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KickStarter The Banner Saga 2
- Thread starter Elthosian
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Oops, missed this.
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So, here's a Reddit AMA from October, before the official announcement, but everybody knew it was in development of course: http://interviewly.com/i/the-banner-saga-oct-2014-reddit
Posting all the BS2-related questions:
Posting all the BS2-related questions:
I loved Banner Saga, but was disappointed that the number of clansmen and Varl you had in your caravan had little impact beyond a few events and how fast your caravan consumed supplies. I also noticed there was no penalty for going as slow as you wanted (and even starving your caravan) other than poor morale. Do you plan on making caravan management more important in the sequel?
John: Yes. We're making a few adjustments that we don't want to go into detail about just yet.
Will TBS2 be a totally separate game from TBS1, or maybe a mega-DLC? Should we expect roughly the same content-size as TBS (battles, characters, dialogue), leading to approximately 10-15 hours for a play-through?
Drew: Separate game, same trilogy. Characters, new and old. And yeah, we're shooting for roughly the same content-size.
Stoic! Thanks for taking our questions and creating the great, and powerful, Banner Saga! This has to be one of my favorite strategy games of all time. Wonderful story, great characters, and incredible battle system. My question: Is Stoic working, retooling, or trying something different with the battle system in the next Banner Saga installment? I thought it was incredible, but any new changes you can talk about would be greatly appreciated. Thought of another question: Would you guys think about incorporating another strategy system in play? For example, control your entire community and place certain factions/warriors around the caravan to help protect it. If an enemy would come from behind, but you have soldiers there so you do not lose any people or supplies.
Arnie-Artist: Good questions Lightford and thanks for the kind words. Many people are wondering if The Banner Saga 2 will have anything new in the way of combat, and perhaps specifically 'War'. Yes. There are a couple of things we identified in the first game that we can improve on and War is one as well as combat in general. We hope to to have more diversity over all for you to play with. At the same time we're not flat out changing any system, this is still The Banner Saga. It should all feel like a game evolving with the story as the motivation. Once we're done, you should be able to play all 3 Saga's and feel like it was one game.
I loved Banner Saga when I grabbed it on iOS just a week or so ago. Simply amazing story telling. You guys have created a game that sits squarely between story book page turning and strategy RPG. My question is, for BS2 and the future in general, what are your pros and cons on going more in the direction of games like xcom or disgaea that have more in-depth strategy gameplay? I know many SRPG fans loved Banner Saga but walked away not fully satisfied with the combat, just want to know if thats a direction you are contemplating.
Arnie-Artist: The combat system is in the place we wanted it to be. I've always been of the opinion that simply more numbers and more randomness to % chances don't necissarily make for more tactictical gameplay. We usually throw the word Chess out there during this portion of the discussion. Not that we're Chess, but you know what I mean, it's got no numbers and it's highly strategic. Now, all that being said one of the things we hope to really improve on is the diversity during Combat and War. We hope to keep it from being too static for the people who really enjoy this aspect of the game. So look for the same overall system that demands more strategy from the player.
Do you have a favorite feature that you had hoped to include in The Banner Saga but didn't make the final version?
Arnie: We got in the features we wanted, but they will be more fleshed out in The Banner Saga 2. Caravan numbers will count more and they will have more of a face in the game. Combat will be more diverse. Players will be able to switch items and upgrade heroes pre-battle...lots of polish in general. We read the feedback from players and are acting on much of it.
hello you three, thanks for having this AMA with us! I got some quick little Feedback for you concerning the polish of TBS1. 1) The loading screen times in TBS1 have been quite long for me due to a lack of sufficient RAM. (Not complaining, my bad!) I'd really appreciate if they weren't just black. You already implemented a loading screen in Factions, would you please do the same in TBS2 ? 2) Are you going to enhance your ambient-sound-libary for TBS 2? That "clack" sound every time I hit a button turned me off quite soon. Some paper rustling sound on the world map and similar sounds would add some "loving care feeling" quite easily I imagine? Best regards, thanks for your replies so far!
John:
1) We've made some massive steps forward for performance and loading for the mobile ports of TBS1, and all that technology will be included in a Steam update soonish.
