Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV Pre-Release Thread [RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[ArchAngel]

I like the 30$ offer for TToN. It is 35$ from their website and I don't own it yet (was super short on cash when its KS was happening).

 

[PhantasmaNL]

The 30 levels announcement is basically meaningless unless they elaborate on what they consider a BTIV level.

Im tempted to up my pledge again due to some reward additions but will probably wait till last moment.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Beekers needs to take some unboxing tips from DU

 

[DosBuster]

Man, that XOUNTS thing looks dumb, it's just an LED light with a speaker in it. Good to see BN is taking the corporate cock nicely though.

 

[Zed]

Xounts is a stupid fucking name. The product is fucking stupid. And inXile is fucking stupid for shilling it during their poor Kickstarter.

truly a work of art

 

[ArchAngel]

OK I added +30$ to my pledge to get TToN. 30-35$ is max I even spend on a game.

 

[Kz3r0]

Monte Cook is in.

 

[theSavant]

Now the long crawl begins...

 

[Kz3r0]

Now the long crawl begins...

The moment of truth comes next monday, no E3, no fourth of July weekend, I wonder what Fargo coocked up.

 

[theSavant]

I found 2 interesting parts in the touch points document, which were not written in the Update:

Build a combat-hardened warrior to lead the way, or a spell-flinging Conjurer to provide support from the back lines.

This finally confirms that we have at least frontline and backline for tactical positions! Very important point. It would be retarded to have all characters lined up like ducks.

A major design goal for TBT-IV is to ensure that larger battles in the game are constantly evolving, forcing the player
to react to a tactically changing battlefield.

Does that mean, we'll get larger portions of enemies to kill (meaning larger than 8 slots as in the engine demo)? I hope so, but I don't know how they gonna visualize that...

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm glad they're finally adding some more shit into the story, though have they straight up removed their talks of zooming the camera out? Because "being able to see your character's equips and not just a paper doll" makes me think this won't be like the in engine video at all.

They said this would not be in base game but a higher level stretch goal. It might be one after MCA, but since the campaign probably didn't do as well as they hoped this will be not used since they will need all the money just for the base game without any fancy but useless features.

 

[agris]

Lets be real, inXile has money from WL2 to funnel into whatever they want. That doesn't mean they're going to put a lot into BT4 (aside from the already-pledged $1.25 mil), but they could make up several hundreds of thousands pretty easily from their WL2 income.

According to Steamspy and only steamspy, 444k copies of the game are owned. Let's assume that all 62k WL2 backers redeemed a steam key, and that all ~28k TToN backers that were eligible for a WL2 key got it on steam. That leaves 354k copies that sold for between $20 to $40, and based on Steamspy's graphs, not a lot of people picked it up at $20. So lets assume that 354k copies sold for $30 each, to account for the $20 US sales prices and lower international costs. I'm assuming that's too low, but I want to be conservative. So Steam takes it's 30% cut, and lets just assume that total revenue is taxed an additional 10% to smudge over different tax rates for different countries. That still leaves inXile with ~$6 mil USD revenue, which is on top of the WL2 and TToN KS.

I think they could put a few hundred thousand into BT4 for whatever feature they want.

numbers

Steamspy Steam Ownership of WL2 = 444,000
WL2 backers = 62,000
TToN backers entitled to WL2 key = 28,000
Total KS entitled WL2 keys = 90,000
WL2 owners minus KS entitled keys = 354,000
Revenue at $30 USD / key = $10,620,000
Total revenue minus 40% for steam + taxes = $6,372,00

That of course negates GoG sales, physical sales and any additional cut Deep Silver takes from digital sales (if any?). I think $6 mil USD is a fair estimate of their direct revenue from WL2 sales and is probably too conservative.

 

[ArchAngel]

Paradox takes money from InXile?

Also they will sell TToN at least as much as they did WL2. And BT4 will release in 2017. They can increase BT4 size and scope by 2x easily after TToN starts selling.

 

[agris]

Sorry, who was the physical distributor for WL2? I mixed up OE and inXile. Is it Deep Silver?

edit: ok, it's DS. Updated post.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Paradox takes money from InXile?

No. Deep Silver

 

[tuluse]

I'm 99% sure Deep silver only gets money from physical sales. It was a distribution deal, not a publisher deal unlike what Obsidian did with Paradox.

 

[Infinitron]

Room 16 [UNLOCKED] All backers $20 or above receive TWO Julie Fowlis songs: the song from the in-engine video, and "Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill (The Mavis of Clan Donald)" from her latest album, Gach Sgeul.

Room 20: The party cannot yet see so far in the darkness of the dungeon...

http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/fairy-host-dungeon

Room 16 Unlocked: In the center of this room sits a stone sarcophagus surrounded by large funerary urns. Shanko rubs his hands with glee at the sight. "Smash ‘em! Smash ‘em! There’s always loot in urns!”

He runs to the closest and cracks it with the pommel of his dagger. It shatters, but does not spill earth, bones and treasure. Instead an urn-sized chitinous form unfolds and rises to its eight legs.

