Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Jack Dandy]

Cute horse!

 

[rapsdjff]

According to Paul it's a donkey

 

[vonAchdorf]

City and trading caravan assets have made it into the game.

I remember the freight (0:28):

 

[Alienman]

Pretty

 

[Crabcakes]

It's a giant donkey for crying out lout!
Hehe

 

[rapsdjff]

Progress!

Dev Blog #38: Progress Update – Bandits, Militia, Rivers and more

We’ve been busy this past week adding a whole bunch of smaller features and new assets to the game. Bandits are now available for you to fight in tactical combat – our first opposing faction that consists almost entirely of humans. Also, militia is now desperately defending their homes in tactical combat as well. But that’s not all.

Bandit Faction
The first almost entirely human enemy faction is now in the game to cause mischief and terrorize the poor civilians until they cry out for help to the Battle Brothers. The Bandit faction consists of society’s dropouts, reckless outlaws, desperate refugees, wanted criminals and all those that want to make a quick crown by taking what is not theirs.



They usually hide somewhere in the woods, be it abandoned huts, old ruins or makeshift encampments. When they head out they look for trade caravans und unaware travellers to rob them of their belongings. If they’re strong enough, they may even raid whole villages for valuables, supplies and prisoners.

In combat they have access to the same equipment, weapons and perks that Battle Brothers do, so be prepared for a match at eye-level. They usually rally behind an exceptionally strong, skilled or brutal leader and have some really experienced archers in their ranks. Their melee combatants range from poorly armed and malnourished thugs to battle-hardened raiders.

Bandits will usually be among the first enemies you encounter on the worldmap as they tend to stick close to settlements and trade roads.

Militia
Militia is the makeshift fighting force of civilian settlements like villages and cities. These are basically citizens that arm themselves with whatever weapons and tools available to them as soon as danger approaches. That is why they will only show up on the worldmap when there is an enemy party closing in on a settlement.



As these are not professional soldiers they lack in equipment and experience compared to other forces – but do not underestimate their determination to defend their homes and their loved ones against whatever enemy.

In combat, militia are usually led by an experienced militia captain, perhaps a professional soldier or sellsword when he was younger, that coordinates all the fighters and distributes weapons and armor among them. The militia captain boosts the morale of all others by some margin, and if he falls, it can spell disaster.

Cities and Trading Caravans
Besides the small villages we’ve shown before, we’ve now implemented cities into the game. The city is a civilian settlement like the village and has a militia force defending it. However, the city is much bigger and presents better opportunities for a mercenary commander. More potential recruits are available for hiring, more and different contracts are on offer, and a larger variety of weapons, armor and supplies can be found. As prices in general tend to be higher in larger settlements, everything may be a little more expensive here, though.



Cities are important hubs for trading caravans and for your mercenary company to restock supplies. Speaking of trading caravans, we’ve replaced our placeholder caravan with an actual asset of a little wagon pulled by a donkey also pictured above.

Worldmap Additions
The worldmap has seen some other additions, as well. Rivers have made it into the game, snaking through the lands and creating some natural borders, much like mountains do. Rivers can not be crossed unless at bridges or natural crossings. They still need a polishing pass but look like this now in the game:



Also, the orc faction got new assets for their hideout and warcamp – finally they won’t have to share the sprite with the bandits anymore and have a style of their own.



Tradeable and Lootable Supplies
Mercenaries are a needy bunch. You need to feed them so that they don’t starve or desert you, their armor needs repair after battle and their quivers need to be refilled. The supplies necessary for this can now be bought at allied locations – villages, cities, watchtowers and strongholds. Of course, food is more readily available at villages that live off of farming, and tools to repair armor with are easier to find at a military stronghold or larger city than at a small and peaceful village.



These supplies can also be looted after combat, both from locations you raided and from enemy parties you engaged. What supplies exactly and how many depends on what your opponent was doing. An orc or bandit hunting party will have more food for you to loot than a scouting party does – the more, the longer they’ve been out and hunting animals, in fact.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Looks good.

Do the rastafarian archers gain any special abilities or penalties?

