Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #55: Director's Cut coming in June

[Rpguy]

You go out of a human village, straight into a maze filled with fairies and sign posts and you have to rotate the sign so that the faeries that go straight until they have no where to go explode and teleport to their start location - I mean really? can you picture this in a real tabletop rpg where you sit with your friends and play?

I died many times in grimrock battling enemies, it is a different kind of combat many times relying on your speed so it is hard to compare but the point is - it was not easy or boring. I don't know what you have done with your party in BT, I killed everything in 2 turns with the same tactic (mid game+).

 

[Sacred82]

You go out of a human village, straight into a maze filled with fairies and sign posts and you have to rotate the sign so that the faeries that go straight until they have no where to go explode and teleport to their start location - I mean really? can you picture this in a real tabletop rpg where you sit with your friends and play?

So what Grimrock does better is that you start in a prison? Without rhyme or reason, you start in a prison that is actually a rock. Not any rock, but a grim one. So basically, anything goes.

Rly?

I mean we can take this discussion to how well realized the world of BTIV is, but at least it tries to simulate one, wheres GR1 definitely doesn't even try and I'd argue GR2 doesn't either. Not trying to do something doesn't mean you've done better than those who tried.

I died many times in grimrock battling enemies, it is a different kind of combat many times relying on your speed so it is hard to compare but the point is - it was not easy or boring. I don't know what you have done with your party in BT, I killed everything in 2 turns with the same tactic (mid game+).

In that case your tactic could only have been - at best - : spam Mangar's Mallet. Maybe in conjunction with some other Archmage spell. And that probably only always works if you get the drop on the enemy (which is easy usually but there are set encounters where you can't), and even then you'd probably want 2 Archmages if you are hellbent on finishing every encounter quickly by magic spam. Btw, when did you play through the game, and did you play on the highest difficulty? I did and I only started playing the game after they had reportedly raised the difficulty across the board. I also limited myself to 4 characters out of a possible 8, which may not have a bearing on this discussion because it was self-imposed - but some games do play way better with some self imposed restrictions.

 

[Rpguy]

You go out of a human village, straight into a maze filled with fairies and sign posts and you have to rotate the sign so that the faeries that go straight until they have no where to go explode and teleport to their start location - I mean really? can you picture this in a real tabletop rpg where you sit with your friends and play?

So what Grimrock does better is that you start in a prison? Without rhyme or reason, you start in a prison that is actually a rock. Not any rock, but a grim one. So basically, anything goes.

Rly?

I mean we can take this discussion to how well realized the world of BTIV is, but at least it tries to simulate one, wheres GR1 definitely doesn't even try and I'd argue GR2 doesn't either. Not trying to do something doesn't mean you've done better than those who tried.

I died many times in grimrock battling enemies, it is a different kind of combat many times relying on your speed so it is hard to compare but the point is - it was not easy or boring. I don't know what you have done with your party in BT, I killed everything in 2 turns with the same tactic (mid game+).

In that case your tactic could only have been - at best - : spam Mangar's Mallet. Maybe in conjunction with some other Archmage spell. And that probably only always works if you get the drop on the enemy (which is easy usually but there are set encounters where you can't), and even then you'd probably want 2 Archmages if you are hellbent on finishing every encounter quickly by magic spam. Btw, when did you play through the game, and did you play on the highest difficulty? I did and I only started playing the game after they had reportedly raised the difficulty across the board. I also limited myself to 4 characters out of a possible 8, which may not have a bearing on this discussion because it was self-imposed - but some games do play way better with some self imposed restrictions.

Possible 8? the max was 6 when I played it , on the hardest difficulty. So you are saying the game was so easy you had to cut back from 8 party members to 4 to make it interesting...

I had 2 mages 2 warriors ( 1 tank 1 dps ) a rogue and a bard, didn't have to reload a single fight and nothing survived more than 2 turns.

 

[Sacred82]

You go out of a human village, straight into a maze filled with fairies and sign posts and you have to rotate the sign so that the faeries that go straight until they have no where to go explode and teleport to their start location - I mean really? can you picture this in a real tabletop rpg where you sit with your friends and play?

