Worldmap Update 0.6.0.14

We close the second week after the big worldmap update with a larger update.

There are a few changes of note: We now support Steam Cloud saving, direwolves have finished their transformation from the werewolves of old to a new identity with visuals of their own, balance and progression has been smoothed out a bit to make for less rocky gameplay, and the level-up system for attributes has changed.

The change to the level-up system isn’t necessarily permanent, as we’ll look at leveling as a whole again together with going over all the perks later on during development, but we felt that this was a change we needed to make now. The system previously in place lacked transparency and thus led to some confusion and ultimately frustration as people misinterpreted how it worked. The new system should be easier to understand and offer a better strategic choice on levelup on how to best develop your Battle Brothers. It works like this: You can now see all levelup rolls right from the start (without going through the pick/cancel motion like most players did) and pick three values you want. Levelup values are re-rolled for each level and no longer stick until picked.

We’ll continue to work on any technical or balancing issues that may pop up, but with most now out of the way we’ll transition to adding new content to the game again come next week. What new content is that?

Our next major milestone is redoing all the combat environments already in the game, as well as adding new combat environments for every terrain type found on the worldmap. Here is an early preview.

While we’re at it, we’ll also look at some usability issues in combat (primarily with forests) and add some quality of life improvements (like an option to end combat early once all enemies are fleeing). Finally, we’ll keep adding additional contracts to the game. There are 11 more already written and waiting to be implemented, and we have plans for even more.

Have a nice weekend!

Changelog

• Added automatic synchronization of savegames on Steam Cloud.
• Added a chance for Withered Vampires to carry named weapons.
• Added new visuals for Direwolves.

• Changed level-up system for attributes. You can now see all levelup rolls right from the start and pick the three values you want. Levelup values are re-rolled for each level and no longer stick until picked.
• Changed chance to get drunk on paying for rounds in the tavern to be lower.
• Changed opposition in contracts to better match player strength throughout the campaign.
• Changed roaming enemies to be slightly easier to take on in the early game and scale better into the lategame.
• Changed treasure items to be sold at full value, like trading goods are, and be somewhat more valuable than before in order to make exploring and looting locations on your own more worthwhile.
• Changed ‘Patrol’ contract to have the player be more likely to face opposition on the road.
• Changed ‘Patrol’ contract to have a time limit of ten days and show both the time remaining and the number of heads collected in the objective panel.
• Changed a few perk descriptions to make things more clear.
• Changed name of ‘Fletcher’s Hut’ on the worldmap to ‘Arrow Maker’s Shed’ to avoid confusion about its relation to the ‘Fletcher’ building inside settlements.

• Fixed issue with payment when at negative renown.
• Fixed issue with cancel/engage potentially leading to fighting the wrong enemies.
• Fixed issue with entities spawning on unreachable tiles in combat.
• Fixed poor relations leading to better prices when selling items than with good relations.
• Fixed money counter in UI not updating properly when buying food.
• Fixed provisions counter in UI not updating properly when selling food.
• Fixed direwolves looting other AI parties when they shouldn’t because they’re animals.
• Fixed several issues with location placement at worldgen. Requires starting a new campaign to take effect.
• Fixed cause of the game potentially slowing down on the worldmap because of poorly placed harbors, and ships unable to reach them. Requires starting a new campaign to take effect.
• Fixed goblin camps spawning orcs in rare cases.
• Fixed display issue in ‘Armed Courier’ contract negotiations.
• Fixed issue with AI burning down locations while the player is tasked to destroy them in ‘Raze Location’ contract.
• Fixed missing information on additional fatigue use for named orc weapons in tooltip.
• Fixed action point bar not updating properly after picking up or dropping items during combat.
• Fixed Goblin Wolfriders potentially becoming untargetable if their mount was killed using the ‘Knock Back’ skill in combination with the ‘Shield Bash’ perk.
• Fixed issue with ranged AI potentially hanging in combat.
• Fixed Arbalesters not having a backup melee weapon.
• Fixed mood status effect sometimes not showing on characters after loading a game.
• Fixed drunk debuff duration resetting on loading a game.
• Fixed issue with change of master volume in the game’s audio options not immediately affecting the volume of music currently playing.
• Fixed wrong inventory icon for named greataxe.
• Fixed various text errors.