Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[rapsdjff]

So I got beaten again with keeping the thread up to date

Dev Blog #28: Music in Battle Brothers

With our Steam Greenlight campaign still running and us busy working on the strategic worldmap, this week we’ll get some insight into how music is created for Battle Brothers and how it helps to shape the experience of playing the game.

We’ll give the floor to Dennis and Patrick, our talented musicians from Breakdown Epiphanies, who will give you a tour of the music in Battle Brothers in their own words and even reveal several brand new tracks for you to listen to. If you want to be always up to date regarding new tracks for Battle Brothers, you can also follow them on Soundcloud or Twitter. But for now, let’s listen in..

Introduction
Hi there! Today we, Dennis and Patrick from Breakdown Epiphanies, get the opportunity to talk about our musical background and give you a little insight on the music we’ve been writing for Battle Brothers. On top of that we’re happy to share some new tracks that offer a first impression of the games’ upcoming features like the strategic world map, the Orc faction and villages.

We have been making music together for more than ten years now, mostly in rock/hardcore bands but we always experimented with more electronic sounds and production on the side. The other thing we did a lot of since our childhood was playing video games. We share dear memories of some themes from games like Terranigma, Secret of Mana, Unreal or Shining Force.

Early this year we decided that it was time for a leap of faith, to put us out there and talk to game developers all around the web. Luckily, we ended up meeting the awesome guys from Overhype Studios who not only work on an incredibly promising game but also live (for the most part) in our hometown, Hamburg. Battle Brothers immediately struck a nerve with us due to its charming art style and its reminiscence of the old X-Com and Jagged Alliance games. So we stacked up on new digital instruments, orchestra- and scoring libraries, started learning about orchestration and began composing.

As Battle Brothers’ gameplay revolves mostly around desperate battles to the (perma-)death, the soundtrack has to convey a sense of danger and tension. So the general mood we aimed for was reasonably dark while still evoking a notion of adventure and exploration. The first thing we came up with ended up to be the main menu theme which already points in this general direction.

Worldmap
At the moment, the guys from Overhype are working overtime on the game’s strategic world map layer so we are happy to present our first track for this slice of gameplay. We really wanted to emphasize the feeling of exploration and discovery on this one. The player should immediately recognize this as a part of the game that has its own pacing and set of choices. For the sake of continuity the harp used in the menu theme plays a role in this one, too, starting out with a short, memorable cue that can be identified with changing screens to the world map.



We plan on having several tracks playing in this section of the game, so certain themes can be put out of or added to the rotation depending on the players progress, i.e. the music will become more dramatic and sombre as the threat of the “Greater Evil” conquering the lands becomes more imminent.

Tactical Combat
The music accompanying tactical combat has to be a totally different beast. Players will have to focus and concentrate on small decisions over a long period of time and the soundtrack isn’t supposed to dominate the experience and to distract from the core-gameplay. Nevertheless battles are supposed to feel tense and hazardous and each faction will have it’s identity reflected in the choice of instrumentation and style.



Regarding the Orc faction we had a lot of established tropes to play around with: Orcs are perceived as chaotic, fierce, almost savage-like opponents, yet they usually maintain a sort of military hierarchy. Our track ended up being a mix of soundscape and score, dominated by menacing drums but interrupted by swift tribal percussion. Generally we went with a lot of low end on this one, from the staccato celli and upright basses to deep drone-sounds and a (hopefully memorable) brass cue.

Villages
Last, but not least, you can have a listen to the first village theme. It will play in the background as our fellow Battle Brothers stack up on equipment and hire new recruits. We grabbed our guitar for this one and came up with a classical medieval sounding finger picking piece. The time that players spend in villages and towns will hopefully be a welcome opportunity to relax between all those deadly battles.



Also..
We hope you enjoy the tunes! If you want to be kept in the loop regarding new tracks for Battle Brothers, follow us on Soundcloud or Twitter. We’ll be regularly sharing our new compositions up to the game’s release.

 

[Severian Silk]

The world map looks nice, but I'm not digging the character/unit sprites.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Behelit]

The world map looks nice, but I'm not digging the character/unit sprites.

I shared this sentiment too but then I saw how these simple sprites are more dynamic than they appear to be. I can make an instantaneous assessment without clicking the Brother. At a glance you can tell what weapons they carry, armor worn, overall condition of armor, health and morale. The only thing missing is fatigue.

 

[rapsdjff]

I would also claim that you quickly forget about the limitations of the character art once you're in the heat of battle. You should give the combat demo a shot even if you're not convinced by the visual style.

 

[Farage]

The world map looks nice, but I'm not digging the character/unit sprites.

I think it differs it from the majority of the games out there, also showing that they care a little more about gameplay than aesthetics.
I trust these kind of things, really. Not into artsy hipster shit, like the stuff you see around.

