Information Thorvalla Kickstarter Update #2

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Guido Henkel; Thorvalla

Guido Henkel made a new update on his Thorvalla Kickstarter, this time featuring an entire host of details.

Travel Map

The game will feature a travel map that is very similar in its looks and feel to the one found in Blade of Destiny. I always loved that relief look with the jagged line crawling over it representing the traveling party, and in high resolution it will look even cooler.

Since we are traveling overland like this, Camping will also be an important part of the game, particularly to restore health and mana. Yes, the game features a mana-based magic system that will restore itself over time and with rest.

Camps also serve for additional random encounters. Not only with monsters, and bandits and such, but also with other travelers, who might then happen to share information with you - or perhaps, they’re just out to slit your throats, after all.


The travel map will contain countless events, encounters and plot points that will be unlocked during the game. Some of them driven through the story, your characters, others through certain skills, others yet by chance. If you’ve played Blade of Destiny, I think you know exactly what to expect.

And another snippet, the available classes:

Character Generation

This is where it all begins. Even though the player begins with a single character, you will be able to adjust many elements. Additional party members are recruited as the game progresses, but more on that later.

Character stats will be quite detailed. Perhaps not the kind of super-micro-management we had in Realms of Arkania, but still detailed enough to allow for plenty of customized play.

The player can chose from eight classes.

• Warrior

• Scout

• Shadow Dancer - a Thief-like class

• Monk - a tank with some basic magic abilities

• Druid - a tank mage with focus on magic based in nature

• Wizard/Witch

• Sorcerer

• Demonizer - a spell caster class that draw its powers from demons of all shapes and forms

Additionally, there's a a Thorvalla launch video on Youtube. You can listen to Betrayal at Krondor-legend Neil Hallford for a few hours if you so desire:

​

 

[evdk]

Other, more general traits will include things such as Charming, Taunting, Temptation - which is important because there will be succubi in the game -, Dragon Taming, Lock-Picking, Stealth, Tracking, Languages, Cultures, Herbal Knowledge, Poison and pure Luck, to name a few.

Some of these skills seam awfully specific and situational - Dragon Taming and Temptation do not seem like something you would use very often.

EDIT: And the cards are not doing it for me. I can't imagine how the whole business would not be frustrating as hell.

 

[mbpopolano24]

I am very grateful for the details. See, it wasn't so hard. And now that I understand better the combat, for exmple, I can make an informed decision and get out of this project as fast as I can. HMM CLash + Cards = Hell in a Screen (for me). Let me put it this way: I'd rather work on an Excel spreadsheet for 8 hours than playing a combat sequence that way.

In other news, have you noticed the very long post of one of the devs trying to incite politeness? Yeah, that - I'm sure - will work.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Goddamn everything....

 

[kaizoku]

CARDS!!!
will cancel my pledge

everything is shit!
~ Awor​

 

[evdk]

The combat should be done with Credit Cards. Pay more for an Instant Win!

 

[Mother Russia]

Sounds great. Love the Demonizer class (though it should be called demonologist) as I liked the demonology spell school in RoA.

Yeah, I am not really liking the deck building aspect, hopefully fans convince him to scrap it and go with a traditional turnbased combat.

I look forward to the party building update. As it is, with only 8 or so classes, a party of eight can have nearly one of each class. I want more variety, and more nail biting choice over what class/party member to include in my party. I dearly hope also that a premade party option is included.

 

[Essegi]

I don't get the point of not putting these infos when opening kickstarter...
For the deck thing... Maybe he will do the good thing he says, maybe something still good, maybe other (worse)...
Anyway not pledged.

 

[majestik12]

Am I the only who is not that much pissed with the cards idea? Not that I wouldn't be happier without it (fuck innovations, I just want to party like in 1994), but in a way that mr. Henkel describes it, the idea does not sound game-breaking. It's just a different sort of abstraction than the ones we're accustomed to. Could be fun if done right, IMO.

Also, please note that Guido is planning a text parser for dialogue. Text FUCKING Parser, you bitches.
Update: reading is teh hard.

Update 2: Seriously, give me my fucking text parser. I mean it.

 

[Sacred_Path]

Turn based: good, cards: an unknown

Don't know about you, but if I get a traditional RPG with overland travel and TB combat for 15$ I'm not gonna whine over the cards. ToEE's combat is great but I don't need it rehashed 10 times, so if it's innovative in any way I'm for it.

 

[UnknownBro]

I'll keep my pledge... you whining bitches.
Fuck, if the guy that made Realms of Arkania cannot deliver a proper RPG then fuck, we are certainly doomed!

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

People change, your fav developer of 1990 is not the same person today. Part of the reason old RPGs were good was the technological constraints, the reason RPGs have deteriorated is not just because developers were suddenly overnight replaced by a bunch of assholes

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I think his problem at this point is that people do not want detailed intellectual explanations for why a game will be good. What gets Kickstarter pledges are notoriety and dumb marketing gimmicks.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

To be honest to me, having played the originals I don't see what there is to get excited about with this 'Thorwalla'. The little he actually has said about design seems to be dumbing down or half-assed (classes, attributes, skills), as for the 'lore' again it isn't very inspiring. Arkania as a setting wasn't particularly interesting, what made the game was the level of detail + the isometric combat/1st person 3D step exploration combo.

This is just some guy who wants to make a generic fantasy game, who happened to have been in a team which made a good game 20 years ago when RPGs were very different and the kinda things we liked were the norm.

 

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

As for the cards idea, this is something the Japs do a lot. It works for a strategy type game, I don't see how it works for an RPG where you're supposed to identify with a single character and you're not necessarily a spell caster

 

[Brother None]

Glad he's taking advice on board and providing more details, even if that cards thing will turn some people away.

