Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV Pre-Release Thread [RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[theSavant]

Unfortunately. If it were kingcomrade popamole we would have 500 pages by now.

 

[Jaesun]

Felicia DayVerified account‏@feliciaday
#BardsRule: I just backed The Bards Tale IV on @Kickstarter http://kck.st/1FpgAuq

 

[Jaesun]

Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo 2m2 minutes agoNewport Beach, CA
The Bards wields his mighty Dorito sword and swings...

 

[Infinitron]

Brother None and sea speak: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/inxile/comments

Heya everyone, It's morning for the office guys now. Feels like morning for me too, I was up working 'till 5:30 am yesterday, probably not a healthy thing to do >_> We have some things in the works or prepped but waiting for the leads to roll in and go over it before we have word, many revisions and much thinking goes into any of our updates. I don't think any one update can answer all your questions but we do read these comments and are aware of what's on people's minds. If it's not addressed in the coming update, don't think that means we're unaware Hope all is well for everyone! Thomas

I'll just chime in that Thomas just did a great internal write-up on some of our plans on gameplay fundamentals... don't want to talk just now on exactly what, but we're indeed passing things around and hopefully will have more to share soon. - Eric

Don't worry guys, we're not sitting still and we hear you on some of the things we need to talk about more. We're going to have more updates this week (but likely not today) and we'll try to get more into the meat of things as we go forward. If we're being quiet it's because we're grinding away at it, heck, I'm working on things right now (midnight!) to get more to you guys, and I'm not sleeping until I've done my part. @Stathis The photos from the musical band are counted as one group picture Thomas

 

[mindx2]

New update is out:

#11
Let’s Talk Classes and Races
Posted by inXile entertainment
Hello again Exiles!

First off, don’t forget today is the last day to take advantage of our inXile Loyalty Rewards promotion!

Before I jump into the meat of this update, we have an awesome new piece of concept art to show you:

The castle of the High Jarl of the Einarr. When you arrive, the selkies, corrupted by the skull of a dead god sunk deep in the waters of the firth, have laid seige to it, demanding from the Jarl an ancient reliquary that holds the rest of the old god's bones.

The housekarls have put up a valiant fight, but their ranks are thinning. Each night the selkies sing another one into the sea and lure him to his death. You could be next.

How long can you hold your breath?

Now, we want to take a moment to talk a bit of design in this update. One of the more interesting challenges in running a Kickstarter comes in talking about design and details of the game before we’re truly in production. Our goal in pre-production is to identify a unified core vision for the game, and then the details are hashed out and iterated on during the following months and years. That’s why Brian has always worked with vision documents as it gives your game a solid foundation.

One challenge in fully describing the game is there is no one game we can point to that says “it’s just like that”, as we could for Torment: Tides of Numenera in Planescape: Torment, for example. We're drawing from many, many influences which of course include the original trilogy, but also the many RPGs that have come since then.

For instance, to give you a better sense of the world, in exploration (the focus of our in-engine video), The Bard’s Tale IV will be reminiscent of Legend of Grimrock and other dungeon crawlers with a heavy focus on detailed and interactive environments, in-the-world puzzles, and blockades you have to pass. But, similar to the original Bard’s Tale series, we are designing our levels in a non-linear fashion so you might not always be able to pass an obstacle as soon as you come across it. We love the sense of discovery and challenge this provides.

In combat, The Bard’s Tale IV will have a similar feel to first-person phase-based combat games going all the way back to The Bard’s Tale I all the way up to Might & Magic X – Legacy. While we can draw a connection to the combat of those games, we’re going to heavily improve on many aspects of that style of combat system. One example of this is by decoupling the animations from the inputs. Once you’ve learned your characters, it will allow you to play at a quicker pace, without having to wait for the same 5 second fireball animation to finish before you can make your next move. We’ll have more to say on combat in future updates.

But let’s talk about one element of the game’s heart. What is your party made up of?

Character Classes
If you are unfamiliar with the original The Bard’s Tale trilogy, it used a class-based character system, meaning the “Class” or profession of your characters was one of the first things you could choose. There were ten different classes in the first The Bard’s Tale, eight of which could be picked from the start: Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Bard, Hunter, Monk, Conjurer and Magician.

With Chris “The Director” Keenan taking point on all things design, we absolutely want to bring back each of these classes. Many of the character class concepts from the original trilogy serve as a great base to make them interesting and unique. Each character class will have a very distinct role that they play, with the ability for you to make decisions along the way on how you want to tweak and modify their core class abilities. We want to give you more freedom in how you put together a party, so you’re not dictated a specific balance in melee or ranged, in weapons or magic, and you’re not required to take certain classes. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every party make-up is as viable as the next. A healthy mix is encouraged.