 

[rapsdjff]

Not on account of their hair. All Bandit Marksmen, sporting a variety of fashionable haircuts, currently have the "Close Combat Archer" perk, giving them a damage bonus against very close targets. They're generally competent shots, a bit more proficient than Skeleton Bowmen. Although unlike the latter they'll eventually get fatigued while pelting you with arrows.

 

[rapsdjff]

Here is a first Let's Play of the campaign mode of Battle Brothers. Although the game is still very much work in progress, and certainly not ready for release at this point, this should already give you a good idea on how it will play. There'll be a few more episodes continuing the adventures of our merry band of deserters and former servants in the coming days.

 

[Jaesun]

That was AWESOME! Looking forward to this!

 

[sser]

Hallstein was just looking out for #1.

 

[Agesilaus]

Nice, this game and AoD are my most anticipated games of 2015. Apotheon was a great hit that came out of nowhere, too.

 

[Farage]

Love the new video guys, im aware that this is an early version of the game, and im sorry if this has been asked before, but are you guys planning to change the introduction for the game? Will there be some kind of story? Right now it looks a little "pointless"

 

[Agesilaus]

Love the new video guys, im aware that this is an early version of the game, and im sorry if this has been asked before, but are you guys planning to change the introduction for the game? Will there be some kind of story? Right now it looks a little "pointless"

 

[vonAchdorf]

Love the new video guys, im aware that this is an early version of the game, and im sorry if this has been asked before, but are you guys planning to change the introduction for the game? Will there be some kind of story? Right now it looks a little "pointless"

In a living and emerging world, I think you don't need a "traditional" story. From what I read, they have multiple story elements. From little (flavor) snippets like the mercenary biographies to the overarching plot of the (yet unknown) great evil / invader which slowly takes over the world and which your battle brothers ultimately will have to face. I think that will be also procedurally generated / emergent and not scripted though, which is, in my opinion, a great thing.

While the worldmap is dotted with a number of minor enemy parties, from independent roaming monsters to bandit encampments, there is also what we refer to as The Greater Evil, which will become increasingly dominant as time goes on. The Greater Evil is one of several possible armies which starts an invasion of the worldmap in an attempt to completely control and/or destroy it.

I hope for a more sophisticated reimagining of a world first presented maybe in Pirates!, where cities could change hands or see variations in their fortune while you "lived" your pirating live. If Overhype Studios can "proceduralize" the vestiges of a "scripted" story (the family members) from Pirates! or even more so the sandbox of Darklands, it will be very much everything I was waiting for a long time.

 

[oscar]

Looking fantastic. Love the trait and background system.

 

[rapsdjff]

Love the new video guys, im aware that this is an early version of the game, and im sorry if this has been asked before, but are you guys planning to change the introduction for the game? Will there be some kind of story? Right now it looks a little "pointless"

There'll never be a tightly scripted story, nor a personal one (like revenging your parents). The procedural (or rogue-like, if you prefer) nature of gameplay is very important to us - no game should ever play the same. We believe that interesting stories will emerge naturally from our gameplay, from player attachment to individual Battle Brothers, and the world dynamically changing and not being a mere static backdrop. We don't want to confine the player within a preset story that plays out the same every game and will lose its appeal on following playthroughs.

That being said, yes, there are several things coming eventually which should give the player more purpose in the world.

Mercenary contracts are already in the game but their variety is still very limited and their complexity basic. We believe those to hold great potential for getting the player vested into the world. Giving the player a reason for why to go into battle can mean a lot, as can it provide for a lot of variety (e.g. when the player has to protect a trading caravan in tactical combat and not just kill all opponents). Eventually we want to have entire contract chains, where finishing one contract can lead to another, sort of small questlines.

In addition, we want to have semi-random events. If you've played any Paradox games, you should have a pretty good idea on what to expect. Maybe your Battle Brother with the thief background is held by the authorities of the city you're just in and you'll have to make a decision on how to deal with it. Maybe the Battle Brother with the witchhunter background is adamant about your female follower being in league with the devil and advises to burn her just to be on the safe side. Or maybe you just met a group of pilgrims that share a bit of lore about the world's pantheon.

