thenewromance

[thenewromance]

Reynhart finally arrives, a walking stick in his fist keeping him somewhat upright. The local folk are already gathered around the fire. “I’m sorry”, he says, “sorry I kept you waiting. These old bones of mine are not easily put into motion”. With the help of one of the boys, he sits down on a wooden chair that had been brought out for him.

“Now, now. I would like to tell you all a story. As most of you know, in my younger days I was one of the adventurous sort. My arms were still strong and my eyesight keen, and at one point in my life… I must have been around as old as you”, he recounts, pointing at a young farmhand, “I decided it might be a good idea to join a travelling company of… warriors. It were dark times, then. Bandits plaguing the roads were the least of our problems. I think some of the beasts that roamed the forests in that day are exctinct by now. You most likely wouldn’t believe me if I told you about them.”

“Anyway, the company in that day was a fledgling outfit. It had been founded by a few men… I don’t even remember their names. They didn’t really act as officers, either, it was just everyone knew they had created the company. Hm. I do remember the name of our band, however. We were called “The Autumn Swords”, and flew a green banner with dark stripes and a sword embroidered upon it. That alone must have cost the founders quite a few crowns!”

Reynhart signals for wine, which is swiftly handed to him by the boy still standing beside his chair. “Now, I was one of the first to join up. I think they had only existed for a short while then, and we were still only a handful of men. Not very well equipped, either. We took on the jobs of messengers, mainly, and guarded a few caravans. I do remember, one time before Sigbold, the man I want to tell you about, one time before Sigbold joined, we had an encounter with bandits. I don’t know if they even managed to kill one of us. All in all we were quite lucky. Our luck was about to change, however.”

“We had accepted to carry a package to Bogenheim. It lay in the west, surrounded by great, dark forests. The forests, back then, they truly were a fearsome thing. Nowadays, the worst thing that could happen upon you is a stray boar, or a wolf, who I hear haven’t all been hunted down yet. Back then… there were other kinds of wolves. We were ambushed by a small pack of werewolves on the way to Bogenheim! It was only four or so of them, but each one is a match for two well-trained warriors. Their claws… huge. They are huge, and their limbs seem to consist only of muscle. And they’re fast. I have seen werewolves kill three men in the time it took a warrior to ready his sword!”

“The ambush was frightening, but we were disciplined enough to hold the line against the wolfmen coming out of the trees. We outnumbered them, as well, and I believe that was a good thing. They tore one of my comrades apart, Gebhard I think it was, but were then in turn put down with arrow, spear and sword.” Reynhart takes a long sip from his cup. “We were relieved to have survived the encounter, and made haste to reach Bogenheim. It wasn’t far away, and a quite big settlement that promised safety from the dark of the forests.”

“But luck, again, was not on our side. Another pack of werewolves had somehow picked up our scent. While we hurried toward Bogenheim, we could hear them howl in the distance. They were many… many more than before. You could tell from the different wails and bellows they made, coming from different directions. We blast out of the forest at a run, scrambling towards the city. It wasn’t walled, but the militia had also heard the howling and had already gathered around the entrance to the town. Our scout came running up toward the head of our column as we dashed past the militia, and reported he had seen the first dark fur, and that we only had two or three minutes left until they would be upon us.”

“The militia, of course, didn’t want to pay our bill alone. It was clear we couldn’t just draw a hunting pack into their town and then leave it all to them. One of the founders – I do remember his helmet, he had a real helmet already at that point – turned around and shouted orders for us to form a shieldwall right there with the militiamen, but he never stopped running. He and the quartermaster headed into the city, towards the market square, as fast as their feet would take them. Of course, we obeyed. We might have been sellswords, but we were being paid, fed and equipped, and so had no reason to reject the command. Forming a shieldwall and readying our weaponry was routine, anyway.”

“Now, what happened next, I don’t exactly know, as we were already focussing on our battle preparations. However, from what I gathered and heard from others after the battle, our founder and our quartermaster must have raced into the market square, shouted for help and a reward of several dozen crowns per head, and at the same time grabbed whatever shields and spears they could find at the merchants. Apparently, some men were willing to help out now that a lot of money was offered, and one of them was Sigbold. It all must have gone by terribly fast, because just as the werewolves came into our view, they were back from the marketplace, the quartermaster pushing spears into the hands of our newfound brothers, and our founder shoving them into the shieldwall to help strengthen the line.”