Each class has a unique function within the party, though that comes with some flexibility depending on the class. Some, like Warrior, Monk or Paladin, are best taking the direct approach, jumping straight into the fray, but their particular role in that position is unique for each. Warriors can use just about any weapons or armor and do very well taking and dealing as much damage as possible. Monks will embrace a bit of a unique combat concept, where they will continue to get stronger as fights or even dungeon exploration progresses, making them more powerful the more you push on (incidentally discouraging rest spamming!). Finally Paladins (with requisite +1 Holy Sword) serve as your faithful shield, protecting the party and providing various status modifiers to your party or enemies. It will be fun to explore more of these concepts with you moving forward.

In addition to the starting eight classes, we will be expanding the class roster. For example: currently we’re adding a Cleric, who will be a master of the healing arts, able to use restorative blessings. While not usually one of the main damage dealers, they can be surprisingly effective when fighting the undead and dark magics.

One of the more interesting notions in the original trilogy was the idea of magic users starting out as Conjurers or Magicians but evolving into different types later on, like the Archmage. Never fear, this is another concept we fully intend to maintain and expand to cover more classes, but that’s a giant system that we will save for a later update.

Character Races
The original Bard’s Tale games also let you pick a race for your characters, a system we plan to return and expand upon. Your race choice will be represented in gameplay modifiers, though we intend to do so in a way that avoids forcing you towards a set of particular race/class combos.

One of those expansions will be that the races you pick will have an influence in certain spots in the game, with NPCs reacting to the presence of a Trow in your group in certain, perhaps not always favorable ways. Some options may open or close to you depending on who you have in your party. As you know, we're huge fans of reactivity in our games, and that's one way we can use the character system to add more depth.

Speaking of the Trow, we’re looking to make some new additions to the roster of races based on the specific lore of The Bard’s Tale IV. The Trow is one such example of a mythological creature from Orkney Island folkloric tradition that we’re making available as a playable race.

As you may be able to tell from all the above, we’re not looking to make The Bard’s Tale IV a simpler game than its predecessors. We’ll have clever ways to introduce you to the game’s systems and ease into it for newer players, but if you are the type who loves building a full roster of heroes, carefully going over the options and considering your possibilities and spending hours to craft your perfect party, then The Bard’s Tale IV is very much the game for you!

Shout-Out
We wanted to give a shout-out to the fascinating We Happy Few Kickstarter. Very close to funding with about a week left to go, We Happy Few is a game of paranoia and survival where you are trying to escape a drug-fueled town in an alternative history 1964 England, where the best way to survive is to conform to the drug-induced forced happiness of the townsfolk. With a fantastic art style and unique theme, this is one we think you'll want to check out.

And More
We are right on the edge of passing our next stretch goal: Enhanced Crafting! We’re excited to explore the possibilities of creating functional items through crafting, and that’ll be fun to talk about more later as well.

Your social media support has also continued to be epic, and you have unlocked more achievements! We have passed 20K likes on Facebook, unlocking yet another room in our dungeon. Views of our in-engine video are getting closer and closer, too, perhaps the next one to fall? Don’t forget to read the full story of our dungeon on our Tumblr, too!

But those social media likes aren't the only thing that you guys have been contributing. We've got some awesome new song submissions from some of our backers – with a cappella, folk instrumentation and some really great costumes, these guys are true bards! Check them out here:

• Chris Finch – Bardic Song
• Truth or AAAAA! - Our Version of the C64 Version of the Bard's Tale III Version of "Sir Robin's Tune"
• Knejt – Here’s to the bard

Last, we've passed 30,000 backers, which is awesome! For reference, that’s nearing to half of what the record-holding Bloodstained Kickstarter ended up totaling. If you’d told me a year ago a dungeon crawler Kickstarter could do so well I would have called you as mad as Tarjan, yet here we are and still rolling forward. Keep kicking butt!

We have some big news cooking to kick off next week, so keep your eyes on our Kickstarter, and have a great weekend!

Thomas Beekers
Associate Producer/Designer – The Bard’s Tale IV
@thomasbeekers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/

This sounds like they've dumped the iso-camera combat and will stay 1st person? sea Brother None? If so that's a positive direction but still nothing on number of party members...

 

[Infinitron]

It'll probably make the next stretch goal by Sunday.

 

[mindx2]

This one seems to be inching along...

 

[Themadcow]

Word needs to get out via more traditional methods for people my age, like telegram or carrier pigeon. I'm sure that most people who remember BT fondly have been waiting for this project since the Wasteland 2 campaign and would have already pledged to WL, Pillars or Torment so had seen emails from those KS campaigns when BT4 launched. All in all I'd be amazed if it did anything other than trickle along now.

