|
Mr Yar is rolling far too well. You fired into melee, missed and still hit an enemy. Can I have your luck please.
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 06:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:49 |
|
|
Phrosphor posted:Mr Yar is rolling far too well. You fired into melee, missed and still hit an enemy. Can I have your luck please. There is an important mechanic i should probably make an effort post about, but its 11pm and gently caress it i'll get to it next time. but the short of it is that if you fire at an enemy two tiles away, and the intermediate tile has a friendly, then you do not risk nailing your buddy in the back of the head. e: oh right, I went back and know the particular shot you were talking about. That was perfectly safe too. If you miss a shot it can only hit a target in an adjacent hex. There were no friendlies adjacent to the targeted hex so I was safe from friendly fire. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Sep 5, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 06:59
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:Pawn shows some promise as a recruit, despite being picked off the streets as a beggar and being gluttonous... somehow. With 56 melee attack and one star in the stat he shows good promise of being able to strike the enemy. The star in ranged attack is going to waste most likely, and the three in initiative are unlikely to influence how he progresses down the road. Since he shows a bit of promise he was given a padded surcoat, a shield, and a cloth hood. It's not great, but it's the best our recruits can expect at this point. I can imagine that I've acquired a taste for vermin and garbage while on the streets as a beggar. So much so that I've become glutinous while spending the majority of my time devouring the refuse behind Ye Olde KFC.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 07:03
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:There is an important mechanic i should probably make an effort post about, but its 11pm and gently caress it i'll get to it next time. but the short of it is that if you fire at an enemy two tiles away, and the intermediate tile has a friendly, then you do not risk nailing your buddy in the back of the head. Or, if you get unlucky, an AI-controlled ally can fire at an enemy while one of your dudes is standing next to him and KILL YOUR DUDE THANKS AI THAT WAS HELPFUL
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 07:08
|
|
|
Phrosphor posted:Mr Yar is rolling far too well. You fired into melee, missed and still hit an enemy. Can I have your luck please. Fortune favors the bold (and he who aims at a large target) 
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 07:09
|
|
|
Looking forward to the inevitable deaths
GlassEye-Boy fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Sep 5, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 08:15
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:There is an important mechanic i should probably make an effort post about, but its 11pm and gently caress it i'll get to it next time. but the short of it is that if you fire at an enemy two tiles away, and the intermediate tile has a friendly, then you do not risk nailing your buddy in the back of the head. I always found the mechanic of shooting into melee from over a space away very opaque, so thanks for clearing that up.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 08:19
|
|
|
Rebellious Pawn posted:I can imagine that I've acquired a taste for vermin and garbage while on the streets as a beggar. So much so that I've become glutinous while spending the majority of my time devouring the refuse behind Ye Olde KFC. I like to believe you're the French polyphagist Tarrare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 08:34
|
|
|
Phrosphor posted:I always found the mechanic of shooting into melee from over a space away very opaque, so thanks for clearing that up. No worries, and this wasn't always the case either. For a very long time shooting into melee was a very risky thing to do. The devs let up and at least added the two-tile mechanic. Until then people had to find other things to do with archers. I will be demonstrating my solution to that problem when we get some skilled archers. Even though it is not necessary anymore, I still like my solution.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 08:57
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Or, if you get unlucky, an AI-controlled ally can fire at an enemy while one of your dudes is standing next to him and KILL YOUR DUDE Alternatively, shoot next to AI-controlled allies, hope to get lucky and steal their armour.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 13:32
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:Alternatively, shoot next to AI-controlled allies, hope to get lucky and steal their armour. Doesn't work that way. Also turns out friendly firing too much makes the faction owning them veeery sad.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 14:16
|
|
|
Gridlocked posted:Doesn't work that way.  It's mostly wishful thinking. I've never managed to kill an ally.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 16:13
|
|
|
Fat Samurai posted:Not with that attitude. I think Gridlocked means you can't scavenge their dropped armors and goods.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 16:34
|
|
|
Yeah, I know. I meant that even if you could the previous step is very difficult to manage.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 17:10
|
|
|
Rebellious Pawn posted:I can imagine that I've acquired a taste for vermin and garbage while on the streets as a beggar. So much so that I've become glutinous... Would that this could let you trap weapons swung at you or something.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 17:18
|
|
|
I could also imagine a guy getting to eat regularly for the first time in ages might be real excited about it and eager to take advantage of it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 19:26
|
|
|
Put me in coach! I'm ready to slay! Allison the Angery ideally a Grave Robbing Crossbowman, but I'll take what fate decrees.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 23:09
|
|
|
So how are new recruits being handled? Are we going by time of sign up or by a randomized list?
