Phantom Brigade - Frozen Synapse with mechs

Haba · Apr 24, 2021

Have they patched in the RPG mechanics yet?

Infinitron · May 12, 2021

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/i-want-more-of-phantom-brigades-simultaneous-turns

I want more of Phantom Brigade’s simultaneous turns

Sometimes you want to write about two things, but don't quite have enough for either. I've noticed mech games, for example, are having a bit of a moment these last few years. It's not huge, and I don't see them absorbing everything like survival games or bloody roguelikes, but they're definitely picking up. It's a bit of a thin premise for a whole article though, right?

And then there's simultaneous turns. I want to cheer them on, to bewail the lack of games that dive into that rift between turn based and real time tactics and scheming. But so few games do it that I haven't found the champion I need. Thank goodness, then, for Phantom Brigade.

Developers Brace Yourself Games are already regarded for 2015's Crypt Of The Necrodancer, and their upcoming Industries Of Titan pleased Steve Hogarty muchly last year. It seems they have a knack for rejigging familiar ideas exactly enough to keep them interesting without losing sight of their influences, because Phantom Brigade is also on track to be very solid.

The influences are clear, and that's okay! Like Battletech, you lead a clomp of four mechs into a non-linear, freeform campaign, gunning down hostile mechs and tanks and pulling pieces off the wrecks in the hope of bolting them onto your own gunsuits. The plot is your basic "nasty men are oppressing everyone, get 'em!" guerrilla campaign, so cash is irrelevant but you'll want to gather supplies for repairs and periodically knocking up new frames and basic gear in your workshop.

Rather than standard models differentiated by what equipment you shove in, each mech is comprised of discrete arms, legs and torsoes, which you stick together in Monseigneur Potato Head fashion according to your needs or whims. Weapons are held, which I personally un-prefer to the built-in option, but it does justify being able to replace parts as you like instead of waiting for a refit on the map.

It's an appealing system. It doesn't have the granularity of Battletech or even Mechwarrior 5 (both based on the same tabletop system, obv), but there are enough parts to differentiate mechs even early on, and swapping parts changes their appearance for a nice tiebreaker option. You also don't need to count heatsinks or make "ammo:docking fees" calculations. I built a chunky mech with a massive rocket launcher that would overheat after one shot, Astrid-style, before conceding that I should probably replace its armour-heavy limbs with more slender ones that rated higher for heat dissipation. This meant more rockets more often, and a remodel of my harassing riflebot into a harassing riflebot with jet-powered dodges, a sword, and big boy arms.

Phantom Brigade thus skirts neatly between "enough like", and "different enough" on the strategic level, being somewhat streamlined while introducing its own nuances. It's the combat that really marks it out, though. When the mobile base is done trundling to where you clicked, you'll likely be attacking a patrol or camp, tasked with standing next to some supplies for a bit, or - more likely - pushing all the enemies over. You'll want to literally do that if possible too, since PH sensibly builds its economy on disabling or depiloting, not destroying rivals. But instead of sniping body parts, that's best achieved here by attacks from behind. It is viable to wipe them out if needed, or split the difference and slide a shotgunner down its right flank to take that deadly arm off, at the cost of probably not recovering the gun. It might be better than losing a mech, and if you disarm them, enemy pilots often take the hint and eject.

All this is aided by the turn system, which compares best to Frozen Synapse. That's a fine game to build on (Frynapse 2 was the other game this article was almost about), but again, Phantom Brigade distinguishes itself a bit. Each 'turn' is like a spin of the stopwatch, as it's everyone's turn all at once, but you get time between them to plan and change orders around. If you've played Combat Mission or any of Mode 7's Frozen games you already know a more complex version of the concept. If you've played Dominions or Solium Infernum... okay, I'm just namedropping now, they're nothing like this really.

The interface takes a lot longer to describe than to understand when you see it in motion. In Frozen Synapse (or Cortex, a comparably great simulturner whose relative simplicity makes it a great place for beginners. I feel only a moderate level of shame for 'simulturner') you kind of simulate the enemy's moves for them too, setting up any scenario you could anticipate and watching it play out as a hypothetical before locking in your final orders and seeing how accurate your guesses were. In PB, you don't get to watch those imaginary turns, but by hovering over a unit you can track its path, which brings up phantom (oho) images of what it, and everyone else, will be doing when that unit is at that point.

You also get a timeline along the bottom, weirdly reminiscent of Achron, the technically incredible (but also somewhat crap) time-travelling RTS, that shows you what everyone will be doing. At present, this is almost totally reliable, making PB a shot or two easier than it perhaps should be. The devs have suggested this might become more fallible in future, and I'd guess that difficulty modes could play a major role here. But I kind of love it already. The simultaneous turn system does what it's best at conceptually; you get to plan elaborate moves and switch things up on the fly without one wrong turn utterly screwing you.

It's a particularly good system for mech fights - much more forgiving than Frozen Synapse's one-hit kills - as it really give the sense of huge war machines slamming chunks of each other, wearing down armour and raining bombs and bullets. The mechs feel less explosive than Battletech with its surgical soldier strikes, and the granularity of movement means there are fewer instances where you're stuck on a turn where firing will overheat your guns by one kelvin, but resting will get your legs shot off.

And I haven't mentioned it yet, but yeah the effects are terrific. The mechs themselves still need a little more personality or some more outlandish aesthetic options, but they shoot and collapse very satisfyingly, to the point where I'm dissatisfied with almost all my screenshots. They fail to convey the satisfaction of dodging out from a rocket barrage at the last second, watching the mech-sized gap in the spray of shrapnel behind your unlucky target, or disarming an enemy in a three-way crossfire then coolly walking away while it falls over and the pilot nopes out in a smoke-strewing eject pod.

Or the collisions! Your mechs feel a bit more like robots at times, being slavishly obedient to the point of running directly into each other if you're careless. Collisions are predicted with a very visible yellow dome if you take the split second to check your moves, and each shot in a burst or even shotgun blast is simulated, so stray ones can hit someone on the other side of the map, take out a chunk of building, or hit your own pilot in the back because you consider what you'd told your sniper to do that turn. You dolt.

