Incline Battle Brothers + Beasts & Exploration, Warriors of the North and Blazing Deserts DLC Thread

[Hrymr]

Locking up the traits with description lines is somewhat complex I know, but they should really at least make it so that certain backgrounds don't get certain traits.

I think that some restrictions already exist, but the details are hidden from the player. BB wikia states that "Some backgrounds will disallow certain traits, as will some traits disallow others." which is pretty vague. And I remember someone mentioning examples of that - Hedgeknights cannot be Craven, Swordmasters cannot be Clumsy, Hunters cannot be Shortsighted and so on.

 

[Serious_Business]

Last time I was hyped for a game was 2003, with Invisible War. I said never again. But then, my heart starts beating, and love is in the air just as I thought I wasn't human anymore. Prepare to break your fucking teeth on the walls... life isn't worth it without a couple of missing teeth

 

[Covenant]

Nothing other than better C&C is going take Battle Bros to the "next level" in my mind. The game does an outstanding job of allowing you to roleplay a group of dudes who go around killing stuff for money, but it doesn't do a good job of helping you find purpose to do so (other than the End Game crises, which public opinion has deemed lackluster).

And I don't want to be too critical because "get strong" is a not a bad goal -- it's just limited. After dozens of battles the question in my mind was "is this leading to anything other than more battles"? And the answer is essentially, no. You just enjoy the combat and character progression, challenge yourself against the different enemies, explore the world a bit. And that's all there is to it.

It's a perfectly good game but again, if you want to talk about something that would make it great, I think you need more than just fighting.

I agree that the meat of the gameplay needs to lead to something and that yes, the Endgame crises are currently lacklustre, but I really don't think that C&C is the solution to that. By all means beef up the endgame, add in some climactic battle sequences - I'd love to see The Battle of Many Names 2: Goblin Boogaloo - or some sort of difficult ultimate goal that you're slowly progressing toward (similar to killing Deidranna in JA2). But I have absolutely no appetite for the visual-novel style 'Pick your faction/favourite NPC: Get different ending text' shit that C&C seems to generally consist of.

A decent endgame is certainly a must for the game to ever be considered finished, though.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some indicator on the map screen which shows where your band is going and which route it is using would be nice.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Guys
Fuck this. I gonna board the HYPE train.
They mention big changes...
I mean BIG changes...
I mean BIG changes...
I bet they would make a

Spoiler

tutorial skippable!

That would be big.
I mean BIG!!!!

 

[Jimmious]

Mothafucka the tutorial takes you like 3 minutes to finish, that's like 0.0000001% of your total playtime

 

[Strange Fellow]

Mothafucka the tutorial takes you like 3 minutes to finish, that's like 0.0000001% of your total playtime

In his case that's still several hours, probably.

 

[vota DC]

Nothing other than better C&C is going take Battle Bros to the "next level" in my mind. The game does an outstanding job of allowing you to roleplay a group of dudes who go around killing stuff for money, but it doesn't do a good job of helping you find purpose to do so (other than the End Game crises, which public opinion has deemed lackluster).

And I don't want to be too critical because "get strong" is a not a bad goal -- it's just limited. After dozens of battles the question in my mind was "is this leading to anything other than more battles"? And the answer is essentially, no. You just enjoy the combat and character progression, challenge yourself against the different enemies, explore the world a bit. And that's all there is to it.

It's a perfectly good game but again, if you want to talk about something that would make it great, I think you need more than just fighting.

I agree that the meat of the gameplay needs to lead to something and that yes, the Endgame crises are currently lacklustre, but I really don't think that C&C is the solution to that. By all means beef up the endgame, add in some climactic battle sequences - I'd love to see The Battle of Many Names 2: Goblin Boogaloo - or some sort of difficult ultimate goal that you're slowly progressing toward (similar to killing Deidranna in JA2). But I have absolutely no appetite for the visual-novel style 'Pick your faction/favourite NPC: Get different ending text' shit that C&C seems to generally consist of.

