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

[BlackGoat]

Do they think that pulsing/boucing shit the characters do is cute or something?

 

[LESS T_T]

About fucking time: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2115177

Looks like they edited in this piece after published the update:

The Bard in 2018
Now that we're in 2018, a number of you have asked "when" this year you can expect to see the game. We're happy to announce that the game should be out in Q3 of this year. We're looking forward to getting the game to you (with alpha (soon!) and beta access to those backers along the way)!

 

[Zombra]

Do they think that pulsing/boucing shit the characters do is cute or something?

Believe it or not, there are people who say they like it. They're outnumbered by people with good taste, but they are out there. Worse than that, their UI artists are apparently married to this stupid idea, or maybe Fargo said he thought it'd be cute so now they have to do it no matter how bad it looks, so I gave up on trying to get it removed entirely and now I'm just asking for a toggle in the options menu. If you have an inXile forum account please support the idea by politely replying to this post with a "yeah I don't want that either". We know they're reading that thread, not so sure they're reading this one.

 

[imweasel]

The game is actually turning out nicer than I expected.

The pulsating avatars do really stick out. It doesn't really bother me, but an option to turn it off would be nice.

 

[agris]

that spaceship UI with the grid.. and the avatars turning... what have i done

 

[d1r]

Didn't expect the UI to be that JRPG-y.

I like it nontheless.

 

[Jarpie]

I wonder what's happening with the remastered original trilogy, was it cancelled?

 

[Zombra]

I wonder what's happening with the remastered original trilogy, was it cancelled?

Never cancelled, never finished either. No particular reason to think it will ever be finished.

 

[Sacred82]

I wonder what's happening with the remastered original trilogy, was it cancelled?

Never cancelled, never finished either. No particular reason to think it will ever be finished.

A tranny's pride.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Fargo scammed a tranny. He has no soul.

 

[theSavant]

I have forgotten how terrible this really is. Watched again the animated gifs from the update and agree with Zombra... the swinging, flipping, pulsating, throbbing, wobbling, jittering characters are stupid. And I'm pretty sure they will become annoying in the long run. Also that 2.5D camera perspective looks innovative at first, but it just plays out wrong. I think they went for this approach because they wanted the view to be "intuitive" and "realistic". But all this innovation falls apart with this:

1) Character (i.e. female Bard) has turned her back towards us
2) you select her -> she flips around
3) you command her to play an attack song -> she plays song... but looking at you instead of looking at the enemies

Why does she look at me? If it were "intuitive" and "realistic", she would have to flip around again first (because she must face the enemies) and afterwards play that song (so we see her back swinging around...). Of course that would look stupid as well, but it were more logical. After all they put so much effort in making a tactical grid with our party members facing the enemies.... so let's stay realistic. But nope, it's like she plays that song only for us... how cute
Now I also re-watched that Combat Demo from last year and it's the same shit: your melee attacker always looks at you while he attacks the enemy. Wtf? So he fights the enemies with hands on his back? Yeah... so how is that logical?




I don't see how this is better or "more intuitive" or "more realistic" than 2 simple rows with character portraits always facing you. This just produces more confusion, weirdness, illogicality.

Must be a nightmare for the developers to program such a weird system instead of going the established approach...

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think it's meant to be realistic at all. The character faces you to indicate that that's the currently active character. You guys are way overthinking this, it's just trying to be intuitive in a silly/cute way. These character portraits should be understood in the same spirit as the goofy faces of oldschool Might & Magic games.

 

[Sacred82]

what would be the point of looking at the back of your characters' heads all the time? Ancient static portraits would be better than that.

 

[theSavant]

it's just trying to be intuitive in a silly/cute way. These character portraits should be understood in the same spirit as the goofy faces of oldschool Might & Magic characters.

Yeah... but... this is not the Bard's Tale 4 I wanted:

 

[imweasel]

what would be the point of looking at the back of your characters' heads all the time? Ancient static portraits would be better than that.

