Mount & Blade Windows, RTX game

Howdy, pardners. Been a while since we last chewed the rag, eh?

Well, I'm right pleased to report that v1.1b is really, almost, very nearly complete. All that's missing for release is a full restructuring of music files and the addition of even more music for even more situations. The restoration of tournaments as boxing matches, as mentioned in the last status update article, is fully implemented, but even more stuff has been added/changed and fixed since then (see the bottom of the article for a comprehensive list of changes and fixes so far).

Let's talk about tournaments first, though. Obviously, fighting with medieval weapons in spectator arenas doesn't fit the theme of the mod, so they've been overhauled into underground, winner-takes-all, 3-tier, 1v1 boxing tournaments (with no rounds per fight). 9 randomly-selected opponents from a roster of unique fighters of various skill levels will compete to take home the cash prize. The prize is based on how much money you contributed to each of your fights, with the odds against you multiplying your contribution. If you win the tournament, you get the whole sum of your contributions--if you lose a single fight, you lose your contributions and only get a tiny participation fee.

Since boxing was still illegal in 1866, tournaments are only hosted by random Hotels, after dark, with each tournament's arena being 1 of 5 randomly-selected scenes. To even be able to join them, though, you've got to talk to a new NPC that can be found at the El Paso saloon--but note that if you want to become a professional boxer, he won't talk much with female characters.

Some other big changes come from an exploit fix. Since accessing your inventory during battles refills all of your ammo--which feels more like a cheat than a gameplay element--and because inventory chest-spawning is inconsistent across battle scenes, I decided to remove all mid-battle access to the inventory screen. To make up for the loss, I've added an alternative-loadout system that will allow you to swap out up to 4 weapon slots once per battle. (Why only once per battle? Because getting the player agent to equip something else is a PITA without some of Warband's functions, but mostly because swapping an equipped item is hardcoded to reset the ammo on everything else equipped--so endless swapping would just be another infinite ammo exploit, unfortunately.)

You can set up an alternative loadout from the Camp Menu "Take an action." option, but that doesn't immediately let you swap stuff. To be able to swap weapon slots during battles, you need to have up to 4 different, special items in your inventory, which each allow another weapon slot to be swapped (but like Compasses, for example, each type of special item only adds +1 to swappable slots, so to get all 4 weapon slots swappable, you need to have all 4 different special items).

Armor, meanwhile, can also be swapped with whatever you put in the alternative loadout's armor slots, but only while visiting friendly Towns and Villages (so it's pretty much just a cosmetic thing--but hey, now you can change out of your dusty, bloody battle attire into something a little more civilized before you go soliciting Prostitutes). This can be done with a Backpack item in your inventory.

All these special items can be bought from town suppliers, while the alternative loadout system and swap keys are explained via internal dialogue with the player character (and yes, it actually did have to be done this way). Oh, and a couple weapons now have an alternative use that can be toggled once per battle: the "Bayoneted Springfield M1861 Rifled Musket", which can be toggled to ranged/melee mode, and the "LeMat .36mm Single-Action Revolver", which can be toggled to long barrel/shotgun barrel firing modes.

Another addition (that I don't remember if I've mentioned before) is a special, debilitating effect when the player character is very close to KO, but instead of forcing the player agent to play a bleed animation like NPCs do, I used a previously unimplemented slow-blink screen effect, followed by a tinnitus-type ringing sound effect, to help convey just how injured your character is. I added this because I always thought it was silly to get shot into Swiss cheese and yet still be able to continue running rings around your bleeding enemies without any repercussions at all. But since this is an actual gameplay change that might become too annoying for a majority of users, I'd like feedback on this in particular.

Which brings me to the main point of the article: the mod is in Closed Alpha because I want feedback and issue reports now, rather than later when people have put hours into their playthroughs and little bug fixes might break their savegames. I could test everything on my own and rely on my own opinions, but that would only add to development time and could potentially lead to unpopular stuff getting baked into the final release.

So, if you want to help at this stage of development, you can! Below is an invite link to the new Escapism Artists Discord server. There you'll be able to download this mod's latest releases, report issues, get support, give feedback, or discuss this project and any other of my projects. If you prove yourself to be a decent, trustworthy person, you'll even have a space to share your own projects or hobby stuff.

