Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Disgruntled]

Oh man the update is a nice surprise. Played the last version and everything was right up my alley (well id pick full fidelity 3d, but you cant have everything). Really excited to try it with factions and all the other new stuff.
Its so sweet to have a "wouldnt it be awesome if.." game idea actually be in the making. TB squad open world middle ages was one such idea.

 

[SmartCheetah]

I've been streaming it on Gaming4good for about 3hours and around 10 people were having fun, naming battle brothers after them. I got slaughtered about 2 times on higher difficulty levels and finally went with the easiest one.
Man, game is much harsher now on strategic level. Bigger distances between villages and very few contracts in early game hurt the most(Just got "reliable" reputation)
We really need horses/carts or something to speed up our company in the future. Fast-forward option would be awesome as well.

I'm looking forward to tactical battle changes. You guys got some kind of roadmap for next few small updates? And still no word about modding pre-release? I think you should consider it, as modding highly improves indie-developed games player base (Just look at Rimworld).

 

[Alienman]

Also just got destroyed. Here is an easy mission to kill some gravediggers on the cemetery. Good luck.

Turns out the gravediggers are dead, and the place is now crawling with ghouls. 3 men made it out alive, but almost broke now

 

[SmartCheetah]

One of my wipes was on gravediggers contract as well, altough they were simple zombies in my case (8 bb vs 9 heavily armored zombies)

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[rapsdjff]

You guys got some kind of roadmap for next few small updates?

Our priority is to fix any bugs and solve any glaring balance issues before moving on. Not sure how long that's going to take. We tested the update with 7 people, but it's crazy how many more issues pop up when it's 700 people playing the game all of a sudden.

The next content update should then include new visuals for the Direwolves and a new contract. We'll try to keep adding new contracts with every content update from now on until we're happy with the variety in the game. For the following updates we'll probably start adding new combat environments one by one.

 

[Agesilaus]

The contract system is unstable; the game frequently crashes whenever I click on the contract icon. If I restart the game and make my first action to click the contract, then it works, but if I complete it and go for a second contract it will crash again.

Also, balance is pretty brutal, but I'm adjusting. I hate the tutorial, I hate the fact that there appears to be no explanation in-game of the contract system (I had to re-watch the LP to figure out how to get a contract), I hate that there are so few contracts, etc.

 

[Visperas]

What about a main storyline? Something non-intrusive akin to what original Xcom did?

 

[Beowulf]

The contract system is unstable; the game frequently crashes whenever I click on the contract icon. If I restart the game and make my first action to click the contract, then it works, but if I complete it and go for a second contract it will crash again.

Not only that. When you cancel a contract and click on a scroll to get a new one (once in a city) you go back to the strategic map.

 

[Beowulf]

Well, it looks like after finishing, or cancelling the contract, some UI elements don't load properly. New contracts, tooltips, to-hit-chance etc doesn't show up any more, unless you reload, or restart a game.

 

[rapsdjff]

The game has been updated with some bugfixes.

 

[Zdzisiu]

The game has been updated with some bugfixes.

It like 10 pm here and you are still pushing new updates. You are one dedicated bunch of developers.

 

[Thonius]

Got chase a beast contract. Spend 20 minutes clicking on a dire wolfs party with no effect! Can not initiate a fight!
In fact can not attack just about anything.

 

[Agesilaus]

I got an investigate the ancient graveyard quest. I go there, but I cannot initiate the fight.

Seems this update needed a little more time before release. As it stands, it crashes a lot, has plenty of glitches, contracts aren't functioning, and the balance is totally off.

 

[Nryn]

I got an investigate the ancient graveyard quest. I go there, but I cannot initiate the fight.

Ran into this same issue. Oddly, I was able to initiate the fight before the latest bugfix.

Also, I ran into a nasty inventory bug where weapons disappear when one tries to equip them. Might have been another issue caused by the latest mini update.

 

[Alienman]

I got an investigate the ancient graveyard quest. I go there, but I cannot initiate the fight.

Seems this update needed a little more time before release. As it stands, it crashes a lot, has plenty of glitches, contracts aren't functioning, and the balance is totally off.

What do you mean with balance is totally off?

 

[Agesilaus]

I got an investigate the ancient graveyard quest. I go there, but I cannot initiate the fight.

Ran into this same issue. Oddly, I was able to initiate the fight before the latest bugfix.

Also, I ran into a nasty inventory bug where weapons disappear when one tries to equip them. Might have been another issue caused by the latest mini update.

Yep, I had that glitch, lost a cleaver. I also had a glitch where I couldn't purchase anything in the market, had to restart the game.

What do you mean with balance is totally off?

Tiny contract payments for big battles, souped up bandit thugs, transport contracts don't account for horrible geography, etc. let's put it this way: I went from finding a fairly well balanced game that was a fantastic experience playing iron man on deadly to this... barely any contracts, they pay dogshit compared to what you have to do, and the human opponents have been powered up a great deal. It's difficult to get through even three contracts (assuming you can find them and they work) playing ironman challenging (normal) difficulty. Unless, of course, you get the weird bug where you start with 15,000+ gold, in which case you just deck everyone head to toe in chain armour and have some mid-tier weapons.

 

[Alienman]

I see. I like that the world is more brutal now though. It's a real struggle to get finances.

 

[Agesilaus]

I see. I like that the world is more brutal now though. It's a real struggle to get finances.

