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

[Hobo Elf]

Does anyone else think that the Bard is pretty useless class? Also i noticed that the game system was balanced around 4 people party and not around 6 people party. With the action points you rarely get the option to use more than four,and i have seven action points. A rogue and a tank in front and two wizards or wizard and a rogue in the back seems optimal.

Also i had no problem with how you collect your party,it seemed decently fast. In an hour of the start you had four guys party. Also you got two or three tokens for creating your own party. I don't really see why people would like to create a whole party tho,the premade is pretty ok and the banter is the best part of the writing.

You're doing it wrong. Look at the Bard carefully. There are skill unlocks in his Music skill tree that add passive bonuses to your party, such at a free +1 Spell Power regen for everyone else at the start of combat. If you feel like you don't have enough AP to use everyone then consider getting skills that passively help your party. If the going gets rough then you can use the Bards other abilities, of course, but the class seems to be a good "backbone" for any kind of party composition.

 

[fantadomat]

Does anyone else think that the Bard is pretty useless class? Also i noticed that the game system was balanced around 4 people party and not around 6 people party. With the action points you rarely get the option to use more than four,and i have seven action points. A rogue and a tank in front and two wizards or wizard and a rogue in the back seems optimal.

Also i had no problem with how you collect your party,it seemed decently fast. In an hour of the start you had four guys party. Also you got two or three tokens for creating your own party. I don't really see why people would like to create a whole party tho,the premade is pretty ok and the banter is the best part of the writing.

You're doing it wrong. Look at the Bard carefully. There are skill unlocks in his Music skill tree that add passive bonuses to your party, such at a free +1 Spell Power regen for everyone else at the start of combat. If you feel like you don't have enough AP to use everyone then consider getting skills that passively help your party. If the going gets rough then you can use the Bards other abilities, of course, but the class seems to be a good "backbone" for any kind of party composition.

I never used it and beat the shit out of most enemies. Also i do use passives like commander for the tank,it gives you an action point . I dislike that his magic is the only one that needs a resource for the spell points,it really puts me off the whole class. I see it as useless.

 

[Ulrox]

I never used it and beat the shit out of most enemies. Also i do use passives like commander for the tank,it gives you an action point . I dislike that his magic is the only one that needs a resource for the spell points,it really puts me off the whole class. I see it as useless.

Look at the bards abilities again. Grand rabble rouser gives you +1 action point aswell. If you stack that with the tank, you are well on the way to being overpowered I'd say.
But yeah, having to consume alcohol means that you probably shouldn't ever have more than 1 bard in a party, and it's probably not necessary to use the class at all.

Is it weird to anyone else to see these quick post-release patches fixing huge things? "Oh, now we're going to patch framerate so the game can run. We didn't bother to do that in the last 3 years but since feedback indicates players want the game to run we will patch that in by next week."

I think the idea is to keep backers happy above all else. You can see it throughout the game, there's code wheel offerings which gives backers an edge, there's extra items in game for backers, and there's a lot of game design choices done to please backers.

The idea is that Brian can always go on fig or kickstarter, get 1-3 million dollars for a game, and now that they have 3 games slowly selling in the background, they'll keep aquiring more and more money. You don't really need the game to be a commercial success, because as long as you have a strong fanbase that keeps you afloat, you can pretty much make whatever game you desire. Rpg's tend to sell a lot slowly over time, so over time, bards tale 4 - if they manage to fix the bugs and iron everything out, which they will for the console release - then it'll be a success. I can't imagine that they went all in on bards tale 4 with 10 million. My wager is that they've sold much more on console releases than people realise, and I'm guessing that this release is more like an alpha for pc gamers, and then the console market is where they'll earn the most money from.

That said, releasing the game in this state was undoubtedly an amazingly stupid move. I'd love to know what kind of emotional or illogical thinking caused it.

 

[newtmonkey]

I added a bard, just cuz, well, "Bard's Tale" and I assume the designers made the bard an interesting class. The alcohol thing put me off, but you can invest points into alcohol brewing also.

Having said that, he is by far the least useful character in my party right now. I focused his initial skill points in the music tree and a point in brewing tree. Hopefully he'll get more useful soon.

I just went through the first few areas of Kylearan's Tower, and I'm quite addicted to this game now.

