'The Beast Faction'

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

Been a while since I last posted here, but I’ve checked out every update and I cannot wait to play around with the EA product. So… I remember early into development you guys had penciled in four enemy factions, the undead, the green skins, the bandits, and the beasts. As of now, we’ve seen some of the first three in action, but the final one has been conspicuously absent.

Since the campaign map was implemented I have been getting serious ‘Witcher’ vibes – which is not wholly surprising – seeing as Battle Brothers is a very European inspired fantasy game.

Anyway, I’ll try get to the point. The Witcher games focus a lot on monster hunter (especially the third entry judging from the trailers and previews). I think that the ‘beast faction’ – if it does eventually constitute a faction – would add a lot of variety to game.

Here, the possibilities are quite endless; instead of dealing with swarms of enemies, big monsters (perhaps four hex sized) and beasts could really add some spice and variety that sets them apart from the other three factions.

Im thinking Wyrms, trolls, giants, boars, dragons, yetis, ogres, werewolves (already implemented), dire wolves, wyverns, cockatrices, harpies, spiders…

The head of larger beast could be sold as a trophy or could act as a contract requirement.

It would make the world feel less static if… out in the wilderness there were large and imposing creatures to hunt, or be hunted by.

I don’t know where these larger fantasy creatures fit into your vision or philosophy – I know the game is very medieval inspired – but with orcs, goblins, vampires, and the undead already on the menu. I very much doubt that trolls, wyverns and other such creatures would feel out of place.

Certain creatures could inhabit certain areas of the map. For example up in the north, the snowy vast landscape could be home to dire wolves and the fabled yeti. In the forests to south packs of wolves could roam, and be particularly active along the roads at night. In the caves and caverns dotted around the map, spiders and other such creatures could inhabit their depths. Along the river banks, one might be unfortunate to stumble across a troll, a large a aggressive creature that perhaps may cause nearby villagers a lot of distress. Up in the mountains, Ogres with an appetite for donkey, could line the mountain passes waiting for unsuspecting trading caravans. For the most foolhardy, contracts may exist that reward a pretty penny for those brave enough to bring down a great drake, their lesser brethren the wyrms, or a swarm of pack hunting wyverns.

Hopefully I’ve gone some way to sell it to you.

Keep up the good work :)

[Trig]

Anonymous wrote:

Certain creatures could inhabit certain areas of the map. For example up in the north, the snowy vast landscape could be home to dire wolves and the fabled yeti.

I suggested single four- or seven-hex enemies to the team before. But since you mention the “European” orientation of the game, what would a Yeti (Asian) be doing there? If anything, Norse mythology has Frost giants.

Personally I am against cramming everything into games, all possible manner of monsters and game/movie clichés, but instead prefer when they stick to some concept. Even if it’s a mythological concept, it better be thought out and consistent…

[Jago]

One thing I really like about the Witcher series is the great enemy design. Most enemies are somewhat fantastic, but re-imagined for a low-fantasy, medieval setting. They make sense and feel natural, feel REAL and are perfectly integrated into the world.

That being said, well, I don’t think that super powerful monsters, like dragons, fit in well; gameplay-wise.
Imagine your brothers are not fighting a group of enemies, but instead a single, huge and powerful monster. The odds must be somewhat even, in order to make the battle a challenge. So this single monster is worth, lets say 6 brothers. With the high mortality of your brothers (they’re no witchers!) you’ll easily lose half your men. I’m just not sure how this is going to work in a realistic way, unless you want the monster to be the final boss.
Imo these big monster-fights work better in action games without permadeath.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the devs have an ace up their sleeve and know how to make it work. I won’t be disappointed either way.

Then, on the other hand, we can re-imagine monster, too. Dragons can be downscaled to lindworms, that are on par with werewolves in terms of power. Strong but manageable. Or drakes, like you said.

The same goes for wyverns, who can become dog-sized feathered reptiles that live in the mountains. A threat but not as powerful. Overall a more realistic and functional approach imo.

Visit the Battle Brothers Wikia

[Anonymous]

@Trig

Just to clarify, I’m not calling for everything to be ‘crammed’ into the game. My list, was not meant to be taken literally.
Touche, you got me with the yeti. It is indeed asian mythology, I was using examples that could easily fit from a visual and thematic standpoint – it didn’t need to literally be a yeti. Brand it ‘giant’, ‘frost giant’ or whatever, as long as it fits thematically into the world of Battle Brothers
Those things aside, I’m simply making two observations: firstly the devs at OverHype have outwardly stated that there will be a beast faction, and secondly the world as an ecosystem seems pretty static (judging from videos), yes theres bandits, orcs, undead, goblins… but what of the wildlife that populates this world? I agree with Jago, the Witcher series has majestically managed to meld the grit of the medieval ages with high fantasy; I think that it could be replicated here, or even improved upon.

