Battle Brothers - a turn based strategy RPG mix for PC, Mac and Linux.

[Jaysen]

Sorry for the long silence! We just started with a major rework of the worldmap beginning with an overhaul of the way the world is generated:

Dev Blog #52: Worldmap Rework

Time has come for the biggest overhaul yet: an extensive rework of the worldmap both in terms of visuals and gameplay. Read on to learn about our overall plans and get a first glance at what changes you can expect on the look and feel of the map you’re playing on.

The Plan

While tactical combat progressed nicely over the past months, the worldmap hasn’t been touched much and many elements are still what we consider placeholders or proof-of-concept pieces, such as how contracts work. This worldmap rework will change how the game is played quite substantially, and because of the many changes and additions we’re intending to do, it’ll take us several months to complete. Yes, that’s several months until the next major update, unfortunately, but it’ll be worth it. Here is a shortlist of what we want to achieve with the new and improved worldmap part of the game;

A new look and feel of the worldmap as an actual continent, larger than the current map, with more diverse climatic regions and unique landmarks.
Settlements, such as villages and cities, that feel unique across the world and are recognizable for their different looks and services they offer. This includes taverns to rest at and ports for fast travel.
Different human factions that may work against each other, offering a diverse set of contracts depending on their individual strategy.
Different non-human factions such as individual orc tribes that differ from one another and may fight each other.
A new modular system for contracts that allows for more variety and player interaction. Reputation will be introduced as a measurement for progress.
Over the coming months we’ll cover each of these points in detail as we work on it, so you’ll have a pretty good idea about what will change exactly. To kick things off, this week we’ll give you a preview on the new worldmap generation, the thing we’re working on right now.

Worldmap Generation

With the rework one of our main goals is to both create a reasonable and believable world while still keeping up replayability by making it very different each time.

To give the player a sense of the real world we decided to stick to some rules that apply to central Europe and North America. Heading north will lead the player into colder and more harsh climates while moving south will generally result in hotter and more dry regions. Additionally, we wanted the world to have somewhat realistic coastlines with arms reaching inland and smaller islands lying somewhat off the coast.

Take a look at the screenshots below to see a first preview of the new worldmap using placeholder visuals for different regions. The strong colors are just for differentiating the regions better during development.

Regarding the landmass itself and especially mountain ridges we want to create natural barriers for the player to bypass. By splitting up the continent in different regions through the placement of obstructive terrain we effectively increase the perceived map size for the player while keeping the total tile amount reasonable.

As you can judge from the screenshots you will have quite different outcomes each time you generate a new map. Still, each map is based on the same algorithm and will adhere to the same general rules.

 

[Jaysen]

The village screens so far have been just placeholders for what is to come. Check out the first pictures of the new thing:

Dev Blog #53: Village Screen Rework

After talking about the general worldmap generation in our last blogpost, this week we’re going to take a look at some of the changes and additions coming to the village screens. The rework of the village screens is twofold: We’re doing both a complete visual rework and adding lots of new features. Let’s go into some details!

How it’ll work

A key design goal for our new worldmap is to have every corner feel unique and make for a less generic world overall. That’s why we’re adding more terrain types and unique landmarks (more about them later!), and that’s also what we’re trying to achieve with all the settlements you can interact with in the world. Whereas previously all villages, cities, watchtowers and strongholds looked exactly the same, did the same, and were pretty much interchangeable, we want all the new settlements to be recognizable across the world for their individual look and very different services they offer.

Settlements now have a clearer purpose and this is reflected both in gameplay and visuals. For example, a fishing village along the coast will offer you predominantly fish as provisions for relatively cheap prices, have more fishermen than other backgrounds to hire, and will have visuals that reflect its purpose. A mining village at the foot of mountains, on the other hand, will have a better selection of both metal-based equipment and potential recruits with the miner background. Another change relevant mostly to those of you that speak German is that settlements now always have a name that actually fits them. No longer will you find 'Dunkelwald' on open plains!