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 23:29
|
|
|
edit: whoops, thought I was posting in the other thread. Nevermind!
vdate fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Sep 6, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2017 23:49
|
|
|
I don't know the game but by the sound of it the recruits are randomly generated similarly to xcom so it's just a list of names the game chooses from?
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 00:09
|
|
|
Jade is manually renaming people. I don't know how he's choosing people. The game has a preset set of names to generate from, but you can freely rename people.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 00:17
|
|
|
I think he's using an RNG from a pool of names, which would explain how I got pulled, despite not being one of the early people. I am happy that I lived through that, though it would have been funny to have died on my first mission.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 00:52
|
|
|
I imagine you got more from completing the request than looting the bodies? Does that hold true through the game?
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 01:55
|
|
|
Glazius posted:I imagine you got more from completing the request than looting the bodies? Does that hold true through the game? The way combat works, you tend to destroy all of the armour that your opponents are wearing while you fight them, so there is usually very little loot beyond weapons and the odd bit of food or gold. There is a strategy you can employ to try and preserve a specific piece or pieces or armour if you want it, but I will leave that to Jade Star to bring up if he wants to. The basic takeaway is that unless you are attacking something that you are pretty sure is going to have a lot of loot (a caravan maybe?) then you shouldn't expect to rely on spoils to get you through payday and feeding your dudes. Sometimes you get lucky, but it isn't a good enough resource to rely on.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 01:59
|
|
|
Hunt11 posted:So how are new recruits being handled? Are we going by time of sign up or by a randomized list? Randomized list. I got a text document and everyone's name is numbered and then I google a random number generator. Glazius posted:I imagine you got more from completing the request than looting the bodies? Does that hold true through the game? Sort of, yes. You're pretty much always guaranteed to make more cash from the contract than selling the gear you loot from the bodies. However if you can put the gear to use then looting can be seen as more valuable. This pretty much relies on the market charging a lot more to sell a sword to you than it pays out from buying a sword from you. If you can loot and make use 4 swords the market sells for 250 crowns each then awesome you've just looted 1,000 crowns worth of gear. But if you pick up those same 4 swords and have no use for them but to sell them to the market then you're only going to get a fraction of that 1,000 crowns. Probably closer to 350.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 02:18
|
|
|
radintorov posted:Torov ready to get horribly murdered by any sort of monstrosities while having nothing more than a tunic and (if I'm lucky) a spear. You should be more optimistic, pretty soon there'll be more than enough nasal helms and mailshirts just waiting for the worst stains to be rinsed off.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 02:54
|
|
|
Captains Journal, first entry. Some of the men have expressed concern about my willingness to order Mr. Yar to fire his crossbow into melees. While normally that would be a risky proposition indeed, and not one I'd normally like to take, there are a few factors to account for in my assurances to the men that I make such commands with out risk of Mr. Yar putting a bolt into their back. The first thing to understand is while Mr. Yar, and any archer really, might miss shots they will not miss wildly. That is to say that even if Mr. Yar misses his shot, it will land in the general vicinity of his target. To be more precise about missed shots and the potential for friendly fire; a missed shot only holds the potential to hit an unintended target if the unintended target is within 1 hex of the intended target. Because I know some of our brothers are a little challenged with words, I have scratched a few hand drawings to help illustrate this concept.  Here is a straightforward situation. Mr. Yar is shooting the bad buy. If he misses than only the six hexes around the bad guy are at risk of being hit by a stray bolt. If a friendly is one of those six hexes then they are at risk of a missed shot hitting them. Everyone with me so far? Good, let's pretend there is a melee going on.  Right then, now Sullat and Wokow have surrounded the bad guy while Mr. Yar remains a safe distance away. In this case if Mr. Yar was to shoot and miss the bad guy then both Sullat and Wokow would be at risk of a missed shot. Sullat would be in even more risk than Wokow however because he is directly in the line of fire. In fact Sullet is actively providing cover for the bad guy and is thus more likely to be struck by a missed shot because of that. This is a circumstance I will almost never order an archer to fire into. Let's get a little more advanced. If the target is two hexes away and Mr. Yar has a battle brother in-between him and the target than the appearance of risk to the intervening battle brother can be forgiven. By the rules above it seems like this would be a risky shot. Let me illustrate again.  