“I was looking left and right, at the faces of the new’uns, and I remember they seemed so violently surprised they didn’t even show fear. ‘I never knew what hit me’ said one of them afterwards, I still remember it!” Reynhart chuckles. “Now, the wolfbeasts were closing in really fast. There were many, nearly a dozen. And right before the first of the monsters hit our spears, I saw that one man had – in all the hurry! – not even been given a spear! Sigbold, the poor sod, was standing there just holding a wooden shield. It was too late now to hand him a weapon, as a short moment later a werewolf crashed into said shield!”

Reynhart raises his eyebrows and looks around the fire for dramatic effect. “And what did Sigbold do. He didn’t break and run, throwing shield and all concern away… no. He grabbed the rim of his shield, shoving it against the wolfman to get him off balance, and then – he started punching the beast with his bare fist! Bam, and bam, and again, hitting the snout and the ugly visage, bam and bam like it was some sort of bar fight. Around him, the beasts were howling and clawing, some of our brothers being bloodied by their onslaught, some of them already impaled upon our spears, and there stood Sigbold Dogpuncher and punched and punched a werewolf in the face!”

While he waits for the laughter to die down, Reynhart empties his wine cup. “Yes, my friends, and I do believe you can now understand why Sigbold was given the honorary title of ‘Dogpuncher’ right after the battle. We won, with a few losses on our side and more on the militia’s, but we were glad nonetheless. Had those beasts caught us out in the open, I would not be sitting here today. And we were glad, too, that we had found a new Sword, a man who was worthy of displaying our colours, a man who was not afraid to face down a werewolf with his bare fists. This, my friends, this is the story of Sigbold Dogpuncher, only one of the strange and remarkable things I witnessed when I was with the Autumn Swords.”

[thenewromance]

Rap wrote:

No, we didn’t. I had to do the UI myself to get us in a position for Early Access, but we want to outsource this as we go on.

I think that’s a good idea. The UI isn’t bad, but Battle Brothers depends on it a lot (other than, say, a first-person shooter would), and comparable games have made big advances to the clickiness of the days of yore (I like the new XCOM one, for example, or the inventory and trading system of Pillars of Eternity – way better than their respective ancestors’ ones). So, the better, the better, I’d say :)

[thenewromance]

Undoing without the possibility of abusing it would be very cool. I tend to confuse Resolve, Initiative and Fatigue.

I’m also of the opinion that some attributes are way more important than others. However I believe that’s a point for the Suggestion forum :)

[thenewromance]

I have difficulties with this as well. I tried to escape an orc ambush over a hillside today, and it was really hard to find out whether my men were already on the edge of the battlefield.

Also, I’ve never noticed that elevation marker :D

[thenewromance]

The Boar Tusk Brothers.

Founded by Dietrich the Fisherman and two friends of his (of questionable morale), this small mercenary company started out quite successfully. Stripping some unfortunate highwaymen of their possessions and taking on caravan guarding and messenger contracts allowed the Tusks to increase their numbers (and even buy everyone real shields!). Unfortunately, a letter delivery to Sonneberg, in the far south, proved one messenger job too many for them.
The forests on the way were teeming with werewolves who ambushed them on the way there, killing a few promising recruits, Meinolf the Young (one of the founders) and, finally, Dietrich the Fisherman. The remaining Tusk Brothers were able to slay the wolves, but Sonneberg turned out to be a dead end, and a poor one at that. Barely able to replenish their company with warm bodies, not to speak of equipment comparable to that lost in the long fight against the beasts, they made a run back down the road back to the larger city of Thalheim.
Alerted by the sounds of battle within earshot of the city walls, the Thalheim militia were only able to recover horribly mauled bodies and the carcasses of two slain werewolves. A red and white boar standard lay against a bush, splattered with blood.

Losing is fun, I guess. :) And “normal” is really way harder than “easy”. The equipment available makes a huge difference.

[thenewromance]

timster wrote:

Firstly let me first give thanks to the developers and their team for making this excellent game which didn’t need fancy graphics and lots of HDD space.

Here are my suggestions for the game. My apologies if there are any repeats of suggestions made by others.

1) Pre Battle
– Deployment / Position Phase of Combatants (only if attacking, if attacked or ‘surprised’ not available)
—Currently game has auto positioning for open field being a shield line with archers and billhooks behind. I find the positioning of the 2H wielders sometimes not suitable as they are always together so a manual option to position combatants would be an idea.
—
– Formations (some fixed suggested formations
— Just a thought if manual deployment is considered.

