KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[mediocrepoet]

skald against the black priory is 13 dollars

Skald and KotC 2 are so different they're almost not even in the same genre. It's a weird comparison tbh if you know anything about either game.

 

[warcrimes666]

almondblight Agreed, I thought of this a while back but didnt want to get all up in the mix with it really and I felt bad because Dorateen deserves something for hearkenwold as well. I collect assets and tinker with it here and there but I have no time and realistically im between 1 and 20 years from a complete original module (A Black Rose Blooms...some day...) and it's really crying out for some old tsr stuff to play through.

So I'd like to do this and I don't know how to go about it but I want to give Dorateen 100us for his tireless work on Hearkenwold and I'd like to put up at least another 200us towards a module competition as you describe. maybe Infinitron could look at this or whoever could feasibly apportion the monies to community vote. Would be awesome to get the ship of horror or something like that in play.

For those who may be interested regardless, here are all modules for every edition:

Spoiler

https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons & Dragons/

 

[MjKorz]

skald against the black priory is 13 dollars

Skald should be compared to KotC1, not 2. KotC2 combat is far more complex.

 

[KainenMorden]

skald against the black priory is 13 dollars

Skald and KotC 2 are so different they're almost not even in the same genre. It's a weird comparison tbh if you know anything about either game.

Don't know much about it but I know it's not self published. Also read the combat kind of sucks. Not sure how big the dev team is, I assume a small number of ppl maybe it's 1 guy?

 

[Mortmal]

tbh I can't blame it on him, it seems to be an entirely French thing. They're always doing weird shit like calculating if they'll save 2 cents more by working from home vs driving to the office and using the company's electricity and then blow their entire salary eating every meal in McDonald's.

It's not a French thing, it's just him. My guess is that he didn't simply replace the abominable tokens with better ones because he didn't want to bruise a friend's ego. So instead, he switched to 3D. But what’s really infuriating is that some of us paid for three adventure packs, and he’s wasting time fooling around with experiments , remaking the base game while we’ve paid and received nothing. So I’m about to say, if you can't afford it, just feel free to pirate it. I've already paid far more than the price of one copy, and I'm not getting the product delivered.

Several of us had, but Pierre is and always has been both eccentric and autistic, and you'd have to be in another world not to have noticed that before pledging.

He'll deliver on his own schedule. Being a bitch about it won't change anything. If you didn't realize that during the Kickstarter, well...

From the Kickstarter ,the three adventures set to be deleivered in May 2023, don't blame the customer—blame the crook. Given that the game seemed to be in a finished state, those expectations weren't outrageous. He had a functional toolset and could have used it to provide the adventures in due time. There are RPGs that were completed in less time, like Ultima Underworld II and the Gold Box games. Fooling around with the game in an alpha state by adding stuff that wasn't wanted or requested by anyone, instead of delivering what was promised, is unacceptable in any other business.
But why do I even bother when the recent peak player count is only 2...

 

[mediocrepoet]

From the Kickstarter ,the three adventures set to be deleivered in May 2023, don't blame the customer—blame the crook. Given that the game seemed to be in a finished state, those expectations weren't outrageous. He had a functional toolset and could have used it to provide the adventures in due time. There are RPGs that were completed in less time, like Ultima Underworld II and the Gold Box games. Fooling around with the game in an alpha state by adding stuff that wasn't wanted or requested by anyone, instead of delivering what was promised, is unacceptable in any other business.
But why do I even bother when the recent peak player count is only 2...

Sure, but compared to other comparable Kickstarter projects like Arcadian Atlas and Copper Dreams, nevermind less comparable projects like Realms Beyond and Chaos Chronicles... I'll take KotC 2 any day. Just don't use Kickstarter or purchase early access, etc. if you're not comfortable possibly watching things being late, not being delivered at all, or being delivered in such a state that you wish that you'd just set your money on fire instead of giving it to a half wit.

 

[MjKorz]

The one thing I never understood about KotC2 is why did the developer ditch the charming graphics of KotC1? Did he ever explain the reason behind the graphical changes?

 

[mediocrepoet]

The one thing I never understood about KotC2 is why did the developer ditch the charming graphics of KotC1? Did he ever explain the reason behind the graphical changes?

He had... I don't recall the specifics though. I think it was at first wanting things to be like a tabletop game, then when he got shit on for that, he started bringing in those abominable 3D things which... oof. As I recall, there was also something about the number of sprites and animations required or something. Someone else may remember better.

 

[KainenMorden]

tbh I can't blame it on him, it seems to be an entirely French thing. They're always doing weird shit like calculating if they'll save 2 cents more by working from home vs driving to the office and using the company's electricity and then blow their entire salary eating every meal in McDonald's.