The attacking character faces the player and the other characters face the enemy while waiting for their turn. I think that is what bothers him. I'm fine with it, but maybe the concept is a bit too abstract.

 

[Zombra]

I don't think it's meant to be realistic at all.

It's neither fully realistic nor not realistic. It's blatant committee design. Let's have the characters facing the enemies as if they're "really" standing there, but then do a bunch of other wacky things to ruin that illusion, such as make them face away from the enemies when taking action.

I think they should do it in the Might & Magic style instead ... in M&M it's clear that the portraits are UI only and not "part of the world". There is no such clarity here.

 

[Dorateen]

"part of the world".

I think you put your finger on it there. InXile's two recent games are Wasteland 2 and Torment, both isometric, right? It seems to me they are designing Bard's Tale IV to appeal to their mainstream audience. The idea of a line up of stationary portraits representing the party members is too abstract, and must seem alien to them.

 

[imweasel]

It is just player feedback. The character facing the player is taking commands, which is a concept that everyone and his mom can understand.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

They praise their direct relationship with their audience, how kickstarter/fug just lets them have a dialogue with their customers directly etc, yet they can't explain a simple fucking decision about those portraits. Let the person who took that decision just explain his point of view, that's not complicated. Just fucking do it.

Can you repost it on their forums or smth? Maybe they're not 100% hypocrites and will answer?

 

[Kz3r0]

The bouncing blue balls are annoying.
I don't see the problem with the character facing you when active.
Severe case of consolitis by the way.

 

[Zombra]

They praise their direct relationship with their audience, how kickstarter/fug just lets them have a dialogue with their customers directly etc, yet they can't explain a simple fucking decision about those portraits. Let the person who took that decision just explain his point of view, that's not complicated. Just fucking do it.
Can you repost it on their forums or smth? Maybe they're not 100% hypocrites and will answer?

It's true that their communication has always been pretty crap, but this "all they have to do is write an article explaining this one thing" is ridiculous. Really? If they explain this one decision then you'll be satisfied and never ask anything again? Or will you continue to expect a formal response every time you feel the urge to complain about anything? There's a reason you don't see weekly updates for any video game kickstarter ever.

Seriously man, if you haven't figured out by now that Brian Fargo isn't returning all our phone calls like he said he would, you're about five years behind the rest of us.

 

[Infinitron]

Well you don't need Fargo. sea is pretty responsive on the inXile forums, somebody should try to ask.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Active character faces the player so the player knows who is the active character. I don't see what the problem is exactly.

 

[Infinitron]

Active character faces the player so the player knows who is the active character. I don't see what the problem is exactly.

They just think it's dissonant that the characters face towards the enemy (unlike in standard blobbers) ostensibly for the sake of realism, yet when they perform their attack animations they face towards the player.

 

[Zombra]

Well you don't need Fargo. sea is pretty responsive on the inXile forums, somebody should try to ask.

Sure. sea does give some good feedback from time to time; usually he posts in spurts and answers 3 or 4 threads at once, then disappears again. I can tell you for sure he is already aware of the complaints about the portraits and our constant desire for dev feedback on this (and every other) issue. Our ideal is to be able to say "Hey devs! What did you have for lunch today and why?" and get a comprehensive answer within a couple hours ... but they're not going to do that. Even with a dedicated community manager, these guys need to pick their battles. I think I'm the #1 most vocal opponent of the "butterfly portraits", and even I don't expect them to drop everything to make an apologetic public statement about what after all is a cosmetic issue.

What's actually happening with this: they released the update, they read the responses, they saw some people who don't like the animations and some that do. They'll consider at least some of the posts on the board and the ks comments, they'll take that feedback back to the art team and the decision makers, they'll continue to tweak things, and next update we'll see something (slightly or radically) different based on that feedback. Nobody knows yet how all this is going to end up, so there's no point in making a formal response beyond "We're reading the threads", which they do reiterate frequently.

Imagine we did manage to "force summon" sea and get a reply out of him. Would anyone expect him to say anything but "It's still in development and not final. We're reading all your feedback. Thank you for your input" ?