So by previous rules Flamester here looks at risk of a bolt to the back of the head. I won't fault you for thinking that. However this is the one exception. A shot made at a range of two hexes will not trigger friendly fire on the friendly in the intervening hex. Likewise if Wokow sneaks up behind the bad guy from behind again like the last example he is not at risk either. Shots from two tiles away like this hit or miss, they do not stray and hit unintended targets.* *Not 100% sure on this. May require field testing. Use Sullat.... Now, given all this we should be able to conclude what is a risk free shot into a melee and what is not. But some concern was brought up over one shot in particular, and it's going to happen a lot so I don't want you guys freaking out because arrows are going over your head.  This sort of situation is going to happen a lot. A battle line is going to get formed and the enemy ranks might form two, or more, deep. If we apply what we learned in lesson one we know that only the adjacent hexes to the target are at risk of missed shots straying into them. Combined with lesson two we know that if we aim at the targeted bad guy and miss, the shot is more likely or not to hit bad guy 1 or bad guy 2 than it is to miss and go into an unoccupied hex. Now this may look like Hard Gay, Pawn, and Travel Log are in the line of fire, and they certainly are between Mr. Yar and the target bad guy, but they are far enough away from the target so as they do not interfere with the shot at all. So here is my first lesson about combat and archery. I hope this all puts you at ease that I will not be ordering high risk crossbow shots to be fired into melee and risking your lives.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 04:05
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:So here is my first lesson about combat and archery. I hope this all puts you at ease that I will not be ordering high risk crossbow shots to be fired into melee and risking your lives. Not for warfare anyway. For sport is another matter. Do your camp chores, folks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 04:42
|
|
|
What if it would be really, really funny?
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 04:44
|
|
|
Huh. And here I thought firing into "gaps" even if far away was mechanically safe as long as your archer bro has clear lanes to the enemy.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 06:49
|
|
|
Don't underestimate Drunkard Jade. It's one of the few point-for-point damage boosters in the game and this results in it being REDONK if you can get it in the right situations.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 08:06
|
|
|
Much like Rabies in Darkest Dungeon I value hitting more accurately more than I value hitting harder. For right now that -5 melee skill is a -10% for most brothers. If i hit 10% less often, but for 10% more damage I come out losing on the exchange. Even if it came out even on the exchange I'd still value hitting more often in Battle Brothers since each hit is a morale check*, and more hits means more chances to hit the head where the difference in damage won't likely be noticeable and more chances to inflict a minor injury* earlier in the fight where it'll have a bigger effect on the subsequent events. *I know these are actually damage dependent, but I'm simplifying.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 09:25
|
|
|
I would like to join for a (not so) glorious death Sad King Billy
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2017 18:36
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:Much like Rabies in Darkest Dungeon I value hitting more accurately more than I value hitting harder. For right now that -5 melee skill is a -10% for most brothers. If i hit 10% less often, but for 10% more damage I come out losing on the exchange. Even if it came out even on the exchange I'd still value hitting more often in Battle Brothers since each hit is a morale check*, and more hits means more chances to hit the head where the difference in damage won't likely be noticeable and more chances to inflict a minor injury* earlier in the fight where it'll have a bigger effect on the subsequent events. I'm more talking if you get it on a natural military brother with good stars late game where you can offset that -5 because there is a point where melee skill vs defense starts to plateu. Also if you get stupid lucky like me and get a bro with Drunkard and Ambidextrous at level 1 resulting in a next 10% damages which was nice with head shooting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2017 01:46
|
|
|
 The Black Parade, days 3-6  Last we left off the company had returned to Filzmoos after clearing out their cemetery of some grave robbing bandits. While that was profitable and not a hard challenge there is little else to do around here for the time. There is no work left to be had and while the town offers a skilled poacher or two for hire I hold back until I have a bit more money. 1,128 crowns is enough to hire one poacher safely, maybe stretch it and cover both hires, but I'd have no money left over to buy them any new equipment if they needed something. Instead I use the funds to buy some food before heading out. Each brother consumes two units of food a day except Pawn. Being gluttonous Pawn eats three units of food a day, which is really not a big deal. We won't even notice Pawn stuffing his face when we aren't looking. So quick math says I go through 17 units of food a day, and having 35 units of food I had 2 days worth left before purchasing 50 more units of food. Foods come in different kinds but all function the same; they feed the men. Food will spoil over time and some of the more expensive kinds of food last longer than others. There is also a chance at a morale increasing event if you supply the company with at least 4+ different kinds of food. Right now though I'm sticking to cheap grains mostly, but because Filzmoos has a gatherers hut as part of the town they have an abundant and cheaper than normal supply of roots and berries so I pick up two bundles of those for about 60 crowns each. That's 120 crowns for 3 days worth of food, or 40 crowns a day for food, to give you an idea on one of the many constant financial drains on the company. For comparison the wages of our 8 battle brothers is about 90 crowns a day. So at 130 crowns a day minimum we can't afford to sit around for very long. We need work, and to that end we set out down the road to the nearest town.  