It's not a French thing, it's just him. My guess is that he didn't simply replace the abominable tokens with better ones because he didn't want to bruise a friend's ego. So instead, he switched to 3D. But what’s really infuriating is that some of us paid for three adventure packs, and he’s wasting time fooling around with experiments , remaking the base game while we’ve paid and received nothing. So I’m about to say, if you can't afford it, just feel free to pirate it. I've already paid far more than the price of one copy, and I'm not getting the product delivered.

Several of us had, but Pierre is and always has been both eccentric and autistic, and you'd have to be in another world not to have noticed that before pledging.

He'll deliver on his own schedule. Being a bitch about it won't change anything. If you didn't realize that during the Kickstarter, well...

From the Kickstarter ,the three adventures set to be deleivered in May 2023, don't blame the customer—blame the crook. Given that the game seemed to be in a finished state, those expectations weren't outrageous. He had a functional toolset and could have used it to provide the adventures in due time. There are RPGs that were completed in less time, like Ultima Underworld II and the Gold Box games. Fooling around with the game in an alpha state by adding stuff that wasn't wanted or requested by anyone, instead of delivering what was promised, is unacceptable in any other business.
But why do I even bother when the recent peak player count is only 2...

Did 1 guy in his spare time make those games? I'm not saying you're wrong to feel how you do but you can't hold Pierre to the same standards of a professional dev team from the 80s-90s.

Yeah the switch to 3d, I disagree with, maybe he thinks it will make the game more popular. He got really pissed when people said he made one of the worst RTS ever and didn't understand why they felt that way.

Yes, he's eccentric and im in no position to diagnose him but probably on some type of spectrum of autism. I don't think all creative people are that way but many are and it's something that I expect.

Probably my last comment for awhile on all this but what I found interesting was going on his forum and reading his reviews of games. I don't think he ever finished BG2 or IWD2, much less trying out the difficulty enhancing mods for them.

He played a lot of nwn2 and the nwn1 expansions and actually found them tough in certain places.

It's amazing that he created 2 of the toughest tactical crpgs ever.

I know that kotc1 seems simple compared to 2 but it's about on par for being as complex and difficult as any 3e crpg or mod for that type of game ever released before it. Maybe Pathfinder is more complex but with inferior encounter design and some players argue much of the complexity is just bloat.

 

[Damned Registrations]

How is the module creation tools for this? It occurs to me my preference for theory crafting characters, often gimmicky or imbalanced ones, would lend itself better to making bosses and such for a module than actually playing the game. Is it on par with something like an RTS scenario editor or a bigger pain in the ass?

 

[almondblight]

Player base is pretty small and the module creators aren't motivated by money. NWN has a large number of modules still being released with no financial incentive. It's not a bad idea but I don't think it would help much.

It wouldn't be about getting someone who isn't interested to suddenly create a module. It's more about getting the people with a half-finished module they've put aside for later to finally finish it up and put it out there, or for people who have just dabbled in the editor to release something. It's a public event for people to work on modules - think of it like a gamejam.

It would also be a chance to highlight modules to the player base (especially with the modules being voted on by the community). There are probably a lot of people out there who've never tried Hearkenwold, for instance, or even know it's out there.

 

[rojay]

This is the first I'm hearing we're not getting the next module free. That sucks and I hope he changes his mind.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

This is the first I'm hearing we're not getting the next module free. That sucks and I hope he changes his mind.

Dude was completely upfront about it though

 

[Gandalf]

As far as I understand there are at least 2 more unknown fan made modules being made by some other folks.

 

[Gandalf]

How is the module creation tools for this? It occurs to me my preference for theory crafting characters, often gimmicky or imbalanced ones, would lend itself better to making bosses and such for a module than actually playing the game. Is it on par with something like an RTS scenario editor or a bigger pain in the ass?

It's not hard to operate, I think, and it's powerful. Super powerful. Good stuff.

Downside is that the manual covers only a little glimpse of the thing, so there is much space for discovery, experminets and tinkering with the script editor. I did unknowingly collide with the hardcode by making my own spell or item the wrong way.

Some of the RTS scenario editors I saw have this tile based paint tool for creating backgrounds. This one works differently, there is a 64x64 pixels tile grid on which one can designate a tile types (grass, wall, water, etc.) with a tools (brush tool, rectangle tool, etc.), so the game will later ignite the right sound/script during the gameplay, but the in-game background itself must be an imported image (for example a 1920x1920 pxiels .png depicting a village from an isometric point of view).

As for boss making. Here's a little glimpse at the tool that is used for making creatures (click on the images to enlarge):

I hope that this post was informative.

