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[Jaysen]

Great news everyone: Battle Brothers has been greenlit! Here is some info on the campaign and on what to expect next:

After just a little more than a month on Steam Greenlight we made it - Battle Brothers has just been given the green light!

We are extremely happy and excited about how fast things went down in the end and we want to take the time to give you guys a big THANK YOU for all the support, comments, votes, encouraging messages and of course for spreading the word!

Without the engagement, effort and enthusiasm of you guys this would not have been possible!

Now we can again point all our resources towards game development itself.

Next stop: Early Access in January

With the latest Greenlight success we can now look ahead to the upcoming Battle Brothers Early Access version. If all goes to plan you can expect it in January 2015 on Steam. The EA will contain a fully playable campaign with all core mechanics in place. Of course, it will still miss content from the full game and some secondary features. As we get nearer to release, we’ll let you know in a dedicated article what exactly is going to be in the Early Access version and what will be added later, so you can get all hyped up about it


Indie RPG Developer Reddit AMA on Sunday, October 19th

Want to learn more about the guys behind Battle Brothers? Want to know how Indie RPGs are developed in general? Have a question for us about anything? Want to get to know other great games?

Then don't miss the Ask Me Anything, or AMA, we're doing on reddit together with the bros from Graal Seeker, That Which Sleeps and Dungeon Kingdom.

The AMA will be on Sunday, October 19th at 4pm GMT (17:00 CET, 11am EST). We'll let you know about the link on our Dev Blog, on our Twitter Channel and on Facebook in a few days.


Thank you all again and keep reading the dev blogs - we have a lot more stuff up our sleeves!

[MrStyx]

Oh sweet congrats.  I voted for you yesterday actually, so I'm going to go ahead and take credit for getting you guys greenlit.  No need to thank me.  The combat demo is thanks enough.  I've beaten everything but the advanced combat.  I hate vampires. 

[Sharp]

Congrats, can't wait to try out the Early Access assuming I can afford it.

[Jaysen]

Thanks guys!

@MrStyx:
Yeah the good old vampires sure are a pain to deal with You should bring a lot of shields against them and also equip your ranged guys with backup-weapons for close combat. You could also try to stun the vampires with clubs thus keeping them in place to pile on.

@Sharp:
Regarding the EA we are looking at a pretty moderate price for what the game will contain. Im sure youll be able to afford it!

[Sergius]

Congrats on the Green-lighting! I voted for ya, so remember the little people when you become famous and stuff 

[Jaysen]

Thanks again for the support! Now with the greenlight done we made great progress with putting new content in the game.

Here is the fruit of our labor: A completely new faction, the orcs! Im sure everyone is pretty tired of the undead by now

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas or feedback regarding the orc faction!

Dev Blog #30: Orc Faction Reveal


We’ve gotten many a question regarding the enemy diversity in Battle Brothers. Until now we always had to put off these questions - but not any longer. We present to you the first major faction after the Undead: The Orcs!

The Orc faction has unique characters, skills, weapons and most of all tactics compared to the Undead and will force the player to challenge everything learned before. Lets get into some details.

Introduction
As long as humans remember there have been tensions with the wild Orc tribes that roam the surrounding lands. Orcs live as nomads, constantly on the move to support themselves by hunting, gathering and raiding anyone weaker than their tribe. They do not possess knowledge of agriculture or mining, relying instead on taking what they need from others. Indeed, Orcs are quick to take up weapons, and in Orc culture, he who spends time gathering, crafting or building when it is easier and faster to just take these things away from others is considered simple-minded. Life for an Orc, then, is to a large part establishing dominance over others and taking things for him or herself.

Although there are many distinct Orc tribes out there, they have a lot in common. They usually are ruled by the most powerful Orc in the tribe, a Warlord, that ascends to leadership by brute force and has to defend his claim also by leading the tribe to greater spoils. Therefore, different Orc tribes are constantly feuding each other and any alliances are usually short-lived.