A decent endgame is certainly a must for the game to ever be considered finished, though.

They could introduce a Vendetta, for example Hoggart was working for a noble and you find some cues, then the noble send you other mercenaries to kill you or give you a fake contract that is a trap. Isn't this game a little inspired by Sid Meier Pirates anyway? That game not only had gear, money and relation with nobles (title in that case) progression but also to find your lost family.

 

[Zanzoken]

I don't know that I would aim for a main quest type experience, although I think that could definitely work. A few other things off the top of my head:

- Factions: Bump the noble houses up to 5, and throw apolitical groups like trade guilds or religious orders into the mix as well. Give the player the option to join a faction and eventually take it over, or even create a faction of their own. Then when civil war starts, alliances are drawn, betrayals happen, and ultimately it culminates in a big final battle for all the marbles.

- Basebuilding: The option to build a fort would've been pretty sweet. Maybe even grow a town up around it that gives you tributes of food and money.

- Enemy factions and leaders: More character for the bandits, orcs, undead, and other villains in the world. Make enemy leaders persistent within the game world. Give them bounties for the player to pursue that take place across a span of battles. Give them some reactive dialogue so that if run away from them, or they kill some of your bros, they will berate you for it. The world needs good villains.

Purpose and reactivity are the goals. Combat is fun but it's better when you have a strong reason to fight and when you can see that what you did made a difference (for good or ill).

 

[Sarissofoi]

I don't know that I would aim for a main quest type experience, although I think that could definitely work. A few other things off the top of my head:

- Factions: Bump the noble houses up to 5, and throw apolitical groups like trade guilds or religious orders into the mix as well. Give the player the option to join a faction and eventually take it over, or even create a faction of their own. Then when civil war starts, alliances are drawn, betrayals happen, and ultimately it culminates in a big final battle for all the marbles.

- Basebuilding: The option to build a fort would've been pretty sweet. Maybe even grow a town up around it that gives you tributes of food and money.

- Enemy factions and leaders: More character for the bandits, orcs, undead, and other villains in the world. Make enemy leaders persistent within the game world. Give them bounties for the player to pursue that take place across a span of battles. Give them some reactive dialogue so that if run away from them, or they kill some of your bros, they will berate you for it. The world needs good villains.

Purpose and reactivity are the goals. Combat is fun but it's better when you have a strong reason to fight and when you can see that what you did made a difference (for good or ill).

So essentially BB2.
Anything that can be done on current engine in current state?

Spoiler

Well I have my thoughts(long thought) about what small things that could be done but whats is the point...

 

[Barbarian]

Well the meat of the game is still running a mercenary company, isn't it? That is the problem, as soon as mercenaries take over territory and start doing other things they cease to be mercenaries. Historically that is what happened to the norman and catalan mercenaries who conquered land in medieval anatolia and greece, for instance. They become landed feudal barons/lords. I know JA2 had occupation/settlement mechanics but it fit with that game(which was about overthrowing a dictator and taking over a country). With BB I don't see the same mechanics working at all for instance. You don't even have a main character/player character in BB, how things would work once you conquer land? You choose a character to become a noble? And then what? Will he still remain a roving mercenary captain? Under what justification? Unless you rework the premise of the game to something like "start out as a mercenary and become a warlord bent on conquering land" it seems nonsensical.

I also kind of advocated for settlement/fort gameplay but I see it not working for above reasons. Also it would require major overhaul/new mechanics. I guess what the game really needs is more goals besides "be a great and legendary mercenary company". Sure, there are the crises which serve as a "save the world" type of thing, but it needs something extra.

A main quest/endgame of sorts could work. "Battle of many names 2.0" as someone suggested is indeed a good idea.

 

[Barbarian]

- Enemy factions and leaders: More character for the bandits, orcs, undead, and other villains in the world. Make enemy leaders persistent within the game world. Give them bounties for the player to pursue that take place across a span of battles. Give them some reactive dialogue so that if run away from them, or they kill some of your bros, they will berate you for it. The world needs good villains.

