Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD - less shovelware this time?

[Rhuantavan]

Let me know if it's any good

 

[vonAchdorf]

The male faces looks fine.
The female ones for some reason seem to be between porn and derp.

In the original games at least 2/3 of the not so many portraits were derp.

 

[thesheeep]

Extremely derpy, even.
But in a charming, pixelated way.

 

[Snorkack]

Looks butt-ugly. Dunno why I thought it might be otherwise. Also, opposed to blade of destiny, I don't see many reasons that justify a Star Trail remake. I pass on this one.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Looks butt-ugly. Dunno why I thought it might be otherwise. Also, opposed to blade of destiny, I don't see many reasons that justify a Star Trail remake. I pass on this one.

Visually, I think the pseudo 3D of Blade of Destiny aged better than the early 3D of Star Trail, but the mechanics in Star Trail are of course much better (not being able to shoot/cast diagonally is really infuriating).

 

[Snorkack]

While the pixel art may be beautiful, orientation in the 1st person view is just a bitch in BoD. I prefer the seamless movement in ST's low-poly cities any day.

 

[vonAchdorf]

While the pixel art may be beautiful, orientation in the 1st person view is just a bitch in BoD. I prefer the seamless movement in ST's low-poly cities any day.

Only as long until you get in the blobber vibe and just blindly tap away - forward forward forward - left forward forward

 

[Morkar Left]

I got Blade of Destiny HD dirt cheap and I have to say they patched it fairly well and have some additional content. Plus the game is really mod-friendly and with the mods available it becomes a superior version of the original game. It's more challenging, more complex and more content heavy.

Ironically the char models are still the worst I've ever seen in any game of any time period in the history of computer games. And the interface is more cumbersome than in the original game. Traveling speed in 3d is only to stomach with the shift key pressed to run all the time (thank god for programmable mouse keys).

The music isn't bad but entirely forgettable. Luckily they allow you the play the original score.

If you like the original BoD, Darklands and the Magic Candle you will like this modern version of that style of crpgs as well.

That being said I'm actually looking forward to Star Trail HD which seems to incorporate the things I wanted to have in a remastered Star Trail (more combat options, mod-friendly, additional content) and fix the weaknesses of BoD HD (mainly the horrible, horrible char models).

 

[Junmarko]

Early Access is available now:

Wise choice to go into Early Access upfront. BoD was slammed on release for being unplayable - hopefully now they use their time adequately to polish it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Sure, I'll bite.

 

[smileyninja]

What mods are available for this? ModDB has nothing. Do you recommend anything in particular?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Aaand it looks like char models are the same.

 

[Morkar Left]

What mods are available for this? ModDB has nothing. Do you recommend anything in particular?

With steam there is pop-up when you start the game. There you can choose lunatic's mod manager. You can choose English when the launcher is running. It's pretty self explanatory from there. You can load mods directly from a link and the launcher will handle everything for you. With space you get a description of the mods, too. Just pick what you want. I have most of them installed because they are pretty much all useful. Some mods are already obsolete because they are integrated in the basegame.

Aaand it looks like char models are the same.

The Star Trail ones look like masterpieces compared to the ones in BoD. Prospers models look like masterpieces compared to the ones in BoD because they are better animated and more creative.

 

[Siobhan]

Plus the game is really mod-friendly and with the mods available it becomes a superior version of the original game.

I took a gander at the mods listed on schicksalsklinge.com, and the vast majority add flavor text, change the rule system to be more like DSA4 (*shudder*), or do pointless stuff like shortening the opening times for stores. The only ones that look like genuine fixes are Magica Classica to get back the ROA1 magic system, schickre2dossound to use the voices from the original ROA2 for spell incantations, and Silent DSA to shut up the narrator. Starke Gegner might be interesting as a kind of Stratagems light, but I'm not sure that it would actually make the battles more fun rather than more tedious. So unless I missed some really important mod, this reminds me of Elder Scrolls modding: tons of fixes to minor things, but in the end you're still stuck with the sub-par base game.

