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

[Sweeper]

KCD2

Oh yeah, I forgot that was coming out.
Fuck it, we'll just rig the vote in SKALD's favor...

 

[Litmanen]

There's a lot of cunts in my games.

Let me play yourr game. When? After this falling fall? Late 2024? 1Q 2030? Never?

 

[Tao]

I really enjoyed it a lot. It needs a little more polishing. And a better or more rebalanced magic system.Hybrid classes also need to be reworked.

Next game needs to be bigger and better :D

 

[Tyranicon]

There's a lot of cunts in my games.

Let me play yourr game. When? After this falling fall? Late 2024? 1Q 2030? Never?

Can you not see my signature or are you just doing your usual larp?

 

[Litmanen]

There's a lot of cunts in my games.

Let me play yourr game. When? After this falling fall? Late 2024? 1Q 2030? Never?

Can you not see my signature or are you just doing your usual larp?

I've seen your signature and that's already enough, normally, to stay away. But I'm also following your thread about your game-changing game (sorry for repetition) that will create unbalance in the industry and I usually see you in other (or creating new) threads complaining about incoming games.

So, I'm just thrilled by this incoming new industry changing creation, since you're a genius and all the people in the industry aren't.

 

[Tyranicon]

I've seen your signature and that's already enough, normally, to stay away. But I'm also following your thread about your game-changing game (sorry for repetition) that will create unbalance in the industry and I usually see you in other (or creating new) threads complaining about incoming games.

So, I'm just thrilled by this incoming new industry changing creation, since you're a genius and all the people in the industry aren't.

Cool, I'm also excited. Thanks for letting me know, across several different accounts, that are totally different people.

 

[Litmanen]

I've seen your signature and that's already enough, normally, to stay away. But I'm also following your thread about your game-changing game (sorry for repetition) that will create unbalance in the industry and I usually see you in other (or creating new) threads complaining about incoming games.

So, I'm just thrilled by this incoming new industry changing creation, since you're a genius and all the people in the industry aren't.

Cool, I'm also excited. Thanks for letting me know, across several different accounts, that are totally different people.

I'm happy that you egotism makes you think I need several accounts to tell you that I'm waiting for your shit to come out.

No, I'm sorry. It's just several people who think you're dumb, maybe.

For my part, I want to add that you have to set better the fake voice to sound cool in your videos, because in the last three you had completely different voices.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is it Canada?

Norway, the Canada of Europe.

I meant the C-word.
You can't convince me that Canada isn't unnecessary..

 

[Nikanuur]

Wow, Kat has just scored 81 backstab damage. Absolute record. So far, the most I've seen was around 60.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I am a slightly annoyed at the cost of crafting. It's a good idea in games to make it cash positive as incentive, but I am finding for some things, like Potion of Stoneskin, have ingredients cost as much as buying the potion itself. This means I have to rely on what I find, which is highly inefficient and takes away much of the skills validity. It now becomes a glorified bonus.

 

[Trash Player]

Not really, there are a lot of cheap ones. Diplomacy affects trade prices, and it is easy to make profits with crafting. Ofc, thievery with random merchants beat them.

 

[Pompey]

Wow, Kat has just scored 81 backstab damage. Absolute record. So far, the most I've seen was around 60.

It's all fun and games until you fight enemies that are immune to criticals like the ones you find in the tower of ash

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Not really, there are a lot of cheap ones. Diplomacy affects trade prices, and it is easy to make profits with crafting. Ofc, thievery with random merchants beat them.

It's only certain things with less common ingredients, like the Stoneskin potion I mentioned. My MC has a high diplomat score, but even then crafting that potion only costs me a few gold less than buying it. Its mostly because of the one "grey hand" ingredient which I never find so must buy. It's like 20gp when the potion is 36gp. After adding in the other ingredients, it's kind of a wash. The economy is low stakes (with thievery), so the delta doesn't matter much.

 

[Tao]

Wow, Kat has just scored 81 backstab damage. Absolute record. So far, the most I've seen was around 60.

96 for me. I remembered it for the sexual inuendos of course.