That would be pretty sweet. Giving a face to the factions that play out during crisis as well. Orc kings/goblin kings. Feudal lords actually perishing on the battlefield. "Bosses" if you will.

 

[Reinhardt]

Give the player the option to join a faction and eventually take it over, or even create a faction of their own. Then when civil war starts, alliances are drawn, betrayals happen, and ultimately it culminates in a big final battle for all the marbles.

Basebuilding: The option to build a fort would've been pretty sweet. Maybe even grow a town up around it that gives you tributes of food and money.

Also female mercenaries, horses, legs and fireballs. Yawn.

 

[ColCol]

New monster or faction, that's all.

 

[Sacibengala]

Battle Brothers Royale mode, it is obvious!

 

[Fargus]

Also female mercenaries

Instead of battle sisters i would add "battle" whores for morale boost.

 

[Zanzoken]

Well the meat of the game is still running a mercenary company, isn't it?

It is. And like I said on the last page, there is nothing wrong with that. The game does a really good job at what it aimed to do.

 

[Jimmious]

- Enemy factions and leaders: More character for the bandits, orcs, undead, and other villains in the world. Make enemy leaders persistent within the game world. Give them bounties for the player to pursue that take place across a span of battles. Give them some reactive dialogue so that if run away from them, or they kill some of your bros, they will berate you for it. The world needs good villains.

That would be pretty sweet. Giving a face to the factions that play out during crisis as well. Orc kings/goblin kings. Feudal lords actually perishing on the battlefield. "Bosses" if you will.

Yup, this is exactly what would make the game perfect for me. Persistence and a more "simulated" world would make it easier for the player to create goals and pursue them, rather than simply getting the one contract after the other.
I wish they'd do something like that but that indeed seems like something for BB2..

 

[Reinhardt]

And tomorrow they will announce BB2.

 

[Citizen]

to hype or not to hype
is this even a question

 

[Fargus]

Wasn't their next game supposed to be sci-fi?

 

[Jimmious]

Not sure if it was sci-fi or simply "modern" but the couple of screens they showed had gunz

 

[Barbarian]

Is it true that in older versions of the game you created a captain character/player character? A pity they scrapped this feature, even though I understand the reasoning behind it(keeping said captain alive would be a huge challenge).

What were other removed features?

 

[Sarissofoi]

Is it true that in older versions of the game you created a captain character/player character? A pity they scrapped this feature, even though I understand the reasoning behind it(keeping said captain alive would be a huge challenge).

What were other removed features?

Nope. But we had random party of three(totally random), non forced tutorial mission and some weapons on start. Random party had great RPG potential if anyone is into this sort of play in your mind games. Sadly now we get three predefined(if little randomized) characters.
Keeping captain would be only problem if you could not name a another after your first die(which happen in current tutorial funny enough).

The biggest scrapped feature was a living world system where enemy encampments had actually resource pools that they used to draft to field guards or patrols/hunters/raiders and you could use it to weaken enemy camps before your assault(or wait until enemy main force leave for raiding). There was not else scaled system so world was rather brutal place early. It looks like they also abandon staged enemy mission system(first scouts then raiders etc).
Sadly they scrapped it all and replace it with contracts replacing map forces for generated for contract scaled ones. And level scaling. And enemy encampments having rather the same forces with raiding forces generated from thin air.

 

[Serus]

Is it true that in older versions of the game you created a captain character/player character? A pity they scrapped this feature, even though I understand the reasoning behind it(keeping said captain alive would be a huge challenge).

What were other removed features?

The gameworld had some more elements of "simulation". For example - iirc - enemy camps became almost empty when their leader left it to raid something. And iirc the devs were promising to develop that part more. Basically a more living, less scripted gameworld. And then they abandoned the idea.

Sarissofoi beat me to it.