KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Modron]

People are allowed to dislike the things you like.

 

[Turn_BASED]

People are allowed to dislike the things you like.

I’m sorry for being mean. It’s something I’m trying to work on. I love you.

 

[Desiderius]

People are allowed to dislike the things you like.

But they're not allowed to suck and blame Pierre for it.

Git gud.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

People are allowed to dislike the things you like.

Getting cancelled by French women is no joke men.

 

[Jermu]

10% Discount for few days

 

[NJClaw]

10% Discount for few days

WHAT?!

A 10% DISCOUNT?

CALL THE POLICE, PIERRE GOT HACKED!

But, well, this prompted me to check the game on Steam and:

Ah yes! The good old "I'm going to leave a negative review and then play the game for 100 more hours". My favorite

 

[JarlFrank]

Never trust reviews of people with fewer than 2000 games in their account.

 

[Tweed]

Less than 10 hours: You didn't play enough
More than 10 hours and 2 yoctoseconds: You secretly love it.

 

[Jermu]

Knights of the Chalice 2 Version 1.58

Thank you so much @Dorateen for updating the Hearkenwold adventure and for uploading a new video of Hearkenwold showcasing the new
special effects! Here is the video's link:



I'll post a new Kickstarter update soon.

 

[Modron]

Ah yes! The good old "I'm going to leave a negative review and then play the game for 100 more hours". My favorite

Nothing wrong with that, I completed things like NWN OC, Pillars of Eternity OC, Warcraft 3, The Saboteur, Just Cause 2, GTA V, Avadon 1 and would not recommend them.

 

[NJClaw]

Ah yes! The good old "I'm going to leave a negative review and then play the game for 100 more hours". My favorite

Nothing wrong with that, I completed things like NWN OC, Pillars of Eternity OC, Warcraft 3, The Saboteur, Just Cause 2, GTA V, Avadon 1 and would not recommend them.

And have you played them for 100 hours past the point you realized you didn't like them?

Nothing wrong with finishing a game and deciding it's not good enough, but playing 100 more hours after having decided you don't like it is just insane.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Ah yes! The good old "I'm going to leave a negative review and then play the game for 100 more hours". My favorite

Nothing wrong with that, I completed things like NWN OC, Pillars of Eternity OC, Warcraft 3, The Saboteur, Just Cause 2, GTA V, Avadon 1 and would not recommend them.

And have you played them for 100 hours past the point you realized you didn't like them?

Nothing wrong with finishing a game and deciding it's not good enough, but playing 100 more hours after having decided you don't like it is just insane.

This game is shit!

... life is pain.

Must play more to fill time until the inevitable end.

 

[Tweed]

The game is chef's kiss, everyone who's mad just couldn't git gud at Augury.

 

[Jermu]

Knights of the Chalice 2 Version 1.59

Hello everyone! I hope you're well. Version 1.59 of Knights of the Chalice 2 is here. It's a small bug-fixing update.

Please don't hesitate to email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com if you find any bugs and annoyances, so that I can fix the game quickly. A saved gamemay be very helpful, too. Thank you!!

I'll post a new Kickstarter update soon.

Thank You So Much, Honoured Knights of the Realm! Enjoy!!

List of changes in Knights of the Chalice 2 Version 1.59

• Fixed a problem with the animation of tiny crawling bugs. They would stop moving after a very short while. That bug was introduced in the February update, my apologies.
• Fixed a bug with the Reach Domain of the Cleric and Bishop not granting the +2 bonus on the attack roll for the spell Magic Stone. Thank you very much Quincy for letting me know about this!
• Fixed a bug with the Rogue's version of the spells Shocking Grasp and Greater Shocking Grasp not granting the +4 attack roll bonus when the target wears metal armour.
• Fixed a bug with the Druid's version of the spell Ice Lance not granting its +4 attack roll bonus.
• Fixed a slowdown when opening and closing the Script Editor from the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen. When closing the Script Editor, processing will now take place only if you've actually saved a script.

Tried to do ironman again but got softlocked in prologue guess I send an email and wait few more months

 

[Infinitron]

Non-Vogel world map design: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/3770416

Update #69: KotC 2 Version 1.59 Fixes Bugs + New Script Types + New World Map & Temple Maps!​

Hello everyone! I hope you're well. The latest version of KotC 2 is version 1.59. It can be downloaded here for both Windows and macOS. It can also be downloaded on Steam and GOG.

