Evighetsprojektet Mount & Blade 2 visar ännu inga tecken på att närma sig färdigt skick, men att arbetet rullar på står i alla fall klart. I den senaste statusuppdateringen berättar Taleworlds om nyheterna i multiplayer, där spelläget Skirmish är en nyhet.

Två lag med sex spelare vardera brakar samman. Men Taleworlds kommer inte jämna ut oddsen mellan tungt beväpnade riddare och enkla bönder med högafflar. Istället testas ett poängsystem som låter enklare utrustade krigare spawna flera gånger, och dessutom ta med sig poängen till nästa spelomgång om de lyckas ha några kvar. På det här sättet hoppas man kunna behålla inlevelsen.

Skirmish is a 6 vs 6, player versus player (PvP) game mode. There are no bots to rely on, just your individual combat skill, and that of your fellow teammates. And while tactical prowess and strategy play a huge part in achieving victory over your opponents, solid teamwork and good communication are key to success.

The primary idea behind Skirmish’s design is asymmetry. Most multiplayer games strive to have a well-balanced mix of classes and characters where no single class is dominant. We considered going this route early in the design process but decided that this wouldn’t work at all in a game that aims to represent medieval battles where armoured knights mounted on destriers would share the field with peasants with pitchforks. Of course, there were ways to nerf the stronger classes, as we could easily make knights extremely slow and sluggish or give them reduced damage. However such moves would be kind of unrealistic and immersion breaking and so go against the spirit of our game...

The solution we found was to have a game mode with limited spawns, where the number of spawns you can have depends on the quality of your class choices. To facilitate this, we introduced a points system. Players start with a set amount of points that they can spend to select a class for each spawn during a round. Higher tier troops with better equipment cost much more, which limits the number of times they can be selected by a single player each round, whereas low tier troops are much cheaper, giving players the option of an additional one or two spawns for that round. At the end of the round, if you have unspent points, a limited amount of these can be carried over to the next round, which in turn opens up more tactical options for teams.

Det kommer bli sluten betatestning för att säkerställa att multiplayer fungerar som det är tänkt. Oklart dock när betatestningen ska genomföras.

Of course Skirmish mode, like other multiplayer modes, is still under development and there is still a lot of work needed to fine tune and balance everything. To do this more efficiently, we are planning to carry out a closed multiplayer beta where we hope to get help and feedback from members of our community.

Mount & Blade 2 tillkännagavs redan 2012 men har fortfarande inget releasedatum. Taleworlds sa tidigare i år att man inte kommer närvara på E3-mässan i juni. Däremot beger man sig till Köln och Gamescom i augusti. Kanske, kanske får vi en liten antydan till releasedatum då. Eller inte – det sägs ju uttryckligen att mycket jobb återstår. Pust.