Those pilots are non-entities at present, and the setting, too, is absent the flavour it'll probably need over the long term. The campaign map and workshop are sort of uneventful, and the gradual unlocking of things as you liberate parts of the map could be livened up a bit, as could enemy and mission types. But many of these things are in the devs' roadmap already, and I can see where others might fit in later. Parts of Phantom Brigade may be a little undercooked, but that's exactly what the Early Access period is for. Brace Yourself have estimated a November 2021 release (at which point it will also be available on Steam), and their steady progress is very encouraging. It's already shaping up to be a strong contender for my favourite simultaneous turns game, and even if it takes longer I think it'll be worth the wait.

lightbane · May 13, 2021

Of course RockPaperSocialJustice likes the messy and gimmicky time-stop aspect, instead of superior Action Points mechanics.

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · May 22, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-7-0-b1882/

Patch 0.7.0-b1882

Released: 18th May 2021

Update 6: Livery or Death

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
LIVERY DELIVERY: New liveries and materials added!
LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY: Improved Retreat action.
UI ENHANCEMENTS: Improved combat, targeting, and armour UI.
EQUILIBRIUM: Rebalanced early provinces.

Phantom Brigade is in Early Access, which means we are actively updating and adding new content based on our roadmap and your wonderful feedback. We update Phantom Brigade on the third Tuesday of every month. You can expect the next major update on Tuesday, June 15th at 11:00AM PT. See the full patch notes below!

Changes in 0.7.0-b1882
indicates changes due to community feedback

Livery Delivery

Enemy units received liveries based on military branch, role of the group they belong to, and equipment quality.

Added new materials to liveries

Added new liveries

It is now possible paint all parts at once! In “Edit Livery”:

1. Double click to remove any liveries (optional)

2. Select “All Parts”

3. Choose a livery!

This paints the entire mech a base colour. All individual part liveries can then be applied on top

“For He That Fights and Runs Away…”

Retreating is now triggered from the new timeline action, not from only entering the retreat zone

This allows for better control of which units are retreating and when. Units won’t do anything if a retreat is placed on the timeline while outside of a retreat zone

Retreat action is no longer available when retreat is not possible

Improved Combat UI

Projectile path prediction and optimal ranges now account for cover

Added a widget to help guide shield targeting

More improvements to melee targeting UI to show the path of the weapon more accurately

Changed “Overheat Threshold” on unit summary to “Overheat Point”

Re-wrote steps in the tutorial scenario

Improved Targeting UI

Hovering the reticle over the targeting range will show a green cone for high effectiveness and red if it is out of range

Guided weapons do not show the above cones

All weapons show proper projectile trajectories

Cover will now cast a shadow behind them in the effective range

Increased the brightness of turret scanning zones

Improved Armor/Weapon UI

Detailed stats on weapons are now hidden by default, reveal them by holding CTRL

Weapons now have descriptions for traits (such as Incendiary, Destabilizing, etc)

Renamed “Standard” Assault Rifle to “Astra”

Dismantle multiple items at once! Selecting the name will select a single part, selecting the checkbox will select multiple. Then use the context menu to dismantle the selection.

Parts can now be compared by selecting a part and then hovering over another in the list

Added icons and colours to output damage on weapons to indicate damage types:

= Direct damage

= Incendiary damage

= Concussive damage

= Stagger damage

Elevated Hybrid Tanks

Elevated tanks can now spawn with mech weapons!

Melee Animation Improvements

Animation improvements to transitions out of melee and transitions in dashing

Music to our Ears

New ambient track in Mission Briefing

Added new UI SFX to Roadmap, Generate Seed, and Randomize Seed buttons

Lots of Rebalancing

Rebalanced tutorial provinces to be less difficult

Improved how heat and damage are calculated

Removed turrets from the base in Ostbager-Weil

Increased the difficulty of Elevated Tanks and added Barrier to them

Restructured enemy unit groups in combat scenarios. This means:

combat length reduced

increased loot level/quality

improved equipment distribution across factions and unit groups

improved role diversity in unit groups

Fixed Issues in 0.7.0-b1882

Tentatively fixed an issue allowing autocannons and cannons from tanks to be salvaged

Fixed an issue where units would remain in the air after their arm was destroyed during a melee attack

Fixed various weapon trait inaccuracies including the “Concussive” trait appearing on all shields

Fixed liveries not saving if “All Parts” button was used to paint them

Fixed part/subsystem preview not clearing when you deselect

Fixed an issue where “Scrap and Detach” in the inventory did not give the appropriate scrap for common rarity parts

Fixed part preview not clearing when deselecting or scrapping parts in inventory view

Fixed Scrap Parts UI appearing in Loot Inventory Scan

Fixed Scrap Parts UI appearing in Livery Editing

Fixed fully scrapped parts not disappearing until navigating away from the list

Fixed the word “DEBUG” appearing instead of Overheat Point number

Fixed occasional issues with Incendiary weapons not displaying properly in lists

Fixed an issue where units would hover while running before a melee attack

Fixed an issue causing the “Lights Out” event to appear too frequently

Fixed missing unit presets for the training army unit groups and added juggernaut, sharpshooter and striker presets

Fixed an issue causing secondary melee to miss

Various fixes to holograms

run holograms no longer linger when you cancel movement

fixed shield and ultra heavy equipped holograms

Fixed Unit Editing SFX not playing correctly

Fixed an issue where weapons would begin firing before the turret has turned on Elevated Tanks

Fixed offset weapons on Elevated Tanks

Fixed Tracer and Dragon overheating enemies in one volley

Fixed an issue where elevated tanks would spawn into combat without pilots, causing them to eject immediately. Thank you for your patience!

