[Kickstarter] Bard's Tale IV and Bard's Tale Trilogy Remastered by inXile

[stimpy]

Holy moley….are the faint little white squares what everyone is raving about as being an automap?

[Sepiche]

Holy moley….are the faint little white squares what everyone is raving about as being an automap?

heh, If you'd played the original you'd understand.

There's also the full map if you hit 'J'.

[Carpet_pissr]

Yes, you can increase their visibility in SETTINGS (but it was not obvious to me until someone pointed it out).

BTW, I was completely wrong about the dev interaction on the boards. Someone mentioned a bug and 38 minutes later, it was fixed. That happened at least twice, just from the couple of pages of discussion I read on the beta version releasing as default later this week.

SOME of the many changes, if you're interested:

Spoiler:

Audio
Added per-trap sound effects.
Trimmed start of several attack, enemy and spell sounds so that they are a little more snappy.

Controls
Invert mouse now only inverts up/down.
Remove keypress delay between from mid-combat rounds.
Fix automove on cursors (arrows) to work like AWSD automove.
Keyboard autorepeat now only kicks in when in a scrolling list or entering a name.
Keyboard autorepeat is now a shorter initial delay, since its not used for movement.
Add New Party Order (N) key.
Allow KeypadEnter to work like Return key.

Gameplay
Spinners work more like the original. Guarantee to spin you (random can't == 0), spin on turn as well as Move.
Implement the thief dagger and Luck Shield hide in shadows bonuses.
Added Heal Entire Party option to the Temple.
Added Recharge Entire Party option to Roscoes.
Summoned monsters/NPCs no longer soak up combat XP.
Stop onyx keys from dropping in mangars tower.
Treasure now has 25% chance to NOT be in a chest.
Reworked the calculation for starting distances of random monsters.
Fixed monster spells that didn't have a range set.
Fixed problem with script reward items - were getting set to 255 instead of the -1 (which causes random 1..default). Fixes "unlimited" charge items being rather limited.
Archery now uses the hunter crit.
Heal Harp now lets you specify who gets healed.
Dragonshield now usable in combat.
Added aggro to target dummy so it always gets attacked first.
Remove map rotation disorientation at night in the city. Maps only get disoriented in dungeons.
Increase identify trap chance of rogues.
Rogue identify skill now works of intellect rather than dexterity.
Weapon toHit bonus now correctly adds bonus to damage also.
Monster spells should never show up, no matter what level you are at...
Enabled mithril arrows.

Graphics
Fix night and day issue with shadows appearing on buildings from sun below ground.
Fix spell icon positioning in large-view modes.
Change to 2 letter classes in large-view modes.
Fix some day/night shadow artifacts during day->night transition.

Journal
Now records teleports onto the journal and the minimap.
Walls are only discovered in darkness if you run into them.

Misc
Fix typo (Throught) in Longinous text.
Fixed some typos in spell descriptions for ARFI, AIAR, and SHSP.
Fixed missing period at the end of roscoe's energization message.
Fixed target dummy spell description (removed mention of Special Slot since it doesn't exist in remaster).
Fix gender issues in "missed" message.
Made some spell descriptions gender neutral since we don't know if the caster is a male or female.

UI
Added disorentation icon, to let you know that you don't know your direction (for when the minimap starts to not be North = up; in dungeons).
Right click on message scroll now acts as a BACK BUTTON.
Item comparison tooltip now includes unarmed combat - useful for Monks.
Show message when characters jump out of the way of traps.
Item tooltip now shows arrow damage also.
Added some tool tips for races, in character creation.
Added some tool tips for class, in chracter creation.

Ones that stood out to me:

Added Heal Entire Party option to the Temple.
Added Recharge Entire Party option to Roscoes.
Summoned monsters/NPCs no longer soak up combat XP.
Archery now uses the hunter crit.
Increase identify trap chance of rogues.
Rogue identify skill now works of intellect rather than dexterity.

Edit: More changes:

Spoiler:

AUDIO
Updated sounds for undead and Mangar.
Fix for mis-linked Traveller's tune on some instruments playing Waylands.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Fixed the A Song of Fire achievmeent.
Fixed Pile of Gold achievement (was set to 1,000,000 instead of 100,000).
Fixed A Mage's Tale achievement (was accidentally checking archmage spell levels as well; which obviously don't come in to play until BT2).