Save point system is annoying in concept, but not SO bad in execution. The areas are typically full of save points, so if you are really paranoid about losing progress you can just go back to the previous save point and activate it. It's annoying and they should probably just add a quick save I guess and use these save points as autosaves/healing spots, but if they don't, it's not that annoying.

 

[agris]

They spent more time modeling Fargo's face for that NPC than they did for any other one. Disgusting.

I keep saying this, but I’m amazed at the priorities of this game.

 

[Hamster]

The idea is that Brian can always go on fig or kickstarter, get 1-3 million dollars for a game

[citation needed]

 

[Hobo Elf]

The idea is that Brian can always go on fig or kickstarter, get 1-3 million dollars for a game

[citation needed]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/wasteland-3

 

[Ulrox]

The idea is that Brian can always go on fig or kickstarter, get 1-3 million dollars for a game

[citation needed]

My only 'proof' is that he's been able to do so 4 times in the past. However, I used to follow his twitter account religiously. What I wrote is based on the memory of what I read on there. I would say that there's likely some amount of truth to my statement, but I ofcourse don't know for sure, and I doubt anyone would say no to success of any kind. Still I think there's some credence to my logic.

 

[Roguey]

Both BT4 and Wasteland 3's crowdfunding campaigns started before ToN dropped. Now he's released two commercial failures in a row. Would anyone trust him with money in advance again?

 

[fantadomat]

Look at the bards abilities again. Grand rabble rouser gives you +1 action point aswell. If you stack that with the tank, you are well on the way to being overpowered I'd say.
But yeah, having to consume alcohol means that you probably shouldn't ever have more than 1 bard in a party, and it's probably not necessary to use the class at all.

Oh i have a bard in my party,still i found it useless in actual battle.

 

[Hamster]

The idea is that Brian can always go on fig or kickstarter, get 1-3 million dollars for a game

[citation needed]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/wasteland-3

And now lets see how well that will work after TToN and Bards Tale.

 

[aweigh]

one thing fargo is good at is getting $$$

 

[Infinitron]

inXile haven't done a crowdfunding campaign in almost two years (Wasteland 3 was in October 2016). There might be a reason for that. Personally, I think we're already looking at the post-Kickstarter/Fig inXile.

My wager is that they've sold much more on console releases than people realise, and I'm guessing that this release is more like an alpha for pc gamers, and then the console market is where they'll earn the most money from.

Extremely doubtful.

 

[Ulrox]

My wager is that they've sold much more on console releases than people realise, and I'm guessing that this release is more like an alpha for pc gamers, and then the console market is where they'll earn the most money from.

Extremely doubtful.

Then how did they get 10 million for bards tale 4? As I said, I don't believe they are stupid enough to go all in on bards tale. It seems more likely to me that wasteland 3 will have a similar or larger budget.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Oh i have a bard in my party,still i found it useless in actual battle.

It's probably the worse starting class, but great at higher levels. Falkentyne's Fury (preferably with Cornu equipped) + Grand Minstrel spell point bonus for practitioners + two Grand Conjurer practitioners spamming dragon's breath from the front row followed by slinking assault + Rain of Arrows from rogue= devastate the entire battlefield on turn one for the cost of 5 opportunity points (or 4 if the rogue is using a longbow).

 

[aweigh]

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread about Fargo having secured some sort of money grant from the state of Louisiana. Doubt it was 10 million's worth but it must've been something.

 

[Morkar Left]

inXile haven't done a crowdfunding campaign in almost two years (Wasteland 3 was in October 2016). There might be a reason for that. Personally, I think we're already looking at the post-Kickstarter/Fig inXile.

I think the reason is he can't get enough crowdfunding from a new game to hire more people to actually develop it. And his exisiting crew should be fully occupied in development with the ongoing projects. He needs money from other sources as well. And that source has to be sales. Torment and BT4 tanked. Two misfortunes in a row can easily break a game studio.

Save point system is annoying in concept, but not SO bad in execution. The areas are typically full of save points, so if you are really paranoid about losing progress you can just go back to the previous save point and activate it. It's annoying and they should probably just add a quick save I guess and use these save points as autosaves/healing spots, but if they don't, it's not that annoying.

Just for clarification; it seems you can stop playing anytime and progress is saved. You only lose your progress if you die. At least according to some remarks on the inXile forums. Have to actually try that myself.

