Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV Pre-Release Thread [RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

Not sure why everyone's linking that card game to the new BT. He clearly meant it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4WuTp4faKA

Actually a good series of videos. Kind if interesting to hear her talk about the amount of expertise she's gathered.

 

Never liked original BTs much, combat way too tedious. The preview of BT4 in that German magazine back in '92 looked promising with its separate tactical battle screen - has any of the parties involved ever commented on its fate?

 

Never got into the Bards Tale series, and id rather see inXile do another ye olde crpg resurrection instead of this franchise. If it is going to be a blobber im intested though. And i found the reference to a card game interesting although i cannot really picture a practical implementation of these mechanics. I used to love CCGs though, played a lot of MTG. I really like the combination of luck and tactics, and the possible complexity of card games. The inclusion of luck is something that a lot of gamers hate though, it reduces the effectivity of their "skills" and can render their brilliant strategy useless just like that. Wtf! I remember an old skool RTS back in the day that included card game mechanics believe it or not. It was universally hated, i liked it though.

 

Original Bard's Tale was pretty fun... when I played it in 1987 and didn't mind the grindiness. I may grab this one if it's any good -- I don't think it'll outshine Wizardry 6-8 in blobbery goodness, though.

 

What are you doing in a thread dedicated to a blobber game? Or were you at first super excited at the notion of this game getting a sequel like these prestigious individuals? Go advocate decline somewhere else scrub. You could try the internet wayback machine and get in the spirit of things by reading the hype surrounding the upcoming FPS Fallout sequel.

 

Not to be negative, but I don't think this will be a slam dunk. They need another slam dunk. They need to go from strength to strength.

What they should do is a post-apoc fantasay RTwP (think something like infinity engine Dark Sun game). Why? RTwP is a slam fucking dunk whether we like it or not (PoE is proof), they could do it better than PoS I mean PoE, and that would give them the funds to do Wasteland 3 and another turn based Torment.

Am mildly interested to see what they do with this though.

 

RTwP ?

Why make game worse ?

 

I don't disagree with you, but PoE got a lot more money in their kickstarter. I know PoE rode on BG/BG2 fame, but RTwP was definitely a big part of that. The Torment vote showed a fairly even split between turn-based and RTwP.

I know, I know. But don't forget I said it's to help fund a Wasteland 3 and another turn-based Torment after the current one, or at least pull a HBS and get W3 and TToN2 co-funded.

I know it's a crazy plan, but it might be just crazy enough to work.

 

yeah people claiming RTwP will give more money are crazy.

PoE got money because -> Obsidian original new RPG not because it had RTwP. Adding to that BG2 and Torment as inspiration also did the trick.

 

It's mentioned here:



Near the beginning.

 

Bards Tale IV: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space 2

 

They should hire whoever did the design on Dragon Wars. Now that's a game worth reviving. The original BT - no so much.

 

Guess who that was:

 

I just looked the DW manual from mocagh.org and it too credits O'Connor with the design, but the afterword is written by Heinemann and it goes like this:

So, I guess s/he was basically the project lead on that.

 

PoE isn't out yet. It's to early to tell wheter or not the public perception will be as positive after Sawyer delivers us his trainwreck. Broken Age was a slam dunk but if Schafer tried his luck again with another "old school adventure game", it sure as hell wouldn't be now that the public knows what POS his first try turned out to be.

Why the fuck do we need a sequel to an underwhelming game (depending on you who you ask of course) and a game that isn't even out yet and not very good material for multiple sequels? I'd rather see something new. It would be cool in fact if inXile could be like Troika, making very different and unique games rather than predictable schlock like the other big 3 Western developers.

 

I like TB blobbers but that kind of game must be great for me to enjoy it (i found almost all blobbers like Bard Tales very dull and uninteresting).
It has to have very good no linear exploration, a deep character system (plenty of stats and full creation of character : race/class/skills), very good items distributions, interesting phase base combat and good story/dialog with engaging NPC.
Unfortunately only Wizardry 7 and Wizardry 8 fulfill these criteria and are the only ones enjoyable today (both are on my top 10 cRPG game list).

