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[stabbymcstabstab]

We already have kill the necromancer style contracts,well kinda.

[Lukeinator]

I really like the art in this game.

[Jaysen]

In this weeks dev blog i can show you a completely new mechanic: Ambitions. We hope they will help people find short- and midterm goals and motivation. As always here are the details:

Dev Blog #89: Ambitions
This week we’re talking ‘ambitions’, a new feature and part of the overarching campaign goals as announced on our roadmap to the finish line. What are ambitions and how do they work? Read on!

Introduction

Battle Brothers is a game about leading a mercenary company. It’s also an open world game that relies heavily on replayability. When it comes to introducing overarching goals to the game, then, a linear story would quickly conflict with replayability, and any story straying from the mercenary narrative would quickly feel artificial and conflict with what the game is supposed to be about. Maybe you care about saving the world or the fate of some princess, maybe you don’t, but it’s for you alone to make that call, and we don’t want to force you into a story that may not align at all with how you want to play a game that should be about your mercenary company. Indeed, the one constant in every campaign, and the one constant for everyone enjoying the game, is building up your own mercenary company, and that’s why this is and will be the overarching goal of the game.

We’ll be introducing 3 different aspects to support this further and give you more sense of purpose, progression and challenge; ambitions, the ability to finish your campaign by retiring from your company, and late game crises. Each of these will be covered in detail in the weeks to come with their very own dev blogs, and we’re starting things off by taking a look at the first of these aspects today: ambitions.

Ambitions

Not surprisingly, players approach the game quite differently. While some easily motivate themselves to build up their company and pick up challenges on their own for dozens of hours, if not more, others crave for being provided with more direction and structure. We’re introducing ambitions as mid-term milestones for you to work towards on the path of forging a legendary company in a way that fits the game’s narrative and lets you earn unique rewards.



After the first few days of a new campaign, you’ll now be prompted to choose the first ambition out of many to come. This is framed as you gathering the men and giving an inspirational speech on what to do next, because the men care about the company succeeding as much as you do. As their commander, however, it falls onto you to choose the path that the company is to take, and we always want to give you multiple options to choose from. The ambitions you can choose from vary with the state of your company, the world, and the ambitions you’ve already fulfilled. The current ambition is then always shown to you on the worldmap, and the tooltip will offer additional information on how to fulfill it and what reward to expect.



In the beginning, ambitions are more small-scale and somewhat tutorial-esque, like getting the company to a strength of a dozen men, or gathering crowns to have a battle standard made. As the game progresses, ambitions transition to more mid-term goals, and eventually things like stopping a greenskin invasion to leave a mark in history. Fulfilling an ambition will raise the mood of the men, raise your renown (which works differently now - more on that in a future dev blog!), and often comes with unique rewards you can’t otherwise attain. For example, the ambition to have a battle standard made will reward you with a unique item based on your company’s banner to take into combat, while another may change your look on the worldmap.



If you fail to fulfill an ambition for a prolonged time, however, the men may lose confidence in your leadership, and their mood will suffer. Being a good mercenary commander also means making good on what you promise to the men.

[PanH]

That looks awesome ! I indeed saw several references to standard bearer and I'm glad they're being added. The ambition system looks very interesting too, and will certainly help the mid to late game it seems. Now I think the only thing left that I'd like is to be able to have a color for all your brothers or smth like that (a la heraldry like faction troops but simpler or smth).

[Retropunch]

Ambitions sound awesome!!! Really good way to solve the sort of 'aimlessness' that can creep into open world games. However, I'd request an option not to take up an ambition if you didn't want to. This is especially relevant for the mid game goals - I fear that they might restrict player's own goals, especially if their goal is a bit off the beaten track.

[Neonivek]

Ambitions sound awesome!!! Really good way to solve the sort of 'aimlessness' that can creep into open world games. However, I'd request an option not to take up an ambition if you didn't want to. This is especially relevant for the mid game goals - I fear that they might restrict player's own goals, especially if their goal is a bit off the beaten track.

The problem I have with this idea from a storytelling perspective is that Ambitions are why you are doing what you are doing.

To not take up a cause or goal of any sort indicates how wishy washy and weak you are to anyone who would be joining you.

Then again... if choosing not to pick an ambition does come with a penalty then I see no problem.

