Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[V_K]

Bro, this should be a anonymous email based bug report! Now everyone will know they can undress their bros at the camp and at the barber!

But they're only drawn from waist up, what's the point?

 

[tiagocc0]

But they're only drawn from waist up, what's the point?

 

[Abu Antar]

Bro, this should be a anonymous email based bug report! Now everyone will know they can undress their bros at the camp and at the barber!

But they're only drawn from waist up, what's the point?

Nipples!

 

[Luka-boy]

But they're only drawn from waist up, what's the point?

Clearly, the devs are aiming for a very particular subgenre of erotic media.
http://tinyurl.com/zz9jc5c

 

[Abu Antar]

But they're only drawn from waist up, what's the point?

Clearly, the devs are aiming for a very particular subgenre of erotic media.
http://tinyurl.com/zz9jc5c

 

[oscar]

Some musings on melee weaponry

Swords: Decent. Modest to hit ratio bonus is tempered by poor armour penetration. Riposte is an interesting one and I've been experimenting more with it lately, seems to be a decent option if you are both surrounded and have good melee defence. I like putting them on brothers who are a little low on fatigue due to their low usage.

Maces: One of my favourites. Great armour penetration and a very useful secondary (even the cruddiest Bro running around in a sack cloth can still be of immense utility if he manages to stun the incoming heavily armoured bandit with a greatsword or orc beserker). The fatigue damage to enemies upon landing a hit has also served me very well in battles against adult orcs and warlords where if I can survive the first few rounds they often get too fatigued to make more than one attack per round or even do anything.

Spears: Most enemies are smart/cautious enough to simply avoid spearwalls but in early game fights against the ghouls and wiederganger they're often a lot of use. The to-hit bonus is also very nice even if damage is underwhelming. They also seem prone to breaking what makes even boar spears poor in fights against large numbers of adult orcs. I like to give them to drunks or bros with sub-par melee skill to compensate. Ultimately however I begin to phase them out and leave them to the newbies.

Axes: I simply do not ever bother to split shields. Why waste two turns where I could be actually killing or at least wounding/demoralising the foe only to make him do an additional 25% damage against me? Luckily however their basic attack is solid considering their good damage and armour penetration. Lumberjack axes seem truly terrible however for anything beyond the most desperate of warbands (a double-gripped handaxe is a better weapon). The head-damage bonus also makes them good for killers on the run and (irrc) jugglers.

Flails: Interesting one. I do like the shield by-passing side effect and the swing is occasionally useful when facing a large number of evasive foes but fairly mediocre in damage means I'll rarely have more than one of these guys around. Minor head hitting bonus also makes them a good brute/murderer/juggler potential weapon (I was experimenting on a guy totally focused upon head-hitting but he died before I got to see if the build was any good).

Two-handers: The greatsword seems superior as the straight-line, two rows cut is very, very useful while the greataxes all hexes swing has the potential to be devastating but I've almost never found myself in a position where I've let a bro become totally surrounded like that. On retired swordsmasters they can become absolutely deadly with the right perks (the Utility Tree 'brawn' armour fatigue reducement is essential but other than that build him how you like), consistently mowing through the enemy lines.

 

[Serus]

More or less agree but i find splitting shields a useful ability quite often. Some enemies with shields early game can be very hard to hit and the basic 2-h axe can split those early shields in one hit allowing another brother(s) to land hits they would most likely miss otherwise.
I never found most maces to be of great use, the ability to stun never seems worth it to me - i need to try it more perhaps i'll change my mind.

The thing is - you don't really need to choose one type of weapon for anyone - with the 2 perks from 1st tier utility tree you can have 2 or 3 different weapons and swap them almost at will. So a sword as a basic weapon against average opponents, an anti-armor weapon against heavily armored foes and a ranged weapon all can be used on the same bro. Maybe i am doing it wrong but i usually go for builds with 4 points in utility (+ 6 offense or 6 defense except for ~2 high resolve/commander bros with 6 in utility). Ability to use many different weapons (and better movement on bad terrain plus at least one +fatigue perk) makes 4 points in utility a must for me.

