Frayed Knights - v1.04 Released
 

Rampant Games has updated Frayed Knights, jumping the version to up to v1.04. The full list of changes is a bit long for a newsbit, so here are the new features and feature changes and follow the link above for the fix list and, of course, to access the files:
More information.

Good to see that the patch list is long :)
Gonna wait a bit longer to play it. But then, iam so gonna enjoy it :D

You certainly are!! :)

Has anyone played? Any comments on how it compares to other offerings (avadon, bg2, wizardry 8, …) ?

I'd say the two reviews, still accessible on the front page, should be a good place to start :)

Also it seems hard to compare it to top down games like bg2 or avadon. Wiz 8 comparisons have been made, as well as MMVI (in TB mode).

It's basically an oldie revival, with its own specifics that go a little bit further than just the humor. They're worth discovering on your own.

The game is so good it deserved two reviews :)

The gamebanshee review also linked in the news is also a great summary, I agree with the pros and cons raised there. I recommend at least checking out the demo. In short: very solid, classic "blob-style" Rpg, with a light tone. I enjoyed thr humor, it's not nearly as overbearing, as I expected. Some weaknesses in presentation and interface.

Yay! Several of my ideas were included in the patch.

There's a lot to like in the game, but there's a lot to get frustrated about, and this first patch looks to address some of those frustrating aspects. I'll probably give the patch a go this weekend and see if my attitude about the game improves.

It's quite hard, and sometimes frustratingly so. I think my biggest complaint is that the random battles can be quite difficult, sometimes moreso than the "placed" battles that one usually knows to prepare for (like before opening a door). I'm scared to death to search, because I can get in a battle that really sets my party's endurance back, or even knock somebody out requiring me to head back to town. But then, I guess that's why there's a feat to allow you to avoid such battles. There are a few such "feat taxes" like that, in that you have the ability to lessen some of the frustrating aspects of the game (like your spells never hitting), but you need to take those at the expense of cool new abilities. I guess that's what makes it a hardcore RPG….

My other biggest complaint is that the UI is just so….amateurish (sorry Jay, it's true). The keybinding in the patch will help, but the multitude of windows you need to go through to first read the description to remind yourself exactly what a spell does, and then to cast it is just kind of mind-boggling. And the feat system is REALLY suffering from a poor UI. The game has a nice character progression system with some skills progressing down a tree-like progression where grabbing pre-requisites will open up some pretty cool feats/abilities. But you have no idea from the UI which feats are pre-requisites for others, and you are unable to do ANY meaningless character planning in-game without the manual. The game would benefit so much from a graphical skill tree like you'd find in Diablo, but instead we're left with a simple text window that simply filters which feats are available based on your skill points and pre-requisites. It even goes so far as to filter out feats that require 2 skill points when you only have one available, so you're not sure if it might be worth it to save that skill point. Bottom line, the skill/feat UI really needs a major revamping so that all skills/feats in the game are visible, with some grayed out so you can quickly see which feats you want to shoot for and start investing in pre-requisites. Like I said, all this info is in the manual, but absolutely none of it is translated to the UI, and the game suffers for it IMO.

I agree with all of the positives that are outlined in the two RPGWatch reviews, so don't think I'm completely negative about the game. But there are some negatives to be aware of as you enter into playing the game…

It sounds to me like I should wait a few months and let this thing get patched up real well. I'd rather not be a paying beta tester. I still plan on buying but I think I'll wait a bit. So far my curmudgeon-meter reads the game as short, unoptimized, but kinda fun.

Nerf Goblins!!

ed: Yay! I crushed them! … hope they didn't get nerfed! I needed this victory!

After playing the demo, this is my biggest gripe. I'm on the fence about whether to buy it or not, but the UI is a major detract from the game for me. It's not visually appealing and hard to extract information from. I understand this game is more or less a one person development with limited resources, but the UI (especially in this sub genre), connects everything together. Everything else I have seen in the game seems a step above the quality of the UI.

I don't get this complaining about the UI. After the temple I was used to how the UI worked and never had another problem with it. The only problem was in the beginning when I was figuring out what everything did, but that is the same with every game I come across.

To each their own I guess, but I didn't have any trouble with that user interface at all.

Buy the game guys, its worth it for the rat quest alone! :)
While I agree that one gets used to the UI, its nonetheless true that it could and should be improved in a number of ways. I am sure this will be valuable feedback for Jay to make part 2 even better. The inconsistent art direction has been mentioned. To me the music would be another big thing: it doesn't fit the lighthearted tone so well. Something like the Pirates of the Carribean title music would work well for the title, maybe something more lighthearted and more reduced for exploration.
I have two technical complaints: The sound sometimes act funky (stops partially, suddenly goes loud, etc.) and in full screen, sometimes mouse clicks cause the game to loose focus and you are sent to the desktop. Thankfully it never crashes at least so you can just Alt-tab back.
I am really enjoying nyself inspite of these rough edges though, it's fun and addictive. And I had some good laughs.

I finished the game yesterday - I had on minor bug: the party stuck in a table and I had to reload. So FK is a very stable game, already.

Good game. The turn based combat could be a little more interesting on the spellcasting side. At the current state you rarely need to cast any buffs or anti - magic /fire /poison /frost spells.
To counter enemies spells is fun and make combat more challenging.

To make the landscape more interesting/alive there could be more non combat interaction. Pick up some flowers for potions. Meeting wandering merchants for business. Some animals for hunting …

I loved that quest. Others have attempted to put some humor into this cliche, but Jay left them all in the dust.

Now if only he'd make it so I can JOIN the rats in the next game :P