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Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

rapsdjff

Overhype Studios
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330
Another piece of the puzzle that is the worldmap rework.

blog_header_villagescreen.jpg

Dev Blog #53: Village Screen Rework
After talking about the general worldmap generation in our last blogpost, this week we’re going to take a look at some of the changes and additions coming to the village screens. The rework of the village screens is twofold: We’re doing both a complete visual rework and adding lots of new features. Let’s go into some details!

How it’ll work
A key design goal for our new worldmap is to have every corner feel unique and make for a less generic world overall. That’s why we’re adding more terrain types and unique landmarks (more about them later!), and that’s also what we’re trying to achieve with all the settlements you can interact with in the world. Whereas previously all villages, cities, watchtowers and strongholds looked exactly the same, did the same, and were pretty much interchangeable, we want all the new settlements to be recognizable across the world for their individual look and very different services they offer.

Settlements now have a clearer purpose and this is reflected both in gameplay and visuals. For example, a fishing village along the coast will offer you predominantly fish as provisions for relatively cheap prices, have more fishermen than other backgrounds to hire, and will have visuals that reflect its purpose. A mining village at the foot of mountains, on the other hand, will have a better selection of both metal-based equipment and potential recruits with the miner background. Another change relevant mostly to those of you that speak German is that settlements now always have a name that actually fits them. No longer will you find ‘Dunkelwald’ on open plains!



The all-new village screen shows a panorama of the whole settlement and not just a single street corner anymore. It’s made up of 15 different layers with a variety of different images to make each and every settlement appear unique. The background layers are determined by the surrounding terrain, with villages close to a forest or high up north in the snow looking accordingly. Atop a hill sits a townhall or fortification of different size based on the type and size of the settlement, and the hill is flanked with different houses or terrain depending on the settlement’s purpose. The most important part are a set of buildings placed along the incline. Those can be interacted with, and they offer all kinds of different services to the player.



You’ll find a marketplace of some kind to buy general supplies at in almost every settlement. Larger cities may also have specialized traders that offer higher quality weapons or armor for higher prices. Taverns may allow you to give your men a good night’s rest in relative safety, and the docks of coastal villages and cities allow you to book passage on a ship to other settlements as a means of fast travel. This modular system of buildings allows us to easily add new buildings with new services as we progress in development. There’s a lot of things that come to mind – a money lender or a barber to customize the appearance of your Battle Brothers, for example. We’ve yet to see what buildings will make it into the game in the first round, and which buildings may be added later on.

Note that the above images are still work in progress and do not represent the final quality. There are no people in the settlements yet, and we’ll do another pass to make all the buildings easily identifiable. The village screen currently in the game was always considered placeholder by us and the new village screen will feature artwork at a higher quality for what will ultimately be a nice coherent look across the whole game. The image below shows a tavern at full size and should give you a good idea on how detailed everything will end up looking.

http://battlebrothersgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/blog_header_villagescreen.jpg
 

Serus

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Fantastic news, the main map was one of the missing pieces. Combat is already very good. Some tweaking of skill "trees" would be nice and some general balancing, perhaps some more tiles/maps types for more variety but overall combat already plays very well. Itemization is already good too, so are graphics and art direction. Now add an interesting and varied map with a lot to explore, some "meta" elements to game play (like factions and the need for the player to make choices among them or something like that) with quests/jobs tied to it and voila... we might be witnessing the creation of a game that will be called classic for years to come. And i don't mean by mainstream journos who call that every second AAA game given enough doritos but a real masterpiece. Or not. We will see but i am optimistic which is rare since.... well since late 90s/early 00s.
 

rapsdjff

Overhype Studios
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Not much new to report this week, but work is progressing nicely for us.

Header-Worldmap-Tiles.jpg

Dev Blog #54: Progress Update – Village Screens and Worldmap Terrain
This week we’ve been hard at work implementing both the new village screen we talked about last week, as well as finding an overall visual style for all the new terrain types of our redone worldmap. Let’s take a look!

Village Screens
Last week we’ve shown you two examples of the new and very different village screen that is made up of a variety of layers, like different terrain in the background and buildings for you to interact with. Now we’re adding more and more content to create any kind of settlement – be it a small village, a stone keep or a large trading city.

To give you a better idea of the variety of buildings you can expect, here is a first look at the work-in-progress armorsmith and weaponsmith buildings.



While many smaller villages will have but a marketplace that offers lower grade and often used equipment amidst everyday goods like food and clothing, these two specialized traders found in larger cities will sell new and finely crafted equipment for steep prices.

In medieval times, villages and cities were usually pretty busy places with all kinds of folks going about their business, selling things, loitering, looking for work or having a chat. To liven up the town screens we’ll add a lot of folks to the scenery. Below you’ll see a first iteration of how these groups may look. Keep in mind that they’ll be pretty tiny on the actual screen, so the rough shading is on purpose.



