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The Dark Eye Blackguards - turn-based tactical RPG set in The Dark Eye world

Turjan

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
5,047
Apparently "Slipping" is a hazard built in this game. WTF. When did this sort of thing come into RPG?
In TDE, the most basic actions can be dangerous. I've seen PnP GMs nearly kill off party members by simply letting them walk from point A to point B. Of course, that was more to make a point. I wouldn't play with a GM who did that constantly.
 

pakoito

Arcane
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Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
Is it worth saying that I completed "1. Two Bridges Walk" with the option on my first try? What I didn't know but worked on my favour is that you actually don't have to win it, just cross the second bridge with any char. Just feint to one side of the first bridge with the tank and let the other run against the 2-3 enemies left.
 

Lord Azlan

Arcane
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Shitposter
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Jun 4, 2014
Messages
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My party or char is supposed to save the damn world. Become UBER. Have a zillion HP, a +55 sword or bow and can cast a FIRE INFERNO FROM DEPTHS OF HELL at anything.

Not only you misunderstood TDE setting in general, but the spirit of Blackguards as well.

My point was about RPG in general - where your character/ group ultimately ends up being overpowered. And that usually slipping is not something you need to consider at all. I did say I like it.

I think the mechanism works well in the way the environment of each battlefield needs to be considered. But yes, I don't know much about this world.

In fact I had to google TDE to know what you were talking about.

Codex needs to educate some of the new people like me!
 

Akratus

Self-loathing fascist drunken misogynist asshole
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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
My party or char is supposed to save the damn world. Become UBER. Have a zillion HP, a +55 sword or bow and can cast a FIRE INFERNO FROM DEPTHS OF HELL at anything.

Not only you misunderstood TDE setting in general, but the spirit of Blackguards as well.

My point was about RPG in general - where your character/ group ultimately ends up being overpowered. And that usually slipping is not something you need to consider at all. I did say I like it.

I think the mechanism works well in the way the environment of each battlefield needs to be considered. But yes, I don't know much about this world.

In fact I had to google TDE to know what you were talking about.

Hmm yeah, not a bad post. No need to repl--

Codex needs to educate some of the new people like me!

bnMGL.gif
 

Duellist_D

Savant
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Dec 15, 2013
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383
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
TDE is to Germany what D&D is to the Anglo-Countries
The one big player on the P&P market that practically everybody who ever threw some D20 on a Kitchentable played or at least knows it.

Its main Advantage (regarding the Setting) is it being heavily influenced by european histories (making it easy to relate to) and a sense of being more "down to earth" when compared to other Systems/Settings.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
In so far as it's generally a rather low-magic setting with characters never reaching the near-godhood status available to them in DnD, I'd say he's right.
Also they take a slightly more realistic approach to stuff sometimes (e.g. when taking some clues from history), but there's still a lot of generic fantasy clichés in it.
 
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Duellist_D

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
[snibetisnap, placeholder clap]

Did you play it ?

Despite the Magic hurkadurka, People are still relatively normal People, not some sort of Quasi-Übermensch who can slay whole armies with the blade in this hand.
You have Level 20 and fall from a cliff?
You simply die
You have Level 20 and a mob of townpeople chases you down?
You probably also die.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
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Yes, I've played it. I've played damn near every major P&P system.

Level 20 doesn't have the same meaning in two different games. Making straight comparisons is like saying "MY GOD. YOU CAN DEAL 20 DAMAGE IN D&D? THAT WOULD KILL MOST GURPS CHARACTERS OUTRIGHT." Well, there are more hit points in D&D.

Also, D&D characters aren't Quasi-Übermensch either, unless you make them so. Anyway, I'll concede that the player character system is way more toned down than D&D (though nowhere near "low fantasy", fucking lol). However we were discussing whether the setting was more low-key.

And the setting has as much foolery as any fantasy setting. It's just not often the player characters being majestic fantasy-explosions themselves. Though that's rare in most D&D campaigns I've played as well.

Arguing the finer details around generic fantasy is a fruitless endeavour. I thought so when Eberron came out and I still do. The whole point of generic fantasy is to be generic. If you want non-generic fantasy then don't play TDE, D&D, Eberron or whatever else stock fantasy settings are out there.
 

Gord

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Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
You can compare lvl 20 in DnD and TDE in so far as in both systems levels 1-20 are the standard range for player characters from noob to exceptionally experienced hero.
But in TDE the power progression is far smaller/slower.

As I had said before, the TDE world does have a lot of the same fantasy clichés going on, also with their own (if few) demi-god NPCs and stuff, but generally less of the totally WTF stuff happens (gods walking the "earth" is something that happens about once every 2000 years and then only for a couple of minutes, not regularly with them whoring around, dying, mortals ascending and stuffies as in DnD).
My biggest issues with TDE's setting was always how cramped it felt, as they have packed everything from vikings and knights, over renaissance nobles to near-east kalifates into a relatively small area, with some elves and dwarves on top for good measure.
 

Duellist_D

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
Regarding the level: Its a simple way of saying "advanced Charater way above the average", and sufficient enought for this.




generic != down to earth

I'd say these are two totally different categories, describing different things.
Orcs, Elves and Dwarves are like the Epitome of generic Fantasy, yet a Setting incorporating them can be either down to earth, troubling the Players with stuff that belong on the "normal" scale that could also happen in our world (crime, politics, whatsoever), minus the Magic stuff.

Or you could have the over-the-top thingies, where your elvish Ultramonk fights Timehopping Orcs with his fleshwhip, before they both Team up to go against the common threat of Vishnu and his god-buddies trying to destroy earth.
 

Lord Azlan

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So - approaching 30 hours on Blackguards now. I assume I am close to completing Act 2.

