Regarding cRPG, I played that mod for about a year or so and had a great time, partly because I came across a group of fun people to play with. The early game is really rough, and the only people that the 'upkeep' system really punishes are the people who don't have money/haven't played for long. My main character kept getting craptons of money in my normal fighting gear (I was a medium-lightish armored agility spear user so my equipment was fairly cheap) with nothing to really spend it on. After 'retiring' a few times I actually went and tried things like 2-handed swords and clubs, and even with the most expensive stuff I could get I was raking in the cash. The idea behind cRPG is nice, but the implementation is not the best.
Still, it's (was, at least) one of the most popular multiplayer mods, and I wouldn't be surprised if Taleworlds implements some of those ideas into their own multiplayer, and even then they'd probably have their standard modes for poeple who can't be bothered with persistent stuff. Strategus for example was a fun little thing but you basically had to be in a clan in order to do anything, and time zones were an issue.
Anyways, I wasn't expecting a blog post so soon after their previous one (not that I mind at all) so let's take a look...
I am really digging that map editor. I've only made a map for one game before, built this editor is reminding me a lot of Wolfire's Overgrowth editor, which I'm a fan of. Painting decal textures directly on objects looks like a great way to break up some of the more samey looking areas and give them a more unique feel. (And then as soon as I type this the narrator says it, whatever).
I really wish that they would add more tools for water though, just having a static 'water level' is nice, but being able to have water on different levels, having water flow down the side of a mountain or make a waterfall etc. would be amazing. Having ditches that collect water after rain; they showed a decal which could work if they made it so that walking on it produces the right effects...
The horse maneuvering looks very similar to M&B, which I hope is just a placeholder. I remember one of the very first "M&B2" videos to be put out featured a horse walking from side to side (strafing) which would make mounted combat a more dynamic. What I would really love to see, however, is the horse as a separate AI. You should be able to control or direct what you want the mount to do but it should react to things like being told to charge headfirst into a wall, perhaps even having more riding skill would make the mount obey your commands more closely.
Of course this isn't the horse or combat video, but something tells me it's not going to change too much form what we've seen (but I imagine the animation is very placeholder at the moment)
On a side note, I'm really hoping that they make many objects (clothing and such) color-neutral, and then make it so that you can add your own color to them. So, instead of having a red shirt, a blue shirt, a brown shirt, and a white shirt, you would instead have a single shirt object/item, just with its own 'coloration', perhaps similar to how heraldic items work in the previous games. I'm quite obsessed with this kind of thing, I know...
Regarding the graphics itself, one of the draws for M&B was how low the system requirements are for it. You can run the game in DirectX 7. Yeah...