Topic: My Boatload of Suggestions Since Playing

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  • 12. January 2017 at 14:28 #18676
    Avatar photoNed Stark
    Participant

    Apologies if there’s any redundant info here…

    Company Captain
    The game starts off with saying that you are the new captain… but you’re nowhere to be found. As the company captain, you seem to stare down from the heavens during battles, never entering combat to aide your men. I personally would like to see a character added to the game as the company captain who has extra hitpoints, extra defenses, and if felled in combat, dies… ending the game as you know it (Because it is your story!). The option could still exist for you as the captain to sit out of fights in reserve.

    The First Battle
    It is said that your entire company is nearly demolished in this fight, yet there is hardly any loot to be found. Perhaps increase the loot drop slightly in this fight, as I believe starting the game is the hardest part.

    No Real Tutorial Currently Exists
    I realize now that there is an official YouTube series of Jaysen playing the game, and demonstrating tactics, but I didn’t know this or was aware of it when playing the game for the first time. A real tutorial would be nice.

    A tutorial explaining how (raiders are) swapping positions when in combat, how spears and pikes give an attack bonus, how flails can be aimed at heads and are the best for countering shields, how crossbows give an aim bonus… etc. These would be good things to know without experiencing it first, or having to read each item, equipping it, then reading each ability of that item.

    Making a simple item log and enemy log that is located on the main menu and updated with each enemy or item encountered may help alleviate this problem.
    OR since the first battle is already scripted, maybe have one of the characters that die give you a couple of tips first, and allow the first battle to be skippable, since your soldiers cannot die in it anyway.

    One last thought here…
    On your first difficult fight, have a soldier from your company pop up and mention, “This will be a tough fight, don’t be too proud to retreat and live another day”, etc…

    Units That Should Not Block Movement
    I’ve had an allied militia man block off my units from one another while I was still positioning them to face the goblin wolfriders. Unfortunately, this happened in the forest battle, and two of my units died. Fortunately, I had an archer with low ranged skill on hand, and I was able to snipe and “miss” some of the wolfriders and was able to kill an “allied” militia man in revenge.

    Additionally, we do not use Clifford the Big Red Dog as a wardog. Wardogs should be small enough that one of your soldiers could squeeze by it, should that wardog decide to take off at an enemy and then sit in front of your troops’ movement (presumably for a bellyrub).

    Final Miscellaneous Thoughts
    Another participant stated that armor fragments or cloth fragments could be found and brought to a blacksmith for repair. I heartily agree with this idea.

    It’d be nice to be told the first time that you take a caravan job, that the caravan feeds you for the duration of the trip. I didn’t need to buy those 3 stacks of grains and 2 stacks of porkchops after all.

    Named items, like the sabrecat helmet Fangshire, should be able to resurface in a camp of the faction that took it from you (as in, when that merc that was using the named item is killed in battle and loses said named item).

    Currently, I see nothing at all that denotes trading between cities as a possible source of income. The words “traders will pay good money for this item” does not help me realize that I can take this item from here and trade it elsewhere.

    When a mercenary dies in combat, it should say at the top of the screen, “So and so was slain”, for better clarification if it was another caravan hand that died, or one of my valuable men. Also, after battle, hovering the mouse over a slain comrade should show more information about him, like his level, perks, weapons he used, etc.
    Perhaps the memorial that will be added to the game later can alleviate or fix this.

    "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." ~Marcus Aurelius

    Game: "Characters with a height advantage against their opponents are harder to hit"
    Me: "That's not true, and my short axeman is living proof!"

    13. January 2017 at 12:28 #18709
    Avatar photoNed Stark
    Participant

    I’ll just continue adding on things as I come across them…

    1)
    It should be possible to track an enemy on the world map upon left clicking them. This way, when following a target, you don’t keep having to left click and run by them each time the target makes a quick turn.