Fixed artillery units spawning without equipment causing them to be invincible

Fixed inaccuracies in weapon effectiveness on energy weapons

Added a retreat zone to the Capital battle

Fixed Concussion, Stagger, and Heat damage UI can cluttering the screen

Fixed an issue where occasionally, only one enemy unit will spawn in the first wave of combat

Fixed an issue where splash damage could be taken from the opposite direction that it is shot

Fixed a pathing issue on one of the Patrol squad maps

And for those in experimental…

Fixed starting parts disappearing from the inventory when unequipped

Fixed concussion, heat, and melee hits not scaling by level properly

Rebalanced Tsubasa armor set to be more resilient

note: I removed some stupidly large images.

Infinitron · Jun 22, 2021

Blaine · Jun 22, 2021

The notion of a weapons-grade laser being reflected outside of a laboratory environment is rather absurd, but then again, so is the notion of it being visible outside the vector of its polarization without a cloud of contaminants or ionization of the atmosphere.

Looks like cool stuff. I might take the plunge on it at some point, as there's a serious dearth of proper mech games out there. MegaMek remains the best, of course; that or classic BattleTech in Tabletop Simulator.

Grampy_Bone · Jun 22, 2021

The core combat is very cool, its just lacking in content right now. Not a lot of mission or upgrade variety, no pilot skills, etc.

Blaine · Jun 23, 2021

Grampy_Bone said:
The core combat is very cool, its just lacking in content right now. Not a lot of mission or upgrade variety, no pilot skills, etc.

It's been in development for closing in on four years, so if that's the case they've got a lot of work still to do.

Van-d-all · Jun 24, 2021

Blaine said:
Grampy_Bone said:

The core combat is very cool, its just lacking in content right now. Not a lot of mission or upgrade variety, no pilot skills, etc.

Click to expand...

It's been in development for closing in on four years, so if that's the case they've got a lot of work still to do.

So, typical Epic Store treatment - they got their money, sales are low since most people don't care or even know about it, and there's just no incentive to work on it much. Real shame, it seemed promising.

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Jul 24, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-9-0-b2217/

Patch 0.9.0-b2217

Released: 20th July 2021

Update 8: Caches to Ashes

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
THE FIRE AND FLAMES: Make more map mayhem!
ALL OF THE LIGHTS: Lights improve visibility to mechs in combat.
MAJOR LASERS: Renovate obstacles with the Ultra Heavy Beam Weapon!
CAN BUY ME LOVE: Salvage and looting are revamped…
AND MORE!

Phantom Brigade is in Early Access, which means we are actively updating and adding new content based on our roadmap and your wonderful feedback. We update Phantom Brigade on the third Tuesday of every month. You can expect the next major update on Tuesday, August 17th at 11:00AM PT. See the full patch notes below!

Changes in 0.9.0-b2217

Something in the wind…

Added combat atmosphere: Watch the environment get darker and smokier as the map takes more damage

Light Up!

Silhouettes: Units will now emit a glow to improve visibility on the map, this can be disabled along with other combat UI using Num (-)

Spotlights: Mechs now a head light that illuminates the area in front of them at night

Eye flares: Mech eyes now flash right before they attack

UH Beam Weapon

New Ultra Heavy Beam Weapon BMH Solarburst! These spawn randomly on units of all branches, similar to the Vulcan.

Like other beam weapons, beams from the Solarburst can be deflected with shields. It also adds to cumulative beam damage.

The BMH Solarburst Emits a five-second beam so strong, it can cut whole buildings in half. Extremely difficult to rotate while firing due to gyroscopic interference so mechs must move to stay on target.

New salvage and combat summary UI

New salvage screen! After winning combat, you must now carefully decide how to spend your salvage budget.

The more enemies you defeat, the larger your salvage budget is.

Mechs +30

Tanks +10

Elevated tanks +20

Turrets +10

You can choose to salvage, dismantle for supplies, or skip salvaging entirely to avoid cluttering your inventory. Some parts will be more expensive than others to salvage so choose wisely!

Surrendered or ejected units will have a lower salvage cost on their parts than destroyed units will.

Some sites drop rewards that are free to salvage including (but not limited to) convoys, caches, and outposts

Destroyed parts of friendly mechs can also be salvaged using an “emergency” budget

Salvaging broken parts on intact friendly units will equip them back to the unit that lost them automatically

As such, salvage no longer takes time on the overworld and once a site is salvaged, it can’t be returned to. Saving on this screen is no longer available and autosaving occurs after salvage has concluded.

A new tutorial has been added to take you through the UI the first time you salvage on the new screen.

Added SFX to skip, dismantle, and recover sliders as well as selection of parts of different rarities

Group information window (in the bottom left hand corner of the new salvage screen) includes the status of the unit and its pilot

Updated Part Quality

We’ve updated the colours and quality of salvagable parts. Quality determines how often the part drops as loot, how many subsystems are unfused, and the performance of subsystems that are present in the part’s hardpoints. These are:

White – Common

Green – Uncommon

Blue – Rare

KA-BOOM!

Added explosions and SFX to heavy damage done on buildings at once, such as level damage done by the new Ultra Heavy Beam Weapon

Added ambient SFX to destruction on combat maps to match new combat atmospher

Analytics

We’re now using Unity Analytics to learn more about how Phantom Brigade is being played. This information includes user ID, location, session length, number of sessions, and game progress (such as where in the game a player has quit and what provinces have been captured)

Miscellaneous

Added an indicator to armor in list views to show what part they belong to (upper, lower, arm)

Tooltips now appear after a one second delay to reduce noise on lists

Improved confirmation UI in various parts of the game

Movement actions that span into the next turn are now drawn as a continuous action instead of separate ones

Added a failsafe to loading a game in the middle of a salvage from 0.8.0 or earlier

Added a fix to clean up Battlefields on the overworld when loading saves from versions earlier than 0.8.0

Shields are now much less effective against thermal, stagger and concussion damage. When the shield is up 50% of heat, 80 % of stagger and 25% of concussion, damage gets through the defense.

“Investigate” on War Memorial event now guarantees intel on a new site

Lots and lots of bug fixes!

