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

[Sarissofoi]

Dev Blog #110: More Things
The ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC is set to release on the 29th of this month with a bunch of cool features that you can learn about here. That’s great, but there’s actually even more coming than covered by this feature list. Let’s take a look at some smaller things that come with the DLC and which we haven’t talked about yet.

The Beast Slayer
There’s a new character background in town: The Beast Slayer. Experienced in both melee and ranged combat against beastly opponents and monstrous adversaries, the beast slayer is a versatile background similar to the sellsword, but more affordable. Of course, he comes with his own events and interactions with other backgrounds, and some expert knowledge on beasts and their lore to share with you.



Wage Changes
There’s several changes incoming on how wages for characters work, so let’s break them down.

First off, the base wage for a couple of backgrounds has been adjusted to be more in line with their actual worth as defined by how often they’re picked by players. In addition, every individual character now has a certain idea on how much they want to get paid – there’s a small random factor on the daily wage demands of all characters, and so you’ll find cheaper and more expensive recruits also within the same background, and even if they don’t have the ‘Greedy’ trait.

Finally, the wage progression has changed. While previously you paid 2 additional crowns per character level, you’ll now pay a cumulative 10% of a character’s base wage for every level after the first and until the 11th, and then 5% of a character’s base wage for every level afterwards. In effect, there’s less wage pressure in the beginning, which gives you more leeway to actually explore the world earlier and find all those new beasts and locations. Low tier backgrounds have also become cheaper to employ in the long term, but high tier backgrounds have become significantly more expensive to keep around if they reach veteran levels, which gives you more of a reason to diversify your company composition in long campaigns.

New Named Weapons
As you’ve previously learned, the DLC will introduce a bunch of new weapons. People have been asking about whether there’ll be named variants of those weapons as well – and the answer is yes, of course. Take a look!



New Armor
It’s not just new weapons, it’s also stylish new armor, all of which can be further customized with the new armor attachment system. We’re filling some gaps in the armor progression, and we’re also introducing some high tier light armor as part of a larger effort to make light and medium armor more of a viable choice for some character builds.



Join us again next week to learn about even more changes and additions of the upcoming DLC and the accompanying free update to Battle Brothers!

Rejoice brothers!

 

[Sarissofoi]

Spoiler

A thot in natural habitat. Surrounded by remnants of the white knights, beta orbiters and just friends.

 

[Barbarian]

Hope they squeeze in as much new content as possible. Original game is addictive as fuck but the lack of content/variety makes things repetitive too quickly.

The exploration/bosses/hidden locations bit gives me hope that you will get to be surprised on late game, and improving the late game experience is one of the things needed to make the game even better.

'Pretty solid' seems about right. It remains to be seen how often you will fight all those new enemies: will they become a frequent enemy or very rare like the Lindwurm? If it's the latter, ONE new faction, that you fight as often as Bandits / Greenskin / Undead might have been better for the game: Ice-Barbarians coming from the north, Middle Eastern or Asian themed soldiers invading after landing on a remote part of the map, etc.

But the price is definetly ok and maybe we'll even see a second DLC... .

I agree. Extra beasts and everything else aside, the DLC could have really used an additional enemy faction. When they first announced the DLC, I thought that Yeti-like creature from the artwork was going to be part of a snow monsters faction of some sort.

Didn't they confirm there is a new "beast invasion" end game crisis, or was I hallucinating?

I too would like a new crisis, but "beast invasion"? That doesn't make much sense. Of all the announced new enemies, only the unholds seem to come from the fringes of the map. The rest is "flora and fauna" much like direwolves.

 

[Reinhardt]

Giant spiders invasion would be pretty cool.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Infinitron]

http://battlebrothersgame.com/dev-blog-111-psychology-resilience/

DEV BLOG #111: PSYCHOLOGY & RESILIENCE

The ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC is set to release on the 29th of this month and by now it’s essentially feature-complete. We’ve moved on to thoroughly test, balance and polish everything, but there’s still so many interesting smaller things we haven’t even talked about yet. Let’s shine a light on some more of these this week!

MERCENARY PSYCHOLOGY
A mercenary’s life isn’t easy, and seeing the man to the left split in two by an orc and the man to the right mauled by an unhold does put a strain on the psyche. People react differently to this, and so we’re introducing several new traits that characters can gain and lose over the course of a campaign depending on how their time with the company goes, what their background is and what other traits they have.

