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[ThtblovesDF]

I wish we had more perks, more complex char development and stuff.

(Stuff:)

The system that creates randrom figures with cosmetic features is great - now use that same thing to give them randrom preferences and style, maybe some will charge right into combat, others will protect friends and berserk if they die - whatever.

Overall it might be better if there was more action points per turn, with many smaller options possible (at a stamina cost) - so a fully ready warrior can charge ahead while throwing a axe and slam into the enemy - or have a system where you are allowed to use X of your AP whenever a enemy moves into your melee range (while you're unengaged) - so maybe your pike guy can try to actually trip/pin the enemy.

I would also like the idea of stances (maybe: Guard, Neutral, Aggressive), which defines how your dude reacts to a attack (tank it, deflect, try to hit back, counterattack/parry), without it being a skill that takes ap and fatigue.

The game is fairly realistic, wich is both a up and a downside. It would be nice to have a dude that runs into battle naked and hodors it up by throwing corpses and whatever he finds. Infact, making "every" weapon a throwable with the right perk would be pretty cool.

[Rap]

I wish we had more perks, more complex char development and stuff.

Next update will introduce a redone perk system with more flexibility and more choices, including weapon specializations. Should be released within the next few weeks.

The system that creates randrom figures with cosmetic features is great - now use that same thing to give them randrom preferences and style, maybe some will charge right into combat, others will protect friends and berserk if they die - whatever.

We'd rather not take that control away from the player on a regular basis, but only if a character fails a morale check and panicks. Different character traits already nudge characters into different directions while leaving control to the player, e.g. some characters can never become confident in battle.

[ThtblovesDF]

Glad to hear - as for personalitys, I would assign these only to npcs - the idea here is that you might meet two groups of 5 guys, but one will have a defensive style and care for each other and retreat when they appear to be losing, but the other encounter might play out completly different, with there aim to kill one of yours, loot & run.

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah. This game has that XCOM feel where you want to care, but the UI makes it so hard to care. Mostly because it's hard to understand who is who during a battle. The fact that you can change equipment really easily with no downside makes it so characters feel much more interchangeable than they do in XCOM (where their class doesn't change).

Small things like having character's names hovering over them during battles would be pretty awesome.

Also, I am greatly looking forward to the revision of the perk system!

[Tack]

I do find that you need to put points towards the 50% fatigue-cost perk in order to have late-game armor be at all useful.
However, I really do like that the 'worn' armor that you find is usually better than the new stuff you buy. Means you can't just pay for the best army.

[Jaysen]

...
Also, I am greatly looking forward to the revision of the perk system!

We have some good news for you, the perk rework is around the corner and it got way bigger than expected. You can read up about all the whys and whens in todays blog (more info following next week):

Dev Blog #80: Progress Update - New Perk System
This week we’re talking about the other major change coming with the next update: a revised perk system. We’re doing extensive changes both on how perks are acquired, and the individual perks themselves - new perks have been added and almost all of the existing ones have seen changes. Let’s learn more!

Why change it?

We’re happy to see that the concept of having perks in Battle Brothers worked out in general. They’re a good fit for the game in how they allow you to customize your men according to your own strategy, they make individual characters feel more unique, and they make up a large part of why leveling up and developing characters is fun.

That said, there’s a couple of issues with how the system currently works. By implicitly forcing you to specialize in one of three categories, we’re imposing too much of a limit on how you can develop your characters, and ultimately on the number of possible character builds. Over time it also became evident that some perks just didn’t work out. It may be because they’re not worth picking, whether they’re conceptually flawed or the game evolved in a way that made them obsolete, or because they may be so strong that they unhinge entire combat mechanics and dominate any other strategy. Both of these points demand action, so here we go.

We’re revising the perk system at this point in development because the game is now pretty stable in terms of combat design, and we have gathered enough knowledge on what works and what doesn’t. Because balancing the new perks is still going to take quite a bit of time, we want to enable you now to try out everything, discover synergies and new strategies, and to give us feedback while we have ample time still to act on it before the game is done.

What is changed?

While individual perks can still be described as being offense-, defense- or utility-oriented, you no longer have to pick perks from within a specific category to unlock other perks in that category. Instead, all perks are now sorted into rows that require a number of previously invested perk points to be unlocked. For example, while you can pick any perk from the very first row from the very beginning, the second row will unlock once you’ve picked any perk from the first row. It currently looks like this in the game.



This means that every time a character levels up, there’ll be new perks to pick from. And because there’s no longer any restrictions between categories, you now have much more freedom to experiment with character builds that fit your strategy, and to discover synergies between any of the available perks. The total number of perks sits at 51 currently, up from 42 previously, though that number may still change.

What is new?

When looking at how any perks work and what changes may be necessary, we’re looking at a couple of criteria. Ideally, a perk would support a player strategy or play style, it doesn’t invalidate combat mechanics but it may change them, it’s worth picking more than once for the company, and it should require player skill to make the most out of. Clearly, not all of the existing perks fulfill these criteria. Covering all the changes made to rectify this in detail is outside the scope of a single blog article, but we’ll take a look at some of the most important changes concerning fatigue, morale and weapon masteries.