    2)
    Enemy hideouts on the world map could have different sizes and should spit out units to harass the countryside accordingly. Additionally, camping outside an enemy hideout should get you attacked. Or shot at. Or something. Currently there’s just an intense staring contest going on each time I walk next to a goblin hideout and wait for it to get dark.

    3)
    This is a major one.
    Returning to the SAME battlefield that one was just at a couple hours ago (1/12th a game day ago), should not have all corpses, their armor, and their weapons, missing. Having my squad nearly wiped, and returning to the battlefield with two fresh men to finish the three skeletons was very frustrating, and possibly impossible to come back from… Had I known that battlefields are reset each time you leave, and all corpses and equipment deleted, I’d just have toughed it out and risked killing the 3 remaining enemies for all the loot that the enemy and my company had dropped.

    (Even funnier, and a sidenote, the story referenced obtaining the necromancer’s head… and in that battle, two of my best soldiers fell adjacent to him, with their weapons and armor mainly intact)

    4)
    Another major one.
    Lastly, have a pop up dialogue occur when you’re out of money. Negotiate with your men instead of having them randomly leave and you try and guess who it was that just left. This pop up dialogue can follow a similar pattern as when you’re negotiating for the pay of a contract.

    (It was easy for me to guess, as it was one of my two ranged fighters. Twas my original Battle Brother, in fact, and the one with the highest ranged skill in the company.)

    The attached picture is for giggles. It’s my company trying unsuccessfully to race down the road back to the quest city before noon strikes.

    Attachments:

    1. Lost-a-merc.jpg

    "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." ~Marcus Aurelius

    Game: "Characters with a height advantage against their opponents are harder to hit"
    Me: "That's not true, and my short axeman is living proof!"

    13. January 2017 at 15:12 #18747
    Avatar photoIeuan Mawr
    Participant

    Definitely check out the developer blogs. The first point from your 2nd post have been directly addressed (hurrah!) as has point 4. I can’t find the comments addressing points 1 but I know I saw a dev say that you would no longer have to click multiple times around an enemy you are pursuing. Try this dev blog out for size in terms of improvements to enemy factions on the world map: http://battlebrothersgame.com/dev-blog-83-enemy-factions/

    Unfortunately it’s wait and see with point 3. I would like to see the people and creatures who compromise individual war bands retain their skins, health status and equipment load out if you fight them again. Is it possible given the way the game is built on generating maps from pre-fabbed tiles and stats? Who knows.

    For what it’s worth I’m heartily against the idea of a tutorial. The game forces you to play and learn it’s rules as you go. I spent two games whizzing around the world map unaware you could ZOOM OUT. I was navigating entirely from memory and it was a hell of a lot of fun. Caravan missions left me on the other side of the map like “OK, I better learn what’s good here” while I navigate by road network back to where I was. I had to job my way back to where I started if I wanted to continue building up relationships with employers there. It forces you to think up ways of making money (like trading) hinting but not spelling it out for you. This is part of what makes this game so good IMO.

    Here’s the blog addressing allied units not blocking movement: http://battlebrothersgame.com/dev-blog-91-miscellaneous-improvements/

    13. January 2017 at 16:24 #18762
    Avatar photoNed Stark
    Participant

    Thanks for the reply, Ieuan Mawr.

    I’ll read up to present from dev blog 83 so that I’m not making already existing suggestions.

    Tutorials are usually optional settings, so I’d hope that’d be the case here too (“Do you want to enable tutorial?”).

    Myself, I really dislike when I’m doing well in a game and an enemy uses a tactic I’ve never before seen or knew existed, and uses it to wipe me out completely. Currently I believe that Battle Brothers is a bit difficult to grasp, and there’s a bit too many of these ‘new tactics’ that can wipe out all troops for that new player that doesn’t know how to employ a good sound strategy yet.

    "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." ~Marcus Aurelius

    Game: "Characters with a height advantage against their opponents are harder to hit"
    Me: "That's not true, and my short axeman is living proof!"

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