War of the band hot-seats (Sorry, legacy)

Alright,

So in a continuing effort to not do something useful I am starting something that is known as a legacy game for a game that is known as Mount&Blade Warband (yes it has to be warband).

The premise is I create a character, play them for a bit, and then send the save to another player who takes up the mantle and so on. It is an expectation that the current player keeps others informed with screenshots, videos or written transcriptions of events, much like a lets play. I would suggest using MSI Afterburner to record video or take screenshots. It's available here: http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

In this post I will detail some ground rules, requirements, registered players and so on. I will start the actual playing as such in my next post.

If you wish to play (given the state of this forum I half expect no one to answer to this), simply post here or send me a PM and I will add your name to the list. Players will be added in chronological order only. You will be PM'd the save file, by me, when it is your turn.

Important info:
THE REQUIREMENTS

• * Mount&Blade Warband, Native module v. 1.143 (latest as of writing)
  * Keyboard
  * Mouse
  * The desire to rape and plunder

THE RULES

• * Once a player has received the save file, they have four days to demonstrate their receivership of such by making a post in this thread. Failure to do so will result in the player forfeiting their turn and as such being removed from the list.
  * A player may modify the difficulty settings as they choose however if they do so they are required to post a screenshot of the new configuration in this thread.
  * A player may keep playing for as long as they chose {within reason}, however if a week goes by without any sort of status update the player forfeits their turn and as such will be removed from the list. I will also give HWLFP your phone number and address.
  * At the end of nominated turn, each player is responsible for uploading the save to an appropriate place and sending the link back to me via PM. This is done so that idiots who lose interest don't screw it up for everyone else by not forwarding the save. I will then forward it to the next player.
  * There are no expectations, requirements or otherwise with what a player does in game. They are free to do as they please with the character they are given.

THE PLAYERS

• * Charonte
  * Yuki
  * Wolfsbane
  * Wobbler
  * Zanza

I suspect the beginning few turns of this will be a bit boring due to the nature of M&B, and it may be a flop like every other LP on this forum but I'll attempt it nonetheless.

 

Does it have to be native? Regardless, I'm so in. I even totally brought up the original idea in the facebook group. True story. (And the proper term is 'legacy' game, not hotseat! That's completely different.)

 

I don't know what either of you are talking about, but whatever it is - I'm out.

 

Nice impression of a dragon, Smuel.

Here's a shit review for it, knock yourself out (the review is shit not the game from what I've heard - still it's the only review I've seen of the game so I thought I'd share the wealth for people who weren't in the know). I'm too lazy to learn how to play a new game right now, exams have worn down my morale, so count me out too.

 

Why not.

*Hellbokos

 

Now that's a shock. *rolling eyes*

 

Yes it has to be native for the time being. If this turns out to be successful maybe we can look at a mod or two for another game; to be honest I haven't so much as looked at M&B mods in the last 4+ years.

Anyway I've completed the first couple of levels of my playthrough (I envision playing until level 10-15 or so). I'll make the post later on.

 

I'd like to play, if it's still possible to join in.

 

Of course, I should have made that clear -- join in whenever you like, you'll just be added to the end of the queue.

 

I'm in.

Great way to track the save is to use Bluewhale Server.

 

I might consider it.

 

I'd suggest we all play on the same difficulty level for consistency. (Considering your final score is actually based in part on your initial difficulty, make sure you set it before actually starting the game.)

Just take a screenshot of your settings and we'll all adjust accordingly.

 

I think that is a splendid idea Yuki. I think I speak for all when I say thank you for your contribution.

 

I agree with Zanza. That's a really good idea that will help avoid sync issues.

 

I really can't argue with Grakelin. Giving thanks to Zanza is a really good idea.

 

I didn't want to lock it into a specific difficulty setting as some people may need to adjust the battle size if their PC can't cope with my setting later on (battle size adjusts the difficulty rating as well).

Before I get started -- I will be hosting all of the images/videos etc used in my playthrough (and more besides) here: http://www.xuchotl.net/mnb/
Other players are welcome to use that site should they desire to as well (simply sign up and login; you can upload to your "My Folder" via the page or through WebDAV [port 9800] / FTP)

In any case I suspect the first couple of posts to be of limited interest to people -- it does take a while to get settled in Warband and to begin with every character is quite weak and pathetic.

These are the settings I opted for:

I opted for automatic blocking rather than manual due to the cluster-fuck mentality of the AI (more on that later).