Management of both morale and fatigue should be important combat mechanics. Unfortunately, fatigue easily becomes a non-issue with the repeated use of the ‘Rally the Troops’, which then also tips the scales on the balance of other things, such as heavy vs. light armor. Morale, likewise, is somewhat trivialized due to how the ‘Holdout’ and ‘Inspiring Presence’ perks work.

So what’s changed? ‘Rally the Troops’ still exists, but it now does what most people would expect it to do: it may rally fleeing allies and improve the morale of others. It’s become a tool that the player has to have the skill to make use of at the right moment. ‘Inspiring Presence’ has been cut from the game - you’d only have to pick it once for the whole company to benefit and it conflicts with other game mechanics such as mood on the worldmap. ‘Holdout’ largely invalidated the morale mechanic, so it’s now an entirely new perk that only shares the name and icon.



We’re introducing 12 different weapon masteries that allow you to specialize your characters. These include things like axe mastery, but also dagger mastery. Mastering any weapon reduces the required fatigue for using them and comes with a unique effect depending on the type of mastery. For example, axes have their shield damage increased significantly, whereas with daggers you’ll be able to attack three times in a single turn due to reduced action point cost. Picking weapon specializations for mercenaries not only makes a lot of sense thematically, but it also allows for building more unique characters and specialists, and it helps with fatigue management. As you see with the axe mastery example, we’ve also merged some of the previously very specific perks into the new masteries. Yes, there are masteries for light and heavy armor, too!

There’s also another new perk for fatigue management called ‘Recover’ that unlocks a skill of the same name. A character using it will spend a turn to, well, recover, and will see their fatigue reduced by a large amount. Why is that better than before? Because characters can no longer just keep on attacking with no regard for their fatigue, and using ‘Recover’ isn’t something you just automatically do every turn like with the old ‘Rally the Troops’. If you’re building up large amounts of fatigue, you’ll have to make a choice at some point on whether now is the right time to have that character spend a turn recovering, and if it’s the wrong choice, it’ll cost you.

When will it be done?

All 51 perks are in the game and working, though some are still missing assets. We’ll keep on iterating to balance these and iron out any bugs. We’re also poised to introduce some additional content and improvements to the game with the coming update that we’ll talk about in our next progress report. Once everything is done, we’ll again put it on the beta branch first. You can expect it to arrive later this month - we’ll keep you updated!

[Anvilfolk]

Sweet! Looking forward to testing out the new build when it comes up!

There's a weapon specialization system that I really like but that I've only seen in IVAN (Iter Vehemens Ad Necem, a roguelike) might be interesting inspiration too. Basically, the more you use a weapon, the more specialized you become in it and its class. When yous witch to a different weapon, you need to re-specialize with it, but if it's the same class, you retain those bonuses. If not using a weapon/class, there's skill decay over time.

The idea here is that even though you might've come up with a better weapon, you can't just change everything willy nilly without going through a period of adaptation. This makes great and itneresting gameplay choices... It means there's costs in significantly changing the weapons you've been deploying for a while; ensuring contracts are easy so people can readapt; characters become more memorable because you know who's a spear guy and who's an axe guy, etc.

I'm really sad that system never made it into any other game that I know of! Oh well. Just food for thought... though I understand now that the new system is in place, it's not likely to change again anytime soon, or ever

[Tack]

Ooh. Light armor perks. My skirmishers are going to be pleased.


Another question- given any thought to war mechanics? Would love for the various kingdoms to start getting active against their fellow man, or banding together against the outside threats.
As a late-game mechanic, probably, but it would be really fun to see some cities change hands (or even be ransacked or razed by greenskins)

That being said, I've been a goody two-shoes, so I don't even know what the current mechanics are.

Edit: Some guy on steam beat me to it.

[Jaysen]

This week, while beta testing the perk system, we talk about all the minor things we implemented on the side:

Dev Blog #81: Progress Update - Other Improvements

Progress is going well with redoing the perk system of Battle Brothers. While it’s not quite ready to go yet, we have improved the game in other aspects as well. That’s what we’re going to talk about this week, so let’s start!

Talents & Backgrounds

Certain backgrounds, like sellswords, could vastly exceed other backgrounds in effectiveness if you could afford them. That makes sense, of course, in a game that is about sellswords, but what if some farmhand or former militiaman were talented enough to eventually catch up or even surpass them?

All characters now have three attributes in which they’re especially talented - how talented is determined by a star rating of between one to three stars. The way that attribute increases on levelup used to work, you couldn’t predict exactly how character attributes would develop, and if your men would always manage to take away the right lessons away from what they experienced. Being talented in a particular attribute now means that this variance and randomness is lowered or even removed; characters will consistently roll higher on attributes in which they’re talented. Of course, the more talented, the more rare. Can you find that prodigy that has full stars with all their attributes?