The all-new village screen shows a panorama of the whole settlement and not just a single street corner anymore. It’s made up of 15 different layers with a variety of different images to make each and every settlement appear unique. The background layers are determined by the surrounding terrain, with villages close to a forest or high up north in the snow looking accordingly. Atop a hill sits a townhall or fortification of different size based on the type and size of the settlement, and the hill is flanked with different houses or terrain depending on the settlement’s purpose. The most important part are a set of buildings placed along the incline. Those can be interacted with, and they offer all kinds of different services to the player.

You’ll find a marketplace of some kind to buy general supplies at in almost every settlement. Larger cities may also have specialized traders that offer higher quality weapons or armor for higher prices. Taverns may allow you to give your men a good night’s rest in relative safety, and the docks of coastal villages and cities allow you to book passage on a ship to other settlements as a means of fast travel. This modular system of buildings allows us to easily add new buildings with new services as we progress in development. There’s a lot of things that come to mind - a money lender or a barber to customize the appearance of your Battle Brothers, for example. We’ve yet to see what buildings will make it into the game in the first round, and which buildings may be added later on.

Note that the above images are still work in progress and do not represent the final quality. There are no people in the settlements yet, and we’ll do another pass to make all the buildings easily identifiable. The village screen currently in the game was always considered placeholder by us and the new village screen will feature artwork at a higher quality for what will ultimately be a nice coherent look across the whole game. The image below shows a tavern at full size and should give you a good idea on how detailed everything will end up looking.

 

[Jaysen]

Time for getting rid of all that green on the worldmap and spice it up. New terrains in this weeks dev blog:

Dev Blog #54: Progress Update - Village Screens and Worldmap Terrain

This week we've been hard at work implementing both the new village screen we talked about last week, as well as finding an overall visual style for all the new terrain types of our redone worldmap. Let's take a look!

Village Screens

Last week we've shown you two examples of the new and very different village screen that is made up of a variety of layers, like different terrain in the background and buildings for you to interact with. Now we're adding more and more content to create any kind of settlement - be it a small village, a stone keep or a large trading city.

To give you a better idea of the variety of buildings you can expect, here is a first look at the work-in-progress armorsmith and weaponsmith buildings.

While many smaller villages will have but a marketplace that offers lower grade and often used equipment amidst everyday goods like food and clothing, these two specialized traders found in larger cities will sell new and finely crafted equipment for steep prices.

In medieval times, villages and cities were usually pretty busy places with all kinds of folks going about their business, selling things, loitering, looking for work or having a chat. To liven up the town screens we’ll add a lot of folks to the scenery. Below you'll see a first iteration of how these groups may look. Keep in mind that they’ll be pretty tiny on the actual screen, so the rough shading is on purpose.

Worldmap Terrain

Unlike with the village screen visuals, development of the new worldmap visuals is still at an early stage with things changing around a lot. Our first step is finding a style for each of the different terrain types that works both in itself and as part of a coherent whole that is the larger map. Because we want to have each region in the world to convey an atmosphere of its own, and the world as a whole to look pretty varied, we're currently experimenting with different colors and effects we can use. The image below shows a work-in-progress shot of some of the terrain we've been working on this week.

 

[Jaysen]

A quick update this week about adding region labels to the worldmap and covering it in fog for more rewarding exploration:

Dev Blog #55: Progress Update - Region Labels and Worldmap Exploration

While we're busy working on the new worldmap, there's two new features we want to talk to you about today: distinct regions on the worldmap that have names of their own, and better worldmap exploration through the use of Fog of War. Let's take a look!

Region Labels

The world of Battle Brothers is procedurally generated and not handcrafted like in many other games. This has the great advantage of having a different world for you to play in every time you start a new campaign, adding a lot to replayability. It also comes with some drawbacks, however. A procedurally generated world can feel kind of random, and lack a feeling of history and purpose to it.

We're doing several things to address this, and one of them is introducing the concept of different regions to the game. Regions are areas of one particular terrain, for example a mountain ridge or large open plains. The larger regions have been named by the inhabitants of the world according to their history and beliefs, and we display these names on the worldmap much like they'd be displayed on a map. The names used in the screenshot are largely placeholders still, but the intent is to have the names convey a certain character and sometimes history attached to them. With the world no longer just a collection of nameless interchangeable mountains and forests, we'll also refer to regions in both contracts and events for helpful directions and to increase immersion in a world that is new with every campaign and yet should feel rich and lived in.

