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

[PrettyDeadman]

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

Infinitron, please do make a news announcement about that!

I guess I'll have to buy this one too, but my steam addiction already made me poor as a church mouse. My only possesion is a bucnh of games on steam, most of which were never installed.

 

[coldcrow]

They are really releasing in that state. It's not a total trainwreck like the first one, but close.

 

[Sacred82]

They are really releasing in that state. It's not a total trainwreck like the first one, but close.

not that I'd expected anything less from them, but still


and I was just about to get excited.

 

[YES!]

What state? The game looks great and functions great. From reading the forums there are no major issues. What state are you guys talking about?

 

[hogcranker]

Did they actually bring the first remake up to snuff or are they just blowing smoke up the asses of people who skipped it over the horrible reaction?

 

[coldcrow]

Can you forward 10000€ to me when I just announce a new rpg?

Not sure what your eye disease is, but it might be worth your attention. Mind thatI'd be way more lenient if that was a NEW rpg. As it is, it is just a rehash, so a LOAD of work off their shoulders. Still the 2d and 3d part of the game look totally disjointed, they could be 2 separate games. As per 0.98 there are still gamebreaking bugs, like disappearing HUD. If you are not a total moron, you can clearly see that is a hackjob without any a) talent b) experienced team. Which is exactly why this game sucks.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Did they actually bring the first remake up to snuff or are they just blowing smoke up the asses of people who skipped it over the horrible reaction?

I didn't encounter any bugs in my playthrough 3-4 months ago. I find it also more ... comfortable (minimap, diagonal shooting) than the original I guess.

It's still not pretty though and the combat can drag on a bit (that's due to the 'The Dark Eye's' P&P rules though).

Watch a let's play. If you can live with the visuals, you'll have fun with it.

 

[coldcrow]

Did they actually bring the first remake up to snuff or are they just blowing smoke up the asses of people who skipped it over the horrible reaction?

I didn't encounter any bugs in my playthrough 3-4 months ago. I find it also more ... comfortable (minimap, diagonal shooting) than the original I guess.

It's still not pretty though and the combat can drag on a bit (that's due to the 'The Dark Eye's' P&P rules though).

Watch a let's play. If you can live with the visuals, you'll have fun with it.

But isn't the point of the remake to give it a pleasing reskin and a thorough bug squashing? Yet it looks worse than the original and introduces many of its own problems. I don't know, these guys just can't do it imho.

 

[Teut Busnet]

Sure, I'm not defending them. They deserve all the mocking they're getting.

But hogcranker wanted to know the status of the first remake, so I tried to descripe my experience: playable, and even if it's ugly, what made the original great - treasure hunt with resource management, the feeling of a large world etc. - is still there.

I think after they chose the look, there was only so much they could do to improve it.

 

[YES!]

Did they actually bring the first remake up to snuff or are they just blowing smoke up the asses of people who skipped it over the horrible reaction?

I didn't encounter any bugs in my playthrough 3-4 months ago. I find it also more ... comfortable (minimap, diagonal shooting) than the original I guess.

It's still not pretty though and the combat can drag on a bit (that's due to the 'The Dark Eye's' P&P rules though).

Watch a let's play. If you can live with the visuals, you'll have fun with it.

But isn't the point of the remake to give it a pleasing reskin and a thorough bug squashing? Yet it looks worse than the original and introduces many of its own problems. I don't know, these guys just can't do it imho.

The remake fixed a ton of bugs from the original, restored content and added a ton new content.

People yapping like the BoD remake is still buggy really drive me nuts. They cannot understand the remake was fixed plus plus +++++++. It WAS buggy at relase and unfinished - but that was long, long ago and they fixed everything and added a ton.

As for the Star Trail, it is not buggy, the patch today fixed the last couple bugs, and everything is good to go for tomorrow.

Hail to the twelve!

Version 0.99 is the last version in Early Access, the next build tomorrow will be 1.0! Adapted the following things:

• Fixed scales puzzle in the Phex temple
  
• Fixed boat trip puzzle in the Phex temple
  
• Fixed stone-sliding game in the Phex temple
  
• Steam Trading Cards are enabled
  
• The character generator has been revised, is now tidier, and offers class descriptions as decision support
  
• The stone bridge in Tiefhusen now sounds like stone
  
• Alchemy has a soundeffect
  
• The dungeons have all got "fog" as a graphic effect
  
• When transferring items, the item no longer gets "stuck"
  
• Difficulty settings in the main menu got a tooltip to explain why they are disabled
  
• Godflag-Mod with kind permission of Torxes in the main game
  
• Pitched some footstep sounds lower
  
• Fixed a bug with the spider vermin battles in the Phex temple
  
• Removed welcome dialog in the main menu

11 Rate up

Only normal people with a decent comprehension ability and a refined taste for real rpgs need apply.

The new 3 ed/4 ed amalgamation should appeal to more people. Everything has been normalized, no more dice rolls on chargen or level up. No more failed increases, etc. Be prepared to face some of the best designed dungeons in crpg history, only outdone by RoA 3, SoR where the mage's tower is still the best designed dungeon ever made so says everyone who know anything about anything.

 

[YES!]

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

I agree he should comply as this is a huge deal on par with the release of Grimoire for true rpg fans with quality taste.

 

[Sacred82]

the trailer videos on Steam don't work for me.

This does not instill confidence

 

[YES!]

the trailer videos on Steam don't work for me.