Eichendorf is a short march away to the west, and is the town I bypassed on the way up to Filzmoos anyway. We'll arrive there at night time which means we won't be able to do anything in town but visit a tavern if there is one, or accept a job offer. Thankfully we don't have to camp till morning to get a contract, that would suck. You do however have to camp till morning if we want to use the market place or hire more men.  Along the way Flesnolk talks about how to attract more work and better paying work. He's not wrong that the nobles can more gold to pay for work than the merchants or town councils, but they also want you to kill tougher things for that money. In plain terms it is a risk versus reward situation. Nobles will pay us more, but it'll be riskier for us. Right now though that is a distant goal. All we've managed to do is hunt down one small time bandit leader and a few grave robbers. For now we can worry about the simple things like food, pay, and equipment for each man in the company.  It's dark by the time we arrive there and the market and fletchers shop have closed up. The icon in the upper right tells me that the town is suffering from disappearing villagers. Just like before at Filzmoos there is a contract waiting for us and it's probably related to the disappearing villagers.  Well that sounds bad. A lot of villagers turning up missing in a short period of time. We are up for it though.  320 crowns is... not a lot... As I pointed out that is only about two and a half days worth of minimum necessary upkeep costs for the company. Well at least I know the job should be easy if they're paying such a pittance. We will have to look around for tracks or clue to see what is going on around Eichendorf.  Okay never mind that was really easy. As soon as the sun came up the tracks left by the beasts was evident. A short walk to the west and we've spotted the cause of Eichendorf. It looks like a small pack of dire wolves have been snacking on the peasantry and they are headed right for us. They'll not find us so easy a snack though. To arms!  Battle at Eichendorf's outskirts  Dire wolves can be a little scary at first. Travel Log got his hood shredded to pieces, but that what it's there for. Better the dumb cloth hood than Travel Log's face. The real key to wolves is that they can not do a whole lot versus real armor. Even the lightest chain mail makes dire wolves almost completely non-threatening. There are some nasty versions of wolves out there, but still, proper armor will see you though a wolf pack in relative safety. Another big factor that can help deal with wolves and other enemies is that they are poorly armored and are subject to morale problems. Each wound that does 15 or more damage triggers a morale check and with no protection it can be a quick matter to cause a wolf to lose it's nerve and try to flee, making it an easy kill. In turn, killing a fleeing wolf next to it's pack mates may cause the other wolves to lose morale and a sort of spiral can form from there. Of course this sort of panic spiral isn't limited to just wolves, it can work with men and greenskins too, but more seasoned fighters are less likely to panic from seeing a fleeing friend. Wolves aren't conditioned like that and don't like a fight where they aren't winning. Anyway, wolves, not a big deal once you have any semblance of armor. Let's get back to town and get paid.  Bjarne is at least concerned about the well being of the townsfolk. That's nice. We take the meager payment and look around the town. With their problem solved the town looks a little more lively, the market is more willing to trade with us but we don't have a lot of spending money and they don't have anything worth buying right now. Most importantly the town doesn't have any more work for us, so it's time to hit the road again.  I've drawn out my two options. To the south there are two clusters of civilization that could provide good opportunity for work. To the west we'd start at Ivendorf and work our way down as needed. There are six cities all kind of spread out and mostly in a line along the road. Maybe not the most convenient but with six cities someone has to be hiring. To the east we'd start with Hermannshop and head south as needed. The east provides a nice cluster of cities actually, it's one less than the west but Gelb is centrally located and I know it to be a prosperous castle city with good gear and fighters to recruit. It could honestly be a good place to set up shop. However I know Hermannshop didn't have work when I passed through it a few days ago, and Krakendorf and Seehoben are coastal fishing towns with no wealth and no work last time we were there just a few days ago. Given that I decide to head south west toward Ivendorf.  Well... at least there is a job offer here. Ivendorf, like most of the places I seem to visit is an empty poo poo hole, devoid of anything but the most basic goods at the market place and the usual assortment of vagrants and day laborers looking for work. Ivendorf will likely be another one of those towns I only stop by to buy food at on my way to or from somewhere important. Anyway, let's see what the job offer is about.  