Thanks for the heads up I did sign up a while ago and should get a copy of Wasteland but never received an email that the rewards are ready.
They already have our email addresses from the Kickstarter so why should we even have to register on their site? I don’t feel like agreeing to their Terms of Service or their Privacy policies and shouldn’t have to. Why can’t they email the Kickstarter backers their keys instead of all the hassle?
I didn’t have to register, since I already registered with them for Torment. So for the Bard’s Tale site, I just had to use my email and password from the Torment site.
People don’t usually email steam keys. You typically reclaim them through what is probably just a UI built on top of the steam APIs. Sometimes that’s done via 3rd party (e.g. Humble Store) sometimes not (as is the case with BT IV); in most cases some form of registration is required. I can’t recall the last time I was emailed a steam key (I mean I’m sure it’s happened on smaller projects).
It really wasn’t much hassle. I just used the separate “spam” email account I have for signing up for websites and stuff and the required information was limited to a name, email address and agreeing to terms of service, so not really a big deal. Once I verified my new account with them via the email, I was able to quickly unlock all my rewards and could download them or see Steam keys. Took maybe 3 minutes total.
Also, both the emulated version of the original Bard’s Tale Trilogy and the new remastered version look like they are available for download in the rewards section as well. I believe anyone who purchased the game via Kickstarter at any level is eligible to receive those rewards.
New combat trailer released today:
Looks beautiful and everyone appears to be Scottish. Only thing I didn’t like is the speed of the combat animations. If there are lots of encounters then this could become tedious.
Ha, so it will take something from the Bard’s Tale ARPG from a few years back. Awesome.
Good Christmas. Are all the combats going to be that reactive? The dialog from the one creature when the rest got shrunk was an awesome touch, as was the reaction to getting attacked psionically. The mechanics seem interesting as well, and I thought how it worked with the characters facing away when they are doing their attacks, but facing towards you when you select an action (or for out of combat dialog) was a nice twist. Lots of nice twists there.
Yikes, that’s an understatement. Especially with all the “fluff” reactions. I mean, yes, watching the goblin (or whatever that was) taunt his shrunken teammates is funny. The 25th time you watch it happen, I doubt it will be funny any more. That combat was significantly longer than it needed to be.
And the characters turning around/not turning around based on what they were doing . . ugh.
Looks gorgeous. I’m sure? there will be a quick combat option.
I like what I see in that video, other than the UI. I’m glad they’re still working on it because all those neon blue lines really feel out of place in a fantasy game.
Until I saw that video, I had no idea that this was going to be a mainline-Might & Magic-style first person party-based turn-based RPG. There’s not enough of those around, so I’m pretty happy with that revelation. I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention back when I backed this project, but it’s a pleasant surprise.
It looks like the backer alpha is starting. Did anyone pledge at that level?
I got an email there was an update (I didn’t pledge for it though, so this may be old news) about Magic and wizards in the game. I didn’t read it, but I like the animations and the way it looks! I’ll read it tomorrow morning before I go for my run, it’s sleepy time now.
Damn, I haven’t followed this at all, but some of what they are doing looks incredibly cool, e.g. puzzle weapons. The grid-based combat is maybe the closest thing I’ve seen to Enchanted Arms (my favorite rpg combat of all time). Now if only the grid was another row on each side and you had room to move around a bit…
Looks like the beta is started now? I saw a note on Facebook, but I didn’t even back the game so I’m not in the loop.
It also has a release date, which is news to me, of 9/18/18 - just a few days after Dragon Quest XI drops, but it’s not like I won’t enjoy having a cool RPG to dive into after I wrap up DQ11 for sure, plus it will only get better with post-release patches.
Anyone playing the beta?
Yes.
I’m hard stuck in Kylearan’s Basement right now, with a “half puzzle” blocking my way forward (rather, 3 of them each blocking a way forward). I have four characters, including my initially rolled character (I chose practitioner) and one I hand-rolled myself (Dwarf Fighter). You start with you and a dude who quickly joins up, but later leads. He gives you a quest that introduces you to 3 pre-=made characters (eventually), a dward fighter (replaced, because at a lower level my dude has much better HP), a. . . gremling thingy dude Rogue, and an Elf practitioner. Note that for a spell it is the four of you, but you’re actually capped at 3 active party members for a bit. The game doesn’t care that you are technically violating it’s rules; a plot reason will take one of the 3 (you select which) away from you and around that time you acquire the means to expand the party to 4 (it can eventually go to 6).
You can’t roll your own characters (sans the starting character) until you get special tokens to do so. Again, these come somewhat early (I think it was after that event I just mentioned).
Mechanically it’s. . . ok so far. The combat grid is small and while movement powers seem useful it’s so small that I wonder if it will hinder them more in the long run. Stats are simple: Strength, Con, Int. The former directly impacts your damage although there’s formulas at work in the case of many abilities (non visibile formulas; e.g. currently my mage has 12 strength and she has a bolty spell that can hit two squares in the column in front of her but it does 6 physical damage. Previously when I had 8 strength it did 4). Con directly equals HP and so far this is the only way to get hp. The skill trees provide opportunities to get more stats and every piece of EQ has at least one stat bonus (excepting trinkets, which have other uses). Many have more than 1, and can have powers that impact how abilities work. To wit, my dwarf fighter is still level 3 but has 25 hp, 5 more than the guy who was level 6-7 that I chose to go do that other thing (his name is Daeglish I think). Part of that was my fault (I didn’t realize we weren’t getting hp on level up at first).