@Jago

1 versus 6
6 versus 6
…The result can be the same. The beauty of turn based strategy is that you can do precisely that: strategise. Larger four hex monsters could and would pose a challenge to the battle brothers. But no more than a band of bandit hunters, or an army of orcs. The fun would be in co-ordinating you battle brother to bring down the creature. Plus I have every faith that the devs could accomplish this in a fun and exciting way.

Edit

Looks like I’m jumping the gun. After very simply navigating the site I stumble on this:

The beast faction is not a typical faction as it is not united within itself. This faction consists of all kinds of dangerous and mystical creatures that roam the lands independently and threaten its inhabitants.

The first creature that is already in the game is the werewolf. These half human and half wolf creatures always travel in packs and are not hindered by darkness at night. They are extremely fast and although they do not use weapons or armor they are absolutely deadly when using their fangs and claws.

As time goes on more and more creatures will be added to this faction.

Looking forward to seeing how the devs handle this faction :)

[Rap]

Anonymous wrote:

So… I remember early into development you guys had penciled in four enemy factions, the undead, the green skins, the bandits, and the beasts. As of now, we’ve seen some of the first three in action, but the final one has been conspicuously absent.

It’s just by chance that the beast faction hasn’t been featured in any of the newer LPs – packs of werewolves actually roam the forests on the map, proving to be quite a challenge for the player in the beginning. As they terrorize villages, there’s also sometimes a contract offered to take them down.

That being said, it’s quite true that the beast faction is the one that has received the least amount of attention from us so far, for no particular reason other than being short on time. They only have a single entry in their roster, the werewolf. We even decided on a minor rework for the werewolf some time ago but didn’t yet find the time to implement it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anyway, I’ll try get to the point. The Witcher games focus a lot on monster hunter (especially the third entry judging from the trailers and previews). I think that the ‘beast faction’ – if it does eventually constitute a faction – would add a lot of variety to game.
I don’t know where these larger fantasy creatures fit into your vision or philosophy – I know the game is very medieval inspired – but with orcs, goblins, vampires, and the undead already on the menu. I very much doubt that trolls, wyverns and other such creatures would feel out of place.

Absolutely! Having beasts roam the lands is something we wanted to do from the beginning. I agree that hunting them could feel quite Witcher-esque, but I think it fits very well into this low power fantasy world where, in the absence of a mutant monster hunter, you’d hire a whole group of grizzled mercenaries to take down those menacing beasts.

When developing any enemy we want both the particular type of enemy (say, a zombie) and the whole of the faction (say, the undead) to have a clear theme and a distinct feel when fighting against. The same would be true for any kind of beast in that they should all feel distinct. Having the odd large beast is something we definately want to do, and I agree that it would provide for an interesting change, but we don’t want to limit the beast faction to only having those towering hulks. Additionally, having enemies occupy more than one hex complicates things a lot on a technical level (pathfinding etc.). We may end up with a few seriously large creatures in one way or another, but most will be limited to one hex, which could still make their figurine like twice the size of a Battle Brother.

I like your idea about having heads as trophies. We added werewolf pelts a while ago and would add similar loot for other beasts as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Certain creatures could inhabit certain areas of the map. For example up in the north, the snowy vast landscape could be home to dire wolves and the fabled yeti. In the forests to south packs of wolves could roam, and be particularly active along the roads at night.

Yep. Werewolves already roam the forests of the land, leaving them only to chase prey or to cross into another forest. As we add more types of beasts they should get their own matching habitats and worldmap behavior as well, especially as we also add additional terrain types.

Trig wrote:

I suggested single four- or seven-hex enemies to the team before. But since you mention the “European” orientation of the game, what would a Yeti (Asian) be doing there? If anything, Norse mythology has Frost giants.
Personally I am against cramming everything into games, all possible manner of monsters and game/movie clichés, but instead prefer when they stick to some concept. Even if it’s a mythological concept, it better be thought out and consistent…

The game has an even narrower orientation than a European one: A German / Scandinavian one. This is mostly reflected in the names of characters and places so far, but we want to also extend this to our bestiary to give the game a bit more ‘cultural identity’ instead of being just another random fantasy world. In this spirit we’re looking into both rebranding some of the enemies already in the game (like Zombies, because of their Voodoo / Carribbean connotations, even though the name has evolved beyond that by now, I suppose) as well as making sure that any future creatures fit in. That doesn’t mean that we’ll now work through a list of mythical scandinavian creatures and check them off, but we’ll think twice before adding creatures which very obviously stem from another cultural background. Finally, while having some popular fantasy creatures star in the game is nice (and gave us a good starting point in the past) we also want to add creations of our own to spice things up. The beast faction is a great place to add creatures that haven’t been featured in other games already but are unique to our world.

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[Anonymous]

I think European was a bit of an oversight on my part, the Witcher series and its universe has been influenced considerably by Scandinavian folklore (specifically speaking). Anyway I’m very excited to see what you guys add to the beast faction

On a side note… I have renewed hope for Trolls, oh and Kobolds ;)

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