Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Director's Cut

[Mustawd]

I don’t understand how they thought the combat engine was a good idea. What the fuck is up with only having so many points to spend across your entire party? Has there ever been an RPG in history where every character doesn’t get to do something on their turn? The way this plays out, some characters can’t even act if you have a party bigger than the point pool available to you.

Can you imagine if D&D had evolved that way and all RPGs had followed that idea?

Cleric: I heal the rogue.
DM: Oh, sorry, the fighter already used all the points for the party this turn.

I mean, come on guys, what is this shit?

Am I the only one here that doesn’t find this unfun?

It creates restraints on what you can do. I mean forget how blobbers are usually designed. This idea sounds cool to me. Now is it executed well? That I dunno.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Cause its a really good game under the countless glitches and bugs and we do enjoy gaming.

sounds like a very good reason to wait for patches unless you want to have your progressed annulled and stop enjoying it

 

[Mustawd]

But the thing is, it doesn't take a nostalgia-blind idiot to see why BT4 is weird to the point where it's no longer an RPG really and it becomes more of a tedious puzzle game that uses 2D toons.

If it’s fun who cares how much it adheres to old systems?

 

[2house2fly]

LoL the main quest is bugged and you can't progress "bones in the fog". I don't know what to say.... those people deserve what they get. Fargo up yours!

ha, clusterfucks like this game are so great. It's going to be comparatively boring when Kingmaker comes out and everyone is just playing it and the posts about it are just "yeah this is pretty good"

 

[DeepOcean]

I don’t understand how they thought the combat engine was a good idea. What the fuck is up with only having so many points to spend across your entire party? Has there ever been an RPG in history where every character doesn’t get to do something on their turn? The way this plays out, some characters can’t even act if you have a party bigger than the point pool available to you.

Can you imagine if D&D had evolved that way and all RPGs had followed that idea?

Cleric: I heal the rogue.
DM: Oh, sorry, the fighter already used all the points for the party this turn.

I mean, come on guys, what is this shit?

Am I the only one here that doesn’t find this unfun?

It creates restraints on what you can do. I mean forget how blobbers are usually designed. This idea sounds cool to me. Now is it executed well? That I dunno.

I actually like this idea too as you simply dont unload all the best attacks you have every turn and force you to make choices but, yeah, if they balance this bad, this mechanic could end up being more frustrating than anything else.

 

[JarlFrank]

Since the quest that impedes progress due to being bugged is called "Bones in the Fog" can we do the time-honored Codex tradition and re-name it to "Bones in the Fag"?

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I had a crash that cost me a lot of progress and then a bug stopping me from enhancing one of those elven weapons. Having said that I think the game is loads of fun and I don't regret backing it. Hope they can sort this out.

What needs to be done now is some serious optimizing and then phone release. That's the way to play it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Since the quest that impedes progress due to being bugged is called "Bones in the Fog" can we do the time-honored Codex tradition and re-name it to "Bones in the Fag"?

boners in the fog

surprise buttsecks stops your progress

 

[Shadenuat]

Sure it might be futile at this point in the industry to rage on bad releases and try and play games like that, but then what else do we do, just thank developers for a full price alpha version and allow them go unpunished for garbage releases and using that as a scummy way of getting cash and fixing their mismanaged development? I say rage on anyway, rage is the most noble of emotions and the universe needs rage.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Aslo what inxile hate? I am uneducated on the drama angle apparently.

I think the inXile hate started with the pile of hot dogshit that was Numanuma. Entirely deserved. A lot of people also hate Fargo specifically, for some reason.

inXile is alright in my book. WL2 DC is fantastic, Numanuma is garbage and BT4 is a good game that just needs a few more months of cooking. Nobody is perfect, everyone fucks up now and then. For the final verdict imma wait for WL3.

I read the InXile faq on Wasteland 2 and they claim they changed the encounters, how much actually?

The number one reason I hated Wasteland 2 original was that pretty much 60% of the game were extra long pure combat gauntlets against copy pasted boring enemies.

There wasn't a sense of clever design on the encounters and areas, with alot of areas being really uninteresting design wise and quite linear.

The true name for Wasteland 2 should be Fillerland 2.

You had really fun places like Titan Valley and the polite people town but that was too little reward for alot of torture. Im asking because Im really skrptical of an update turning garbage like Ag Center and Highpool on something like the Titan Valley.

Did the DC changed the story and they actually added NPCs and new quests to flesh out their half assed post apocalyptic setting? I was bored out of my mind how you could transplant most of the bland garbage areas on any other post apocalyptic setting and nobody would notice it.

The biggest difference is the graphics. The basically rebuild entire game, and it isn't some minor polish, it's a huge leap, especially in the environments. So the perception of areas is completely different.