Fixed issues in 0.9.0-b2217

Fixed weapon firing before fully unholstering after a melee strike

Fixed buggy animation when mech is only equipped with a secondary weapon

Fixed foot plant animation being out of sync with SFX

Fixed beams not inflicting impact damage

Fixed If a mech has a primary two handed weapon and the right arm is broken, mech will keep left arm in holding pose

Fixed an issue causing units to disappear from the list when combat limits units to two

Fixed Workshop event not triggering at the correct amount of supplies gained

Fixed units being able to walk through some parts of terrain on forest map

Removed placeholder text from Hit & Run retreat conditions

Fixed elevated tanks disappearing when they’re destroyed

Fixed liberated POI showing mission type, branch, and difficulty

Second part of War Memorial event now triggers automatically after exiting combat in the first part

Fixed Cannons or MG Turrets being salvaged from tanks from caches

Fixed melee attacks launching turrets into the air

Fixed enemy units occasionally entering combat on the capital without weapons

Unlocking abandoned site and salvaging War Memorials now grants rewards

Fixed some unit parts not disappearing when destroyed (such as the tops of turrets floating)

Fixed SFX on long-presses in various parts of UI including on the dismantle and scrap buttons in the inventory views

Fixed position of beam effect being too far into the body of the weapon

And for those playing in Experimental…

Fixed concussed units recovered from victories not being playable in the next encounter

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Aug 17, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-10-0-b2393/

Patch 0.10.0-b2393

Released: 17th August 2021

Update 9: License to Kill

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
WORK IT OUT: Construct items in the new workshop
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED: New narrative events available!
SHOW YOU THE WORLD: Improved overworld actions and UI
MODS, MODS, MODS: In-game Mod support is here!
AND MORE!

Phantom Brigade is in Early Access, which means we are actively updating and adding new content based on our roadmap and your wonderful feedback. We update Phantom Brigade on the third Tuesday of every month. You can expect the next major update on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at 11:00AM PT. See the full patch notes below!

New Workshop and Economy

Due to changes in the game’s economy, we recommend you start a new campaign when providing feedback. Note that we’ll be continuing to iterate on this in the coming updates. For now, supplies are carried over from saves made in 0.9.1 or earlier versions. Thank you for your patience!

The base is now equipped to construct any item you have a blueprint for

These are in the projects list by part category. After you select a category you can select a variant (for example, an arm, upper body, or lower body of an Elbrus Medium set)

Building a project consumes time, supplies, as well as a charge of that project. Once all charges of a project are used, that project can’t be constructed anymore.

Charges of projects (known as licenses) can be found on Bases, Outposts, Facilities, Convoys, and Caches

New Events

Assassination: Quietly and efficiently eliminate the enemy General/VIP unit before the KILL team is tipped off

Only two of your top mechs can enter this high-stakes mission

Draft: You catch wind of guerilla forces planning to interrupt an enemy draft. Choose your angle of attack wisely, will you team up with the guerillas or try to retreat with the civilians as quickly as possible?

Team up: take command a force of guerilla tanks alongside two of your units to eliminate the enemy

Sneak in: try to rescue the civilians and retreat my holding the objective for five turns with two of your mechs

If at first you don’t succeed… try again! Give the mission another shot with a four-mech PB team fighting alongside guerilla tanks. The enemy draft must be stopped!

Improved Overworld Actions

Updated the overworld actions list UI

Selecting actions now opens a panel with a description of what is being done

Here you can cancel actions as well as immediately locate where the action is occurring on the overworld.

Added support for non-progressing actions, such as those in the Assassination and Draft events

New Mobile Base controls in the overworld:

Stop: stops the base in place and pauses time

Retreat: appears once the mountain base is liberated and you have less than two active units

In-game Modding Support

Experimental modding support is now available! This adds a button on the main menu where you can manage your configs. See #phantom-modding on our Discord or our Wiki for details!

Balance Tweaks

Decreased the amount of damage dealt to vehicles when colliding with the environment

Increased unit collision damage

Reduced the amount of supplies gained from Bases

Reduced the amount of loot gained from Convoys

Added small common part drop chance on Caches

Decreased the weight of standard long range tanks to the light weight category

Reduced the difficulty of the Stealth scenario in the Draft event

Reduced difficulty of the starting province camp

Reduced the amount of supplies awarded from mountain base

Starting Elbrus and Assault Rifle projects now have infinite charges

Increased damage dealt by BM1 Sunswarm

Supplies added from dismantling items have been increased

Miscellaneous

Added intel UI to all event POI

Project and Supplies rewards now appear on the salvage screen

Updated briefing Holotable VFX

Removed alarm option from “Locked up Tight” event

Fixed issues in 0.10.0-b2393

Fixed an error occurring when workshop arms activated, filling up the logs

Markets and Black Markets now spawn with the correct level of intel

Crashed satellite event now spawns an entity on the overworld map

“Fix mistake” choice on “Lights Out” event now adds fatigue to all pilots

Fixed Stargazing event not relieving fatigue in its 2 hour variant

Supplies are now correctly deducted on the “capture him” choice in the “Enemy in the Rubble” event

Selecting celebrate option in the Birthday event now subtracts supplies

Various fixes to UI formatting (uneven indentation, spaces etc.)

Fixed an animation loop with non-matching head and tail poses

Fixes to transitions between mech poses

Fixed successful Draft event not awarding players the correct amount of supplies

Fixed narrative event window not appearing after a successful Draft Retry

Fixed duration on workshop actions being listed in seconds

Fixed an issue where the Draft event could occur on liberated camps

Fixed an issue where the Dog event occurs when winning settlements

Fixed an exception after winning the Stakeout in the Defector event

It is no longer possible to load during turn execution in combat

Fixed alignment on tooltips on some tutorial UI

Fixed over world updates appearing when loading a save with an action in progress

Fixed Heavy Weapon projects producing no items or the wrong items

Fixed Radio Station showing old entity UI

Fixed Intact parts and subsystems requiring the same amount of points to recover and to dismantle them

Fixed possible to soft-lock if you’re in the danger state and you engage in combat during the Ransacked or Kidnapped events