As human settlements began to spread out, confrontations with the Orcs started to escalate quickly from smaller skirmishes into a full-out Orc invasion and subsequent war. The war ended with a costly human victory which had the Orcs withdraw from the settled lands and back into the wild. There, it didn't take long for the Orc tribes to begin feuding each other again and lose sight of the human lands. This is where they stayed until now, except for occasional raids on outlying farms and villages. Yet, many a man and woman live in fear of the day that the Orc tribes unite again and start an invasion, leaving nothing but burning rubble in its wake.

To make matters worse, Orcs are technically just one half of a larger faction, the Greenskins, with the other half being the Goblins. However, both Orcs and Goblins are highly autonomous and you'll only see them work together on rare occasions. One such occasion is an invasion, with the Greenskins being the Greater Evil in your game of Battle Brothers.

In battle Orcs tend to rush at the enemy and overwhelm them with the sheer power of their assault. Those who still stand after the initial onslaught find themselves disoriented and in a complete chaos. After the battle line has been dissolved, Orcs that put themselves in a battle frenzy by meditation and drugs rush in and finish what is left of the disorganized and shocked defenders.



Orc Physique
In Battle Brothers, Orcs are physically stronger than humans. An adult orc towers a human and has the strength to use weaponry and wear armor with great effect that would quickly tire out any human. With their strength, they also gain a percentage damage bonus to every attack - less for young Orcs , and more so for adult ones. While Orcs are subject to fatigue and morale, just like your Battle Brothers are, they have plenty of both, and it takes a while for an orc to run out of steam or realize that a battle has turned against him.

For many Orcs , their physicality is also expressed in their Charge skill. With this skill, Orcs can charge a Battle Brother over a short distance and hurl themselves against their target, stunning it for one turn. A Spearwall can repell charging Orcs and a Shieldwall can offer some protection against being stunned from the impact - but shields don't have a high life expectancy against Orcs, as their damage bonus also applies against shields.

Orcs focus entirely on the offense, where they excel. They use their skills to crush the player's battle line with raw force and have it quickly dissolve into a chaotic frenzy where they generally have the upper hand. For this reason, meeting an Orc warband head-on in open battle is usually a bad idea and will leave you at a disadvantage. On the other hand, Orcs neglect defense; while some of them will carry shields, they seldom make active use of them, prefering instead to attack. Due to their reckless fighting style and just physically being big targets, they're also easier to hit than other opponents. In prolongued engagements, or in up-hill battles, where defense matters more than offense, Orcs may suddenly see themselves at a disadvantage.

Orc Weapons and Armor
Orcs have their own distinct weapons and armor they wear, which matches their physique. They do know how to craft metal but are not particularly good at honing and refining their works. This is why Orc weapons are usually very heavy and lack balance - although the player can loot and use these weapons, they’re clearly not made for use by humans and are hard to use effectively but for the strongest of Battle Brothers. Orcish armor, however, can not be used by the player. The physiology of Orcs is just too different from humans, so no helmet or piece of armor would actually fit.



The rough and big Orc hands do not allow them to use ranged weapons like bows to great effect, and neither does it fit their mentality. They resort therefore to throwing weapons like javelins that have limited range but can inflict high damage also to armored targets and may even damage shields if they hit those.

Young Orc
Young Orcs make up the back bone of Orc society, as Orcs usually don't have a high life expectancy but are quite reproductive. They have relatively bright green skin because Orc skin tends to start out bright and gets increasingly darker over the years. Young Orcs are ferocious fighters that make up for their lack of experience and skill with pure strength and recklessness. You'll find them armed usually with one-handed weapons and sometimes light shields. Since they've yet to prove themselves and lay claim to spoils of battle, their equipment will consist of different types of leather armor that Orcs have the resources to produce themselves, and sometimes no armor at all. They're armed with lighter Orc weaponry and human weapons and shields they've scavenged from the fields of battle.