In addition, we’ll be introducing two new backgrounds to the game with the coming update. We’ll also add a whole bunch of new events that take into account your party composition. Depending on the characters in your employ, you’ll have different options with events and may gain access to rewards that you otherwise couldn’t. For example, that historian you hired might just be able to make sense of the old map that appeared useless at first glance. We’re currently at 18 new events, but that number is likely to grow further before the update launches.

Shields

Attacks missing in combat happens all the time, but it can still feel frustrating as veteran mercenaries make themselves look incompetent by seemingly swinging at nothing but air. In reality, they’d miss because the opponent does their best to avoid getting hit, of course, as they dodge, block and parry the attacks. When it comes to shields, that’s something we’ll emphasize more from now on.

Any attack that misses because of the defense bonus granted by shields, or in other words because the opponent uses their shield to actively block the attack, now actually does hit the shield. This is shown visually, accompanied by different sound effects depending on the material the shield is made of, and actually damages the shield by one point. The durability of shields has been increased, so one point doesn’t mean that much, but it can slowly whittle down shields in prolonged engagements. To effectively get rid of shields, the best way is still to use the “Split Shield” skill of axes and some two-handed weapons, just like it used to be.



These changes should help to make combat feel more authentic, and misses less frustrating, as you’ll have a better idea of why you didn’t hit, and even if you didn’t hit, you may have still caused some damage to your opponents.

Overwhelming and Surrounding

Time to do some cleaning-up. The Overwhelming mechanic has been in the game since the very beginning - way back in the public combat demo that was released in 2014, a full year before the game became available on Steam Early Access. And yet, it’s remained one of the more nebulous things for players. It’s not that intuitive to understand, and even if you do understand how it works, it leads to awkward use of the wait-function in combat to make the best use of it.

Come next update, Overwhelming will be replaced by Surrounding. The new mechanic is quite easy to understand; every ally beyond the first that is adjacent to an enemy counts towards the Surrounded bonus, which increases the hit chance of anyone attacking that target in melee. It goes for you just as well as for your opponents, and there’ll be new perks interacting with this mechanic in interesting ways. And if you think that’s how Overwhelming already worked, that’s just one more reason for why this changed was needed.

Banners

The next update will also include a rework of the banners that you can choose from when creating your mercenary company. We did the current ones way back when we scrambled to get the game ready for Early Access, and we’ve now taken the time to create actual unique mercenary banners that are distinct from those of noble houses and much more detailed.

[Margrave]

Now these are updates I can get behind.

Is that cleaver specialization I see? It probably represents simple weapons or something but in my heart I now have an excuse to create those cooks-for-hire, the Battle Butchers: Everything is Edible.

[Rap]

It's in fact a cleaver specialization - including military cleavers, of course

[Retropunch]

This looks fantastic - amazing work guys.

One thing I'd just like to say though is:

We’ll also add a whole bunch of new events that take into account your party composition. Depending on the characters in your employ, you’ll have different options with events and may gain access to rewards that you otherwise couldn’t. For example, that historian you hired might just be able to make sense of the old map that appeared useless at first glance. We’re currently at 18 new events, but that number is likely to grow further before the update launches.

Can be dangerous! A lot of older CRPGs had this, and whilst it could be fun if you happened to have the right character, it often meant that you sort of *had* to take a particular type of person along for the ride or risk missing out on good stuff. At the very least, I'd say it'd be best to hide these options from the player if they don't have that character in (to stop annoyance) but I'd prefer if you had to pay a higher cost for whatever it is if you didn't have the right character (say you get a map - a historian could translate it, or you could go to town to get it translated for you for a price.)

I think this is more risky with BB as it's the kinda game with a lot of replay-ability, so it's probable that there is some level of meta-gaming.

[lordcooper]

it often meant that you sort of *had* to take a particular type of person along for the ride or risk missing out on good stuff.

I don't think that's a bad thing at all.  It'd provide incentive to have a more diverse party and provide a bit of a reward for taking on characters who might be less combat capable.  Additional choices and tradeoffs are rarely a negative IMO.

[Retropunch]

it often meant that you sort of *had* to take a particular type of person along for the ride or risk missing out on good stuff.

I don't think that's a bad thing at all.  It'd provide incentive to have a more diverse party and provide a bit of a reward for taking on characters who might be less combat capable.  Additional choices and tradeoffs are rarely a negative IMO.

It certainly can provide a more diverse party, but it can do the opposite. There's a few games where it's sort of 'you pretty much have to have an X or you'll miss out on lots of good bits'. Planescape torment was one such example, where you got a hell of a lot of extra stuff if you played as a mage, so it was always advisable to do so. Similarly, you gained a lot more story bits by choosing a certain class on Pillars of Exile.

If you end up feeling you have to drag a historian round because they can get access to great maps/clues or whatever, then it can be a bit of a pain if you don't particularly want one. Same if you feel you need to bring a thief round because they'll definitely get some good events, but the only thieves you can find are really awful with terrible perks.

Just a warning rather than that it's a terrible thing.

[cider]

The art in this game is masturbatory.