Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Funded

[Rivmusique]

Where is Crooked Bee? I'd like to see a mod share their thoughts on why blobber combat is outdated shit that needs to die.

Spoiler

It's fine in my opinion, played/playing LoT2 based almost solely on its combat.

 

[Dehumanizer]

Everyone to their taste I guess. However, I can not buy this logic at all. You are holding *one* parameter, that of simultaneous movement (if I understand you right by the phase based combat) as *the* good thing and judging by that. I would think that such a mechanics is prone to numerous problems including highly AI dependent behavior, which can be easily exploited. On the other hand, the Turn Based approach is easy to code for better AI responsiveness. Moreover, it adds the tactical level I talked about where movement and positioning is an important aspect of the game.

The thing is that in a game with as much combat and random encounters as a Wizardry or a Bard's Tale, you don't want every single combat to take 10-20 minutes. So the tactics become simpler: there's the characters and equipment you have, their positions in the party (only the ones in front can attack or be attacked in melee), and your choices are about which enemy groups to target first, and which, if any, spells or skills to use, and when, and on whom. With this, a simple encounter with trash mobs may be over in seconds, and even a full encounter with a boss and his minions will probably be over in less than 5 minutes -- whether you win or lose.

I may enjoy tactical combat with as much detail as a Jagged Alliance, and yet accept that it doesn't fit every kind of game.

 

[Shevek]

I love how folks are still search of The One True Combat System. Guys, there is no silver bullet. Sometimes, you want to sit back and not give a damn about positioning. Other times, you want to move dudes around, use cover, etc.

They are two different experiences but both have their place depending on your mood. For example, I have played Heroes of a Broken Land recently. Blobber combat is perfect for that game. Full JA2/XCom/etc combat mode would detract from the overall experience in that instance.

 

[Darkzone]

Really? The only aspect of BT4 that is sort of "anachronistic" is the step-movement. However, there are blobbers with free movement as well, like the later Might & Magic games or Wizardry 8. So step-movement is not a core mechanic of blobbers.
And what exactly is anachronistic about having several party members instead of just one? I don't get it.

And BT4 will not even have necessary step-movement. I think they want to make it optional or at least i get the impression from Fargo's QA. What may be call as an anachronism about several party members is the lack of character, if you generate all the PCs, but inXile wants to give more "character" to the BT4 with the CNPC.
But i think that this is also possible with the possibility of different voices and different psychological profiles for the PCs. (10 classes x 7 races x different psyche x Situations x sexes). So as you see the can grow very fast. But with good thought about it, this can be quite good managed.
If we have for situations so around 100 lines.
And we have the following psyches and race psyches: Coward, Heroic, Thinker, Stubborn, Aggressive, Sly, Passive, Elf, Dwarf, Trow. Then we around 1000 or less lines of speach, because not everyone has something to say to every situation. Gender wise it you be up to 2x.
So that means 2000 lines or less, if certain combinations are forbidden like female dwarf or trow.
Now two Classes x Races, since this divides in three general types: Fighter, Support and Controller. We would have around 2(because certain overlapping similarities between the groups) x 4 ( because halves are also more humans) = 8.
Then all this is maximal: 8x2000 = 16000 lines of speech to customise the PCs. And if we double the situations we have maximum 32k lines of speech. Most of them are like "Ohhh..that hurts.", "Take this you Bastard." and etc. But together with the CNPC this would be quite immersive.
And even if we add certain action reactions speeches to CNPC, then we could have maximal 160 x CNPC x situations lines. 160 x 10 x 10 = 32k. So all this is maximal 48k speech lines, with the tendency to to be more 48k x 0.75 (factor for all the maximal sentences). Now that is size of 3-6 novellas, but it stretches throughout the whole game.
Then one needs only have 3 different voices per gender (high, normal, low), if it is spoken. And everything is perfect and nothing is anachronistic.

 

[Dehumanizer]

There's a reason why this is the most memorable fight in the original Bard's Tale:



Now imagine fighting 396 enemies on a tactical map.

(If you've never played the game: this fight is actually skippable, you just have to have your characters wear robes before you enter that square. On the other hand, it gives you more XP than any other battle in the game, and it's relatively easy if you have 2 or more spellcasters with the Mind Blade spell, the only one in the original game that blasts all the enemy groups instead of just one. Just remember to have your fighters defend.)

 

[Diggfinger]

This kickstarter was never going to make that much money even if they did things differently. This genre doesn't have its legion of fangirls like the late 90's WRPGs.

Nevertheless, I don't think amount of funds they make on the kickstarter is going to matter. Torment is easily going to make them 10 million dollars plus, so just take the funds from that game to BT4. They're a small company, so they're not going to burns through money like other companies.

I agree. Fargo himself admitted that Bard's Tale is wayy more oldschool than Torment and Wasteland 2, so the fan base to tap into might be more difficult to reach. Admitted, Wasteland is also an old game (1988) but Fargo managed to appeal to Fallout fanboys (like me) by using the Interplay card. That and I think post-apocalyptic turn-based games just appeal to a lot of people.

I did not support Bard's Tale 4 because I have no reference with the series, which is in any case wayyy to old for me to get into. Also, I just have a ton of other games to play such as Underrail, Serpent in The Staglands, Gothic II, Wasteland 2 etc.

Of course hope they do well, and that all those fancy UE4 graphics do not end up costing too much.

- Digg

 

[UnknownBro]

Maybe, just maybe, a few of us (RPG fans) want to see a good game released by Inxile before kickstart the next one?

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Fargo should have hired Heinemann, Dragon Wars is the best blobber ever.

 

[Darkzone]

Fargo should have hired Heinemann, Dragon Wars is the best blobber ever.

Definitely it is a nice blobber. But if it is the best? This is up to a discussion. But Heinemann's "Dragons of the Rip" will be definitely a blobber that deserves some attention.