Incline Battle Brothers + Beasts & Exploration, Warriors of the North and Blazing Deserts DLC Thread

[Tigranes]

Wasn't this known for a while? It's not particularly onerous if you play normally, but it's vulnerable to abuse.

Honestly, seems the lesser of the game's problems - the fun is in early-mid game and there's not a huge amount of replayability or path variation.

 

[Waterd]

So basically you just delay the same things you can do faster.

Sure, but that is the point, you can easily buy yourself time to make a big high level and highly equipped team.
No you wouldn't have maybe. That is the point, suffer some loses? short on money? just loes renown, and grind easy missions.

More important, there is no incentive in the game to really risk ever anything, just go safe, and keep your renown low. Every risk you take is an unnecessary risk.
That makes the game unchallenging.

Wasn't this known for a while?

i don't know what you mean, the game was released a few weeks ago, adn a run takes lots of hours.

I don't know what you mean playing normally. I was playing normally, and trying to survive in Expert ironman, and with time i realized the key to survival was just to see renown as a bad thing, and trying to lose as much as possible. I was still kind of in a hurry, because I was in the belief that the late game crisis would come eventually be me prepared or not, and Now i realize it's not even that, that sucks, and make me abandon the game.

I just hope a fix is comming in exp or DLC or something.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Outside of contract effects, how does the village economy work in this game? I see caravan and peons running around, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Also, when does trade goods restock?

 

[Invictus]

I dont mind level scaling I mean Darklands had it too but the fact that the undead crisis is so restricting really pissed me off... my 6 level 8+ archers were basically worthless even using crossbows against ancient artillery and it all broke down to the fact if you had +150 equipment or not
I almost never did 3 skull contracts and mostly looked to build my band slowly and replacing fallen bros with low level reserves and that conservative tactic didnt work at all with the undead since they would simply be too much for any low level char (5 or less) so I was overwhelmed by the attrition

 

[Eyestabber]

An account from reddit:

So i have had a bad ironman run and decided to test out how the game scales. I fired everyone, except 1 BB, sold what little scraps i have left, include my dog, and camped on an island village, feeding the lone BB grains (grains, but no fish, could you believe that?) till day 127. Then i returned to mainland to do a grand tour to see how is the world doing without me. Here is what i found.

1. The world survives on its own just fine. Little to no ruins.
   
   
2. Enemy camps do not litter the wilderness.
   
   
3. Roaming enemies still consist of 5 direwolves, bandit gangs with mostly thugs. Thus, enemy level scales only to your renown (i had 40)
   
   
4. No end-game events. Usually, end-game event occur around Day 85 for me. Day 130 and still no end-game. Thus, end-game events happens only if you have sufficient renown.

So to people who are worrying about not taking on enough contracts in order to get sufficient gold to buy equipment, lvl your BBs, etc, there is really nothing to worry. You are not beating the doomsday clock here. You can roam around for days, being a mercent, and the Orcs/Skeles will continue to let you be, unless you have sufficient renown to initiate end-game.

So it's entirely possible to just start by merchanting your way to success with a good map, hire the best recruits and buy the best kit, before you even have to face 2nd tier enemies. If you get attacked, just retreat or leave someone in reserve as backup.

Mmm...interesting information. When I made my second video I was pretty sure that renown based scaling was real and not my imagination, which is why I suggested focusing your contracts on a handful of nearby settlements, rather than spreading all around the world. The reason being you can make stronger trade gains by being "allied" with one large city + a couple of small ones rather than being "open" with the entire world. That way you get a lot more wealth via trade with no associated renown, thus outscaling your enemies with superior weapons/armors/expensive soldiers. So far my theory is proving to be correct.

All we need now is for some nerd with too much time on his hands a prestigious reddit scientist to test whether the scaling really is renown based OR xp based. That's important, because renown based scaling can be bypassed by grinding random encounters in the wilderness. :ehue::ehue::ehue:

 

[Sarissofoi]

But it was stated by devs that RENOWN has nothing with enemy strength.
Only affects contracts pay and unlock noble ones.
Scaling is tied with power of the party and time. So mostly high level increase enemy strength.
Unless they outright lied which is unlikely.

