Yes, I get what you mean. This is nice to know, thank you. Imagine all those big-budget companies and no one ever has achieved what M&B has (not only that: they claimed it was impossible). And still no one has even managed to make even a copy of the horseback capabilities of M&B.

I wonder if there are improvements in the strategic/career/RP gameplay as well.

I know, I've been following Taleworlds for a long time, around more than 17 years I think.

The first Mount and Blade took 8 years to develop (Pre Alpha began during the very early 2000s and release was in 2008).

Warband is a engine based update over Mount and Blade to make it futureproof. Development began after 1.011 and took 2 years. There still updating the engine however. Presumably, the person who made the formations mod might also be working with Taleworlds a few years after Warbands initial release.

Viking Conquest isn't wholly related to the core engine and Native game, however the experts who made Brytenwalda are handling the process, optimizing anything that isn't related to the engine itself. Its a "more polished" version over the Mount and Blade native experience. Presumably, they're also workiong with Bannerlords development to some degree. People who digged into the intricacies of the DLC know that VC is more optimized than mods based around Native.

Speculations aside, with these very simple axioms (understanding how Taleworks works) in mind its fairly easy to predict the release of Bannerlord around mid/late 2021, so in around 2 years! The beta/early access release will be earlier, should it happen.

Its common knowledge that a wholly new developed Taleworlds game should take at the very least 8 years to make (we're past this time). However, consider that a game as simple as Mount and Blade was made by 2 people. Warbands development had around 6-8 (?) people actively working on it. Bannerlords development directly began after Warbands (2010). Talewords size also changed its size from 6 to 50 people and all of that while considering that Bannerlord is also a vastly more ambigious game than Warband is. Relating how long the previous development time took, believing it takes 10-11 years seems to be the most reasonable assessment considering how the company works from a surface perspective and how previous installments progressed in their development time.

Modders are sort of figuring out how Bannerlord might be in terms of gameplay. If you want to play a Mount and Blade game that kinda shares Bannerlords battle atmosphere, I very strongly recommend A World of Ice and Fire to you, which basically has very similar field battles as shown with Talewords promo videos and teasers for Bannerlord. It also wars that happen on seas with ships that you can sail (its unsurprising that this mod is also based on Viking Conquest rather than Warbands Native). It might be a good mod to waste a few years on. I'm fairly certain that people will try to crease a "Bannerlord mod" for Warband at some point since the modding tools and understanding for Warband and VC are already very much developed.

Thank you for the comprehensive reply. Some thoughts:

0. Followed Mount & Blade since the beginning. Played it to death, then Warband. The variants as well. Got tired of following Bannerlord development. Thank you for the great update.

1. Seeing the staff rising from 2 to 6-8 to around 50 may arise both expectations and fears. Hopefully they will be able to manage a larger team and the associated problems that come with that. And hopefully, all that people will be doing more than beautifying the game with bells & whistles.

2. Never looked at the entrails of Viking Conquest, although it is nice to have ships in the gameplay. Maybe there might be more surprises in that vein. As you mentioned the formations mod, maybe they will be improving said formations. Making it more interesting/easy to work with larger armies?

3. Viking Conquest was way less player-friendly than the standard Calradia setting. It seems to be trying hard to be realistic. Maybe a tad too much?

4. Will be checking A World of Ice and Fire. Thanks for the heads up.

No worries. Keep in mind that A World of Ice and Fire is a mod about Game of Thrones and also has some nudity in it (which shouldn't be that much of a problem).

Whats important is that the mod author intends this mod to be extremly difficult. Every little thing on this game is several times stronger than you and you can also have battle injuries that decrease your stats if they're untreated. If you're only accustumed to Native gameplay then I suggest using cheats if you want to play this mod.

Compared to Viking Conquest I would say that this mod is at least three times as difficult. Its possible to play through this mod without cheats by exploiting saves since you're able to bet money at any bar by a coin toss.

Its a tough as nails game but the battles are sure worth it.

Maybe our grandkids will enjoy it when it comes out.

It sounds definitely interesting. As for difficulty. Had no problem adapting to Prophesy of Pendor. Although the difficulty in PoP is based on the opponents being tough, while the difficulty in Viking Conquest (IMO) comes more from how scarce goods are.

Both show how difficulty is to balance the game world out: While Viking Conquest feels bare and poor (aiming to historical accuracy), the world in PoP feels just too rich and with a convoluted back-story that demands quite a lot from the player in order to survive and thrive (again, IMHO): overcrowded, over the top, difficult for the sake of difficult and money galore. Compared to these worlds, the native Calradia manages to stay in a sweet spot that is just fun to play. Noot to crowded, not too austere. So, balancing things out does not seem to be trivial. More to apreciate in the mods that manage that well: it is not a given, but something to value them for.

Had my annual itch to check out Bannerlord. According to the Steam Early Access page (link) its planned in first quarter next year. I do not have that much hopes for a Gog release though (just a general feeling I have about all new(ish) games; but in that case supported by no InDev of it on Gog and the Denuvo (spits 3 times) rumors on page one).

Good thing I am mostly f.o.m.o. resistant regarding games so I will be merely moderately annoyed to miss it out if it only gets online drmd releases.

I honestly hope that it would be the same case for Bannerlord as to what happened to TaleWorlds' previous games. To be more specific, TaleWorlds does allow you to activate the game (Warband, and the first M&B if I'm not mistaken) using the Steam code/key that you get from buying the game through Steam.

So what you can basically do is to first buy the game through Steam, look for the Steam code of the game somewhere in the game's properties (if I remember correctly), download the trial version of the game on TaleWorlds' website, then activate that trial version of the game using the Steam code. If the code didn't work, you could contact the TaleWorlds' support via email about the matter so that they could replace the code with the one that works (that's basically what I did). After that's done and you've finally activated the trial version, you'll be free to play the game whenever you want without having to ever log in to Steam.

But of course, getting the game through GOG would definitely get rid of all the hassle of having to buy the game through Steam and activate the game's trial version using the Steam code.

Yes, I had a similar thing when the first m&b was released physically, and had to register it through taleworlds site. Only once to get activation code which could be used from there on. Steam and Denuvo however are a different kettle of fish. If that’s the case the £60-£100 I have sitting here waiting for bannerlord collectors edition will remain with me. It won’t change anything, but those who finance drm should understand that all they do is lose actual long time customers (I have brought all the games and expansions several times over), and that the drm will be cracked within days. So it’s only themselves they are hurting in the long run. As I say, I don’t expect it will make any difference, but that’s it. For what it’s worth I don’t think this title will ever be released anyways.

Mount & Blade II Bannerlord will be in GoG?

I don't know but wherever Mont and Blade 2 is I is, I'd love it to come to gog,

Agreed.

Now that there is a release date I personally I have my doubts on the game appearing on here once its out. But I think once its actually out of Early Access which may as well take as long as a year or so, they might as well put it on here afterwards.

Not only that but I believe that all the Taleworld games kinda belong here on GOG. Both companies were founded with pretty similar mentalities after all. Its too bad that times may have changed though.

I bought all the M&B games directly from their site, which works better for mods since you can get the old versions.

I bought them again on GoG to support when they were on sale here, but having the ability to get the old versions was key to being able to enjoy any of the many mods. Some just dont get updated or get updated a long time after the patch. You either have access to the old versions on their site, or have to keep the old installers saved somewhere.