So what Grimrock does better is that you start in a prison? Without rhyme or reason, you start in a prison that is actually a rock. Not any rock, but a grim one. So basically, anything goes.

Rly?

I mean we can take this discussion to how well realized the world of BTIV is, but at least it tries to simulate one, wheres GR1 definitely doesn't even try and I'd argue GR2 doesn't either. Not trying to do something doesn't mean you've done better than those who tried.

I died many times in grimrock battling enemies, it is a different kind of combat many times relying on your speed so it is hard to compare but the point is - it was not easy or boring. I don't know what you have done with your party in BT, I killed everything in 2 turns with the same tactic (mid game+).

In that case your tactic could only have been - at best - : spam Mangar's Mallet. Maybe in conjunction with some other Archmage spell. And that probably only always works if you get the drop on the enemy (which is easy usually but there are set encounters where you can't), and even then you'd probably want 2 Archmages if you are hellbent on finishing every encounter quickly by magic spam. Btw, when did you play through the game, and did you play on the highest difficulty? I did and I only started playing the game after they had reportedly raised the difficulty across the board. I also limited myself to 4 characters out of a possible 8, which may not have a bearing on this discussion because it was self-imposed - but some games do play way better with some self imposed restrictions.

Possible 8? the max was 6 when I played it , on the hardest difficulty. So you are saying the game was so easy you had to cut back from 8 party members to 4 to make it interesting...

I had 2 mages 2 warriors a rogue and a bard, didn't have to reload a single fight.

yeah you didn't have to reload a single fight on hardest difficulty on the first playthrough not knowing anything about the abilities of enemies because your "tactics" were that universally useful. Bullshit levels > 9000

Unless the game shortly after release really was that badly balanced. Can't say. You dodged the question of when you played it.

You're right, I meant 6 party members and 2 summons. Summoning taking time so maybe let's not count it. Still, with a 4 person party, you have to be way more picky about how you build your chars. 2 Archmages are a no-no or at least one of them will be gimped.

And yes I did that basically from the start because I realized that it was way too easy to have all the bases covered with a 6 person party, I didn't care that much about how it influenced the overall difficulty of the game, but just the party building becomes boring.

 

[Rpguy]

I don't really remember which patch I was on, my game got patched more than twice while playing... Since my party was 50% stronger than yours ( 6 vs 4 ) I can't see how you can tell what I was capable or not to do.

 

[Sacred82]

I don't really remember which patch I was on, my game got patched more than twice while playing... Since my party was 50% stronger than yours ( 6 vs 4 ) I can't see how you can tell what I was capable or not to do.

lul, that's like saying "dude I played Baldur's Gate 2 with 6 chars of course I never had to reload!". It wouldn't make a difference if you had 10 chars (it really wouldn't, since XP gets divided), you'd still run into situations that you couldn't beat without proper preparation, and definitely not within 2 rounds by always using the "exact same tactics". You're just full of shit.

 

[Rpguy]

"Playing baldurs gate wouldn't make a difference with 10 characters". Right... thanks for proving you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Sacred82]

"Playing baldurs gate wouldn't make a difference with 10 characters". Right... thanks for proving you have no idea what you're talking about.

:lolwut: not positively, since XP distribution made smaller parties way more desirable.

grats on dodging the actual points btw dumbfuck

 

[Rpguy]

"Playing baldurs gate wouldn't make a difference with 10 characters". Right... thanks for proving you have no idea what you're talking about.

:lolwut: not positively, since XP distribution made smaller parties way more desirable.

grats on dodging the actual points btw dumbfuck

Does it say dumbfuck next to your name or mine?

Xp in baldurs gate had a cap, and the higher levels needed millions of xp while the lower ones needed thousands so the level gap will not be that large. A party of 10 would make a huge difference. just as a party of 4 in BT makes a huge difference compared to 6 - aren't you the one that plays with 4 to make things harder?

 

[Sacred82]

"Playing baldurs gate wouldn't make a difference with 10 characters". Right... thanks for proving you have no idea what you're talking about.

