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

[Sinatar]

Can't quite recall seeing another game where localisation issues could cause gamebreaking problems like this

 

[Gord]

Okay, tried deleting and reinstalling the game, and I even made sure to delete all ini files etc to get "default" settings. Sacred Grove never ran very well, but I was getting minimum 25 fps on all ULTRA except shadows on HIGH. Now I get 10 (!!!!!)-25 on the same settings as Patch 2, 15-45 on all HIGH, and (LOLZ) 18-45 on all LOW. [...]

Man, this is discouraging to read, especially with my shitcomputer. I hoped for 2-3fps more, but any fps less is death. If I had known that, I had downloaded Version 2 instead. But now it's too late, because download for Version 3 is already at 2/3 and it takes half a day on my connection...

I have only seen 4 or 5 areas since the patch, but in them it has brought a noticeable improvement for me. Even Skara Brae (upper and below) can run at 60fps now (with dips to the 50s, however).
On top of it the visuals are better, too.
When I started the game for the first time after the patch, I had to adjust gamma again and graphic settings would run an auto detect again. After manually adjusting it a bit, everything worked fine. At least so far.

 

[Bohr]

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqmfdv

Technical breakdown of compatibility issues

The game wasn’t well optimized at launch. We received a lot of feedback that things were running slowly and during Patch 1, we implemented a hardware auto-detect on load feature that would set your default quality level based on hardware. There were a few issues with this. First is that the Nvidia Control Panel defaults to optimal and not performance. This will lead to it reporting a lower score from the autodetect unless the user has manually changed to performance mode. Second is that since we weren’t optimized great, we further reduced the scores to choose a lower quality setting that would run at a decent framerate.

The second major issue is that when it did auto-detect and select a quality setting that was not Ultra, the lower quality settings had turned off things like anti-aliasing (which makes the game look jaggy) and also applied a resolution downscale (which makes things look blurry). Some objects on lower quality settings didn’t render or looked bad when they did (hair, beards…). Our non-ultra quality settings were less than desirable visually.

As we’ve been making performance and optimization gains, we’re starting to increase the visual quality of the non-ultra quality settings. Adding a sharpness filter to the post process helped quite a bit too as it clears up some blurring caused by Temporal Anti-Aliasing and makes the normals “pop” a lot more on objects.

 

[theSavant]

Finally could play a bit again. Didn't notice much performance difference, but I guess under a certain threshold in hardware it doesn't matter anymore. My computer is simply too shit. There is no way around buying a new computer.


EDIT: something worthy to mention. Now you can overwrite some settings in AppData/Local/BardsTale4/Saved/Config/WindowsNoEditor/GameUserSettings.ini
This didn't work in previous versions, but now it works! Now you can even downgrade the quality settings more if you have a shit computer (I saw that once on a youtube channel called "LowSpecGamer"). For example I changed the following settings:
ResolutionDownscalePercentage=25
ResolutionSizeX=1024
ResolutionSizeY=576

Isn't that a nice oldschool game?

Maybe a bit too oldschool, but it definitely runs smoother now. Also the smaller Game-Window could be convenient on the screen, if you want to run it on the "side".

 

[Zombra]

That ... looks cool as hell. I want video.

 

[theSavant]

I wished I could, but recording would be too much. Despite the 1993 graphics it still stutters. And annoying as I'm forced to close any other programs so the 4gb Ram doesn't overflow.

However it's easy to do yourself. Just put all settings in the game to absolute minimum (I have FOV at 60 though), and set AA completely off. Then exit the game and edit the GameUserSettings.ini. I changed it to 960x540 and ResolutionScale to 33. These seem to be good values. I think the most pixelation comes from the low ResolutionScale. Note that it's necessary to edit the value in the INI. While you can set the ResolutionScale in the Game Options to 0, it's actually still at 50 (which you can see in the INI). When you then edit the INI (to 33) however and then go back into the game it shows "-33%".

Edit: Sharpness option does make textures crispier, but also falsifies a bit. I wouldn't say it enhances the pixel-look, so I left it on minimum. Hardly any performance impact though, regardless if minimum or maximum.

Not considering playing much further though, only a little bit. I'm currently at the Adventurers guild and can create a party of 4, but undecisive what party to build...

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Not considering playing much further though, only a little bit. I'm currently at the Adventurers guild and can create a party of 4, but undecisive what party to build...

Probably fighter, rogue, 2 practitioners. Add a bard when your party expands to 5, and a second fighter when your party expands to 6.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Can't quite recall seeing another game where localisation issues could cause gamebreaking problems like this

IIRC it was impossible to finish the potato version of Wizardry 8 back in the day.