For example, a devastating loss against orcs may result in a character starting to fear greenskins and having less resolve when in battle against them. A sentiment that most people who played Battle Brothers can sympathize with. But as he grows in experience and is hardened by battle, he will eventually overcome his fear and lose the trait again. At the same time, another character may handle the loss quite differently, become more determined and start to hate greenskins instead, gaining a bonus to resolve when fighting against them. All in all, the number of new character traits has now climbed to be 16 – good, bad, and combinations of the two. Most of them have event interactions, some unlock additional options in events, and many of them can be gained or lost by events.

EVENTS
Speaking of events, we’re currently at 52 new ones for the game. There’s still time left until release, so it’ll likely end up to be even more in the end. Alongside these events we’re also adding a lot of new illustrations and updating a couple of older ones with more high quality artwork.

As you may have guessed, that illustration on the left is related to one of the upcoming legendary locations.

RESILIENCE
As part of the free update accompanying the upcoming ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC, we’re doing a balance pass on all of the character perks. The objective isn’t to make the game any easier or harder, but to further improve build variety, especially in the late game. You’ll find a list of all perk changes in the changelog once the update is live, but there’s two perks, one old and one new, which we want to talk about in more detail.

The ‘Hold Out’ perk stands out as the least-picked perk in the game currently; it benefits you only in a specific situation you want to avoid as much as possible, while at the same time you can pick other perks instead that actually help you to avoid getting into that situation in the first place. We’re going to entirely replace the ‘Hold Out’ perk with a new perk called ‘Resilient’. If you’re one of the few people that liked to pick the old ‘Hold Out’ perk, fret not, for you can now get the same effect without having to spend a perk point for it by drinking an ‘Iron Will Potion’ which can be crafted at the taxidermist from relatively common ingredients.

The new ‘Resilient’ perk reduces the duration of any negative status effect with a finite duration by one turn, up to a minimum of one turn. For example, the ‘Bleeding’ or ‘Poisoned’ status effects both have a duration of two turns, which get reduced to one turn. Of course, with a shorter duration, those two effects will also inflict less damage to a character. And quite importantly, some new status effects, like being ‘Charmed’ by a Hexe, also get their duration reduced by one turn. It’s not necessary to have the perk in order to beat the Hexe at all, but it is one possible counter and can be quite helpful if you otherwise struggle against opponents which rely on negative status effects to make your life hell.

MORE PROACTIVE GARRISONS
And speaking of making your life hell, enemy bases are more proactive now in sending out parties to intercept anyone that threatens them and that they can realistically take on. Camping right next to a bandit hideout to wait for morning may not be the best idea anymore, and even locations infested by undead may send out parties come night. On the bright side, if a base sends out a party to intercept enemies, their garrison will be weakened, and in some cases only a skeleton crew will remain. You can use it to your advantage by splitting a large enemy force in two, or even attack while a third party is luring part of a garrison away!



LET’S PLAY!
Join us again next week for some moving pictures. Our very own Jaysen will start a new Let’s Play series with the ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC and explain all of the new features and content as he encounters them.

 

[Teut Busnet]

The art style is fucking fantastic. They should find a way to implement more of it into the game, not only with small pictures during events or contracts.

 

[Barbarian]

Those hate/fear mechanics sound really good.

Reminds me of one of the reasons this game is so great: the concepts based on realism and down-to-earth ideas. Controlling disposable losers who risk their lives for coin is so much more entertaining than playing "chosen ones" and the usual rpg fanfare.

Speaking of events, we’re currently at 52 new ones for the game. There’s still time left until release, so it’ll likely end up to be even more in the end. Alongside these events we’re also adding a lot of new illustrations and updating a couple of older ones with more high quality artwork.

Maybe I'm being greedy, but "52" sounds like very little

Will those "marquee events" you mentioned(for long standing members of the company) be making into the dlc after all? Also, out of curiosity, how many total events were in the game's final version before the dlc?

 

[tindrli]

at least 152. some even proceduraly generated. yes it can be done. a little ones

 

[Lios]

i want the artist of this game to always have a job and a place in the gaming industry.

 

[Barbarian]

I wish they kept "hold out". It is arguably one of the least useful perks, but I frequently picked it for my tanks.

No need replacing it, they could have just added the new perk without removing it(they are different enough for that).

 

[sser]

Those hate/fear mechanics sound really good.