When she can backstab she outright deletes enemies. But i never found a good way to made it consistently. I also made the mistake to build her around a light bow (without maxing all the backstab perks) and i think is a mistake/trap. The Ranger NPC (Iben?) was a god using a bow unlike her

 

[Incognito/STK]

I tried to warn you guys but was silenced for even hinting at it. Now that you made this woke dev rich you can expect them to ramp up the proverbial bend over while they continue to ram it up your ass until you like it.

I saw the writing on the wall abuot this dev long ago with those opportunisit political games he made and then his boss at Raw Fury bragging on twitter about sucking cock to get his job in the game industry. The artists and writers are all woke on this game too so what did you expect idiots.

Apart from that one instance of inserted lesbianism, I didn't find much else to complain about. The game has flaws but mostly mechanics-wise. All in all, I've had quite a good time with it. Very charming.

 

[Nikanuur]

Wow, Kat has just scored 81 backstab damage. Absolute record. So far, the most I've seen was around 60.

96 for me. I remembered it for the sexual inuendos of course.

When she can backstab she outright deletes enemies. But i never found a good way to made it consistently. I also made the mistake to build her around a light bow (without maxing all the backstab perks) and i think is a mistake/trap. The Ranger NPC (Iben?) was a god using a bow unlike her

Yup, yup. She's single-handedly the most OP melee attacker there is. At least as far as single-attack damage is concerned. And her 'deleting' enemies is also accompanied by an exquisite squashing effect and the screen tremors. Love it

I am sorry to hear that about the bow, and I agree. I use it mostly in the first round, during her 'Hidden Deployment' and practically never after that. She's got the highest initiative, and it's a nice beginning move for 40 damage or so, but nowhere near her melee shenanigans with the Black Dagger from the beginning. I don't even understand how the damage stacks there. I mean, it says something like 3-7 flat dmg or so. ...and she ends up doing 90 or more? Insane!

Btw. somehow, Hidden Deployment works really poorly with melee. She tends to break stealth after making just one step. 'Hide in Combat', on the other hand, is pretty good. I've seen her travel up to four squares in stealth.

Last but definitely not least, maybe you know of this, maybe not?

1. One doesn't need to flank an enemy with Kat herself to proc the backstab. Any already-flanked enemy counts. I.e., waiting until the end of turn, flanking an enemy with other melees, and only after that attacking that enemy with Kat does it.
2. More conditions allow for the backstab: Frightened, flanked, stunned...
3. In regard to the previous 2 items, dressing her in like three +1 movement items and taking 'Evasive' in order to not proc the disengagement debuff goes a long way towards her being able to hit wherever you need it. Mine can travel 7 or 8 squares now.

 

[Sweeper]

Game's way too easy. Up until the lighthouse I thought it'd be kino, but then it devolved into mindlessly moving characters next to trashmobs and just pressing 1 over and over again. Maybe that's on me, but if you let me I'm gonna be as lazy as I can be.
I've not used a single potion in my playthrough. The game throws food and recipes at you, but there's fundamentally no point to 'em cause I'm just using rations and the survival skill to farm rations during resting.
Using full action abilities makes 0 sense cause you can usually proc more attacks by not using them which means all those abilities in the various skill trees? Yup, useless.
Then there's the class balance... Thieves are hilariously broken. All cleric classes are fucking useless (due to everything being a trashmob and buffs/debuffs being completely inconsequential). Mages are only useful for setting up backstabs for thieves, rangers and arm masters are good.
Shields are in the game... Why is Phalanx a thing? Like why is it there? What purpose does it serve? The answer is, it's there as a noob trap that exists only to slow down combat every time your shield equipped cleric moves past an ally.
The game is severely undercooked, and the aesthetics, while great, don't make your game fun to play. Kinda disappointing ngl.

Fuck it, we'll just rig the vote in SKALD's favor...

I'm such a dumbfuck sometimes.

 

[Dwarvophile]

1. In regard to the previous 2 items, dressing her in like three +1 movement items and taking 'Evasive' in order to not proc the disengagement debuff goes a long way towards her being able to hit wherever you need it. Mine can travel 7 or 8 squares now.

