Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Lucky]

It's not perfectly realistic, but hardly highly unrealistic. Enemies only get loads of attacks if your merc is almost surrounded, in which case you would absolutely get gangbanged to death in an actual fight. In fact, getting even partially encircled is one of the worst things that could happen to you. If you're trying to escape at that point then you're already too late.
Me, I like the disengagement system a lot. It's a clever solution to backstabs, while also adding a lot of tactical depth. Without it or with a watered-down version, the kind of line combat that this game has would be impossible.

How about this: attack of opportunity from every direction, resolve check if anything hits. Check is harder the more damage the unit took. If it passes, it moves (despite taking damage). If it fails, it stays put.

That would just be a double punishment for low resolve, since those are the ones most likely to break in combat. It's also not really a matter of being determined or not (if anything, someone with low morale should be even more determined to get away), but how getting hit makes it physically hard to get away. I think it works fine currently; running away is rather difficult if people are succeeding in beating the shit out of you.


Having a blast with the pike so far. It suits me much better than the billhook, even with the lower damage to armour. Great way of freeing up mercs that I want to move or to move around the enemy battle line. On the other hand, the nerf to Killing Frenzy has slightly curbed the momentum of my crazies. I really have to keep up the pressure for them to keep those sweet bonuses now. Not a huge deal, though. My playstyle is death or glory, so turns without someone getting killed on either side are rare.

 

[Eyestabber]

That's...an interesting point. Well, I'm sure a better alternative will come along. Disengagement is severely punishing atm, affecting both players and the AI equally (which is good), but I really feel like the system could use some softening. Lost souls, for example, are only scary because of said mechanics. And beating orcs with fear-related tactics is rather cheesy, tbh.

Don't get me wrong, I like attacks of opportunity as much as the next guy, but the current chain-AoO-movement-denial-spend-your-entire-ap-pool-killing-yourself mechanic does feel a bit overwhelming. It feels even more restrictive than PoE's engagement system, which is ALREADY pretty restrictive.

But this is all just a drop in the bucket on a game that is shaping up to be nothing less than pure gold.

 

[Lucky]

But that's the point. It's only restrictive if you get stuck in a bad position, in which case you should get hammered if you did not prepare a means of escape. As a rule of thumb, getting hit by more than one guy is a bad idea - two tops. It's not until you go above that that escaping becomes borderline impossible for an unprepared merc. Also, if the system is not as deadly, then all those tools you are given to deal with it become pointless. You also lose the ability to tie down enemy forces, since they can escape more easily as well, which shifts the overall focus of gameplay to mobility, rather than positioning.

I actually usually hate attacks of opportunity, because they rarely add anything of value to gameplay and are only there to be annoying distractions. I'm guessing it's a holdover from D&D, but it rarely feels like a meaningful aspect of combat. Here, however, they serve a clear purpose and help to enhance the gameplay.

 

[oscar]

25 orcs, 18 of them adult. Were forced to resort to orc cleavers as our own stuff fell apart, with both man and orc alike totally exhausted in the last third of the battle. Wendel the Bear survived by fewer hitpoints than you have fingers.

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[ColCol]

So, do they still plan to add the one use (per battle) magic items to the game? If they do, how do you all feel about that?

Also, is the main antagonist in each campaign still going to be random?

 

[Alienman]

oscar Shame about Eberold. Killing 7 orcs in one battle!

 

[Ninjerk]

RIP in peace Eberold

 

[Ellef]

Karl the Lucky.
Dead.

 

[Eyestabber]

oscar Shame about Eberold. Killing 7 orcs in one battle!

That's how a True Hero retires.

 

[Ulminati]

So, do they still plan to add the one use (per battle) magic items to the game? If they do, how do you all feel about that?

Ambivalent. It would depend heavily on the kind of abilities the item had. How powerful they were. How many magic items you'd end up with in a game. Whether they opened up new strategies or they're just a Stab +4 etc. I'm not against the idea of magic items in principle. But I think they should be exceedingly rare (maybe 1-2 per game and only recovered from difficul fights) and their main ability should be to open a new tactical option rather than giving a bonus to one of the actions you can already do.