 

[Grimwulf]

while the greataxes all hexes swing has the potential to be devastating but I've almost never found myself in a position where I've let a bro become totally surrounded like that

The thing about greataxes is not the circular swing (which is very situational), but their ability to damage both head and body with each hit. IIRC, greatswords only damage head or body, same goes for double-grip 1h axes. I often find orcish greataxes (Man Splitter) very useful until you get access to top tier weapons.

 

[oscar]

Is the damage randomly split? I also wonder if head-damage traits apply.

I know that perk allows that but it feels too 'gamey' to me of my brothers each carrying a billhook, a crossbow, an extra shield, a sword etc in addition to their normal equipment.

 

[titus]

Is the damage randomly split? I also wonder if head-damage traits apply.

I know that perk allows that but it feels too 'gamey' to me of my brothers each carrying a billhook, a crossbow, an extra shield, a sword etc in addition to their normal equipment.

Even with orcs? Warriors kick my ass so hard without extra gear.

 

[Havoc]

I just have to say it. Every time I read the title it's spoken/read like this:

Spoiler

 

[Got bored and left]

I just have to say it. Every time I read the title it's spoken/read like this:

Spoiler

Who doesn't, though?

 

[rapsdjff]

Update 0.6.0.20
This week’s update adds two new combat environments and some more cosmetic weather effects to the game.

The frozen and snow-covered north has taken its rightful place as an environment for tactical combat. Movement is slower here, as people have to wade through a thick layer of snow, and the terrain is open and provides little cover. The red and yellow autumn woods, on the other hand, are more similar to the forests of old, but not quite as cramped. With lots of trees and bushes they provide ample cover for both you and the enemy.



The update also introduces new weather effects. Light snow can fall in the tundra and frozen north, and the latter can see even full-grown snow storms. Note that these weather effects are purely cosmetic for now, however. We may add actual gameplay effects to them in the future, similar to how fighting at nighttime comes with a status effect, but this will require a way to convey weather on the worldmap first, since we don’t want to just randomly put you into a snow storm after you’ve already ordered the attack.



Changelog

Spoiler

• Added snow combat environment.
• Added autumn woods combat environment.
• Added light snow weather effect for snow and tundra environments.
• Added snow storm weather effect for snow environment.

• Changed tundra combat environment to have slightly less vegetation.
• Changed ‘Line Battle’ scenario to take place on snow.
• Changed ‘Advanced Combat’ scenario to take place in autumn woods.

• Fixed body types resetting on levelup.
• Fixed issue with ‘Raze Location’ contract.
• Fixed erroneous display in tooltip of how many turns until a character can act.
• Fixed clouds in combat not spawning at the correct position when the battlefield is flipped.

 

[Sranchammer]

Are African and Latino brothers available yet? I want to do an LP based on that.

 

[rapsdjff]

This game is pretty great!
Where are you going with it though, actually? Will we be able to rise in ranks and own villages and such? Obviously Mount and Blade was a big influence - are you aiming to do what it did? Of course, it might require to change the party limit, which could make the battles tedious...

Honestly, Mount & Blade wasn't much of an influence for the development of this game. People often call Battle Brothers a turn-based Mount & Blade, and because that's a quick way to give others an idea of what this game they've never heard of plays like, we even adopted it ourselves. However, games like the original X-Com, Shadow of the Horned Rat and Jagged Alliance have actually had a much larger influence on us. Even though our gameplay may be somewhat similar to Mount & Blade, it's really just the result of how we started with trying to take the X-Com formula and transform it into something that works for us as a quasi-medieval mercenary simulation within the bounds of what our resources allow for.

Battle Brothers is going where it's been going from the start - to have the player leading a mercenary company in a low power fantasy world. This is the scope of the game and the thing we want to do right. There's lots of potential still to expand on the mercenary gameplay, to add more content and polish to what is already there. We're not aiming to have a little bit of everything like Mount & Blade does. Of course, being compared to Mount & Blade, people now also tend to expect us to do everything that Mount & Blade does

Ever considered enabling the player to create their own character?