 

[Ulrox]

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread about Fargo having secured some sort of money grant from the state of Louisiana. Doubt it was 10 million's worth but it must've been something.

This is a reasonable explanation.

I suppose now we can blame socialism for Brian going soft.

Kidding

 

[Infinitron]

He needs money from other sources as well. And that source has to be sales.

Not just sales: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-discussion-thread.99490/page-34#post-5767094

That said, BT4 is such a flop (seems to be much worse than Torment) that I can no longer say there isn't an outside possibility that it might kill the company. Best outcome in such a case - Wasteland 3 assets are sold to another company so it can be finished.

 

[fantadomat]

Oh i have a bard in my party,still i found it useless in actual battle.

It's probably the worse starting class, but great at higher levels. Falkentyne's Fury (preferably with Cornu equipped) + Grand Minstrel spell point bonus for practitioners + two Grand Conjurer practitioners spamming dragon's breath from the front row followed by slinking assault + Rain of Arrows from rogue= devastate the entire battlefield on turn one for the cost of 5 opportunity points (or 4 if the rogue is using a longbow).

Hahahaha it is interesting how we are bashing the game how simple the combat is,yet we all do find different combinations to kill enemies. I did go for one hit one kill skills for the rogue . I really like the whip you get from the pushing the hidden buttons around the green runes in the undercity. It is really good against undead. Also vampire dagger is good for strength based wizards. Shame that we don't have respecing ability.

 

[Ulrox]

Not just sales: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-discussion-thread.99490/page-34#post-5767094

That said, BT4 is such a flop (seems to be much worse than Torment) that I can longer say there isn't an outside possibility that it might kill the company. Best outcome in such a case - Wasteland 3 assets are sold to another company so it can be finished.

I'd say, worst case scenario at this point is that everyone but the important members of inxile is laid off, and wasteland 3 is finished. The whole company dying off from this seems extreme to me.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Both BT4 and Wasteland 3's crowdfunding campaigns started before ToN dropped. Now he's released two commercial failures in a row. Would anyone trust him with money in advance again?

What BT4 indicates is that game journalists are too eager to stop the pretence of liking obscure games. All they need is an excuse, either being some bad reviews, bugs, etc. Of course, the fact that they are selling shit only reinforces this negative trend. I also suspect that pretending that the game would have good graphics did more harm than good. It's one thing making that isometric game with weird mechanics. It's another to pretend that you can enter the same arena of Skyrim, FO4, etc. In fact, I would not be surprised if the FP aspect of gameplay attracted the wrong kind of reviewer. W2 got a positive review from RPS, but it was reviewed by Adam Smith, not John Walker.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Then how did they get 10 million for bards tale 4? As I said, I don't believe they are stupid enough to go all in on bards tale. It seems more likely to me that wasteland 3 will have a similar or larger budget.

Fargo is always inflating the numbers to make things look bigger and more impactful. This sounds reasonable, but giving the negative reception it was obviously a mistake.

 

[Ulrox]

Hahahaha it is interesting how we are bashing the game how simple the combat is,yet we all do find different combinations to kill enemies. I did go for one hit one kill skills for the rogue . I really like the whip you get from the pushing the hidden buttons around the green runes in the undercity. It is really good against undead. Also vampire dagger is good for strength based wizards. Shame that we don't have respecing ability.

Apparently if you complete the holy book questline, you can get a whole new class. A cleric.

Edit:" The questline is, the holy path"

And it was a holy symbol, not a holy book.

You get a new skill tree, but you still keep your existing skill trees. Your class is changed, more like a prestige class I guess.

 

[Bohr]

My wager is that they've sold much more on console releases than people realise, and I'm guessing that this release is more like an alpha for pc gamers, and then the console market is where they'll earn the most money from.

Extremely doubtful.

Then how did they get 10 million for bards tale 4? As I said, I don't believe they are stupid enough to go all in on bards tale. It seems more likely to me that wasteland 3 will have a similar or larger budget.

Wasteland 2 sold pretty well on pc, even before the console release, and made them a decent return overall on all platforms (reported as $12m back in 2016). The problem, I guess, is that reinvesting that in Torment and now BT4 seems unlikely to generate much in the way of positive returns to kick on to the next project. Guess we'll see but the figures for BT4 look truly abysmal - I mean its first weekend player count is much closer to the likes of Grimoire than something like Tyranny, which was considered a bit of a flop itself.