Grimoire Thread

[Zorba the Hutt]

Cleve, I know this is probably obvious, but bear in mind that Steam indicates who owns your game (the mouse symbol next to their name). Thought I'd mention it as you seem to get a lot of questions from people who don't own your game and are probably playing pirated versions, but with one guy who does own your game you asked him if he was pirating it.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Why?

Because it comes with shitty side effects like lootitis and poor item balance.

This. I've never played a game where crafting didn't completely fuck up the itemization. Either you can CRAFT powerful items which makes the item hunt flaccid (one of the main fucking points of playing RPGs is to hunt for treasure) or you can FIND powerful items which makes crafting useless.

While I agree in the main, this assumes that the game actually has some form of meaningful itemisation. No sarcasm meant. At level 5, the I am using the same weapons as I did at level 1.
The first shop I find, sells nothing better than what I have, and trivialises the 1000 or so gold that took me many fights and many hours to accumulate.
If that isn't screwed itemisation, I don't want to ever see it.

Know what the funny thing is about this game?
Even though it is so broken that it beggars belief, and contains more bugs and issues than I have ever seen in a game over many decades of gaming, if you can get past its level of broken-ness and bugged-ness, it is still fun. Kinda makes you wonder what it could have been if the crackerjack coder actually was one.

Sorry, which field are you actually employed in? I'm betting you aren't. Employed. Are you a computer programmer? If so, do you work in C++? I just need to know so I can absolutely dismantle you and show people what a complete fraud you are. I can ask you a few questions in ten seconds and demonstrate you are not a computer programmer. Weren't you the guy complaining I shouldn't be passing MEMORY BLOBS?

My favorite one was the chronic masturbators making fun of my C code without realising that was game script, not source code. Intellectual giants.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Cleve, I know this is probably obvious, but bear in mind that Steam indicates who owns your game (the mouse symbol next to their name). Thought I'd mention it as you seem to get a lot of questions from people who don't own your game and are probably playing pirated versions, but with one guy who does own your game you asked him if he was pirating it.

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

 

[PEACH]

Economy as a whole seems nearly impossible to fix. There are some items in the ACME machines that are worth several thousand gold and cost a single token (out of fifty plus sitting in my inventory) for instance in addition to the innumerable other exploits that seem to creep up in the thread.

I can look past a lot of this stuff to be honest, but one thing that does get on my nerves a little is the way loot tables for chests seem to be designed. There's very little in the way of surprise, I think rather than 1X, 1Y, 1Z, etc. it'd be better if there was a bit more unpredictability to them. Finding a lyre, a wand, a book, a scroll, and a leather cap in half the chests (and rough equivalents in the other half) isn't exciting itemization for me. Better than some games, sure, but given the pool of items to draw from all it would take is a little flexibility and it'd already be much much better.

Still, I'm amazed that with the amount of things that can be poked and prodded at as looking and acting funny I'm still having the best RPG experience I can think of since playing Might & Magic as a kid. Doesn't hurt that Grimoire is my girlfriend's first CRPG and she loves it / won't stop talking about it and now she's dying to try Wizardry and Elminage Gothic. Plus the obvious community element that exists here which is really enriching as everyone scrambles blind to unearth all the game's secrets and inner workings.

Really feels like Grimoire is the ultimate example of a game that's much greater than the sum of its parts. Looking forward to V2 to see what that brings to the table, hopefully by then I'll have finished my first run because I'm already itching to fix all my party errors and further optimize everything but if I keep restarting for every small nuance I'll still be half way through the game by the time Grimoire II drops in 2037

 

[A600]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Remember folks, if you spend twenty years making a huge game on your own, you need to add achievements to show you've put some effort in.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

He's learned to block it out I see

 

[mondblut]

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

With the history of previous patches, it makes perfect sense to backup your game and play it outside steam from another directory until you have sufficient pool of reports about the latest patch convincing you it is safe to migrate.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

With the history of previous patches, it makes perfect sense to backup your game and play it outside steam from another directory until you have sufficient pool of reports about the latest patch convincing you it is safe to migrate.

Except that person never bought it. Doesn't matter where they play it.

 

[jfunk]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

He's learned to block it out I see

I'm sure there's a better way for Cleve to tell if he owns it or not. I do want to point out, that while I'm not sure if it still holds true now there was a point earlier where many legit owners were playing Grimoire from a copied folder (to preserve different versions). They may have setup a non-steam game shortcut so they could show they were playing it despite not launching it from the regular Steam link. I've done similar with Dominions 4 for example.

Also, anybody showing this "in non-steam game" thing is doing so on purpose. It's not something that happens on its own, you have to put some effort into creating those shortcuts.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

He's learned to block it out I see

Said the human equivalent of a low quality lab rat whose sole purpose is to navigate rudimentary mazes to receive kibble.

The kibble means you care.

 

[jfunk]

Except that person never bought it. Doesn't matter where they play it.

Cleve, I know you're busy but I'm sitting on a couple backer keys and I'd love to share the Grimoire with others. I've sent a couple inquiries (to the address the keys came from and via Indiegogo) regarding the logistics of gifting them but haven't heard anything back. The email explicitly stated not to gift them without corresponding with you first.

Is there any way to get my existing Steam account (purchased from Steam on day 1) marked as a Backer account or does it not matter?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I'm sure there's a better way for Cleve to tell if he owns it or not. I do want to point out, that while I'm not sure if it still holds true now there was a point earlier where many legit owners were playing Grimoire from a copied folder (to preserve different versions). They may have setup a non-steam game shortcut so they could show they were playing it despite not launching it from the regular Steam link. I've done similar with Dominions 4 for example.