Yes, as a non-combat leader character with perks that have a company-wide effect and allow the player to customize the company better to their play style, as well as to add to replayability. Not sure if it'll make it into the initial release, however.

Anybody else has problems with changing body type at barber's? Seems like all changes revert to standard beefy-bro type over time. I want fat people to stay fat, dammit.

There was some old code still in place to have the body type change with a character's hitpoints. It's been changed for today's update to have the starting body type determined by background and traits instead, and then have any changes made at the barber actually stick.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Ok, I've got a question to ask because I'm curious. Are there any contracts to actually fight other houses? I'm like 60 days in, my guys are heavily armored (and I got few unique blue items as well), my reputation is "glorious" (is there anything higher?) and one of the factions is on 100/100 with me.

Only once they asked me to destroy a winery in nearby village. Most of the contracts I did was killing goblins, bandits, orcs and cleaning occasional cemetery out of bandits/ghouls/zombies. And I saw zombies only once.
Well, I kinda feel like I'm missing a lot of things, because I haven't yet seen orcish/goblin leader in that playthrough. Not mentioning Vampires, heavily armored skeletons(only those in hoods), necromancers, those guys dressed as wolves, ghosts or other houses :< And who knows what else. Maybe I rolled a shitty map those 3 weeks ago? :-x

Is the political situation on the map changing with time? I'd love to see houses pushing each other out, or even destroying themselves with my help. That would be amazing to see two houses at war, helping the underdog out just to see its rise to power - killing the remaining leader of opposite house in the end in his last city ;3

EDIT:
Ok, my buddy told me that he fought one of the houses because they've been mad at him. Still curious about contracts tho'

 

[agris]

rapsdjff it would be super helpful if you mentioned in the change-log what features require starting a new game to see.

 

[oscar]

I've noticed only the major gameplay-altering updates require a restart so you should be alright.

 

[agris]

I've noticed only the major gameplay-altering updates require a restart so you should be alright.

Which would include the new map types I assume? That's why I'm asking for him to note it in the notes.

 

[rapsdjff]

rapsdjff it would be super helpful if you mentioned in the change-log what features require starting a new game to see.

We always do. If it doesn't say anything, like with the past few updates, then there's no need to start a new campaign for any of the changes to take effect.

Ok, I've got a question to ask because I'm curious. Are there any contracts to actually fight other houses? I'm like 60 days in, my guys are heavily armored (and I got few unique blue items as well), my reputation is "glorious" (is there anything higher?) and one of the factions is on 100/100 with me.

Is the political situation on the map changing with time? I'd love to see houses pushing each other out, or even destroying themselves with my help. That would be amazing to see two houses at war, helping the underdog out just to see its rise to power - killing the remaining leader of opposite house in the end in his last city ;3

Some contract twists have you fighting noble house troops depending on your choices. Contracts that have one noble house hire you to fight another house are still to come along with actual warfare between those factions.

 

[oscar]

Will the houses be full-on at war with each other or will be it more 'subtle' small-scale things like raids, sabotage, kidnapping, retaliations etc?

 

[Grimwulf]

Got raped by another mercenary band today. Which made me wonder, why aren't they fully represented in the game? (roaming bands, locations, etc) Dat battle music was glorious. Wish I could see them more often.

 

[oscar]

I've only had the bounty hunters, are there full other ones now?

 

[Grimwulf]

I've only had the bounty hunters, are there full other ones now?

Spoiler

 

[Trash]

Fought both bounty hunters and another mercenary band. Quite a couple of brutal fights that both netted me a lot of decent loot and a hankering for more powerful human foes. Anyway, hope the whole mount and blade thing doesn't become too big a hassle. Merc band in a low fantasy medieval world is awesome as it is. These guys got my interest specifically when they named two of my favourite games ever, ufo and shadow of the horned rat. Do hope they stick to the basis and not give in to demands for feature creep.