Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Director's Cut

[Deleted Member 22431]

How something as simple as turn-based, blobber, pop-up-encounter combat already mastered in the Apple ][ days could be fucked up so much?

I don't know. You should ask Brother None and Sea. They are the experts. LOL It seems like the worst combat system of the post-kickstarter era. They furiously dumbdown everything without compromises, while pretending to do something else. So awful.

And finally Infinitron lost his composure and started to use negative ratings. Don't be silly, Infinitron. It's not personal.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

LOL, we got actually two turn-based blobbers being released on the same day: https://store.steampowered.com/app/566540/Labyrinth_of_Refrain_Coven_of_Dusk/

Considering this comes from Disgaea devs, combat should at least be decent.

I will protect my hentai girls vs hordes of tentacles.

 

[Fairfax]

Prepare for massive layoffs.

I'd guess many of them already moved on to the Wasteland battle royale game (Frost Point).

Is that an actual thing? What the hell, Fargo?

 

[Nyast]

I'm genuinely having a blast, although I must admit I'm replaying / rushing all the content from the beta to get to the new areas asap.

But yeah, the game sometimes looks like crap/amateur. Yeah, it has serious performance issues ( but no, it's not "unplayable", far from it ). Yeah, it's very scripted and linear at the beginnings, with gated areas. That's only the beginning of the game, the world opens up after a few hours and quests can be done in a non-linear way.

The combat is NOT trash. I find it pretty good. Sure, it might not be the deepest turn-based combat system ever, but it's pretty fast ( once you know what you're doing ), quite fun to watch and it does have some tactical elements, with different abilities/spells attacking in different ways ( a single square in the front of the character, vs a complete row of 3 squares in front of the character, vs 3 squares as a line in melee range of the character ). Plus add range-based attacks, hiding/blocking behind other characters, channeling/charging abilities/spells, etc.. so it does have some good variety.

Of course, that's only the first few hours of the game - nobody's explored the combat system in mid or later game, so it's hard to say if it remains full or if abilities are balanced, yet.

The game has heavy puzzles; not so much in Skara Brae ( above & under ), but once you reach the first dungeon ( the mage tower ), you'll understand what I mean. Get ready to stomack 2 hours straight of puzzles after puzzles, some pretty challenging, with very few combats. So yeah, if you don't like puzzling, do not buy that game.

Overall I think it's a very decent dungeon crawler if you can stand the performance issues. Yeah, it's not the perfect spiritual successor of the original Bard's Tale, but I think the game stands on its own, just don't expect AAA visual fidelity, but just a nice indy game done on a small budget.

 

[Infinitron]

The Chad Larian

Makes sequel to game with multiplayer and colorful WoW graphics

On top of random item generation, adds infuriating level scaling and retarded armor mechanic

Nobody cares, 2 million sales

The Virgin Blobber Developer

Brings back oldschool series after decades

Creates new lore and experiments with innovative mechanics because he thinks his audience is sophisticated and this isn't 1985

Gets review-bombed

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

So is this the symbolic end of the RPG Kickstarter years? It all started with Fargo and now it ends with him.

Sad to see they just can’t catch a break, I kinda still sympathize with InExile despite their delivering disappointment after disappointment...

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Technical issues were already visible with the 15 FPS trailer, so I'm not sure how they can claim review bombing. Although in principle I kind of agree that disabling reviewes for first 3 days or something would probably reduce a lot of edgy trolling.

Most of those negative reviews are about how people can't run the game. Restricting reviews in such way will be shitty and anti consumer. I see nothing wrong with review bombing a game that doesn't run. People could just read the reviews and see what are the problems,it is not like reviewers are lying about it.

we need to protect the feelings of brian fargo or he may never release another piece of shit game again!!

Fargo's feelings can go suck a lemon. If there are issues with the game people can shit on it till their fingers bleed on the keyboard.

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

 

[Tigranes]

Honestly, inXile's core problem has always been the lack of talent in, well, making RPGs.

Troika had world class talent for making RPGs, not so much for money and management. Old Obsidian had the talent for writing RPGs, not so much for bugs and managment, etc.... we're used to all that.

The issue with inXile is that they never seemed to have competent programmers, great writers or great systems designers.

Anyway. Economically, there's really no way back from such an awful launch, but perhaps there's a fun janky game underneath? Waiting for more Codexer thoughts.

 

[fantadomat]

The Chad Larian

Makes sequel to game with multiplayer and colorful WoW graphics

On top of random item generation, adds infuriating level scaling and retarded armor mechanic

Nobody cares, 2 million sales

The Virgin Blobber Developer

Brings back oldschool series after decades

Experiments with innovative mechanics because he thinks his audience is sophisticated

Gets review-bombed

Come on mate,be honest here. Divinity boring sin looks better and run like butter even on older machines,it is functional. This one is a fucking blobber that needs 2500 Euro machine to run at 60fps....and looks ok at best. Nobody cares about the graphics,but at least it should have the decency to run well. You can't sell old school modern blobber to the 1% and expect people to cheer it.

