KickStarter Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness - Tales of the Moon Cult expansion on the way

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grapeocean/black-geyser-couriers-of-darkness/posts/3406238

Improved bug reporting tool with new fixes

Greetings, adventurers!

Our nineteenth round of fixes and improvements is here! It includes the option to regulate the AoE spellcasting behavior for your Party AI, as well as increased stability and usability for the integrated bug reporting tool - you can activate it by pressing the Alt+B key combination! You can read the complete list below:

• Added AoE spellcasting behavior selector to party members (including Reckless behavior!)
• Improved stability and usability for the bug report tool
• Upgraded visuals for the Broken Monastery
• Upgraded visuals for Freynagar's ice dome
• Fixed lighting in the Underground Cave, Time Cave and Dream Cave
• Fixed spawn points and orientations in many areas
• Party members now spawn facing enemies on random encounter areas
• Fixed a cutscene bug when entering Deron-Guld without the diplomatic escort
• Slings now count as one-handed weapons
• Fixed Jade's recruitment dialogue
• Jade's diadem can now be removed or equipped after purification
• The Old Beginnings quest now gives proper rewards and causes greed and reputation changes
• The Old Beginnings quest now results in proper greed and reputation changes
• Damage profile and hit ratio for summoned spiders and wolves has been adjusted
• Recipes cannot be learned any more by inspecting their descriptions in shops
• Members removed from the party no longer show their current HP in empty party slots
• Creature nameplates from the previous area now disappear properly during transition
• Several unlootable containers have been fixed
• Race and Class descriptions now fit their respective panels in Character Generation
• Several stairs have been fixed where party characters would spawn under them
• Weapons are no longer teleported away from creatures when looting their gear
• Several locations have been fixed where invisible / stealth characters were seen by npc-s
• Sparing the enemy is now handled properly in "Galdrigerr's Raider Problem"
• The door to Beline's home now appears properly in the revolt of Chapter 3
• Siding with Aldnar in Chapter 3 now makes his gate guards friendly upon exit
• Formula of the Pick Locks skill now works properly
• Weight calculation now works properly for all party members
• The bridge of the Crimson Crossing is now properly clickable
• The Entangle spell now correctly creates the Immobilize effect
• Crowd chatter and noises are inactive at the Wardenhaft Academy during night
• Inn room descriptions now fit their UI panels properly
• Information on multi-selecting items is now displayed in the Shop Tutorial
• Added missing "Poisonous" stat to ingredients
• The Panic effect of the Coat of Darkness spell is now visible in the combat log
• The Talgorn Inn's name is now properly displayed in the minimap
• Spirits of Beline and Fidelio are now exempt from spells and damage
• Added dialogue to the Red Damsel innkeeper
• Door highlight of the Frozen Spirit inn is now displayed properly
• Added stat description to the Poison Weapon spell
• Blade of the Widowmaker greatsword now faces the proper direction
• NPCs in the Valley of Singing Trees now help defeat some local enemies if needed

The Black Geyser Team

 

[vazha]

*Improved bug reporting tool*

Oh my. So even reporting the bugs was a buggy affair afore they fixed it then?

 

[Anomander]

So it releases in a month (17th March).
Somebody tried it? Is it ready to release or we getting another alfa after early access?

 

[Angelo85]

So it releases in a month (17th March).
Somebody tried it? Is it ready to release or we getting another alfa after early access?

I wrote a semi long-winded EA review a couple pages back, still mostly true.
As TL;DR for "is the game worth it":
I'd go with the classic "Good for what it is/wants to be".
It's a budget, Eurojank Baldurs Gate 1. The character attributes and combat mechanics were inspired by PoE though.

In regards to your specific question:
The Early Access areas and the game systems were continuously improved upon and initial major bugs were eradicated. So at least the EA content (which is about 1/3 to 2/5 of the game according to the Devs) should be in a pretty solid shape at the time of release.
Judging by the track record of how they handled the content addition of the EA phase, the as of yet by-the-masses-untested content might contain major or even, in rare instances, game breaking bugs. But I'm confident that the Developers will correct them and patch the game in a timely manner. So if you are planning on blazing through the game, perhaps wait with the purchase until a couple patches have actually been implemented. That way you'll be on the safe side for a smooth experience.

