What a pleasant surprise and indeed an odd turn of events about the remasters. It looks superb, like a proper remaster. It also looks like a game from 1995, so I really hope that Krome Studios won't go out of business, due to nostalgia being unreliable to sell, in fact I'm hoping they will finish remastering all of the classic trilogy. Especially looking forward to BT3!
Great job so far Krome Studios, keep up the good work and the best of Lucklaran to you!
Q: What races will be playable in BT4? The Trow have been mentioned as a new race, but what others are confirmed?
A: Dwarves, Elves, and Trow, and there are different variety of Human cultures (Baedish, Fichti, Einarr, and Outlander).
Huh, I would have preferred a bit more diversity and could have sworn I saw a blue half-orc in the demo. Going Scottish, instead of featuring more exotic races, might cost quite a bit of sales for InXile, especially in Japan.
Q: How many of BT4's monsters are from the originals or are directly based on the portraits from the originals?
A: For rank and file enemies, many of them were built to fit the current culture and story of this Bard's Tale. About a third of the monsters are from the original games, and the remaining are new, with most inspired by Scottish folklore and mythology (we covered some of them in a previous update).
I really don't like the sound of "to fit the current culture and story". I'm not sure what that means, but somehow I don't like the sound of it.
On the other hand, one-third sounds great, as long as they are unique BT monsters and not generic ones, like skeletons, berserkers, or giant spiders.
A couple of fan favorites like Herb and the 99 Berserkers make a return!
99 berserkers aren't an unique entity to be honest, they were only interesting due to their numbers, other than that, it is as generic as you can get. Herb wouldn't be that special either, if not for the fact they had a ~75% chance of summoning another Herb each round, leading to an endless fight if you didn't have the firepower. If you had the firepower though, they too could be abused for 65k XP, since each summoned monster was worth full XP, although, looking for illusionists who summoned illusionary dragons, then disbelieving them was more convenient.
Q: How many of BT4's bard songs are from the originals or are directly based on the songs from the originals?
A: The vast majority are songs from the original games... They even sound like the old bard songs.
Glad to hear that. Humming Traveller's Tune already. ; ) But surely, they don't sound 8-bit anymore, I hope your artists whipped out the flutes, mandolins and of course the bagpipes.
Q: Will there be references to the other cities outside of Skara Brae (such as those you visit in The Bard's Tale II)?
A: Yes, there will be references to the other cities outside Skara Brae. You may even get to visit one.
Tangramayne, Ciena Brannia, Celeria Bree, or Black Scar Towne, I wonder which one it is? (I guess the historical ones are out of question.)
Q: Will it be possible to permanently recruit monsters from random encounters?
A: While you will not be able to dominate enemies and have them join your ranks, you will be able to summon and keep a variety of monsters in your party.
Ouch! Farewell Baylor's Spellbinding, my favourite Wizard spell, it's been fun... That means no random recruiting either, yes?
Q: The AP system shown in the alpha seems to be favor smaller parties. Is it still worth bringing more party members?
A: More characters is generally always better (except in a few rare circumstances), as it provides more HP on the battlefield to soak attacks, more abilities to chose from, and more people in the right place at the right time to perform key plays in combat.
Right, but at the same time, this should be compensated by the fact, that having less characters means more XP and loot for each of them.
demeisen wrote: ↑May 17th, 2018, 10:29 am
I share thebruce's hope about restore mechanisms. I still believe it'd be entirely possible to also have long term SP within the BT4 framework as well..
Likewise. The thing is, without long-term spell point management, the cool BT spells either become stupidly owerpowered, or nerfed into MMO-like spell-abilities. BT had a very unique and robust magic-system, which I really don't want to see messed around with and changed too much. And, as we have seen on the backer poll, I'm not alone with that: 4 of the top 5 issues are related to spells and the magic-system itself.
demeisen wrote: ↑May 17th, 2018, 10:29 am
"Luck stones"... we'll have to see. Again not a deal breaker for me, but I'd prefer something more... what's the right word? In-world? Perhaps a combination of inns and designated "safe" places to pitch a camp. "Luck stones" sounds a bit MMO-ish, even if the core mechanic is OK. Merely calling them "camp sites" instead, with a different graphic to match, would help IMO.
Yeah, well, I don't mind a luck stone, or two, but they could vary it up, by adding magical fountains (a'la Wizardry and M&M), faerie rings, shrines (where they sing "Dona Eis Requiem"), and so on. Some things restore HP, some restore SP and yet others do more exotic, or nasty things to you!
Overall, a great, meaty update, the best one so far, plus the awesome remasters progress restored some of my hopes! Good job!
...), so BT4's approach is better. I share thebruce's hope about restore mechanisms. I still believe it'd be entirely possible to also have long term SP within the BT4 framework as well, but since that wasn't in the alpha, and it'd require development effort, which is another way of saying budget, who knows if it''ll happen. At least 1 out of 2 beats 0 out of 2.
Bard's Tale:tBD Code Wheel Utility
My fan art: Scorpitron 2.0