 

[sser]

Out of curiosity, are non-human mercenaries going to be in the fold?

 

[rapsdjff]

Humans only. Though possibly of different cultures if we get the chance for additional content after release.

 

[rapsdjff]

A small progress update. Things are moving along!

Dev Blog #29: Progress Update – Greenlight, Greenskins and Persistent Campaigns

It’s been one month now since we’ve launched on Steam Greenlight. Time to give you an update: we’re at 91% of the way to the top 100. So close and yet so far. Unfortunately, daily votes for us have slowed down considerably by now, so if you haven’t casted your vote yet, please do so here and share the link with your friends. Thanks!



On the bright side, we’ve made great progress on the game itself these past two weeks. We now have actual persistent campaigns and no longer just separate combat scenarios. Also, Greenskins!

Persistent Campaigns
Battle Brothers consists of two major parts, the tactical combat and the strategic worldmap. So far, both of those have been existing more or less on their own. The tactical combat was prototyped first and tested by many of you in our combat demo to get the fighting right. The strategic worldmap simulation has also had a life of its own over the past few months – villages trade, bandits raid and militia struggle to keep order, all without much player involvement. Now, finally, we’ve connected both of these parts.



We’re now able to play an actual campaign and take the same band of Battle Brothers from battle to battle as we roam the world. Whether we’re engaging our opponents in a forest, in a swamp or on a road leading over plains on the worldmap, the procedurally generated tactical combat maps reflect this. They also change their ambient lighting to match the time of day on the worldmap. Weather isn’t in yet, but it will soon follow!

Of course, we can also keep the equipment we loot between battles and the experience our Battle Brothers gather from battle now has actual meaning. The campaign can now also be saved and loaded at any time on the worldmap. So, milestone reached. The next step to a complete game.

Greenskins!
While all of that was going on, we also finished the design on Orcs and Goblins. We’re very happy with how they turned out – they have a lot of unique mechanics, their own equipment and behavior. Orcs and Goblins fight very different from each other, and very different from the Undead. Also, just like Battle Brothers, they are subject to fatigue and morale. We’ll give a proper introduction to Orcs and Goblins in separate blog posts, including some of their lore, units, skills and equipment. For now, have a teaser of a goblin with and without heavy armor.



Also, if you’ve played the combat demo in and out, feel safe in the knowledge that our upcoming Early Access version will allow you to fight a dozen different Greenskin variants and no longer just the Undead!

 

[Jack Dandy]

Ahhh, god. Fuck, I'm annoyed at how this isn't Greenlit yet. I know Valve are gonna take it off soon, but I just want to see you guys IN already.

Congrats on the campaign milestone. Also the music from the previous updates sound really cool. Love the town one. Battle one could use a bit more of a melody, maybe? But eh, I digress.

 

[Jaesun]

How in the hell is this not Greenlit yet?



Glad to hear you are at least close. Bug your friends and family people!

 

[Crabcakes]

Check out the latest Goblin design.
100% going to be in game

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Check out the latest Goblin design.
100% going to be in game

"You are ambushed by a group of unruly basement-dwellers..."

 

[Alienman]

It's really cool that you got the campaign working, and the music is really good as well.

Shame about greenlight, you need a big push from someone. I have tried doing my part (it's me tomme25 btw, hi) but I can do another video
if you think that will help. But you need someone big.

 

[Crabcakes]

Hey guys, we've just been greenlit!
We've been at 92% of our way to the top 100 and before you know it - bam!
Some steam guy apparently lit us up.

Awesome stuff! Thanks a lot to all of you! Hugs and kisses!

And now lets make this game happen

 

[Jack Dandy]

Woo! Super glad to hear about this. Congratulations!

 

[Jaesun]

Congrats! About damn time this was Greenlit.

 

[AbounI]

Early acces expected for next January.All is in the latest update (sorry Raps)
http://battlebrothersgame.com/battle-brothers-greenlit/

After just a little more than a month on Steam Greenlight we made it – Battle Brothers has just been given the green light!
We are extremely happy and excited about how fast things went down in the end and we want to take the time to give you guys a big THANK YOU for all the support, comments, votes, encouraging messages and of course for spreading the word!

Without the engagement, effort and enthusiasm of you guys this would not have been possible!

Now with the Greenlight success we can again point all our resources towards game development itself.

Next stop: Early Access in January
With the latest Greenlight success we can now look ahead to the upcoming Battle Brothers Early Access version. If all goes to plan you can expect it in January 2015 on Steam. The EA will contain a fully playable campaign with all core mechanics in place. Of course, it will still miss content from the full game and some secondary features. As we get nearer to release, we’ll let you know in a dedicated article what exactly is going to be in the Early Access version and what will be added later, so you can get all hyped up about it

Indie RPG Developer Reddit AMA on Sunday, October 19th
Want to learn more about the guys behind Battle Brothers? Want to know how Indie RPGs are developed in general? Have a question for us about anything? Want to get to know other great games?