Okay well this is certainly a job that we can do... I guess? Why they need a band of theoretically heavily armed men to recover a lost relic from a tomb is beyond me, but the townsfolk are scared of the place from whatever superstitions they follow. So gently caress it, we'll take their money and bring them back their dumb book or whatever it is.  Again, 330 crowns isn't a lot but it'll keep the company marching for a couple more days until we find better work. Also it's worth mentioning that completing contracts builds the company's reputation. So while this isn't much, it's at least showing others that may want to hire us that we are capable and reliable. Think of it as building up a work history or resume. It's not glorious, but it's the foundation for what is to come. With task at hand we set out to find this tomb and relic.  The Tomb of Many Crows is not far to the west. It's a bit of a walk but it is right along side a road through flat open land so it'll be an easy march. Then just head around the little forest there and no trouble. I stopped by Westerholz just to look around as we passed by, but it was night time and everything was closed up. I think there was a temple there which is nice for later, but no one needs that yet. It's going to be just after dawn when we get to the Tomb, which suits me just fine but as daylight begins to break we encounter some unexpected trouble.  Looks like this stretch of road is rife with bandits and highway men! They're carrying different banners too, so they came from different hideouts. The smaller band of six see The Black Parade and start running away west into the forest, while the larger group of nine see they out number us and move toward the company. Six thugs sounds like a good warm up for the men, easy exp and maybe a little bit of loot. I order the company to pursue the smaller group of brigands, which coincidentally enough has us running away from the larger group of brigands. How fortuitous.  Just as we are gaining on the smaller group and pulling away from the larger group we spot another group of brigands through the woods. These guys fly another banner, and a few of them look tougher and better armed than the trash we are chasing down. Those would be proper raiders, as opposed to thugs, and could be quite dangerous for now. I'd put them on level with a starting brother like Travel Log or Flesnolk in terms of skill and given they've had time to operate they've likely picked up chain mail and helmets too so they may out class us for the near future. In any case I'm not sure they spotted us as they don't make any moves into the forest, so I continue with the pursuit.  The map labels this area as Wanderer's Boon but I'm renaming it gently caress City as a fourth distinct bandit group is spotted to the west. Like the previous group they contain a few raiders as well. Thankfully they see numbers are on our side and start to retreat toward the mountains farther in the west and I am happy to leave them alone for now.  I chase the brigands for slightly longer than I need to. I could have engaged in combat a bit sooner than this but I wanted to get out of the forest. We have the advantage in terms of manpower so I want a nice open battlefield where I can surround them. Where you fight on the world map does directly effect what the battle map will look like. Forests mean slower movement, more poo poo to block lines of sight, and more things to impede free movement and cause potential bottlenecks. In any case I chase them out into the opens and engage them in combat.  Brigands at Wanderer's Boon A fairly simple fight against brigands no better off than the previous group we fought at Filzmoos. The only slight problem we had is that one of the buggers managed to slip a dagger past Flamesters armor and take off about half his health. This is the special ability that daggers have and will be covered in detail in the next Guide post. For now I'll just briefly say that daggers can make an attack that bypasses armor entirely, but is much less accurate and costs much more stamina than a regular attack. Puncture, the name of the special attack, is the only thing daggers have going for them and the only reason to ever fear a foe armed with a dagger. Over all the fight was safe and easy and provided us a few level ups, about 180 crowns and a day and a halves worth of food. So not bad for a random encounter. Flamester will need a little time to heal for his HP as well as time for the pieced leg muscles to heal. This is one of those minor injuries that can be treated at a temple and we'll take a look at that in just a minute. First, level ups.  Flesnolk will be getting Fast Adaptation. Every time he misses he will gain +8% chance to hit until he lands a successful strike. This is usually my default second skill pick for front line brothers. When just beginning it can be hard to land hits and this helps deal with the growing pains of being low level. It's not particularly amazing, but it's a tier one skill that goes a long way to improving a soldiers life and is still useful later on in their career.  Travel Log will pick Dodge as his second skill. Because Travel Log doesn't have a shield to keep him safe we need to do something to limit his vulnerability. Dodge provides 15% of a characters initiative as a bonus to melee and ranged defense. Travel Log had 87 initiative at the time of his level up so that provides a bonus of 13 points of defense. That's pretty powerful considering a wooden shield provides 15. So Travel log is almost as protected as the shield wearing brothers. It's important to note that initiative is subject to change. Putting on heavier armor will negatively impact a soldiers maximum initiative score. Another important thing to realize is that fatigue will lower a soldiers current initiative score and Dodge is based on the current, not maximum score. In other words a tired brother will gain less defense from Dodge than a fresh brother. So that bonus that Travel Log is getting won't always be +13, but it's still worth getting dodge as the number of ways to keep him safe in melee outside of straight stat growth is limited.  