Reply To: Not really a suggestion. More like a recommendation.

[Unsettler]

I don’t think what it is about Hnefatafl that I’m so fascinated by it. Maybe it’s the similarities to turned based tactic games ;D please bare with me while I rant about it…

@GOD

It’s appropriate to the time period the game is set in and games are an important part of life that usually gets overlooked or implemented in odd ways.

I’ve read that archeologists when digging up viking sites they usually find remains of a set of Hnefatafl. Historians think it was used to teach younger soldiers strategy etc. So it was popular among groups of vikings. Maybe this type of thing (not necessarily an active mini-game) could be used for interaction between your Battle Brothers to get some kind of better spacial awareness buff for 1 future battle for whoever played it. I can see this option being used in something like the camping phase in Darkest Dungeon. I think some temporary buffs would be great like that. If the devs are planning some kind of interaction between the Brothers then a camping option is mandatory imo :D

@drew1988west

The Hnefatafl recommendation is like saying hey lets make Warhammer 40K into a chess game

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Hnefatafl rules. I just said it was the viking chess game just to give a general idea to people but it’s really nothing like chess other than the “units” move like rooks and it’s on a board. However, essentially it’s an ambush fight. It is so similar to an ambush fight that implementing Hnefatafl in some way should not be much effort and I don’t think would take away from the main game.

I like the idea of gaining traits. I think Darkest Dungeon hands them out too frequently IMO (Despite being a very fun game). I could see injures and permanent war wounds at some point down the line…. think ‘one eyed Hugo’ with his bad vision, or ‘three fingers Ferdinand’ with his poor melee damage.

I would go with “can’t do crits or super low chance to crit” for three fingers Ferdinand personally. Poor melee damage sounds like an immediate kicking out of the group…unless maybe he’s an archers.

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Now then. I have been thinking of more suggestions… Here are more results from my day dreaming:

As far as other traits or “triggered” events I’m thinking about it would be that a Brother deciding to retire after he had one too many close calls in a row. Like if he almost dies 3-5 battles in a row he should definitely call it quits . Would force the player not to use cannon fodder tactics perhaps or just being reckless in general. A similar thing would be if he lands a crit like 5 times in a row or kills 5 enemies in 5 consecutive hits. Doesn’t have to be the same battle but maybe it could be depending on the positive traits that he might receive. Then again he might turn into a serial killer as well so it might not be just all positive or if his Brothers witness such a horrible thing as 5 heads flaying off one after an other it could have some kind of affect on their psyche as well. Like he could turn into a coward if the “trait roll” is not in his favour.

Another one would be a possibility to break bones. Broken bones that would leave with huge penalties or downtime but stay on pay roll so player would have to decide whether to let them go or wait for them to recover. Which might take a long time. Also breaking bones should be mostly due to maces and other blunt weapons or a high chance of doing so when pushed off a high place. That and getting high damage by dropping from very high places. I don’t know if the battles in the mountains have really steep edges but they don’t then they definitely should… that and some kind of mountain men/monsters lurking around there that just love pushing everyone over the edge.

Speaking of high places that you can drop from. Any plans to have structures in maps like old abandoned towers or forts? I would love to siege an orc fort or smth. Or barricade in an old hut from warewolves for some certain amount of turns until the morning comes.

Also after watching gameplay videos I noticed that when enemies are retreating they usually just go to the edge of the map and then they’re stuck. I find that a bit silly tbh. They should be able leave the engagement and then if you want to kill them off if they have escaped you have to catch them on the world map. Naturally if it’s only 1 archers that escaped and you have a group of 12 Brothers you should be slower than them. And while I’m on the subject of speed on the world map I think that the size of your company should have an affect on your speed. IMO if you have a small group you should travel faster through fields and roads but slow down in forests and hills, mountains and swamps in fear of ambushes but if you are bigger you aren’t as fast as the small groups on fields and roads but you don’t slow down as much in the other areas because you don’t really fear an ambush by 5 bandits when you have a group of 12 or more men.

The leaving the engagement thing also ties in with my delusion (:D) with Hnefatafl. Because that is essentially what you need to do if you play as the defendant. Now I’m not saying that YOU MUST IMPLEMENT HNEFATAFL rules. I’m just drawing inspiration here :) I’ve read that guards patrolling might attack you if they recognize a criminal among your midst. What if you get in really bad graces with some faction and they send an assassin for one of your founding members? OR I guess a random member. Now I see this assassination/ambush attempt as being a super hard difficulty engagement and it is triggered only as the worst thing that can happen to you as a result for having a horrible relationship with some faction. My idea is that essentially you are ambushed by an extremely big amount of enemies that you can not defeat in any way and the objective of the engagement is to get the assassination target member to the edge of the map where he could leave the engagement while you try not to die with the other members and then the enemies disengage and run after him but since it’s only 1 member that escapes he should outrun them easily. You then find the escaped member in the next town you visit.

And lastly, I think there should be an option of splitting your group. Like sending out a 3-4 men scout party somewhere when a mission requires you to be stealthy and a large group would draw attention. This option would be available only when setting up camp. And these splinter groups being away from the main party would require a considerable increase in payment as to not desert. This could be countered by having one of the founding members in the group but then again it would be very dangerous for the small group and no one would want to lose one of their founding members.

Sorry for the long post and the stream of consciousnessish all over the place suggestions. Just wanted to get it out there before I forgot everything. I promise I won’t mention Hnefatafl again. :D I think that’s everything I can think of for now.