a couple questions

[Alesch]

Hey guys, is there any chance that we could get a preview of the weapons that have been added? If there’s a devlog that outlines them already then I haven’t seen it, I’ve only seen a few in a video preview. There are a few types of weapons that I’d hope to see added, if they haven’t been already. Pikes, for instance, could be pretty cool. I imagine it as a weaker version of the billhook, but with the spearwall ability instead of the hooking ability. I don’t know how you’re planning on working out equipment costs, or if you’re planning on having different damage types, but the addition of slings could be a cool way to have a very cheap ranged weapon that deals blunt damage instead of piercing damage.

I’m also wondering if there’s any chance of seeing dual-wielding in later builds. I could definitely see some advantages to holding two-one handed weapons in battle, given the game’s equipment based ability system. It might come with some penalties to accuracy and/or damage that could be mitigated with the perk system.

Then again I might be odd for wanting to send a squad of bare-chested berserkers charging headlong into a horde of zombies.

[PsenBattle]

Hi Alesch,

concerning new weapons I can only point to this blog entry http://battlebrothersgame.com/dev-blog-15-progress-update-fatalities-new-weapons-and-more/ where the warhammer and the cleaver get explained.

We have got a big pile of medieval weapons lined up to get into the game, on top of that there will be all the faction specific weapons like goblin throwing nets, orc cleavers etc. Further down the road there will be legendary artifacts and unique weapons with their own looks and skills. So we got a giant backlog of armament. We are currently working on basic game systems like the worldmap and don’t focus on adding content at this point. But be assured there will be a ton of weapons in the final game :)

Concerning dual wielding, we had a very long internal discussion whether we want to implement it or not. I personally am not a big fan of it because in my oppinion it’s even more fantasy than zombies or orcs :) For a good look on historical sources concerning dual wielding here’s a pretty interesting piece on the topic by Skallagrim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbWli1-Q0g
If dual wielding makes sense or not is an eternal discussion on the internet so everyone has to make up his own mind about it :) But at this point of development it’s not scheduled to get implemented.

Cheers!

Overhype Studios - Let´s roll!

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[BobHound]

Regarding weapons and zone of control!

Will there be “tiered” weapons? Like for instance different tiers of greatswords that progressively get stronger and more expensive.

Do enemies get a bonus to hit when you attempt to leave their zone of control? I’ve never managed to avoid a hit when trying to leave threat range, thus I’ve never been able to leave the zone of control.

This is more feedback on the combat demo rather than a question: In the advanced combat demo, the werewolves will go to insane lengths to avoid fighting on low ground. Even so far as to take detours that end with them routing because their friends are dead when they arrive.

[Rap]

There’ll be a rusty/old variant of some of the weapons for skeletons to use, the regular one already in the game, and one or two named and possibly magical ones hidden in the world. So I guess that’s three tiers. We won’t do extensive quality levels (well made, finely crafted, etc), though, or do D&D-like +1, +2 tiers. Generally speaking, low level equipment will remain kind-of-viable all through the game in the sense that it will never be completely outleveled or entirely ineffective. Getting hit with a rusty Greatsword on the head can still kill any man.

None of the enemies get a to-hit bonus when you leave their zone of control currently, it must have been bad luck ;)

Thanks for the feedback regarding the werewolves. There’s still a lot of work to be done with the AI, especially as we get to more intelligent enemies than the undead mob.

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[BobHound]

Excellent to hear on the weapons! Personally I think long-term viability of weapons and builds is more interesting with a few exceptions for rare finds.

Less excellent to hear that I’m apparently cursed with bad luck!

[BobHound]

This isn’t technically a question but I thought the feedback might fit here. I play the demo on and off since it’s just good relaxing fun in the way the mission structure is right now. I have fiddled around with different combinations and have basically ended up with what (perhaps to my playstyle) is the winning formula. It being as much armor as possible on everything but ranged units. I mean two-handers having slightly less armor can be useful, but in my mind the balance currently favours wearing as much heavy armor as possible due to how vulnerable your brothers are. It could be that I play the line battles a lot and in the game movement might be more useful if you end up in a lot of scenarios where the enemies don’t engage you immediately. I suppose it also makes sense that armor is a Good Thing™, but at the moment I at least feel like light armored units that want to have some use in melee will almost invariably turn into red splatter on the ground.

[Rap]

It’s been my experience as well that having armor upwards of mail shirts is a winning proposition in the Line Battle scenario of the combat demo. Armor definately is very important for prolonged melee engagements as characters can die from as much as a single good hit otherwise. In principle, this is working as designed. However, as I see it, four things should make just piling on heavy armor not be the straight forward winning formula for every battle in the full game;

1) Heavy armor decreases maximum fatigue and thereby how often special skills can be employed in battle (like Spearwall and Split Shield); engagements can be won without these, but they provide a lot of tactical flexibility. Ideally, their use should be more valuable in many situations than just duking it out with a lot of armor on. If that isn’t the case, it’s something we should do more balancing work on (like increasing fatigue penalties further).

2) Heavy armor won’t be as readily available in the full game as it is in the demo; it will be expensive to buy and somewhat rare to get your hands on the heaviest of armors. Heaving a full team of heavily armored Battle Brothers is more of a late game option.

3) We did a rework of how weapons work against armor (described in an earlier blogpost here) since the demo. While some weapons are even less effective against heavy armor now (e.g. wooden clubs), two-handed weapons and maces do extra damage to armor, and the warhammer is a weapon specifically designed to counter armor. With the “Crush Armor” skill it inflicts up to 400% damage to armor (though the base damage is lower than that of a sword, making it less suited against lightly armored opponents), making short work of it. This gives both the player and the AI some tools to counter heavy-armor opposition; Skeletons already make use of warhammers and try to target heavily armored Battle Brothers, and other opponents able to wield weapons will do so as well.