 

[Sinatar]

Seems pointless to have the skull rating for contracts if things just scale.

With 3 tiers of equipment and 3 ranks for contracts this seems like an easy thing to balance...

 

[LizardWizard]

Has rapsdjff abandoned us?

 

[Sarissofoi]

Wasn't this known for a while? It's not particularly onerous if you play normally, but it's vulnerable to abuse.

Honestly, seems the lesser of the game's problems - the fun is in early-mid game and there's not a huge amount of replayability or path variation.

Which is kinda sad because so much effort was put into procedural generation in maps, missions, units etc. Perhaps its a balance issue, if everything was tuned very tightly you'd have to make do with what you got, whether its cripples, shitty drops, particular towns and factions etc in a path dependent manner, rather than grind out the optimal builds.

Or perhaps its another reason for more simulationism so the proceduralism produces complexity and emergence, rather than being somewhat obvious from the very beginning whether the map is good or not.

What is sad is that they have working simulation build at some point(poorly working because it was unbalanced and strongly favor hostile factions but that could be tuned and perfected).
There were few problems with old simulation build:
>humans were outright weak, like really really weak
>that lead to fast fall of kingdom economy because it can not defend itself at all
>enemy factions was united(one orc, one goblin etc) which mean that they dogpilled settlements easily
>enemy progress was really fast if successful and they were because settlements forces were weak
>settlements also spend most of their resources for caravans which mean they won't rebuild defensive forces
It could be countered by:
>adding stronger militia&military forces which was done
>dividing enemy one big faction into smaller competing ones, it was done but I think smaller subfactions still do not fight each other, also they do not destroy/take over enemy camps so its static more or less
>changing behavior of settlement in case of caravans and military spending
>tuning economy and enemy progression

Instead we get what we have now and its static world with passive agents.

 

[Trash Player]

Such a shame indeed.
At this point, the world map feels vestigial; it is better served with a FFT style map, like you said earlier.
The devs must be quite bummed so few fruits are born from working on the simulation. Lessons learned I guess.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah, that is a shame, especially as it sounds like all those problems could have been fixed by tuning the numbers. They could even have fudged things behind the scenes a bit, players wouldn't notice. Like adding a "war footing" status where embattled settlements spawn defence forces to keep things .

 

[Jimmious]

I don't know what you're all saying, I'm on vacations and I can't play and I miss the hell out of BB. Level scaling or not.
Weren't they supposed to release some new info this week btw?

 

[agris]

What's everyone's favorite way to scavenge armor early on? I'm on day 26 or so and I just now have shitty chain for 4 or 5 bros. I churn through the cheap recruits, keeping and grooming the ones that I like. I have a headhunter team of fail-users, and I use 2 - 4 ranged characters and 2 back row curved hook/pike guys. Maybe I'm building renown too quickly, so the fights with good armor are too close and I can't strategize enough to bash heads? That's what always seems to happen when I face bros with armor I want- the fighting in too fierce for me to selectively headhunt good armor.

~15 bros, 1k gold, day 26, and noble contracts just opened up and I picked the amibition to get even more renown with the nobles, which is probably a mistake given that my group isn't very strong. i'm playing on the intermediate difficulty fwiw (expert?)

 

[Murk]

I never got better than standard mail shirts from bandits; from there-on I'd just save up cash and buy Reinforced hauberks for like 2.2k or so each.

 

[Sarissofoi]

I don't know what you're all saying, I'm on vacations and I can't play and I miss the hell out of BB. Level scaling or not.
Weren't they supposed to release some new info this week btw?

Soon you will see the TRUTH and join us.