 

[Anomander]

As for citation needed:
https://rpgamer.com/2022/02/black-geyser-couriers-of-darkness-releasing-in-march/

 

[The Cunny Commander]

I have a few hours in the EA, it was alright. If i'm being honest it felt like a copycat Pillars of Eternity who was a copycat Baldur's Gate. The character creation and models were fucking awful but it might have just been the lighting. I'm excited for it but if CRPGs weren't such a starved genre i probably wouldn't be that excited.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

main complaint is that the camera is way too zoomed in, couldn't figure out a way to adjust it

edit: fixed it, think the controls just bugged out.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

seems like a fine game?
I don't think it will be anyone's favorite game ever, but at the same time I doubt many people will hate it.

feels like someone played BG1 tales of sword coast and thought "man, I want to make a game like this" which is ok by me

 

[ERYFKRAD]

seems like a fine game?
I don't think it will be anyone's favorite game ever, but at the same time I doubt many people will hate it.

feels like someone played BG1 tales of sword coast and thought "man, I want to make a game like this" which is ok by me

Sounds about right.

 

[Cryomancer]

Sounds about right.

No Barbarians in the game. The closest thing to a barb is Highlander

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Sounds about right.

No Barbarians in the game. The closest thing to a barb is Highlander

Yes, and?

 

[Infinitron]

As for citation needed:
https://rpgamer.com/2022/02/black-geyser-couriers-of-darkness-releasing-in-march/

It's official now: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1374930/view/3111426824836670909

Let Your Greed Grow On March 17
Black Geyser has an official launch date. Are you ready?

Ho there, adventurers!

Since Black Geyser released into Early Access in August 2021, we've been blown away by the sheer amount of feedback and support we've received. We knew that the game wasn't quite where we wanted it to be, and we wanted to work hard and use this time to refine our vision.

In total, we've delivered over 19 huge updates. From significant improvements to loading times, all new quest chapters, to a fully reworked tutorial and fresh zones: explore the northern frozen harbour of Freynagar, separated from the city by a huge ice dome, or take a trip to Amanuel's Hoard, the seaside fort owned by the greediest man in history.

We've also delivered Linux and Mac Support, a full rebalance for casters, implemented improved boss mechanics and delivered major improvements to its combat and damage scaling. We're not finished, and with our launch date agreed as March 17, 2022, we've still more to do in the coming weeks!

We wanted to thank everyone who has been on this journey with us, and we can't wait for you to dive into the full release as we get over the finish line. In the coming days, we'll be releasing more information on what's on the horizon, as well as some blog posts giving any new players greater insight into the world we've been creating and our all-new launch trailer.

The Black Geyser Team

 

[AwesomeButton]

Imagine the irony when this turns out to be better than PoE.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

loading screens are pretty bad btw
Otherwise, not really sure what I'm judging here. I played about 8 hours worth or so and ehhhh? time for a Rusty mini-review.

Lots of weapon diversity. Polearms, hammers, axes, staffs, slingstaffs, tridents, so on and so forth. Not in the "oh one kinda exists" like kangmaker, each weapon type has a lot of weapons from what I've seen. Weapons have reach as a statistic on them, polearms can hit from much further than swords, etc.,
Environment art mostly looks fine. It's obviously not pillows-tier, but it's not bad either.
It seems like you can solve most quests in a pretty open-ended way? There's rarely ever a dialogue that railroads you into a decision and pretty much always a "nah go fuck yourself" escape hatch.
Emphasis on resource management, rests don't seem to actually heal you very much and are risky in the wild. Consumables are very important, and all the crafting seems to be related to brewing potions and creating dusts. You find recipes while exploring and looting stuff.
Itemization is pretty good. Also, there's cursed items you can find that you need a cleric to uncurse to get rid of the malus on them. BUT I'm pretty sure it actually makes the item weaker, so it's up to you if you want to do it, there's no going back afaik.
Lots of items that give unique bonuses such as more spell slots, innate spells, abilities, etc., The unique items I've seen so far seemed pretty well designed and had stories behind them that fit the overall design of the item. The cursed items helps in this department due to the maluses on them.
When party members die, they die. I think you have to get a cleric to revive them if their body isn't too badly destroyed.
There's a bunch of different damage types, lots of armors have different strengths and weaknesses against them.