 

[theSavant]

Just ranting what already has been ranted about by others: so I spend an hour to make a party of 4 with my Merc Tokens, happy to adventure on, and then "Crux joins -> must send 1 party member back". No, no, no! I don't want Crux to join the party...

I must say this game has something that makes one always play a bit further (at least for now). But for everything enjoyable there seems to be something unenjoyable... this game makes one schizophrenic. And reading the Codex review this seems to be the case throughout the whole game.
Some party banter is funny though...

 

[Gord]

The game sure does polarize a bit.
I'm now approaching Castle Langskaal, which is, as I understand getting close to the point of no return.
Sure, the game is not perfect, far from it, it's not a great game (8/10+ territory) either, but I'm still having fun and it's good for what it is. Whatever that is exactly.
Anyway, anyone unsure about it should probably wait for a sale to check it out - at which point it will likely be patched to a decent-enough state, too.
Backers can as well play now, or at least play around for an hour or two. After patch 3 it is playable enough. Apparently there's another hotfix planned for early next week, too.
Just keep a somewhat open mind and don't expect BT1-3 only bigger and with better graphics.

Oh, and seems the whining was successful, apparently they are seriously contemplating a respec option now.

 

[theSavant]

So I struggled myself until the Baedish Lowlands. There I stopped because the performance became unbearable on my (shit-old) computer.

During this walkthrough the issue with the SaveStones became really annoying. Instead of them giving the game depth and making me cautious, I ended up quitting the game regularly, so it created a SaveGame for me. Even though the loading times were a torture (2-3 minutes) I preferred this torture instead of redoing whole sections again. This shit must be fixed in a patch. Save anywhere is obligatory.

Also what I not liked is the level design. Everything is a maze and you run around zig-zaggy. Zig-Zag in the bottom, zig-zag in the city, zig-zag in the woods... yeah it's a homage to old dungeon crawlers, but some of the videos in kickstarter (e.g. the "World of Caith trailer") and some of the first experimental screenshots gave me the impression of a semi-open space, not a zig-zag-space. I don't like zig-zag-spaces. Which is also because it's a design to stretch a game artificially.

Still annoyed that I can't create the whole party from scratch. All these different premade characters. Not the same as a steady party, which you create from scratch, slowly build up, and get comfortable with. Sure, at some point you can replace all these premade characters, but then it feels like all the effort and hours with the premade characters was wasted.

I also don't like the UI representation of the Skilltree, in that Stat-Increases are represented as bubbles. Everything is bubbles. If you want to increase Str, Int, Const, you must skill bubbles. Bubbles here, bubbles there. A third of the skills only does Stat increases, sometimes mixed with other abilities. Imo this makes it all confusing and unclear. Just give me good old points and let me decide where to invest them via good old +/- buttons... and the other "special skills" somehow extra...

... but whatever, it's not changing anyway


Besides I got a weird deja-vu experience while playing. It was as if I had played this game already somewhere sometimes:
- how I barely managed to survive Alguins Battle
- how I had a Wraith in a battle (summoned by Conjurer), and that Wraith looked totally familiar and exactly as I thought

I did not watch this on youtube, nor did I get this far in my very first attempt (one month ago). It's just weird. Reminds me of a neverending lifecycle, where you incarnate again and again, living the same life again and again, doing the same things again, making the same mistakes again, even playing the same games again. And sometimes memories of the previous life come through, giving you a "deja-vu". What a nightmare...

 

[aweigh]

proper mazes are not a "design to stretch the game".

 

[Bohr]

Tune in to check out the patches

 

[Country_Gravy]

Look at the patches on that game!!! Goddamn that's hot!

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Zombra

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Davi...nus_Chapter_An_Interview_with_Brian_Fargo.php

 

[BEvers]

Hello everyone,

We have just released a hotfix to solve the following issues:

Spoiler

• German - Fixed the issue where cogs were unintentional stacking as a single type versus three different types. The tool tips isn’t localized at the moment, however, all new German players will not be blocked. For German players with previous save games, please adventure to Boar Temple and Skyhenge to find additional cogs waiting for you so you can progress your adventures.
  
• Fixed players having a small chances to suffer odd behaviors, including crashes, when using a practitioner’s dragon breath & conjurorer’s mark on groups of skeleton enemies.
  
• Fixed an issue with fairy powder bomb would cause hangs with multiple wave combats
  
• Fixed an issue with the Zanta fight in regards to killing multiple skeletons in the first turn of combat.
  