Worldmap Exploration

Another idea that's been in the drawer for a long time and that we're now implementing is to improve the experience of exploring the worldmap by uncovering what is initially covered by fog. Battle Brothers is a game with a lot of traveling, exploration and visiting new areas and regions. A hidden worldmap that is gradually uncovered by the player should add to the sense of exploration and adventure. On the practical side of things, it also helps to see at a glance where you've already been and where to explore next.

Initially, only the area around human settlements and the roads between them is uncovered. The wild, home to Goblins, Orcs and worse is for you to explore.What you can’t see from the screenshot is that the fog is actually animated in the game and looks quite cool.

 

[Jaysen]

Time for the latest progress update for the worldmap rework:

Dev Blog #56: Progress Update - Attached Locations[

Previously we’ve talked about how settlements work once you’ve entered them (Dev Blog #53). This week we talk about how settlements will work on the new worldmap based on an entirely new concept: attached locations. These are special locations that belong to a nearby settlement and influence it in various ways. Let’s dig deeper!

Attached Locations

Did you know that all villages currently in the game have a wealth rating that increases as caravans reach it, and decreases as it is raided and militia units die? And did you know that this wealth rating determines the selection and prices of items in the shop, and the strength of militia it can spawn? Many players don't, and that's an issue.

We want the world of Battle Brothers to feel dynamic, and the player to feel that they have an impact on the world. An abstract wealth rating, unfortunately, often isn't transparent enough to explain why a settlement is doing poorly, why certain items are or are not available, and what can be done about it. To achieve where we want to go with Battle Brothers, we're therefore replacing the wealth rating with the concept of attached locations.

Attached locations are small specialized locations outside a settlement that influence heavily the available goods, services and recruitment options of that settlement. For example, outlying wheat fields will not only make food more readily available and cheaper in the nearby settlement, but also have more farmhands volunteer for your mercenary company. Iron mines, on the other hand, will increase the selection of metal-based weapons and armor in the settlement, and will bring a larger population of miners looking to take up the mercenary profession. A stone watch tower will have a look out for bandits and beasts, and may spawn militia to help out any caravans, while adding militia to the recruitment options. There are no less than 30 different attached locations on their way into the game, and they all have different effects.

In medieval times, settlements did not just randomly pop up. There was usually a pretty good reason for them being there. This reason may have been rich soil, good hunting grounds or other valuable resources like ores, wood or gems. By adding specialized attached locations we represent this in the game; settlements both look and are very different from one another based on their specialization, and as a player you'll have a pretty good idea on what to expect in terms of item selection, prices and the kind of recruits you'll be able to get just from looking at it on the worldmap.

Attached locations can also be attacked, raided and burned to the ground independently of the settlements they belong to. There will even be contracts for the player to raid these or burn them down. Once an attached location is destroyed its benefits are lost for the according settlement. As a settlement has its outlying farms in ashes and the farmhands dead, there can be shortages of food and other goods, and fewer people will be available to join you. Unlike with the abstract wealth rating from before, however, this is something easy to see and understand just from looking at the worldmap; if everything around a settlement is burned to the ground, that settlement is obviously doing poorly, whereas a settlement with all kinds of farms and workshops active will be flourishing. If a city's barracks are burned to the ground, it should be intuitively understandable that their defensive capabilities are significantly lowered. Attached locations, once burned down, are not lost forever. They can be rebuilt, and there'll also be contracts that have the player be a part of this.

 

[Jaysen]

There will be different human factions in the game, more on this in the blog post:

Dev Blog #57: Progress Update - Factions, Part 1

Things are progressing nicely on our end. Many mechanics of the new worldmap are already in place - albeit largely with placeholder visuals and still in need of some refinement. This week, we'll cover an entirely new and very important aspect of the worldmap rework: Factions. Let's find out what that's about!

Introduction

Battle Brothers has evolved a lot during development, and it has evolved even more so during the Early Access period since its release in late April of this year. One constant for the game is that it will always be fundamentally about managing a group of human mercenaries in a low power fantasy world. What's changing is how we're wrapping it in a game that best serves the theme and is the most fun, while at the same time keeping it at a level that is ambitious yet achievable.

