Living in the world of Battle Brothers is no picnic. Between nobles for whom you are nothing but a chess piece in their great game, beasts that want to eat you alive, and necromancers that want to raise your corpse once you’re dead, how does one make sense of it all? The free ‘Of Flesh and Faith’ DLC coming to Battle Brothers on March 10th introduces two very different paths that promise salvation from this mortal coil, manifested in two new origins to play your campaign with. This week we’re dissecting the first of these, the ‘flesh’ in ‘Of Flesh and Faith’, the Anatomists. Let’s look inside!
The Anatomists
Anatomists are a group of researchers whose unquenchable thirst for knowledge trumps their sense for decency and their need for social acceptance. Shunned for disturbing the peace of the dead to advance the bounds of scientific knowledge, they’ve been mistaken for necromancers more than once. Theirs is a path to become more than mere men, to conquer life with knowledge about the flesh, paved with the dissection of the fallen. With about all there is to be learned from disassembly of the human body already learned, they now look to you to provide them with new and exotic specimens. Imagine what wondrous insights the study of greenskins could yield! Oh, and a great Lindwurm, imagine what secrets lie but waiting to be discovered behind their scales!
This intellectual bunch starts with three men of modest talent, but with high starting funds and unique equipment of their own. Because they’re really not fighters, but thinkers, they can never be quite confident going into battle. However, the very first time they manage to kill a specimen of any non-human opponent in the game, they’ll dissect the corpse and create one potion unique to that type of opponent. This potion can be imbibed by any of your men to permanently mutate their body in a somewhat painful process potentially involving the violent discharge of bodily fluids in order to gain special effects. If you’re aware of The Witcher, you should have a pretty good idea of how these mutations work.
Because defeating any type of opponent for the first time grants you a potion with its very own special effect, the Anatomists have a lot of incentive to hunt down each and every type of opponent in the game – and sometimes as soon as they are able to. To aid you in this, the Anatomists also have access to four different ledgers where they make notes of any opponents already dissected. These are for beasts, greenskins, the undead, and legendary creatures – the latter allowing for potions with particularly powerful effects. Evolving your body by unnatural means is an exceptional affair, which is why it is accompanied by a bunch of new events that tell about the experience. And because a unique origin like the Anatomists should do their tainted business in style, they can also hoist an entirely new and appropriately creepy player banner for their company.
You can now wishlist the free DLC on Steam by clicking the widget below. Visit the Overhype Studios Discord to discuss everything Battle Brothers, and sign up to the Overhype Studios newsletter to always be the first to know!
Join us again next week for our second dev blog about the ‘Of Flesh and Faith’ DLC where we take a closer look at the other new origin that offers a great purpose in life and promises a path to salvation, the Oathtakers.
Inland Sea is truly big. It's larger than any of the previous maps, being 33% larger than even the other large maps.
Since Inland Sea is so big, it has got a lot of space in it. You may come across various places where bandits or troglodytes guard over their treasures and you may have a hard time tracking down the obelisks you're looking for.
Speaking of treasures, there is a new addition to this and other maps that may make exploring of the Underworld a more rewarding experience: Dragon hoards. A dragon hoard is a site at which a drake guards over its riches. If you bring enough warriors you may bring down the beast and loot what it assembled on its own.
The maps in which dragon hoards may be found, are: Inland Sea, Island, Virgin Forest and River. Tracking down the dragon hoards may not be easy always as they are situated in the most empty, remote or obscure places.
Inland Sea is also the only other map besides Oasis which includes all existing region types in it. Two players start out in a snowy environment, while there is one player respectively starting out in grassland, forest, swamp or wasteland.
Since there are 6 players and a lot of neutral critters spread over the map, Inland Sea is heavier on the CPU than any of the other maps. Expect things to run a little less smooth most of the time. If you have a somewhat recent CPU, you should be fine.
PS: There has been a nerf to the rockshower spell. Rocks now have an impact damage of 33 rather than 50 before. AI players with geomants currently seem to rule out any other constellations with them.
Come by and ask away as we go along this adventure.
Sophie is an adventure game with metroidvania elements that presents pixel art graphics and RPG characteristics driven by a deep, immersive, and dramatical narrative. The game tells the tale of Sophie, the main character: a strong-minded girl that ventures through the kingdom of Sharam, motivated by silhouettes she believes to be hallucinations.
Good mood, smiles and gifts are perfectly combined with it. By the way, this is for you!
1) Copy this promo code into a special window in the "Gifts" section of the play store 2) Take something good in the magic chest 3) Done! You are gorgeous!
Progress is being made on ASPEC First Assault, albeit slower than intended due to unexpected life issues that I won't be going into.
I want to show off some of the behind the scene elements that you may take for granted. Much like a car that you just get into, turn the ignition and drive off, there is a greater degree of complexity hidden under the hood that makes such an act appear simple but is quite complex and thankful don't require any inner working knowledge to use.
In ASPEC an RCS (Reaction Control System) is a computer flight assist that keeps players flying where the nose of the ship is pointed. Without this assist, zero-gravity flight becomes significantly more complicated as you handle all 6 degrees of movement and rotation manually.
To visually show what the RCS is actually doing I have added visual elements for effect. Thrusters and engine flares are made visible allowing you to see just how it's handling your input and counteracting current forces on the ship.
Just to be clear the thruster placement is not 100% accurately modeled, more an artist interpretation of what looks like a reasonable placement to me. Thrust forces are calculated based on desired maximum acceleration and rotation speeds based on meters and degrees per second, which are used to calculate the required forces based on the mass of the ship. This generates some huge values which would be unrealistic with modern technology, so remember this is set in the distant future and would be as magical to you as a car would be magical to people in the Stone Age.
As a developer, you tend to underestimate your own game in terms of difficulty and accessibility. You know all the features, have mastered all the tricks and know how to elegantly avoid stumbling blocks.
We have not been immune to this, either, but very quickly received feedback from players that our game was too difficult. Especially the introduction had some potential for frustration. One criticism was that, as a fresh commander, you didn't have enough time to understand the individual game mechanics and their connections in the early game. The result: A "Game Over" screen, and, in the worst case, disappointment in front of the monitors.
Since we want to present players with some (also quite big) challenges, but at the same time we don't want to overwhelm or frustrate them, we have fine-tuned the difficulty level since the Early Access release in October 2021.
However, we still received comments and remarks that made it clear we need to make further adjustments in the area of difficulty. Now we were faced with a landmark decision: Do we turn the difficulty level down even further, or do we add multiple difficulty levels sooner than we thought? The decision-making process led to some very lively discussions internally, and we ultimately decided to implement four difficulty levels already.
This has several advantages: The default difficulty level does not have to be fundamentally changed, and we can still present players with appropriate challenges - just as we envisioned as developers. At the same time, the first eight missions of the campaign can now be played on 'Easy', making it easier to get off the ground. On the other hand, advanced players can now start the campaign directly on 'Hard' or 'Very Hard'.
Another change that has been made should also make things a little easier. The maintenance station is now available at the beginning of the game and does not have to be unlocked anymore. This point has also been mentioned in comments and forums from time to time, and we have complied with this as well.
With these changes, we hope to offer players of Sphere an even more pleasant gaming experience.
What do you think of the new changes? We are looking forward to your feedback!
Please visit our community suggestion board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ and help us make the future of Sphere - Flying Cities even better!
