege servers will emerge, new maps created by the community will make players excited about future content.
• New and old players will play more to further customize their character as they like and feel rewarded and accomplished for playing.
• Areas with no access to official servers (LATAM for example) no longer have to play with 300 ping in Official Servers just to earn some loot.
• More diversity in the battlefield, roleplaying clans going in uniform, more rich and interesting visuals.

+But I don't care about Multiplayer, they should focus on Singleplayer instead
-This would allow Taleworlds to get rid of ever updating Multiplayer again, the community would evolve by itself, and all they need to do is give us a simple update with this content.

+Troops will no longer look cohesive, it could be confusing
-This game has 3 ways of recognizing your teammates, faction colour, friendly banner on players heads, and pressing ALT to see your teammates. They still teamkill all the time, I don't think armour diversity will change anything.

+I don't care about customization, there are bigger issues in Multiplayer

-It's been 4 years since release, 6 years if you count Early Access. Most of the issues predate release, they won't be fixed. This would allow us to take matters into our own hands and freeing ourselves from depening on official servers

Do you really think this silly thing would have that much of an impact?

Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe this would solve everything, but I think it would seriously impact the way people play this game and overall make Multiplayer more enjoyable. I seriously think it would snowball into a stronger community.

If you've read this long, I thank you. If you're a dev, I thank you too. We're geniunely passionate about Bannerlord, despite us being a minority in contrary to the singleplayer side, we love this game just as much and we play it every day, every week, even after years of not having content. I understand Singleplayer is your focus, and future DLCs will allow you to substain your company and continue working, but I think just a simple crumb of help to keep us playing would seriously improve our experience.

Now I don't speak in behalf of the community, I'm just a simple, regular player, and I want this game to continue going. I won't enter the "updates are breaking multiplayer mods" area, because at this point I know you don't care at all, and you do what you have to do.

If you're also a Multiplayer regular, I would love to hear your opinion or criticism or ideas, and if you support it, please let Taleworlds know by interacting. I think this is not too much to ask for.

submitted by /u/National_Function821
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