As you may be aware, the current strategic open world gameplay was considered to be a milestone along the way to an ultimately more structured game experience. One aligned more along bits of story and one single emerging threat - the greater evil. The concept of a more or less united human world against a single big threat was inherited from the game's X-Com roots, and was to provide a mid and late game challenge and goal. It's a sound and achievable concept, and we're at this point now where we'd implement those greater evil mechanics. So what's happening?

We've been taking a step back to look at how we can best serve the theme of a quasi-medieval mercenary simulation given how the game has evolved, and also in light of our move to work full-time on the game some months ago and the resources now available to us. As it turns out, the game worked out quite well as an open world experience, even as barebones as it still is in some aspects.

Our conclusion is that it'd make for the best game in the long run if we really focused on improving the open world gameplay and make this one of the strengths of Battle Brothers, instead of constricting the gameplay that is already there by forcing the player to ultimately fight against a single threat each game along a much more narrow story path.

It's for this reason that we're now introducing multiple human factions to the game. No longer will there be just one implicit human faction - instead, there will be multiple ones each with their own goals and competing with others by means of diplomacy, intrigue and warfare. And it's you, the player, navigating their sea of schemes trying to make a living as hired swords. As we're tilting the focus of the game more towards interacting with these factions, you'll also be fighting more and different human enemies, and we’ll convey more story via completely reworked contract mechanics. But for now, let’s learn about the first kind of factions: human noble houses.

Noble Houses

Historically, bigger realms have always been a very diverse mixture of a lot of smaller realms and fiefdoms ruled by competing and collaborating noble houses. Although these small parts were usually devoted to a king or supreme ruler, they often changed allegiance and fought and schemed against each other in their struggle for power. The feuds between these noble houses create a perfect place for a mercenary company that is not bound to a lord and that can take on whatever contract pays best.

Like most things in Battle Brothers, noble houses are procedurally generated for each new campaign. To give them as much personality as possible we want them to look and feel very distinct from one another. Each noble house comes with a set of different traits that determine their ‘corporate culture’; their goals and their actions in achieving them - which ultimately also means the kind of contracts they’ll offer to the player. While a ‘Warmonger’ may hire mercenaries to aid in open warfare, a ‘Schemer’ may hire the player for some false-flag operation to gain influence over a neutral city.

Noble houses also come with their very own coat of arms. We dove deep into medieval heraldry to make the coats of arms realistic and believable, but we also took a bit of artistic licence to make them easier to read and more catchy. You can see some concept art pieces of how they may look in the finished game below.

Besides their coat of arms, each noble house will also have a motto. A motto is a short phrase, proverb or word of wisdom that the house identifies with. The motto will usually mirror the character of a noble house, and we’ve based these mottos on historical references as well. A very aggressive house that is bound on acquiring new settlements through war and intimidation might have a motto like “Through arrows and enemies!”. A noble house that is rather peaceful and cares about the wellbeing of its subordinates may have a motto like “Firmly in act and gently in manner”.

With the combination of all the above aspects we’re confident that there’ll be a great variety of noble houses that not only look differently but also feel different on the worldmap, offer different contracts and create new and unique situations in every game. The world of Battle Brothers starts out for now with three different noble houses that are in a kind of cold war state - they do not openly fight each other but are still working against each other in most cases in an attempt to increase their influence based on their specific goals. Mercenaries, of course, are ideal for any operations that must not be tracked back to the noble houses, and not all of them necessarily chivalrous in nature.

But wait, there’s more!

Noble houses aren’t the only factions in the world of Battle Brothers. There’s also a new ‘relations’ mechanic, and we haven’t touched on the role of individual settlements for factions yet. And is there still a greater evil around? All this and more in next week’s progress update!

 

[Jaysen]

To flesh out the noble houses a little more and make them more unique we decided to add standard bearers and knights. More in this weeks blog post:

Dev Blog #59: Progress Update - Standard Bearers & Knights

Work on factions in the world of Battle Brothers continues and ties into the tactical combat part of the game this week, as noble houses get lots of nifty stuff to wear and get their own identity on the battlefield. Also, work on new contract mechanics has started. Let’s take a closer look!

What’s been happening?

