Some questions

[Sarissofoi]

Hello there.

For start I want to thank you for making this game. It looks great so far and I can see that you have clear vision and what matter more you know how to make it real. I spend countless hours on Tactics Ogre and read Black Company many times so game about mercenary company is a instant plus. Also I really like this low fantasy medieval setup – its one of my favourite. So far so good. Thank you for that.

Second thanks is for your combat demo. Although limited is still great fun. Even if it is far after your current build it looks good and play great. I have few issues like with combat like one hand weapon not having any advantages over one hand weapon and shield or that spare weapon or shields don’t affect performance in any way but I notice that you address it(one hand with dual grip with bonus damage and spares lower fatigue). It feels good when developers know what they doing. Not mention that I can clearly see how much love you give to it. These small details like arrows marking places they fell or damage of armour and cuts on wounded battle brothers. Amazing. Normally I would criticize things I am not fond of but I can’t simply didn’t notice things I want to whine about. Thank you.

Other thing is women soldiers in game. When I originally hoped for some female followers I notice that you plan add them now as line soldiers or Battle Sisters. Personally I don’t think that it fit a theme but I really don’t mind them if they are rather rare. Female soldiers were not common in any of know era and low tech low fantasy medieval setup is not exactly fitting for them. Also don’t like idea of slaughtering female bandits – but that is just me. I think the best option is to add possibility to customize this on start with either slider or handful of options so it will be possible to generate world when only men or only women enlist or their ratio is what player want. I know that is additional work so its low priority but maybe its a thing worth considering.

I agree with you about your look at difficulty levels. Scarcity of funds will directly affect how strong and equipped band is and also make mistakes or losses more hard to recover. Changing statistics is no good. Although maybe you can look into changing enemy group structure. Adding additional necromancer to band of undead will make harder to fight them without changing stats or gimping AI.
More options mean more fun. And even some crazy broken setup might be great for a story(like fighting against powerful enemy in kingdom infested by bandits and seeing world burn around you with little to no possibility to stop them – its fight not to win but to survive how long you can – it be fun in different way).

There few question.
How exactly economy will work?
I read about generation of wealth and health but if there will be something more? Like villages supplying town with food and resources and town producing goods etc?
Also how strongholds will be funded? Is they belong to named nobles? Do they send tax collectors and supply wagons to settlements to get funds and supplies?
Will there be independent merchant/traders who travel around world for gain? They can move and generate some wealth for settlements they visit but mostly for themselves(when they get rich they can retire in cities adding their wealth to them).
Will there be independent free companies like player Band of Brothers? Who look for contract and possibility to enrich themselves?
Or maybe a band of adventures or young nobles trying to vanquish evil and save poor maidens?
How information will flow in this world? Are there will be rumours about contracts and events or it will be passed directly to the player?
Do settlements will have some distinct structures? Like great armoury or famous swordsmith for some strongholds or university or cathedrals for cities?
Do you plan adding abbeys or some sort religious settlements with monk who preach and pilgrims to visit and witch hunter to take heretics?
This game have some strong Warharmer vibe. Do you plan adding cultist/heretics faction? Or maybe dirty ratmens?
What about bandits? Are they more than maruders and robbers? Do you consider adding some sort of rogue knights?

Game looks great so far. Bit shame that there is no updated demo but I understood that you have more important things to do.
So when will be possible to get hands on this game in making?
Are there is possibility for early access before early access? How much it will cost?
Thank you for your reply. Hope that I don’t bother you too much.
Keep the good work.

[Rap]

Thanks a lot for your encouragement and appreciation of the work we do! :)

Sarissofoi wrote:

Other thing is women soldiers in game. When I originally hoped for some female followers I notice that you plan add them now as line soldiers or Battle Sisters. Personally I don’t think that it fit a theme but I really don’t mind them if they are rather rare. Female soldiers were not common in any of know era and low tech low fantasy medieval setup is not exactly fitting for them. Also don’t like idea of slaughtering female bandits – but that is just me. I think the best option is to add possibility to customize this on start with either slider or handful of options so it will be possible to generate world when only men or only women enlist or their ratio is what player want. I know that is additional work so its low priority but maybe its a thing worth considering.

A slider to adjust the ratio of male to female characters in the game is not something we’ll do. Rather, we’ll build a world wherein both male and female characters exist but – keeping in line with history – the majority of the fighting profession is filled by males. Female characters come with their own backgrounds that take into account how a quasi-medieval world treats them, so they won’t just be male characters with different heads either. Just like their male counterparts, some will be more and some will be less suited to the hard life as mercenaries. It’s your perogative as a mercenary commander to hire or not to hire whoever you want (and can afford).

Sarissofoi wrote:

I agree with you about your look at difficulty levels. Scarcity of funds will directly affect how strong and equipped band is and also make mistakes or losses more hard to recover. Changing statistics is no good. Although maybe you can look into changing enemy group structure. Adding additional necromancer to band of undead will make harder to fight them without changing stats or gimping AI.
More options mean more fun. And even some crazy broken setup might be great for a story(like fighting against powerful enemy in kingdom infested by bandits and seeing world burn around you with little to no possibility to stop them – its fight not to win but to survive how long you can – it be fun in different way).

