Reply To: Combat Demo Feedback
Thank you for the encouragement and feedback!
Can the player view the “special” abilities of enemies?
It didn’t make it into the demo, but we’ll have an information window that can be opened for every opponent, giving a text description of the enemy, as well as descriptions (and not just those mildly obscure icons) of all current status effects, similar to how it is for Battle Brothers in the character screen.
The two status effects from your picture are “Enraged” (which gives the zombie in question additional action points for the duration of 3 turns, allowing them to make two attacks per turn or move a bit further) and “Swamp Terrain” (the same effect your guys get if they move onto swamp terrain).
Is a minimap planned? Or will maps never be much bigger than the ones in the demo?
Maps will never be much bigger than the ones in the demo; we think this is a size that works well to give some room to maneuver without the player getting lost or easily bored. We have no minimap planned, but you can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel to get the big picture.
The player can move the main view by either mouse scrolling or using WASD. I am using an Azerty keyboard, meaning I use ZQSD. Key rebinds would be handy, but I imagine that is something for further down the road.
We’ll add key binding functionality in time, but as you guessed, it’s not that high a priority for now. What we could add easily for the next version is to have the Z key work the same as the W key, and the Q key work the same as the A key on WASD keyboards. Would that help you until we have user configurable key bindings?
Is there a way to minimize trees or remove them from view? Sometimes, a tree hides an open tile just behind it. So, a way to minimize the trees (by shrinking them or removing the crown of the trees) could be handy. Right now, using the 180° rotator is a bit cumbersome.
Left-clicking an open tile behind a tree will temporarily hide that tree (and, in fact, all other trees hiding the path that leads onto that tile). There is no global toggle to hide or minimize all trees, though. Is that sufficient or still too cumbersome?
Right now, once a Battle Brother uses an ability such as Spearwall or Shieldwall, his turn doesn’t automatically end. He’s still able to move, but nothing more. Does this mean that an agile BB (one with a lot of movement points) will be able to for instance to enable a shieldwall, move over and still attack the enemy?
No. We decided on the same amount of action points (currently 9) for every Battle Brother for balancing reasons. The way it is now, the player has two actions available with one-handed weapons (e.g. shieldwall + an attack) and one action with two-handed weapons, which really helps to distinguish them. Adding just one or two action points more would, for example, allow the crossbow to fire two times in a single turn, greatly changing the balance of power for weapons.