 

[Lucky]

From what I’ve gathered, it’s roughly like this:

Legendary weapons will be exceedingly rare, hard to find and hard to acquire. They have about a hundred sketched out, but you’ll find only a few per playthrough and they’ll be difficult to get your hands on. The devs seem to be planning on dividing them by tier in terms of their power, with there being three tiers. The more powerful the item is, the harder it’ll be to get it. Most of the time they’ll also have special abilities that change the gameplay, rather than being just a +1 greatsword. Finally, finding the items involves tracking down where they are through an informant/scholar, discovering the location and then seizing it after a bloody fight.

I'm hoping they manage to stick to the rare part, even with the weaker magic items. In a setting like this, finding any kind of magic item should be a meaningful discovery, rather than something that will soon be outclassed by better gear. That way you also prevent them from becoming replacements of your regular gear, as that should not be their purpose. I’m basically in the same boat as Ulminati, with 1-2 items max per playthrough being an ideal number.


As for the the Great Enemy, they will be random and how they manifest depends on how all the moving parts on the world map interact with each other. It’s a fundamental aspect of how the game works, so I doubt that they’ll change it.

 

[ColCol]

Karl the Lucky.
Dead.

He is


"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
— George Santayana

 

[Jimmious]

This one looks really really good. But I'm avoiding Early Access games cuz I lose interest and find it hard to go back to them when they're actually done.
Is there concrete info on when it will actually release?

 

[Lucky]

New patch. Mostly bugfixes this time.

Spoiler

Battle Brothers - Update 0.4.0.44

Bugfixing time.

CHANGELOG

• Fixed sound compatibility issue.
• Fixed rendering compatibility issue.
• Fixed AI being unable to end its turn under specific circumstances.
• Fixed caravans being attacked not triggering combat for the player as it is supposed to.
• Fixed day/night indicator potentially going out of synch.
• Fixed outdated description of Captain perk.
  
• Added more debug output to logfile in order to help with hunting down unresolved issues.

For people experiencing rendering problems it should be worth a try running the game again with this update.

This one looks really really good. But I'm avoiding Early Access games cuz I lose interest and find it hard to go back to them when they're actually done.
Is there concrete info on when it will actually release?

The current estimate is around April next year. Give the demo a try if you're thinking of playing it. The Early Access version is more advanced, but it should give you a good idea of whether or not you'll like the combat.

 

[Jimmious]

New patch. Mostly bugfixes this time.

Spoiler

Battle Brothers - Update 0.4.0.44

Bugfixing time.

CHANGELOG

• Fixed sound compatibility issue.
• Fixed rendering compatibility issue.
• Fixed AI being unable to end its turn under specific circumstances.
• Fixed caravans being attacked not triggering combat for the player as it is supposed to.
• Fixed day/night indicator potentially going out of synch.
• Fixed outdated description of Captain perk.
  
• Added more debug output to logfile in order to help with hunting down unresolved issues.

For people experiencing rendering problems it should be worth a try running the game again with this update.

This one looks really really good. But I'm avoiding Early Access games cuz I lose interest and find it hard to go back to them when they're actually done.
Is there concrete info on when it will actually release?

The current estimate is around April next year. Give the demo a try if you're thinking of playing it. The Early Access version is more advanced, but it should give you a good idea of whether or not you'll like the combat.

Oh I'm certain I like the combat, I go crazy for turn-based tacticaal games! April next year? A whole year? Noooooo hehe... Oh well, patience is a virtue I guess

 

[Lucky]

Big news. Developers going full time (most of them had working part time) and confirmation that the event system, Goblins and multiple human factions are up next.

Spoiler

Time for some good news!

It’s been more than three weeks now since Battle Brothers released into Early Access and so far it has been pretty successful. The game was well received and we got a lot of helpful feedback from all of you, much of which we’ll incorporate into the game over the course of the next year. There is a lot still left to do, of course, but things are looking bright.


The game has also been a financial success for us. As you may be aware, Battle Brothers was developed by a core team of just 3 people over the course of nearly 2 years in their spare time while also working day jobs. The recent success now allows us to quit our day jobs and start working fulltime on Battle Brothers. That’s right, we’re about to have a lot more time we can put into the game and should be able to make progress much faster than before!

The downside for now is that quitting our day jobs and going full time is not something we can do over night. As you may know from experience yourselves, changing jobs always comes with a lot of organizational hurdles. Getting legal stuff out of the way, setting up new workplaces, doing a clean handover for you former job, existing contractual obligations, and so on. We are looking at a transitional period that will keep us pretty busy over the next couple of weeks.