 

[Morkar Left]

Attributes are simplistic. Strength is litterally the 'damage attribute', meaning all 4 classes use strength as a direct conversion of how much damage they do with an attack (regardless of which weapon is used or if a spell is used.) Constitution is your health attribute. your hitpoints (damage you can take before dying) is directly affected by this attribute. Get +1 constitution and you get +1 hit points.
Intelligence is some weird attribute that governs the likelyhood of maintaining a channelling ability if you are hit by an attack while chanelling. And that is basicly it. Then you got the 2 combat attributes of armor class and spell points. Armorclass is a raw deduction in damage taken from an attack and spell points start at zero each combat (but mages can spec into starting with one) and any spell cast removes those spellpoints. In order to get spellpoints during combat you need to channel a turn or more (note: Bards get spellpoints by drinking a consumable resource called alcohol).

Equipment affects the above by being simple 'stat sticks'. in other words, a dagger that gives +2 strength is the exact same as a sword that gives +2 strength in most cases. "armor" also merely applies attributes and the most common way for armor to give survivability to the user is to just have some +constitution on it (which in turn just gives a lfat addition to hit points). There's no real visible indication while playing of what equipment your characters are using, except for on the 'dress up doll' wher eyou drag and drop your equipment to. In this regard the backpack, or inventory, should be mentioned. It is artificially limiting in size, and you often need to click back and forth between deffirent 'pages' in your inventory to get a clear view of what you are actually carrying around. This also impacted shops, who couldn't purchase anything more if you filled up their inventory (which happened really fast).

Skill trees are like any random modern game, really. Except that the interaction with combat masteries (more on that later) means that the player often ends up feeling he have to choose between pointless skill A or pointless skill B just to progress along the skilltree. Every level-up, a character receives a skill point to place in the skill tree. Some of the "skills" are such fascinating choices as '+1 intelligence', '+1 strength', '+1 constitution' and so on. There are actually some 'real' skill choices along the way, where you get additional skill choices to use by a character. Oh, and every crafting item is skill required, so if you want to be able to use the crafting system, one of your characters will be 'that guy' that stands in the corner without participating in combat because all his skill points where used on crafting and the mastry system means he's not going to do anything in combat anyway when you have combat dedicated characters that need the actionpoints. Basicly the skill system feels unrewarding and leveling up a character gives you a 'meh' feeling instead of you feeling good that one of your characters leveled up.

Races are... well... there are different races, but at the time I was playing there was really no point to not make every character a trow. the racial benefit of getting extra actionpoints just outweighs any other racial, so there might as well just have been a single race cause the Trow race is just flat out the best. Nothing else to add.

Combat is.... crap... There, I said it. The thing is, it is turn based, but of the kind where one side do all its actions first with immediate resolvement and then the next side does its actions. Whoever initiates combat goes first. Now, instead of giving orders to each character and having everything do something, inXile looked at games like hearthstone and felt inspired by that (they specifically mentioned hearthstone as an inspiration). What this means is that each character have a limited set of masteries (active skills) they can use. Want the option to attack? that's a mastery. Want the option to move? that's a mastery slot. and so on. Some are fixed for all characters (move and trinket use is hardlocked for all characters as 2 of their masteries) and the rest 3 or 4 choices are choosable by the hero while you are NOT engaged in combat. once you are in combat you are locked into using whatever abilities you had set in the mastery slots before combat. I am guessing inXile thought this would be akin to deckbuilding or something like that. Add to this that you have a shared pool of 'action points' to use on your turn. Most mastery skills cost a single action point to use, but some cost more than one. And usually you have less actino points than you have characters in your party, so remember that guy I mentioned you put in the corner doing nothing during combat? The whole combat system feels extremely restricting and claustrophobic. Add that there are no hit chances (everything hits) and no damage variables (you make an attack, you hit for... how much strength did you say you had?) and combat stops feeling like combat, but more like a low level puzzle in a meeple placement boardgame.

If that's true than we have a problem...

 

[mondblut]

Add that there are no hit chances (everything hits) and no damage variables (you make an attack, you hit for... how much strength did you say you had?)

As far as I am concerned, this game doesn't exist.

 

[Infinitron]

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

I assume all games have stuff like this, but with certain Kickstarted game the problem seems worse because:

1) There aren't enough other reviews drowning that stuff out, because you're not an AAA.

2) You're not an indie either, so people are more aggressive with nitpicking you. This wouldn't happen to Jeff Vogel.