Like with all opponents in the game (and in this case, allies as well) we want noble houses to have an identity of their own and pose a unique challenge on the battlefield, to require different tactics from beating, say, orcs or bandits. To this end, noble houses will have access to equipment not otherwise available and make use of skills and tactics that differentiate them especially from other human opponents. We’ll cover all the units available to them in detail with their lore at a later point, but for now, here is a preview of what is to come.

Noble houses make use of standard bearers with any full company. Not only do they look impressive and give a sense of organized and regimental warfare lacking with other opponents, they passively raise the morale and will to fight of nearby troops. In addition, they can make use of the ‘Rally’ skill, just like the player can - blowing a horn to push their comrades to go the extra mile.

The single most dangerous individual unit employed by noble houses is the knight. A man of noble birth, trained from youth in the use of weapons and warfare, steeled in experience by combat and attending tourneys across the land. Their station affords them the best equipment available, and their helms may be adorned with ridiculously intricate decoration that picks up themes of the noble house they serve. This decoration is in fact based on what knights have historically worn - although, while in reality this was usually limited to parades and tourneys, we took the artistic license of making it a custom for knights to display their station and grandeur in this way in the world of Battle Brothers in all situations. It makes for a nice contrast to have knights care so much for their presentation, to stage themselves as untouchable warriors and connoisseurs of the fine arts, only to end up all muddy and bloody on the battlefield like any soldier of common birth. Speaking of battlefields, knights come with partially randomized perks to reflect that each knight has his very own experiences, strengths and weaknesses in combat.

At the same time, work on the new and completely redone contract mechanics has started. We’re currently prototyping to make sure that everything works out as planned and will have a dedicated update or two to let you know all about them within the next few weeks.

 

[HiddenX]

This game is looking better and better!

 

[Jaysen]

This week i have some new village screen images for you:

Dev Blog #60: Progress Update - Settlement Screens

With most of the assets for the noble houses now in place we have returned to fleshing out what you see as you enter the various settlements on the worldmap. We previously worked with placeholder images to get the mechanics down first and make sure that everything works out as planned, but now those settlements receive their final look and polish. Check it out!

Settlement Screens

The worldmap consists of a variety of different terrain and climate zones, including several new additions we introduced a while ago, and those also show as you enter settlements. As villages, cities and strongholds are located in the frozen north, buildings will be covered in snow and snowy mountains will cover the horizon.

A settlement located in the wide open steppe of the south will have a much different vibe to it, as does one high up the mountains or deep in the forest. Having settlements fit their environment helps to make the world as a whole feel more coherent, and individual settlements more like real places and less generic spots on the map. After all, entering a city in the snowy north only to see lush green meadows on the inside wouldn’t exactly help the atmosphere.

Of course all settlements will look differently during night time. The shops are closed and usually only the tavern will remain open. You will be able to spend the night there and rest until morning. Here is an example of a settlement during night time in a grassland environment.

What you can’t see from the images is that we’re also creating a whole ambient soundscape for settlements depending on both their environment and the buildings within. A coastal fishing village will have you hear seagulls, a village containing a smithy will have you hear hammering on metal, and every settlement will have the sounds of people and civilization to really make you feel that you’re in the middle of a living and breathing place.

Meanwhile, work on the all-new contract mechanics continues. Next week will see a more lengthy update again as we’ll introduce how contracts now work and how you’ll be earning your crowns in the future!

Meet us in Hamburg

If you are in Hamburg you can meet up with us tomorrow 14th of November at the “Making Games Talents” conference at the HAW Hamburg. We will be representing Overhype Studios and be talking to young people wanting to get into the game industry all day so if you are in the area or attending anyways drop by and have a chat with us!

More info here (German only): Making Games Talents 2015

 

[Jaysen]

Here is the first real info on the contracts system in this weeks dev blog:

Dev Blog #61: Progress Update - Contracts, Part 1

This week we’re talking mercenary contracts. They are a core feature for a game about managing a mercenary company, so we’re redesigning how they work in order to have them be more interesting, varied and reactive to your choices. Let’s get into it!

Introduction

Battle Brothers is a game about managing a mercenary company in a medieval fantasy world. That’s pretty much the core premise, and something to keep in mind with every feature we consider. Mercenaries, by definition, are free agents that offer their services for a fee, that take on mercenary contracts offered to them by different parties. And that’s something we really want to emphasize and make a core gameplay element of with our new contract mechanics.