During these next weeks we won’t be able to make much progress on the game itself and provide you with updates as frequently as before. It’s all worth it, however, because once things are settled, the game should progress at a much faster pace than in the 2 years before, and we’re already looking forward to really get going!

A big thank you to all of you who made this, our dream of working on our very own game, possible! And an extra big thank you to those of you who supported us even more by getting the Supporter Edition!

A Small Roadmap
To give you a better idea of our immediate plans, once we have settled into working full time on Battle Brothers, we also want to share a small roadmap with you.

1) Event System
As explained in our last blog post, our next immediate goal is the addition of the event system to add interesting encounters and tough decisions outside of combat, as well as laying the foundations for dialog and a future rework of the contract system. Because a lot of events will change depending on what backgrounds or traits your Battle Brothers have, it’ll also add a layer of complexity to character backgrounds beyond just their different stats.

2) Goblins
Next up are Goblins. Those are the green skinned cousins of the orcs that have an entirely different fighting style. While orcs rely on physical prowess and brute-forcing their way through your ranks, goblins lack the physical power to do so. In fact, they’re quite fragile individually, more so than your average Battle Brother. In battle they rely on their wits and dirty tricks instead, preferring to fight at range. Goblins come with their own arsenal of unique weaponry and skills – throwing nets to incapacitate their enemies, arrows with terrible poison and long jagged pikes. Goblins should add an entirely new challenge to combat in Battle Brothers and are also meant to be a missing piece of the puzzle that is game balance by making ranged combat more important. No longer is the nimble swordmaster safe from all danger!

3) Rework of the Worldmap
The third and by far largest step on our immediate roadmap is a rework of the worldmap as a whole. It’s quite clear that the world simulation, as it is now, is not satisfactory. With the resources available to us now and the lessons learned so far, we’re going to design new gameplay around commandeering a mercenary company in a low-fantasy medieval world. We already have a solid concept for this, and we’ll update you once things are further along. Yes, there will be multiple human factions working against each other. And yes, we’ll make contracts a lot more interesting and dynamic.

 

[Alienman]

Really nice. Happy for the guys.

 

[SirSingAlot]

i wont touch unfinished games as usual (mainly because if i have played em a lot, i cant bring myself to restart after new/important stuff is added)

that beeing said, the games looks nice and i hope we will get a decent "story mode" or smtg like that

 

[Reapa]

nice game. only started it once and bought myself a 4th mercenary thinking if he's expensive he'd be more valuable. had to read 16 pages of this thread to understand why i lost my first battle and everyone got killed and the combat log wouldn't tell me why my people died. maybe stuff like that should be somewhere in the game like a big fucking warning in the intro: "you will suck, your bros will die and you will learn!" only thing left to do is start over.
on a side note, since i'm not gonna read another 16 pages because i wanna play it again: what's up with the real time on the map? all i hear is turn based tactical combat and the world map sucks my coins and food out of my pockets while i look at / search for locations. as a turn based player, which i am whenever i feel like playing a turn based game, this is a huge issue. maybe i'll get used to it. maybe not. but what were your thoughts when you made such a design decision? i mean it should be clear from the get go that someone who wants to play a turn based game does not want to be put under time pressure.
I'd also like to know why your units can miss in this game. if it's about tactics, what is the point of the randomness generator?

 

[Reapa]

i wont touch unfinished games as usual (mainly because if i have played em a lot, i cant bring myself to restart after new/important stuff is added)

that beeing said, the games looks nice and i hope we will get a decent "story mode" or smtg like that

you don't restart rogue likes. they never end. and you go back to them if you miss playing them and/or if story games are over.

 

[Sranchammer]

I want to kill Muslims, dammit! Those are the most dangerous monsters of all

 

[Eyeball]

just photoshop a jihadi beard and a turban with a bomb in it on the zombie sprites and pretend.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Time for some good news!

It’s been more than three weeks now since Battle Brothers released into Early Access and so far it has been pretty successful. The game was well received and we got a lot of helpful feedback from all of you, much of which we’ll incorporate into the game over the course of the next year. There is a lot still left to do, of course, but things are looking bright.

The game has also been a financial success for us. As you may be aware, Battle Brothers was developed by a core team of just 3 people over the course of nearly 2 years in their spare time while also working day jobs. The recent success now allows us to quit our day jobs and start working full time on Battle Brothers. That’s right, we’re about to have a lot more time we can put into the game and should be able to make progress much faster than before!

