KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[MerchantKing]

Speaking of race relations, in Hearkenwold the party can run into a band of gnomes and a kobold character will call out their corruption.

Spoiler

Delete this from your game.

Some gnomes are more equal than other gnomes.

I feel we're due for another evil gnome conspiracy, a la Arcanum.

Cool it with the antinanatic remarks. There is no Gnome conspiracy.

yeah, gnomes are too dumb for it.

Cool it with the antinanatic remarks.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Oh dear, the second module I'm currently working on in my spare time has two kobolds and zero gnomes in it. Should I balance things up?!

You could have the kobolds discuss how their empire is built on the bones of the exterminated gnome race.

Both of them are merchants, so that already fit this picture very well, I think. What does not fit is they stand in different places, so they can't really talk with each other face to face. I could try to add telepathy dialogue

You could make it one of those flavor texts where if you have a psionicist in the party, you can pick up the telepathic conversation, and if not, just go on ignorant on the whole matter.

 

[Serus]

Oh dear, the second module I'm currently working on in my spare time has two kobolds and zero gnomes in it. Should I balance things up?!

You could have the kobolds discuss how their empire is built on the bones of the exterminated gnome race.

You mean bones of the 6 gazillions?

 

[Reinhardt]

Oh dear, the second module I'm currently working on in my spare time has two kobolds and zero gnomes in it. Should I balance things up?!

You could have the kobolds discuss how their empire is built on the bones of the exterminated gnome race.

You mean bones of the 6 gazillions?

reminds me british lostbelt from fate grand order where version of britain is literally built from corpses of dead fairies. more wars between clans - more land - more fairies - more wars.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/4015685

Update #79: KotC 2 1.67 Fixes Bugs + Update On Music & The Upcoming Module!​

Hi everyone! In the past month, I focused on the new music tracks for the upcoming KotC 2 adventure modules. I also worked on some encounters of The Dark Arena and I looked into AI voice generation. In the last few days, I added support for polygonal activable zones in the Module Editor. I wasn't able to work on KotC 2 as much as I would have liked, but still, we're moving in the right direction.

I've finished working on the 42 new music tracks (see below the track names) based on music from three different music packs. That took a while as most of them needed some edits and all of them needed to have their volume adjusted to the same level as that of existing music tracks. Anyway, I'm happy with the result; there's a lot of excellent music in there.

I've looked into voice production using the Tortoise text-to-speech AI and I've got it working. I haven't made voice-over files yet, but I've found that the quality is pretty good. So, I'm planning to create a few voices and use them for voice-over in some parts of the new module.

I recently implemented polygonal activable zones (see the image below) that can be placed anywhere using the Module Editor. This is mostly useful with isometric maps, where corridors, walls, and objects often have the shape of a parallelogram rather than that of a rectangle.

That new feature will be available in the editor once I release version 1.68. Currently, it works like this: you place an activable zone as normal, then mouse over a point inside the rectangle and press Q to add a polygon point. Pressing Left Shift+Q removes the last point. Once you've placed three points, you can press Return to have the editor complete a parallelogram by placing the fourth point automatically.

Also, I recently added a few new features for text boxes in the Module Editor. Pressing Left Control + Backspace will erase the previous word. This is useful when you have a lot of text to remove and using Backspace alone would take a while. In addition, pressing Left Control + the left or right arrow key will move the cursor to the previous word, or to the next word. These features will be available in version 1.68.

List of changes in KotC 2 version 1.67​

• Added a speed optimisation in the script command used to show or hide a creature. Hopefully, this won't have any unexpected effects with character movement during combat. If you find any, please email me about it.
• Fixed a source of crashes introduced in version 1.66 when loading a map that hasn't got any activable zone in it. This would also generate a crash when using the spell-animation previewer in the Module Editor because the previewer uses a very simple map.
• Activable zones can now use jpg images (not just PNG images).
• The script command that sets the altitude of a square can now set negative altitudes.
• The script command 'Expend spell slots' now allows negative values, allowing you to have a character regain spell slots of a given spell level (up to the character's maximum number of spell slots of that level). Likewise, the script command 'Expend power points' now allows negative values, allowing you to have a character regain power points.

• Fixed a display bug with the environmental fog not appearing progressively after loading.
• Fixed the position of prone sprites for humanoid creatures that do not use the modular sprite model.
• Added a new spell sound (Magic holy bells.wav), a new item image (reishi-mushrooms.png), a new spell that can't be learnt (Second Chance), and in the file 'Data/BaseItems.iml' a new item (Reishi) associated with the new spell.

Next Steps for Knights of the Chalice 2​

The next development steps are the following:

• Continue work on the encounters, monsters and scenario of the upcoming KotC 2 module.
• Work on the conversion of 3D models into isometric sprites, and on modular sprites for Dwarves. Also look into story images and a possible upgrade of spell icons.
• Work on voice effects for Critical Hits & monsters, and voice-over using text-to-speech AI.
• Implement new features such as new monster abilities, subraces, feats, familiars, items.
• Fix any remaining issues mentioned on Steam, GOG, heroicfantasygames.com, or by email.

If you find bugs or if you have any feedback and suggestions, please feel free to let me know here, in the Forums, or by email at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com. I appreciate it!

Thank You So Much For Your Support, Legendary Heroes!! Enjoy

 

[luj1]

So in other words, he is only working on voice acting, music and implementing more tech

This is useless, where is the content?

 

[luj1]

• Implement new features such as new monster abilities, subraces, feats, familiars, items.

More of this you crazy man

• Continue work on the encounters, monsters and scenario of the upcoming KotC 2 module.