Reminds me of one of the reasons this game is so great: the concepts based on realism and down-to-earth ideas. Controlling disposable losers who risk their lives for coin is so much more entertaining than playing "chosen ones" and the usual rpg fanfare.

Speaking of events, we’re currently at 52 new ones for the game. There’s still time left until release, so it’ll likely end up to be even more in the end. Alongside these events we’re also adding a lot of new illustrations and updating a couple of older ones with more high quality artwork.

Maybe I'm being greedy, but "52" sounds like very little

Will those "marquee events" you mentioned(for long standing members of the company) be making into the dlc after all? Also, out of curiosity, how many total events were in the game's final version before the dlc?

I've honestly lost count of the total # of events but it's quite a few. If you're interested, I'll provide a word count when it's all said and done to give some measure of it. Some of these events are far more complicated than anything in the base game. I have a few of the marquee events prototyped and laid out, but I'm not happy with them as of yet. One of the problems I ran into was do I want, "Squire level 11, therefore Knight"; or do I want "Squire level 11, xyz happens with C&C and a variety of outcomes." I'd prefer the latter.


For example, this is the Bastard's marquee event:

Spoiler

An assassin comes into your tent at night; he's looking to kill the Bastard as he's seen as an unwitting threat to some nobleman somewhere. This event has a number of endings, including one where the Assassin joins your party.

That's where I will be looking to take them. Whenever an event's development comes into doubt, I switch to something more basic (re: can occur anytime no matter who is in the party) and pump my time in that direction.

 

[Tigranes]

This is very cool. I love the idea that your dude will survive a pyrrhic victory over some orcs, but develop a crazy trauma over it, and then the time will come when he cannot help but don his helmet and march forth against some more orcs...

I use hold out very infrequently, though I always liked the idea of it being there. I think resilient is indeed something I'll pick more often.

 

[Barbarian]

I've honestly lost count of the total # of events but it's quite a few. If you're interested, I'll provide a word count when it's all said and done to give some measure of it.

Man that would be very interesting info. I played the game through a few crises and I'm sure I still don't have a serious notion of how many events the game has. Lots of backgrounds which I usually don't take, lots of backgrounds which I don't take with me far enough to get to level 11, and else.

I'm sure most players are on the same boat. Everybody has different roster preferences, playstyles and different experiences.

I have a few of the marquee events prototyped and laid out, but I'm not happy with them as of yet. One of the problems I ran into was do I want, "Squire level 11, therefore Knight"; or do I want "Squire level 11, xyz happens with C&C and a variety of outcomes." I'd prefer the latter.


For example, this is the Bastard's marquee event:

Spoiler

An assassin comes into your tent at night; he's looking to kill the Bastard as he's seen as an unwitting threat to some nobleman somewhere. This event has a number of endings, including one where the Assassin joins your party.

That's where I will be looking to take them. Whenever an event's development comes into doubt, I switch to something more basic (re: can occur anytime no matter who is in the party) and pump my time in that direction.

Please make it happen as much as possible bro. For incline's sake! I know some backgrounds are very fleshed out(i.e:monk and cultist), but others have no important events/interactions to their name. My impression is that some of the more popular cost-benefit backgrounds(Hunter, Poacher, Lumberjack, Squire, etc) ended up nearly devoid of content and they probably shouldn't be, being that they so often are a part of players rosters and are carried to endgame.

Also cheapo backgrounds could use some love if there is time and effort available. I know you guys had good reasons not to create content for backgrounds which most players won't take far, but they are there and sometimes great recruits slip through the cracks and are carried through long campaigns. I remember I once took an eunuch and a pimp to veteran levels for instance. Surely these are backgrounds that don't deserve nearly as much content as say a cultist or witch-hunter(the setting provides ample opportunity for these to shine), but some acknowledgement/nod that a guy from one of the loser backgrounds was turned into an efficient member of a legendary mercenary company would be nice(it does happens!)

 

[Vault Dweller]

I'm very upset about this Nov 29 thing. I want it NOW!

 

[Alienman]

I'm very upset about this Nov 29 thing. I want it NOW!

#metoo

 

[RNGsus]

That's where I will be looking to take them. Whenever an event's development comes into doubt, I switch to something more basic (re: can occur anytime no matter who is in the party) and pump my time in that direction.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I've been taking "hold out" -perk now and then.
Its one of those "good to have when you need it" things.

