Reply To: Some thoughts.
Thanks, glad you like the game! :)
Given the fantasy setting, would it be inappropriate to have some low level cleric and/or magic users, either as characters or as traits? I would see clerics as being healers who could speed up the existing healing process with, maybe, in-combat healing being included on a very limited basis (neither healer or healed being in contact with the enemy, for instance).
We want to have non-combat followers eventually, tending to the logistical needs of a mercenary company. This would likely include some type of healer helping your injured Battle Brothers to recover faster and from more serious injuries once we add a more complex injury system in the future. Healing in combat is something we want to avoid, as in our opinion it would very much break the flow and detract from how bloody and deadly battles are right now. We may add one or two very rare legendary items with magical healing properties eventually, but that’s about it.
Handguns could be an interesting weapon type to include. Slower to load, perhaps taking two turns and not very accurate other than at short range. They would nevertheless be potent, particularly against heavy opponents, as they would bypass armour protection, which was how they were used historically in this period.
Not planned for now, as we’re focussing more on the early to mid medieval times. You’ll notice that we don’t have any real plate armor, either. Still something that might possibly make it into the game at some point in the far future.
There are night and day effects already. Any weather effects? – fog and heavy rain come to mind with both closing down range of vision and rain causing reduction in movement rates due to mud -something a hedge wizard might be able to assist with.
We have a few weather effects already (it’s raining in the ‘Defend the Hill’ scenario of the combat demo, for example), but they’re purely cosmetic for now. We want to add more weather effects in time, depending on where in the world you’re at, and also have them have actual effects on gameplay, like you said.
I know this is called Battle Brothers but no battle sisters? Pretty much every fantasy setting has female warriors and there certainly was a limited amount of them historically.
Resource constraints forced us to go without them for now. They’re planned but I can’t tell you when they’ll make their way into the game. Here is a preview of how one might look.
Someone suggested having the option to create a lead character, which you rejected for good reasons but it would be nice to be able to choose one of the starting trio from the list available. That way, I could have my captain as, say, a failed nobleman rather than having to choose between three backgrounds that I may not like. Not a big deal but it is supposed to be about ‘my company’ and this would enhance the RPG element IMO.
We may add some kind of character generation at the start of a campaign eventually, it’s come up now and again in discussions. However, it’s pretty low on our priority list for now as there are so many more things we want to do with the game.
Each side would get a small number of action cards, selected randomly, from a larger deck which would have the chance to influence actions and events in combat. The cards would only have a percentage chance to come into effect when played but could, for instance, alter a poor outcome or reinforce a good one; delay an opponents turn or pull back a routed comrade and so forth. This mechanic would sometimes allow ‘off the wall’ events to happen which could not easily be accommodated in the normal combat system – like a one-off super shot from a missile weapon or a very poor brother taking down a very powerful enemy.
I don’t believe the concept of action cards would fit with our design. The things you’re describing are already possible without the use of action cards.