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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  But is it Fun?  |  Topic: Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword - Talewords - PC/Steam 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword - Talewords - PC/Steam  (Read 5583 times)
Paelos
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Posts: 27075

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on: May 09, 2011, 07:35:02 AM

I'll start off by saying that if you haven't played M&B:Warband, you should buy that first and play it so you get the idea of what Mount and Blade is about. Down to it's core, M&B is all about mounted combat where you ride around hacking people in the face. If face-hacking amuses you, the game will hit a chord that won't stop resonating for hours. If not, you can stop reading now.

Fire and Sword isn't an expansion. At best, it should be considered a mod on top of Warband, except that it's a standalone version of the game. For those that have played Warband, everything in the game is already familiar in terms of the combat. The only real change is the addition of grenades and black-powder guns, which can make for some hilarious combat situations. Before you ask, no, the addition of guns do not make this a FPS game. Far from it. The guns really only act as a way to deal with annoying armored troops where hacking isn't the best option, or enemies that insist on riding around in circles strafing you. Remember those god-awful Mongolian-like horse archers in Warband? That's not a problem anymore. Any jackass can fire a gun at their horse and ruin their day really really fast. It's highly satifying to blow someone off their mount from long range as well.

In terms of gameplay, it revolves around you, a big map with villages and towns, and recruiting soldiers to fight and run missions. There are missions for lords, missions for towns, and missions for villages. Do these and gain levels to assign points into skills that help you either fight better, trade better, or lead better. That part is not overly complicated. What gets complicated is that you're dealing with economic pressures, countries going to war, mercenary assignments, feuding lords, troop morale, supply lines, caravans, and people stealing your shit. It's easy to get overwhelmed in the early game because you simply aren't that powerful. Also, you can't recruit directly from villages like you can in Warband. You go to mercenary camps or taverns in cities to get your cannon fodder. As you progress, you gain access to villages as a recruiting point if you are made a lord of that country.

Personally, I like a lot of the changes they've made. It makes logical sense that you don't just randomly recruit peasants right off the bat to turn into asskickers. I actually prefer it this way because merc camps let you purchase a large bulk of your force in one place, rather than riding around over the countryside looking for stray peasants. Also, I love shooting people in the face. Sure it takes half a year to reload, but man, blowing a Swedish Reiter who's acting all high and mighty right off his horse is a thing of beauty. Trade is dramatically improved as well. If you get a trading license, you can send a caravan to a city that needs goods (assuming you can protect it) and bypass all the inventory restriction of carrying the goods yourself. Also, you make much more money if you do it right. It makes the game much better and more engaging when you're negotiating a huge shipment through enemy territory. There's hundreds of thousands riding on one trip at times. It gets tense.

The bad news is the game didn't ship with all the stuff polished. They've since fixed the troop leveling system (which works perfectly now), and the out of combat problems. Before, if you lost, your troops would get horribly reamed no matter what. Now, the system actually takes into account their strength, and assigns a more realistic (but not as ideal as if you were actually in battle) value to their fight outcome. I've won several fights by simply playing them out after I've been knocked out because my forces were better and more numerous. Don't expect to win battles if you are outnumbered and out cold, though.

Overall, it's a very good game that probably needs another balancing patch to work out a few of the kinks. I really enjoy it so far, and I'm about 20 hours in. There is an actual storyline that you follow when you join a faction, and that gives you a goal within the sandbox if that's something you enjoy. If not, ride around shooting people and hacking up muskateers. Trade to your hearts content. Conquer villages like a despot. Do your thing. That's the whole point.

Verdict: Wait 2 months for mods and the latest balance patch to come out, then BUY IT. It's only $14.

CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
Mrbloodworth
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Posts: 15148


Reply #1 on: May 09, 2011, 09:31:40 AM

Question: In the few multi-player games my group attempted to play in the original game, the AI on siege maps would never, ever use the ladders and siege equipment, even if YOU raised the ladder, the AI would not go up. Has this been fixed?

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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075

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Reply #2 on: May 09, 2011, 10:30:08 AM

Question: In the few multi-player games my group attempted to play in the original game, the AI on siege maps would never, ever use the ladders and siege equipment, even if YOU raised the ladder, the AI would not go up. Has this been fixed?

I can only speak to the fact that the AI uses the siege ladders flawlessly in single player. I haven't delved into the multiplayer side yet so far.

CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
Mrbloodworth
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Posts: 15148


Reply #3 on: May 09, 2011, 11:11:01 AM

Well, that worked in single player before. We really looked forward to at least some multi-player siege battles, but that kinda put a stop all that.

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sinij
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Posts: 2597


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Reply #4 on: September 30, 2011, 09:21:23 AM

I recently picked up M&B With Fire and Sword and did not enjoy it at all. I really liked Warband, but F&S deviated enough from the formula that I uninstalled it after playing only a short time.

My issues:

1. Map is not as fleshed out as Warband. I am very familiar with historical background of that time period, and it was refreshing to see places and names included in the game. Problem is that kind of map does not support fun game experience. There are very few strategic "chokes" and land separations, and quite a number of close-placed cities. The map plays like a flat board where nations randomly conquer places and capitals change hands all the time.
2. Guns make sieges unbearable - every battle is like trying to siege Rhodooks castle choke-full with Sharpshooters, only you don't have an option of ramming them with heavy infantry, because there isn't any that works against guns. Bombardment with larger artillery guns was used to solve this problem, but that is not part of the game.
3. Random shot in the head - as a hero you are a lot more likely to take a shot in the head and randomly "die", even if you don't do anything stupid. Game is nearly unplayable without mod that disables forced retreat after your hero knocked out.
4. Guns are not realistic - too accurate. Hand guns of that era would lose accuracy after couple shots due to black powder residue making projectile trajectory unpredictable. Additionally guns misfired, backfired and wouldn't work in rain all the time. It was not until rifling that these problems were solved for a hand gun. Reloading also took much longer than game lets you believe. Game allows you to ride a horse around, reload and shoot your pistol around 30+ times without any problems... Overall - guns are too good to realistically portray the period.
5. Early game is harsh - there are no tournaments, training camps or 'searaiding' and you can't even recruit and train your "cheap" army until you join a nation. Your only options are trading and mercenaries. Additionally equipment cost A LOT more than in original game.

Overall - skip this, just play Mount & Blade Warband and try out couple "theme" mods that were created by community.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2011, 09:28:40 AM by sinij »

Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
sinij
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Reply #5 on: October 01, 2011, 07:50:45 AM

Diplomacy 4.0 for Warband is out .  You have to try this mod, it stays true to core game but adds A LOT of polish and imports most good features from F&S into Warband.

Play Warband + Diplomacy 4.0 instead of Fire & Sword.

Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
Mrbloodworth
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Posts: 15148


Reply #6 on: October 02, 2011, 08:06:14 AM

I assume ill have to start over if I use that mod?

EDIT: Yay! = "Mod works with native save games. (save games of older Diplomacy versions might not work, though)"
« Last Edit: October 02, 2011, 08:07:50 AM by Mrbloodworth »

Today's How-To: Scrambling a Thread to the Point of Incoherence in Only One Post with MrBloodworth . - schild
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sinij
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Posts: 2597


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Reply #7 on: October 02, 2011, 05:46:42 PM

You have to copy your saved files from native to diplomacy save folder, otherwise it works 100%.

Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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