Then don’t miss the “Ask Me Anything”, or AMA, we’re doing on reddit together with the bros from Graal Seeker, That Which Sleeps and Dungeon Kingdom.

The AMA will be on Sunday, October 19th at 4pm GMT (17:00 CET, 11am EST). We’ll let you know the link here, on our Twitter Channel and on Facebook in a few days.

Thank you all again and keep reading the dev blogs – we have a lot more stuff up our sleeves!

So, you won't launch a crowdfunfing campaign?I thought it would have been the case

 

[Ulminati]

Nice. I had completely forgotten about this. Went and brofisted you on greenlight. I got plenty of early access stuffies to look forward to already, but I'll probably buy this once the Tacticular Cancer review is out.

 

[Crabcakes]

Hey guys, just a little teaser for the next Blog update:

Greenskins incoming, oh DAYUM!

 

[Jack Dandy]

I'm guessing orcs are prone to go berserk?

 

[Crabcakes]

Especially the Orc Berserks hehe

 

[Jack Dandy]

Just read the new bit about orcs and berserkers, very cool! Do they attack several hexes at once or something?

Also, please put Disqus on your site for comments. It's good.

 

[rapsdjff]

Epic reveal time!

Dev Blog #30: Orc Faction Reveal

We’ve gotten many a question regarding the enemy diversity in Battle Brothers. Until now we always had to put off these questions – but not any longer. We present to you the first major faction after the Undead: The Orcs!

The Orc faction has unique characters, skills, weapons and most of all tactics compared to the Undead and will force the player to challenge everything learned before. Lets get into some details.

Introduction
As long as humans remember there have been tensions with the wild Orc tribes that roam the surrounding lands. Orcs live as nomads, constantly on the move to support themselves by hunting, gathering and raiding anyone weaker than their tribe. They do not possess knowledge of agriculture or mining, relying instead on taking what they need from others. Indeed, Orcs are quick to take up weapons, and in Orc culture, he who spends time gathering, crafting or building when it is easier and faster to just take these things away from others is considered simple-minded. Life for an Orc, then, is to a large part establishing dominance over others and taking things for him or herself.

Although there are many distinct Orc tribes out there, they have a lot in common. They usually are ruled by the most powerful Orc in the tribe, a Warlord, that ascends to leadership by brute force and has to defend his claim also by leading the tribe to greater spoils. Therefore, different Orc tribes are constantly feuding each other and any alliances are usually short-lived.

​

As human settlements began to spread out, confrontations with the Orcs started to escalate quickly from smaller skirmishes into a full-out Orc invasion and subsequent war. The war ended with a costly human victory which had the Orcs withdraw from the settled lands and back into the wild. There, it didn’t take long for the Orc tribes to begin feuding each other again and lose sight of the human lands. This is where they stayed until now, except for occasional raids on outlying farms and villages. Yet, many a man and woman live in fear of the day that the Orc tribes unite again and start an invasion, leaving nothing but burning rubble in its wake.

To make matters worse, Orcs are technically just one half of a larger faction, the Greenskins, with the other half being the Goblins. However, both Orcs and Goblins are highly autonomous and you’ll only see them work together on rare occasions. One such occasion is an invasion, with the Greenskins being the Greater Evil in your game of Battle Brothers.

In battle Orcs tend to rush at the enemy and overwhelm them with the sheer power of their assault. Those who still stand after the initial onslaught find themselves disoriented and in a complete chaos. After the battle line has been dissolved, Orcs that put themselves in a battle frenzy by meditation and drugs rush in and finish what is left of the disorganized and shocked defenders.

​

Orc Physique
In Battle Brothers, Orcs are physically stronger than humans. An adult orc towers a human and has the strength to use weaponry and wear armor with great effect that would quickly tire out any human. With their strength, they also gain a percentage damage bonus to every attack – less for young Orcs , and more so for adult ones. While Orcs are subject to fatigue and morale, just like your Battle Brothers are, they have plenty of both, and it takes a while for an orc to run out of steam or realize that a battle has turned against him.

For many Orcs , their physicality is also expressed in their Charge skill. With this skill, Orcs can charge a Battle Brother over a short distance and hurl themselves against their target, stunning it for one turn. A Spearwall can repell charging Orcs and a Shieldwall can offer some protection against being stunned from the impact – but shields don’t have a high life expectancy against Orcs, as their damage bonus also applies against shields.