The "middle class game" gets squeezed out of the market in all sorts of ways. This is just another.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Technical issues were already visible with the 15 FPS trailer, so I'm not sure how they can claim review bombing. Although in principle I kind of agree that disabling reviewes for first 3 days or something would probably reduce a lot of edgy trolling.

Most of those negative reviews are about how people can't run the game. Restricting reviews in such way will be shitty and anti consumer. I see nothing wrong with review bombing a game that doesn't run. People could just read the reviews and see what are the problems,it is not like reviewers are lying about it.

we need to protect the feelings of brian fargo or he may never release another piece of shit game again!!

Fargo's feelings can go suck a lemon. If there are issues with the game people can shit on it till their fingers bleed on the keyboard.

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

I mean, is there any doubt butthurt NumaNuma backers are bombing anything from inXile?

 

[imweasel]

Fargo has been in the industry for 40 years, he should know that the single worst thing you can do is release buggy shit. faceplam.jpg

Also LOL that the game requires 55 GB storage.

 

[Jenkem]

The Chad Larian

Makes sequel to game with multiplayer and colorful WoW graphics

On top of random item generation, adds infuriating level scaling and retarded armor mechanic

Nobody cares, 2 million sales

The Virgin Blobber Developer

Brings back oldschool series after decades

Creates new lore and experiments with innovative mechanics because he thinks his audience is sophisticated and this isn't 1985

Gets review-bombed

The CLEVE Blobber Developer

Brings back oldschool genre after decades

Creates new lore and experiments with innovative mechanics but keeps the core his sophisticated audience remembers from 1985

Generates thousands of pages of discussion across the internet for a decade.

Doesn't release manual, respects his audience and their intelligence to figure things out on their own.

 

[fantadomat]

Technical issues were already visible with the 15 FPS trailer, so I'm not sure how they can claim review bombing. Although in principle I kind of agree that disabling reviewes for first 3 days or something would probably reduce a lot of edgy trolling.

Most of those negative reviews are about how people can't run the game. Restricting reviews in such way will be shitty and anti consumer. I see nothing wrong with review bombing a game that doesn't run. People could just read the reviews and see what are the problems,it is not like reviewers are lying about it.

we need to protect the feelings of brian fargo or he may never release another piece of shit game again!!

Fargo's feelings can go suck a lemon. If there are issues with the game people can shit on it till their fingers bleed on the keyboard.

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

I agree with this,there is a lot of butthurt retards. I even saw some genius complaining that there aren't random encounters like in the first games. As if there are people out there that like random encounters. Still most of negatives are because of the poor performance and only a few are about kickstarter retardation.

 

[BEvers]

The Kickstarter backers have left better reviews than the ppl who bought directly from Steam, you can see that in the review tabs.

If you disable language filtering, you can see that the review bombing is happening by Russians who bought on Steam. All the top negative reviews are Russian:

Run fools. Run like a plague and, if God forbid you touched this infection, immediately wash your hands and eyes with soap and soap make an Orthodox refrain! In another way, kleshnirukih developers released a raw piece of code (which in theory was in the beta test) is not taught.
The points:

- There is no content of packs (What should be given in the game inside the game and other buns). And so far, even amateurs have been overtaxed to sponsor at Kickstarter. On Steam just keep quiet.
- The game crashes with a black screen when you try to change the screen to Fullscreen.
- Many simply do not start.
- After 40 minutes of the game, fierce hell begins with drawdowns of FPS to 25 on TOP-cars.
- In general, while kleshverrukie developers do not know how to use UE4 resources correctly, we see a very mediocre picture with loathsome optimization! And this despite the fact that the game is apparently not armed with an eye dung-grabbed graphically! Look at the early roles, you will understand everything.
- Some of the texts are not stupidly translated.
- And many more such nice bonuses ...

By the way, I recommend strongly, to report on the game itself. Because there is a place to be just a throw through the sexual organ, the code you pay for what you as a result (at the moment) have not been given. Let's just steal money from the window ... there it is.

Is this the game for which they ask so much money? Apparently the guys also have a brain, as a fact there is no evidence.
On the face is not a secret attempt to leave on oldfagov remembering the classic games of the series and waiting for the continuation. I think not that they deserve and waited.

Worse than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and not seen, dancing with a tambourine is just what would run (changing the name of the user's folder). Has started. Change the resolution can not, fullscreen can not, crashes - crash, black screen. I created a character in the inventory menu displayed my character at the bottom on the grid of the group in general what that left guard, I think mozht clothes zabagovala - I remove the robe under it simply there are no textures - the head hangs in the air. Carl is hanging in the air! 2018 to bluff under the clothes of the character does not have textures! While stupidly not playable.