Changing enemy group composition was the original plan, but as we moved onto a simulated world this isn’t as straightforward a thing to do. Opponents now create parties to move about the world based on the actual resources they have available. Handing out more resources for them to create bigger/meaner parties would unbalance the world as a whole, not only as it concerns the player. Adjusting the scarcity of funds is one of the few things that only applies to the player – and is easily done. I suppose we could “cheat” and give the AI extra units in tactical battles with the player only on harder difficulties. We’ll see.

We’ll look into different starting options in the future. For now we want to concentrate on just getting the core game done.

Sarissofoi wrote:

How exactly economy will work?

We’ll start with a relatively simple economy based on the idea that every location has finite resources, ways to spend them and often multiple ways to acquire them, all to the ultimate end of presenting the player a dynamic world which they can actually influence. We’ll do a video soon to explain the world simulation (and present the new visual style of the map) which will probably do a better job showing how the economy works than I could do explaining it here.

Sarissofoi wrote:

I read about generation of wealth and health but if there will be something more? Like villages supplying town with food and resources and town producing goods etc?

Yes, villages do supply towns, watchtowers and strongholds. And also each other.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Also how strongholds will be funded? Is they belong to named nobles? Do they send tax collectors and supply wagons to settlements to get funds and supplies?

Well, strongholds would probably send out tax collectors, but we’ve abstracted this to them gaining resources automatically for now.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Will there be independent merchant/traders who travel around world for gain? They can move and generate some wealth for settlements they visit but mostly for themselves(when they get rich they can retire in cities adding their wealth to them).

There are no independent traders currently, every trader belongs to a village (or town or city). The idea is to have a few hidden merchants on the map outside of the usual locations, such as a supposed witch selling you a supposedly magical item. It’s something we’ll tackle after the initial release.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Will there be independent free companies like player Band of Brothers? Who look for contract and possibility to enrich themselves?

We’ve considered neutral mercenary companies before, but they are not currently in the game. Maybe at some point.

Sarissofoi wrote:

How information will flow in this world? Are there will be rumours about contracts and events or it will be passed directly to the player?

We want to have a tavern of sorts eventually where the player can, among other things, pick up on rumors based on actual world events. It won’t make it into the first Early Access release, however.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Do settlements will have some distinct structures? Like great armoury or famous swordsmith for some strongholds or university or cathedrals for cities?

No, settlements do not have distinct structures currently. It’s a nice idea, though, to give them more flavor.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Do you plan adding abbeys or some sort religious settlements with monk who preach and pilgrims to visit and witch hunter to take heretics?

This hasn’t come up before. Maybe. We do already have both monk and witchhunter backgrounds for characters you can hire.

Sarissofoi wrote:

This game have some strong Warharmer vibe. Do you plan adding cultist/heretics faction? Or maybe dirty ratmens?

Yes.

Sarissofoi wrote:

What about bandits? Are they more than maruders and robbers? Do you consider adding some sort of rogue knights?

Also yes. Though probably not at first. We’re a bit short on time, so the first iteration of bandits sadly won’t feature that much unique units or mechanics.

Sarissofoi wrote:

So when will be possible to get hands on this game in making?

Early next year, as in January or February.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Are there is possibility for early access before early access? How much it will cost?

I’m not sure what you mean exactly. If you’re rich, feel free to make us an offer to get immediate access ;)

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[Sarissofoi]

Hello again.
Thanks for response. I am not disappointed.

A slider to adjust the ratio of male to female characters in the game is not something we’ll do. Rather, we’ll build a world wherein both male and female characters exist but – keeping in line with history – the majority of the fighting profession is filled by males. Female characters come with their own backgrounds that take into account how a quasi-medieval world treats them, so they won’t just be male characters with different heads either. Just like their male counterparts, some will be more and some will be less suited to the hard life as mercenaries. It’s your perogative as a mercenary commander to hire or not to hire whoever you want (and can afford).

Sounds reasonable. No more questions.

Changing enemy group composition was the original plan, but as we moved onto a simulated world this isn’t as straightforward a thing to do. Opponents now create parties to move about the world based on the actual resources they have available. Handing out more resources for them to create bigger/meaner parties would unbalance the world as a whole, not only as it concerns the player. Adjusting the scarcity of funds is one of the few things that only applies to the player – and is easily done. I suppose we could “cheat” and give the AI extra units in tactical battles with the player only on harder difficulties. We’ll see.

Agreed.

Well, strongholds would probably send out tax collectors, but we’ve abstracted this to them gaining resources automatically for now.

Which makes sense. Strongholds most of the times have little towns inside and their own fields and wells so they should generate their own supplies and some coins. Although gross funds should come from outside. But as for temporary solutions is OK.
Do watchtowers generate money? I was thinking about them collecting some tariffs from trade caravans passing by.