“Giant spider!” shouts Fiona. “Kill it!”

You move to surround the spider, but strange scraping sounds distract you. The tops of all the other urns are rising up and falling aside, and saber-like spider legs are sprouting from the tops. The spiders rock forward and stand, their abdomens wearing the urns like armor. Venom drips from their fangs.

Anders snarls at Shanko. “From now on, no more smashing urns!”

Galli wades in to the spiders with his warhammer, smashing urns and shattering chitin, as Shanko and Lioslaith follow, guarding his sides and parrying slashing spider legs.

Fiona spurs them on with a ancient walking song while Anders casts a spell of entropy to make the spiders shells brittle and stiff.

Even with this help it’s tough fight, and the party is sick with poison and weak from blood loss by the time the last spider falls.

Anders is on the floor, clutching a belly wound. “I… I’m not going to make it.”

Fiona clutches her throat. “I don’t think any of us is going to make it.”

“Let’s see what we died for,” says Galli, and with a tremendous push, shoves the stone cover from the sarcophagus.

The ghostly form of an elven woman rises above the stone coffin. She looks around at you all. “Your death nears, interlopers, but it is not inevitable. Agree to repent your larceny and rid these halls of the vile Einarr who desecrate them, and you shall be saved. Refuse and this room will be your grave.

"Yes!” cries Anders from the floor. “Save us and we’ll save you!”

“Hang on,” says Fiona. “Let’s talk terms first. Just how much repenting–”

But the ghostly elf is already spreading her hands. “Then live again, but know that your lives are forfeit if you break this compact.”

A glow like sunlight and first love spreads through the room and your wounds heal as if they were never there. The fire of the spiders’ venom fades from your veins.

“Further in, friends,” echoes the elf woman’s voice. “Further in.”

Room 17 Unlocked: You enter the next room arguing so fiercely you hardly notice your surroundings.

“I was dying!” says Anders. “Of course I took her offer.”

“We were all dying,” counters Fiona. “We still could have made a better deal.”

“What’s done is done,” say Galli, then turns a hard eye on Shanko. “Just don’t steal anything!”

“Okay, okay!” snaps the trow. “I don’t know why you’re looking at me. We’re all thieves here.”

With the argument over - for now - you finally take in the crumbling elven mosaics that cover the walls of this room in dusty green and gold hunting scenes. Elves on red stags charge through a forest with white-eyed hounds baying before them. It is slightly disconcerting to see that their quarry is… a man.

Voices reach you from deeper within the catacombs. It isn’t the mournful female singing this time. It sounds like chanting.

 

[Rivmusique]

Can I have my song now?

 

[Infinitron]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/1283504




Nothing too interesting here, but wow, 100 kilt photos.

 

[Zombra]

Full text for those who can't be bothered to click a link:

Update #16

Jul 3 2015

Monte Cook Adds His Voice To The Song!

Hello Exiles!

Happy 4th of July weekend for all our American backers. In the US, this weekend is about family and celebration and we’ll use it to recharge our batteries before our final week, but before we check out we wanted to give you one final quick update.

The biggest news as of yesterday: The first of our stretch goals to put together the ultimate RPG super team has been hit, and Numenera creator Monte Cook is joining The Bard's Tale IV!

The exciting thing about working with someone like Monte is that as a veteran pen and paper RPG designer, he will bring a fresh yet experienced perspective to our game, helping us to look at our dungeons from a new perspective and thus craft more varied, engaging challenges. And he knows dungeons, as the creator of dungeonaday.com, a site set up to provide gaming parties with huge amounts of adventuring content!

Social Media Achievement
We were very amused and gratified to see someone cleverly use the 2015 Celtic Fling to spread the word on The Bard’s Tale IV and get a hundred – count ‘em, a hundred! – new kilt photos. Check out the full gallery here!

We’ve also received some impressive new songs!

• SpaceSolar – Bard’s Song
• Layne Allen – Bella Ciao

Along with other great new submissions recently!

As always, you can find fan art and kilt photos on our Facebook page. We’re thundering through our social media achievements now, having reached room 17! Room 20 and beyond are shrouded in shadow for now, perhaps if you came a little closer…

Brian Fargo
Leader in Exile

 

[theSavant]

Ok... most boring update ever. That we won Mount Cook happened yesterday or the day before, but it's not really a news or an update. Guess I'll continue reading 'Enclave of the Fairy Host'

 

[Infinitron]

http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/fairy-host-dungeon

Room 18 Unlocked: The elven mosaics in this room depict a feast in an underground banquet hall with tree roots for pillars and witch-lights for lanterns. Elves in beautiful clothes eat and drink and listen to an elven bard. All the servants are humans. An elf maiden has a man for a pet. He curls on a pillow at her feet.

The chanting is louder here. You can distinguish the words now. You recognize them as ancient Einarr.

 

[Atchodas]

Accidently clicked that song while browsing on my phone , wont mind if this project fails and burns

 

[theSavant]

You can't judge the game based on totally random fan-songs.

 

[theSavant]

?