 

[fantadomat]

LoL the main quest is bugged and you can't progress "bones in the fog". I don't know what to say.... those people deserve what they get. Fargo up yours!

ha, clusterfucks like this game are so great. It's going to be comparatively boring when Kingmaker comes out and everyone is just playing it and the posts about it are just "yeah this is pretty good"

The codex will bash it to high heavens,for the first few days that is. After that people will begin talking about old games as usual,just look at this thread.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It climbed up from 46. Great success.

ive heard you work in inxile now. How are purchase numbers looking?

probably looking for a new employer now

 

[2house2fly]

Sure it might be futile at this point in the industry to rage on bad releases and try and play games like that, but then what else do we do, just thank developers for a full price alpha version and allow them go unpunished for garbage releases and using that as a scummy way of getting cash and fixing their mismanaged development? I say rage on anyway, rage is the most noble of emotions and the universe needs rage.

we're at a stage of media saturation where I think it's sinking in for developers that they can't do this and expect people to stick around. Unless you're a high-profile AAA game you're competing with vast amounts of other people for a moment of players' time, and if your game is bugged or runs like shit then people will move on to the next game and they won't come back. They won't wait for fixes, because there are plenty of games out there that are already fixed.

 

[aweigh]

I actually like this idea too as you simply dont unload all the best attacks you have every turn and force you to make choices but, yeah, if they balance this bad, this mechanic could end up being more frustrating than anything else.

Spoiler: they balanced it bad.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It creates restraints on what you can do.

If it’s fun who cares how much it adheres to old systems?

It's not fun.

Putting octagonal wheels on your car will restrict how fast you can go, that doesn't make it a good idea.

It's like modern art. "Wow it's bold and original." No, it's shit on a plate. "It's SUPPOSED to be shit! That's the 'art.'"

Some developers change things without realizing some things are the way they are for a reason. It's like how after years of messing with different control schemes, all games more or less control the same now. What works, spreads.

There's a reason why tactical games tend to do X actions per character per turn: it works. It makes sense. People get it. It's intuitive.

Classes are fun. More classes = more fun. Weapon categories and effects are fun. Leveling up is fun. Exploring freely is fun. Abilities and spells are fun. More abilities and more spells are fun.

"Fuck you," says Bard's Tale 4, "You only get 3 abilities. You only get four classes. You can't have a full party until we let you. You can't level up past what WE say. You have to walk in this line. We're shitting on this plate and you can't stop us."

I ain't even mad. I was a little hyped for this game, but this is just baffling. Wasteland 2 played it pretty safe and did all right, what happened with this? I've said already, I don't blame them for trying new things. But I do blame them for sticking with a half-baked idea even after it was a clear dud.

 

[theSavant]

What needs to be done now is [...] phone release. That's the way to play it.

: not sure if serious


However, now that you mention that, it reminds me that they probably make a console release later. And there might come one good thing with a console release: full keyboard controls (I hope they offer these for PC users as well...). Or are keyboard controls already well?

 

[newtmonkey]

The new patch has been released apparently!

... only to that youtube guy I mentioned earlier who lost 45 mins of progress to a soft crash in a battle lol

 

[ProphetSword]

I'm also irritated that in order to create your own party members, you have to get fucking tokens. It's like if your house was burning down but you needed special tokens to invite the firemen to put out the fire. Who thought this was a great idea?

"I know the city is in danger and you could really use a spellcaster and a warrior to help you out, but until you get some tokens I can't allow them to work for you and join your team. If we all die as a result, then so be it. Now gimme some tokens or fuck off."

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[theSavant]

"I know the city is in danger and you could really use a spellcaster and a warrior to help you out, but until you get some tokens I can't allow them to work for you and join your team. If we all die as a result, then so be it. Now gimme some tokens or fuck off."

I agree, but many RPGs have very similar issues: so you must save the kingdom, and then they give you the crappiest of crap equipment (i.e. a wooden stick) instead of giving you the best. It's pathetic. I'm sure we can trash at least half of every RPG ever made if it's about logic. And where would be the "Character Progress" then? It still doesn't justify illogical, unreasonable, shitty stuff like above...

 

[Mustawd]

"I know the city is in danger and you could really use a spellcaster and a warrior to help you out, but until you get some tokens I can't allow them to work for you and join your team. If we all die as a result, then so be it. Now gimme some tokens or fuck off."

“I know the kingdom is in danger and for some reason your particular band of 1-6 people are the only ones who can save it, but listen bro nothing is free in this world. Equipment is expensive so you’ll need these gold coins to buy it. What, tokens? No, don’t be retarded. GOLD COINS son. Anyways, there are plenty of people in town that will pay you a gold coin here and there till you can afford the 100 gold token...oops, I meant 100 gold coin bastard sword you need to save this kingdom. See that old lady across town? She has a really bad rat problem in her basement....”

 

[Volourn]

BULLSHITZ. TOTAL BULLSHITZ. EPIC BULLSHITZ.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

yeah maybe this PC release is beta for the console release to come

 

[JarlFrank]

Why didn't they go Early Access until everything was fixed?