Discord.gg

"But why yet another random Discord server?" you might be asking. Well, because communication will be key, and forums like ModDB (where I don't get ANY notifications for new comments) and Nexus Mods add layers of abstraction that make in-depth discussions awkward or impossible, which ain't good when you're looking for feedback.

Since the server is new, rollout of server invitations is currently exclusive to readers of this very article. Eventually, though, I aim for the server to become a centralized location where I can handle support for all of my projects, and if it gets active enough, potentially engage with a legit community.

Anyway, if you've read this far down, congratulations! I hope to hear from you in the server.

V1.1a Changelog

Fixes:
- Fixed crash when activating caged Bomber troops in towns.
- Fixed friendly fire murder exploit. Now, if you kill and/or knockout more than 3 friendlies, your allies will become hostile.
- Fixed infinite ammo exploit by disabling inventory access with 'I' key (still enabled in friendly towns and villages), and by disabling inventory chest spawning.
- Fixed battles taking place at or near villages failing if player is wounded. Now the battle continues like in most other maps. (Several mission types need testing.)
- Fixed Quick Battles failing if player is wounded. Now the battle will continue until you quit or win.
- Fixed Alamo quick battle's frequent crashing by repositioning initial spawn points.
- Fixed missing village hold-up/murder reactions. Now, pointing a gun at or shooting someone will make the rest of the villagers attack, and dying will result in fines or jail time.
- Fixed frequent music switching. Now most tracks will play out fully unless entering combat.
- Fixed certain mismatched idle animations for town/village NPCs. Now, all eligible NPCs will idle with an animation suitable for their sex and/or role.
- Fixed a looping conversation with the Cottonwood undertaker.
- Fixed various NPC character dialogue lines/choices leading to dead ends or loops.
- Fixed refusing Cottonwood's undertaker's job offer causing quest to start anyway.
- Fixed Alice Saunders's quest staying stuck in quest journal.
- Fixed game-hunting mission template to not spam error messages.
- Fixed certain location menus flashing onscreen before skipping to their scenes.
- Fixed local price assessment scripts to exclude hotel parties, and re-enabled "Assess_the_local_prices." option in the town marketplace.
- Fixed Camp Riders missing mounted flag.
- Fixed Bandit Hideout map allowing player to wander off map until game crashes or to clip through cliff objects.
- Fixed Bandit Hideout missions failing quest immediately if player is wounded (Defend Bandit Hideout needs testing).
- Fixed Bandit Hideout mission allowing player to Tab out and re-enter the mission. Now Tab will bring up the retreat menu. Retreating will fail the quest.
- Fixed cf_steamboat_heist script causing the steamboat prop to move off into infinity. Now it will not move any props unless the scene is the train heist scene.
- Fixed Village Headmen in Saloons not allowing Eliminate Bandits Infesting Village quest to start (needs testing).
- Fixed dying while visiting villages causing uninitialized fugitive duel to trigger Billy Barrett quest failure.
- Fixed being able to murder guards in forts with no reactions. Now, taking a walk around a fort will spawn you without any weapons, like when visiting commander quarters.
- Fixed missing spawn point for Cottonwood Horse Trader.
- Fixed strange spawn point placement for various interactable troops in Indian towns.
- Fixed village walkers spawning into corner of Jansen-Williamson Ranch scene.
- Fixed missing/incorrect round count item text for several weapons.
- Fixed Bayoneted Springfield M1861 Rifled Musket inventory icon menu display angle.
- Fixed Vetterli Repeating Rifle inventory weight from 435000 to 10.36.
- Fixed Remington Rolling Block Carbine item text saying high penalty from horseback -> medium penalty like other carbines.
- Fixed unused Colt 1911 so it actually works.

