Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Helly]

rapsdjff - Have you ever thought about making the combat diary a bit more talkative? Something like in Fallout, with gory descriptions of the attacks, critical hits and death?

 

[Alienman]

Go bros!

 

[Helly]

Go bros!

Did my duty

 

[vonAchdorf]

Sounds like a valid excuse for Hipster-like behavior

 

[Modron]

I nominated it for the 5 more minutes award myself.

 

[SmartCheetah]

I went for "I thought this game was cool before it won an award" as well. Lets win this, boiz.

 

[Antigoon]

+1

 

[Kev Inkline]

+1

Likewise

 

[Kev Inkline]

Sounds like a valid excuse for Hipster-like behavior

It's ok, remember:

RPGCodex > The hipsters of masochism.

 

[Andnjord]

Done my duty as well, go Battle Bros!

On another how do you deal with orc warriors? I survived one orc encounter with two of those brutes where I dealt with them by constantly bashing them with maces and axes, but I was only able to slowly plink away at their armour. Any tips on how to reliably deal with them?

 

[SmartCheetah]

Constantly bash them with maces and axes. And send only heavily armored dudes against them when they are fresh. When the orc warrior is getting swarmed, he will get tired very quickly so you can basicly overwhelm him with more and more bashing.
And if you dont want to get overwhelmed by orc warriors, nets are always an option. Oh, and spare dogs. It's always good if you can spare some dogs to "stop" few enemies from advancing and such things. Helps a lot in very hard battles.

 

[rapsdjff]

rapsdjff - Have you ever thought about making the combat diary a bit more talkative? Something like in Fallout, with gory descriptions of the attacks, critical hits and death?

The current plan is to go in the opposite direction with the combat log - clean it up a bit and maybe include more raw numbers for those interested - while leaving the gory stuff for the battlefield.

On another how do you deal with orc warriors? I survived one orc encounter with two of those brutes where I dealt with them by constantly bashing them with maces and axes, but I was only able to slowly plink away at their armour. Any tips on how to reliably deal with them?

Warhammers are specialized anti-armor weapons that perform quite well against orc warriors.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

On another how do you deal with orc warriors? I survived one orc encounter with two of those brutes where I dealt with them by constantly bashing them with maces and axes, but I was only able to slowly plink away at their armour. Any tips on how to reliably deal with them?

Because nobody has mentioned it yet: billhooks. High damage, very effective vs armor. Just remember orc warriors can push your guys aside and get to the second line, always have a 1h weapon + shield in your bag or rotation/footwork.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Gawd, I want to mod this game so fucking hard that it's not even funny ._. Maybe there is still hope for that at some point!

I'd totally mod in skaven-like monster faction and late-medieval items/weaponry(as a post-last tier, very rare and expensive items).

 

[rapsdjff]

Dev Blog #89: Ambitions
This week we’re talking ‘ambitions’, a new feature and part of the overarching campaign goals as announced on our roadmap to the finish line. What are ambitions and how do they work? Read on!

Introduction
Battle Brothers is a game about leading a mercenary company. It’s also an open world game that relies heavily on replayability. When it comes to introducing overarching goals to the game, then, a linear story would quickly conflict with replayability, and any story straying from the mercenary narrative would quickly feel artificial and conflict with what the game is supposed to be about. Maybe you care about saving the world or the fate of some princess, maybe you don’t, but it’s for you alone to make that call, and we don’t want to force you into a story that may not align at all with how you want to play a game that should be about your mercenary company. Indeed, the one constant in every campaign, and the one constant for everyone enjoying the game, is building up your own mercenary company, and that’s why this is and will be the overarching goal of the game.

We’ll be introducing 3 different aspects to support this further and give you more sense of purpose, progression and challenge; ambitions, the ability to finish your campaign by retiring from your company, and late game crises. Each of these will be covered in detail in the weeks to come with their very own dev blogs, and we’re starting things off by taking a look at the first of these aspects today: ambitions.

Ambitions
Not surprisingly, players approach the game quite differently. While some easily motivate themselves to build up their company and pick up challenges on their own for dozens of hours, if not more, others crave for being provided with more direction and structure. We’re introducing ambitions as mid-term milestones for you to work towards on the path of forging a legendary company in a way that fits the game’s narrative and lets you earn unique rewards.



After the first few days of a new campaign, you’ll now be prompted to choose the first ambition out of many to come. This is framed as you gathering the men and giving an inspirational speech on what to do next, because the men care about the company succeeding as much as you do. As their commander, however, it falls onto you to choose the path that the company is to take, and we always want to give you multiple options to choose from. The ambitions you can choose from vary with the state of your company, the world, and the ambitions you’ve already fulfilled. The current ambition is then always shown to you on the worldmap, and the tooltip will offer additional information on how to fulfill it and what reward to expect.