But this is a pure storytelling perspective. Game's break their own story over their knees constantly.... and frankly I'd probably chose no ambition if I had a choice as typically these "choices" lock me into a single goal that usually isn't supported by the rest of the game.

When not having a goal simply means I can do everything and chose when something is more convenient.

And I highly doubt going "We are going to take down a Orc Warchief" will suddenly get towns on your side donating warriors and weapons to your cause or even sending small groups to aid you.

[Retropunch]

Ambitions sound awesome!!! Really good way to solve the sort of 'aimlessness' that can creep into open world games. However, I'd request an option not to take up an ambition if you didn't want to. This is especially relevant for the mid game goals - I fear that they might restrict player's own goals, especially if their goal is a bit off the beaten track.

The problem I have with this idea from a storytelling perspective is that Ambitions are why you are doing what you are doing.

To not take up a cause or goal of any sort indicates how wishy washy and weak you are to anyone who would be joining you.

I'd agree with that if you had complete control over your ambitions - but as it'd be from a list of 3-4 options that might conflict with what you want to do.

This is especially the case due to there being a time limit on ambitions; if I've got to break off from whatever my own quest is, it might get a bit jarring.

I'd prefer for ambitions to steer away from penalties and for the risk to instead come from them being challenging to fulfil.

[A Thing]

Ambitions sound awesome!!! Really good way to solve the sort of 'aimlessness' that can creep into open world games. However, I'd request an option not to take up an ambition if you didn't want to. This is especially relevant for the mid game goals - I fear that they might restrict player's own goals, especially if their goal is a bit off the beaten track.

The problem I have with this idea from a storytelling perspective is that Ambitions are why you are doing what you are doing.

To not take up a cause or goal of any sort indicates how wishy washy and weak you are to anyone who would be joining you.

I'd agree with that if you had complete control over your ambitions - but as it'd be from a list of 3-4 options that might conflict with what you want to do.

This is especially the case due to there being a time limit on ambitions; if I've got to break off from whatever my own quest is, it might get a bit jarring.

I'd prefer for ambitions to steer away from penalties and for the risk to instead come from them being challenging to fulfil.

I'm thinking that making it so you can change ambitions after a significant defeat "I think we need more realistic goals." or a significant victory "We're beyond those petty things now!" might also be a decent solution to objectives you can't fulfill. It would keep the consequences of the decision while also allowing you to change your mind later if it turns out you can't do something or you'd rather be doing something else.

[Retropunch]

I'm thinking that making it so you can change ambitions after a significant defeat "I think we need more realistic goals." or a significant victory "We're beyond those petty things now!" might also be a decent solution to objectives you can't fulfill. It would keep the consequences of the decision while also allowing you to change your mind later if it turns out you can't do something or you'd rather be doing something else.

I like that from a balance perspective - if a mid game goal is just not achievable in the foreseeable future due to x, it'd be nice to be able to bow out of it whilst keeping some sort of dignity. It's something I've never seen done before really.

However, it should still have a penalty, just not...death.

[Jaysen]

Just a short update this week but a really interesting video from our artist Paul (if your are into art that is;)):

Dev Blog #90: Retirement

Following up to last week’s dev blog about ambitions, this week we’re taking a look at the second upcoming feature that’s there to give your campaigns more purpose and in this case also closure: retirement. Let’s find out what that’s about!

Retirement

As mentioned last time, different players approach the game differently. For some, the journey is the reward, and the game doesn’t ever have to end. Others want to work towards a goal and then have definite closure to their game. We’re introducing the ability to retire from your company so that you can end your campaign, and have that closure, at any time of your choosing. The game won’t ever just end as you defeat an end game crisis, like the Greenskin Invasion, but it will only end when you choose to end it, or everyone is dead. Depending on the state you leave your company and the world in, and the ambitions you have or have not fulfilled, you’ll be presented with one of five different outcomes to your retirement. If you’ve already played Battle Brothers, you can probably imagine that not all of them are happy ends.



The image above is the illustration for one of those five endings, and it’s accompanied by a short bit of text recounting your exploits and telling you how the company continued to fare without your leadership. Does the company still exist? Who is their new captain? How is the company doing? All these depend on the state you leave your company in as you retire, and the more successful your campaign, the better the ending you get when you finally finish it.

