Some conceptual ideas

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

I have so far played only a little over 60 hours, but I have some general experience with turn-based hex strategies (~5000 hours in Panzer Corps) and I have a couple of content ideas:

1) Trader Alternative
Since trade is already a significant part of keeping your finances in the black, I would like to have the option to go primarily business: Rent a wagon(s) (And steeds. Which I have to feed.) and run my own caravan by making wholesale contracts with local producers. (“Come to Holzschlag in 5 days with a wagon and buy 50 units of wood for 5000 crowns/wagon. If you can safely bring it over the mountains to a port, merchant ships will buy it for 9000.”)

Similarly, I should have a broader choice to go full rogue and make my living through robbing, pillaging and shaking down villages – at the full risk of being hunted down by a noble’s army or a coalition of local town militias.

As a tangent, the game is missing mills – these were a huge part of the medieval economy, often rich, sometimes fortified, centers for grain processing and sale and a major source of revenue for whoever controlled them. Quarries and lumber camps were also a thing – these could operate as somewhat different towns – mainly about raw materials to purchase but also in need of food supply and occasionally offering rugged men to hire.

2) Ability to rise
As one kind of a goal in what is currently a sandbox experience, I would like to have a shot at becoming a knight – as a favor bestowed by a noble house in exchange for loyalty and/or extraordinary services.

As a knight, I could perhaps build a small fort in some area, receive stable income from a village or two – but also have the duty to deliver men and fight for my overlord. Then I’d have a real close incentive to defend my part of the barony from intrusions and I could in some way start participating in the grander politics of the realm. The castle would require wood and stone which I would have to get from somewhere…

Some ability to rise really seem necessary to provide a sense of a goal – I would surely like to eventually buy an estate or build a permanent camp somewhere in the woods, where I can store and guard my money (I shouldn’t be able to physically carry around 50.000 crowns – this would weigh a ton), surplus equipment, food stores for the winter (seasons, hmm… affecting the availability of food and work) treat the wounded (having a healer on a payroll as a facility for your base camp seems like a nice option), and defend myself from enemies. I am sure you are already thinking of this – but forts and ruins need to become real obstacles.

All of this however, kind of necessitates a personalized hero who is physically present to lead the band and receive these titles. This may not be a bad thing – your hero needs to survive and this has tactical implications for your combat decisions.

3) Wizards
If I have to fight necromancers, I want to be able to hire a healing+buffing druid or a cursing+manipulating witch (no stereotyping intended). That said, I feel – and suspect that many players would agree – that magic should not intrude upon the melee nature of the game. I still want to keep mainly killing stuff through stabs and slashes – not fireballs or chain lightnings. Magic should remain marginal – but I would really like to have some access to it. Maybe allow only one magic user per band (wizards can’t stand each other…) and make their abilities combat-centric (more protective wards, bramblethorn barriers and blessed strikes, fewer magic missiles).

4)Charms and amulets
A witch (in a creepy, remote hut in the woods) or an alchemist in a large town should be able to sell me magic trinkets which buff the stats of my men (Talisman of precision: +5 to ranged skill) or give me an extra perk (Terror charm: Grants the “Fearsome” perk to wearer).

[Rap]

Battle Brothers is about leading a travelling mercenary company of regular human beings in a low fantasy world. Trading, magic and governing castles are all interesting concepts to explore in games of their own, but not in a game which has had a different focus from the very beginning.

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[arteofwar]

I understand that you don’t want to take the mount and blade path of becoming a lord, because then people could just play warband. Would you instead consider a base camp that can be relocated. For example, when clearing a abandoned fort, you make it into a base to stash goods and train recruits, but process of fortifying it could be pricey and require resources other then gold to balance out the benefits. Then if the player decides they want to move basecamp to a different abandoned castle or fort you would just have to clear it out while having the proper resources in your inventory (Wood, Gold, Cloth etc.) Penalties like having your base attacked for staying in one place for too long can be added where the player has a day or two to rush back to “lift the siege” or else lose their trophies and garrison and leaving their base like a burnt out village attachment. This could satisfy players urge to have a storage/trophy and training base without granting them a theme breaking fief and lordship. As for training this would only perhaps give farmers and fishermen a single level or maybe not a level but stat boosts that you could pick like training them in marksmanship. As I mentioned before this should only be achievable by a well established mercenary group that could afford the expenses for the benefits these thing would provide, after all the Jomsvikings had a base, so it is not so strange to think mercenaries would establish temporary bases that would move depending on what noble house they were serving.

[totoro520]

I too love the idea of being able to build my own fort or even maybe siege a town. What the game lacks now is interactions between your company and the ingame world. The endless grinding does get repetative after some time.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Well ok, fair enough – even though you already have magic and trading in the game – but the lack of some sort of goal or advancement does get grinding after a while. It’s fun and all, but once I have 15 level 11 men, mostly with rare armor and weapons, there isn’t really much left to do. I should at least get to fight in a larger battle as a unit in a noble’s army or something.