In the past month, I completed work on the new large-size World Map of Mindrel. The final image covers 15,000 x 15,000 pixels. That means I can use any rectangular section as a regional map. It took me a long time to finish the new world map, but I think that's fine because I'm planning to use it in all of the three upcoming adventure modules. The old world map can be found here.

This month, I also created two new isometric temple maps for the new module The Dark Arena. Please scroll down to see these images. You can also read about the deities here.

The new large-size World Map of Mindrel.

Alternative Display System for Very Large Maps​

Separately, in the last few days, I worked on an alternative system for drawing very large adventure maps. Instead of having a single png or jpg image for the backdrop, we have a folder containing many images of size 512 x 512 pixels. ImageMagick can be used to divide a large image into such squares.

Then the game loads and displays only those 512 x 512 squares that are contained within the player's main view at any time. As you move around, the game loads the required images in real time. That way, when starting a game, we don't have to load a huge file, which is slow. Also, we don't risk running out of memory due to the size of the image.

With the new system, for example, we could have a really huge cave system based on a single map. Such a map could be mostly black; the rest being long cave passages and a number of big cave rooms.

Temple of Tyr in Crossroad Castle. Work in progress.

Two New Script Types For Combat​

As well as fixing bugs, version 1.58 limits animated weather effects such as rain and snow to the map's boundaries. It also introduces two new script types: Wounded Script and Turn Script.

The Wounded Script is triggered in combat when a creature is wounded or damaged. You can set a creature's Wounded Script in the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen, within the Creature Editor. Examples of use of the Wounded Script:

1) The Wizard Zarx is essentially invulnerable until the player has done a specific thing such as destroy a mirror or a jar. After each hit, he recovers lost Hit Points and a Vrock is summoned (up to five).

2) The Necromancer Eldark has linked his body with that of a bunch of slaves using a sinister ritual. Each non-fatal hit on the Necromancer kills one of the slaves and heals the Necromancer (as with a casting of the spell Heal).

3) Garock the Barbarian will taunt the player the first time he receives a hit, shouting 'That's the best you can do?' or 'Oooh, a mosquito bite!'.

Next, the Turn Script is triggered in combat at the start of the turn of a creature. You can set a creature's Turn Script in the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen, within the Creature Editor. Example of use of the Turn Script:

At the start of her turn, the Cleric Llagotha will call upon Chaotic Evil deity Hexdra for assistance if her Hit Points have dropped below 55% of the maximum, or if half of her allies have been defeated. She won't be able to do it if she's sleeping, fascinated, stunned, dazed, affected by the spell Hideous Laughter, etc.

With the Turn Script, you don't need to check for these conditions within the script itself, as the Turn Script for a character will only be executed when that character can act normally. You do need to track whether the script was executed before if you don't want the script to be executed multiple times.

Preview image from the new large-size World Map of Mindrel.

Updated Hearkenwold Adventure & New Videos​

Thank you so much Dorateen for updating Hearkenwold and for uploading new videos! Kudos!!

Click here for the new Hearkenwold video showing the new rain and water animations and click here for the new video showing the Throw Creature combat manoeuvre.

List of changes in KotC 2 Version 1.59​

• Fixed a problem with the animation of tiny crawling bugs. They would stop moving after a very short while. That bug was introduced in the February update; my apologies.
• Fixed a bug with the Reach Domain of the Cleric and Bishop not granting the +2 bonus on the attack roll for the spell Magic Stone. Thank you very much Quincy for letting me know about this!
• Fixed a bug with the Rogue's version of the spells Shocking Grasp and Greater Shocking Grasp not granting the +4 attack roll bonus when the target wears metal armour.
• Fixed a bug with the Druid's version of the spell Ice Lance not granting its +4 attack roll bonus.
• Fixed a slowdown when opening and closing the Script Editor from the Intelligence tab of the Creature Properties screen. When closing the Script Editor, processing will now take place only if you've actually saved a script.

Temple of Palanthias in Crossroad Castle. Work in progress.