“Received loot” updates no longer appears on victory

Fixed loading during the War Memorial event forcing the player to disengage

Fixed various typos and text in salvage UI

Fixed recovered items having recover preselected in the next salvage screen if broken in combat

Fixed Radio Station being non-interactable after successful Recon in Defector event

Fixed salvage appearing on defeat after Decode in Defector event

Base no longer triggers two events while Kidnapped event is active

Fixed Kidnapped event resolving immediately

Assassination action is now dismissed when the event is abandoned

Large Black Markets are now displayed as hostile entities

The hard and medium versions of the Locked event now requires more supplies for using the tools option

Fixed only one unit at a time taking damage in a collision

Fixed rarity on Arrow Heavy body part project (now common)

Fixed Arrow workshop projects using Knox names

Fixed workshop arms disappearing when re-entering the base

Various fixes to in-game modding system

Quitting to main menu during turn execution no longer blocks the load button

Fixed Radio Station POI from Defector event not loading combat

Fixes to how speed and mass effects crashing units

Fixed Black Markets showing combat information on full intel in the overworld

Fixed a possible exception occurring when quitting to main menu

Fixed crew occasionally walking through the workshop

Fixed save file summary not showing supplies

Lots of bug fixes!

Haba · Aug 18, 2021

I guess they didn't add the RPG in this patch either, huh.

Funny how it goes.

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Sep 21, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-11-0-b2533/

Patch 0.11.0-b2533

Released: 21st September 2021

Update 10: Festival of Fire

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
EVENT HORIZON: New narrative events to run into
MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: New highway map
RESOURCE RARITIES: Build parts and subsystems in different rarities!
NEW LOOKS, NEW SOUNDS: Visual and audio improvements
AND MORE!

New Events

Pharma: “a newly liberated settlement asks Phantom to deliver pharmaceuticals to a nearby settlement that they haven’t been able to contact.”

Festival: “When near a liberated settlement, you notice a Festival starting up. Now freed from the occupying forces, the townspeople have been able to put on their annual Festival of Fire.”

Director’s Cut: “The Brigade is accosted by a Homeland media group, which has been endeavoring to record the battles and war effort around them to create a documentary of the war. Having heard of the Brigade’s reputation, the director is entranced by the possibility of recording history and is intent on accompanying the Brigade to their next fight.”

New Highway Map

This challenging map has a highway going through a large valley with high cliffs

Can be found on Convoys

Project and Resource Rarities

You can now build parts and subsystems in different rarities using uncommon and rare resources

Get uncommon and rare resources by dismantling uncommon and rare parts in the base or after combat in the salvage screen

Parts now list in their stats how many resources are dropped when dismantled

These can be used to build uncommon and rare parts in the workshop

More Workshop Improvements

Elbrus and AR common projects now have unlimited charges

Updated subsystem project descriptions so they reflect all project rarities

Increased opacity on text in project UI to make descriptions more legible

Projects no longer disappear from the workshop list when charges reach 0

Weapon and Subsystem Improvements

Thermal weapons now have unique models!

SGE-05-Dragon Incendiary splitter

RTE01-Tracer Incendiary repeater

New stat bars on various weapons

Damage buildup: how long it takes for damage to ramp up to full potential

Stagger damage: Determines the stagger damage inflicted by the weapon.

Concussive damage: Base concussion damage inflicted by a weapon projectile. This can knock out pilots in combat.

Scatter radius: determines the accuracy of missiles. High scatter increases the chance of the missile landing next to the target instead of hitting it directly.

New weapon icon: Added group icons for Beams, Light/Medium/Heavy Melee, Sabers/Axes/Blades, and updated the ultra-heavy icon

Improved naming on armor to clarify the part’s weight class

Improved weapon filtering: you can now filter by more weapon types and added sorting by trait

Added a description to Halvard-T1 Head armor

“Advanced H-class armor produced by JNI. Modern all-rounder design owing it’s unusual shape to additional sensor hardware mounted inside its “horns”. Rarely used in the field due to servicing complexity and narrow specialization.”

Adjusted textures on various armor sets

Simplified the subsystem filters and shortened names to avoid overlap

Music/Sound

New main menu track!

New workshop track!

More SFX added to fabricator arms

New Audio Options

Compressed Mode: Lowers the volume of loud sounds, and increases the volume of quiet sounds. Great for playing at night or streaming!

Mono Mode: centers the sound output, useful for playing sound out of one headphone speaker for example

Visual Improvements

Damage shader improvements

Improved hit reaction animations

Rebalancing

Rebalanced supplies generated from dismantling parts to account for subsystem rarity changes

Upgraded cost and rewards on various events

Reduced the amount of loot rewarded from caches

Miscellaneous

Assigned rarities to subsystems

Reduced number of fragments on non-heavy shotgun projectiles

Improved overworld actions to events spawning POI and added new ones

Added debug tooltip to parts (was previously only on subsystems)

Updated Credits

Updated descriptions on different part rarities

Workshop tutorial event now triggers when the player collects 200 supplies

Fixed in 0.11.0-b2533

Fixed Starburst and Cluster MLs launching too many missiles

Fixed Spike Axes model not appearing in the base or in combat

Fixed medium and heavy melee weapons having swapped models

Fixed beam weapons not firing

Fixed various event issues with Locked sites (such as defended caches)

Loading is not available when quitting to main menu during turn execution or fallback

Fixed Ostbager-Wiel liberation objective not appearing

Fixed heat dissipation and optimal intervals displaying incorrectly on the salvage screen

Fixed holes in Military Base and Forest maps

Many fixes to various events such as the War Memorial, Market, and Defector events

Sped up the transition animation for dual wielding guns, or a gun and a shield

Fixed comms not aligning with the VO during the tutorial

Fixed a shield pose while firing causing the unit to brace upwards

Fixed an issue with dash or melee dash animations playing consecutively

Fixed interactions and event between the tutorial workshop and farm entities

Director event can no longer trigger in the tutorial provinces.