2) Statistics for each mercenary’s kills
– ie. Raiders x 25, Young Orcs x 52, Orc Warriors x 31 etc.
—This also could be linked to certain special titles or other rewards should the developers see fit for consideration

No. 2 is already mentioned on the Battle Brothers website (IIRC). I’m pretty sure deployment has also been confirmed already. :)

[thenewromance]

More random and more ironman = usually more fun in the long run. It’s just that some people (like me, for example) are afraid of their own courage. When the opportunity to scum or cheese or influence arises, they will do so. Like addicts, they don’t really want to because they know it’s not that much fun ultimately, but they can’t help themselves. ;)

Now, from a design viewpoint the question is basically “Do we help the addicts by giving out regulated prescription dope” or “Do we help the addicts with discipline and zero tolerance”? Both are valid, and if you will excuse the drug metaphor, both are actually used in the treatment of real addictions. You can’t really go wrong either way, but you’ll probably never do it 100% right either.

[thenewromance]

Save on exit like in FTL is fine with me. Whoever wants to go to the lengths of copying files around to scum the save on exit feature may do so. Not being able to save on exit does in fact punish people who cannot always influence when real life strikes. No regular saving and reloading in battle, though, please.

[thenewromance]

Jago wrote:

Sarissofoi wrote:

Blasphemy!
I am once for more difficulty and harder more chalenging rules.

Can’t wait for Ironman-Mode, do you?

Even the strongest can and will succumb to scumming. In the name of all that is holy, only the Ironman can save us from the evil that is reloading!

[thenewromance]

I will, but I’m really busy this weekend. I will sit down with ye around the campfire on Sunday, and tell ye all of the time when I was in a batallion with… Sigbold Dogpuncher!

Thank you for implementing this so fast! :)

[thenewromance]

GOD wrote:

I think it would help if the thread list could get get longer before you get a new page. We tend to get a lot of new threads, so old threads wouldn’t get buried so quickly.

You mean there are story threads here already?

[thenewromance]

I could probably live without a dedicated representative, but I guess many people would like it. If it is only introduced as flavour, like a face and name on the “staff” screen, I don’t think it’d distract much from the game. It could, however, make people happy to have the option to choose a “placeholder” for themselves, even if it doesn’t influence the game at all mechanics-wise (or has only light application). No one is sad that changing armour colour in XCOM doesn’t add some sort of stat bonus, but it’s great to have it there.

Of course, not descending into arbitrariness, as Screeg points out, will also be important. I am a firm believer that, in any kind of art work, a clear and authentic concept (even if it is more than weird) trumps acceptable-for-everyone “family fun”. I’d rather listen to a band playing through cheap microphones with a singer who can’t sing but who means it than to a perfectly produced all-star band of old rock stars.

[thenewromance]

thenewromance wrote:

Of course, you’d still not appear on the battlefield, but I actually think that is a good thing as that way no one gets frustrated when their “player character” dies.

I do of course mean this. :)

[thenewromance]

castlecreeps wrote:

8. Ledger of the Dead – Some sort of log that would keep track of those who died violently in the shield wall for a few coin. Complete with a date, place of death, or maybe even a crude headstone on the map. (“Englebert the Fat, Sworn Brother for three fortnights, was ever so worried about getting paid in the morrow, that he forgot to dodge the brigand’s halberd.”)

Absolutely this! The company needs a big leather-bound tome with a picture and description of the lost brother and his circumstances of death (date, place, and something like “mauled by werewolves” or “left to the walking dead”)

[thenewromance]

Character generation is indeed a difficult topic. I like the possibility to customize, but I also like playing the cards you are dealt. Perhaps some middle ground could be found?

I would like to suggest one such option. I read that non-combattant Brothers are likely to be introduced – smiths, healers and the like, who are part of your company, but not represented as fighters. I think in this lies great potential, for the game as-is right now but for character creation as well. You as a player are at the moment not represented in-game. Of course, you give the orders and make the decisions, like a sort of “invisible general”, but you can’t see yourself and don’t have any stats. Now, if a “court” or “staff” or “council” that featured the members of your company who do not fight was introduced (like the above-mentioned smith), that would exactly be the place where you as a commander could be represented. You could have your own picture and maybe a few stats or skills that would influence your company and that could be chosen at the set-out. Of course, you’d still appear on the battlefield, but I actually think that is a good thing as that way no one gets frustrated when their “player character” dies.

I think this suggestions has a lot of advantages. The player has a representative, there’s a possibility for customization that influences the game, the (possible) non-combattant “staff” gets another element, and there’s no risk of creating supersoldiers or min-maxing the fun of the beginning away.

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