Finally, the Greater Evil. It won't be in the initial EA release, but once it's in the game, a random faction will attempt to shift the balance of the world and ultimately to take it over. Preventing this to happen will be the overarching goal of any campaign (unless you're content with being a random mercenary company until every last village is burned to the ground). It won't just be destroying every last orc camp on the map but will be presented with loose story bits and objectives, most of them optional and to be completed in any order. As a basic comparison think of Jagged Alliance 2 - the ultimate goal was stopping Deidranna, but things like taking over the airport would make this a lot easier for you. Or at least I think that was the way it was, haven't played it in a long time

As for the introduction specifically, we intend to improve that as well. The introductory contract you've seen in the LP was a first attempt to have new players not feel completely lost, but this probably still needs some work. Also, we want to greet the player with a splash screen containing some basic guidance as they're dropped into the game.

 

[rapsdjff]

Second part of our LP.

 

[Agesilaus]

Great! I'm working late tonight, but it looks like I have something interesting to watch when I finally get home.

Watched it, game looks great, keep it up. I'm looking forward to joining in the fun with EA.

 

[rapsdjff]

I'm glad you enjoy what you're seeing. We're hard at work polishing all those rough edges currently. Here is part 3 of our LP.

 

[oscar]

Eagerly awaiting the next.

 

[rapsdjff]

Jan will record the next and probably final episode tomorrow. In the meantime, the caravan cart and donkey have made it into tactical combat. Caravans are protected by Caravan Hands and, if they're large enough, Caravan Guards, which will do their best to save those donkeys.

 

[Jack Dandy]

I suppose you could call the caravan guards

Spoiler

Cattle Brothers.

 

[Norfleet]

Finally, the Greater Evil. It won't be in the initial EA release, but once it's in the game, a random faction will attempt to shift the balance of the world and ultimately to take it over. Preventing this to happen will be the overarching goal of any campaign (unless you're content with being a random mercenary company until every last village is burned to the ground).

That seems rather awkward. If all the villages are burned to the ground, who will pay you? At some point the villages will start paying you to protect them from being burned to the ground, you'd think. I doubt the Greater Evil which wants to burn every village to the ground is going to pay you. Chaotic Evil makes a poor paymaster, and burn-every-village-to-the-ground isn't exactly a plan with much of a future, evil or otherwise.

Jan will record the next and probably final episode tomorrow. In the meantime, the caravan cart and donkey have made it into tactical combat. Caravans are protected by Caravan Hands and, if they're large enough, Caravan Guards, which will do their best to save those donkeys.

Does their "best" generally mean an annoying, overly-enthusiastic, Leeroy Jenkins-esque desire to close with the enemy, as is typical of these games? Or do they start hanging back once they see you taking charge of the situation? It seems only natural that they would prefer you risk your necks over theirs. Too many AI allies are far too eager to charge into a battle that is already under control, getting needlessly killed. And blaming you for it.

 

[rapsdjff]

Finally, the Greater Evil. It won't be in the initial EA release, but once it's in the game, a random faction will attempt to shift the balance of the world and ultimately to take it over. Preventing this to happen will be the overarching goal of any campaign (unless you're content with being a random mercenary company until every last village is burned to the ground).

That seems rather awkward. If all the villages are burned to the ground, who will pay you? At some point the villages will start paying you to protect them from being burned to the ground, you'd think. I doubt the Greater Evil which wants to burn every village to the ground is going to pay you. Chaotic Evil makes a poor paymaster, and burn-every-village-to-the-ground isn't exactly a plan with much of a future, evil or otherwise.

If all the villages are burned to the ground, noone will pay you, that is the point. You'll have lost the game. Villages will indeed want to hire you for protection.

Jan will record the next and probably final episode tomorrow. In the meantime, the caravan cart and donkey have made it into tactical combat. Caravans are protected by Caravan Hands and, if they're large enough, Caravan Guards, which will do their best to save those donkeys.

Does their "best" generally mean an annoying, overly-enthusiastic, Leeroy Jenkins-esque desire to close with the enemy, as is typical of these games? Or do they start hanging back once they see you taking charge of the situation? It seems only natural that they would prefer you risk your necks over theirs. Too many AI allies are far too eager to charge into a battle that is already under control, getting needlessly killed. And blaming you for it.

They generally have a very defensive behavior regardless of your involvement. Their priority is in protecting the caravan and not to chase after enemies or charge into them for greater glory. I'm sorry for your psychological trauma regarding AI allies.