Changes:
- Changed Camp Menu -> added option to set an alternative loadout for quick-swapping.
- Changed unused tournament shields -> passive bonus items, similar to Telescopes and Compasses, that each grant a quick-swap Backup Weapon Slot, which allow for swapping a weapon slot with a dummy troop's equivalent weapon slot (once per battle).
- Changed an unused tournament armor piece -> backpack item with a passive bonus that allows you to swap clothing/armor slots with a dummy troop's clothing/armor slots inside non-hostile towns/villages (unlimited times).
- Changed previously disabled tournaments -> 1v1 boxing tournaments held at random hotels at night, joinable if you meet a new NPC in the El Paso saloon (note: he will only converse with male characters).
- Changed all town arena scenes to be 1 of 5 new, fully decorated boxing arena scenes.
- Changed 14 unused tournament fighters and 4 unused unique NPCs -> unique boxers with progressively higher stats, up to 4 champion-level boxers.
- Changed all mission templates to utilize a previously unimplemented slow-blink screen effect and create blood particle effects if player HP < 30, with rising chances of the effect occurring as HP decreases.
- Changed original story quest to now have multiple branching outcomes and unique rewards, roles, (some previously unimplemented) characters and dialogue, and consequences.
- Changed Tull so that "hostile forces" will respawn in future visits until all have been killed.
- Changed Tull box so that it contains a special item that will affect the player and lead to an unmarked quest with a "good" and "bad" choice.
- Changed Mine location party to be enabled, become visible on the map when close enough, so it can be visited/entered, has props, and to have an interactable object in its interior.
- Changed each town to have a religious leader who enables donating money to gain honor, town relation, attached village relation, or faction relation. American towns have Reverends (Bishop's Lodge has a Nun), Mexican towns have Padres, and Indian towns have Holy Men.
- Changed hooker hiring, morale bonuses, and interactions.
- Changed Jansen dialogue so it reflects Cottonwood story quest's progress.
- Changed various minor dialogue flow issues, added improvements, additional flavor choices, and many other adjustments/fixes.
- Changed Cottonwood undertaker's job offer by adding another option to respond to him.
- Changed Billy Barrett's Cask quest by adding more eligible quests to bring Sheriff Jacobson a replacement body.
- Changed one of two identical Prostitute troops -> Courtesan which are mounted, higher tier Prostitute upgrades with the same functionality.
- Changed saloon barkeeper dialogue options so Courtesan services can be hired, and so the player is transported to a unique scene with one of four unique Courtesan NPCs (not explicit).
- Changed saloon Courtesan service price and morale bonuses for the player from 10 -> 6 for $6, and for hiring hookers for the whole party from 30 -> (party member count)*6 for $6*(party member count - Prostitute/Courtesan count).
- Changed Prostitute walker dialogue so they can be recruited to the party directly for a price (they can still be hired for free after hiring a Courtesan, if CHA is high enough).
- Changed party Prostitute/Courtesan troop talk so they can be paid or coerced to increase party morale on-the-go (with appropriate money, honor, morale, and desertion effects).
- Changed Chain Gang interactions so they can pay bounties per outlaw-type prisoner for players with 10+ honor, 50+ renown, and 10+ relation with their faction (USA or Mexico).
- Changed Scalphunter interactions so they can pay for all prisoners from players with 10+ relation with their faction, for a -2 honor penalty.
- Changed prisoner pricing script to be based on with whom the player is trading with, such that Graile pays 1x any troop's value, Chain Gangs pay 3x outlaw-type troop's value and 0x other troop-type values, and Scalphunters pay 2x any troop's value.
- Changed Graile dialogue so he has the option to explain other captives-trading options.
- Changed prisoner lord dialogue to include option to release them without ransom.
- Changed wounded companion dialogue to allow entering their equipment and skills screens.
- Changed Mill town improvement from 5% prosperity increase to 15%.
- Changed improvement build times from 150% faster than default to 200%.
- Changed Engineering build time and cost reduction bonuses for improvements from default 50% to 70%.
- Changed honor loss from rejecting lord prisoner ransom from -1 to 0.
- Changed honor loss from provoking a war from -5 to -10.
- Changed lord relationship penalties for declining/refusing certain missions to 0.
- Changed lord relationship penalty for taking them prisoner from -1 to 0.
- Changed lord relationship penalty for calling off an attack with a lord before battle from -1 to 0.
- Changed town relationship bonuses for completion of certain quests to better reflect difficulty of quests.
- Changed chance of enemy lords escaping from your party from 50% to 30%.
- Changed chance of enemy lords escaping from town or fort with no prison from 30% to 10%.
- Changed chance of enemy lords escaping from town or fort with prison from 5% to 1%.
- Changed Persuasion attempt formula so the odds of passing skill checks ramps up significantly as it increases.