Artwork Time-Lapse

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OWxBtm7m24M

Take a look at the video to see the painting process of the illustration in a time-lapse video of a few minutes, accompanied by an entirely new music track we’ll be adding to the game with the next update. It’s the second track that plays when fighting against a noble house in tactical combat - which may be happening more often now that a feud between nobles can escalate to open war as one of the three late game crises. If you want to listen to more music of Battle Brothers, you can do so on the SoundCloud page of Breakdown Epiphanies here.

[Jaysen]

Before we really get to the meat of things next week we have assorted smaller improvements added over last weeks:

Dev Blog #91: Miscellaneous Improvements

Work has shifted to the upcoming late game crises, the ‘Greater Evil’. It’s not quite ready yet to present it to you this week, so instead we’re taking you on a tour throughout the numerous smaller improvements we’ve made to the game for the next update - many of them based on your feedback. Let’s go!

Miscellaneous Improvements

Playing Battle Brothers at a high resolution and finding the UI to be too tiny? The next update is about to solve things, with two additional sliders in the game’s video options, allowing you both to scale the size of the UI and the size of the scene (i.e. everything that isn’t the UI) independently.



The worldmap has received a lot of minor improvements over the last couple of weeks. Ever wondered how it is that your company can apparently swim across the water, or what straits can be crossed and what straits can’t? With the next update, any crossings across water now have additional visuals to clearly identify them as such, so that you’ll always know where you can go and where you’ll have to find another way across the water.



Regions controlled by noble houses are now much more coherent, and also often larger than before, which makes patrolling between settlements less of a hassle. What’s also less of a hassle now is pursuing enemy parties - clicking them outside the radius to immediately engage in combat now results in your company automatically following them and trying to get in range, no matter what turns they make to shake you, for as long as they remain in sight. No more frantic clicking all over them in an attempt to catch up!

A common request is for the introduction of a ‘camera lock’ feature - having the map always show your mercenary company at the center of the screen and scroll the map as the company moves. The next update introduces just that as an option you can enable or disable at any time via a button in the top bar or hotkey.



Different settlements offer different services, which is a good thing, because it makes them more unique. Currently, it also means that you, as the player, are required to either memorize or write down what services are on offer in what settlement, however. The next update makes things easier by showing in a settlement’s tooltip every specialized building present in that settlement - all that’s required is that you visit the settlement at least once. Speaking of buildings, every newly generated map is now guaranteed to have at least one of every type of building present.



The tactical combat also has seen some improvements, of course. Of note is that allied units - militia, noble house troops or even wardogs - no longer block movement for your men, and you can hop over them just as you can with your own men, which makes maneuvering in larger battles quite a bit easier.



And finally, hovering over a brother in the roster view will reveal a few combat-related statistics once the next update hits - how many battles the man has seen, how many kills he’s made and the most fearsome opponent he’s slain. If there’s more stats you’d like to see, let us know in the comments below!

[Neonivek]

For retirement as always I am very VERY partial that if you have to retire... you should buy a mansion or castle or town or city and decorate it with trophies of your conquests with a fine Wife/Husband by your side.

A "Bye! Hope things sort out" retirements have always been weird... I mean this isn't Princess Maker

[Jaysen]

I totally get your drift here, we had planned at some point that you have sort of a "trophy room" that you can put trophies in and trick out through the game like in the old civ games if you remember those.
However, in the end everything is about balancing ressources and time with such a small team so we had to decide how much time to devote to the end of the game. We wanted the player to chose himself when he wants to end the game and get feedback according to his achievements. The retirement texts will also be generated based on what you did in the game and the backgrounds in your company so they will be different all the time.

We also have a bigger endgame goal prepared that will give a nice climax to the game but more on that this friday

[Crazy Horse]

Nice, city locations in the tooltip is very handy. Particularly for locating the monasteries again.

The tooltip for your mercs counting kills is a nice touch too. It would be really, really great if that tooltip showed up in the after-battle summary over dead brothers too. I'm always wondering who the heck was this dead fellow Widerich and when did I hire him. If the tooltip could also note his profession and level that would be useful too.

[Jaysen]

We are still planning to add some sort of memorial with info on all your fallen Brothers. We hope to get it in the final release but there are other more pressing features.