Hell, the fact that BT didn't even make the Codex top 50 (aka pointless popularity contest) goes to show how distanced the average 90's / 00's RPG'er is to the franchise.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I love Bard's Tale, but i thought it was too easy.

 

[Infinitron]

http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/fairy-host-dungeon

Room 13 Unlocked: You pile the treasure you already won onto the cart, and push it into the next room, which is blissfully empty of berserkers. The cart barely moves.

“It’s too heavy,” says Anders. “We’ll have to come back for it."

"Never!” cries Shanko. “I’ll die before I leave the loot behind!"

"That’s a distinct possibility,” says Fiona.

“You want to bring it along,” says Galli. “You push it."

The rest of you cross to door in the far wall as Shanko struggles to move the cart. He gives up and rejoins you just as you figure out how to open it. "Fine,” he says, “But if all our loot is gone when we get back, I’m blaming you."

As the door slides aside, you hear the singing again, far in the distance.

"Twice,” says Lioslaith. “Once more and we are doomed.”

You don’t tell her you’ve already heard it three times.

Room 14 Unlocked: Stepping into the room you see another party of adventurers stepping into it from the far side, and you go on guard. So do they. They’re a rough looking bunch - a shady looking trow, a gaunt mage, a dwarf with an oft-broken nose, a female bard in ragged armor, and a Fichti spear daughter.

“It’s a mirror!” laughs Fiona.

“Aye,” says Galli. “But how do we get through it.”

“Easy!” says Shanko, and hurls a dagger at it.

The dagger bounces off, and the mirror remains unscratched. Everybody else gives it a try too. Not one of you can damage it in the slightest.

“Wait a minute,” says Fiona. “This reminds me of an old song.” She sings it. “‘If you see yourself acomin’, ago the other way.’”

“But we’ve been that way,” says Shanko.

“Humor me,” says Fiona, and leads you back to the door you just came through. There are runes on it, but they’re reversed.

“You may be on to something,” say Anders. “These runes are a translation of the line you just sang.”

On a hunch, Fiona sings the next line of the song, “For if you let you touch you, you’ll not live another day.”

The door swings open.

 

[Infinitron]

Funds are coming in steady. It'll make the stretch goal tonight.

 

[Volourn]

The second KS I've backed.

 

[Volourn]

L0L Out of the all the stuff you KSed, the only two I know I would like are the two I KSed. So, I trust my judgement (even if I 'overpaid' for PE. ) R00fles! All that other shit you KSed looks like shit.

 

[Infinitron]

Stretch goal achieved: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/1276496

MCA stretch goal incoming?

 

[t]

Sounds like it.

 

[Alienman]

All those people that they hire when they reach certain stretch goals... are those guys all freelance?

Never quite understood that. At 1 million dollars we will get this and that guy!

I mean, they must have been contacted before hand? Sorry, we didn't reach a million bucks, no job for you!

 

[Infinitron]

All those people that they hire when they reach certain stretch goals... are those guys all freelance?

Yes, and fairly famous/successful besides. Don't worry, they won't go hungry.

 

[Alienman]

All those people that they hire when they reach certain stretch goals... are those guys all freelance?

Yes, and fairly famous/successful besides. Don't worry, they won't go hungry.

I see. Good to know

 

[mindx2]

Thanks MCA for sure!!

#12
Enhanced Crafting Achieved!
Posted by inXile entertainment
Hello Exiles!

You guys surprise us yet again! Just a quick update before the weekend begins so that we can say: YOU DID IT! Our $1.35 million stretch goal has been achieved thanks to both Kickstarter and PayPal funding, which pushes us well past the goal!

Thanks to your ongoing support, we will be adding our Enhanced Crafting System to The Bard's Tale IV! Just look at how happy you've made this Trow:

We couldn't be more stoked, and can't wait to talk more to you about our plans for item interactions and the way crafting fits into that.

Also just a quick reminder that our inXile Loyalty Rewards promo will be ending tonight at 12:00 AM PST, so there's not much time left! If you are a returning backer from Torment or Wasteland 2 and want to pick up some extra goodies for backing The Bard's Tale IV, now is your last chance! More details are available on this page if you want the full rundown.

That's all for now, but we'll be back next week with more to share with you...

Eric Schwarz,
Line Producer
@searanox

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

 

[mindx2]

It's official.

#13
Chris Avellone! Colin McComb!
Posted by inXile entertainment
Hello Exiles!

Some exciting news today. You asked for him, now help us get him, the one and only Chris Avellone!!

