Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #31: World of Caith Teaser Video, Exploration and Gating Details

[toro]

The Switcharoo's Story IV

Brian is doing overtime lately.

 

[hpstg]

I think Fargo is def pulling a bait and switch if this is the final product. However, I do agree that the graphics are just fine.

The Kickstarter pitch had much better visuals than this. They could have presented it as a "target render" and it would have been fine, but not only they didn't, they even showed the Unreal editor level of this presentation, in another video, thus implying even more that this is how the game would look.

I know this is the Codex and the cool kids don't care about the graphics, but fuck Fargo for scamming with the pitch and subsequent videos like this. It's so disingenuous. I also bet that the game will have a console release and that is the main reason for the obvious change in rendering quality.

If the game was presented as it's shown now, I would still care. It's the fake talk part that pisses me off.

 

[Excidium II]

Nothing new, they also bullshitted with Wasteland 2, and also seem to be heavily bullshitting with WL3. Only tworment has escaped.

 

[grimace]

We’ve also been feverishly working on the combat system and have made some amazing progress, but we don’t want to show our hand on it quite yet

Waiting to learn more about the combat.

Now, right from the beginning, we made the decision that BTIV would be a game of free exploration

Hooray!

However, another decision we made early on was that we didn't want you to be able to grind through any of these areas all in one go. We wanted there to be doors you couldn't open the first time you found them, or rivers you couldn't cross, or ruins you could see but not reach.

Okay.jpg

The way level gating in Bard’s Tale IV differs from other RPGs is our willingness to have a pockets of high level enemies living inside low level areas.

Could be a hardcore experience.

These enemies have zones of perception that show where their attention is focused, and these zones can be tip-toed around by an adventuring party with good timing, or stealthed through with the help of a sneaky rogue.

Stealth skills!?

As befits a game with Bard in the title, music plays a large part in all aspects of BTIV's gameplay, from combat to puzzle solving to storytelling - and also, of course, exploration.

Ocarina of Time!

So, there's an actual system to this, which we're calling Songs of Exploration. You have a song book (basically an inventory) where songs you've learned are listed, and when confronted with a broken bridge, or a bit of Trow graffiti, or a circle of standing stones, you can open the book and click on the appropriate song. The song then plays (a quick little riff) and the bridge reassembles, a cache opens, or the standing stone quick travel menu appears. Ta-da!

Wind Waker!

To spell this out, there is side content in the game that you will not be able to complete - or even find! - without reading the lore you find and using your brain to figure out what it means and how it applies to the world and the puzzles that abound in it.

There is side content.
A side content.
One side quest?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Jesus Christ, the graphics looking fucking fine you whiners, better than almost any turned based RPG that has ever actually shipped. I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

 

[Mustawd]

I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

There WAS some graphic-whoring in here for sure, but I'm more taken aback at inXile's bait and switch, which this appears to be.

I was almost a kickstarter backer, but if I had donated on the premise of the graphics they showed, then I'd be pretty pissed right now.

 

[Jaesun]

I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

You must be new he... what the fuck?

 

[Western]

Looks like crap compared to the fake screenshots and trailers they had before.

The lies never stop.

inb4 Wasteland 3 looks exactly like Wasteland 2.

After they get their money from the dumbfucks donating to them, of course.

Glad I got a refund for this, managed to escape with my money despite my initial poor judgement.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

There WAS some graphic-whoring in here for sure, but I'm more taken aback at inXile's bait and switch, which this appears to be.

I was almost a kickstarter backer, but if I had donated on the premise of the graphics they showed, then I'd be pretty pissed right now.

I did not donate, and don't really buy games before they are released...but

honestly if nobody would have said anything about these graphics I would not have even noticed, nor given it a second thought... Once graphics are at a certain level, for me I don't care after that point. From that point I only care about the game play, etc..For me the graphics in this game easily reached that level for me, and as long as they stay somewhat with in that same area quality wise, I won't give a shit.

 

[Mustawd]

I agree. But inXile seems to be playing shady. That's all.

 

[hpstg]

Jesus Christ, the graphics looking fucking fine you whiners, better than almost any turned based RPG that has ever actually shipped. I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

The complaint is not about the graphics. It is about how the graphics were changed on purpose so that a kickstarter with zero actual gameplay would get funded, and then how the company backed out of them by lowering the quality and the expenses.

It's like I'm selling you a Bentley for $10,000, but in the end it's an Audi. The Audi is fine, sure, but the issue here is that you are trying to scam me, not the quality of the car.

Because this relates to the graphics, and most people here either don't care or don't notice, that doesn't mean it's less important as an indicator of integrity from the company making this.

 

[theSavant]

I did notice. But that was a year ago in the first kickstarter trailer: the character details were much weaker than the environment. It could immediately be seen when the enemies showed up for the staged combat scene. The 4 gnomes and 2 necromancers looked chunky and plasticky in comparison to the detailed environment... somehow like Doom3 monsters. I wasn't too happy about it either. The new teaser only shows they kept this style. But it didn't get worse. It's just the same chunky style. I'm still okay with it... could be better, but it's ok.

 

[Mustawd]

The 4 gnomes and 2 necromancers looked chunky and plasticky in comparison to the detailed environment... somehow like Doom3 monsters.

Yeah, when I rewatched it I noticed this as well. But even the environments were lower fidelity in the new teaser.

We'll see if the trend continues.