The downside for now is that quitting our day jobs and going full time is not something we can do over night. As you may know from experience yourselves, changing jobs always comes with a lot of organizational hurdles. Getting legal stuff out of the way, setting up new workplaces, doing a clean handover for you former job, existing contractual obligations, and so on. We are looking at a transitional period that will keep us pretty busy over the next couple of weeks.

During these next weeks we won’t be able to make much progress on the game itself and provide you with updates as frequently as before. It’s all worth it, however, because once things are settled, the game should progress at a much faster pace than in the 2 years before, and we’re already looking forward to really get going!

A big thank you to all of you who made this, our dream of working on our very own game, possible! And an extra big thank you to those of you who supported us even more by getting the Supporter Edition!

A Small Roadmap
To give you a better idea of our immediate plans, once we have settled into working full time on Battle Brothers, we also want to share a small roadmap with you.

1) Event System
As explained in our last blog post[battlebrothersgame.com], our next immediate goal is the addition of the event system to add interesting encounters and tough decisions outside of combat, as well as laying the foundations for dialog and a future rework of the contract system. Because a lot of events will change depending on what backgrounds or traits your Battle Brothers have, it’ll also add a layer of complexity to character backgrounds beyond just their different stats.

2) Goblins
Next up are Goblins. Those are the green skinned cousins of the orcs that have an entirely different fighting style. While orcs rely on physical prowess and brute-forcing their way through your ranks, goblins lack the physical power to do so. In fact, they’re quite fragile individually, more so than your average Battle Brother. In battle they rely on their wits and dirty tricks instead, preferring to fight at range. Goblins come with their own arsenal of unique weaponry and skills – throwing nets to incapacitate their enemies, arrows with terrible poison and long jagged pikes. Goblins should add an entirely new challenge to combat in Battle Brothers and are also meant to be a missing piece of the puzzle that is game balance by making ranged combat more important. No longer is the nimble swordmaster safe from all danger!

3) Rework of the Worldmap
The third and by far largest step on our immediate roadmap is a rework of the worldmap as a whole. It’s quite clear that the world simulation, as it is now, is not satisfactory. With the resources available to us now and the lessons learned so far, we’re going to design new gameplay around commandeering a mercenary company in a low-fantasy medieval world. We already have a solid concept for this, and we’ll update you once things are further along. Yes, there will be multiple human factions working against each other. And yes, we’ll make contracts a lot more interesting and dynamic.

This is cool! Congrats, you guys!

 

[Lucky]

nice game. only started it once and bought myself a 4th mercenary thinking if he's expensive he'd be more valuable. had to read 16 pages of this thread to understand why i lost my first battle and everyone got killed and the combat log wouldn't tell me why my people died. maybe stuff like that should be somewhere in the game like a big fucking warning in the intro: "you will suck, your bros will die and you will learn!" only thing left to do is start over.
on a side note, since i'm not gonna read another 16 pages because i wanna play it again: what's up with the real time on the map? all i hear is turn based tactical combat and the world map sucks my coins and food out of my pockets while i look at / search for locations. as a turn based player, which i am whenever i feel like playing a turn based game, this is a huge issue. maybe i'll get used to it. maybe not. but what were your thoughts when you made such a design decision? i mean it should be clear from the get go that someone who wants to play a turn based game does not want to be put under time pressure.
I'd also like to know why your units can miss in this game. if it's about tactics, what is the point of the randomness generator?

The real time map and being being able to miss in combat, coupled with permanent death, is part of the X-COM way of evoking tension that the game is going for (the devs are big X-COM fans). Outside of combat, not having turns means that you are never safe while moving around and you have to keep an eye on your resources. Inside of combat, being able to miss means you are almost never guaranteed to deal with a threat and have to be able to react to unexpected results. Me, I liked it in X-COM and I like it here as well. It's part of why I'm recommending the game to people not just as an RPG, but as a spiritual sequel to X-COM. The combat is also so lethal that hitting or missing does not slow it down - that's usually my problem with it in other games, as I just get bored having to wait for someone to get hit and die already.

Just in case you didn't know, you can pause on the strategic map by pressing space. The game's UI isn't very clear on this (it'll get reworked at one point in the development process), but it helps if you want to look around at your own pace. The missing also becomes less of an issue as you play more, as you learn how to make the most of the Outnumbered bonus, what weapons to use against whom and get some levels on your mercs.