KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Jasede]

 

[Tweed]

It was fun because misery loves company and we were all suffering together.

 

[Dayyālu]

I'm kind of fascinated by this thread, because from the vids and the screenshots this look like the ultimate "looks like Roll20 but it's vydia and offers great chances for custom modules and proper 3.x ruleset gaming" but if I get it you're saddled with a shitton of hardcoded crap (money for leveling? Wut?), the system ain't mod friendly and the starting adventure is an insane mess done randomly by a guy that never finished it?

The first koTC wasn't a mess tho. What the fuck changed?

 

[Jasede]

I demand a KOTC2 survivor badge for the emotional harm done to me.

 

[Tweed]

Beats me and I don't get the gold for levels thing either, it creates a huge balance problem for anyone trying to make a module, not only do you have to balance xp per encounter, but now you have to decide how much loot to give people.

 

[Dickie]

From the forums:

If you think it's tough in the sewers, wait until you see what awaits you at the castle as soon as you escape.

The first battle at the gate is outrageous (especially since waves continue to arrive until you blow up the gate), but what comes after is simply beyond the pale. I may get bored enough to check the EL of the encounter like I did last time, but I remember that it said when it rolled everyone's initiative that it is an EL 24. No way. Even if it is, we're only like level 17 by that point. 7 levels above the party and the enemies are fully prepared for us with self-buffs.

Imma admit right here that I cheated and I STILL couldn't make it through all the waves of enemies. I could have cheated more and harder, but all of my guys had every feat available by that point, stats approaching mid-30's, stacks of arrows of slay everything with +4 bows of wounding and speed, amulets of blindsight, and they still tore me a new one.

I like how not even cheating makes it easy.

 

[Jasede]

These people do not understand D&D like we do... we've been playing these games for longer than they are even alive, you know. We know the spells, and the saves, and what to do, in unfair fights like these. And if you have all our experience, all our knowledge, all our pooled skill, then, if you reload dozens of times, and if the enemies fail their saves, and your characters don't miss, and the dragon's breath doesn't do more damage than you have HP, then, then you can make it without cheating...

 

[NJClaw]

Before KotC2 initiative hell - after KotC2 initiative hell.

 

[Tweed]

Lol, he did it wrong, just accelerate everyone on the surprise round and hit both towers with prismatic void and tornado blast and chop the maralith with your executioner, then on the follow up take out any survivors with more voids and blasts, finish off the maralith with one swing, blown down both gates, hit em with void or blasts and finally sweep the vrocks and golems on the third and final round, it's ez!

 

[Jasede]

Now I want to play Icewind Dale 1 and 2. I never finished either.
And just hearing the music sends chills down my spine. Good times...

 

[Tweed]

You could play on heart of fury and think nothing of it.

 

[Jasede]

Yeah, I quit originally because I was playing on HoF with a level 1 party and thought it was too tedious by the time I was finished with the dungeon (the longish crypt/temple) - little did I know.

 

[Mortmal]

I too refuse to believe he actually beat this shit legit, unless he is somehow thinking reloading 100 times is good gameplay. I am all for difficult games but I just don't believe he did it, without recorded video footage.

Check the Kickstarter demo videos: he lost every encounter in them...

Basically, what gave me the illusion of fun is my own personality. I like overcoming challenge for its own sake. It doesn't matter what the challenge is, but if it's stupid and I commit myself to it, I will have fun overcoming it. But that's all motivated by me intrinsically as a person; the game actually added nothing. You don't even get phat loot for fighting these bizarre encounters.

I dont believe it one sec either, i'd be more happy if he said he rushed and had no time to test. Else i am extremely worried for the next modules i paid for. The reloading game isnt much fun , maybe was it to hide the fact there's very very little content. 4 maps and impossible fights to keep you busy.Some poorly designed parts from a DM point of view, what's this " Mwahaha i throw you in the sewers without equipement".. Makes no senses at all even when i was 10 i was doing better. Assaulting a keep front gate , moronic too. Even the stupidest kwan i could find on r/lfg, would not even try that.

 

[V_K]

God, this thread is comedy gold.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Yeah, I think I'm done with this as well, dropping it somewhere halfway through chapter 3. Will come back after muh ballinse, because I'm not having much fun atm.

I demand a KOTC2 survivor badge for the emotional harm done to me.