There’s a couple of issues we have with how contracts work in the game right now. They’re too few, too simple, too repetitive, too static. Because they also are agnostic to the player’s progress, they can be impossible to complete or be completely outscaled in their reward by selling loot of enemies the player just randomly engages on his own, demoting them to merely a means of additional income rather than the guiding light they’re supposed to be. Finally, with loot being the major source of income, certain enemy types are vastly preferable to others that drop few or no loot due to their nature.

With these problems identified, we took contracts back to the drawing board. Let’s check out what we came up with.

Contract Negotiations

Contracts are offered to you in settlements all across the land. Some are concerned with local problems, issued by single settlements that require your services, and some are of more of a global nature and offered in all of the settlements that belong to a particular noble house. The number of contracts on offer in a single settlement is no longer limited to just 3, and you’ll also be able to see if there are other contracts on offer even if you have an active one. Because contracts may now have a time limit or contradict each other (like both attacking and defending the same caravan), you’re limited to fulfilling one at a time.

The contracts offered to you also depend on your relation to your potential employers and your renown. Renown is a new statistic that is basically your ‘business reputation’ and measures how reliable and competent you’re perceived to be across the lands. Successfully completing contracts will increase your renown, as will winning hard battles, but failing or cancelling contracts, not to mention betraying your employers, will lower it.

Contract negotiations are now handled in dialogs much like events on the worldmap are. Potential employers will introduce themselves, explain the task that they need you to perform and make an initial offer of what they’re willing to pay. This is where you’ll now be able to actively negotiate the terms of your payment. You may at any time accept their offer or ask for different terms, such as payment in advance, more payment on completion or other clauses depending on the type of contract. This also allows you to customize payment to your current needs - just lost half of your men in battle and are low on crowns? Then ask for a lot of payment in advance to be able to recruit new men and stock up on supplies before going into battle, even if it means less payment overall. Don’t test the patience of your potential employer too much, though, as eventually they may decide to break up negotiations. Once negotiations have been completed, you’ll see a final overview of what you’re to do and what payment you’ll receive. At this point, you can agree to take up the contract or take a look at other contracts available and return at a later time to sign it.

How Contracts Work

To put it simply, contracts can now be quite a bit more complex. Just take a look at the flow chart for the new ‘Raid Caravan’ contract to get an idea. Contracts now can branch differently based on 3 different ways;

They can branch randomly. Because you’re likely to do quite a few ‘Escort Caravan’ contracts in your time, we want to make sure that they play out differently and offer a surprise every now and then. Perhaps what the caravan carries this time isn’t quite what you expected. Or perhaps it isn’t bandits that stop the caravan, but soldiers of a noble house that claim that the goods the caravan caries are stolen. By changing contracts up we want to keep them feeling fresh and less predictable.

They can also branch based on your actions. Contracts can now trigger dialogs with player decisions at any time, the same way events work. For example, some contracts (and random branches) may offer you an opportunity to betray your employer for a fat bribe. Depending on your decision, the contract will play out differently. Other branches are the result of your actions in combat, and not of dialog. For example, contracts now come with more granular victory conditions; it’s no longer just a matter of getting a single survivor of a caravan to their destination - the less carts make it, the less happy your employer will be, and the less he’ll be inclined to pay you or hire you again in the future.

Finally, they can branch based on actions in previous contracts. Your decisions may carry over from one contract to another. Take the previous example of you betraying your employer. The next contract they offer to you may seem like any other you’ve done before, chasing away some bandits. But it’s a setup - heavily armed troops await you. Your employer isn’t of the forgiving kind and now seeks vengeance for your betrayal.

By introducing different branches, we want to have contracts feel much more varied, reactive and give you more choices of how you conduct yourself in the world, but also introduce consequences for your actions. Always keep in mind that helping one faction is likely to anger another, and you can’t afford to make enemies of the whole world if you expect someone to keep paying you.

 

[rune_74]

Hey Jaysen...when is all these updates actually placed in game? I love reading about it but I'm not sure what the current state of the game is.

 

[Wisdom]

I really like the direction of this.

