Mount & Blade: Warband Windows, RTX game

First, let me open this article with a heartfelt thank you to anyone who has spent even a few minutes of their limited time here to check out this project.

In January 2024 I posted an update, naively expecting the 1.030 update to be mere weeks away. 55 weeks later, and the changelog has only grown and grown.

Be it feature-creep, ambition, or whatever else, the mod has seen some dramatic changes. I appreciate the patience that has been afforded to me by this wonderful community.

There is still a lot of core work to be done, but I wanted to update the wider community on a few of the changes to systems since my last article here on Moddb.

Using this excellent interpretation from the talented u/So_Hanged, I painstakingly modelled the terrain of this expanded world.

While the new version will not feature new or altered factions to fill up the newly expanded lands, I hope to utilize this vision of a world not-too-unlike ours to capture the feeling of a world-spanning adventure!

The arsenal system allows you to customize your skills to further match your playstyle, or to best fit the situation you currently find yourself in.

Choose your offhand throwing weapon, equip a sidearm, customize your cannon’s shells and powder, and adjust your crossbow fire rate and accuracy.

For instance, equip a flamethrower cap and some healing powder to turn your cannon from a tool of destruction to a way to keep your party in battle, or maybe throw on some grapeshot and high velocity powder and turn that crowd of trolls from scourge to purged.

In the following video, Guts has equipped a rocket filled with a toxic gas instead of using his standard cannon shell. Let's see how it works out for him

Outside of the changes due to arsenal parts (flamethrower, grapeshot, rockets, etc) I have also expanded upon what the shot does when it leaves the barrel of your cannon.

When using shot-types that have solid projectiles like the starting shell, the cannon shot has a chance to bounce upon hitting the ground and continue along for a great distance more!

Additionally, shots have a chance to tear all the way through their target continuing on behind them and potentially hitting even more enemies. The shot type used will alter this chance, with some specializing in this effect, and others being unable to do so.

No, thankfully, this is just what I find interesting or fun. The change log is at nearly 200 items at this moment, and likely to continue to swell.

Honestly, looking at my to-do list for the 1.030 list, it's not too bad. I do not think it'll be a surprise release sometime soon, but the light at the end of the tunnel is pretty visible.

I do still features that are 100% must-do before 1.030, but mostly at this stage it's just bugfixes, polish and finalizing art assets.

Tester builds are available on the mod's discord for those who choose to opt in. There are no requirements to become a tester, it's just there for those who want a sneak peek.

If you do choose to join the tester corps, there is a drawing which will take place on the day of 1.030 being launched here to the public on Moddb, so engagement and feedback is encouraged!