The 'first' decision I had to make was the background of the character. I chose the following options:

• * Sex: Male.
  * Father was a warrior [drunkard should have been an option].
  * Childhood spent as a street urchin.
  * Travelled to Calradia for Power and Gold -- why else?
  * Starting in the Swadian city of Praven

Next, appearance and starting stats; I opted for the following:

Generally I favour a foot soldier so Agility tends to be the most useful attribute. Strength is obviously important too, however agility determines how fast you move and strike so without it fighting on foot becomes very difficult.

Likewise Athletics is the key skill (cowardice is important in Calradia) with Iron Flesh and Power Strike coming in behind it (health/damage respectively). Being that I intend to go it alone for this round I could care less about the others for the time being.

Weapon Proficiencies go up of their own accord anyway (and in my experience make little difference), however to begin with I dumped them all into one handed. I am aiming to use onehanded weapons as two handers are too slow when you're fighting solo and leave you with no quick way to block ranged attacked. The bastard sword is obviously the exception to this.

Honestly I am useless when it comes to range weapons so I don't intend on spending any character points on developing their skills. YMMV.

Anyway, onto the game proper. The all-father's first order of business was to deal with the local punks:


Does anyone else get confused and start beating the shit out of the merchant when he comes running to your 'aide' at the end?

Anyway, the slightly-bloodied 'merchant' then invited us back to his home and offered me a 100 gold to higher some villagers and hunt down the punk's remaining groupies. Naturally I have no intention of fulfilling his stupid quest but I took the gold anyway.

Next order of business before heading out into the wide world was to visit the local merchant. One of the most underrated pieces of equipment in Warband is a good helmet. Damage is locational (looking at you, skyrim) so without a decent hat you are likely to be knocked out cold by stones or arrows in a short amount of time -- it also protects you from those brutal overhead swings. Hence why I did the following:

This one is a little rusty but since when did tetanus hurt anyone, right?
You can also see the rest of the starting gear there - the sword and the helmet are the only decent bits of equipment there. The rest of it is just shit -- Velorien is going to need a better suit of armour if he's to fend off the other gods.

Anyway, to war! Our first target was a group of looters:

You can tell already that Warband is a SERIOUS RPG -- just look at the level of depth in the dialogue! The C&C!

Needless to say beating the peasants to a pulp resulted in a large amount of loot:


Which sold for all of about 60 gold. But atleast the all-father is wearing some rags of moderate density instead of a fucking tea towel.

After playing for a while my recent Spartacus: Vengeance fetish/addiction took hold and Velorian decided to join the arena. Neeless to say the arenas in Praven and Suno are nothing like the one in Capua. This was normally the result:


Which brings me to what has always been the most frustrating thing about the Mount&Blade Series -- the AI. In the arena (honestly I preffered the one in Zendar), the combatants seem to forget that they're meant to be fighting each other more often than not and just gang up on me. Since the movement speed mods in .808 (or whichever release), it hasn't been viable to backpedal away from a mob of attackers -- so instead you are left to either fight them off, or attempt to turn around and run only to get stabbed in the back. It's the same in regular battles when you're going solo -- a clusterfuck of 5 or 6 looters is pretty bloody difficult to take out in melee, weak though they may be.

In any case Velorien eventually tired of being ravaged by half naked hairless men and prompted the master of the arena about any tournaments that might be ocurring nearby. Being the helpful information dispenser that he is, he was able to list no less than 5 cities where tournies were being held -- even though they were all atleast a days ride from Praven. Sargoth, in the Kingdom of the Nords, turned out to be the closest.

The great thing about Nordic tournaments is that they're all on foot with practically no ranged weaponry that I've seen. That makes them ridiculously easy to win, with the only challenge for pitiful characters (like us) being that you're going up against higher level opponents -- sometimes even the king.

In any case Velorien faught hard and won the tournament for around 400 gold. He also saught out revenge on the race of the ginge:

There are also no [Australian] political machinations in that screenshot.


That's it for now I think -- I might get one more playthrough in up to level 7 or 8 or so shortly. Any preferences on where to go next?

I must also apologise for the image sizes as well -- forget to batch resize them before they were uploaded. I don't expect my next offering to be as long-winded either.

 

Every damn time. No matter what number of times I have replayed the game.

 

Depending on how this goes I might actually get this game. Always see Yuki playing it on steam.

 

Go recruit some Swadians and begin working them into cavalry.

Put points in your prisoner management skill and get a blunt weapon. Works every time.

 

On behalf of any novices to the game who may be interested: How/Where does one acquire the game? & What sites do you recommend for file sharing (uploading) images and saved files?



I don't have the game. And while I won't be interested in a legacy game until after I have played the game for a while, the game does seem to be of the type that I play. Is it available for free anywhere?