Head Lice Queen

So - quite a few attempts on this battle so far, all ending up in failure - but each time I was getting closer.

In this battle you need to protect a prisoner, but you lose one of your party as the battle commences. She gets "Aliened" by the Queen mother. Cut To Pieces. There are few vents that are open at the start and they release mini head lice everynow and again. I assume if you don't close these vents you will overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

First, I sent one guy around to close the vents and then the rest of the party holding a defensive pose to prevent our prisoner from dying. The lice, for some reason, auto destruct after 2-3 turns. Something to do with crossing the various streams in the map.

Secondly I tried sending chars both left and right and close the vents quicker - but that left just two chars to defend and protect - that strategy failed.

After a while I decided to re load the game and look at my party and equipment. I had unspect AP so this time I looked at my characters and their equipment.

Will try again tonight - hopefully with perseverance I will overcome! Not a rage quit moment - just steely determination. I do think there is a strategy that will beat this bitch.

A few points then:

Boss Fights - I don't mind them in action games like Deadspace or even Titan Quest and all that. But in RPG? I am not so sure. A few of the Fallouts were really groundbreaking in this regard allowing you to talk yourself around these encounters. It would have been nice if other options were available in this "RPG".

Death to your party member - not sure. I was not even paying attention to whatever the game was saying about her - but I jumped into battle and found she was back in her drugged state. She was a junkie right. Or was it her sister? Why don't I pay attention? I suppose it is part of the storyline, but I did not appreciate it. You invest in equipment and items. They take it away. You get a decent party member, they take it away. Should have been done better.

V for victory

The developers say the environment can be manipulated to your advantage in combat. So I went around pressing "V" in a bunch of maps and nothing came up. That is bad. Something should be available in all the maps. After a while I stopped pressing V as there was nothing to see. I read somewhere that on the Litch Bitch map there is a healing place - wtf is that and how comes I could not see it after a few attempts.

Summary

Really like this game and I got the "one more go" thing going. Let's face it, none of us really know how and why this phenomena works. I am just got I got it again.

Q Does the armour skill negate effects of metallic armour on spellcastors?
Q How exactly does the bandage skill work - is there any point in that at all?
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't think armour skill negates the effect of metallic armour.

Bandage skill removes wounds from your characters. It can be useful out of combat if you don't want to spend money at a Healer. I had one character with the Bandage skill.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
I never used bandages much. Early on Treat Wounds had a tendency to fail and later the Balsam healing spell is better.
Also they take up precious space in your belts when used in combat.

Metal armors should always be a problem for magic users, I don't think there's a way around it. Lore-wise metal inhibits the flow of astral energy in TDE, so it's not something you can circumvent just by being skilled in wearing armors. Unless they have changed it for Blackguards and I've forgotten about it.
 

Essegi

Cipher
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Messages
396
I never used bandages much. Early on Treat Wounds had a tendency to fail and later the Balsam healing spell is better.
Also they take up precious space in your belts when used in combat.
Same here.
Now i'm on chapter 4. I've the impression that from mid chapter 3 there's less diversity, i oftend use same tactics, maybe because i had all uber abilities (triple shot, hammer blow). Now there are some enemies mage and groups so maybe it restart to be diverse since now i'm using mass buff/debuff, and mage initiative is more important.
And hard batte has been the ritual one with 3 mages, 2 ogres, limited time amd Aurelia with mask. Ogres hit very hard... But my archer hits harder. With hail of arrows i managed to score a shot of 105 or 106... Probably without that skill that would have been a painful battle (or not, there's still triple shot). Also it's broken. During Ciliegio fight i could use that to shot across the wall (i just didn't since i don't want to exploit).
Btw i'm really likig the game and the system, for sure less powerplay oriented than D&D.
 
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MrMarbles

Cipher
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
438
Just finished the first playthrough. I liked it. The game has a different feel than most other RPGs I've tried which in itself is a good thing. The highlights were character building, battle backgrounds, the trainer system and finding new ways to use skills. Most talents and spells had uses, although like some people have mentioned direct damage spells are far from optimal, and you end up relying on buffs and debuffs.

Only a few things annoyed me. One was the repetitiveness of battles. A lot of them didn't do anything new, just a new background and the same group of ghouls or whatnot. With turnbased combat (and sluggish animations) just going through the motions takes up a lot of time. It must have been possible to create new variations of battles. How about just throwing a crapload of mages at the party? The highest number in a battle was 3, and those were the most interesting.

Another was the limited soundtrack. Clearly daedalic only had the cash for 4-5 songs. They could have diverted some funds from the art budget without causing too much of a drop in quality. The third, and most important, was
losing characters to plot twists repeatedly. I like to plan ahead and diversify characters. It's incredibly frustrating when your balanced party suddenly sucks balls again because the mage that casts haste disappears. Losing Niam was bad enough, losing Aurelia at the end was just overkill, and a shit way of keeping the story interesting. There's apparently a way to keep her in the party, but that's difficult to know on the first playthrough.

:3/5:
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Eh, the Blackguards soundtrack is fairly large. Definitely not just 4-5 songs.
 

MrMarbles

Cipher
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Jan 13, 2014
Messages
438
Eh, the Blackguards soundtrack is pretty large. Definitely not just 4-5 songs.
It's mostly variations on a small selection of main themes. K, I'll just say that my perception of the soundtrack was that it felt repetitive, and leave it at that.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
OST has 13 songs.

That's not the full OST. There's an "Extended Soundtrack" with 25 additional tracks. And even that is probably not everything.

I actually ripped the music directly out of the game once with disunity. I ought to upload all of that to Youtube.
 

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