Blackguards

A matter of taste. If I think about the countless hours I've spent running through half-empty towns over and over again in almost every RPG, I find this refreshing.
They're officially saying they tried real 3D towns but couldn't find the fun in them … but that's probably marketing BS. The true reason is probably the game's low budget. I'm not even sure it reaches 7 digits. So I'm actually happy they had the guts to leave stuff out instead of doing it half-assed.

Woo if I remember well we hate together (not that I care in any way but I bet you do) but it's a very pleasant surprise to quote we share some key point of view, that alas too many players don't see the same. I don't reproach anything to other point of views, RPG are lot a matter of illusions, and some illusions can work much better on some players than on some other. And it's not a player failure to believe in an illusion because there's many illusions to know accept and believe to if you want enjoy a RPG.

So I so agree with you, have a large plane to wanderer, with just some spread tedious random combats, many trees and plants to look at, the choice to go left at 45 degree or go left at 50 degree or go right, it's very often void an no real choices, nor an exploration gameplay. The only value of such "exploration" is the tourism value, and it can be ok but not enough for me.

In my opinion the system they offer could be an excellent base for a very interesting exploration but they stick to no exploration with the point of view of Tactical RPG. Same system with a real exploration is possible I think by developing for each path and each destination a text and a bigger picture developing hints, tips, informations. Paths information would build a strong exploration layout, when Location information would build the area mood, tourism and lore. To perfect it even better destination information would be a first information level for each location and offering a first layout more lore based.

I think it could be a huge fun, but not sure many players would enjoy and certainly a huge cost in time and design to give it a good quality, ie just a dream. :)
 
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How long is chapter 5?

… ca. 30 I guess.

Just came there at the point of no turning back after 5 battles. And I assume there will be no trader/healer/inn/village for the rest of it… Let's just hope
20 provisions
would be enough.
 
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Actually there is
a healer and teacher for everything who sells a few items, so you won't really need 20 provisions
.
 
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Found him! But he's not working as inn and since
my party has 2 mages…
I need to camp. :)

I'm counting all fights in ch 5 so I'll post how many there are when I'm done.
Btw, there is a cave with undead and 2 chests, I opened both but received nothing in the end.

[EDIT]
Finished.

Chapter 5 fights:
Around Moha Village - 5
Caves toward the valley - 8 (some are optional)
Et. valley - 13 (dunno if there is additional one regarding who you shared the secret with)

That's total of 26 fights in chapter 5.
 
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If you've found him youhave only left what you can already see.
 
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Yes it is. :(

I wish it was more of it but no matter. Now onto M&M10 to see what's the fuss about.
 
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Hey Watchers,

first of all thanks to everyone who was involved in the Early Access and gave invaluable feedback. We're very glad we finally made it to the release. Here is one happy team (though not everyone is on the picture sadly):

1782465_750044841673992_1080746849_o.jpg


If you still have feedback on improvements for us (though you already pointed out a lot of things quite detailled), feel free to post it here.

But the point is a game needs attract interest and I'm very sad Blackguards failed it.
I have to disagree somewhat. Yes, TBS got a lot of PR out there due to being made by ex-Bioware guys andtheir early Kickstarter campaign. We do not have this two feats, that's correct.

Still if you take a look at BG's standing in the Steam charts, we're almost always exceeding TBS by far and even MMX most of the time. I think that is remarkable even though TBS was released over a week ago already. We're quite content here, to say the least. :)


Cheers,
Io
 
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Io, don't bother with other games, all I can say is that I've enjoyed Blackguards very much and I want more TDE (DSA?) games!
 
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I second this. :)

I'm in Act III only, but I already can say that Blackguards is a good game. It lacks some aspects I really like in RPGs (exploration, NPC interaction etc.), but the aspects it concentrates on (tactical combat and character building) are great. I'm definitely having fun. Although I must say that with 40€ it's a little overpriced. 30€ would have been fitting imho.

And YES, keep those TDE games incoming. A new TDE RPG with exploration, character interaction and your awesome TB combat would be really, really great. :)
 
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Maybe you should make a video tutorial explaining the basics for newbies.
 
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Thank you Io, I'm enjoying Blackguards (I'm in the last act) and I hope to see more of it in the future. Tactical combat CRPGs are rare and I want more of it.

Blackguards and Might & Magic X are a great start for 2014 so far :)
 
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About the weapon skills… aren't you supposed to be able to change them towards more offense or more defense whenever you like? Assuming you're not in the middle of combat of course. At least that's what it says in the manual.

