Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is a major upgrade when compared to its predecessor, Warband. Players have been treated to large-scale 500v500 battles between opposing armies, a large sandbox map, and of course, astonishing visuals and detail. In the first few hours, there’s a lot of magic you’ll experience and you’ll be deeply immersed in recruiting armies and building your reputation. After that though, there’s little to do and you’ll discover that the game is unfortunately quite shallow.

It is currently in its early access state and the lack of features and gameplay in its current state is fair. Diplomacy and world-building, as well as stories and various NPC quests haven’t been implemented yet. Meanwhile, kingdom and fief management is still taking baby steps and NPC rulers make questionable decisions when running a kingdom. Without installing certain mods, like the one that gives you a chance to court a lady after being turned down, there’s little to do.

On a positive note, the game is still under development and we can expect more updates and for the entire experience to gradually become more enriching as time goes on. With that said, TaleWorlds can take a cue from a couple of Warband mods, like Floris and Diplomacy, to add in a variety of quality of life and gameplay features and improvements.

Here are some recommendations:

More quests

One of the major aspects of Bannerlord is Clan Level which is determined by how much renown you have. In a nutshell, you can gain renown through battles and your clan level determines whether you can join a kingdom as a vassal or otherwise.

This is a huge grind and though quests and battles help, the former is far and few in between. Only a handful of NPCs (lords and, businessmen, and gang leaders) dish out repetitive quests which can get dull within a couple of hours.

In any case, it would be fantastic if they added more for you to gain more renown and rewards. It could be something like protecting an area, escorting villagers and caravans, as well as defeating a certain number of enemy parties during a war.

Banners and more banner designs

Though you can design your banner at the start of the game, there aren’t a lot of design and color options available. There’s a need for variety. Moreover, there is a “banner” equipment which you can bring to the field which isn’t accessible unless you use cheats.

With that said, when you bring these banners to the battlefield, they don’t exactly show your emblem. In any case, we hope this will be implemented sometime in the near future to add the game’s overall immersion. Plus, it just looks and feels amazing seeing your banner flap in the wind during a major cavalry charge.

The ability to command parties

When you’re finally a vassal of one of the factions, you’ll be able to have your fief (a castle or town) and the ability to form other parties led by companions you’ll recruit in various taverns.

With that said, it would be fantastic if the game had a feature wherein your companions could patrol specific areas. By doing so, you wouldn’t have to clear up eight-man teams of looters and bandits stalking your villagers who are bring much-needed supplies to towns. It’s a pain to do it all yourself and it would be great if your companions could help you in this endeavor.

Varied castles and towns

The moment you step into a town and castle, you’ll be astonished. These places are pretty well-designed and in a way, they feel alive and effectively give out that “medieval period” feel.

However, towns and castles of similar cultures look a lot similar, lacking variety. The same can be said about the villages. Moreover, NPCs and townspeople don’t dish out meaningful conversations and that affects immersion.

Diplomacy mod features

Finally, TaleWorlds can get a queue from Warband’s various mods, particularly the famed Diplomacy and Floris.

These Warband modifications had features like adjusting your kingdom’s tax and policies, hiring staff to help you manage your settlements and troops, and enabling you to create patrols to keep roads safe. In addition, it also dishes out more robust diplomatic actions, especially when dealing with other kingdoms. For example, you can appoint a chancellor to send gifts to lords and rulers, exchange prisoners, and form alliances (which is surprisingly not in Bannerlord yet).

Although these features can always be implemented by various modders, it’d be great if we had this after Early Access ends (which we’re sure won’t be for another year or two). Although the game is lacking in its current state, it’s still worth the purchase. It’s 20% off on Steam until July 10th.