 

[Morality Games]

Crowdfunders won't have the degree of unity required to support a developer witch hunt anytime in the foreseeable future, so there isn't a lot to stop these AA developers from spiraling beyond the moral event horizon.

 

[Burning Bridges]

WTF is this shit?

 

[cvv]

The complaint is not about the graphics. It is about how the graphics were changed on purpose so that a kickstarter with zero actual gameplay would get funded, and then how the company backed out of them by lowering the quality and the expenses.

It's like I'm selling you a Bentley for $10,000, but in the end it's an Audi.

The funny thing is underneath Bentley actually IS just an Audi.

 

[Darkzone]

The complaint is not about the graphics. It is about how the graphics were changed on purpose so that a kickstarter with zero actual gameplay would get funded, and then how the company backed out of them by lowering the quality and the expenses.

It's like I'm selling you a Bentley for $10,000, but in the end it's an Audi.

The funny thing is underneath Bentley actually IS just an Audi.

The price difference between an Audi R8 and Bentley Continental GT is also not that high.

 

[commie]

Jesus Christ, the graphics looking fucking fine you whiners, better than almost any turned based RPG that has ever actually shipped. I honestly can't believe people would complain about this level of graphics.

The complaint is not about the graphics. It is about how the graphics were changed on purpose so that a kickstarter with zero actual gameplay would get funded, and then how the company backed out of them by lowering the quality and the expenses.

It's like I'm selling you a Bentley for $10,000, but in the end it's an Audi. The Audi is fine, sure, but the issue here is that you are trying to scam me, not the quality of the car.

Because this relates to the graphics, and most people here either don't care or don't notice, that doesn't mean it's less important as an indicator of integrity from the company making this.

Game company makes video to sell product that doesn't live up to initial promises! News at 11!

 

[LizardWizard]

fuck Fargo

 

[Irenaeus]

I think the graphics look great and the enemies look inspired (I want to kill them).

 

[hpstg]

I think the graphics look great and the enemies look inspired (I want to kill them).

They do. Just not as great as promised. Not being able to personally see a difference doesn't make this right really.

 

[Aenra]

How many years must the average retard post before it gets into their heads that typing "shit" doesn't really help defining the issue..?
I do not see what you see, on the contrary, i see exactly what one should expect. Time having elapsed (ie they've been working on it), they've started going heavy on shaders, post-pros effects and every petty little detail that gives 99% of the titles out there that 'x gen' look. The kind of detail none expect (and none get) from a pre-alpha pitch. It being shiny, plasticky, DoFey fuzzy visual overalls, with leaves cutely falling from trees and uber sunrays; which quite logically, they could not have had the time to """fine tune""" for their KS video. They have by now. All i see missing is nuvidya hairworks or buttman slowmos.

Unless there's seriously anyone here that is unable to grasp how
1) it's a B team of young people mostly, their notion of visual quality can only be defined by what they've seen in their short spanned lives, i mean hello
2) it's hopefully going to consoles. Tech and compat issues aside, they need a certain stylistic approach that will not allienate said fuckheads, while still good enough to satisfy the rest of the sheep (as we've already seen posted in this very thread)

News at eleven. If you expected TW3 quality levels from Fargo and a couple of mils budget, you're a fucking idiot. If you expected U3 used 'right', again, you're a fucking idiot. Just for different reasons
It looks good enough and that's -exactly- what he wanted out of his team. The rest was for you to get hyped. And hyped you got, lol.. maybe you can now focus on the actual game?

 

[Darkzone]

....

I also don't know what people expect. Naturally this is only made on a budget off a alleged 2.75 million dollar and so it is definitely not going to have a look of a AAA title.
Fargo is a typical american salesman with a "bigger and better" statement in every catch phrase and if someone believes this, then the person is gullible.
The graphic quality is around (a bit better) exactly what i have expected, but graphic was never a reason for me to backe this. It was always about the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (gealic music with a schotisch / irish game background decoration and the Blobber cRPG with interesting aproach to items).
My only objections is the design of the monsters. This monsters look out of place and not like this would have been their natural habitat, but more that they come from a different dimension. In terms of the old Bard's Tale i have expected wood animals (bears, wolfs) and "human" bandits composed of thieves, sorcerers, monks and barbarians / warriors.

 

[hpstg]

I do not see what you see, on the contrary, i see exactly what one should expect. Time having elapsed (ie they've been working on it), they've started going heavy on shaders, post-pros effects and every petty little detail that gives 99% of the titles out there that 'x gen' look. The kind of detail none expect (and none get) from a pre-alpha pitch. It being shiny, plasticky, DoFey fuzzy visual overalls, with leaves cutely falling from trees and uber sunrays; which quite logically, they could not have had the time to """fine tune""" for their KS video. They have by now. All i see missing is nuvidya hairworks or buttman slowmos.

The Kickstarter pitch is better than this shit. You say that the new video is somehow more detailed and that the complaint was that it's superior to the KS video? Check that stroke priviledge shitlord.

 

[sser]

Dull graphics that look nothing like the previous trailer isn't very shocking.

Anyone notice that rippling lake water being represented by a JPEG? And the sound of the prosper monster loops once before it actually does the animation

I'm still looking forward to it. Graphics are the last thing I care about in this sort of game. I put 60+ hours into MMX on a shitty laptop running at 20fps while looking like mud and still enjoyed it. I'm sure BTIV will be fine. I'm sure. I'M SURE.