• Fixed a crash during combat when stacks of ‘On Fire’ are damaging Yadis and Primeval are also on the grid

In addition to the fixes, enemy difficulty on hard mode was increased to +60% enemy difficulty over normal mode, up from +40%.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please keep letting us know if you are still having any issues with The Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep.

 

[Sacred82]

so I'm just about to give this game a whirl, and then it turns out there are only 4 classes? WTF?!


The archetypes are far from being diverse enough to make up for them cutting all other classes from the game. Where's the Monk who gets stronger as you keep pushing on, and how is a Fighter with a bit of archery thrown in a replacement for the Hunter class? Rogues can't even be specialized archers -lollercakez-, and the Fighter is obviously geared towards being a frontliner, not a sneaky ranged DPS. Set it all on fire and watch it burn.

 

[Sacred82]

Can't quite recall seeing another game where localisation issues could cause gamebreaking problems like this

IIRC it was impossible to finish the potato version of Wizardry 8 back in the day.

keyword dialogue ftw

 

[theSavant]

Regarding SaveGames and "Automatic Save on Exit". I just read in the Steam forums:

Actually that save that is created when you exit out of the game, is deleted when you die and need to reload a game

I just happened to have luck that I beat all battles, after exiting and reloading (thinking I was "save" if I was defeated). So I didn't experience that shit first hand, but I've always wondered what the message on exit means "this save does not act as a Save Totem". Now I know. It's not a fucking real save.

Honestly, FUCK YOU developers... I'm not gonna play this fucking game again, until "Real" SaveAnywhere is implemented.

Up yours

x 100

 

[2house2fly]

It sounds like they did it that way so you can exit the game whenever you want but can't use the exit save feature to save scum.

 

[theSavant]

Btw. I just wondered if a solo run is possible:

Probably not. The first couple of levels you are forced to have premade companions, which reduce the amount of XP your character could get. The second problem is, that you have only 4 skill slots, which would cause you to run out of attacks and hindered by cooldowns immediately. You'd need a dozen skillslots instead. Oh well... whatever

 

[Sacred82]

Btw. I just wondered if a solo run is possible:

Probably not. The first couple of levels you are forced to have premade companions, which reduce the amount of XP your character could get. The second problem is, that you have only 4 skill slots, which would cause you to run out of attacks and hindered by cooldowns immediately. You'd need a dozen skillslots instead. Oh well... whatever

so the Trow ability to get you more 'action points' or whatever is kind of self-defeating? Unless it also affects the cooldown

 

[theSavant]

No no. That additional actionpoint is helpful, but it wouldn't help much if you wanted to play through the whole game with a 1-character-party only (like that Faerie Ninja in Wizardry). The skills already used and which require a cooldown are still blocked despite that additional action point, but if you have a larger party, some members might have some skills left to use and could use that additional action.

Letting that special case of solo run aside, I was intrigued by that comment who suggested a full Trow party. Which might give you constantly opportunity points (which is said to only happen once per turn), but some speculate it happens as often as different Trows make the kills. Not sure if true though. But could be funny.

 

[Sacred82]

No no. That additional actionpoint is helpful, but it wouldn't help much if you wanted to play through the whole game with a 1-character-party only (like that Faerie Ninja in Wizardry). The skills already used and which require a cooldown are still blocked despite that additional action point, but if you have a larger party, some members might have some skills left to use and could use that additional action.

in that case I embrace their approach. I know a lot of people - even Kodexers! - hate enforced *anything*, but it's a party based game so that's where it's at.

Letting that special case of solo run aside, I was intrigued by that comment who suggested a full Trow party. Which might give you constantly opportunity points (which is said to only happen once per turn), but some speculate it happens as often as different Trows make the kills. Not sure if true though. But could be funny.

I'm viewing it from that angle right now to have 2 Trow or none at all. The traits of all other races except Fichti seem too sweet to me.

The wording used by InXile is ambiguous, I think the manual phrases it as being limited to one point per turn whereas the ingame description says every kill by a Trow gets you 1 point.

 

[agris]

Sacred82 A trow’s kill refunds one opportunity point per trow character per turn. So two trow party members could theoretically refund two OP per turn, but keep in mind that you need to have used an OP to have it refunded. This becomes relevant with a trow wizard who often kills NPCs at the start of your turn before any party members have had a chance to act. That burns the chance for that party member to refund an OP for that turn, the ability has, in effect, fired.

This becomes relevant with a wizard who imparts fire DoTs with the conjurer passives.