Now he needs to package those details into an easy-to-read press release format, bundle it with some art, and look for every and any site that will possibly cover this game. This early in the Kickstarter there should be a coverage explosion, but a quick google shows me this is primarily being covered by German and niche sites. This *needs* to be picked up by the likes of Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247, and Eurogamer. Fans can help by reminding their favorite sites, but mostly Guido should lead by giving them an easily-digestible package to post.

Yes, as much as some people like to spell doom and gloom at even the mildest stumble, the reality is that a successful Kickstarter takes a lot of work, not just a good idea. That's a pretty big distinction some just seem to not have realized.

PS: and the backer exclusive dungeon from update #3 is just a bad idea. This is like a showcase in how not to do a successful Kickstarter. Good lesson to Guido and others watching, I hope.

 

[almondblight]

I don't see the problem with cards. I haven't tried that many card games, but the ones I have tried have ended up requiring more strategy than the battles in Fallout or Baldur's Gate.

 

[A user named cat]

Cards, ugh. So he's sticking with that. Can't help but bring up this shitty game again and how tedious the system was.

 

[zeitgeist]

Am I the only who is not that much pissed with the cards idea? Not that I wouldn't be happier without it (fuck innovations, I just want to party like in 1994), but in a way that mr. Henkel describes it, the idea does not sound game-breaking. It's just a different sort of abstraction than the ones we're accustomed to. Could be fun if done right, IMO.

I don't mind a more abstract combat at all, as long as it's presented right (the characters and their skills and all combat elements can be presented in a more board-game-like way for example, although there are other ways to do this). If the overall presentation is too "realistic" (RPG combat-realistic, not real life-realistic obviously) the player gets a sort of an uncanny-valley effect where they keep asking themselves "wait, why can't I just hit this monster with my sword", "wait, why can't I just move in a straight line" and so on.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence, GirkinFirker. Your sentiments are most appreciated. Kickstarter is the right place to pledge because if we won't make our goal here, the game simply will not happen. There won't be any restarts or anything. We're throwing everything we have behind this one campaign.

Really everything? Also, no restarts means this is never going to happen, because this kickstarter has already failed. After three days it still sits at 30,000$ and pledges have almost come to a standstill.

All I can say is that we tried but US pres in particular has decided to completely forgo virtually any coverage of the project. It's not that we didn't try. We prepared things and made material available to the press way ahead of the Kickstarter launch.

Complaining is not going to get more backers interested.

And I find this not very convincing. Henkel was unknown to most people until like two or three weeks ago when the first rumors about Thorvalla appeared. A few days after it was announced that he would join hands with Neal Hallford, the guy who was at the time running a petition about Betrayal at Krondor, but at the same time saying that he could not develop it.

Directly afterwards the kickstarter campaign was launched and we know now that it was much too early. No one pledges, no one announces it in the media.

The media is a strange beast, yes. But it did cover successful kickstarters like WL2 and P:E. I am sure one can do much more and get many more journalists interested, especially in Germany and Europe, but one must work for it.

I assume the material sent was similar to the one on the kickstarter page? If you're mailing your material to people and they don't find it interesting, what does that tell you? Wouldn't you think about coming up with something better? Or would you actually think you have "done your duty", and simply launch the kickstarter anyway?

Because, is seems to be exactly what happened. The idea was hardly ready when someone jumped the gun and went to kickstarter three months too early. Those months should have been used to create the awareness that such a big project needs.

Not sure I agree. We thought about this long and hard and ultimately decided to go now because we felt otherwise we would have to wait until April, which would have been absolutely unfeasible.

6 more months would have been perfect to sort out the problems, get the media coverage they need, get a website and forum running, prepare some mock screenshots.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Well the damage is already done. I guess what they can do now is let this kickstarter run for the full thirty days and use the time to work out the details of their idea.

Everyone knows that the goal can not be reached, but should pledges pick up at the end, they can still decide if they will do a second try in 2013. My feeling is they have not decided anything in this regard yet.

P.S. I pledged 15$. Just to show they should go on.

 

[EG]

Well the damage is already done. I guess what they can do now is let this kickstarter run for the full thirty days and use the time to work out the details of their idea.

Everyone knows that the goal can not be reached, but should pledges pick up at the end, they can still decide if they will do a second try in 2013. My feeling is they have not decided anything in this regard yet.

P.S. I pledged 15$. Just to show they should go on.

Or pull it and try to come back with something more realistic. There's no benefit to drawing out a failure and thereby proving tthat no one gives a shit about your clients.

 

[Brother None]

Nah, they can draw it our for a week or so and get more feedback. Been a lot of useful feedback and thoughts so far, I think. But it does seem pretty much over.

I pledged, been covering it in GB since before it started, and posted about it on NMA and WL2 forums. I'm doing what Hallford asks of us. BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH. NEVER ENOUGH.

This Kickstarter, on the other hand, will pwn everything. Sadly.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I could puke when I see Molyneux on kickstarter.com. Doesn't he own like a billion pounds or so already?
Actually. if god games are your kind of thing, the Maia kickstarter may be for you. I just created a thread in GG.

 

[Brother None]

He should have. He's sold two companies to big publishers in his time. Funded Black & White out of his own pocket ($6 million). This probably isn't so much about needing funds as it is about getting some nice risk-free no-obligations-attached money. And you know it'll pour in for him. He's got his fans, Lord knows why, and the press adores him, coz he's an idiot.

Ah well. People will still get the game for a low price, so there's no huge harm to this, but it is a little disingenuous. And the game will underwhelm.