Is this like pillows at all?
no, not really. The main story feels very much like an excuse plot, which is fine.
There's nothing like dialogue directly with your companions afaik, but they do speak during regular dialogue. Also there's some things that I don't really understand with regards to party, but I think the more you use certain party members together the more synergy they develop with each other? Also, you get some sort of bonuses for making your party more well rounded in class composition.
But there is a good deal of ambient dialogue with other people in the world. Not sure what the proper term for this is atm, definitely feels more exploration-y and world-buildy. I talked to most NPCs I encountered, and there's a lot.
I didn't mean to imply the dialogue is bad, it just feels terse. There's also a lot of immature dialogue choices, but they're often right below much more diplomatic responses etc., which is actually kinda refreshing rather than there being 5 dialogue choices written as if the player character is a philosopher.

Also because some people will probably care, yes the casters use vancian magic and yes wizards scribe scrolls. Maybe some of the casters are spontaneous? Not sure. It features dual & tri-classing, you pick at character creation. Speaking of which, I'm fairly certain each class has its own XP curve.
I guess it's sorta like pillows in that people set out to make a CRPG system derived from D&D by taking the good parts rather than adapting D&D.

oh yeah and the game has a builtin anti-kleptomaniac mechanism. I have no idea how it manifests, but your greed is an attribute that is tracked and the game heavily hints that being greedy will have some bad consequences as it's part of the lore or somesuch.

so to tally it up:
+ rather refreshing, good deal of new ideas with very little pandering to nostalgia fans
- loading screens are a bummer
+ combat is pretty fun
- rough around the edges, quality that's hard to describe.
+ cool itemization
- ...idk I ran out of negative things to say

I liked it enough to actually buy a copy after playing it for a while, so, I guess that's an endorsement.

[edit]
oh and the game is just pure fantasy with fantasy politics if that's something you're worrying about in $currentyear

[edit2]
o yea, performance. I found two ways to fix shit performance:
- switch to low settings then back to whatever graphics setting you were on. I think it's disabling something GPU intensive that's not turned on again when you switch back to the higher graphics setting but I can't even tell what it is. Maybe high quality reflections or something?
- don't play above 1080p. Performance took a nosedive going from 1080p to 1440p.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Also there's some things that I don't really understand with regards to party, but I think the more you use certain party members together the more synergy they develop with each other? Also, you get some sort of bonuses for making your party more well rounded in class composition.

 

[Grunker]

must admit i had this completely written off as a dud. looks like it might be okay?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

must admit i had this completely written off as a dud. looks like it might be okay?

I for one believe in Codex meme magic.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to stop and wait for the full release. If anyone has any questions I'll answer them but I think I about covered everything I've seen so far.

 

[Aarwolf]

So it releases in a month (17th March).
Somebody tried it? Is it ready to release or we getting another alfa after early access?

It's a crossbreed of BG1 and PoE and it did achieve something - namely, it joined worst parts of both and turn them into something worse.

Still better than Dragon Age 2.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It's a crossbreed of BG1 and PoE and it did achieve something - namely, it joined worst parts of both and turn them into something worse.

It being true rtwp rather than round-based masquerading as real-time already means it took one of the better features PoE has over the IE games.

 

[Cryomancer]

I'm going to stop and wait for the full release. If anyone has any questions I'll answer them but I think I about covered everything I've seen so far.

I have a question. Did they fixed wintermage? I"m only interested in this class and necromancer and sadly wintermage was very lackluster when I played some months ago.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm going to stop and wait for the full release. If anyone has any questions I'll answer them but I think I about covered everything I've seen so far.

I have a question. Did they fixed wintermage? I"m only interested in this class and necromancer and sadly wintermage was very lackluster when I played some months ago.

Pretty sure one of the recent patches buffed them from reading dev comments.

 

[MajorMace]

Still better than Dragon Age 2.

Is there any game that isn't, honestly ?

I'll give the game a try. I couldn't get into PF:K and something simpler and less bloated in systems and whatnot might actually be fun for a change.

 

[Acrux]

I remember character creation being very obtuse a whole back. There wasn't much information to explain what stats or skills did, it was unclear whether you need to min/max to be viable. Stats go up to 14 but I have no idea if that's a hard cap.

It seemed to rely on the player making assumptions that they worked like D&D, even though the systems are very different. For instance, both Dex and Focus affect Aim and Accuracy, but nothing told how much or which was more important.

Has that improved?

 

[covr]

What's the diversity rating? there's a scale 1-100% for your party on one of the screens.

*insert 2022 diversity pun here*