Bard's Tale IV - Game Details

Myrthos

Myrthos

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This Kickstarter update for The Bard's Tale IV teaches us that the part size has been increased to six.

First off, we have read your arguments regarding expanding the party, and heard you! So we have decided to expand the player party size to six, one of which will be a companion NPC. Additionally, you will have summoned creatures and the like to aid you, which will not count against your party cap. Currently, our plan is to allow you to summon as many additional creatures as there are available grid slots.
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There is this on classes.

As discussed in a previous update, we're bringing back a lot of the classes and races from the original trilogy, with your options expanding to ten character classes and over seven unique races. Furthermore, we're also planning on expanding the class evolution concept from the classic games' classes to cover all of our character classes – leading to huge amounts of depth and customization. You'll be able to further define, specialize and tinker with your character as he or she reaches certain levels, choosing groups of unlocked spells, abilities and talents in order to best suit your needs or party make-up. We'll have more precise details to share on this in a future update.
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There is a touch point document covering what the current vision on the game is, which has this scope:

  • Over thirty beautiful levels to explore.
  • Locations including Skara Brae and the catacombs beneath it, towns such as Torr Fion and Fettercairn, wildernesses, castles, ruined temples and lost cities, as well as the legendary realms of the Elves, Dwarves and Trow.
  • Over a hundred different enemy types, including dozens from the original trilogy, as well as dozens of new creatures based on ancient Scottish, Orcadian, and Pict mythology. All-new enemy factions will oppose you: the Fecti, the Einaar, the Lestradae, and the Fatherites. We'll speak more on this lore in future updates!
  • Hundreds of usable items, many of which can be used in our crafting system to create consumables and special items.
  • Hundreds of unique weapons and armor to find; most can be enhanced through crafting, and many will be physically manipulated as a 3D model/puzzle to become more powerful.
  • Dozens of powerful magic spells, including some that allow the user to summon creatures to fight by their side.
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And there is some details on the poem that is sung in the in-engine video and that they have teamed up with the Xounts sound system.

More information.
 
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Six is a magic number and I am happy :)
 
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Definitely liking what I hear here, especially the part about branching classes at higher levels. That kind of thing always gets my inner character build geek excited.
 
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30 levels needs to be explained more before I get excited. 30 levels of what? 16X16 grids? Zero interest. 30 character levels with stats/perks/etc.? Moderately geeked. I like long games, so 30 levels sounds tiny. Need more info. The game has been almost stagnant since day 7 though. Maybe sea can pop in and tell us what Brian meant by 30 levels. 30 dungeon levels just does nothing for me; especially if it is shitty grid-based dungeons.
 
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I think it's obvious that the "30 levels" refers to the world, not the character system. The question to ask is "how big is a level?"
 
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If you read the touch document, the 30 levels are clearly referring to the locations available to explore, speaking of which, this part piqued my interest --

Locations including Skara Brae and the catacombs beneath it, towns such as Torr Fion and Fettercairn, wildernesses, castles, ruined temples and lost cities, as well as the legendary realms of the Elves, Dwarves and Trow.

I was under the impression this game was just going to be a dungeon crawler, but it sounds like there is gonna be a wide variety of locations. Points scored in its favor!
 
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30 levels pretty much means 30 different "dungeons" to explore (probably). 30 is a large number, especially if each area is huge with multiple levels to explore and secrets to find.

I'm not a dungeon-crawler RPG expert, but I spent 40 hours (and growing) recently with Elminage Gothic, and I could say that the term "dungeon-crawler" doesn't seem to only mean dungeons (like Grimrock, for example). I think a dungeon-crawler is more defined by leading a party through an "area", which could be a cave, a forest, a dungeon, an underground lake, a lost city, etc., and it has sprawling map design, most likely grid-based, and features "crawling" through combat in the various areas, exploring a map that is most likely a maze, or at least sprawling in size. It's hard to explain but when you play one, you know it.

Bard's Tale IV looks to be a serious and traditional dungeon-crawler RPG.
 
None of the Bards Tale was just one dungeon and there was a wilderness to explore in the 2nd one. There is no way a level will just be a 16x16 grid. It is not 1985.
 
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30 levels sounds just about right to me (assuming levels are something that will take you like 1.5 hours to explore/clear). More than that and it's a high chance I'll get bored of it.
 
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I really wanted a 6 character party so pretty happy about the news.

I love dungeon crawlers, hopefully this gets a lot of the original feel back...
 
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Hastar said:
There is no way a level will just be a 16x16 grid. It is not 1985.
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Actually, Brian Fargo basically said it will be a large grid like that. Of course, he said there are tricks nowadays to use so it doesn't feel like a 19x19 grid, and there will be an option to play it in grid-based mode *or* free movement. But essentially it will be an evolved, modern "grid", if that makes sense.
 
Fluent said:
Actually, Brian Fargo basically said it will be a large grid like that. Of course, he said there are tricks nowadays to use so it doesn't feel like a 19x19 grid, and there will be an option to play it in grid-based mode *or* free movement. But essentially it will be an evolved, modern "grid", if that makes sense.
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He meant the grid would be much larger fluent....
 
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rune_74 said:
He meant the grid would be much larger fluent….
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A 19x19 grid is plenty large, though. It depends on how the maps are created. I'm pretty sure Elminage Gothic uses a 19x19 map and some of those dungeons are extremely detailed, maze-like, huge and sprawling, etc. Not to mention the possible secret levels of the dungeon, or multiple levels in general. A single 19x19 grid can go 3, 4, 5 or more levels down, and create a really huge, epic dungeon-crawl.

I expect this game to have a ton of content and 1.5 hours per level is probably a low estimate. Especially if one dungeon has multiple objectives and floors to find, you could be spending quite awhile in one dungeon, or perhaps advancing to another one but going back to the other one later to complete a side objective, etc.
 
This game is sounding better and better... maybe it'll be the first thing ever I'll back on kickstarter! If news continue to be so good on each update... I'd still like to know more of how the actual combat would work though!
 
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GothicGothicness said:
This game is sounding better and better… maybe it'll be the first thing ever I'll back on kickstarter! If news continue to be so good on each update… I'd still like to know more of how the actual combat would work though!
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I have backed it at $20 but I wish they show some in game combat footage and I might increase my pledge.
 
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