Incline Knights of the Chalice 2 - Editor & Module Creation

[Darth Canoli]

Dorateen
Is there a way to resurrect party members early on?
I can't access the monastery in the western city and it doesn't look like anyone is a healer around here, not even the druid...

Should I use my mystic wand of reload?

 

[Dorateen]

Dorateen
Is there a way to resurrect party members early on?
I can't access the monastery in the western city and it doesn't look like anyone is a healer around here, not even the druid...

Should I use my mystic wand of reload?

Yes, without a cleric or bishop in the party, resurrection does not become available until later. Would be best to reload if any characters die.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Started it today and I already sunk 3 hours into this, I'm having lots of fun. Shouldn't there be an official thread on the GRPG forum for the module now that it's officially released? This deserves more attention.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It's really good, the small maps feel a bit weird in this engine at first but you get used to it and the "battle maps" work quite well.

KotC 2 engine adresses most if not all iceblink shortcomings.
Combat here is tough but you rarely feel like it's unfair.

Spoiler

Except maybe against the cockatrices, 8x huge cone petrify attack, ouch, it hurts.

I find it way better to have some infinite resting spots along with tough battles, so you can take on tougher enemies and barely win by throwing everything you have at them.
It's extremely satisfying.

By the way, your CR ratings feels weird, i didn't check but CR1 for a lvl 5 cokatrice while a level 3 half-giant gladiator is CR2?
How did you manage the encounter balance?
I find it really good, just enough on the hard side.

Asking for "a friend" working on a vaporwave module.

 

[Dorateen]

By the way, your CR ratings feels weird, i didn't check but CR1 for a lvl 5 cokatrice while a level 3 half-giant gladiator is CR2?
How did you manage the encounter balance?
I find it really good, just enough on the hard side.

Asking for "a friend" working on a vaporwave module.

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the encounter you mentioned, I appreciate hard counters, and there might be a couple of items you can find that will make fighting those enemies more manageable.

I wouldn't analyze the CR ratings too closely. The XP gains are on a different scale in Hearkenwold than Augury of Chaos, and it seemed the way to adjust this was by tuning the CR of monsters way down. (I believe there is a multiplication factor in the formula.) I ended up using a homebrew system that was basically creatures with up to 50 hp have a .5 CR, and creatures with 100 hp have a CR of 1. The biggest and hardest tier enemies will have a CR of 2. I know that doesn't make sense, but the challenge rating totals of an encounter actually correlate pretty well with the expected levels of a party. Anyway, it was the XP awards that are most important to get the pacing where I wanted it to be.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I hear you and i like the slow pacing too, i thought about doing the same thing by cutting XP gain down to 50 or even 25%.
I also like your gold rewards and prices much better, carrying millions of gold pieces feels quite weird, prices and gold rewards feels more natural even though in reality, one gold coin would buy you a month stay in a tavern or so but then you have to deal with silver and copper coins.

Edit: And also the limited merchandise in early stores and limited loot, getting a good sword on the corpse of a tough enemy is also way more satisfying.

 

[Darth Canoli]

There is a lot of epic fights in Hearkenwold, the dirges was probably the most difficult one with a level 2 or 3 party but it was just the beginning.
I also love/hate the debuffs i can't get rid of because no temple is available, well, there is one but i have to pay just to get access to it and i don't even know which services it provides, i should probably get there since my half-giant gladiator was permanently blinded by some witches and also got poisoned by a wyvern a while back and got a permanent -2 or -3 constitution debuff.

Either the psionicist or the druid will get relevant level 3 spells soon, i hope, the blinding condition is really crippling but luckily, the tri-kreen mantis rogue stepped up and can now deliver some 4x backstab on stunned targets.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Is the UI moddable in-engine? I'd like to give it a go at some point.

 

[Darth Canoli]

What part of the UI would you mod?
You should probably email Pierre to ask him about it.

 

[AdolfSatan]

What part of the UI would you mod?

All of it eventually, I'd hack at it slowly in my free time. Will try emailing him tonight then, thanks.

 

[Dorateen]

I also love/hate the debuffs i can't get rid of because no temple is available.

I don't know if it is too soon for spoilers, but if you want to know a round-about way to get temple healing, send me a message. It's a multi-step process, I can give you vague clues or a direct answer.

 

[Fluent]

hey guys, I have a question about Hearkenwold. How many hours of playtime does it offer? I'm *almost* excited enough to buy the game directly from Pierre, but I'm wondering if I should just wait for a proper Steam release that will auto-update as Pierre updates the game. But yeah, how many hours can one expect if they play methodically? Thanks! <3

 

[ERYFKRAD]

How many hours of playtime does it offer?

12 per class. I leave the calculations to you.

 

[Pink Eye]

What part of the UI would you mod?

All of it eventually, I'd hack at it slowly in my free time. Will try emailing him tonight then, thanks.

This looks interesting. What did you dislike about the UI, if you don't mind telling me. I thought the hotkeys were more than sufficient.

 

[Darth Canoli]

hey guys, I have a question about Hearkenwold. How many hours of playtime does it offer? I'm *almost* excited enough to buy the game directly from Pierre, but I'm wondering if I should just wait for a proper Steam release that will auto-update as Pierre updates the game. But yeah, how many hours can one expect if they play methodically? Thanks! <3

It's all worth it, I'm around 10 hours in and it doesn't even seem like i'm halfway through with all the content i didn't or couldn't dive into just yet.

I don't know if it is too soon for spoilers, but if you want to know a round-about way to get temple healing, send me a message. It's a multi-step process, I can give you vague clues or a direct answer.

It's not game breaking just yet, i think i'll manage, i killed the witches with the gladiator blinded from the beginning of the fight

Spoiler

(it was quite tough, 3x silence did the trick along with some summons, stun and stomp)

and then the dark elves, my party is now close to level 5, i'll probably make it or find back that temple, i'm not sure where it was anymore with all the carriages transporting me to new cities i can't even place on the world map.