Fixed flickering in the window of a house in the outro cutscene

Fixed some unit groups not generating the correct quality equipment

Fixed loot from events not appearing in the update log on the overworld

Ultra-heavy Beam (Solarburst) now filters as a Heavy weapon instead of a Beam weapon

Fixed shading on Shield assets

Fixed an animation issue where shields appear to fly out of the unit’s hand

Training Army Juggernaut units now have sidearms

Fixed issues with inventory not displaying armor subsystems correctly

Abbreviated “Auxiliary” to “Aux” on various subsystems to prevent text overlap

Various fixes to subsystem stat comparisonFixed an issue causing parts to disappear when other parts are previewed in Unit Editing

Improved the selection area of checkboxes in the inventory

Cleaned up placeholder text on beam weapons

Various fixes to holstering animations

Fixed animation when executing multiple dashes consecutively

Parts that don’t have matching stats are now hidden when compared in Unit Editing

Fixed an issue where events revealing caches were triggered when there were no valid locations

Objective of “Up Ahead” event does not dismiss, use force option takes only 4 hours

Fixed an issue where some subsystem projects did not add parts to the inventory

Sensor subsystem corrected to Stabilizer

Fixed base location highlight not updating when the base moves away

Fixed an issue where scrap received from dismantling parts wasn’t accurate

Fixed an issue where pilots could not be recruited from liberated sites in hostile provinces

Added UI to indicate mech frame builds do not consume project charges

Replaced placeholder text on mech frame builds

Fixed subsystems UI not displaying rarity colours in the list

Fixed workshop audio carrying into other parts of the game

Fixed Plasma Axe name (was appearing as “Firestarter”, now corrected to “Plasma”)

Fixed a visual issue with the Spark handgun rounds appearing to start in the torso of the mech

agris · Sep 21, 2021

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko said:
RESOURCE RARITIES: Build parts and subsystems in different rarities!

Click to expand...

these dopamine drip mechanics must come to an end, we must reject this shallow itemization.

lightbane · Sep 23, 2021

Itemization is one step away from grinding and loot boxes. The game keeps getting more and more disappointing.

The Wall · Sep 24, 2021

It went to shit so fast. From esthetics to mechanics. Looks like same thing that happens to many indies, they became bitchboys of Reddit through steam reviews. Main problem with that: shizos make terrible co-designers

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Oct 19, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-12-0-b2696/

Patch 0.12.0-b2696

Released: 19th October 2021

Update 11: Megamap Megapack
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
MAP ATTACK: 7 new combat maps!
HOVER TANKS: New landing animations for reinforcements.
ANIMATION IMPROVEMENTS: Lots of subtle animation improvements.
BUF FIXES: Lots of bugs squashed.
AND MORE!

New Maps and Props!

New combat maps have been added to the following sites: Farms, Mines, Energy Storage Plants, Bases, Convoys, Caches, and Outposts

New Landing VFX

Reinforcements now have rocket packs to help them land

Improved animations and VFX for landing units

Animation Improvements

Improved locomotion on fast mechs: sprints look faster and movement blends better with different actions

Hit reaction adjustments: improved the way mechs react to hits from different ballistic weapons and fixed various animation bugs

Holstering and unholstering weapons: transitions between holstering and unholstering all equipment types have been improved.

Miscellaneous

Updated the game credits

Updated the game .exe icon

Lots of bug fixes!

Fixed in 0.12.0-b2696

Fixed an issue where audio on weapons will continue when firing is interrupted (such as on beams)

Fixed Thrusters staying on when Dash is interrupted or when retreating after dashing

Fixed occasional loud explosion when destroying props on various map

Fixed audio doubling-up when starting a new game

Fixed an issue where selecting another unit while cancelling an action will reset the appearance of the action in the timeline

Fixed cutscene audio carrying to game if cutscene skipped too quickly

Fixed an exception on ML turrets

Fixed tooltips on armor in unit summary in the base being cut off by the right side of the screen

Minor fix to aiming animations

Fixed all z-fighting on various armor sets

Fixed an occasional exception which occurs at the end of an attack with a Plasma Repeater

Fixed missing art on “Back Home” event (occurs when loading a game from v0.2.0 or older)

Items can no longer be equipped to mechs without arms

And for those on Experimental…

Fixed an issue where reinforcements walked onto maps instead of dropping in

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Nov 16, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/upda...e&utm_medium=patchnotes&utm_campaign=update12

Patch 0.13.0-b2773

Released: 16th November 2021

Update 12: Sweater Weather

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
OFF THE RAILS: 3 new powerful railgun weapons.
EVENT HORIZON: New narrative events, and 6 new pre-combat events.
RAIN CHECK: Rainclouds now appear on the overworld, and in battle.
MISSILE BALANCE: Improving guidance and reducing scatter
AND MORE!

Changes in 0.13.0-b2773

New Railguns!

Railgun projectiles penetrate through structure and units allowing them to be more versatile when dealing with large groups of units or in areas with high cover density.

SMGRE-01 Barrage: This short-range SMG shoots many high-speed rounds in very quick succession. The weapon is not very accurate, especially when moving.

MRE-02 Lancer: This long-range sniper railgun shoots a single high-speed round. These rounds are very accurate and incredibly fast and can be shot at short intervals.

MRE-03 Striker: This medium-range railgun Assault Rifle that shoots several high-speed rounds. These rounds are very accurate and incredibly fast. Sniper

As with other energy weapons, these Railguns can be found in Experimental, Spec Ops, and Army-controlled provinces

New Events!

Ranks: The guerrilla ranks have been blowing up, and they are asking for help with training some of their new recruits. — This event triggers after the “Draft” event has been completed

Weapon Lost: The Brigade catches wind that a weapon is wreaking havoc in another province… could it be the one that got away? — This event occurs after losing the “Assassination” event

Purranormal: Pilots are told about a haunted barn in the province…

Capsule: The Brigade happen upon a buried time capsule, left at the base of a tree by a previous generation – one that lived before the occupation.

Expendable: The Brigade mourns the loss of many pilots.

Difficulty: A notification that the province you’ve entered is a much higher level than your Brigade may be ready for.