:lolwut: not positively, since XP distribution made smaller parties way more desirable.

grats on dodging the actual points btw dumbfuck

Does it say dumbfuck next to your name or mine?

You still have a lot to learn... scratch that, you're just dumb as shit. Just remember that dumbfucks only give dumbfuck tags to non-dumbfucks.

Xp in baldurs gate had a cap, and the higher levels needed millions of xp while the lower ones needed thousands so the level gap will not be that large.

You're seriously retarded

a party of 3 vs. party of 6 has a flat out 100% XP bonus per character. You're going to outlevel everything very quickly. XP cap does shit about it (not to mention that level cap in Throne of Bhaal was around lvl 40)

A party of 10 would make a huge difference. just as a party of 4 in BT makes a huge difference compared to 6 - aren't you the one that plays with 4 to make things harder?

it would make a huge difference in the negative sense in BG, while possibly making a positive difference in BTIV. Possibly. Resource management is actually a thing in BTIV contrary to BG where all the loot you'd want just lies around waiting to be grabbed.

Anyway the point was you're full of shit. Party of 6 or no, the game can throw you enough curveballs you're not going to get through the game Ironman style on your first playthrough. Equipment choices are important, and alchemy is very helpful at times, even if you just want to get through 1-2 rounds of enemy attrition (especially if they got the drop on you), and you can't equip unlimited amounts of different potions.

The game rewards learning/ mastering the ropes, but your "hurr durr I never reloaded a single fight becuz muh tactics 2 rounds maxx bro xDDDD" shtick is retarded af. Take that shit to the Watch.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Doesn’t the Baldur’s Gate series use 2e Ad&D rules. I don’t recall levels ever needing millions of xp. Since you said cap I’ll just assume capped levels per expansion. And it looks like the lvl40 cap in TOB is no higher than the old gold box end games of DQOK or POD. I had to check the progression tables for BG and was relieved they stick to pnp rules (though you’d honestly wonder why the tables stuck at say (rangers for example +300,000 xp per level needed). You’d think they’d jump even higher but I suppose absolute boredom would set in. I’ve never seen tabletop campaigns reach that level. Not even in basic (well 36 lvl cap there but there was the immortal set).

 

[ArchAngel]

2.0 expands to become the Director’s Cut

• A new Song of Exploration allowing you to bypass puzzles if those aren't your jam

Coming next, The Bard's Tale IV 3.0 with a new Song of Exploration allowing you to bypass combat if that isn't your butter!

Followed by, The Bard's Tale IV 4.0 with a new Song of Exploration allowing you to bypass the game if it isn't your bread!!!

We already have that one. It is called Song of Uninstall.

 

[the_dagon]

Reading so much negativity for this game makes me post a comment :

Just wanted to say I REALLY enjoyed BT4.
I'm an old gamer, played HUNDREDS of CRPGs (litteraly) since 1984, finished BT1 to BT3, but whatever different it is, I think BT4 is a great game.

Combat is fun, addictive, turn based, and I love BT4's puzzles which are quite different kinds.

OK, the release was buggy, but this was corrected rapidly (I played the game 15 days after its' release), and I hadn't bugs or crashed (well, one CTD for the whole game to be honest).

I think the game is very puzzle oriented, much more than the original trilogy, so it's not for everyone, but I think it really shines for what it is.

Maybe the game could have been more "concise", a smaller gameworld, less puzzles (keeping the différent ones, but less of the sames), but how can I criticize the length of the game ?

So my opinion :
if you enjoy puzzles, play it.
If you don't, forget it.

I know it's very unlikely we will see a Bard's Tale V seeing the poor sales and the negative feedbacks, but I hope we will.

My two cents.

 

[Mightmagic]

Is this game called Le Bard's Tale in France?

No but if it was, it would call: " la légende du barde".

 

[Morkar Left]

Is this game called Le Bard's Tale in France?

No but if it was, it would call: " la légende du barde".

La Chanson du Troubardour

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Are there random encounters or is it a choo-choo-train set encounter format?

 

[Morkar Left]

Are there random encounters or is it a choo-choo-train set encounter format?

no random mobs

 

[skycycle]

• A new intro animatic

Cinematic? Animation?