CRASHES / SOFT LOCKS
Fix catacombs bugs - exiting catacombs without a saved location would end up INSIDE the temple. That can lead to a situation where the saved location becomes 0,0 and the next exit will go to that location.

GRAPHICS
Added "large view mode" for 16:9 aspect ratios. It was already available for 21:9 mode. This can be found in the Gameplay tab of the settings. We still need to make some art adjustments to enable this for 16:10 aspect ratios.
Fix pixel artifact in 3d view frame.
Added gamma brightness setting to the Graphics tab of settings, for those people who need to make things brighter.
Gamma Adjustment

GAMEPLAY
Fix party monsters now cast ally buffs on the party instead of the enemies.
Fix balance issue in spell saves (intelligence and luck are applied a little less).
Stop Ybarra mystical armour and shield from stacking together because it makes the entire team nearly untouchable in combat.
Fix bug where you could use arrows without a bow.
Fix hit ratio for arrows - now relies heavily on dexterity to hit or dodge ranged attacks.
Add combat option to equip/unequip an item to make ranged combat more accessible.
Fix Dragon Wand not working correctly (now does a 20-80 damage group attack).
Fix ConjurStaff not halving spell cost.
Bows can now be equipped alongside melee weapons.
Fixed entering guild was refreshing the UI stats.
Quick Fix healing can now target specials.
Sped up healing in the temples. Allow aborting both parts of the heal. Cut off the chant if you start a new chant.
Fixed some journal screen spells always using the 1st magic caster's spell points.

CONTROLS
add combat delay to stop accidentally spamming through the combat fight/run/advance. Also gives a moment to see what you have left to fight.
Added invert mouse option (inverts both axis) in the settings (Gameplay tab).
Added option in the settings to disable pause on backgrounding the game (Gameplay tab).
Disabled the controller joystick assignment, that shouldn't have been there at all.
Added mouse friendly combat mode - the combat options don't move but just disable/enable instead. There is an option for this in the Gameplay tab of settings.
Added ESDF movement support, with an option to enable this in the Gameplay tab of settings.
Added autorepeat support on pressing forward - holding forward (W or E) down won't enter doors. Tapping forward or using the cursors for movement will still enter doors.
Add automove latch system so we don't start moving instantly on exitting houses.
New Gameplay Settings



UI
Add support for proper-noun enemies, like Mangar, so it won't say "A mangar, or The Manger, or 1 Mangar." it will just say "Mangar".
Add support for "An / A" determination for monsters that start with vowels.
Fix alpha fading on minimap mesh.
Fix some text errors in spells for Word of Healing and Levitation.
Fixed the Bard's Tale (ES) issue on Spanish language PCs.
Fixed the scroll back button, in spell casting.
Fixed the "can't cast" message to be more informative.
Audio volumes now save on using ESC to exit the dialog.

Some of the biggies (IMO):
Fix hit ratio for arrows - now relies heavily on dexterity to hit or dodge ranged attacks.
Add combat option to equip/unequip an item to make ranged combat more accessible.
Bows can now be equipped alongside melee weapons.
Quick Fix healing can now target specials.
Added autorepeat support on pressing forward - holding forward (W or E) down won't enter doors. Tapping forward or using the cursors for movement will still enter doors.
Fix alpha fading on minimap mesh.

Trying to decide whether I should just wait for these to go live later this week, or install the beta. Hmmmmm....

[Isgrimnur]

Invert mouse now only inverts up/down.

[Carpet_pissr]

Holy moley….are the faint little white squares what everyone is raving about as being an automap?

heh, If you'd played the original you'd understand.

This brings up a good point: Stimpy, HAVE you played the original before? I'm not sure I would recommend this version at all to anyone that did not play it back in the day. From a nostalgia perspective, it's a dream. One of my all time fave gaming experiences. But I can't see someone enjoying this as a "standalone" if you know what I mean. Maybe I'm wrong, and in this "remodeled" state it would appeal to first time players, but I don't think so.

[stimpy]

Holy moley….are the faint little white squares what everyone is raving about as being an automap?

heh, If you'd played the original you'd understand.