…And six brand new pre-combat events!

Rain

Rainclouds now appear in the overworld, you can see their affected area when zoomed in on the overworld map

Weather conditions UI: mission briefing will now report the weather on the battlefield

Weather in combat: battlefields will be misty and rainy at different intensities. At higher intensities puddles will also appear on the map

Missile Launcher Rebalance

All Missile Launchers have been rebalanced to be more reliable by improving guidance and reducing scatter

Please continue to give us feedback on how these changes feel!

Fixed in 0.13.0-b2773

Fixed an issue where tutorial music plays in the Assassination scenario

Fixed incorrect description of Slug and Starburst from “no guidance” to “typically guided”

Fixed top left unit selection UI in combat getting stuck on the wrong unit

Fixed an issue allowing actions to be placed in the next turn if overlapped

Fixed unit snapping its shield during tutorial end cinematic

Fixed multiple issues when loading a game in the mobile base

Fixed an issue with tank drop-in animations

Adjusted the name of one of the “Up Ahead” event screens

Fixed Black Markets initiating combat

Fixed retreating from Broken Down Convoy blocking combat at this site again

Turrets can no longer get concussed

Fixed an issue where mech’s left hands were blending into ultra heavy weapons

Fixed projectiles on SGE05-Dragon (Incendiary Splitter) taking too long to detonate after missing their target

Various audio fixes to melee

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Nov 29, 2021

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/553540/view/3145196846678019844

State of the Game | Phantom Brigade Dev Blog
What's left to do before 1.0?
Hey Brigadiers. It’s November again. A year of development has already flown by. We'd like to take a moment to address the mech in the room. When is Phantom Brigade's 1.0 coming?

So… when is 1.0?
Unfortunately, we don’t feel comfortable giving a timeline yet. We have a general idea, but at this point, we would prefer to wait until we know a definite timeline rather than give an arbitrary date and end up disappointing fans if we have to push it back. So while we can't say when Phantom Brigade will be ready, we can share with you the rest of our plans, and what to expect before 1.0.

Before that, a brief reflection on our progress.
When we initially launched in early access one year ago, we had the bones of the game in place. We had the scaffolding prepared, and what we’ve been doing since is going through each of the systems and fleshing them out.

This mainly encompasses combat and mech customization - the things that comprise the meat of the game. We’ve added a ton of different weapons, including everyone’s bread and butter: melee weapons. We’ve also added different damage types, enemy types, maps, scenarios, cutscenes, weather, and added a lot of visual and audio polish.

Once we felt combat was in a solid spot, we began reworking post-battle salvage, and making improvements to the economy. This included the workshop, crafting, different scenario types, new maps, and more. That said, work for both combat and the economy is not entirely complete yet, so you can still look forward to more additions and tweaks as we carry on.

What’s next?
There are 3 “seasons” of updates left, as we’ve been referring to them. The first is an Overworld Overhaul. The next is Pilot Progression, and the last is Polish/Preparing for Steam.

Overworld Overhaul

The system currently in place for the Overworld is mainly just an avenue to get from one battle to the next. Our goal with changes to the Overworld is to make gameplay outside battles more dynamic and strategic, and overall more fun over a longer period of time.

The first phase of the Overworld Overhaul is improving the stealth gameplay. We want to capture the feeling of sneaking through hostile territory held by enemy forces. These changes are due out in our next monthly update. This is something we’ve actually been working on for several months now, so we’re excited to show it to you!

The second phase of the Overworld overhaul is better war simulation. As the Phantom Brigade makes their way through the provinces and gains strength, there should be an escalation of combat. We want more dynamic enemy actions and reactions to your accomplishments.

Pilot Progression

The following “season” of updates will fall within Pilot Progression. The mechs feel like mechs, and we want the people to feel like people. We want the pilots, your crew, and the enemy to feel alive with personality and desires of their own. Pilots who win or survive battles should feel more experienced, and enemies who return to fight you should feel recognizable and foreboding.

Polish and Steam Preparation
Lastly, we need time to polish and get ready for Steam. This includes Steam essentials like achievements, trading cards, etc, but we also need time for UI improvements, localization, accessibility features, tutorial improvements, the climactic Capital Fight, and anything else that comes up between now and then.

What about the Replay System?
The Replay System is one of the most requested features, and while it’s something we would very much like to get in, it’s proving to be very difficult to implement properly. We’re exploring different ways to go about it, but ultimately, we don’t want to ship anything in a state that doesn’t meet our standards. We’ll continue to try to tackle this to the best of our abilities!

What does this mean for people who have been waiting for Steam launch?
This means you’ll have to wait a bit longer to get your hands on Phantom Brigade. We aim to launch on Steam when Phantom Brigade is ready to launch in 1.0. However, we do plan to do periodic
Steam Playtests.

Feedback is extremely important to us, and we will certainly want input from new players. Steam Playtests will allow you to try the current state of the game for free during that period and share your opinion with us!

Thank you for your continued patience and support. Keep an eye on our Steam page in 2022 for when playtests begin. You can also keep up with our team and Phantom Brigade news by wishlisting Phantom Brigade on Steam, following our Twitter, joining our Discord, and signing up for our newsletter. We will also have a redesigned roadmap to share soon to better show what we’ve talked about in this post.

You’ll hear from us again soon! Over and out.

-Maddie and the Phantom Brigade team

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Dec 16, 2021

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko · Dec 25, 2021

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-14-0-b3016/

Patch 0.14.0-b3016

Released: 21st December 2021

Update 13: Fight or Flight
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
WHOLE NEW WORLD: Overworld overhaul part one is in!
SHOT FOR SHOT: New establishing shots to set the scene.
ENGINE UPGRADE: We upgraded the our Unity version.
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE – with new music and SFX!
AND MORE!

Overworld Overhaul

Brand new overworld gameplay. Enemy patrols and convoys roaming the map can now detect the mobile base and react. Hostile sites will recognize the base at a close enough range and send patrols to stop you.

World Reset: Due to the changes to the overworld, saves from 0.13.0 will be upgraded to the new overworld.