The only thing right now I detest is the character icons/peices. The art of everything is ok but those bobbleheaded figures. Just a personal thing, won't wreck the mechanics of the game for me.

 

[Jaysen]

Hey Jaysen…when is all these updates actually placed in game? I love reading about it but I'm not sure what the current state of the game is.

As we are basically re-doing the whole worldmap and strategic gameplay this will take a while. It will not arrive this year, more like early next year - but it will be well worth the wait!

 

[rune_74]

As we are basically re-doing the whole worldmap and strategic gameplay this will take a while. It will not arrive this year, more like early next year - but it will be well worth the wait!

Thanks, I will be purchasing this when you get closer to a finished project...I really like what I see so far, just have to many games on early access as is right now

 

[Jaysen]

Can totally understand that Early Access thing! The game will be really different from now.

But here is a new blog post on contracts to shorten the wait. This time we go through a complete exemplary contract:

Dev Blog #62: Progress Update - Contracts, Part 2

In last week’s update we talked about what we feel needs to be improved regarding contracts in the game, and introduced new mechanics to do just that. This week we’ll walk through one of the new contracts together to get a better feel for how those may branch out and how you can affect their outcome. Onwards!

Your Reputation

The contract we’re taking a closer look at today is the ‘Raid Caravan’ one. For a long time there have been requests from you guys to be able to raid caravans yourself - and now, you can. It’s not the same as living as bandits, but it’s the shadier side of mercenary business where your employer cares little for the life of a few peasants if it furthers their agenda.

Because we want to also portray the less chivalrous side of mercenary life, and give you options on how to lead your own company, we have a bunch of darker-themed contracts and decisions available. Being hired to slaughter a bunch of peasants, let no one escape alive and burn down their homes, may not appeal to everyone, and that’s ok, but it’s a way to earn some easy crowns because those peasants will hardly put up a fight against hardened mercenaries.

Your inclination towards actions such as these are now measured with a new ‘moral reputation’ scale, which reflects how people know you to act. If you’re particularly bloodthirsty, people may fear you just for your reputation, which may even unlock some additional actions in contracts and events, while being known as kind and merciful may garner you the goodwill and support of the people.

Raid Caravan

Because we’ve covered contract negotiations in last week’s update, we’re jumping straight to the action. Your employer hired you to raid a caravan, kill everyone and burn everything - their motivations for doing so vary throughout the game, the specifics will differ, but the general structure of the contract remains the same. You’re given information on a caravan travelling from one settlement to another and have to intercept it on your own terms. Predict the way it’s going to take, pick a good spot, pick a good time, and attack.

As you close in to attack, several things can happen. You may be spotted, and the caravan leader may seek a parley to offer you a bribe. You’d just have to return to your employer and tell him that you failed to catch up to the caravan. If you accept, he may even offer you a second bribe to name your employer. Failing to destroy the caravan will hurt your reputation either way, but naming your employer is a betrayal - and if your employer were to find out, he might seek revenge, and will certainly not want to trust you with contracts for the foreseeable future. But then, how should he find out? And it’s a lot of crowns you’re offered.

The caravan may have also taken up travellers along the way. One of them could be a swordmaster, a dangerous opponent that now threatens you to leave alone the caravan that so graciously took him along. Is fighting him at the risk of losing good men worth it for what you’re paid?

Closing in on the caravan successfully, you have several options. You may choose to encircle the caravan for different starting positions in battle - helpful when your orders are to leave noone alive. So are wardogs, of course, to catch up with anyone attempting to flee. If it is night time, you may try to close in even further. Note that while these actions allow you to adjust your approach to the situation, they’re not meant as a replacement for a potential deployment phase, preset formations, or similar.

The battle is done, you’re victorious! Time to report to your employer. Again, several things can happen. Maybe this time, while looking for valuables and burning the rest, your men find some delicate papers about your employer that make for an interesting read. Turns out that this was the reason he wanted to have the caravan burned in the first place. You may choose to burn the papers with the rest, or take them along. As you return to your employer, you can blackmail him with the papers for a large sum of crowns, but at the cost of your relations. Or you can just hand them over. Or keep them for a later time.