This brings up a good point: Stimpy, HAVE you played the original before? I'm not sure I would recommend this version at all to anyone that did not play it back in the day. From a nostalgia perspective, it's a dream. One of my all time fave gaming experiences. But I can't see someone enjoying this as a "standalone" if you know what I mean. Maybe I'm wrong, and in this "remodeled" state it would appeal to first time players, but I don't think so.

I have not, but I have played the old Might and Magic games, and enjoyed Grimrock and some of the newer types of these games.
I think I'll like it once I get past the initial learning curve.
Got it for $9 off ebay, so I figured it's worth a shot.

[Carpet_pissr]

Cool - I hope you enjoy it and don't get too frustrated once you get into certain dungeons.

Hell, I'm not sure I won't get frustrated and rage quit if certain situations are as...challenging as I remember.

I just realized we are in the BTIV thread. Should probably move this chatter into a dedicated thread for BT Trilogy remastered, no? How would one go about doing that?

[Max Peck]

I just realized we are in the BTIV thread. Should probably move this chatter into a dedicated thread for BT Trilogy remastered, no? How would one go about doing that?

I initially mentioned it in this thread because the remastered trilogy is one of the BTIV Kickstarter backer rewards, so it's not entirely off-topic.

[Carpet_pissr]

Agreed, but when BT2, 3 AND IV drop, things are gonna get hairy up in here.

[Paingod]

Made a 6-person party. Paladin, Warrior, Monk, Bard, Conjurer, Magician.

Played for 20 minutes and got slaughtered by 7 Barbarians.

I'll have to try again, maybe this time using the Fire Horn instead of trying to sing large groups of enemies into submission.

[ColdSteel]

The firehorn is a game changer. I've found about 4 more of them now that I'm in the catacombs. And two bardswords as well. Everyone is level 11. I pretty much skipped the sewers.

[Smoove_B]

Agreed, but when BT2, 3 AND IV drop, things are gonna get hairy up in here.

I'll just re-name the thread. There's probably not enough volume for a dedicated one, and if people keep this one bumped to talk about the original, that's cool.

[Redfive]

Having never played the original but being active in gaming communities forever I was vaguely aware of the fire horn...option.

That said I didn't implement it until about 3/4 of the way through my 2 hr play session. Talk about making the early levels easier..sheesh.

I dropped a warrior at the beginning of the session last night (the rest of the group was only level 2) and added a 2nd magician so the makeup is now:

1 Paladin
1 Warrior
1 Monk
1 Bard
1 Conjuer
2 Magicians

I got the original bard killed too many times (it gets more expensive to rez them each time) so I finally booted him and recruited a new one.

Every time I start to build a little pool of gold I go and get someone killed and pretty much have to pay it all out to have them rez'd. Also, spell points are a constant challenge--I haven't even dreamed of paying Roscoe for a recharge yet because I just don't have the funds.

I think what I like best so far is that I'm playing and enjoying and looking forward to the next session of a game that is essentially 30+ years old. There have been many periods, in fact the majority of the years since '95 at least, when I could not be bothered to go back to something this old, no matter how much I acknowledge it as a classic.

[Sepiche]

It's definitely got it's warts, but I am honestly surprised at how well the majority of the game holds together. The progression is well paced and solid, the classes are mostly distinct and well thought out, the loot progression feels good.

One cool thing I noticed: if you play a bard song out of combat it plays music in the background, but if you switch your bard's instruments while it's playing, you can actually hear the instrument change.

[morlac]

Cool - I hope you enjoy it and don't get too frustrated once you get into certain dungeons.

Hell, I'm not sure I won't get frustrated and rage quit if certain situations are as...challenging as I remember.

I just realized we are in the BTIV thread. Should probably move this chatter into a dedicated thread for BT Trilogy remastered, no? How would one go about doing that?

If I don't rage quit at least a few times while beating the remaster than they did something wrong. I'm already finding it way easier than I remember with the auto mapping and save anywhere. This is after restarting and NOT fleecing the starting "A Team" especially the Firehorn of Cheating

I have shelved it for right now waiting for the beta patch + maybe one more patch to go live and Legacy mode to be completed.

[morlac]

Made a 6-person party. Paladin, Warrior, Monk, Bard, Conjurer, Magician.

Played for 20 minutes and got slaughtered by 7 Barbarians.

