KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima

[Falksi]

Looks like the last update already pushed the game towards gayness...

Absolute fucking whelps. That was such a nice impactful line, which really stood out and gave the game character.

Now it's just another once-was moment, lost to weakness.

 

[Terenty]

Did anyone complain? Why rewrite?

 

[WarHamster]

There were people crying to the dev how "cunt" was way too harsh and the language should be tidied, post haste. He tried to explain to them that this isn't a game for children and has warnings about it being offensive etc. But no, they cried even harder, it must be changed! And it seems the dev caved in.

People are offended by a swear word in a game with body horror, eldritch horror, blood and guts galore, human sacrifice and what have you. What the actual fuck?!

 

[Incognito]

Looks like the last update already pushed the game towards gayness...

Absolute fucking whelps. That was such a nice impactful line, which really stood out and gave the game character.

Now it's just another once-was moment, lost to weakness.

I wonder if I can leave a steam review with just the word cunt, without being somehow "banned"?

 

[Tyranicon]

There were people crying to the dev how "cunt" was way too harsh and the language should be tidied, post haste. He tried to explain to them that this isn't a game for children and has warnings about it being offensive etc. But no, they cried even harder, it must be changed! And it seems the dev caved in.

People are offended by a swear word in a game with body horror, eldritch horror, blood and guts galore, human sacrifice and what have you. What the actual fuck?!

Dev should've just ignored them.

 

[Mortmal]

There were people crying to the dev how "cunt" was way too harsh and the language should be tidied, post haste. He tried to explain to them that this isn't a game for children and has warnings about it being offensive etc. But no, they cried even harder, it must be changed! And it seems the dev caved in.

People are offended by a swear word in a game with body horror, eldritch horror, blood and guts galore, human sacrifice and what have you. What the actual fuck?!

Dev should've just ignored them.

A sane developer would not bend to a few Twitter hysterics. The real world does not function like this, and he won't lose customers over this. But let's not forget that the place is already too rough for him, and he can't post on the Codex. I am offended by censorship and making everything tame much more than those cunts are offended by the word 'cunt'.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I reported it to SkaldRPG, he takes these things into consideration.

Has the dev responded to complaints about attunement costs? Those are quite universal. It does get better by around Level 8-10 (AD&D style), but the general weakness of the spells makes it even worse than AD&D. If he cut the attunement costs in half and rounded down, we'd probably be close to the sweet spot.

 

[Serious_Business]

Holy shit this game is rad. If the man can't fucking handle the dex, good for him, nothing ever came out of this shithole. Now get the fuck out you turds, back to your woke threads or whatever

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Hi guys, quick questions:

is SKALD mainly combat oriented?
C&C are a relevant part of the game?
Non-combat skill have a significant role?

Thank you

Exploration and Combat are 95% of the game.
C&C for plot is lightweight. Mostly false choice. Some quests can be failed or made harder due to your actions.
Non-combat skills are prolific in the best way. All of them get heavy use. Probably the only two that aren't explicitly necessary are Stealth and Thievery, but are still extremely useful. Survival is possibly the least used, but still common.

 

[Litmanen]

Hi guys, quick questions:

is SKALD mainly combat oriented?
C&C are a relevant part of the game?
Non-combat skill have a significant role?

Thank you

Exploration and Combat are 95% of the game.
C&C for plot is lightweight. Mostly false choice. Some quests can be failed or made harder due to your actions.
Non-combat skills are prolific in the best way. All of them get heavy use. Probably the only two that aren't explicitly necessary are Stealth and Thievery, but are still extremely useful. Survival is possibly the least used, but still common.

Thank you!

 

[Pompey]

I heard that magic is pretty terrible in this game. Is it still worth it to hire out a mercenary spellcaster or will the game hand me one (I am at Chapter 4). Or should I just keep what I have: a melee heavy party with a few people who can buff?

 

[Haba]

I heard that magic is pretty terrible in this game. Is it still worth it to hire out a mercenary spellcaster or will the game hand me one (I am at Chapter 4). Or should I just keep what I have: a melee heavy party with a few people who can buff?

Magic was broken, the latest patch fixed it more or less. You get a mage... but pretty late.

I think 2-h + heavy armour is still the most "convenient" way to get through fights. But it really depends on what you like. DD mage can be perfectly viable as well.

 

[Nikanuur]

I reported it to SkaldRPG, he takes these things into consideration.

Has the dev responded to complaints about attunement costs? Those are quite universal. It does get better by around Level 8-10 (AD&D style), but the general weakness of the spells makes it even worse than AD&D. If he cut the attunement costs in half and rounded down, we'd probably be close to the sweet spot.

Yes! Well, sort of, anyway. He said he raised the damage of spells through more magical aptitude or something like that.
I advise you to connect to Skald Discord. He responds there a lot.

 

[Nikanuur]

I heard that magic is pretty terrible in this game. Is it still worth it to hire out a mercenary spellcaster or will the game hand me one (I am at Chapter 4). Or should I just keep what I have: a melee heavy party with a few people who can buff?

Magic was broken, the latest patch fixed it more or less. You get a mage... but pretty late.

