Reply To: [FEEDBACK] 700+ Hours Total In BB

[ForumDweller]

~ LATE-GAME CRISES ~

The late game crises are quite enjoyable, except for the tiny detail of them reducing the entire map to a wasteland. Sooner or later, the player is overwhelmed by enemy forces, which demolish most of the settlements in the world. Since players depend on settlements for contracts and resupplying, one can see how this kind of setup is problematic. Furthermore, many people get attached to their characters, and they shouldn’t be penalized by being forced to re-roll a new map.

The solution, however, isn’t to disable the crises – they’re quite fun and add an enjoyable challenge to the game! Ideally, players would be able to work with friendly AI to ‘reseed’ lost/destroyed cities, and help them rebuild. But with Overhype’s limited manpower, it’s unrealistic to expect any large changes to the core mechanics.

With all that in mind, here are some ‘quickfix’ suggestions that don’t require large overhauls, and could be ‘squeezed in’ relatively quickly and painlessly:

1) Allow enemies to raid towns and villages and castles, but have them stop once the outer dwellings have all been demolished. While not very realistic, it’s the quickest and easiest way to retain crisis events without permanently destroying settlements. Furthermore, this approach is quite balanced because it robs players of valuable resources, but not to the point of no return.

2) Scale the crises gradually, in that the 1st one wouldn’t be a full-blown invasion, but rather a sort of warm-up. After that, they’d get progressively more difficult. Also, increase the grace period between the crises. Controlling how many enemies spawn — and when — should be trivial.

3) Beef up the noble patrols during the Undead and Orc crises. Have them spawn more heavy units like knights, and in greater numbers. Once on the map, send them to safeguard the settlements belonging to their House. This makes sense, from a gameplay perspective. From a story one as well, because the player and their company aren’t required to protect human habitats. After all, it’s highly unlikely that an entire province would entrust their safety exclusively to a band of roaming sellswords! Ergo, knights.

4) Allow players to collect 100,000 crowns as part of a new late-game ambition to sail to a new and distant land! This would generate a new map, skip the tutorial, port over the Player’s current party (including the stash), and reset their Renown to 0. It’s the equivalent of continuing a high-level game, but with a new and fresh map to explore (in case the old one gets demolished). Having to earn Renown in a new land — alongside the trust of its people! — would add a wonderful amount of depth to the game. It’s coincidentally also my favorite approach of the 4 listed here… and the one that would require the *least* amount of tinkering and effort, since you guys already have the world-generation scripts working as intended; all that’s needed is a new Ambition+Event. Someone on the Steam forums also suggested to have Brothers arrive at their destination with full beards, due to the length of the trip! Imagine how cool and immersive that would be! :D

~ A WORD ABOUT OPTIONS ~

The playerbase is divided on a host of issues, and it’s impossible to cater to everyone. What one person wants (ex: crises destroying the entire countryside), another absolutely hates. It’s for this reason that I think Overhype would be best served by making most such decisions modular. Simply add check-boxes for some of these hotly contested issues, and give each player individual freedom! This way, everyone can tweak the game experience to what they enjoy, without stepping on each others’ toes.

TL;DR: Include toggle-able options for the following…

~ an option to have a single crisis repeat ad infinitum (ex: Noble War, which doesn’t destroy cities)

~ an option to have hostile forces stop attacking a town once it’s lost its outer ‘defensive’ layers

~ an option to let us mouse over a potential recruit, and discover his stats/feats/traits/stars/etc.

~ an option to sail to a new land, in the form of a late-game, expensive Ambition (100,000 crowns)

~ an option to greatly increase the spawn/drop rate of unique items, both in shops and on enemies

~ an option to face even more enemies in battle (increases the size of hostile groups by 25-50%)

~ an option to face even more deadlier challenges (4-skull and 5-skull contracts mid/late game)

~ an option to run an ‘elite company’ (maximum of 30 Brothers in reserve, and 15 on the field)

~ an option to fight on a ‘frontier’ map (map is generated with a *heavy* greenskin presence)

~ an option to nudge RNG/rolls to the Player’s benefit (read a few Steam threads for context)

~ an option to increase the amount of crowns earned while playing (people struggle /w money)