I'll have to try again, maybe this time using the Fire Horn instead of trying to sing large groups of enemies into submission.

You should be running from that encounter until at least lvl 2 or 3. Or just blow the firehorn if ya like

[xenocide]

i'm loving the remake. No way I could play without an automap these days (or I should say "no way I would play without an automap"). That combined with the saves does make it easier but I'm still having a great time.

On level 3 of sewers now. I got sick of my bard a few levels ago. Sure her songs are nice on tough encounters, but she gets less then 10 songs even now that I'm a little higher level. I go through like 30 fights on a dungeon run so that't 20+ fights she does not sing and she sucks at regular combat. I traded her for a second monk and like it much better, the monk is good for all 30 fights. Maybe at higher levels if I have a summoned creature more I will take her back in a back row spot but I don't like having her take up a melee spot. Now I am Warrior, Paladin, Monk, Monk, Mag, Sorc.

[ColdSteel]

I got sick of my bard a few levels ago. Sure her songs are nice on tough encounters, but she gets less then 10 songs even now that I'm a little higher level. I go through like 30 fights on a dungeon run so that't 20+ fights she does not sing and she sucks at regular combat.

The thing about bards is that you keep the traveler's song up at all times, not just in combat. It lasts for something like 600 minutes and reduces the AC of all your troops at all times. You can sing a second song during combat that stacks with that one. Traveler's song is worth it's weight in gold.

As far as song limits go, once you get to the catacombs level 1, you can find a bardsword (I've found 2 there) which allows your bard an unlimited number of songs. I've also found 4 firehorns there and they allow your bard to destroy any single group if you equip it and use it during combat. You can get one at the beginning of the game by taking the one from the pre-rolled bard in the adventurer's guild. So far my bard is the most OP member of my party.

[JCC]

I would pay full price for these guys to redo Ultima III or IV. Full price, I say!

I highly doubt any Ultima remake is ever coming, but I don't think III or IV need remakes. The Ultimas I would most like to be remade are the two Ultima Underworld games. I couldn't stand them even in back in the day due to the shittiness of the UI/controls. I would LOVE a modern remake. I wish Underworld Ascendant came with such remakes.

[morlac]

I got sick of my bard a few levels ago. Sure her songs are nice on tough encounters, but she gets less then 10 songs even now that I'm a little higher level. I go through like 30 fights on a dungeon run so that't 20+ fights she does not sing and she sucks at regular combat.

The thing about bards is that you keep the traveler's song up at all times, not just in combat. It lasts for something like 600 minutes and reduces the AC of all your troops at all times. You can sing a second song during combat that stacks with that one. Traveler's song is worth it's weight in gold.

As far as song limits go, once you get to the catacombs level 1, you can find a bardsword (I've found 2 there) which allows your bard an unlimited number of songs. I've also found 4 firehorns there and they allow your bard to destroy any single group if you equip it and use it during combat. You can get one at the beginning of the game by taking the one from the pre-rolled bard in the adventurer's guild. So far my bard is the most OP member of my party.

Great, I was about to shelf it for a patch or 2 but now I need to roll up a 4 Bard party. I'm pretty sure most of the songs stack so Bardswords and Firehorns for everyone!

[Cortilian]

Well, I did end up finishing up Tales of the Unknown. Now to wait for Destiny Knight. My party was waaaaay overpowered by the time Mangar's Tower started. Great memories.

[morlac]

Well the songs do stack but you can only run one on 'permanently' outside of combat. So not sure how viable my Band of Bards will be but I'm gonna keep goofing with them. The samurai did look silly swinging at the -4 AC's though.

For your amusement the Band of Bards(original band members):

Roadie: Halforc Warrior (someones got to carry all the gear).
Lymrick: Human Bard (mandolin/lead singer)
Sonnyet: Elf Bard (flute)
Mrs Strings: Half Elf Bard (Harp)
Fatsetto: Hobbit Bard (Horns/mandolin)
Geffen: Elf Conjurer (manager)

I was originally not going to take any items form the premades but we had a tragic start...