- Changed post-battle reward XP and money dividers from 100 -> 90 and from 100 -> 85, respectively.
- Changed wage reduction for garrisoning troops from default 2x decrease to 4x.
- Changed remaining-troop threshold for defending reinforcements to arrive from (default) 6 -> 30.
- Changed reinforcement wave limit from 2 -> unlimited.
- Changed reinforcement count from 8 -> 30.
- Changed game-hunting missions to spawn player's full party.
- Changed Bandit Hideout map so river depth is shallow like in Native M&B water maps.
- Changed Bandit Hideout AI barriers so AI won't go off sheer drops but can pursue the player better, and so the marksman won't wander from his nest.
- Changed most Western town scenes to have a church structure if they were missing one, or a cross to indicate one.
- Changed Cottonwood scene to hide gaps between the floor and models outside the walkable area.
- Changed train job scene to have some abandoned structures, better map borders, and better looking tunnels.
- Changed El Paso and El Rio sheriffs to offer special jobs if player meets minimum level requirements (levels 15 and 20, respectively), much like the Bishop's Lodge train job.
- Changed steamboat heist scene to support proper troop spawning and movement, and to have more props.
- Changed stagecoach ambush scene to support proper troop spawning and movement, and to have more props.
- Changed Battle of the Alamo quick battle scene with prop positions, removals, additions.
- Changed music.txt to include more unused music, and in more appropriate situations.
- Changed Catastrophe Jill's cussing to be closer to the original mod's profanity, but within historical context.
- Changed Catastrophe Jill's default clothing from Nun's Habit and Hood -> Yellow Cowboy Shirt and Straw Cowboy Hat.
- Changed The Clown's face skin, torso clothing, and footwear -> previously unused clown texture, red checkered cowboy shirt with vest, and leather boots, respectively.
- Changed Jackie Luong generic dialogue to be more unique.
- Changed Jackie Luong's facial appearance to be a tad more Asian, and his clothing to a white Chinese shirt and red cap.
- Changed John Marvin's spawn point to the bar in the El Paso Hotel.
- Changed Town ambience to include more texture than just background people.
- Changed most mission templates to loop day/night ambience the same way Towns do.
- Changed random playback of background SFX when in towns/villages to include more SFX.
- Changed default Destroy Gangs of Looters job so about half as many Looter parties spawn, and so they spawn closer to the source town.
- Changed Looter party template so they spawn about twice as many troops to make it harder for them to flee during quests.
- Changed honor-based ambush setup trigger check rate from every 2 hrs -> every 6 hrs.
- Changed male player idle animation set from default male idle -> 6 animation set that includes lord idle and 5 poses.
- Changed many firearm SFX to more accurate ones from real recordings, more appropriate for their caliber/damage potential, or to spread the distribution of SFX used.
- Changed LeMat .36mm Single-Action Revolver to have a very close range, single-shot shotgun variant that can be toggled once per battle with X.
- Changed Bayoneted Springfield M1861 Rifled Musket to have a toggleable ranged/bayonet variant that can be toggled once per battle with X.
- Changed one of two Springfield M1861 Rifled Musket items -> "Bayoneted Springfield M1861 Rifled Musket", bayoneted 3D model, accuracy from 96 to 92, weight from 4 to 6, value from ~$10 to ~$14.
- Changed "Sawned-Off Winchester Carbine" to American English "Sawed-Off Winchester Carbine".
- Changed item names of Pork and Chicken -> Salt Pork and Brined Chicken to reflect their non-perishability.
- Changed name and value of all skill books to reflect post-Civil War America setting.
- Changed weight and value of Gold Bar from 60.0000 and $20 -> 1.0000 and $300 (following official gold price in America in 1866).
- Changed weight and value of Silver Bar from 50.0000 and $12 -> 5.0000 and $100 (following official silver price in America in 1866).

Known Issues:
- Walking around the outer Cottonwood area, especially from one corner to another, may lead to crashes.
- Some users have reported crashes occurring when attempting to recruit troops from held prisoners, or when moving many prisoners out of a party and into garrisons. Apparently, prisoner handling becomes unstable as more prisoners are dealt with and as playthroughs get longer in playtime, so save your game before dealing with prisoners in your party.
- Due to complications from missing certain Warband ops in this older version of M&B, swapping equipment (whether by weapon slots or by switching to bayonet mode) will cause the player troop to appear wounded in the post-battle prisoners menu regardless of their HP at the end of battle. As soon as you hit the map screen, though, it should return to the same HP you ended the battle with (minus one or two HP points, potentially).
- While in death-cam mode within scenes, it may be possible to move outside of scene bounds and crash the game.
- During boxing tournaments, at tier 2 (and potentially other tiers), some matches may pair the player with an opponent not found on the current list of fighters.