 

[oneself]

Ending one of the crises is a ‘soft end’ to the game – you’ve basically won and will be asked if you want to retire from the company at this point

http://battlebrothersgame.com/dev-blog-92-late-game-crises/

I know. It still doesn't change anything since apparently the end game will not happen unless you climb in renown. So basically you just delay the same things you can do faster. Just maybe with better equipment and bros? Which still in end game battles you would have

Huh make sense. My first game where I turtled very hard got endgame crisis at 150. Second game I pimped out my men super quick I got endgame crisis on day 80 on the dollar.

I never got better than standard mail shirts from bandits; from there-on I'd just save up cash and buy Reinforced hauberks for like 2.2k or so each.

Yeah I don't see any point in armor harvesting. Takes too much effort. I buy that and jump straight to coat of plates if I can find one and have the money.

 

[Eyestabber]

Scales > plates. Plates have extra fatigue for the same HP.

 

[oneself]

Taking gifted at level 11 when you have student perk gives you max roll without talent, but it doesn't actually level you up, unlike when taken earlier. Neat.

 

[Prime Junta]

What's everyone's favorite way to scavenge armor early on? I'm on day 26 or so and I just now have shitty chain for 4 or 5 bros. I churn through the cheap recruits, keeping and grooming the ones that I like. I have a headhunter team of fail-users, and I use 2 - 4 ranged characters and 2 back row curved hook/pike guys. Maybe I'm building renown too quickly, so the fights with good armor are too close and I can't strategize enough to bash heads? That's what always seems to happen when I face bros with armor I want- the fighting in too fierce for me to selectively headhunt good armor.

Sounds about right to me. I'm rarely able to scavenge better than the greenish shitty chain early on. Sometimes I get lucky and get a basic mail shirt or <gasp> dire wolf chain from someone. Keep building reknown and run it like a business -- repair and sell the best weapons, keep an eye out for trade goods, that sort of thing. What happened to me is that at one point I started turning a tidy profit, and then I started investing the money into armour. First basic mail shirts for the frontline, then upgrade them to hauberks and give the mail shirts to the second line.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Taking gifted at level 11 when you have student perk gives you max roll without talent, but it doesn't actually level you up, unlike when taken earlier. Neat.

Gifted never levels you up, no matter when you take it. You'll always just get the max rolls.

 

[Teut Busnet]

What's everyone's favorite way to scavenge armor early on? I'm on day 26 or so and I just now have shitty chain for 4 or 5 bros. I churn through the cheap recruits, keeping and grooming the ones that I like. I have a headhunter team of fail-users, and I use 2 - 4 ranged characters and 2 back row curved hook/pike guys. Maybe I'm building renown too quickly, so the fights with good armor are too close and I can't strategize enough to bash heads? That's what always seems to happen when I face bros with armor I want- the fighting in too fierce for me to selectively headhunt good armor.

~15 bros, 1k gold, day 26, and noble contracts just opened up and I picked the amibition to get even more renown with the nobles, which is probably a mistake given that my group isn't very strong. i'm playing on the intermediate difficulty fwiw (expert?)

Daggers are better to loot armor than hoping for headshots - but also riskier i guess. (There is something wonderfully sinister about surrounding a bandit leader and getting out the knives).

Armor is the only thing I'm buying early-/midgame, because weapons, helmets and shields are common drops. The red and brown leather armor first, then the mail-hauberk - look for damaged ones at the markets to repair, usually gives you the best prices.

 

[Reinhardt]

There is something wonderfully sinister about surrounding a bandit leader and getting out the knives

Blood initiation for new brothers.

 

[Eyestabber]

Don't forget heather shields. Making sure all your front liners have them instead of regular shields is more cost effective than reaching for hauberks.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Anything special that can be done to improve armor drops? Daggers and decaps were mentioned, are certain types of death more conducive to drops?

 

[oneself]

Taking gifted at level 11 when you have student perk gives you max roll without talent, but it doesn't actually level you up, unlike when taken earlier. Neat.

Gifted never levels you up, no matter when you take it. You'll always just get the max rolls.

I said that because I tested specifically. I was level 11, it didn't level me up. Though I used the free perk given by student.