I outfitted the band at the shop and had enough cash to grab chain mail and a weapon for all. It wasn't until we got to the second empty store to hang up posters for our upcoming gig that we realized we forgot to budget for instruments. Shoulda fired Geffen on the spot! Luckily we were able to fend off the 7 Gnomes Groupies but not before they ripped Sonnyet to pieces. We headed back to the Recording Studio(AG) and found another house musician named Rob Bass. (Got all stats at 13 min and str, dex, and Int at 16+ on the third roll). He was more than able and had a much cooler name than Sonnyet.

I'm pretty sure we would have been fine with even 1 bard song up in that fight as they got me on the last round before we finished them off. I think with 2 ac songs going and than the one with the damage buff + HP regen or Bonus to hit and they can survive most fights until I can score more high end instruments. I'm just going to have to farm right outside the Bar! Fatsetto may have stolen a "magic" horn from some old drunk at the Studio just in case we get in over our heads until then.

[Carpet_pissr]

For anyone waiting for a patch beyond the one going live this week, you may have a while to wait since the dev said he’s got to move on from patching BT1 so he can work on BT2 (and then 3).

I do hope the larger game window for 16:10 monitors gets in this patch though, that would be sweet. It’s not in the beta yet, so I’m skeptical.

[Redfive]

Going to spoiler this in case there are others like me that have never played before until now:

Spoiler:

I understand that I'm supposed to go from the town to the catacombs and I should do this at lvl 3-4. I can't find them!

Most of my party is level 5 now and I have fought every statue in town except for the dragon. I did manage to kill it but lost several party members so I reloaded and decided to worry about it later.

I assumed I could get to the catacombs after fighting the first statue I saw, the samurai, but that only led to another inn. Now, quite by mistake I ordered some wine at the inn (I think I heard that's what bards need to fix their voice) and he said go get it downstairs which led to a dungeon called the wine cellar. That's not the catacombs or is it?

[ColdSteel]

Going to spoiler this in case there are others like me that have never played before until now:

You should NOT go to the catacombs at level 3-4. That is certain death. The first dungeon you should do is the wine cellar (around level 3-5) followed by the sewers (below the wine cellar).

Spoiler:

To get to the wine cellar, kill the samurai statue south of the adventurers guild. Open the gate south of the statue and enter the inn there. Have someone order wine from the menu and you will be sent to the cellar.

[Redfive]

Going to spoiler this in case there are others like me that have never played before until now:

You should NOT go to the catacombs at level 3-4. That is certain death. The first dungeon you should do is the wine cellar (around level 3-5) followed by the sewers (below the wine cellar).

Spoiler:

To get to the wine cellar, kill the samurai statue south of the adventurers guild. Open the gate south of the statue and enter the inn there. Have someone order wine from the menu and you will be sent to the cellar.

Ok, that's exactly what I'm doing, thanks. I'm sure I just misread.

Managed to get everyone in the party poisoned and don't have spells to fix it yet. Went the the temple and those highway bandits wanted 1400g for each party member poisoned! Reload.

[Paingod]

A (hopefully) quick question.

How big a role do character stats play in the overall adventure? With decades of gaming, I can make good guesses about what each does - but if you're 2-3 points off from "Maximum" does it hurt anything - or should you keep rolling to get close to perfection?

[Carpet_pissr]

A (hopefully) quick question.

How big a role do character stats play in the overall adventure? With decades of gaming, I can make good guesses about what each does - but if you're 2-3 points off from "Maximum" does it hurt anything - or should you keep rolling to get close to perfection?

You definitely want primary stats to be >14 since bonuses apply based on how many points above 14 your character has. That's across the board for all classes IIRC. Ideally you want at least 17 IMO.

Also, 1.07 just went live and it includes:

Graphics
Added "large view mode" for 16:10 and wider aspect ratios. It was already available for 21:9 mode. This can be found in the Gameplay tab of the settings.

WOOT!! Looks awesome now. I would highly recommend changing that setting no matter what resolution or monitor you are using.

[Paingod]

Good to know. If I can get something over 14, I'll try for it. I noted that some race/class combos can't exceed certain numbers in some stats. I'd be curious to see a chart/graph with the stat caps for each race/class so I can really know if I'm peak or just missing it. When I was rolling up my quickly destroyed party, I'd hit reroll in rapid succession so I could get a feel for how high each score would go, then slow it down and start watching them to try and get something close to ideal.

[Cortilian]

A (hopefully) quick question.