It was always brutal; goblins were aggravating ninjas, raiders could easily cut down an early game party, and high-level orcs were walking-walls of iron. However, the tutorial was unobtrusive and enjoyable, and there were plenty of caravan and message contracts that helped you get on your feet. Low-level combat contracts had a more suitable pay amount. The early-mid game experience was almost perfectly balanced.

Right now, it's almost as though you're going to literally fail from lack of work. On deadly, the work you do find is absurd; "I'll give you 400 gold when you come back (after some lucky haggling), go take your 6 peasant scrubs and defeat 8 armoured raiders." It's like the late-game issue of, "I'll pay 2500 gold for you to go fight some far away invincible orc army" has now infected the early game, too. Challenging is a little better, but the world just feels so limited, poorly laid out, and linear.

 

[Trash]

Got chase a beast contract. Spend 20 minutes clicking on a dire wolfs party with no effect! Can not initiate a fight!
In fact can not attack just about anything.

Had the same thing. Then reloaded and had the game crash when I tried it again. Seems they're still updating however as I got another 27 or so mb update and now it works. That's dedication. Anyway, love the expanded gameplay, contracts and world of this update. Been playing this for hours nonstop.

 

[Helly]

Hey, I've had some fun with the 'tutorial' first encounter. Seems like it's scripted so you can't get any of your three guys killed: the two enemies got everyone to 1hp then kept missing as we danced around'em. That's just plain silly.
Also, you can't retreat from that battle, the button does nothing at all.

 

[sser]

There's a number of contracts that haven't been put in yet. I'm not going to say what they are, but the diversity they'll bring will help with the balance. Also, check the taverns for gossip/rumors as they will point you in the direction of camps. There's also an emphasis on trading goods as you travel, anything to make an extra buck. The early game and general company management are a lot harder than pre-update, no doubt, but I'd still give it some time. I don't know how many times people have gone onto the Steam forums and said XYZ was too hard only to later come back and say they overcame it. I was this way the very first time I tried the alpha builds, actually. Bug reporting is always helpful, of course.


And yes there is some fudging going on in the tutorial

 

[Alienman]

I see. I like that the world is more brutal now though. It's a real struggle to get finances.

It was always brutal; goblins were aggravating ninjas, raiders could easily cut down an early game party, and high-level orcs were walking-walls of iron. However, the tutorial was unobtrusive and enjoyable, and there were plenty of caravan and message contracts that helped you get on your feet. Low-level combat contracts had a more suitable pay amount. The early-mid game experience was almost perfectly balanced.

Right now, it's almost as though you're going to literally fail from lack of work. On deadly, the work you do find is absurd; "I'll give you 400 gold when you come back (after some lucky haggling), go take your 6 peasant scrubs and defeat 8 armoured raiders." It's like the late-game issue of, "I'll pay 2500 gold for you to go fight some far away invincible orc army" has now infected the early game, too. Challenging is a little better, but the world just feels so limited, poorly laid out, and linear.

I'm starting to agree with you. The game is starting to frustrate me. The peasants you get from the start don't stand a chance in hell of surviving the roads. I rushed in to help some poor farmers, there were 3 bandits left and they wiped the floor with my company. They have way too good armors and weapons so early in the game. My spears at most just tickled them. I'm running slalom on the map at the moment, avoiding all kind of shit because I can't take anything on.

 

[Agesilaus]

There's a number of contracts that haven't been put in yet. I'm not going to say what they are, but the diversity they'll bring will help with the balance. Also, check the taverns for gossip/rumors as they will point you in the direction of camps. There's also an emphasis on trading goods as you travel, anything to make an extra buck. The early game and general company management are a lot harder than pre-update, no doubt, but I'd still give it some time. I don't know how many times people have gone onto the Steam forums and said XYZ was too hard only to later come back and say they overcame it. I was this way the very first time I tried the alpha builds, actually. Bug reporting is always helpful, of course.


And yes there is some fudging going on in the tutorial

Regarding the taverns:

1. it's not clear which places have taverns and which don't; a lot of towns do not appear to have them at all.
2. It costs money to hear the rumours in the tavern, and money is in short supply early game.
3. Taverns don't always tell you where the contracts are; you can blow through 100 gold and achieve nothing.
4. When you do get good advice, the location only ever has one contract. If the contract is an impossible battle, then you're done for.

Here's my last contract (game crashed while attempting to accept it): 400 gold to hunt down what haunts the area. I did a similar sounding contract in a different playthrough, roughly the same pay, and I was attacked by 6+ well armoured raiders disguised as dire wolves. There is no way I am defeating 6 raiders in chain armour equipped with halberds, pikes and mid-tier axes.

Bring back the bandit thugs. I know they're still in the game, because I just did a contract for 350~ gold where I had to fight about 8 of them. They're stronger than they used to be and have better equipment, but they're manageable for an early party. Raiders are not early-game fodder; they have equal or better stats than you, and they wear armour that makes them all but invincible to low-tier weapons. I can take down a group that features maybe 1 or 2 raiders with an early party, I'll invest money in nets and focus on him with pitchforks and the lumberjack's axe, but anything more than that is not doable early game.


EDIT: Point 5. Sometimes the people in the tavern are liars. I was told there was a contract in a town to the east, and when I arrived there wasn't a contract available. I have 200 gold left, I'm on the arse end of the map, and I cannot find any work.

 

[oscar]

I'm yet to play but I was quite happy with the old bandits. Even the thugs could be dangerous in large numbers while their massed crossbowmen were deadly to even well-developed parties. Sure I'd be happier to fight them then goblins but they were balanced opponents (perhaps some more utility skills like their rotate could help make them more nasty). I'll play and post impressions of the changes when I'm home.