Worldmap Terrain
Unlike with the village screen visuals, development of the new worldmap visuals is still at an early stage with things changing around a lot. Our first step is finding a style for each of the different terrain types that works both in itself and as part of a coherent whole that is the larger map. Because we want to have each region in the world to convey an atmosphere of its own, and the world as a whole to look pretty varied, we’re currently experimenting with different colors and effects we can use. The image below shows a work-in-progress shot of some of the terrain we’ve been working on this week.

 

rapsdjff

Overhype Studios
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330
Your weekly update.

header-region-labels-and-fog-of-war.jpg

Dev Blog #55: Progress Update – Region Labels and Worldmap Exploration
While we’re busy working on the new worldmap, there’s two new features we want to talk to you about today: distinct regions on the worldmap that have names of their own, and better worldmap exploration through the use of Fog of War. Let’s take a look!

Region Labels
The world of Battle Brothers is procedurally generated and not handcrafted like in many other games. This has the great advantage of having a different world for you to play in every time you start a new campaign, adding a lot to replayability. It also comes with some drawbacks, however. A procedurally generated world can feel kind of random, and lack a feeling of history and purpose to it.



We’re doing several things to address this, and one of them is introducing the concept of different regions to the game. Regions are areas of one particular terrain, for example a mountain ridge or large open plains. The larger regions have been named by the inhabitants of the world according to their history and beliefs, and we display these names on the worldmap much like they’d be displayed on a map. The names used in the screenshot are largely placeholders still, but the intent is to have the names convey a certain character and sometimes history attached to them. With the world no longer just a collection of nameless interchangeable mountains and forests, we’ll also refer to regions in both contracts and events for helpful directions and to increase immersion in a world that is new with every campaign and yet should feel rich and lived in.

Worldmap Exploration
Another idea that’s been in the drawer for a long time and that we’re now implementing is to improve the experience of exploring the worldmap by uncovering what is initially covered by fog. Battle Brothers is a game with a lot of traveling, exploration and visiting new areas and regions. A hidden worldmap that is gradually uncovered by the player should add to the sense of exploration and adventure. On the practical side of things, it also helps to see at a glance where you’ve already been and where to explore next.


Initially, only the area around human settlements and the roads between them is uncovered. The wild, home to Goblins, Orcs and worse is for you to explore.What you can’t see from the screenshot is that the fog is actually animated in the game and looks quite cool.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
This will probably be unpopular, but please give us a very easy way to turn off the fog of war. Make it a simple keypress or some other sort of cheat mode activation. I just remember from my days playing M&B that I really appreciated being able to turn it off. These sorts of games can be really tedious when you have to track someone down over a large area.
 

Eyeball

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M&B didn't actually have fog of war - all terrain was visible. What you're asking for is to be able to see all roaming armies outside of visual range?
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
M&B didn't actually have fog of war - all terrain was visible. What you're asking for is to be able to see all roaming armies outside of visual range?

Exactly, and sites outside visible range. Sometimes you spend twenty minutes combing a forest to find a hideout in BB, and in M&B sometimes you had to find raiding parties that could be god knows where.
 

Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'd go the (kind of) realistic way with finding or buying maps that will reveal parts of the land (for example regions now that we'll have them). Ok you won't see the activity there but you'll know the land when having a map
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'd go the (kind of) realistic way with finding or buying maps that will reveal parts of the land (for example regions now that we'll have them). Ok you won't see the activity there but you'll know the land when having a map

Wait til they add missions where you have to track down a group. I guess we already have the werewolf ones; unless you spot them immediately, there's no clues to go on as to where they might roam.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Then include a mechanic to help track them down. It sucks being told, "go find this person or place, it's far to the east", and then not being able to gather clues or updates later on. Therefore, rather than spend an hour moving around the whole map, I'd rather a simple cheat. At least until we have proper game mechanics.

Anything else is mindless tedium
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Can you imagine this scenario: go to Chicago and find this restaurant! *flies to chicago, and then walks up and down all the streets quietly until accidentally stumbling across the restaurant*
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Then include a mechanic to help track them down. It sucks being told, "go find this person or place, it's far to the east", and then not being able to gather clues or updates later on. Therefore, rather than spend an hour moving around the whole map, I'd rather a simple cheat. At least until we have proper game mechanics.

Anything else is mindless tedium

But you are getting help. They tell you where to find the hut or whatever. Like you said, go east, in the forest and so on, and the amount of money you get for the quest is an indicator on how far you have to go. Think you are overplaying how difficult it is to find stuff. So what if you can't find it, role-play that your party just couldn't find it and abandoned the quest. If it is something I really don't want it is loads of helper stuff on screen, the less UI the better.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
sure, go east. Then when you don't find it? Heaven forbid you be allowed to ask questions, look for tracks, spot an enemy in the forest and follow him, etc. Instead, let's just slowly walk up and down, left and right, crossing the map like a grid endlessly with no other options.

It's the opposite of fun. It's the exploration equivalent of a planescape torment text dump, a massive time waster with little to no reward.
 

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