Here:

I even made a kickstarter badge for you guys:

 

[Rpguy]

Well the game doesn't have 10 years of development content- half the quests are unfinished. Must have spent all that time on trying to beat it.

 

[felipepepe]

How about a new thread for editor? felipepepe
I just hit my first blocker, trying to "teleport" the party to another map. The game just crashes to desktop after the "loading" screen.
(Obviously i copied the "set character position to x/y on map "xxx" script" from the game module, but no luck...)

Did you use any other script? I just tried here and it works perfectly with a single of script:

 

[PaquoCastor]

I'm still reserving judgment, but this thread is rather enjoyable. Even if I, one who is horribly bad at games, never finish Augury of Chaos; still money well spent. Now if Pierre can unhardcode his engine more and we get at least one Swordflight out of this, then this was a steal. Now time to get back to actually finishing the first one, and maybe that rts too.

 

[benzine]

Yep, fun encounters, shows you how fun KOTC (or 3.5) can be.
I just hit my first blocker, trying to "teleport" the party to another map. The game just crashes to desktop after the "loading" screen.
(Obviously i copied the "set character position to x/y on map "xxx" script" from the game module, but no luck...)

Try double checking the coordinates, maybe even plop down a creature and edit it to confirm.
I think last time back wahtevar the coordinate displayed in the map editor wasn't right or something, too long ago now

 

[benzine]

So guys (and gals, if any), what has to improve to make "it" fun?

I really think the entire module has to be redesigned, currently it's really constrained around initiative roll, reload spam, exp banking, gold banking (maybe a good thing, but the balance is just mmm)
Some fundamental parts of the game to be opened for modification: class, level up mechanism, feat (maybe some concentration feat, no?), out-of-combat casting (enhance ability etc.)

 

[Tweed]

So, I wonder who will finish it on ironman first.

 

[Rpguy]

So guys (and gals, if any), what has to improve to make "it" fun?

Fix all the bugs, Remove gold cost to level up, remove XP banking, Balance the classes and races ( no not like in pillars ), add a city hub where you can actually finish the game's quests and buy some equipment like crossbow bolts, some of the content feels rushed/unfinished - the green goblins for example is a big mess, no reason to pick them. Maybe even add random encounters so that you could gain power/items/xp/gold in case you are stuck due to difficulty.

 

[Rpguy]

So, I wonder who will finish it on ironman first.

I don't think anyone is supposed/expected to beat augury of chaos on ironman. The ironman mode is an option for other modules.

 

[AdolfSatan]

So guys (and gals, if any), what has to improve to make "it" fun?

Fix all the bugs, Remove gold cost to level up, remove XP banking, Balance the classes and races ( no not like in pillars ), add a city hub where you can actually finish the game's quests and buy some equipment like crossbow bolts, some of the content feels rushed/unfinished - the green goblins for example is a big mess, no reason to pick them. Maybe even add random encounters so that you could gain power/items/xp/gold in case you are stuck due to difficulty.

Agree with everything you said, but while on that subject, why not make the arena an arena after the goblin encounter is done? Let me talk to an NPC (one of the ratmen perhaps?) that sets fights up.

 

[benzine]

Fix all the bugs, Remove gold cost to level up, remove XP banking, Balance the classes and races ( no not like in pillars ), add a city hub where you can actually finish the game's quests and buy some equipment like crossbow bolts, some of the content feels rushed/unfinished - the green goblins for example is a big mess, no reason to pick them.

Fix all the bugs

A priority, it crashed so much that I had to edit the script to skip the buggy part

Remove gold cost to level up

I'd make it an option, actually I don't dislike the idea of something else (ingredient etc.) that contribute to leveling, but gold cost in his module? Non-sense

remove XP banking

I wouldn't remove it per-se, more up to the module designer though as a reward for achievement, but if a module is well-designed XP banking would only be for the few challenge inclined

Balance the classes and races

Definitely, the current T1s are necessary picks, the T2s replacement for more loading, the rest makes a load-fest

City hub

BG2 style? I kid, just a peaceful zone for relaxing and purchasing, a change of pace for a little bit, maybe even restricted for 1-2 rest

some of the content feels rushed/unfinished

The module feels rushed/unfinished, but yeah, after all the previous improvements, Pierre really should tie up loose ends before he work on the other modules