GOD

[GOD]

Troll? I’m not a new member. Anyway, I don’t mean the features, but about how people feel that it plays compared to the old version – how it’s changed. Anyone still around that played the older builds?

[GOD]

Haha, seriously?! Can anyone tell me what’s changed then? The last version I played was ~0.4.1.

[GOD]

PsenBattle wrote:

I personally would consider Tolkien (the books in this case) as low fantasy, despite the epic scale and elves/dwarves. As well as the Witcher.
High fantasy would be something like D&D where you have bikini armors, flying castles and magic portals.

A lot of this has to do with the visual design of the world and its assets and the overall atmosphere. It all depends on how you implement it, not what you implement.

I’ve seen this come up a few times and I think the confusion is based on how the term low fantasy is used in games and how it is used when applied to books. People tend to mix these two when talking about games, so it can get really confusing what people are trying to say.

In videogames and tabletop role-playing games, low fantasy is used to denote a fantasy setting that tends towards the realistic. That’s it really. You then get into quibbling about what does and does not count as fantasy and what is and isn’t more or less realistic. To compare though, D&D would be high fantasy and the Thief games would be low fantasy.
It gets more complicated with literature, as there are multiple definitions you can use. You’ve got the one where everything that takes place in a different world is high-fantasy (generally with an epic scope) and everything that is in our world or a close equivalent is low-fantasy. Here Lord of the Rings is the quintessential example of high fantasy, while Harry Potter would actually be low fantasy. Another is that high fantasy is more about saving the world, while low-fantasy focuses more on personal journeys. So again Lord of the Rings again, compared to A Song of Ice and Fire. There’s way more ways of looking at high and low fantasy, but you’ve also got sword and sorcery, which puts the focus on the battles (Conan), or heroic fantasy which is about heroism and everything that that entails. Then there’s medieval fantasy, dark fantasy gothic fantasy, romantic fantasy and so and so on. Fantasy doesn’t get taken very seriously as an area of literary study, so you have to rummage around for definitions that sort of fit like this to get anywhere. It’s like how the only fantasy that is seen as having any literary merit is quickly declared to be magical realism.

As a game, Battle Brothers is probably closest to low-fantasy despite the fantastic elements, as most of them are treated in a relatively grounded manner. By the more literary definition and using Tolkien as another example, both take place in different worlds. Tolkien is about saving the world (good versus evil), while Battle Brothers is not (not in the good versus evil way, at least). Both are meant to be medieval. Keeping it simple, Tolkien would be high heroic medieval high fantasy, while Battle Brothers would probably be high medieval fantasy + sword and sorcery and some dark fantasy. This is why you can end up with some people thinking that it is a low-fantasy game, while others think it is high fantasy.

[GOD]

The way disengagement currently works is spot on. It’s an elegant and logical extension of the other combat mechanics, while adding a lot of flavour and tactical-depth to the game. It pretty much works as close to perfectly as I see it getting and doesn’t need changing. Maybe include a glossary to the help menu, when that gets implemented, that clarifies the exact mechanics behind it, or have some UI polish that amounts to the same thing.

[GOD]

Huh, I didn’t even know shift does that on the tactical map. That’s useful info and should take away any issue people have with not knowing which merc they’re controlling. This makes me miss the days of getting a juicy manual with lists of all the keyboard commands, though.
Not that I’d remember to use them. I’m the kind of player that plays Starcraft without hotkeys, because I can’t be bothered to memorise what does what. ;) This one should stick, though.

[GOD]

Ah, I tried backspace and spacebar, but not return since I figured that would be for confirming. Good to know.