2) Yes, we will be extending the sounds for TBS2
"Backwards Compatibility" -- You mentioned that TBS2 will feature some changes on core game-mechanics, like caravan/starvation or Wars. Should we expect those to be patched into TBS1, too? I'd expect something like this to happen in a 'Deluxe 3-in-1 Edition' of the game, once all three parts are done, but it would be much better if the game engines are totally "backwards compatible" so that you could transfer/plug them easily into TBS1.
John: Changes will be back-ported to TBS1 to the extent that it doesn't significantly change the overall experience. Once the trilogy is complete, we intend for a player to be able to sit down and play all 3 games back-to-back in a marathon gaming session and feel like it is one single gigantic game. To take a TV analogy, I see the 3 parts of the trilogy as 3 seasons of a series which can be enjoyed as a whole.
Assuming we can import our save game, will it affect the story in any meaningful way in BS2?
Arnie: Yes.
Could you explain how our save games will carry over in to the next game?Will my exact caravan/characters all come to the second game?
John: We don't have the exact mechanics of that worked out, but we intend to streamline it as much as possible. Worst case: You have to copy files around manually. Best case: It just happens automagically. I do expect that given multiple save games as input, TBS2 should ask you which you would like to use.
Your caravan and heroes should transfer into TBS2 in the same state you left them in TBS1, barring some story-related special cases.
If you haven't played TBS1, TBS2 will start with an arbitrary scenario.
Good one! Also, what happens to somebody who hasn't owned/played/finished TBS1, but jumps right into TBS2?
Arnie: We will hand the player whatever choices we feel the 'canon story' to be from chapter 1 and then they will continue on. They would not get to chose which choices they made from chapter 1.
The Banner Saga is one of my favorite games of all time, up there with the Mass Effect Series for me, and a lot of that is because you took the time to develop interesting characters who had real, believable motivations for the things they said or did, or the decisions they made... my one complaint is that I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with them before the game was over! How will the length of The Banner Saga Chapter 2 compare to chapter one? And, what sort of continuity can we expect with regard to the decisions we made / characters we lost in part one? Thanks, you guys are awesome and if you decide to do a second kickstarter to help finance more TBS, I will pledge today. I'm sure you've answered my questions elsewhere but I had to ask something and I wanted to pour the love on you so there you have it. Cheers
Arnie: Wow! High praise indeed and we'll take it. Love hearing when people enjoy the game and world! Sorry the game was over too quickly, but we're pacing it to be a 3 part series, as you know, and we stopped it at a good break-point. We're planning on The Banner Saga 2 to be about the same gameplay time. Things can change and it can become a bit longer, but I do not believe it will be shorter. Skol!
Drew: High praise, indeed - thanks! As for continuity, your decisions stick with you. If a character died in TBS1, they'll be dead in TBS2. Choose wisely and live boldly!
Cool cool cool, I might have to break my no preorder rule for this.
Arnie: We're really trying to get the word out that people should finish the game so that The Banner Saga 2 will continue their story. I think it will be a much more fulfilling way to play it. All choices will add into the final Saga.
imweasel
Guest
The Codex really seems to be interested in this game.
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The Codex really seems to be interested in this game.
They're very tight on giving out information, so that's not entirely our fault. To have discussions, there needs to be something to discuss.
Looks good I think.
Lhynn
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Saw you playing the first one over the winter break Infinitron, what did you think? I'm excited about 2, but I hope there's more diversity in who we're fighting, and maps that are more dynamic (ala blackguards 1).
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Yeah, I finished it yesterday. See some of my opinions on the combat system and other things here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-banner-saga.69595/page-23#post-3668318
I pretty much agree with you. The game was quite well-designed, but it needs more budget, more "oomph". Hopefully they have that.
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Comrade Goby
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Oh great there is going to be a super heroic and perfect strong mary sue female character.
pippin
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga/posts/1141151
We've also been working on Banner Saga 2, which will be picking up right where The Banner Saga ends. In case you haven’t heard it yet – you will be able to import your save from Banner Saga 1 in to Banner Saga 2 so that you continue your journey with the same characters and the same choices.
We haven’t revealed much info about Banner Saga 2 yet, but please check out the work-in-progress bear animation below from our friends at Powerhouse Animation.
We also recently hired a new artist to help with Banner Saga 2 and we’re proud to share the below link from Kotaku highlighting some of his amazing work. Great to have you on board Igor!
Check out Igor's Work by Clicking here!
As always – we truly thank you for your support and patience. We wouldn’t be here without you folks!
Cool, very cool.
Epic, epic.=)
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