List of changes in KotC 2 Version 1.58​

• Added the following options in the Game Options screen, under Display: limit weather effects to map boundaries, allow map colour changes due to rain, allow rain special effects, allow snow special effects, allow falling-leaves special effects, allow will-of-the-wisp (glows) special effects, allow fog special effects. Also updated the in-game help entry for game options.
• Fixed a source of crashes when moving the party with the numeric keypad and the destination square exceeds the map's boundaries.
• Fixed a bug with the recording of game time. This would result in the display of an incorrect game time when loading a saved game. See the previous update for details.
• Fixed bugs with the weather effects when the frequency is set as 'always' for any of them.
• The combat-action tooltip for the Elephant Spirit Animal Sonic Breath Weapon will now indicate that it is indeed the Elephant Spirit Animal, and not another type of breath weapon.
• Added the code required for the execution of scripts that are triggered in combat when a creature is wounded or damaged. See above for details.
• Added the code required for the execution of scripts that are triggered in combat at the start of the turn of a creature. See above for details.

Preview image from the new large-size World Map of Mindrel.

Next Steps for Knights of the Chalice 2​

Nearly unchanged from the previous update, the next development steps are the following:

• Work on the three upcoming adventure modules. Create new adventure maps & regional maps.
• Hire a graphic designer to create new sprites, new maps and other types of artwork.
• Fix any remaining issues mentioned on the Steam Forum, GOG Forum, website Forums, and by email.
• Implement new features such as new monster abilities, subraces, familiars, items and the fog effect.

As always, if you find bugs or if you have any feedback, thoughts and suggestions, please feel free to let me know here, or in the Forums, or by email at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com.

Thank You So Much For Your Support, Great Wizards and Mighty Knights of the Realm! Enjoy!!

 

[Dorateen]

Red Plume Mountain. That's brilliant.

The change in the 1.58 update allowing weather affects to be constrained to the map size is a welcome addition. Builders can create areas of any dimension, and not all will be isometric designs that take up the entire screen. Also good to see him taking into account how to handle large scale maps.

 

[Covenant]

Finally went back to this and beat the main campaign for the first time (Enchanter mode). My party was:

Cloudtop Half-Giant Fighter (tripping, skewer/barbed weapon - MVP, insane crits)
Frostbrother Salamander Deathknight (feint, pretty useless due to lack of Wade In)
Scaly Kobold Monk (started weak, but got pretty decent in the second half as a dodge tank that could dash to the back line and stun priority targets)
Stillfinger Halfling Bard (mixed bag, Aria of Chaos is clutch and a decent dispelling bow made for a useful support)
Arborial Centaur Druid (weak and boring, became fun right at the end when I got Nymph's Beauty and had the opportunity to use it in ~3 combats)
Half-elf Warlock (very powerful, lots of options for any situation)
Asharzaelle (limited use offensively due to lack of Wade In, but having someone else who could spam mass heal scrolls and tank a little was pretty nice)
Pizarra (same as my own Warlock)

It was a lot of fun, but it started to dip toward the end. D&D 3.5E has always been a bit weak at the highest levels and this is no exception; in a way that's not entirely dissimilar to Pools of Darkness or similar games, it ends up devolving into 'Hope your mages get the highest initiative so they can blast the enemy before they blast you'. The variety of useful spells also went down toward the climax - I don't remember my druid getting anything interesting between Sirocco at spell level 6 and Nymph's Beauty at spell level 9. The druid was pretty lame overall actually; the main thing they seemed to bring to the party was getting animals to help on a couple of tough combats, like the Pizarra one.

There was a massive over-reliance on enemy's teleporting in out of nowhere and completely changing the character of the fight Doom 3 style, basically encouraging savescumming (the Death's Snares make this pretty explicit), which isn't a style I tend to enjoy in RPGs. The unpredictable availability of campfires also contributes toward this. It's probably one of those games where the balance is better on your second playthrough, because you know what to expect.

That said, it's definitely worth a playthrough. The combat rules are solid, and there's a good amount of tactical depth in your various options. The different environmental skills your characters bring to the mix are cool as well; the last battle might have been a lot harder if my ice salamander hadn't gotten me a surprise round.

In a little while I'll start up a fresh party on Archmage mode with all new classes (except I'll recreate my tripping Half-Giant Fighter because that shit was insanely strong).

 

[rojay]

I don't remember my druid getting anything interesting between Sirocco at spell level 6 and Nymph's Beauty at spell level 9. The druid was pretty lame overall actually; the main thing they seemed to bring to the party was getting animals to help on a couple of tough combats, like the Pizarra one.