[GOD]

Indomitable
The current Indomitable perk isn’t necessarily bad mechanically but it’s not a very attractive pick as a high level defensive perk because of its passivity, in spite of being an active ability. Passive here meaning that it is more reliant on circumstances, rather than planning. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes it a less attractive pick compared to the other active tier 3 perks (not counting Return Favor, which suffers from the same problem). Perfect Focus and Rally the Troops you can easily think of how and when you’ll use it. On the other hand, the moments when you’ll be able to plan ahead on needing Indomitable are far fewer. As a result, I’ve never found myself going beyond tier 2 for the defence tree. It’s always tier 1 and 2.
Instead, how about making it a passive ability that makes it so that the opponent’s abilities can no longer move that character. So no push or pull (including Orc Warriors their ability). He only moves when you want him to move (when sane). That would suit the theme of being an indomitable juggernaut and allow you make a tactical plan, without being overpowering. Being tier 3 keeps it from being a hard-counter to those abilities, since you’re missing out on the really useful abilities of the other perk-trees, while still being a useful addition.

More perks
Perks are a great way of diversifying mercs and are a lot of fun to tinker around with, so I’d like to see more get implemented, without changing the level scale, for more build diversity. Not changing the level scale keeps things from getting overpowered and makes picking the perks more meaningful, compared to having b a boatload of perk-points.

Centre on company
Could be that I just missed it, but a command to centre the screen on the company when on the strategic map would helpful. Sometimes I spend some time looking around the map and need to figure out where my company is, so I have to pause the game and look manually. A shortcut for that would make exploring go smoother.

[GOD]

Enemy axe-wielder not splintering shields is not how I experience it. I always have to be really cautious about putting up shields next to them, because they will resort to chopping it in pieces if they can. Doesn’t matter if they’re Undead, Human or Orcs, they all do it, especially if the merc is being surrounded. It’s basically a death-sentence at low-level.

[GOD]

That’s probably because you’re focusing on your upper body and aren’t properly using your lower body, so you’re missing out on the power your of legs and hips. That’s also where your balance comes from. You can stretch your arms a bit better when sitting on a chair, but you’re still not really using your lower body and ignoring all the force it can generate. That’s correctable, though, with plenty of exercise.

[GOD]

I’m pretty tall and I’ve never experienced or seen others experience difficulties like that. You just use your waist and exert a lot more power that way. Balancing and posture are only an issue when you’re still in your growth spurt and not used to your new height yet.

The picture is kind of small, but seems to me like he’s not using his hips properly for leverage. It goes a lot faster and you have to bend less when you do it that way. A shorter person can’t do that as well and depending on how short they are (the trait to me implies very short) they would end up exerting significantly less force, because of being unable to pull the string as if lifting it and therefore having to rely on their arm strength.

[GOD]

I’m guessing less power to draw the string, with longer arms and more muscles relative to the shorter one. Drawing the crossbow also takes strength, but it would mostly affect loading speed rather than the power of the shot as you can draw the string into postion a bit faster. It would depend though on what kind of crossbow you’re dealing with, so it’s not that clear cut. I’m guessing the damage decreasing is meant as an abstraction that can be applied to ranged weapons in general as more get introduced, rather than having to be adjusted for each weapon.

/

The bending forward comes with having to anchor the crossbow on the ground while you draw back the string (with the manual crossbow, at least). That’s where the power comes into play, which you exert more of if you’re taller. Not sure what you mean by shorter people having better posture and balance? That’s more related to the build of your body, rather than your actual size.

[GOD]

Says so in the faq. It does not explicitly state that the 50% extra damage is only applied to hitpoints and not to damage done to helmets as well, but as far as I can tell from playing that does seem to be the case and it makes sense to have it be like that.

[GOD]

50% more damage to hitpoints when not wearing a helmet, unless you have the Steel Brow perk.

[GOD]

Yo. :)

The devs seem to be working on some ways to customise the player character, but it’s still unclear what they’ve got planned and how extensive it’ll be. Judging by what they’ve said though, the PC will not take part in the actual fighting.

[GOD]

It’s fantasy, yes, but fantasy that sticks to a specific historical period more closely than is usual for the genre. That historical period has been roughly noted as being around 900-1200. That’s not a strict limit though, with there being outliers in what kind of weapons are available, but plate I recall being mentioned as specifically being outside of the period-theme that they’re going for.

As for armour, there’s lots of kind that I would like to see. Something like brigandine could still just about fit the time-period, if you go for the earliest models. It also combines nicely with other armours, so you could make layered versions.

[Author]

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