Inventory, supplies, pilots, and units will be maintained

The mobile base will be moved back to the tutorial province

Any fully-captured provinces will remain captured. Partially captured provinces will be reverted to the enemy and every entity will be hostile again, hope reset to 0.

Any ongoing overworld actions will be cancelled

Note: there’s currently a bug where ongoing workshop and repair actions from 0.13.0 are cancelled when loaded. Units will be fully repaired and supplies returned. We’re currently working on fixing this, thank you for your patience!

It’s possible that other issues may occur if loading a save from a version older than 0.13.0.

Convoys & Patrols

Convoys carrying supplies and loot from one enemy site to another will run away when in range of the base

Patrols that detect the base in range will chase you down!

Capturing a province will clear out the roaming enemies

Convoys and patrols can appear at different difficulties: Training, Normal, and Elite

Movement modes: The mobile base now has new movement modes to help chase down or escape from sticky situations.

Stealth: the base uses battery power to lower its detection range and hide from enemies. However, this also reduces the base’s vision range.

Overdrive: the base uses battery power to get a boost of power, increasing its speed. This increases the base’s and the enemy’s detection range

Standard: The base travels at its normal speed and can recover battery power

Stop: Stops the base in place. The base will recover battery power

Combat victories will also recharge the base’s battery

New VFX and animations have been added to the mobile base to reflect the base’s movement including sirens, workers on the base, and light camera shake

Rain gameplay:

Rain VFX on the overworld has been improved and cloud speed has been rebalanced

Some provinces are now consistently rainier than others

Weather intensity is more distinct on the overworld and has effects on player and enemy vision ranges

Clear: both enemies and the base have full vision range

Cloudy: both enemies and the base lose some range

Rainy: both enemies and the base lose most vision

Cloud and Light

Fog on the overworld now picks up the sun and colour of the ambient light

Day and night lighting is now more distinct on the overworld as well as in combat

Added smaller clouds to create smaller pockets of rain around the map

Wind blows fog in from the coastlines

Snow is now picked up by wind on mountain tops

Traveling the Overworld: Entity sizes and movement speed has been adjusted to make the overworld feel larger

The base’s path is now drawn more directly to the destination

Other Overworld Improvements

Improved performance when there are many sites/roaming enemies revealed

Updated UI on Convoys (they now use hexagon markers) to differentiate them from patrols and sites

Sites now have unique icons that can be seen over fog and cloud when zoomed out on the overworld, and on hover

Updated various event actions to fit into the new overworld (adjusting timers etc)

Establishing Shots

Every type of map now has a unique cutscene showing the battlefield! (This can be skipped using ESC, Enter, or Space)

Music and SFX

Brand new Salvage screen music!

Brand new music layers for stealth and overdrive modes!

New overheat SFX in combat

Added SFX to units walking through rain and puddles

Added SFX to tank weapon servos

Adjusted workshop music in friendly provinces

Added SFX to selecting the base in the overworld

Engine Upgrade

The team has been hard at work updating the version of Unity Phantom Brigade runs on. The upgraded version allows us to continue improving the game! Thank you to all our experimental players for early feedback on this!

Miscellaneous

Autosaves before combat are now made when you engage a site and updated when you hit “Deploy”, so all changes on units are saved

Fallback now immediately sends the mobile base back to Mountain Base, no matter where on the overworld it is

Rewrote descriptions on subsystems, groups, presets, sockets. Please report any typos discovered!

Added a loading screen when quitting to main menu

Fixed in 0.14.0-b3016

Fixed unit collision and crashing issues causing making it possible to crash a heavier unit with a lighter one

Fixed issues with cloud position on the overworld not saving and loading correctly

Fixed holograms of sites at different levels of intel not displaying correctly

Fixed an issue where impact dust VFX is exaggerated when mechs are jumping

Fixed dust clouds remaining on the map after units have retreated

Fixed shaders on clouds causing holes

Fixed clouds and fog flashing at specific angles in combat and on the overworld

Fixed enemy reinforcement landing SFX being out of sync with the animation

Camera is now centered on the mobile base when the opening cinematic ends

Fixed misty effects appearing in several cutscenes

Fixed an issue where convoys can get stuck in place while running away from the mobile base

Fixed combat atmosphere snapping to high intensity as soon as buildings are damaged

Fixed a miniscule amount of in-game time passing when moving from the base to the overworld while paused

Fixed time scrubbing SFX on the timeline in combat

Fixed damage stats of Solarburst and Sunswarm beam weapons (display in Unit Editing now matches actual damage output)

Fixed a gap in the cloud cover at the very edge of the overworld map

Base is no longer invisible when loading a save older than the current version

Pharma event actions can now be cancelled

Fixed settlement assets on the overworld not being properly grounded

“Days” display in combat intro and overworld UI now begins counting from 0 instead of 1

Village Raids will no longer occur while one is already underway

Fixed wrong rewards on the Defector event

Raided Villages are now removed from the overworld if the player doesn’t get there in time

Fixed audio cue doubling up when cancelling an action on the timeline

Fixed pilot portrait not updating immediately when units eject

Fixed Bein parts not receiving metallic textures in some liveries

Made additional fixes to beam weapons (specifically Glorydog) regarding listed damage output vs actual damage output

Fixed time unpausing briefly when opening the pause menu

Fixed time remaining unpaused when opening the pause menu during tutorial

Fixed convoy holograms occasionally disappearing from the map if they drive out of the radar’s range

Fixed workshop and base visuals carrying into the virtual background

Fixed Fallback speed being maintained after fallback timer concludes

Fixed rain SFX playing too loudly in briefing and when entering combat

Fixed overworld entities being visible in the sky when exiting the base

Fixed an error from engaging with a site after quitting to main menu

Fixed entity selection SFX doubling up

Retreating from combat with a patrol now properly disengages with the patrol

Fixed flickering VFX on vents in the Power Plant combat map

Fixed an occasional exception when entities are destroyed

Phantom Brigade - Frozen Synapse with mechs

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