There are no independent traders currently, every trader belongs to a village (or town or city). The idea is to have a few hidden merchants on the map outside of the usual locations, such as a supposed witch selling you a supposedly magical item. It’s something we’ll tackle after the initial release.

I was more about trade caravans independent from cities. Something like Merchant Guild or Hansa. Bunch of traders moving with goods between cities and making money occasionally spreading rumours.

We want to have a tavern of sorts eventually where the player can, among other things, pick up on rumors based on actual world events. It won’t make it into the first Early Access release, however.

Sounds good. But how information gonna spread? If say village is overrun by undead then anybody instantly will know this or say some refuges will arrive to the nearby town or stronghold or other village and from this place information is spreading by traders, tax collectors, patrols, wandering monks or adventures who visit other places.

This hasn’t come up before. Maybe. We do already have both monk and witchhunter backgrounds for characters you can hire.

I was more about their presence on world map. Something like villagers send plea to their feudal lord for protection when they are threaten by bandits orcs or monsters but in case of undead or some heretical activity they first ask local bishop to send a company of Witchhunters.
Wandering monks can be used to gather resources and information and spread rumours. Pilgrims mostly bring offerings to the holy places and spread rumours.

I’m not sure what you mean exactly. If you’re rich, feel free to make us an offer to get immediate access ;)

Haha. Sadly I am not that rich to buy your company. If I was you will be sitting in special dungeon already working on sequel or expansion.
I hoped for some possibility to buy copy or two of game with access to current build even if it would be much more priced than final version. Probably not worth your time unless you are interested in some pocket money.
Speaking of which how much you would charge for final version?

Thanks for reply. It was interesting to read. I can clearly see that your work is going into the right direction and I am sure that you will do a great job.
Good luck. Although I don’t think you will need it much because you have enough skill to be successful on skill alone.
I think God Speed will be more fitting.

[Rap]

Sarissofoi wrote:

Do watchtowers generate money? I was thinking about them collecting some tariffs from trade caravans passing by.

Yes, they actually do collect tariffs, though the income from this is low and we mostly added this for flavor back when we first started with the worldmap. Watchtowers get reinforcements and supplies from strongholds via supply trecks which can be intercepted by opponents and also escorted by the player. Supply Trecks are basically well-guarded caravans more able to defend themselves than the civilian caravans sent out by villages.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Sounds good. But how information gonna spread? If say village is overrun by undead then anybody instantly will know this or say some refuges will arrive to the nearby town or stronghold or other village and from this place information is spreading by traders, tax collectors, patrols, wandering monks or adventures who visit other places.

Well, we simulate the spreading of information throughout the world to a limited extent, mostly as it concerns the sighting of opponents. For example, if a patrol discovers a bandit hideout it has to actually return to the stronghold in order for the stronghold to gain knowledge of it and to be able to send either an assault party to take it down or offer a contract to the player.

Although the player has exact information only in a small radius around their position (the size of which depends also on whether it is night or day, terrain, and such), events with global significance have visual clues which can be seen from across the map. For example, a village being raided will burn and have smoke spiralling into the sky – so even though the player won’t know who is raiding the village and what exactly is going on, they’ll be able to see that there is conflict on the horizon.

We won’t have a general simulation of the spreading of information by individuals taking news from one place to another over a period of time, but, like I mentioned, we’ll have a rumor mechanic eventually which will also mention refugees and the like for flavor as it fits the events. Knowledge about events such as a city being razed will spread more or less instantly.

Finally, see the next point.

Sarissofoi wrote:

I was more about their presence on world map. Something like villagers send plea to their feudal lord for protection when they are threaten by bandits orcs or monsters but in case of undead or some heretical activity they first ask local bishop to send a company of Witchhunters.
Wandering monks can be used to gather resources and information and spread rumours. Pilgrims mostly bring offerings to the holy places and spread rumours.

We’ll have wandering pilgrims and similar that act as a source of information, though mainly regarding lore and background flavor. They won’t be depicted as actual units travelling the map but rather via events happening as the player travels the world. If you’re familiar with Crusader Kings 2, you’ll have a rough idea of what I mean by events that have you meet a group of pilgrims on the road.

In the world of Battle Brothers there are no official institutionalized witchhunters to be sent a company of. We may eventually have independent groups of witchhunters roam the world, and we already have a witchhunter background for hireable characters, but those aren’t necessarily professionals as part of some institution, and they aren’t necessarily all that efficient in their work. Individual witchhunters can be on a power trip, paranoid and deluded or outright mad and will leave a trail of falsely accused victims just as they may do actual good. People will call on them for help in their desperation, but they’re often despised as much as the original problem for the collateral damage they do. They’re not above the law either and may see themselves hanged, justified or not, depending also on how the local authority judges their doings.

Sarissofoi wrote:

Speaking of which how much you would charge for final version?

We don’t know yet since the final version is still a long way to go. It will be in the usual price range of a high quality indiegame with a niche audience.

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