After the battle I head back toward the Tomb of Many Crows and as it turns out that larger group of brigands had not given up on us despite losing sight of them through the woods. They are between me and the mission objective so I have two options; run away and hope they lose interest eventually or that a town guard or patrol scares them away, or I can deal with them myself. Running away isn't my style and it means wasting time instead of completing the contract so I back away from the woods once more and prepare to meet them on terrain of my choosing. More Brigands at Wanderer's Boon More of the same showing from the brigands here, just this time they had the slight numbers advantage. Mostly though the thugs weren't carrying shields and that makes a big difference in this sort of match up. Again the brigands showed the only real danger of daggers, puncturing Travel Logs side. Mr. Yar took return fire from a poacher and had an arrow pierce his cheek. Return fire is going to be a common danger to our archers and as the level up I'll be taking perks to mitigate that kind of risk. At the end of it we walk away with some injuries, about a days worth of grains for the men, 64 crowns, and 9 units of tools. The tools are worth about 10 gold each, so about 90 crowns worth there, so not bad over all. Tools are kind of a big deal though. They're valued at 10 crowns per, but hells if I ever see a stack of 20 for sale in a market for as little as 200 crowns, so finding them off the enemy is nice because it is totally something we will be using. Tools (alongside medicine) are one of the other big upkeep costs for the company. All the gear we wear and fight with, the armors that take damage, need repairing and tools are how we do it. Each tool gets expended over time to repair the durability of an item. As we fight we will constantly be using up tools and supplies to keep our gear in shape and that kind of repair and maintenance is going to be a constant drain on tool and supplies, and thus on crowns. Mr. Yar, Sullat, Pawn, Flamester, and Hard Gay all leveled up. With the exception of Mr. Yar everyone is getting Fast Adaptation.  Quick Hands lets a brother swap one item a turn for no action point cost in combat. This may seem like a strange choice to put on an archer but there is a reason for this. This is my way of dealing with combat that has closed into a melee line. Rather than shoot over my own men, in a risky or even non-risky way, I can now give Mr. Yar a melee weapon and let him join in. Oh calm down Mr. Yar, I hear you panicking already. I'm not going to throw a skilled archer into real melee, you don't have a shield or the skills for it. Rather I will now be on the lookout for a weapon with reach, a polearm! A polearm can strike a target two hexes away and cares not if the intervening hexes contain friends nor foes. Now if the battle lines get formed and Mr. Yar is at a lack of ranged opportunity he may draw a polearm and provide support and strike over the shield wall of his fellow brothers! It's a bit of a stretch to make the comparison, but imagine that it's going to look like a really lovely phalanx, with the fighters like Sullat and Flesnolk up front and Mr. Yar behind them with something long and pointy, stabbing enemies from a safe distance while Sullat and Flesnolk hold the line and absorb all the danger of the melee. Also to this end Mr. Yar's stat ups need to be assigned to melee attack as well as ranged attack. I don't think it much of a problem, but some people might as there are 8 stats to think about and you can only increase 3 at a time. With the aftermath of the two battles taken care of I take a moment to evaluate the men. Three men have suffered fresh injuries and I don't know what awaits me at the Tomb of Many Crows. There is no time limit to our contract so I don't see any harm in waiting out the rest of the day recovering and healing and then taking a crack at the Tomb first thing tomorrow morning. So I get back to the road to head back toward Westerholz, planning to rest there and maybe see about the temple there.  Oh for fucks sake. Again I spot more brigands, seven of them and some of them wearing armor and looking like proper raiders. If the men were totally fresh I'd think about it, but as is three of my eight men are beat up so I flip the brigands the bird and turn the company around. gently caress it, we'll go south along the road to the next city.  We quickly arrive at Kornstadt and the brigands are not following us. Kornstadt actually looks like it might be a nice place. It's got an impressive stone structure for the town center, a lot of sturdy wooden houses for residential districts and the outskirts hold a brewery and a pair of orchards, though one orchard looks abandoned right now. Farther south, not pictured, are wheat fields, a militia barracks, and herbalists grove. Kornstadt promises to have a lot of supplies and while not a castle town, it'll probably have a few men fit for combat looking for work.  