I think 2-h + heavy armour is still the most "convenient" way to get through fights. But it really depends on what you like. DD mage can be perfectly viable as well.

Agreed. However, advanced rangers are pretty cool too. 3 bow attacks per round, and on top of that, if they score a critical they restore one more. It's strange, though. Multi-attack + Rapid Shot should result in 4 attacks. I get only three.
Similar overlook seems to reside in melee while using a Precise Strike or Critical Strike. It ends the round, disregarding the 2 attacks passive. In such cases you have to attack normally first and only after that use a skill based attack.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

I do wish that you could attack diagonally. I find it infuriating that you can't.

When the sprites get bigger from the larger enemies I find myself occasionally clicking into nothingness and wasting a spell or moving and wasting a turn. It's so annoying. When your teammate is below an enemy you have to click the ally's sprite in order to get the tile the enemy is on. It's not only annoying but immersion breaking cause I'm clicking on tiles not an enemy.

And yes the mana cost is stupid high for how trash the damage is for spells. Why would you ever build a mage instead of a backstabber or just brutal melee guy that does quadruple or double your damage easily, with infinite attacks while also being tankier. Thunderclap makes it worth it but I'm still just cheating in mana, idgaf it's tedious. There arent even enough mana poitions in the game to keep you topped up.

That being said the story and writing is really enjoyable I

chapter 4 spoilers

enjoyed the nicholas cage movie subplot especially. It even had the bees that I died to

 

[Gandalf]

This game took so long to develop that I don't remember what I disliked about it so much. I do remember hating something about the game or dev itself. Anyway, tried it recenetly and the opening sequence is nice, I think. That part reminded me of Summoner 2 and Prince of Persia Warrior Within a bit. Felt like a cool game overall, but stopped playing right after meeeting with old boar. Maybe today is the day to continue the playthrough.

 

[Incognito]

When the sprites get bigger from the larger enemies I find myself occasionally clicking into nothingness and wasting a spell or moving and wasting a turn. It's so annoying.

Press Shift to see the game grid, your fellas are green squares, baddies are red.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I heard that magic is pretty terrible in this game. Is it still worth it to hire out a mercenary spellcaster or will the game hand me one (I am at Chapter 4). Or should I just keep what I have: a melee heavy party with a few people who can buff?

I wouldn't say it's terrible. When you get to use it, it works. The problem is that you don't much get to use them because Attunement is such a scarce resource. Magos suffer from the AD&D treatment where they are like a glorified potion that can die. Once you get to Level 8-10, this gets much better if you've chased +Attunement feats. I wouldn't go past Tier 1 on Fire, but Air is good to max out. Earth can probably stop at Tier 3.

The Hierophant, which is a cleric, is better all-around caster. It has more cost effective damage spells, much better CC, and a decent array of buffs. Healing spells are also quite potent in this game.

 

[Falksi]

I heard that magic is pretty terrible in this game. Is it still worth it to hire out a mercenary spellcaster or will the game hand me one (I am at Chapter 4). Or should I just keep what I have: a melee heavy party with a few people who can buff?

It's dull.

The amount of crafting and resting which you have to do in order to be actively useful in battles, just slows the pace of the game down too much.

Desperately needs a rebalance to be fun. I'm only a few hours to a run as a Ranger and it is 10x as much fun.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

There are many reasons why the c64 palette is what it is. Basically it is a very optimized choice of hues to maximize useful colors combinations within the constraint of a fixed palette with max 16 colors.

See also, for example: http://unusedino.de/ec64/technical/misc/vic656x/colors/

 

[WarHamster]

At least the dev didn't remove all the swear words. Good ol' F bombs still fly. Fucking A!

Gotta say, this game has really grown on me a lot in the 9 hours I've had time to play it. I did enjoy it from the start, mind you, but after some exploration and questing, I've come to more and more appreciate the story, the world and feel the game provides. For a solo dev, this is a monumental achievement as Skald achieves more with its pixels, muted color palette and chip tunes than those multimillion dollar AAA titles with their dev teams in the hundreds. This truly has heart and soul, and a singular vision behind it, unlike the AAA titles that are just hollow and dull.

 

[Tyranicon]

This truly has heart and soul, and a singular vision behind it, unlike the AAA titles that are just hollow and dull.

Yeah there's a lot of rough patches but Skald as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I'll be looking forward to what this dev does in the future.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Just got through Firgol. That was some quality shit, probably the best in the game so far in terms of writing/storytelling.

You

Spoiler

suspect something is wrong from the start and it's pretty easy to predict how it's gonna end, but the buildup to the carnival is so well done that you don't care, and at some point I even doubted if anything bad was really gonna happen. It felt like GoT's Red Wedding in a Lovecraftian outfit.

 

[Pompey]

There seems to be a problem where I am unable to load saves when entering chapter 4 and getting the final story companion. Lost several hours of game-play and now have to do Firgol and the tower dungeon again

 

[Adeptus]

Just finished. Cool game, I liked both mechanics and story (I like mix of the dark fantasy and Lovecraftian cosmic horror). Fight were little too easy.