Yes, that's how I also built my main char. Chain-baclstabing is fun. I had created a thief already and so when Kat joined the group I specced her with the bow, like Tao did. Not sure I will keep her in the group now that I have the ranger, Iago as a second frontline heavy hitter and now finally a sorcerer.

Thief's aptitude have been the most precious, the most decisive aptitude checks. But my feeling is that it's mostly like that in RPG, you want to be able to open shit and go everywhere, not to decipher lore or talk your way, unfortunately :-(

Using full action abilities makes 0 sense cause you can usually proc more attacks by not using them which means all those abilities in the various skill trees? Yup, useless.

Maybe they're just too situational. Abilities like Defend Ally have been helpful when fighting in corridors for instance.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

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

Cun-Thulhu?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Sweeper I disagree a fair bit. Heirophants have good CC and generally better damage spells. The offensive auras are very good if you've developed the passive line to make the aoe larger. Leaning on regen also greatly extends the adventuring day.

Phalanx is decent when you get lots of shields up. Bucklers count, so even my magos contributes by being near. It works for me. I can have a scrum around the enemies with Kat prowling the edges with back stabs.

The magos is a gloried potion early on, but gets way better once its around level 8. Blinding bolt takes a threat out of combat, and poison sphere shuts down whole teams. The poison DOT isn't bad either. Stoneskin and Diamond skin are excellent buffs that can take a squishy rogue and make them a tank. The mid-level summins are quite tanky and the low level ones are great for setting up flanking. The fire spell line isn't great, but frenzy is a good buff.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Succumbed to temptation and played this during work dead time this week. My takes on the game:

This would make a great TTRPG campaign, it’s very well laid out. As a CRPG, however, it’s rather poor, I’ll argue that it even feels like a JRPG in that:
• The story is railroaded as fuck, C&C is is mostly a guise and rarely has any tangible impact. Exploration is non-existent for the most part. Itemization is boring and inconsequential. This adds up to no replayability.
• Town maps are cool, but combat maps are so bad they might as well not exist.
• To that end, combat sucks ass. At the beginning at least it has the boon of being satisfying, but by the end of the game is just a boring slog. You know you’re going to win over the braindead AI every single time, so you’re just going thru the motions to progress the story. I recommend turning trash mobs off, since even avoiding combat everywhere I still finished the game with a lvl 18/19 party.
• UI is inexcusably bad.
• Sprites are a mess, but background art is exceptionally well done given the constraints.
• The music is excellent. Hats off, zwanzig_zwoelf I only wish you’d gotten hired to write more tracks for the game.

Despite all the negatives, the game is a pleasant experience because it stands on a very solid story and delivers on the aesthetic part, so it’s easy to get lost in it. If this campaign was brought to the KOTC2 engine and fleshed out some more on the C&C department, it would be a GOAT. But since it wasn’t, and we’re stuck with both the good and the bad, I give it a 5/10.

 

[Dwarvophile]

Does Iago leaves the boat at some point ? He's not in the manage party pool (I just landed on the second island, Eryll).

 

[Tyranicon]

Does leaves the boat at some point ? He's not in the manage party pool (I just landed on the second island, Eryll).

You mean Iago? I couldn't get him to rejoin the party but I haven't played the new patch.

Sucks, since he's probably the most useful companion.

 

[Haba]

Game's way too easy. Up until the lighthouse I thought it'd be kino, but then it devolved into mindlessly moving characters next to trashmobs and just pressing 1 over and over again. Maybe that's on me, but if you let me I'm gonna be as lazy as I can be.
I've not used a single potion in my playthrough. The game throws food and recipes at you, but there's fundamentally no point to 'em cause I'm just using rations and the survival skill to farm rations during resting.

Smells like lower difficulty issue. If you can survive the level 11 bandit random encounter on the first island, there is something fundamentally wrong. Increase the difficulty level.

Enemy magic users and critical-immune mobs can really fuck you up. Ofc if you are a veteran cheeser, there is precious little the game can do against you.

Sucks, since he's probably the most useful companion.

The mage is the most useful companion (if you are playing officer yourself). She wipes out entire encounters simply by spamming thunderclap (my record is 6x cascade).