Food connoisseurs rejoice! Provisions received a rework this week and are more diverse than ever. Also, we implemented a system to dynamically mix ambience sounds in the game for a richer atmosphere. Let’s read about it!
Provisions
Handling provisions is one of those mechanics that are kind of underwhelming. You get why it’s there – the logistics of running a mercenary company should be part of the game – but it doesn’t really add that much. What usually happens is that you’re just every now and then refilling the tanks, if you don’t happen to loot enough provisions anyway, and don’t spend much thought on it otherwise.
We want to try something different with provisions. We want it to be a bit more engaging, requiring a bit more thought put into it, without making it more complex than it should be.
Battle Brothers now has different kinds of provisions – bread, dried fish, smoked ham, mushrooms, and more. All of these come as stacks worth (currently) 25 provisions with different prices and durability. There is no limit to the amount of provisions you can carry anymore, but because individual stacks of food will eventually go bad, you probably shouldn’t buy more than your men can actually eat before it rots away. Don’t worry, though, your men are smart enough to eat first whatever food is about to turn bad next.
The different kinds of food are available at places that fit thematically, so we can further reinforce that a settlement is, for example, a fishing village. You may find the odd overpriced fish inland, but it’s fishing villages and coastal cities where you can get fish cheap and in large quantities. That village with the pig farm will probably sell you some smoked ham, and that small hamlet in the swamp won’t have much to offer other than mushrooms. As a mercenary, you have to adjust your diet a bit to what’s available during your travels.
Sound & Ambience
Since the Early Access launch on April 27th, the game was plagued by some sound compatibility issues because of the 3rd party sound library we used. Some problems have since been solved, some remained. We’ve wanted to replace this library with a different one for some time now, and this week we finally got around to doing it. What does that mean for you?
If you encountered any sound problems or oddities in the past, chances are that those are now resolved. There’s also been an issue of the game stuttering occasionally as music tracks changed on the worldmap, and this should now be a thing of the past as well.
What other cool things can we do now? We created a small system to dynamically mix ambient sounds depending on your surroundings on the worldmap. No longer is music the only thing you hear; if you’re near the coast, you’ll hear seagulls and waves crashing. In the swamps, you’ll hear insects and frogs, and icy winds blow around you in the snowy wastes of the north. At night, you can hear wolves howling in the forest, and crickets in the steppe. We really want you to feel that you’re in that forest that your figurine is standing on on the worldmap. Settlements have their own ambience as well, of course. Not only are there people, dogs, cats, chicken and more running about – if a settlement got a smithy, you’ll hear hammering, if it’s got a temple you can hear sermons, and there’s laughter and singing coming from the tavern even at night.
These ambience sounds really add a lot to the atmosphere of the whole world, make the different terrain feel distinct and settlements much more lively. Of course, reading about this is one thing, actually hearing it is another. That’s why we’ll try to have a preview video of the new worldmap ready for you to watch next week!
Loading tweets...
Stuff like the overpriced fish inland is a nice touch, but doesn’t offer any gameplay value. It would be a No-Brainer to simply not buy any overpriced food items. However certain mercenaries could have a favourite sort of food and gain a moral plus, if they recently ate some. Or occasionally a mercenary would have a sort of food that makes him sick, if there is nothing else to eat. Or having a variety of fresh food gives everyone a little health boost.
it does… if the player can buy and trade these provisions at a profit. I hope that that’s the case
It looks like a rough diamond is starting to get some polished side :). In my opinion – too early (I would prefer to see the first changes in perk’s tree and raising system of mercenaries). All-but still it’s wonderful. Incidentally, I agree that the presence of different types of food in your inventory might give some bonuses (as a moral, for example, in M@B)
Is there more to food than prices? The icons do suggest that.
Yes, an amount and an expiration date.
Can You make separate Tabs for different stuff?
BTW Do you plan make separate food stack with date track and different date expiry?
Like some food stay fresh forever but other ones expiry fast or need to be preserved(transformed in other type of food) etc?
That’s how it works now.
There’s now actually different shops for different stuff. The marketplace (pictured in the screenshot) is the only shop having bits of everything, but it’s less than the shop in the old build had and hence less of a hassle to find things.
Hey hey, guys!
Nice to see the comment function working again. Concerning the topic:
Is that all the provision- mechanic will have to offer? If so, then it is a real disappointment.
„Handling provisions is one of those mechanics that are kind of underwhelming. You get why it’s there – the logistics of running a mercenary company should be part of the game – but it doesn’t really add that much.“
Isn’t it always about what oneself makes of it?
In my opinion this mechanic is a crucial part of the game, that could very well be able to decide your party’s fate not only in the short run, in a single battle, but also long-term concerning the entire campaign and is only underwhelming cause you make it so.
Isn’t this game at least partly about managing the group in the sense of providing your men with all they need to make them happy and satisfied, so they are able to do their part, the fighting, better?
Won’t there be any buffs or debuffs for a diversified or onesided nutrition affecting the healing rate, morale or the fighting strength of your mercs?
No rationing?
No events like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY4V3UUY95A ?
Why not give every food type 4 values: price, food value, happiness(can have minus values), durability. Each of these values differ from food type to food type (additionally a fish of one region could be better than a fish of the other region).
The costlier a food is, the higher are its food value, happiness and/or durability.
The closer a food gets to 0 of its durability and reaches its completely-rotten-state, the lower will its food value and happiness get.
Additionally feeding your men the same food for a certain amount of consecutive days should lower the happiness gain a bit each day and furthermore rotten food could contain the chance of diseases and a hefty happiness malus.(Better the same food every day or rotten one than none at all.)
Furthermore I would add fresh foods, that aren’t that durable, but offer higher food values and happiness at a lower price than their already conserved counterparts.
The food values and happiness values of each food type will be summed up.
Passing a certain food value threshold will give your mercs a physical buff affecting offense/defense/health/health regenerationand passing a certain happiness value threshold grants mental buffs affecting resolve and the fighting morale (thus again offense/defense), while coming below certain values will give debuffs to the aforementioned attributes and should lastly even make them die or desert, if suffered for too long.
Maybe have two bars with three levels each, one for fullness and one for happiness(or company morale, but this one should be affected by more things than just food) e.g.: starving(debuff)-100 – 0;sated 0 – 100; well-fed(buff) 100+
unhappy(debuff)-100 – 0;satisfied 0 – 100; happy(buff) 100+
These goals then can be reached by food quality or quantity.
In addition camp followers like the cook could give a durability increase for foods and lower the happiness and food value decrease for rotten and increase it for fresh foods.
A quartermaster may decrease the malus for small and increase the bonus for large rations and/or give a durability bonus for foods, too.