Orcs focus entirely on the offense, where they excel. They use their skills to crush the player’s battle line with raw force and have it quickly dissolve into a chaotic frenzy where they generally have the upper hand. For this reason, meeting an Orc warband head-on in open battle is usually a bad idea and will leave you at a disadvantage. On the other hand, Orcs neglect defense; while some of them will carry shields, they seldom make active use of them, prefering instead to attack. Due to their reckless fighting style and just physically being big targets, they’re also easier to hit than other opponents. In prolongued engagements, or in up-hill battles, where defense matters more than offense, Orcs may suddenly see themselves at a disadvantage.

Orc Weapons and Armor
Orcs have their own distinct weapons and armor they wear, which matches their physique. They do know how to craft metal but are not particularly good at honing and refining their works. This is why Orc weapons are usually very heavy and lack balance – although the player can loot and use these weapons, they’re clearly not made for use by humans and are hard to use effectively but for the strongest of Battle Brothers. Orcish armor, however, can not be used by the player. The physiology of Orcs is just too different from humans, so no helmet or piece of armor would actually fit.

​

The rough and big Orc hands do not allow them to use ranged weapons like bows to great effect, and neither does it fit their mentality. They resort therefore to throwing weapons like javelins that have limited range but can inflict high damage also to armored targets and may even damage shields if they hit those.

Young Orc
Young Orcs make up the back bone of Orc society, as Orcs usually don’t have a high life expectancy but are quite reproductive. They have relatively bright green skin because Orc skin tends to start out bright and gets increasingly darker over the years. Young Orcs are ferocious fighters that make up for their lack of experience and skill with pure strength and recklessness. You’ll find them armed usually with one-handed weapons and sometimes light shields. Since they’ve yet to prove themselves and lay claim to spoils of battle, their equipment will consist of different types of leather armor that Orcs have the resources to produce themselves, and sometimes no armor at all. They’re armed with lighter Orc weaponry and human weapons and shields they’ve scavenged from the fields of battle.

​

Orc Warrior
If a Young Orc survives long enough to grow to adult age, he may eventually become an Orc Warrior. As evident from their darker skin color and collection of scars, these seasoned fighters have a lot of combat experience and skill in addition to their great strength. Years of gathering spoils from raids and battle have allowed them to collect enough metal to have it melted and made into heavy metal armor, large Orc weaponry and often very heavy and durable metal shields.

​

Orc Warriors, perhaps also due to the massive armor they wear, do not charge opponents. Instead, they simply march into enemy ranks with their shields in front, pushing enemies out of their way and walking through an enemy battle line unimpressed in order to break it. It takes a formation two ranks deep to push against an Orc Warrior doing this, as one or even two humans alone can not compete in pure strength with an adult Orc Warrior.

Orc Berserker
Berserkers are Orcs that put themselves into a battle frenzy by taking drugs, potions or by hypnosis – and some of them are just straight up crazy. They can occasionally be found wandering alone on what could be described as pilgrimages to slay particularly dangerous beasts. If they succeed, they may wear parts of the slain beast as decoration, possibly also in the belief that it confers powers to them. However, other than these trophies, they don’t wear any armor. Instead, some of them cover their body with war paintings that are supposed to channel the energy of spirits to protect them. Due to this, many berserkers have their bodies littered with scars telling of their exploits.

​

The unique ability of the Orc Berserker is that each time he hurts or kills an opponent, he gains “battle rage”. With increasing battle rage, he gains damage to his attacks, increased bravery and initiative, and damage resistance. Each turn he loses some rage again. A berserker that can repeatedly hit or kill opponents and become enraged can spiral out of control and be very hard to take down.

Berserkers use a variety of Orc weapons, but no shields. Their most fearsome is a long and heavy chain with a big weight or striking head at the end that they swing recklessly around, mowing down foe and friend alike. Other Orcs respectfully prefer to stay clear of them if they can, especially if they swing around one of those chains. This often leaves Berserkers to fend for themselves at the flanks of a battle, just as they appear to hold a special position in Orc society outside of battle.

​

To be continued..
Those have been just three types of Orcs, but we have several more in store. Also, we’ll present the Orc faction in action in a commented gameplay video soon!

Until then let us know what you think about them so far and if you have any ideas for any additional Orc weapons, skills or classes!

 

[rapsdjff]

Just read the new bit about orcs and berserkers, very cool! Do they attack several hexes at once or something?

Also, please put Disqus on your site for comments. It's good.

The Berserkers? It depends on their weapon. If armed with their unique Berserker Chain they can attack either a single target or all 6 hexes around them at once with a devastating round swing - luckily it isn't particularly accurate. If you loot one of those weapons, you'll be able to do use these attacks as well - though at a very high fatigue cost, so few men (i.e. those heavily specialized in fatigue regeneration and not overly burdened by armor) will be able to use it in battle effectively.

I've forwarded your suggestion about Disqus.