Also, anybody showing this "in non-steam game" thing is doing so on purpose. It's not something that happens on its own, you have to put some effort into creating those shortcuts.

Yes, but you will still have the mouse symbol next to your name when you comment in the Steam forums for Grimoire, if you own Grimoire, even if you're playing it outside Steam as a non-Steam game. Anyway, that guy was telling everyone how he had refunded (and lost the mouse symbol).

Sure most of us have played pirated games (back in the "old" days at least) but starting threads about bugs and issues, for a game with a small/single dev team, without specifying you're playing an old/pirated version is poor form imo.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.

He's learned to block it out I see

He had it and refunded it, but still plays it by adding it to the client as a non-steam game.

Ninjad.

 

[jfunk]

Yes, but you will still have the mouse symbol next to your name when you comment in the Steam forums for Grimoire, if you own Grimoire

Ahh, I never even noticed that icon before. Thanks, that's pretty useful (although I guess less so for games that aren't available exclusively on Steam).

So this guy created the non-Steam shortcut for Grimoire just to rub it in even. You'd think advertising that you're playing a stolen game would be a bannable offense.

 

[mwnn85]

There's a few legitimate reasons for running the game (exe directly) outside of STEAM even if you own it.

You currently don't need STEAM running (No DRM at the moment)
You don't have to be online
You can also trial out the game for longer than the 2 hour refund period; but in all honesty if you don't like the game by the time you've completed AQUAVIA you probably never will.

Anyone with that symbol owns the game - no way of faking it.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Anyway, last one - humour in muh Grimoire?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Anyway, last one - humour in muh Grimoire?

I feel like last sentences have a stylistic mistake (very obvious self-contradiction).
Third sentence from the last:
"I am not trying to spread a message..."
Next to it:
"The only message you will get in Grimoire is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the world at all. That's the big message of the entire game".
Doesn't sound good then you read it. That kind of stuff steals attention of readers, make them think not about the message of the whole post, but about little self-contradiction in the last few sentences: "So, is Cleve trying to spread some kind of message or not?"

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Except that person never bought it. Doesn't matter where they play it.

Cleve, I know you're busy but I'm sitting on a couple backer keys and I'd love to share the Grimoire with others. I've sent a couple inquiries (to the address the keys came from and via Indiegogo) regarding the logistics of gifting them but haven't heard anything back. The email explicitly stated not to gift them without corresponding with you first.

Is there any way to get my existing Steam account (purchased from Steam on day 1) marked as a Backer account or does it not matter?

I actually inquired about this since it was so explicitly mentioned in the backer mail.

Golden Era was fine with gifting the key as long as the recipient was especially prestigious("would actually play the game and not just chuck it"). That narrows it down to almost any Codexians in this thread i guess (some decline enablers excluded of course).

 

[Viata]

But still have people who love calculations and mathematics. And subj was addressed to them.

Not at all. Grimoire is a lost in time game from the early 90s. In early 90s, there were no tooltips saying "increases agility by 3.24% for 37s", the manuals were vague, and optimization wikis written by WoW wankers from Leeroy Jenkins video did not exist. Early 90s approach to RPG mechanics was "I don't know what the fuck I just did, but wow, it was awesome".

When I created my first party, I put bard`s points in the music skill. Then I saw that the party members without this skill use musical instruments as well as he.

Invoking prime/alter musical instruments from inventory bar is an acknowledged exploit. Resist the temptation, could you?

When using instruments as equipped items as they are supposed, music skill very much matters, halcyon lyre damage proves that.

Also, in my case, my Cleric and Mage couldn't play Halcyon Lyre from inventory(or as a weapon), as it always failed(BUT, it always worked on water, because that would kill my character ), thus only Bard could play that. What Cleric and Mage could play was the sleeping and paralysis lyre. So it's not like every char can use musical instruments from inventory.

 

[Jugashvili]

Anyway, last one - humour in muh Grimoire?

The Vanguard as a whole was pretty brilliant and a spot-on satire of military life, you can really tell Cleve put a lot of himself into the game. And I definitely agree re: grimdark vs. whimsical, games these days try way too hard to be adult and edgy and it ultimately comes off as a 12-year old trying to act grown. Loving Grimoire so far, fortunately I'll be taking two weeks off now to really get into it

 

[Viata]

I can look past a lot of this stuff to be honest, but one thing that does get on my nerves a little is the way loot tables for chests seem to be designed. There's very little in the way of surprise, I think rather than 1X, 1Y, 1Z, etc. it'd be better if there was a bit more unpredictability to them. Finding a lyre, a wand, a book, a scroll, and a leather cap in half the chests (and rough equivalents in the other half) isn't exciting itemization for me. Better than some games, sure, but given the pool of items to draw from all it would take is a little flexibility and it'd already be much much better.

Opening chest was the thing I hate the most in this game.
Two reason:
1. It get boring after opening a couple of them. It's always the same kind of items. It was not worth the investment to get them. End game armor were useless, it gives you negative values, so even armor were getting useless. Even so, I had to open almost all of them because there was important item inside of it. That helped me hate it more.
2. If the item inside it are useless(most of the time), I had to LEAVE EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ITEM instead of "leave all". That was boring as hell. It was faster for me to save before opening a chest, open it, see that it's all useless thing, take all, quit to main menu and reload than select every item and leave it.

 

[cvv]

That's bad.

End game armor were useless, it gives you negative values

What does that mean?

 

[Irenaeus]

Anyway, last one - humour in muh Grimoire?

Loved this post. Thanks, Cleve.

 

[Viata]

I just assumed 99% of them were pirates. I know about the symbol. Can you fake that symbol?

I don't think that's possible. This one doesn't own the game and I bet what he is playing right now is a pirate copy.