Did you try earthquake?

 

[Covenant]

I don't remember my druid getting anything interesting between Sirocco at spell level 6 and Nymph's Beauty at spell level 9. The druid was pretty lame overall actually; the main thing they seemed to bring to the party was getting animals to help on a couple of tough combats, like the Pizarra one.

Did you try earthquake?

Once or twice, but I didn't see the point of it other than the radius being 50' rather than 40' (actually a negative, because it makes me more likely to hit my own guys - 40' is perfectly sufficient for pretty much any fight, the possible exception being the Pizarra fight and you won't have either spell by then anyway, though it is a great time to use your Acorns of Earthquake), and that the damage is 8d8 rather than 15d4. You'd be far better off just empowering your Sirocco, if you use metamagic.

 

[Butter]

Hi everyone! I hope you're well. Version 1.60 of Knights of the Chalice 2 has landed. It's a small update.

Please don't hesitate to email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com if you find any bugs and annoyances, so that I can fix the game quickly. A saved game may be very helpful, too. Thank you!!

Recently, I purchased the epic music collection Humble Bundle from composer Joel Steudler. It's still available at https://www.humblebundle.com/software/epic-royaltyfree-music-collection-software . I'm planning to use some of that music in the upcoming adventure modules.

Also, I've had a chance to make use of and participate in the Stable Horde project. It's a network of volunteers who combine their computing power to generate AI images. There's a web user interface at https://aqualxx.github.io/stable-ui . I was able to create some nice images as well as create a Stable Horde worker.

The interesting thing is that I could produce some images of size 1,920 x 1,920 pixels, which is really big for current AI image generation. It does cost a lot of Kudos to do so. Kudos is the virtual currency you earn by running a Stable Horde worker on your computer, or by rating a bunch of AI-generated images through the web user interface.

Smaller images (e.g. 704 x 704 pixels) can be made for free.

Kudos can be transferred to other users from here: https://stablehorde.net/transfer or through the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/3DxrhksKzn . If you'd like to contribute some Kudos for me to use in dungeon map creation, feel free to send them to my user ID: StableDragon#18923 . Thank you!!

KotC 2 version 1.60 includes the alternative system for displaying huge adventure maps. That new system was presented in the latest Kickstarter Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1848628223/knights-of-the-chalice-2-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/3770416

Here is how the new system works. Say you have a JPG or PNG background image of size 13,000 x 10,000 pixels. First, you need to create a small-size preview version of that image. The preview image could be of size 2,000 x 1,538. It should be named like this: MapName_13000_10000_Preview.jpg. That means you have to append the width and height of the original map and the word 'Preview'. Place the preview image in the MapBackdrops folder of your module.

Next, within that same folder create a new folder called MapName_13000_10000. Inside that folder place the 512 x 512 images that constitute the original image. These images should be named like this: Base_y_x.jpg, x and y being the coordinates of each chunk inside the original image, starting from zero. You can also have an overlay image. Simply place in the same folder the 512 x 512 images that constitute the overlay image. These images should be named like this: Overlay_y_x.png.

Finally, in the Map Data screen of the Module Editor, you can set the preview image as the map's background. The game will then see that it's an image made up of a number of tiles.

To create the tiles, you can use Image Magick: https://imagemagick.org/index.php . I've used the following Image Magick commands.

For the base image: magick convert base.png -crop 512x512 -set filename:tile "%[fx:page.y/512]_%[fx:page.x/512]" +repage +adjoin -quality 90 "Base_%[filename:tile].jpg"
For the overlay image: magick convert overlay.png -crop 512x512 -set filename:tile "%[fx:page.y/512]_%[fx:page.x/512]" +repage +adjoin "Overlay_%[filename:tile].png"

Thank You So Much, Fearless Warriors and Wise Mages of the Realm! Rejoice!