This does not instill confidence

Through the web or steam? No trailers work for me through the web on steam, but they do when I watch in steam.

 

[Sacred82]

web, I'm on an old laptop right now, I think they work on my PC.


Anyway from the screenshots it seems the visual style has improved some, yeah it's still a bit shit but on a level I could tolerate now.

 

[YES!]

And remember, BoD was a relative unknown and the RoA trilogy didn't become "known" until ST. So even if you tried the patched up and added content glorious version of BoD, you still want to give the new ST a try because ST is the most popular original. Also, all the combat characters and animations have been redone. There is zero reason not to buy this for people who love and want to support the development of real and really good rpgs.

 

[coldcrow]

I had to reinstall the game to make sure I didn't miss anything. Just compare Kvirasim the original with the remake. I don't know how you can be serious about this being any form of improvement. The town got reduced to the interactive buildings, got populated with zombies and malformed trees and the swamp? apparently releases alot of fluorescent gasses. Probably they have some kind of hallucinogenic effect on the local populace, so they won't kill theselves. Traders apparently have to stand in front of their stallsand generally sitting seems to be not a pastime invented yet.

I know these would be idiotic nitpicks if this was a game from 2000, but here is the point, it is not. And instead of going full retard 3D, a high res 2D overhaul of the original could have produced a more pleasing result. Oh, but wait, that takes actual artistic competence and some kind of vision.
No gotta do 3D because... probably easier to model 3D shapes with the current tools than actually draw 2D stuff. Fuck them.

 

[Siobhan]

And instead of going full retard 3D, a high res 2D overhaul of the original could have produced a more pleasing result.

I didn't even think of that as an option. Now I'm imagining a RoA remake with Chains of Satinav/Memoria-level 2D art.

Also not thrilled by bringing in aspects of DSA4, that edition pretty much killed the spirit of DSA as far as I'm concerned. And I still don't get why ST needs a remake anyways, it's much more polished than BoD and even has 3D movement for players who don't like grid-based exploration (which includes me in this case, ST with grid-based movement just feels wrong).

 

[YES!]

I had to reinstall the game to make sure I didn't miss anything. Just compare Kvirasim the original with the remake. I don't know how you can be serious about this being any form of improvement. The town got reduced to the interactive buildings, got populated with zombies and malformed trees and the swamp? apparently releases alot of fluorescent gasses. Probably they have some kind of hallucinogenic effect on the local populace, so they won't kill theselves. Traders apparently have to stand in front of their stallsand generally sitting seems to be not a pastime invented yet.

I know these would be idiotic nitpicks if this was a game from 2000, but here is the point, it is not. And instead of going full retard 3D, a high res 2D overhaul of the original could have produced a more pleasing result. Oh, but wait, that takes actual artistic competence and some kind of vision.
No gotta do 3D because... probably easier to model 3D shapes with the current tools than actually draw 2D stuff. Fuck them.

ST has new animated models that look good, look at the second trailer in steam.

As to your other points, BoD HD fixed the major bugs of the orginal, added a ton of new content, and changed things that kept millions from trying BoD, like the xp penalty for saving. If you think it looks bad, great. I think most AAA games look silly and like shit. My favorite graphics are the simple but sharp kind, like in ToEE, Wiz8, and I think the eschalon games had really sharp graphics. TToN had nice graphics.

I rate games on content, systems, and functionality. As long as it has a decent UI and not-ASCII graphics I don't give a shit.

But, checkout the trailers of ST, it improved on all the superficial shit everyone was whining about.

 

[V_K]

And instead of going full retard 3D, a high res 2D overhaul of the original could have produced a more pleasing result.

Well, to be fair, of the original trilogy only BoD was fully 2D, both ST and SoR had 3D environments.

3D movement for players who don't like grid-based exploration (which includes me in this case, ST with grid-based movement just feels wrong).

Wasn't there some problem with some events not triggering properly in free movement? Or am I confusing it with some other game that also had two modes?

 

[Infinitron]

All right, it's out now:

 

[Sacred82]

Hmmm... they know they're worth less than Grimwah.


Will pass for now

 

[Siobhan]

Wasn't there some problem with some events not triggering properly in free movement? Or am I confusing it with some other game that also had two modes?

Supposedly you can get stuck in the golden statue in the orc fortress, which requires a reload unless you can teleport. But I've never had that happen to me.

Edit: And in the English version, you can only get to an important chest in the swamps if grid-based movement is deactivated.

 

[Urthor]

So is it shit or not? Youtube looks like an it's okay but Blade of Destiny was in fact an actually released game so :suspicious:

 

[YES!]

So is it shit or not? Youtube looks like an it's okay but Blade of Destiny was in fact an actually released game so :suspicious:

I don't really follow what you are saying after your initial question but it is not shit. It is crpg in all its glory. BoD HD was an actual released game which not only patched and fixed all the issues it released with, but corrected a lot of bugs and missing content from the original. On top of that they added even more content and dungeons. So, BoD HD ended up being great, but monkey idiots still complained about animations and clicking on people and models, so in this remake of the far more popular and successful Star Trail, they made all new animations, made it possible to click on all people, and redid all the models.

This game isn't for everybody. People who watch other people play games on youtube probably won't like it. People who think minecraft is great probably won't like it. People who only passingly like rpgs probably won't like it. This game is for fans of the crpg genre, not console boys who like the lattest hipster youtube sensation.

 

[mushaden]

If I haven't played the originals, should I play those first? This is obviously a question for those who think the game is good (now).