 

[Turn_BASED]

The game is great mechanically but it's so fucking ugly it's unreal. KotC 1's pixel style looked one million times better, which is why Hearkenwold is the best way to play KotC 2. If you haven't played it already, absolutely give it a try.

 

[Snufkin]

The game is great mechanically but it's so fucking ugly it's unreal. KotC 1's pixel style looked one million times better, which is why Hearkenwold is the best way to play KotC 2. If you haven't played it already, absolutely give it a try.

Is there version that s compatible with latest KOTC2 1.74 ? Last avaible Hearkenworld is 1.73.

 

[Turn_BASED]

The game is great mechanically but it's so fucking ugly it's unreal. KotC 1's pixel style looked one million times better, which is why Hearkenwold is the best way to play KotC 2. If you haven't played it already, absolutely give it a try.

Is there version that s compatible with latest KOTC2 1.74 ? Last avaible Hearkenworld is 1.73.

I don't think so, I've just been playing on 1.73.

 

[Gandalf]

The game is great mechanically but it's so fucking ugly it's unreal. KotC 1's pixel style looked one million times better, which is why Hearkenwold is the best way to play KotC 2. If you haven't played it already, absolutely give it a try.

Is there version that s compatible with latest KOTC2 1.74 ? Last avaible Hearkenworld is 1.73.

I don't think so, I've just been playing on 1.73.

When in doubt, one can always play the Iceblink version which doesn't require KotC2.

 

[Dorateen]

As I've mentioned when Pierre first announced his 5-5-5 initiative for module creation, I have no commercial ambitions or ulterior motives with Hearkenwold. 1.73 is the current version available and it is compatible with KotC2 1.74. I will be releasing an update that continues the campaign later in September.

I do think the Editor is perfect for laying down maps with encounters in a straightforward dungeon crawl scenario. In this case, tokens still work best; they haven't been replaced by the 3D sprites, it is completely up to the builder and an option for the player. And designers looking for inspiration, I think the format lends itself nicely to conversions or adaptations of pen and paper modules. To follow up on what Gandalf posted above, it is very easy to import all the monsters from Augury of Chaos, complete with their abilities and AI scripting. These can further be modified to make unique or more suitable enemies for a module as needed. The same goes for weapons and equipment.

 

[Lukipaluki]

Howdy ya'll, looking forward to the new set of incoming modules?

ME, personally?

I am way more interested in the development of endless gimmick AI shit, a lot more bargain bin sprite replacements to come, coooool additions and alterations to the game that nobody who supported during crowdfunding or paid for a copy of their own gives a flying dingleberry about, and a steadily declining interest in the module creation scene due to lack of concise, in-depth, accurate documentation for module development, along with the total missed opportunity for potentially having the greatest prospective open source computer-game framework since fucking FRUA, for classic grid-based dungeon crawling tactical role-playing action up-the-ass Grognardfuckingness post-ToEE!1!! *breathes* phewwww...

When The Dark Arena is finally released -- I like you -- am also excited to wait another 4-5 years for the next Pierre tm module; ...that is, before a consistent lack of freshly oxygenated blood flow to the brain from an all-turmeric root diet suffocates whats left of his common sense and critical thinking abilities. arghhh!!!

Spoiler

ily pierre, plz doint be too upset!

 

[Gandalf]

Truth to be told KotC 2 doesn't need more modules than Hearkenwold.

 

[AdolfSatan]

What about yours? I've been wanting to play it but have been mostly stopped because you uploaded it to nexus and I refuse to create an account to download a fucking file. Is it hosted somewhere less gay?

 

[Dorateen]

What about yours? I've been wanting to play it but have been mostly stopped because you uploaded it to nexus and I refuse to create an account to download a fucking file. Is it hosted somewhere less gay?

The older version was hosted at this link:

https://gandalfsencounters.itch.io/gandalfsencounters

I'm not sure if the most recent version on the nexus page is there.

 

[Gandalf]

What about yours? I've been wanting to play it but have been mostly stopped because you uploaded it to nexus and I refuse to create an account to download a fucking file. Is it hosted somewhere less gay?

Do you think it was my idea to upload it on a nexus? All of the current KotC2 mods and modules are hosted there.

What about yours? I've been wanting to play it but have been mostly stopped because you uploaded it to nexus and I refuse to create an account to download a fucking file. Is it hosted somewhere less gay?

The older version was hosted at this link:

https://gandalfsencounters.itch.io/gandalfsencounters

I'm not sure if the most recent version on the nexus page is there.

Nexus is the way to go.
Itch.io is just a beta with less conent.