Remove real time as factor when taking missions

[Denjanjeau]

Battlebrothers is a very addictive and enjoyable game even at early release. But, as it is not finished, it has some flaws and lack of dynamics and goal for me. Since the developers ask for input, I put together my impressions and thoughts. I will post them separately instead of a big chunk to make it easier to respond to (if someone cares ;)

Remove real time as an investment in the game
Traveling from one town to another is usually uneventful and doesn’t offer any relevant decision making. So what is the point in forcing me to spend the time to do this? The only way (at the moment) to earn money to begin with is usually to be an errand boy or protect a caravan. Both takes up a heap of real life time, while offering almost no opposition. The thing I invest is upkeep (which is marginal compared to reward, but can be an issue if at low level to start with) and my own time. I think decision making and so on is really fun… not sitting and waiting.

But what about ambushes and opportunities along the way? Well, this can be addressed by simply speeding up the time travelling to x5 or something, but adding the feature of the game pausing when a hostile entity appears in line of sight. That would be useful even the travelling is at normal speed.

Is there a drawback to this? Well, it depends on what the purpose is from the devs. Is the purpose for me as a gamer to invest real time without challenge? Since this is a complex game with hordes of interesting decisions and dangers, I would find that improbable and undesirable. But devs decide what they want to do with their game of course :)

My suggestion is therefore:

1) Allow for fast travel between towns by switching to x5 speed button
2) Always pause when hostile entity appears in line of site
3) If some missions becomes too attractive (since real time waste is removed), then make them more challenging (how can be discussed separately).

Thanks for the attention! It’s my intention to continue to post thoughts here as Battlebrothers is the game that I have been addicted to quick and I see a lot of potential. I totally respect that development takes time and that my views of what is fun might not be in the line of developers visions. Explain them to me an I will adjust my input accordingly ;)

[Atheist]

First of all I do not want fast travel in this game. It would make it extremely boring because what then would you do? Go along the road to the next town fighting whatever you come across… or do it in 3 seconds. It would get rid of the entire point that the enemies are moving too and you could run into them.

I like having to move between the town, and what I think you want is a merc company without the roleplaying, because so much happens on the road. I recruited my fav merc when he tried to steal some supplies from when I was camped travelling to the next town.

I really support the real time being spent, because it makes you value your targets, and makes it more realistic.

Ask me about your God

[Denjanjeau]

Atheist wrote:

First of all I do not want fast travel in this game.

Fair enough. I am eager to hear why and see if I can explain myself better or if we just have to agree to disagree because we value things differently.

It would make it extremely boring because what then would you do?

Play the game? Managing your mercenary squad? Fighting? Solving quests? The same as now?

Go along the road to the next town fighting whatever you come across… or do it in 3 seconds. It would get rid of the entire point that the enemies are moving too and you could run into them.

How is it more fun to do exactly what you write but do it in 30 seconds? That is just wasting time for no reason?
Perhaps this will change (I mean it’s early release), but at the moment I spend most of my time with an new squad just running back and forth between cities without fighting anyone. And it takes a lot of real life time. For what reason? Is it fun? No. Is it thrilling? No.
The game kind of starts once I have enough men and quality to take other quests like razing things. Or if I happen to be ambushed along the way or forced to protect a caravan.
So the game play don’t get different whether it takes 3 or 30 seconds to travel besides that you don’t waste as much real time.

I like having to move between the town, and what I think you want is a merc company without the roleplaying, because so much happens on the road. I recruited my fav merc when he tried to steal some supplies from when I was camped travelling to the next town. [quote]
And why cannot that happen because the pixels that move along the road before you get that event moves 5-10 times faster? ;)
[quote]
I really support the real time being spent, because it makes you value your targets, and makes it more realistic.

That is fine. Personally I like to play a game, make decisions, be unlucky, be lucky, loot and so on. Sitting and watching and icon move from one place to another for a long period of time without any skill involved (besides not falling asleep) is just boring to me. Once bandits or something turns up or a random event I am interested. But between that it’s just my life wasted.
Sure… this is mostly at the start of the game… but I imagine it will be boring further on as well. Just that you travel less.

[SpiritofTheWolfx]

I feel a that a two times speed would be good when you are going town to town trying to find a job. I agree with the pausing the game when an enemy enters sight. Make it an option in the the settings to toggle on and off.

[Denjanjeau]

SpiritofTheWolfx wrote:

I feel a that a two times speed would be good when you are going town to town trying to find a job. I agree with the pausing the game when an enemy enters sight. Make it an option in the the settings to toggle on and off.

Well x5 or whatever was perhaps too extreme… just an example :) I just want to reduce sitting and waiting around for no good reason. I want to play the game. Make decisions and so on.

But a part of the game so far is real time. Wathcing a caravan is EASIER in one way than going by yourself between two towns as the caravan will team up in a fight. Yet the reward is much greater. Partly because the party takes more upkeep, but I sense mainly because I have to sit and click and adjust to the speed of the caravan. I don’t really enjoy that…it feels like micromanaging something boring and investing real time instead of game time.

Now this is of course personal taste. But a game like battlebrothers promises to be doesn’t need real time investments as it’s FULL of decision making. Dilemmas is already appearing and so on. I am sure this will be balance to not be boring. The game is in early release. Just wanted to voice that this is an issue for gamers like me. It heavily reduceds the fun of a game if I have to arbitrary spend a lot of real time to get the fun that I could get without spending as much “dead” time.

And in this aspect I do believe that I am not alone :)

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