TaleWorlds Entertainment has released beta updates v1.50 and v1.3.0 for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord and the War Sails naval expansion, respectively. The developers want to test the changes and improvements before the full release.
Before starting a campaign in Bannerlord Beta v1.5.0, players can choose “scenarios”. For example, Default – Calradia will be normal, in United Empire – the civil war will end and the player's chosen faction will reunite the Calradian Empire, and in Invasion – the player's chosen faction will aggressively expand and rule most of Calradia.
There will also be an option to choose the starting game role: the player can start as a King (ruler of the chosen faction), mercenary, vassal, outlaw, merchant, beggar in rags, etc. Owners of the expansion will have access to roles such as fleet admiral or adventurous merchant.
The developers also talked about Blood Feuds. If a player executes a member of another clan, their representatives will start doing the same to members of the player's clan — this will continue until relations improve or compensation is paid. It may happen that they decide to execute the player themselves:
Notably, AI-controlled clans can also start blood feuds: if your relations are bad enough — currently the threshold is "-50" — they may execute one of your clan members, including yourself. So it's worth keeping an eye on who you're fighting, or at least making sure your heir hasn't been captured yet.
A full description of the updates for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord and the War Sails expansion is available at the following link. The updates also include improvements to the global map and AI managing naval units, added ports to coastal castles, and more.
You can join the update testing through the game's properties in Steam, in the beta versions section, by selecting the desired branch from the list.