Recently only 2 TB blobbers were released (i only know PC games).
MMX was a big disappointment (limited exploration, average items distribution, awful character creation system with 0 personalization, mediocre NPC/dialog).
I still have not played Xulima despite being a backer but from what i read, it seemed much better than MMX but still far from W7 and W8 qualities.

A complex blobber is much more than a simple dungeon crawl and i would love to play a BT IV that would be an improved W7/8.

 

Yeah, but that was not in some interview but the actual game manual. I don't thik they'd let her exaggerate her role too much.
Still, given s/he's credited with the design on BT3, and it was still rather dull, it's probably O'Connor that we have to thank for all the great things about DW.

 

I'm gonna sound like a twat saying this. I'm liking what I'm seeing of Serpent in the Staglands now and will be purchasing it day 1, but during the kickstarter the production level didn't draw me in, I was on the fence with it and decided to wait until release/reviews. It's also indie - that's not a bad thing at all (I back indies) but it's kind of a dark horse thing, for me at least, and not necessarily going to draw a lot of backers in. Obsidian and InXile have a lot more cred (they have the people).

If another kickstarter comes out by a team with the kind of cred InXile has and does an Obsidian - we know you guys love BG/BG2, we want you to have more of that awesomeness, check out our production so far (PoE and TToN style graphics) - then it's gonna draw in a lot more people. Serpent in the Staglands couldn't do that (hopefully in the future they will be able to). I guess I'm saying kickstarter is a 'first impressions count' scenario.

InXile also hasn't done a RTwP game, so a clean slate in that regard.

I dunno, maybe my idea is too crazy. This BT4 announcement got me thinking...

A good point, and tricky to tackle. InXile don't have Super Sawyer on their team - there's that. As I wrote above, InXile haven't done a RTwP game, so there's a clean slate for them in that regard. But how to tackle if PoE gets bad reviews, or if public perception is poor? Make it clear that combat will be different from PoE by elaborating on the system they would create/use, not by directly comparing to PoE (I'm sure InXile wouldn't do this). Sell the story too, as they did with TToN - that certainly drew many in. I don't recall PoE story being sold to backers during the kickstarter. And a fresh setting (without PoE's funny names) could be a big plus, especially something a bit different like a post-apoc fantasy world.

Brand building (people like familiarity afterall, they know what to expect), and improving on them in a similar fashion to BG being improved upon by BG2. In regards to improving, just take a look at all the people asking HBS at the moment to do stealth and astral plane, and the stretch goals improving on existing mechanics.

In regards to TToN2, in my mind it would be an all new story, not carrying on from TToN. I think/agree that the Torment name is better served by one off, unique stories.

I like that you'd rather see something new, and I can't argue against that. That's actually kind of what I'm advocating with my idea, just combining it with RTwP and using the ol' 'BG successor' line but InXile style, and if public perception is good, making it into a brand. If not, then try again.

 

Why are you so fixated on the idea of RTwP being a guaranteed recipe for financial success? Outside of this forum, BG2 isn't even acclaimed for its combat, but for its scope, writing and romances. Even on this forum, there are posters who genuinely believe the IE games were turn-based.

The split was because of the deviation from the original Torment (DAT nostalgia), not because people actually prefer RTwP.

It got less than Torment, which didn't specify a combat system. It did get more than the turn-based WL2, but that game barely had a campaign whereas PoE put up all sorts of enticing stretch goals to keep people constantly donating. Kickstarter audiences care more about the role-playing experience in a general sense, they don't tend to think deeply about the specifics of combat systems - unless you're pitching something very specific (which is why there was so much controversy over T:ToN's combat vote).

What do you mean 'does an Obsidian'? InXile started the Kickstarter cRPG renaissance with WL2.

 

I'm really curious what Fargo will pull out of his hat this time. If not for anything else, this will be interesting at least to see how he's gonna try to sell it.