Perhaps it could be a rare starting trait for mercenaries.

 

[Barbarian]

Man I'm already planning my first post-dlc playthrough. I haven't looked forward to a release so much since Expeditions: Viking was announced.

Anyway, here are the 3 rules I will impose myself:

1. I will only allow myself to have one character of a single background at a time and focus on non-professional backgrounds and some of the intermediate ones(mostly non-pro cheapos). Depending on finding talented lowlifes increases the challenge and having roster variety means more events I haven't seem. No metagaming top tier squads full of sellswords, swordmasters and hedge knights, at best one or two of them(I actually always avoided that, but one way or the other most of my late game squad roster tended to transition to professional backgrounds). That will be the theme of my playthrough actually: "lowlife loser mercenary squad".
2. I will experiment with new builds, specially light armored frontliners and zweihanders . I want to avoid the meme of having the most heavily armored squad possible come late game due to better effectiveness. Maybe the new balance tweaks the devs made will make this viable.
3. No ironman but no savescumming either. I will only allow myself to load back on the occasion of huge setbacks - defined for my purposes as the death of 9 or more bros in one battle. As much as I loved my previous ironman playthroughs, by the time a second crisis hits it becomes a game of patience with constantly building your team from scratch after 1 or 2 challenging battles - either that or avoiding challenges and playing safe while the world burns and becomes a wasteland. That made playing a long campaign and having fun at the same time a short endeavor.

Veteran difficulty with low starting funds and perma destruction on. The goal is to beat the 3 crises and the black monolith on one playthrough. I never actually took a playthrough up to that point, usually I retired after 2 crises at most either due to repetition/boredom or because I was playing ironman and got wrecked.

I'm also quite looking forward to using the new paint options and a bit of modding for making my squad look as dank as possible.

 

[Murk]

The timing on this DLC is matching perfectly with my schedule. Thank you Krautlanders for your impeccable timing.

+1 to those who said they hope to cram as much content into this as possible.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Spoiler

I really hope they don't 'fix' 18 man mod and make it so it is unable to be used.

Sadly nothing new about Fatigue management.
Anyway I hope that because you can use now usable items from belt/bags you can also get to use them as free action when you have quick hands. Would be pretty nice buff to them as currently it doesn't make sense in most situation to use them(to selfbuff).
Also making it so ammo can be used form belts/bags would be great too. Enemy have unlimited ammo and don't need to switch it so why not player?

I wonder how they make medium armor more attractive. Honestly they should buff medium armor fatigue effectiveness(fatigue to durability ratio) by reducing fatigue cost on them. Other than that I have no idea how they make them more attractive as heavy armor plus armor perk is too great.


Also also. We have attachments now but what about restoring ancient weapons and armor?
Could be it possible to bring ancient swords etc or helmets and get the restored ones in results? It should cost a lot o0f coin but could provide great visual armor/weapons with decent/good stats.

>the more proactive garrisons
it catch my aye as it looks they slowly coming back to the old enemy faction economy model. If they only dump the current scaling contract system...

 

[Barbarian]

One of the previous dev posts mentioned that attachments will mostly increase armor ratings at a higher value than they will increase weight/fatigue costs. So upgrading light/medium armor that way will be one of the balance changes to make lighter armor more viable.

You will only be able to add one attachment to each armor though, which means you won't be able to go crazy with it/combine attachments. One of the devs mentioned that nimble is getting a buff/rework a while ago, but they haven't mentioned details. It could be just the armor attachment system and new armors, it could be something more too.

Also I assume potions/buffs will make every alternative build more viable. I just hope they are rare/expensive enough that it won't lower difficulty too much for all playstyles. Either that or some manner of side effect/malus(they mentioned possible addiction but no details about it).

Spoiler

I really hope they don't 'fix' 18 man mod and make it so it is unable to be used.

That is cheating bro. You don't cheat on a game like this. Basically that mod shifts the balance to making the game much easier and one of its greatest attractions is that it is an unforgiving game.

 

[Eyestabber]

Urgh, still no "give money" button. They say the DLC is "feature complete", well...let us buy it then.

 

[Reinhardt]

I don't have proper name for new company.

 

[Barbarian]

I will go with something generic like "Black Company" or "Company of the Skull"(I will be using a custom black banner with white skull symbol).

Doesn't really matter bro. The default "Battle Brothers" is such a catchy name that I actually used it on most of my playthroughs.