And did you let anyone escape alive to tell the tale of your attack? If so, then you better hope they didn’t know who you were, or they didn’t make it, because if the trail leads back to your employer, he probably won’t be happy about being incriminated. And neither will whoever owned that caravan appreciate your involvement.

And that’s a day in a mercenary’s life.

 

[Sacred_Path]

+1 for burning peasants

 

[rune_74]

Hmmm now, if you had a black Friday sale of say 40% off I would have bought

 

[Jaysen]

Hmmm now, if you had a black Friday sale of say 40% off I would have bought

We will have higher discounts eventually but we are pretty reluctant to do that during Early Access. We think that high discounts and Early Access contradict each other

 

[Jaysen]

New worldmap assets and individual characters for each faction is what we are working on:

Dev Blog #63: Progress Update - Map, Faction Leaders

Time is flying by as the settlement screens get finished and we move on to work on the actual map part of the worldmap. Let’s take a closer look!

What’s been happening?

The settlement screens are done for now, so we’re moving on to polish the worldmap assets. Just like the settlement screens, those, too, had initially been done with placeholder images and are now receiving their final look. Below you can see how the central buildings of settlements, the same ones you previously saw on the settlement screens, look on the worldmap now.

At the same time we’re implementing more faction mechanics and contracts. All factions in the world of Battle Brothers now have a number of characters leading them - family members in the case of noble houses, and influential citizens in the case of settlements. Although those characters don’t have the depth as in a true rpg, we do feel that giving faces to the factions really helps to have them come alive.

As factions give out contracts, you’ll be dealing with individual characters that negotiate with you and to whom you report after all is said and done. You’ll potentially be working with them on several contracts, and they can also become part of contracts themselves. You may be escorting them, you may fight alongside them on the field of battle, or you may even be hired to kill them after having worked with them for some time - in which case they’ll permanently depart from this world, just like your conscience.

The above shows part of the new ‘Factions & Relations’ screen where you can at any time get an overview of the factions in the game, their leading characters, and your relation to them. Factions, too, come with a bit of procedurally generated backstory depending on their traits and values, in order to give you an idea of who it is you’re dealing with. If we find the time, we’ll also add some more clothes and hats suitable for nobility.

 

[Jaysen]

This week we have Ocean and Sea Travel for you so even small islands can be reached now:

Dev Blog #64: Progress Update - Oceans and Sea Travel

Ever wondered why there is no big body of water in the world of Battle Brothers? Well, wonder no more because now there is! And you can even fast travel from port to port for a small fee to cut down on those long pilgrimages. Let’s check out the details!

Ocean and Coast Lines

A while ago we talked about how we want to reshape the geography of the world of Battle Brothers. How we'll have both land and sea for an actual continent and smaller islands off the coast. In short, a more believable and varied looking world to play in. If you missed the original announcement back then, you can read up on it here. With this in mind, our focus turned towards the ocean and the coast this week.

Creating a coastline that fits well into our hex-based tile system, looks nice and integrates seamlessly with all kinds of different terrain we now have was a surprisingly nerve-wracking endeavour for our artist. After a long process of trial and error, and experimenting with a wide range of brushes and textures, we now have an actual shoreline along the coast where ocean meets land. With that established we can go further to add various details, like driftwood and rocks, to make the coast look more varied. At the same time we're looking into animated waves for the ocean in order to make the worldmap feel more alive than before.

Fast Travel by Sea

Not only makes the ocean for more interesting geography, it also makes for natural barriers for travel. In fact, some settlements on islands off the coast can't even be reached by foot. To make these accessible, and to cut down on travel time across the world in a way that integrates well with the setting, we've added fast travel by boat this week.

Coastal settlements, whether a small fishing village or a mighty castle by the sea, come with docks which can be accessed from the settlement screen. Here you'll be able to browse through available routes and board a ship for a small fee (depending on distance and the number of men in your employ) to fast travel to another settlement with sea access.

IndieDB Indiegame of the Year: Vote for us!

The well known website IndieDB is hosting their Indiegame of the year voting 2015 right now and Battle Brothers already made it into the top 100! The voting continues until the 20th of December so all of you have the chance to cast a vote for us. Please head over to IndieDB and throw a vote our way - and while you are at it, tell your friends about it. You can follow this LINK. Thanks so much for supporting us!