But here are some other ideas I would appreciate:

Riders. We have goblin wolfriders, I want to buy a horse or two. And take care of them (and saddle, armor and level them up) as befits a valuable property of the time and setting. Extra movement and height advantage, charge special ability, weak against spears and polearms, can sometimes kick enemies (or go panic and hit your own men)…

Some sort of a “farm” or temporary retirement for some of my men. A place where I could retain a couple of them and, let’s say, give them only half their pay for the duration. I can’t really experiment with different formations and tactics when the majority of my team is locked into a specific role (e.g. heavy swordman – brawny colossus shield expert and swordmaster) and I can’t let them go without permanently losing them. This again comes back to the idea of some kind of a base camp…

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Two more ideas, of a more procedural nature:

I would really appreciate some kind of a “fog of war” marker. When I am exploring an area I have already discovered (because somebody in Bramming hinted that there might be rare armor in the hills west of town – so I’m trying to find a newly spawned orc camp) I can’t tell what I have recently seen or not – especially since the visual range changes with light conditions and altitude. I’m imagining a transparent shroud that lifts for a day when I visit the place again and comes back a day after I leave.

Secondly, what about some kind of a weapon attachment for my men? Either an event by which they form a bond with a specific weapon (this is my lucky axe from that bloody battle! I get +10 melee skill when I use it and -5 when I use anything else*) or simply a learned preference for the type of weapon the character is using habitually (+5 when using hammers, -5 for two-handed weapons, until the character gradually re-adapts to something new – on top of the mastery perk).

*This might possibly be in the game already, but I haven’t encountered it.

Oh – and one more thing: Mushroom huntingForaging? Like in a wooded area, I might lose time for a chance to find some food, when I’m in really dire straits?

[Namespace]

The fog of war feature you described would be really nice imo. Maybe an extra layer that “regenerates” fog of war and would be able to toggle on or off. At least being able to check the current view range would be very helpful when using mountains to scout a big area.

@weapon attachments certainly would be an immersive feature especially if it was dynamic. If some farmer keeps using a sword, eventually he would become better with it compared to when using an axe. I doubt that this would have high priority though, maybe a small addition after the release?

Merkwuerdigliebe wrote:

Some sort of a “farm” or temporary retirement for some of my men. A place where I could retain a couple of them and, let’s say, give them only half their pay for the duration. I can’t really experiment with different formations and tactics when the majority of my team is locked into a specific role (e.g. heavy swordman – brawny colossus shield expert and swordmaster) and I can’t let them go without permanently losing them. This again comes back to the idea of some kind of a base camp…

So far all the responses I read about this topic were dismissive. Something along the lines of “there will be no basecamp”. And I do understand why. Allthough it might not fit the lore, a storage feature would be an immense quality of life improvement. Some sort of bank where I could just drop my uniques because it would pain me to sell them. Leave some of my guys in town (say a temple or an inn) to heal while I take the rest and deliver this shady crate to the next village.
This is just speculation, but maybe the veteran’s hall will be featuring something like this?

In any case, I just want to stress that the inventory and roster are too small, especially late game. Maybe we could get a feature to expand the inventory for some crowns? I am a hoarder of shinies and nice things in all video games so having to sell my crafted direwolf hide armor really is frustrating to me. I would rather put it on a mannequinn instead.

Also I would like to suggest a respec feature for perks. It happened to me a few times that I learned the wrong perk on accident, mostly mix up dodge with anticipation because they look similar. On another occasion I tried out a 2-Handed axe build because I found this insane unique axe. Sadly my guy ended up having only 90 melee skill on lv11 which is enough for a 2h sword but not quite enough for an axe (because of accuracy modifiers). This is where changing the weapon mastery would come in really handy. Maybe generate a “respec point” every 100 days the guy is in the company.

[SuperCaffeineDude]

I like the idea of units being trained organically with a weapon via use, maybe track 3 weapons per mercenary; current, best, 2nd best. For me a more organic training system over the level-up system would be awesome, not sure how that would play though.

I would prefer an upgradable wagon that unlocks merc and inventory slots. But I honestly don’t think this game suits allowing players to collect more than your troops can carry. Imagine how much it would cost you to keep troops on standby, or have supplies sent to a warcamp. I understand the desire to accumulate loot and upgrades to track progress, but with procedurally generated loot it just seems like you’re never going to have enough space.

[RusBear]

I proposed long time ago the idea of change/rise the group inventory and other things related to strategic map. This could be a separate perks tree and experience for it a group got from quests not kills and also organically possible to inscribe it into the overall reputation of the group. Unfortunately, only three men, as we understand it – they can not do everything.

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

How about if I could save up for a war ship and set out adventuring/plundering off to the sea?

[Merkwuerdigliebe]

Hunting: If I have a hunter/poacher in my party, I should be able to track animals – the same way as enemies. If I happen upon a herd of deer, I would like to engage them in combat, see how many I can hunt down before they run away and skin and butcher the successfully shot ones (if I have an actual butcher in my party, I get more meat or some other extra product I can sell).

This goes in the general direction of more meaningful advantages from different professions of your recruits. Hunters could give you some extra scouting (including for combat prep) and woodspeople could give you faster movements in forests etc.

[Author]

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