And more of this

Pierre should really learn more from Hearkenwold, which ironically is the most supreme way to play his own game

Combat encounters in Hearkenwold > AoC

 

[Reinhardt]

kotc2 is one of the very few games that has proper combat encounters, in a sense you feel enemies are not just passively waiting for you in a room guarding chest(they are, but feeling that they know your are coming and prepared for you is here). that's what good dm should do.

 

[luj1]

You should try Hearkenwold then as it's fairer and less of a linear mindless gauntlet of initiative rolls, while maintaining, if not exceeding, the overall complexity of combat encounters, and optimising them. I'm not even kidding.

 

[Reinhardt]

You should try Hearkenwold then

 

[Serus]

You should try Hearkenwold then as it's fairer and less of a linear mindless gauntlet of initiative rolls, while maintaining, if not exceeding, the overall complexity of combat encounters, and optimising them. I'm not even kidding.

That's an unfair comparison. Initiative rolls gain in importance in KotC2 as the level increases. Hearkenwold is a lower level campaign than KotC.

 

[Desiderius]

People who think that initiative is all-important in KotC2 need to play more Dungeon of Nahollaback.

 

[Desiderius]

Death is an efficient way to remove conditions.

 

[Jermu]

people who don't think that initiative is all-important should test that theory in ironman mode

f9 can save even trash builds/classes

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Death is an efficient way to remove conditions.

Doesn't work on the game over condition.

 

[Desiderius]

Death is an efficient way to remove conditions.

Doesn't work on the game over condition.

Then play a Pal.

 

[Serus]

people who don't think that initiative is all-important should test that theory in ironman mode

f9 can save even trash builds/classes

We talked about it here before. Believe it or not but there have been a few people who achieved some success doing IM although IIRC not beating the whole game. There are methods to manage initiative. For once, if you really concentrate on boosting initiative on one character (dex, familiar, items, etc.), you can end with a magic user that will go before enemy magicians in most fights - and one magic user is usually all you need to nuke the enemy and disable/kill the fastest or most dangerous ones. Desiderius here claims that investing in defense - which most people neglect - also give good results allowing to survive many situation where the enemy has the initiative. As most people, I never tried that so i can't really tell.
Personally I think, again as most people, that initiative is too important and adds too much overly important randomness. However not as much as some people tend to exaggerate. For once it really becomes a big issue only once spells that can kill half or disable most of your party start to fly around on regular basis. Early game, situation where lack of initiative dooms you too lose is very rare. It also can be managed, to a point, as per above.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Death is an efficient way to remove conditions.

Doesn't work on the game over condition.

Then play a Pal.

Nope, he doesn't have a protection from Game Over. I checked.

 

[Desiderius]

Death is an efficient way to remove conditions.

Doesn't work on the game over condition.

Then play a Pal.

Nope, he doesn't have a protection from Game Over. I checked.

He?

it really becomes a big issue only once spells that can kill half or disable most of your party start to fly around

That happens two or three times per fight in Nahollaback.

Press on!

A of C kind of fries my brain 2/3rds of the way through or so because I'm really into the using the consumables aspect but there's also the "how many fights do I have to prepare for here?" meta aspect that I guess if I wasn't playing blind would be less of a deal but I'm too old to power through.

 

[Desiderius]

it really becomes a big issue only once spells that can kill half or disable most of your party start to fly around

That happens two or three times per fight in Nahollaback.

Press on!

 

[Serus]

it really becomes a big issue only once spells that can kill half or disable most of your party start to fly around

That happens two or three times per fight in Nahollaback.

Press on!

If you say so. I played it only for a few hours, plan to play more.

 

[Desiderius]

Foes exhaust their resources knocking you out then you rez the team and come back.

Appealing gameplay if you can stomach it. I've had several fights like that in KotC where I was down to one character and he scratched the team back into it. Exhausting if you don't know how many more fights are ahead until next rest.

Pal isn't unbeatable but creates an area a relative safety to turtle at beginning of the fight, and can create the opportunity for different tactics altogether inside that umbrella.

The game I got the furthest I had a Champion that I dropped for the Pal companion. I designed four original characters that were strong early to be replaced by companions as they were discovered. Enjoy seeing what the designer had in mind and sometimes they throw in some added incentive to play them. Takes a little while for Pal to really get up to speed.

 

[Serus]

Foes exhaust their resources knocking you out then you rez the team and come back.

Appealing gameplay if you can stomach it. I've had several fights like that in KotC where I was down to one character and he scratched the team back into it. Exhausting if you don't know how many more fights are ahead until next rest.

Pal isn't unbeatable but creates an area a relative safety to turtle at beginning of the fight, and can create the opportunity for different tactics altogether inside that umbrella.

The game I got the furthest I had a Champion that I dropped for the Pal companion. I designed four original characters that were strong early to be replaced by companions as they were discovered. Enjoy seeing what the designer had in mind and sometimes they throw in some added incentive to play them. Takes a little while for Pal to really get up to speed.

I think about using a paladin in the party next time (if) i play - because of your advertisement nonetheless.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Dorateen I started playing Hurkaworld the other day, and I wanted to say I like it quite a bit. I've just escaped slavery, cleared out Kelton Manor and destroyed the lich, and I'm liking it much more than Augury of Chaos so far, that's for sure. It has that cool low level adventure vibe to it that is very compelling, and after Augury it's a welcome relief that not every fight feels like dragging your face across sandpaper.

The only thing I raged at was the big evil snek in the lich's tower, with the petrification breath. This is the sort of special ability that I always hate in my RPGs for being bullshit, and this was no exception

 

[Dorateen]

Dorateen I started playing Hurkaworld the other day, and I wanted to say I like it quite a bit.

Thank you, that is high praise indeed! One thing that is probably apparent, the open-ended design allows the player to come back to an area and try later if an encounter doesn't go that well. I think there are some items that protect against the gaze attack, which helps fighting those monster types.