 

[Dorateen]

with all the carriages transporting me to new cities i can't even place on the world map.

I posted this in the IceBlink thread a while ago. It's not pretty or stylized, but an early map (very early, like 1995) of the gameworld Hearkenwold is set in, which might help orientating how cities relate to each other.

Spoiler

 

[Darth Canoli]

I posted this in the IceBlink thread a while ago. It's not pretty or stylized, but an early map (very early, like 1995) of the gameworld Hearkenwold is set in, which might help orientating how cities relate to each other.

Spoiler

Nice map.
It's not a real complaint actually, i kind of like getting lost because i was transported to a new city, it certainly beats walking for an hour in an empty wilderness doing nothing but looking at trees and butterflies.

Now i get the FRUA feel, all these houses in both cities, it really feels like goldbox design.
That's the part that works the least with KotC 2 engine, opening unlocked doors then having to move because your characters are walking on the house and then interact with the locals.

Still, besides this minor inconvenience, your module is very good.

It's also the best fan made module for KotC 2 so far.
Out of two ... Still, I hope i'm so very wrong but i don't think Hearkenwold is going to lose the top spot anytime soon.

Spoiler

Maybe even the best module out of the three available so far, i can't tell just yet because i didn't complete Augury nor Hearkenwold.

 

[Fluent]

12 per class. I leave the calculations to you.

thanks! that is quite chunky indeed.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Found a cure blindness potion just before hitting level 5 and then the psionicist got purification.

I still had to reload a fight i had won because a fucking ninja blinded the half-giant gladiator again, they really enjoy blinding him.
There is some nice dungeons and it feels like the module could take 30-50 hours to complete but i'm not there yet.

The internal clock is all fucked up by ultra fast combat and double walking speed so i try to keep track of my playing sessions.

 

[Dorateen]

I still had to reload a fight i had won because a fucking ninja blinded the half-giant gladiator again

Don't gladiators get a blinding strike ability? There is a certain irony to your half-giant always getting blinded.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Don't gladiators get a blinding strike ability? There is a certain irony to your half-giant always getting blinded.

Yeah, one would say it's poetic justice but i don't even use it that much with my gladiator, only when i need a bit more accuracy or there's an annoying enemy with a substantial HP pool.
Still, i believe he resisted a blinding spell for the first time, it felt good even if i grabbed dispel.

By the way, i've read everyone and their mothers hate KotC 2 rogues, they're probably not that good for Augury's chapter 4 but for a low-mid level module, i wouldn't trade my mantis rogue for a fighter.
Even though he sometimes only does 4x1 damage on some enemies. His Backstab chain more than makes up for it.

The bard is also very good for that level range and he can use 3 songs a turn, two offensive ones and a buff, it's just insane.

To anyone starting to play, just pick 1H swords or 2H swords, there's other weapons but 80% of the good weapons at least are swords and most of them 1H.

Spoiler

There's a good reach 2H sword though.

 

[Dorateen]

Amazingly, one week after posting the module, I have not received any bug reports. However I did find one post release. It is a higher level encounter that is part of the fighter's guild adventure, a script wasn't working as intended. I have fixed and updated the file on the Nexus page to version 1.13.1

Anyone who has already downloaded Hearkenwold, I would not go to the trouble of downloading again until you are ready to start on this area. Nothing else has changed.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Amazingly, one week after posting the module, I have not received any bug reports.

Consider pinging Saint_Proverbius for a newspost (a fully-featured campaign made by a Codexer in the KotC 2 engine is a pretty big deal). Or at least make a new thread about the release in addition to posting about it here. Or at least bump the old thread.

I swear, the PR skills around these parts are the worst I've ever seen.

 

[Dorateen]

Amazingly, one week after posting the module, I have not received any bug reports.

Consider pinging Saint_Proverbius for a newspost (a fully-featured campaign made by a Codexer in the KotC 2 engine is a pretty big deal). Or at least make a new thread about the release instead of (or in addition to) posting about it here. Or at least bump the old thread.

I swear, the PR skills around these parts are the worst I've ever seen.

I think the problem is, most people still don't own Knights of the Chalice 2 yet. It looks like a module released for a game that isn't available to purchase (outside of emailing Pierre).

 

[Darth Canoli]

Amazingly, one week after posting the module, I have not received any bug reports. However I did find one post release. It is a higher level encounter that is part of the fighter's guild adventure, a script wasn't working as intended. I have fixed and updated the file on the Nexus page to version 1.13.1

Anyone who has already downloaded Hearkenwold, I would not go to the trouble of downloading again until you are ready to start on this area. Nothing else has changed.

Well, the last encounter from the Dwarf mines is kind of buggy, if you kill the demon before his goons, the combat ends brutally, no xp/loot report, then i took the portal and got teleported to the king's hall (couldn't get back some items i stored in the mine because you're locked out at the end of the quest).

After this, i fought a dragon and the remaining enemies from the previous fight were still there in the initiative queue.
They disappear if you rest.

After this, i encountered a couple of CTD while i didn't get any before.
- genie cave upon exit (3 option to free him without a reward) reloaded, no CTD
- trying to dispel petrification with the psionicist dispel/single effect
- selling stuff in the first city.

It all started after the battle from the Dwarf mines spider demon.

Spoiler

I almost beat the cockatrices without any petrification twice, i guess i should remove reach weapons to avoid the Gladiator to wake them up with greater cleave.
Deep slumber on 5 of them, quicksand on the last 3, then i should mass quicksand the others and take them one by one but i didn't have the patience.
If one wakes up, it's quite rare to have everyone succeeds the reflex saving throw.