It doesn't seem to be working correctly in my game. I keep trying to change my main characters sword skill to be more offensive, but the slider resets as soon as I exit that screen despite confirming my change first. :S
 
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I am only playing the demo in one, but I also tried changing those sliders.. it appears like it stuck for me though :S
 
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I remember when it didn't work for me once, I tried to exit the screen by switching to another character (with the arrow symbols next to the portrait). After that, the slider was correctly set.
 
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In the TDE ruleset you have 3 values for your melee weapon talents. The actual Talent Value (TV), the Attack Value (AV) and the Parry Value (PV).

The TV can be increased by spending AP (Adventure Points, in fact experience points).
Each point of the TV may now be spent to either AV or PV. Thus you can build a character that is stronger in parrying and weaker in attacking (or vice versa).

The are 2 more values to be considered, being the Attack Base Value (BAV) and Parry Base Value (BPV), which are derived from attributes (like strength, agility etc.) and are invariant for every weapon class.
The final attack value with a certain weapon is the ATB plus the AV with the certain weapon. (Final parry value is analogous.)

For example the charakter Alrik has a BAV of 9 and a BPV of 8. The talent value for "Axes and Maces" is 10. As a more offensive fighter, he spends 6 points to attack and 4 points to parry, resulting in final AV of 15 and final PV of 12 (for "Axes and Maces" only).

If you can believe some guy at steam discussions forums, the actual hit chance for a normal attack is 60%+(AV-PV)*5%, where AV is the attackers AV and PV the defenders PV. (This works completely different in PnP btw.)
The hit chance is capped at 95% respectiveley 5%, because a dice 20 roll is simulated, where 1 is always a hit and 20 a miss.

Too make it a little more complicated, each actual weapon has a AT and PV modifier, giving you boni or mali to final AV and final PV.

In PnP ruleset you may only change the distribution to attack/parry at the moment you increase the skill itself, this can't be changed afterwards. That's different in Blackguards where you are more flexible and may change it any time you like.
Additionally in the PnP ruleset the distribution of attack and parry may not differ more than 5 points. I don't know if this applies to Blackguards too.
 
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Question: I'm now at the point where I can cross over into Chapter 2. I've done every area in Chapter 1 except the dragon cave and the Dwarf game. I can come back to those areas later, right?

If so, would it be better to come back when my party is at a higher level? I heard the Dwarf game is a real bitch.

*Edit* Did the Dragon cave, it was pretty easy. Was Naugrim's axe the only thing in there or did I miss something?
 
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Still if you take a look at BG's standing in the Steam charts, we're almost always exceeding TBS by far and even MMX most of the time. I think that is remarkable even though TBS was released over a week ago already. We're quite content here, to say the least. :)
Excellent news! I hope this means you will make Blackguards 2 then. Hopefully the possible sequel will have a bit more open exploration of the world, having not just a world map and then tactical maps, but intermediate "adventure maps" too. Oh, and a better battle log would be grand, showing dice rolls etc. Anyway, a BIG thank you for an excellent game! More plz! :)

For those wondering about the rule set, check out the following site (AFAIK, the Daedalic guys have given their approval of this and the info should be accurate): Blackguards Guide. Also, while the game sadly does not show the "under the hood" stuff very well (like dice rolls), the tooltips at least do give some useful information, like what attributes affect what talents, etc.

By the way, is there a good site detailing the world and lore of TDE's world of Aventuria in English. I've become interested in the world, but most sites about it are in German, but ich spreche nicht Deutch.

—-EDIT—-
If so, would it be better to come back when my party is at a higher level? I heard the Dwarf game is a real bitch.

*Edit* Did the Dragon cave, it was pretty easy. Was Naugrim's axe the only thing in there or did I miss something?
I don't think you missed anything in the Dragon's Cave. IIRC, Naurim's axe was the only thing I found there too. As to the Dwarf Games, yup they can be a real bitch, but if you have Niam with you (i.e. having 4 party members), it is doable. It took me awhile, like 6+ restarts, but eventually I made it through and it wasn't just pure luck that got me through. ;)
In the first fight you can scale the challenge yourself. The more chests you open in the room before it, the more enemies you'll face. The second (and last) fight is the real bitch though. Both of the dwarves have at least two healing potions on them that heal 20HP a pop, making them tough to put down. I'd advice rushing the crossbow guy with one fighter to keep him from pestering you with his bolts of doom.
 
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Question: I'm now at the point where I can cross over into Chapter 2. I've done every area in Chapter 1 except the dragon cave and the Dwarf game. I can come back to those areas later, right?

If so, would it be better to come back when my party is at a higher level? I heard the Dwarf game is a real bitch.

*Edit* Did the Dragon cave, it was pretty easy. Was Naugrim's axe the only thing in there or did I miss something?

Naugrims axe is the only loot. You need to do dwarf quest because you can't go back. At least I can't right now ( I'm in chapter 4 I believe).
 
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