Orc Warrior
If a Young Orc survives long enough to grow to adult age, he may eventually become an Orc Warrior. As evident from their darker skin color and collection of scars, these seasoned fighters have a lot of combat experience and skill in addition to their great strength. Years of gathering spoils from raids and battle have allowed them to collect enough metal to have it melted and made into heavy metal armor, large Orc weaponry and often very heavy and durable metal shields.



Orc Warriors, perhaps also due to the massive armor they wear, do not charge opponents. Instead, they simply march into enemy ranks with their shields in front, pushing enemies out of their way and walking through an enemy battle line unimpressed in order to break it. It takes a formation two ranks deep to push against an Orc Warrior doing this, as one or even two humans alone can not compete in pure strength with an adult Orc Warrior.

Orc Berserker
Berserkers are Orcs that put themselves into a battle frenzy by taking drugs, potions or by hypnosis - and some of them are just straight up crazy. They can occasionally be found wandering alone on what could be described as pilgrimages to slay particularly dangerous beasts. If they succeed, they may wear parts of the slain beast as decoration, possibly also in the belief that it confers powers to them. However, other than these trophies, they don't wear any armor. Instead, some of them cover their body with war paintings that are supposed to channel the energy of spirits to protect them. Due to this, many berserkers have their bodies littered with scars telling of their exploits.



The unique ability of the Orc Berserker is that each time he hurts or kills an opponent, he gains "battle rage". With increasing battle rage, he gains damage to his attacks, increased bravery and initiative, and damage resistance. Each turn he loses some rage again. A berserker that can repeatedly hit or kill opponents and become enraged can spiral out of control and be very hard to take down.

Berserkers use a variety of Orc weapons, but no shields. Their most fearsome is a long and heavy chain with a big weight or striking head at the end that they swing recklessly around, mowing down foe and friend alike. Other Orcs respectfully prefer to stay clear of them if they can, especially if they swing around one of those chains. This often leaves Berserkers to fend for themselves at the flanks of a battle, just as they appear to hold a special position in Orc society outside of battle.




To be continued..

Those have been just three types of Orcs, but we have several more in store. Also, we’ll present the Orc faction in action in a commented gameplay video soon!

Until then let us know what you think about them so far and if you have any ideas for any additional Orc weapons, skills or classes!

[rumpel]

How come I didn't see this thread yet? This looks cool, brutal and sweet. Me likey. Especially how they change their look when they get hit, or loose their cap, or have arrows stuck in them when they're killed by them, though archers seemed to like to kill my own units. :S
Battle demo immediatly hooked me up!

Btw, I cannot seem to register at your forums, it says I entered a wrong captcha code but I don't see any captcha code to enter.

[Retropunch]

Congratulations! This looks fantastic and I love the new orc faction.

[Jaysen]

Damn! Thanks for the info!

I just disabled the captcha and re-activated another captcha so now everything should be working again. Thanks a bunch for letting us now!

[Ghazkull]

I have a question regarding the durability of the simple Battle Brothers. I have only played the Combat Demo so far but it seems like the game has a extremely high mortality rate. Even in very good battles i couldn't avoid losing one or two brothers to the enemy.

If i keep a Brother alive long enough to level-up/gain ex/veterancy will i be able to make them less prone to dying? Or is the high mortality rate intended and brothers are something you can exchange quickly and one shouldn't expect them to have a high expiration date?

Not that i have something against the high mortality, i was just wondering if there it is rewarding enough to go to pains to keep certain brothers alive long enough for them to level up or if it is more viable to go the "well i lost 29 out of my thirty brothers today, doesn't matter i just raise another 50 to replace the losses"-route

[Jaysen]

The mortality is a really tricky issue and requires a lot of careful balancing and tweaking.