* Actual Chris Avellone may not resemble the wizard from our in-engine video.
If you’re not familiar with Chris, he and I go back together to the mid-90s when he worked on the legendary cRPGs Planescape: Torment (as Lead Designer) and Fallout 2. Afterwards he co-founded Obsidian Entertainment and was the Creative Director. There he worked on many of their games, including being the Lead Designer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and a senior designer on Fallout: New Vegas. We have very successfully worked with him before on Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, a co-operation that is still ongoing to the joy of both parties!

Chris’ involvement will be locked in the moment we pass the $1.9 million mark on the Kickstarter, where he’ll be designing the Cairn of Horrors, an all new dungeon built from the worst things that live in the imagination of Chris Avellone. The Cairn has one purpose, and that purpose is to kill you. Here’s what Chris had to say:

"I owe my career to seeing Bard's Tale II on a Commodore 64 at a friend's house. When I saw the streets of Skara Brae up and running (gasp - in simulated 3D! And in color!), I suddenly realized I didn't have to be the game master all the time in order to get my RPG fix, there was finally someone out there who had done the formidable job of creating a digital dungeon master for RPG aficionados with the same amount of lazy players as I had. So I have Brian Fargo to thank three times - first for the game itself (and all the Interplay RPGs I played to follow, including Bard's Tale I, Bard's Tale III, and Wasteland), second, for hiring me at Interplay, and third, for asking me to be a part of Bard's Tale IV - with your support, I hope we can make it happen!"

Additionally, at that funding level we’ll also make representations of your characters in your inventory screen and you’ll be able to see the gear, clothing and equipment they’re wearing, rather than a paper doll.

Along with Chris, we’re also bringing back the second Designer of Planescape: Torment and Creative Lead of Torment: Tides of Numenera, the inestimable Colin McComb! He will join our team at $1.7 million, designing a dungeon set in the Realm of the Elves, because we all know no one has mastered the craft of the Elves as Colin has. We’ll also be expanding the game further by adding another new wilderness area, the Wilds of Lestras.

About the Realm of Elves (Coill)
The elves do not live in the world of men, and generally only come to it for sport, to toy with humans and sometimes to kidnap them. This is youthful shenanigans. Older, wiser elves leave the humans alone, for they remember a time, at the dawn of things, when elves and men lived in harmony until the men fell under the maddening influence of the Famhairaen and tried to slaughter as many elves as they could. The elves don't blame humans for their madness, but they remain wary of them, afraid that they could once again fall prey to insanity. While the elves can pass freely from their realm into the land of men, men can only enter Coill by elven invitation.

About the Wilds of Lestras
Caith's neighbor to the south and often its enemy, the Kingdom of Lestras is the home of the Lestradae, a culturally homogenous people, united under one religion and one king, but strongly divided by class. The border between Caith and Lestras is wild country. It is home to outcasts from both countries as well as those who still worship the memory of the most famous of the Lestradae, the Archmage Lagoth Zanta.

I’m so very proud of this all-star cast of writing, design, art and music we’re putting together for our game. Now it’s a matter of how many more people join our campaign to build these glorious RPGs!

Xounts
One of our high-level reward for $2,000 and $5,000 backers was a unique one: the Xounts Up speaker with The Bard’s Tale IV Style. If you never heard of Xounts, their Xounts Up is an All In One sound system plus light tower. It is one central audio system that covers your entire room with deep, high-quality sound (they sent us a prototype and we were impressed!), while the customizable style lets you make the right fit for your living room. Here’s a look at the The Bard’s Tale IV style:

They recently informed us they will be launching their own Kickstarter very soon, Tuesday 30 of June at noon CET! If you’re in one of the lower tiers but still interesting in checking out Xounts, keep an eye open, they may even have a special promotion just for you...

Matt Chat Interview
One last thing! I joined Matt Barton on his excellent Matt Chat show to talk about The Bard’s Tale IV, answer questions from fans, discuss the Kickstarter campaign, and of course, the game itself. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9V4IcKj7Ts
Matt has done a great service for the RPG community over the years and I'm excited as always to be back on his show.

Brian Fargo,
Leader in Exile

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/

 

[DosBuster]

Worst things in Chris Avellone's mind?

Heh, is inXile taking a shot over the whole Durance/GM thing. Jokes aside, he's the one I suspect who's the most fucked up in the head, so this'll be good.

 

[Lord Andre]

Damn it ! My wallet is getting raped once again...

 

[t]

I honestly find announcement of CMcC joining the team way more exciting.

 

[Sceptic]

I owe my career to seeing Bard's Tale II on a Commodore 64 at a friend's house. When I saw the streets of Skara Brae

BT2 doesn't have Skara Brae