Abilities have all sorts of different targeting. Some stuff only in front of you, some only in a row on the grid, some will hit multiple cells, etc. Some abilities have a charge time. You can get interrupted (mental damage does this; the mage has an early ability that does mental damage and maces have a skill that does mental damage). many (but not all) mage abilities cost mana which you have to generate. Meditating will do it (a skill), but there are other skills that boost mana generation (e.g. one gives you +1 mana every turn; another gives a chance to get mana on spell crit). I don’t know what determines size of mana pool but it’s sort of irrelevant right now. I mean I can’t cast anything that costs more than 4 mana.
Some of the skill trees are varied. An additional “npc mage” guy joined my party for something and he’s specializing in the ?spellblade? tree, using magic to do fancy dagger attacks and such. Where as my gal is just a blaster for now, and these are different trees. Fighters have a more traditional offense, defense, “command”, and everyone gets crafting (mages get 5 trees). I miss the taunt ability right now (which it turns out is bugged; you can target outside of it’s range) and I think that’s in command so that’s next for him. It pulls someone to right in front of him.
Armor straight blocks physical damage 1 for 1. This is problematic if you can’t shred armor (basic sword ability does), as I learned. There’s a “con” system and yellows are sometimes ok. When the yellow encounter is 3 dudes with 8 AC each, no you are fucked sorry (you only shred 3 per strike, and they hit really hard and have like 40+ hp to boot). So I hope more gear, leveling, etc makes that easier down the road. I simply don’t have the ability to do enough alternate damage to deal with those guys at this time.
Exploring under Skara Brae has been pretty good. I’ve already got 5, uh, powers/songs/what have you that aid in exploration. Well, really 4 (one has a very specific use). I can break cracked walls, fix broken stuff like bridges, find uh. . . gremlin dude thingy caches. I’ve already found several types of puzzle and most of them are pleasant. The stuck spot invovles riddle-like puzzles that are forcing me to guess what to sacrifice to a pedestal and so far that’s not going well (and they’re not really riddles). But there’s kind of cool “moving gear” puzzles you play with to get doors open (fairly simple so far, but I found one that I have to find gears for), some weird glowy trees with riddles also looking for some sort of sacrifice, an actual Puzzle Weapon, and then good old exploration.
The way the stats work seems a touch bland to me. Also, most but not all of the good gear I have seen has been in stores (and straddles affordability thresholds or blows right pass them, early on). But I’m so early in the game that I’m not sure that’s an actual concern. Exploration under and in Skara Brae has looped back on itself in several ways and I’ve had lots of future secrets/content/etc teased already. There are consumables you need to stock up on if you want to keep on keepin on. I’ve found 3 or 4 grapple hook points already, my thief has run out of caltrops (this is a good ability too!), I keep making food to keep the party topped off. Etc.
Lots of people are singing stuff whenever I enter populated areas and the songs all sound amazing. They put a lot into this aspect and I was fairly blown away. No bard right now sadly (running 2x mage, rogue, fighter; IS uspect the other npc mage will drift off after I help him and I’ll roll a bard then).
Couldn’t figure out what to do with the puzzle weapon from a park bench so re-loaded and I’ll return to it at some point. No idea how long the beta goes.
I think it’s shaping up to be good.
I have to say, between the little bit of footage I picked up on YouTube earlier today, and your write-up, I’m pretty enthused. Thanks for taking the time to put that all together, it basically answered all my questions. It seems like there is some room to improve, but most of the mechanics and gameplay (as you described them) clicked with me pretty darn well. Let us know if you come with any further thoughts or opinions! Or screenshots!
Oh I will, and I’ll grab some screen shots. I didn’t realize we would eventually pack a party of six and this is exciting. I will say the, uh, “action pointy thingy” system has left me puzzled once. I have 4 points right now, once for each member. I’ve never had less than 3, even with two members. At one point I had 3 points with 4 party members. I don’t know what caused me to go to 4 but a tutorial window says the # will increase over time from a variety of factors.
I’m not sure I like it. Yes, you can potentially do multiple things with a single person and this is useful sometimes (you’re thinking Bravely Default all of a sudden, and that’s not entirely wrong although not entirely right either). I like the Bravely system but for this I think I prefer something more. . . traditional. But I don’t exactly dislike it either. Some abilities have extended cooldowns (all abilities have a min “1 round” cooldown meaning you can only use it once during a round, but it’s ready again next round), so the system does pave the way for further flexibility as your little party of murder hobos grows in power (and gets more skills).
Oh, yeah, about dem skills. Active skills have to be equipped and weapon determines the # of active slots you get. Have not seen more than 3 in the early going but this is already chafing on my mages and the fighter. Hopefully there are more slots down the road. But the puzzle sword I got is my fighter’s best 1h sword option (+6 strength, a bounty!) but only has 2 slots and I’m like “fuuu”. Just three "u"s, that’s right.
The way the stats work is simply not entirely to my taste. But the system is easy to grok and it’s easy to make a lot of gear decisions, as I no doubt will be making.
Interesting. Thanks for the additional details!
I did read on-screen during character creation on the video I watched earlier that one of the races (it sounds like you have one in your party, the Trowl or whatever, little goblin dudes) when they score a kill your party gets another Opportunity (triggers only once per turn). That may be why you have an extra one sometimes?
I like the idea of allowing everyone to act once, assuming you eventually have 6 points I guess, but choosing to have (for instance) your mage dump all his mana into several castings of a spell or something that you know will just end the fight, or letting a healer drop 2 heal spells when needed. I’m cautiously optimistic that the system (once you wrap your head around it) could prove to be the difference between a decent combat system and one that really has legs as the game warms up.