4) We’ll have a few opponents against which armor is entirely useless. For example, the recently introduced Lost Soul (described in a blogpost here) using its “Ghastly Touch” attack completely ignores armor and attacks hitpoints directly.

As for lightly armored combatants engaging in melee, making good use of Shieldwall is vital. As will be increasing the melee defense stat on levelup and choosing some defensive perks, such as Shield Expert, which increases the effectiveness of shields and Shieldwall further.

If you have any more thoughts on this or other balancing issues, we’d love to hear them!

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[Desertos]

Mhm i got some questions

Some Posts earlier the thing with “creating own Brothers” was mentioned so here is the question
In my opinion a band of Soldiers have a Leader so did we get a randomly generated one or only a guy with a little bit more Experience?
Or did we only get some generated Brothers from the start that randomly meet and spontaneously a group of Mercenarys create?

I, for example loved Mount&Blade because i myself created a guy in the beginning that represented me the whole game, not that you have to do it too
but perhaps like in Pixel Piracy you create a Leader and when he dies the Co-Leader get his job.

Thanks for reading

[Rap]

Welcome to the forums!

As individual Battle Brothers gain more experience there are ways to specialize them to take up the role of a leader. For example, the “Captain” perk adds a percentage of the character’s own bravery to that of allies nearby. A particularly brave character with this perk can then keep his troops fighting and prevent them from panicking and fleeing in close battles. This could be especially useful against opponents such as Lost Souls who rely on fear as their main tool. A similar perk is “Inspiring Presence” which increases the combat effectiveness of nearby allies. In addition, we’ll have a few accessory items that befit a leader, such as a battle horn with which to rally fleeing troops.

We’ll probably have the player start out with a handful of Battle Brothers, one of which is a little more experienced, mostly for flavor. However, you don’t necessarily need an established leader character on the battlefield, it’s just one way to go about it. And one that, while offering clear benefits, may also leave you much more vulnerable if you happen to lose that single character that everyone else depends on. These characters could be regarded as your lieutenants; the real leader, you yourself, is leading from behind the scenes and is not represented by a character and therefore also cannot die. Though you’re free to rename any character to your own name, level him up and equip him to your liking, and generally give him the attention you would give your own character in a game, if you prefer.

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[Shinobido]

Hello Battlebro Devs

I would like to know if you have any kind of intention to add Cavalry or
Artilery to the game once you are done with the core of the game.

There are a lot of things in this game that remind me of Mount and Blade, first of course the Merchenary Band itself.
So my other question would be, do we get to see interaction between the individual Mercernarys while they travel on the map.
Maybe something like
-Duels between Rivals
-Feast at the Campfire
-Becoming Friends or Rivals with each other

and so on.

You already mentioned Ambushes in Forests or Mountains, but do you have plans for other kinds of special battles too?
Like
– Camp battle while resting at Night
– Battle on a Bridge ( Stamford Bridge )
– Battle in Caves ( Limited Vision )
– Mutiny in the own Band

The Game has great potential and I know that you have limited resources, but I would still like to know
if you would add those things if you could right now or if you already had plans on those things.

I played the demo and think its great and I am also looking forward for Early Access and hope you will get enough support
to establish yourselfs in this branch of gaming.

[Rap]

Hey there!

There are no plans currently to add cavalry or artillery for the player. We have a faction in the works that does in fact have a cavalry unit, albeit not in the traditional sense, but it is unique for now. I can also see AoE ranged attacks coming for one or two enemy types, if that’s what you’re thinking of regarding artillery – but again, not in the traditional sense with cannons and such.

We absolutely want to have distinct locations, like caves, dungeons, bridges, camps and such, eventually be present on the tactical maps as well. However, it will take us some time to implement them and they’ll have to wait until more important things have made it into the game. Can’t give you an ETA here but it will be after the initial EA release.

We also want to have semi-random events. If you’ve played any Paradox games, you should have a pretty good idea on what to expect. Maybe your Battle Brother with the thief background is held by the authorities of the city you’re just in and you’ll have to make a decision on how to deal with it. Maybe you just met a group of pilgrims that share a bit of lore about the world’s pantheon. Those events will be where we’ll handle most of the interaction between individual Battle Brothers. This as well will be added after the initial EA release.

Thanks for your support! :)

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[Shinobido]

Thanks for the answers.

Can’t wait to play the alpha really looking forward to it.

I hope we will be able to get it this month.

[kushite]

Hey guys, love the vision on this game. I had a question, can characters gain traits as they advance?

[Rap]

Yes. The plan is to have characters gain additional traits based on what they experience. As a basic example, some guy who has slain a dozen orcs could get an ‘Orcslayer’ trait which gives him some bonus when fighting them. On the other hand, characters could also collect permanent injuries, like losing an eye, or psychological trauma if they’re the sole survivor of a slaughter. Those features are not in the game yet and will be added some time after the initial EA release.

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[Miloq]

hey there, first post so let me first say that i cant wait for the game to came out on early access, about the gainable traits, are they going to also be rappresented visually? for exemple the battle brother that lost an eye, will he have an huge scar on the model? what about if one of the men recive “just” a nasty crit to the head that still does not kill him, any chance an additional visual layer with a scar will appear on him?

apologies if what i wrote is not clear, my english is far from perfect.

[Author]

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