Horror and only.

Graphics 10 years ago, remember Skyrim without mods, it's much nicer. Looks a bit better than the 1st Gothic.

Optimization is lost. Manage with such graphics do not give out 60fps on Geforce 1080, in fact, without any problems, it sags to 30 not at the highest settings. Vidyaha kochegarit at 100%. It feels like a crypt. There is no support for 21: 9.

Some jambs with translation, some simply not translated. In some places, something absolutely inadequate shows. Of course, we can see that we tried, sometimes the form of the poem was preserved, but this does not save us from inadequate moments.

I go into the settings, show the German language, put the Russian language, the resolution flies to 1x1, play on one pixel, it's funny, I cut the right resolution, I apply it, and it vparivayet me some scanty, a 160 type of 160 pixels, or maybe less, well, and immediately wrote into the config without any questions. I had to find and delete the config.

Given that there are no discounts, it is better to wait for patches. And in general - a refander.

P.S. In general, about the game, but there is nothing to say, the game itself is at the level of the old MM 6-8 in terms of gameplay, only with step-by-step battles, but the gameability is not noticeable. The story is terrible, after The Bard's Tale (2004), in this, alas, I do not want to play. There was a fairly good sense of humor, there simply is not. Up-to-date Dungeon Crawlers do not hold in any way.

P.S.S. By the quality of performance does not reach the same Wasteland 2.

 

[Jacob]

Attributes are simplistic. Strength is litterally the 'damage attribute', meaning all 4 classes use strength as a direct conversion of how much damage they do with an attack

The whole combat system feels extremely restricting and claustrophobic. Add that there are no hit chances (everything hits) and no damage variables (you make an attack, you hit for... how much strength did you say you had?) and combat stops feeling like combat, but more like a low level puzzle in a meeple placement boardgame.

Conclusion:

 

[V_K]

Brings back oldschool series after decades

Creates new lore and experiments with innovative mechanics because he thinks his audience is sophisticated and this isn't 1985

Well, there you have it. If you want to ride the nostalgia, you have to deliver on it.
Why on Earth would anyone have nostalgia for BT is a whole other matter, of course...

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

I assume all games have stuff like this but with certain Kickstarted game the problem seems worse, because:

1) There aren't enough other reviews drowning that stuff out, because you're not an AAA.

2) You're not an indie either, so people are more aggressive with nitpicking you. This wouldn't happen to Jeff Vogel.

The "middle class game" gets squeezed out of the market in all sorts of ways. This is just another.

I don't think it's any of that, honestly. It's the public nature of development. AAA guys work on stuff in secret for 3 years and the first thing you see is a pimped out trailer with Holywood style montage and Patrick Stewart voiceover. Kickstarter guys on the other hand are under 24/7 scrutiny, there's always various camps in the fanbase fighting for this and that, and it just snowballs.

 

[V_K]

But there's always a weird dynamic with these Kickstarter games where people bitch about weirdest shit that has little to none corelation with actual quality of the product. Box got damaged in the shipping, cat ate my homework, developer liked a Trump tweet, 0/10 worst game ever, 0.1 hours played.

I assume all games have stuff like this but with certain Kickstarted game the problem seems worse, because:

1) There aren't enough other reviews drowning that stuff out, because you're not an AAA.

2) You're not an indie either, so people are more aggressive with nitpicking you. This wouldn't happen to Jeff Vogel.

The "middle class game" gets squeezed out of the market in all sorts of ways. This is just another.

I don't think it's any of that, honestly. It's the public nature of development. AAA guys work on stuff in secret for 3 years and the first thing you see is a pimped out trailer with Holywood style montage and Patrick Stewart voiceover. Kickstarter guys on the other hand are under 24/7 scrutiny, there's always various camps in the fanbase fighting for this and that, and it just snowballs.

Or maybe it's much simpler and folks just don't have any goodwill left for inXile anymore? IIRC, Battletech was also buggy as fuck on release, yet its reviews never went below mixed.

 

[LESS T_T]

Prepare for massive layoffs.

I'd guess many of them already moved on to the Wasteland battle royale game (Frost Point).

Is that an actual thing? What the hell, Fargo?

Yes: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-discussion-thread.99490/page-34#post-5734418

Wasteland: Frost Point is a PUBG/Fortnite-like but in VR, from gumi's earnings report last June:

(Japanese, p.35) http://v4.eir-parts.net/DocumentTemp/20180803_062639904_q3hv2245lrcmdmb32gjafd3b_0.pdf

Release in 2019, gumi has the rights to global publishing.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Daily reminder that this isn't a blobber.

 

[V_K]

Daily reminder that this is a trainwreck.

FTFY.

 

[Jacob]

innovative mechanics

Come on, do you actually believe this?