In the beginning, ambitions are more small-scale and somewhat tutorial-esque, like getting the company to a strength of a dozen men, or gathering crowns to have a battle standard made. As the game progresses, ambitions transition to more mid-term goals, and eventually things like stopping a greenskin invasion to leave a mark in history. Fulfilling an ambition will raise the mood of the men, raise your renown (which works differently now – more on that in a future dev blog!), and often comes with unique rewards you can’t otherwise attain. For example, the ambition to have a battle standard made will reward you with a unique item based on your company’s banner to take into combat, while another may change your look on the worldmap.



If you fail to fulfill an ambition for a prolonged time, however, the men may lose confidence in your leadership, and their mood will suffer. Being a good mercenary commander also means making good on what you promise to the men.

 

[Andnjord]

Neat, is the combat banner an actual object you have to carry into combat that provides some resolve boost at the price of having one bro without shield or weapons? Or is it just a piece of eye candy?


Also, is it actually worth it having a bow or crossbow in the company? I keep having the impression that they can't hit anything and by the time an archer is levelled up everyone is carrying kite shields or heavy armour...

 

[anus_pounder]

 

[Zdzisiu]

Neat, is the combat banner an actual object you have to carry into combat that provides some resolve boost at the price of having one bro without shield or weapons? Or is it just a piece of eye candy?


Also, is it actually worth it having a bow or crossbow in the company? I keep having the impression that they can't hit anything and by the time an archer is levelled up everyone is carrying kite shields or heavy armour...

Bows/crossbows are really nice. Yes, they may seem a bit shit at first, when your Bros have low skill and can't hit anything. But later on, my Crossbowman was the dude with the most kills. They are good for weakening enemies before they get to your battle line, or picking those pesky ghouls. Also, they are devastating against no/low armour enemies. They can nearly one hit them with the stronger bows/crossbows, and even if they won't one hit them, they will probably give them some serious wound that will make them easy to finish.

Also, when you gonna encounter a battle or two against enemy bowmen or crossbowmen, you will realize how much of an asset they can be.

 

[rapsdjff]

Neat, is the combat banner an actual object you have to carry into combat that provides some resolve boost at the price of having one bro without shield or weapons? Or is it just a piece of eye candy?

That's exactly what it is. It replaces the 'Sergeant' perk, as we think that this specific mechanic works better attached to an item like this. There's more unique items to be gained as reward, and they come with effects of their own as well.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Introduction
Battle Brothers is a game about leading a mercenary company. It’s also an open world game that relies heavily on replayability. When it comes to introducing overarching goals to the game, then, a linear story would quickly conflict with replayability, and any story straying from the mercenary narrative would quickly feel artificial and conflict with what the game is supposed to be about. Maybe you care about saving the world or the fate of some princess, maybe you don’t, but it’s for you alone to make that call, and we don’t want to force you into a story that may not align at all with how you want to play a game that should be about your mercenary company. Indeed, the one constant in every campaign, and the one constant for everyone enjoying the game, is building up your own mercenary company, and that’s why this is and will be the overarching goal of the game.

We’ll be introducing 3 different aspects to support this further and give you more sense of purpose, progression and challenge; ambitions, the ability to finish your campaign by retiring from your company, and late game crises. Each of these will be covered in detail in the weeks to come with their very own dev blogs, and we’re starting things off by taking a look at the first of these aspects today: ambitions.

 

[Cyberarmy]

at its finest. These updates are killing me.

 

[ntonystinson]

If you fail to fulfill an ambition for a prolonged time, however, the men may lose confidence in your leadership, and their mood will suffer. Being a good mercenary commander also means making good on what you promise to the men.

From what I have heard about the game so far you can't create a character, so how exactly do you interact with your men

 

[Reinhardt]

Neat, is the combat banner an actual object you have to carry into combat that provides some resolve boost at the price of having one bro without shield or weapons? Or is it just a piece of eye candy?

That's exactly what it is. It replaces the 'Sergeant' perk, as we think that this specific mechanic works better attached to an item like this. There's more unique items to be gained as reward, and they come with effects of their own as well.

Paymaster when?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Full price when?

 

[Zanzoken]

If you can achieve the right mix of scripted content + procedural randomness then the storytelling in Battle Brothers could be epic. It looks like you guys are on the right track at least.