A centerpiece of how individual settlements will feel distinct on the new worldmap of Battle Brothers is different buildings with a unique gameplay function. This week we’ll be taking a closer look at some specialized shops that are coming with the update in February.
Specialized Shops
If you’ve watched our Update Preview Video you’ll already know that every settlement now comes with a marketplace. The marketplace works as an amalgamation of what a variety of smaller traders peddle throughout the settlement. That is, all kinds of different goods and equipment that are regionally available. Apart from supplies, such as different kinds of food, this may also include weapons, armor and shields. However, the selection on the marketplace is limited to what those traders bought themselves and are now reselling, the quality is limited to what is commonly available to and affordable by the people living there, and the equipment may have been used before and look the part. You may even find the occasional great deal here, but to outfit your growing mercenary company you’ll eventually want to look elsewhere.
For those who have the crowns, there are specialized traders available for weapons and armor which have a much larger selection of quality equipment, brand-new but also quite a bit more expensive. These traders are the weaponsmith, the armorsmith and the fletcher. You are more likely to find these in the settlements surrounding fortifications than small fishing villages, and while the smithies are more likely to be found in settlements with good access to metal, you’ll find the fletcher in settlements with good access to wood.
Whereas the weaponsmith will have a large variety of melee weapons on offer, with a few throwing weapons thrown in, the fletcher specializes in ranged weaponry. The selection of ranged weapons in the game is still limited at this time, of course, but we’ll eventually add more of them that will then make their way to the fletcher as well. To make browsing specialized shops more interesting and also worth it later in the game, you’ll now be able to sometimes find unique named weapons on offer – for kingly prices, of course.
An even more specialized shop than those three is the kennel. You can pick up a wardog or two all over the land, but if your tactics happen to rely heavily on man’s best friend, you’ll want to head out to go to the source: one of only a few kennels across the land where the best dogs of war are bred and sold in large numbers. Kennels are usually part of smaller fortifications, so they’re worth visiting for reasons different than large castles. Dogs and their handler are yet to be added to the image you see above.
There’s a bunch more buildings coming, including one that will allow you to customize the appearance of your Battle Brothers to your liking. Return here, as we’ll be revealing them in future progress updates!
Loading tweets...
Have you guys dropped the idea of expiring food yet? Because that was one of your very few really off ideas. Also, while visually pleasing, having ten varieties of food would really clutter up an already very full inventory. Maybe you could have a second tab in the inventory for food? Or back off on the varied food altogether?
Breaking up merchants into weapon dealers, armor dealers and fletchers is WAY too complicated. I don’t want to run between three different merchants trying to figure out what I can afford. Imagine I’ve got three new guys to outfit and they each need armor, a weapon and maybe a shield. I have to go to a bunch of different merchants trying to figure out what I can afford, maybe scribble down prices on an envelope to make a budget? You’re introducing complexity that doesn’t add to gameplay and is simply distracting.
Ive got to fundamentally disagree with you on this. Battle Brothers lacks variety, its unlikely a settlement will have all three of those buildings to begin with. Its to make different settlements feel unique and to make it purposeful to move around the map. The varieties of food, in my mind are probably there to introduce trade as a secondary form of income… selling fish to a mountainous mining town will probably yield a profit, and visa versa. Food expiration is automanaged aswell, so theres not much to complain about there. The inventory UI if I remember rightly isn’t final? it is probably subject to an overhaul or various tweaks down the line
Looking good, guys! :)
Looks good.
Inventory management and finding all the best gear is part of the fun in a game like this.
Did you say customization!!!! Overhype is a very under-hyped group of lands indeed :)
Cant wait for update… :)
Grim times trouble the lands of Battlebrotherstonia. In dire need of guidance folk tends to long lost customs of old, desperately looking for advise and hope, wherever it is given – no matter the cost.
In these days many visitors received the oracle, for the unknowing nothing more than a slant crack as tall as a man and two handbreadth in a towering cliff at the edge of a little forest.
But the knowing whispered their question to the crack, just as the man, looking like he has traveled further than he can bear, yet standing close to the oracle’s mouth and ears, whispering:
„Oh mighty, all-knowing oracle I am a mere peasant of humble birth and know little of the world beyond my acre; I only know that you are great and I am small.
I have nothing more to offer than words of praise for you, yet I dare to beseech you to bestow your knowledge on me, for I know no further and have risked too much with this journey to leave now with my plea unanswered.
Your kindness is well known in all lands and that you do not distinguish between the pleaders; „For who is willing to sacrifice, whose sacrifice will be accepted, no matter how petty it may seem.“
Oh mighty, all-knowing oracle I need to know:
Will it be possible to order (instant) repair (over time with the requirement to stay near the location of the trader for the time needed) of your equipment for a fee(naturally higher than the cost of repair tools itself) without using your supplies/tools at the respective specialized trader?“
(Due to the implementation of consecutive rising degradation of the maximum durability (-1 pt. of max durability for every 2-3pt. repaired) an additional, plausible money sink could be introduced with the need to visit these experts from time to time to maintain/repair your equipment properly and thus resetting the degradation. Since your mercs are no experts in repairing equipment it would fit very well.)
Silence followed, as the peasant waited patiently for an answer, as it is said:“Speak and wait until you are spoken to.“
Many waited and many waited even longer to no avail; but to some, whose sacrifice the oracle pleased, it whispered back answering in a low voice, as if a gust of wind would have blown through a slant crack as tall as a man and two handbreadth in a wall of otherwise solid rock.
Can’t wait for the update in February. Each developer blog just gets me more excited.
So if in the castle is kennel, will AI from it use dogs?