List of changes in Knights of the Chalice 2 Version 1.60

• In the macOS version only, fixed a source of crashes when selecting psionic powers. My sincere apologies for that bug!
• Fixed several display problems in the Local Map screen.
• Fixed a problem with special effects like Rain and Snowgetting reset after talking with NPCs (at the end of a script's execution, actually).
• Fixed an issue with double clickingduring character creation. When double-clicking on a spell icon to select it, the double click for the last spell could result in the unwanted opening of the help entry for spells.
• Added a note in the help entries for Weapon Group Proficiency Reach Weapons and Natural Reach to clarify that the benefit of Reach does not apply to
  Touch Attacks. The Flux domain power and the specialisation feats of attuned Wizards and Sorcerers can transform certain touch spells into close-range spells. It may be a problem if you could get a better range for touch-range spells just by wielding a reach weapon. It would also be a problem for the AI.
• In the Module Editor, pressing the Left Alt key will now hide the backdrop imageso that it's easier to see if there are any special tiles, or overlay graphics, at any particular place on the map.
• In the Module Editor, fixed an issue with the display of long file pathsin selection boxes.
• In the Module Editor, fixed an issue with memory managementwhen closing a map.
• Added some code to clear previous imageswhen loading a map image fails due to low memory.
• Implemented the alternative system for displaying huge adventure maps.

 

[Covenant]

Honestly, on replaying it, I was hoping that my improved knowledge of the system and which classes are good and which are bad would make for a better experience, but I'm actually finding that the particularly bullshit elements are more apparent on Archmage. Darth Roxor's review summed up the issues well; the encounter design is just masochistic. It gives the impression that Piere is the kind of guy who treats encounters like a puzzle, where you try them over and over again until a combination of the stars aligning and the knowing the encounter inside and out leads you to victory.

If that's the aim, it succeeds admirably, but my preference is games where the expectation is that no one encounter is likely to be an insurmountable obstacle, but that a poor player will get crushed over time by the compounding weight of his own mistakes, whereas a good player can excel in parts and use the advantage gained there to help with rough parts later on. E.g. A long dive in one of the Wizardry games, or conserving your potions and scrolls in a roguelike.

Still, I'm interested to see what modules others may make for this; there's definitely room to produce some very good stuff if someone were to take a different approach to encounter design.

 

[Ryzer]

Never trust reviews of people with fewer than 2000 games in their account.

Also on your review:

JarlFrank 26 Mar, 2022 @ 2:01pm

I stand by my statement. I played through the game several times in the pre-Steam backer version and it's the best tactical RPG ever made. I can see why some people might not like the encounter design, but systemically it's absolutely solid. And since the game has a level editor, that means we're likely to get some high quality fan-made content too

bonesrob13 27 May, 2022 @ 10:49pm

apparently this person hardly plays anything. I mean have you not heard of Divinity Original Sin 2 or KOTOR 2?

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah it's hilarious.

I have over 3000 games on my Steam account, you can see this by simply clicking on my profile.
In my review, I make comparisons to ToEE and the Gold Box games.

Yet retarded zoomers pop in, claim I "hardly play any games" and say D:OS2 is a better tactical RPG... or fucking KotoR2 which isn't even the same fucking subgenre. Even KotoR2's fans say the combat and encounter design is its worst part!

 

[Desiderius]

Honestly, on replaying it, I was hoping that my improved knowledge of the system and which classes are good and which are bad would make for a better experience, but I'm actually finding that the particularly bullshit elements are more apparent on Archmage. Darth Roxor's review summed up the issues well; the encounter design is just masochistic. It gives the impression that Piere is the kind of guy who treats encounters like a puzzle, where you try them over and over again until a combination of the stars aligning and the knowing the encounter inside and out leads you to victory.

If that's the aim, it succeeds admirably, but my preference is games where the expectation is that no one encounter is likely to be an insurmountable obstacle, but that a poor player will get crushed over time by the compounding weight of his own mistakes, whereas a good player can excel in parts and use the advantage gained there to help with rough parts later on. E.g. A long dive in one of the Wizardry games, or conserving your potions and scrolls in a roguelike.

Still, I'm interested to see what modules others may make for this; there's definitely room to produce some very good stuff if someone were to take a different approach to encounter design.

There are no bad classes, this is a different kind of game. If you play it from that perspective instead of trying to find the one weird uber trick that pwns everything it will feel a lot less masochistic.

For one thing, don't conserve your potions and scrolls. It's designed to punish that.

 

[Jermu]

somewhat agree with there are no bad classes (especially now when some classes have been buffed) but there are classes that are better than some

can easily be tested do archmage run without psionicist and wizard and see if its more difficult (ironman run for extra points, with unlimited loading there are not too many comps which makes game impossible)