How big a role do character stats play in the overall adventure? With decades of gaming, I can make good guesses about what each does - but if you're 2-3 points off from "Maximum" does it hurt anything - or should you keep rolling to get close to perfection?

For your mages it is not a huge deal. You want Int and Con as high as possible for early HP and SP gain but since mages gain so many levels they will all be 18 soon enough. There are no penalties for low scores. A STR of 4 is not worse than 13. 14 and above give you bonus's

For the rest of your toons you want good stats in the important areas and you want to avoid horrible stats in the rest since if you have a INT of 3 that is 15 levels of a wasted stat bump.

[stimpy]

A (hopefully) quick question.

How big a role do character stats play in the overall adventure? With decades of gaming, I can make good guesses about what each does - but if you're 2-3 points off from "Maximum" does it hurt anything - or should you keep rolling to get close to perfection?

You definitely want primary stats to be >14 since bonuses apply based on how many points above 14 your character has. That's across the board for all classes IIRC. Ideally you want at least 17 IMO.

Also, 1.07 just went live and it includes:

Graphics
Added "large view mode" for 16:10 and wider aspect ratios. It was already available for 21:9 mode. This can be found in the Gameplay tab of the settings.

WOOT!! Looks awesome now. I would highly recommend changing that setting no matter what resolution or monitor you are using.

Primary stats being what?

[Paingod]

I assumed it was any stat that could climb over 15 as I was rolling.

At least I can stop trying for high luck on otherwise good rolls.

[Carpet_pissr]

Primary stats being what?

Stats that are crucial for a specific class. (Str for fighters, etc)

[ColdSteel]

A critical stat for every character regardless of class is Dexterity. Every point beyond 14 lowers your AC by one. In addition, if your DEX is higher than the mobs, you get to attack first, which is huge because you can wipe them all out before they can even attack you.

[Blackhawk]

You people have me intrigued.

[Redfive]

A critical stat for every character regardless of class is Dexterity. Every point beyond 14 lowers your AC by one. In addition, if your DEX is higher than the mobs, you get to attack first, which is huge because you can wipe them all out before they can even attack you.

I have 5-6 hours in now and it's going to be a struggle to not reroll after seeing this.

I wondered about the stats when rolling but didn't spend a lot of time looking around the web or asking here first as to what might be relevant.

Urge to min max rising.

[Redfive]

On second thought I'll pass (on rerolling).

I remembered this screenshot Cort PM'd me on Discord. I don't think a 2-3 extra AC points will matter given what I see here..

[GreenGoo]

Urge to min max rising.

Fear of not min/maxing correctly has stalled a legion's worth of games for me. I can't even start Fallout 3 or 4 or Pillars of Eternity because of it.

Good luck.

[ColdSteel]

Yeah, I spent a loooong time rolling up my characters and so they all had high DEX to start with (except for my paladin). Now at level 11 everyone is at 18 including my bard and most of the time I can wipe out all the nastiest mobs before they attack with his firehorn. With the mage spells and bard song lowering AC in addition to the low DEX bonuses they already have, it's rare they ever get hit even when attacked. I've been rolling through the catacombs so far.

My mages are also all at 18 INT now. They started with 16/17 on roll-up. You potentially get an extra spell point per level-up for every INT point over 14. And you want as many spell points as you can get.

[Baroquen]

Managed to get everyone in the party poisoned and don't have spells to fix it yet. Went the the temple and those highway bandits wanted 1400g for each party member poisoned! Reload.

Had this happen to me, but I had just mapped a large part of the floor, so I was reluctant to reload. I think I even went to the temple too, prepared to pay through the nose, but not having enough gold. I thought about it for a bit, checked my characters. I saw that my spellcasters did have enough XP to level. So I stumbled back to the Review Board, healing along the way. The additional level for my conjurers did allow me the next tier of spells. But I only had enough gold to buy it for one of the two characters.

So I cured the poison for three of my party, until the spellcaster ran out of magic points. Then I hurried across town, healing all the way, to Roscoe's to replenish the spell points, where I was then able to cure the rest of the party.

I know - this sounds like an annoying turn of events, but it was entertaining to be able to pull it off, and salvage the situation (and the time spent exploring the dungeon), rather than having to reload.