Getting inside the town we can take a look at all it has to offer. Nothing geared toward warfare, no armor or weaponsmith, no fletcher, but it has all the signs of a prosperous and peaceful city. Given the orchards, the brewery, wheat fields, and herb grove to say that this city thrives off agriculture seems rather obvious. And its location isn't bad as a trade hub either, with three towns to its north and two more south of it, Kornstadt is pretty centrally located for the civilized areas of this region and they seem to be doing well for themselves. The facilities they do have are a tavern, a barber where we can change the appearance of our battle brothers, and a temple, which we may have need of now after a few of us got stabbed by some sneaky daggers. The red icon in the upper right though tells me that the city is suffering from ambushed trade routes, meaning supplies will be lower and prices will be higher. Gee, I wonder what the gently caress could be causing that? Maybe it's the loving bandit alley I had to fight through to get here? We're currently under contract elsewhere so I can't investigate the two job offers the city has for us, but it feels safe to say at least one of those would be willing to pay us to kill some of the brigands roaming around. We should remember that Kornstadt has work for us when we finish our current contract. Back to the concern about our injured brothers, let's walk into the temple and see what they offer.  The good news is that it seems in the time it took us to march to Kornstadt Mr. Yar's cheek healed. I didn't expect that, but that is certainly nice. Travel Log has a pierced side, lowering his max fatigue by 20%. This is bad, but it's not too bad, and is further mitigated by virtue of Travel Log using that axe instead of a one handed weapon. A one handed weapon could make two attacks a turn, costing 30 stamina. Or raising a shield for extra defense is 20 stamina. Shield Bashing takes 25. So a brother with a weapon and shield has a much greater rate of stamina consumption. By comparison Travel Log can only swing the axe once a turn for 15 stamina. Moving usually costs 2 stamina a hex, so about the most stamina Travel Log can burn a turn is 15 for the attack, and 2 for movement, so a total of 17. The base stamina regain rate is 15 a turn. So Travel Log doesn't really need a high maximum fatigue score right now, although it would be nice. Pierced Leg Muscles on the other hand kind of suck. The loss of initiative I could take or leave, no big deal, but the -30% melee defense is going to get someone killed. It's worth noting that this -30% is applied to everything, not just the characters base defense stat. That means Flamesters shield is 30% less effective as well. This blows. The wound will heal in two to five days naturally if I do nothing. I can pay the temple to treat the wound to double the speed of the wound recovery, and it also prevents it from getting worse from some very rare random events such as infection while on the road. If I had more money to spare I would patch Flamester up, however the treatment would cost a fifth of the total gold I have on hand. Further more the job we are on is only paying 330 crowns and sinking two thirds of that to treat the injury is just a little too much for me. Sorry Flamester you're just going to have to deal with it this time. I will of course take note of Flamesters vulnerability and position him about the battlefield accordingly. He'll be the last to engage the melee line if I can help it. Since I didn't pay for service at the temple I'll take a quick look at our stock of medicine.  The tool tip really tells out about everything you need to know. HP will regenerate on its own even with out medicine. We need Medical Supplies if we want to treat and recover the array of various minor injuries we'll come across from fighting. Typically we won't need a lot on hand, but multiple wounds that take the maximum amount of time to heal will drain supplies eventually. Medicine can also sometime be salvaged from the enemy after a battle. Let's turn toward the market for a moment before we head out.  Remember the quick chat about Mr. Yar and quick hands? Well here we go. A pitchfork is the first, and shittiest, polearm available to us. It's not great but it does at least let Mr. Yar attack from two hexes away and poke the baddies from behind the cover of the other front line brothers. The damage of 30-50 is pretty lackluster for a two handed weapon, the lightest bows and crossbows also do 30-50 damage as well. Later on stronger polearms will deal more damage than their equivalent ranged counter pieces. For now though a pitchfolk will work and they do come with one other upside, they are inherently more accurate. All standard attacks made from a pitchfork come with a +10% to hit. And a +5% chance to hit the head, but that is minor enough for me to not even consider. I purchase the beat up pitchfork for 107 crowns as opposed to the one in good condition for 225, just to save some money. It'll cost me some tools and time, but the cost of the tools will only be about 15-20 crowns compared to the 118 crown savings on the purchase. Just as an aside, look at the cost of tools in this place. 450 for a stack of 20. Or 22.5 crowns per unit. That's over double what the game values them when we loot them from foes and why I am so glad any time I can loot tools from after a battle. gently caress paying those prices. With our business in Kornstadt concluded it is time to head out. I plan on marching north to the Tomb of Many Crows and camping until it is morning before attacking. Flamester and Travel Log should recover their full HP by then, though they will still be suffering the effects of their injuries.  About halfway back to the Tomb and I spot more brigands. Maybe the same brigands from last time, I don't know, just gently caress off, I don't want to deal with you right now. I leave them alone and continue north and they scurry away to the hills in the east. This place is brigand loving central. While it's a pain in my rear end right now, I know exactly where I am going if I ever get a contract that pays by the head collected.  God drat it! I said gently caress off brigands.  