 

[Morkar Left]

Plus the game is really mod-friendly and with the mods available it becomes a superior version of the original game.

I took a gander at the mods listed on schicksalsklinge.com, and the vast majority add flavor text, change the rule system to be more like DSA4 (*shudder*), or do pointless stuff like shortening the opening times for stores. The only ones that look like genuine fixes are Magica Classica to get back the ROA1 magic system, schickre2dossound to use the voices from the original ROA2 for spell incantations, and Silent DSA to shut up the narrator. Starke Gegner might be interesting as a kind of Stratagems light, but I'm not sure that it would actually make the battles more fun rather than more tedious. So unless I missed some really important mod, this reminds me of Elder Scrolls modding: tons of fixes to minor things, but in the end you're still stuck with the sub-par base game.

Waffen-Feature- und Bugfix-Pack (Waffenpatch) allows weapon style combat options and introduces the woundsystem. It's indeed mostly inspired from DSA 3 with some 4th edition and makes the game more diverse in options and equipment. In combination with Starke Gegner enemies become a lot harder and it introduces a stamania system as well. Overall it becomes better than the original game. If you didn't like the original game you won't like this game as well, of course. It's a faithful adaption of the original.

 

[Goblino]

So if I kind of want to support these guys but I don't like buying unfinished products, is it worth it to bite the early access bullet? I see no time frame for final release anywhere. Does anyone have a clue when this bomb drops?

 

[vonAchdorf]

Well, you get Star Trail Classic with the EA game.

They planned to release the game Feb 2017, but a review says that you shouldn't hold your breath.

 

[Goblino]

Probably worth it to wait for all the content and dlc to be out then. I actually like BoD a little. Somewhere between the rough edges and shoddy craftsmanship is a somewhat playable old school RPG. Does anyone think there's been a marked improvement yet?

 

[LESS T_T]

“We plan to end the Early Access Phase in the second half of July 2017.”

Original ETA was February.

Looks like they're doing updates steadily: http://steamcommunity.com/games/288860/announcements/

 

[coldcrow]

I played it for 1h and couldn't bring myself to load it up again. The horrible 3D-art annoys me the most. The original had quite charming 2D pics and a coherent design, but here the 2d and 3D parts feel totally disjointed. Also the engine is still a fucking mess, as the predecessor. It saddens me to see one of my favourite games violated like this.
I would wish them well, but as far as the dev cycle went I don't see any chance for a good game here.
Also these fucking idiots only have to improve a finished product. I can't fathom how they can fuck up even this task when they don'T even have to do any creative input.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Can't wait for this game , as 3 originals are one of my favourites crpgs ever. It's worth to mention that now, after long patching treatment remake of the 1st one , Blade of Destiny is also very good game, already on Steam.

 

[coldcrow]

Enlighten me, where the good game is, if we look at the original and judge it by it's own period in crpg history? I am genuinely interested, as I see only an ugly, buggy and messy port with severe problems in art direction and engine coding.

 

[Siobhan]

Star Trail won't be nearly as entertaining as Blade of Destiny, simply because Bubbles won't be around to extol the game's virtues.

 

[Infinitron]

From the Codex inbox:

Hello there!

We are about to release Realms of Arkania: Star Trail tomorrow and we thought you might want to add this to your news. We were in Early Access for more than half a year and are now rather fond of what we achieved together with our community.

After the desaster that was the release of Blade of Destiny, we worked hard to redeem ourselves and make BoD the game it was meant to be, and we did it. Now, with Star Trail we included our dearest fans from the start and gave a lot of people the chance to get involved - and boy did they get involved! More than 650 Bug Threads, more than 400 Feature Requests (more than a hundred of them implemented), lots of modding already done and available in Steam Workshop - Star Trail has become an actually good game .

So, if you need anything else in terms of information, support or just want to let me know that you wrote something about us, I'd be happy to help you out!

kind regards
Christian
Lone Coder of Star Trail

 

[Parsifarka]

Comply so YES! , er, Roqua doesn't open another thread bitching for lack of news.