With just the combat demo and the scenarios you get a rather skewed image of mortality as all your Brothers in the Demo are level 1 and have no perks or improved stats. In the real game with the campaign mode Brothers will level up pretty fast (at least for the first couple of levels) and with each level up gain new perks and increased stats. This will in turn increase their survivability a lot! On top of that, in the campaign a Brother that loses all health has still a chance of just being critically wounded and surviving the combat.

On the other hand, we want the player to lose Battle Brothers on a regular basis, not only when he plays really recklessly. Take for example the new Xcom game from Firaxis. In that game it feels like a major throwback and really devastating to lose a soldier because it only happens very very rarely (at least if you play a little carefully). We want the player to accept losing a Brother here and there without reloading the game. To achieve this, we have to make sure that enough replacements are available without making it too easy to replace an experienced Brother.

To sum up, this is a tricky balancing issue that we can only tackle it as soon as the campaign mode is in the game and then it will take a lot of playtesting to adjust the mortality.

[Retropunch]

I really like the idea of a battle brother surviving but being wounded in some way.

To push this further, I'd recommend making a 'survivor' trait (or similarly named) which gives them some extra bonuses (or just heaps more experience) for having had a near death experience. This might mean that even though losing an arm means they can't use a shield, their gained experience would make them invaluable enough that you don't feel like reloading.

[PrimusRibbus]

The mortality is a really tricky issue and requires a lot of careful balancing and tweaking.

With just the combat demo and the scenarios you get a rather skewed image of mortality as all your Brothers in the Demo are level 1 and have no perks or improved stats. In the real game with the campaign mode Brothers will level up pretty fast (at least for the first couple of levels) and with each level up gain new perks and increased stats. This will in turn increase their survivability a lot! On top of that, in the campaign a Brother that loses all health has still a chance of just being critically wounded and surviving the combat.

On the other hand, we want the player to lose Battle Brothers on a regular basis, not only when he plays really recklessly. Take for example the new Xcom game from Firaxis. In that game it feels like a major throwback and really devastating to lose a soldier because it only happens very very rarely (at least if you play a little carefully). We want the player to accept losing a Brother here and there without reloading the game. To achieve this, we have to make sure that enough replacements are available without making it too easy to replace an experienced Brother.

To sum up, this is a tricky balancing issue that we can only tackle it as soon as the campaign mode is in the game and then it will take a lot of playtesting to adjust the mortality.

Might I suggest some sort of graveyard, memorial area, or other post-death mechanic for fallen Brothers? I've found that people are more accepting of losing characters to permadeath when those characters aren't just POOF wiped from the game, but are instead in some way immortalized in the game world.

Although not necessarily directly applicable to Battle Brother's genre, some example of this are tombs and Legend Mode in Dwarf Fortress, and ghosts and post-death reports in Dungeon Crawl.

[Jaysen]

@ Retropunch:
We definitely thought about gaining traits during the game. Right now Brothers start out with a couple of predetermined traits depending on their charakter background but adding traits dynamically (im thinking total war series) would be awesome. Well put that on our backlog, dont know when we manage to work on that though.

@PrimusRibbus:
We definitely want a memorial wall or something of the like in the game, a bit like in the new xcom where you have an overview over your fallen Brothers. Another thing that would be awesome is putting a little permanent Tombstone directly on the worldmap whenever and wherever a Brother has fallen and when you hover over it, it gives details of the Brothers that died there!

[Elfeater]

@ Retropunch:
We definitely thought about gaining traits during the game. Right now Brothers start out with a couple of predetermined traits depending on their charakter background but adding traits dynamically (im thinking total war series) would be awesome. Well put that on our backlog, dont know when we manage to work on that though.

@PrimusRibbus:
We definitely want a memorial wall or something of the like in the game, a bit like in the new xcom where you have an overview over your fallen Brothers. Another thing that would be awesome is putting a little permanent Tombstone directly on the worldmap whenever and wherever a Brother has fallen and when you hover over it, it gives details of the Brothers that died there!

Something thematic might be a mercenary ledger, which could combine both he list of your current troops, and have the others be scratched out.