I finally make it back to the Tomb of Many Crows after the sun has set. We can set up camp, making time pass faster and also increasing the rate at which brothers regenerate HP and repair their equipment. It can be useful to recover a little bit extra before going to a fight or just to make daytime come faster because you're waiting around for the marketplace of a city to open up. Once the sun is up I take a look at the Tomb as best I can before attacking, but I can not make out what might be defending it. It's never fun going into combat not knowing what you're going to be facing.  Well... gently caress this poo poo. Some sort of crypt guarding skeletons have taken exception to our actions and have come to life to stop us. It's worth noting that the contract is only paying us to retrieve the Almanach, it doesn't state anything about dealing with skeletons or the Tomb itself. We could retreat from the fight immediately and still complete the contract. But gently caress that, to arms! Battle at The Tomb of Many Crows  Skeletons can be tough enemies to fight. As Mr. Yar demonstrated they take almost no damage from ranged attacks. Secondly they do not care about morale or fatigue, neither affects them in any way. Typically they wear heavy helmets, one of which was salvaged and given to Travel Log, and carry big wooden shields that provide most of their defense. Using the Shield Wall ability they can gain even more defense, at the cost of action points that could otherwise be spent on attack. Normally this is a part time strategy, as maintaining a shield wall costs a lot of stamina. When you are undead though, you don't give a gently caress and can keep the shield wall raised all the time. The skeletons short comings tend to be their lack of body armor, somewhat low HP, and often times they carry lovely weapons that have been broken or dulled over time. We took a few hits, but even our meager armor held up under the attack of broken swords and rusted spears. As fortune would have it, the abundance of hatchets we carry proved useful in carving away the skeletons only real means of defense. With out their shields they fell pretty easily. Our contract nearly complete, all that is left to do is return, at long last, to Ivendorf to collect our pay. It'll be about half a days march east back the road we came here. Along the way we pass through Westerholz.  They've got a tavern and a temple here. And the local economy thriving on game hunting means I'm like to find men that can handle a bow here, should I have coin enough to spare for a few more men. At current though Westerholz suffers from the same ambushed trade routes that Kornstadt does. No real surprise there. They also seem to have villagers disappearing as well. Westerholz is in a bit of a bad spot. There are two contracts waiting for us should we return, and it's probable they aim to pay us to fix the trade routes or clear out more wolves. We'll keep that in mind and head the rest of the way back to Ivendorf.  Nothing further happens on the road and I am happy to have Brigand Highway well behind us. Reimar pays us for the return of the Almanach and the town has cause to rejoice a little. A town in high spirits will treat us better at the markets and can make trade a little more profitable while their good spirits last. Let's take one last look around and...  God drat it... What is with these places and missing villagers? Well there is a contract so I bet we can go deal with that next time. For now I'm just going to take stock of the company and leave that for the next update. Currently we have 8 battle brothers. 7 melee, and 1 ranged. Everyone is wearing armor of at least 50 points or better. Helmets are a bit lacking and people are still wearing cloth hoods of only 30 armor points. The company has 1,648 crowns saved up which is fine for now, but we need more to expand the roster or better gear the men. Tools and supplies are running low, only three units left. We'll need to find more if we intend to be able to patch up our armor the after the next fight we get into. Tools aren't cheap and I expect it to cost between 200 and 500 crowns to buy 20 or 40 units of tools. Ammo and medicine supplies are doing good for now. Flamester and Travel Log are still injured, but they'll be alright in a few days. All in all, we're doing alright for now. It looks like there are plenty of small time jobs for us to get started on in Ivendorf and the towns to the west. We may get a good start toward building up our reputation by killing a whole lot of brigands. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Sep 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 02:36
|
|
|
I am a big fan of auxiliaries in the early game. Some of their weapons can be useful for new brothers, and their helmets can help get you out of sack and cloth hats.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 03:32
|
|
|
Always be wary of The Bone Zone™
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 03:52
|
|
|
Donkringel posted:I am a big fan of auxiliaries in the early game. Some of their weapons can be useful for new brothers, and their helmets can help get you out of sack and cloth hats. Yeah, same here. I particularly like those occasions when I can get hold of a falx from them and give it to someone with a bonus to hit or hit heads
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 04:21
|
|
|
Hey Jade what is your seed? I'd love to play along on my own game. 6F0247 For anyone who wants it. Edit 2: Nope apparently not. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Sep 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 10:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:49 |
|
|
Gridlocked posted:Hey Jade what is your seed? I'd love to play along on my own game. 67b998
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2017 10:27
|
|