Knights of the Chalice II - Pre-Kickstarter Update

A new pre-Kickstarter update for Knights of the Chalice 2: Augury of Chaos.

Pre-KS Update

by BlueSalamander " Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:17 pm

Greetings, RPG lovers!

Here are the latest news about Knights of the Chalice 2. This should be the last update before Kickstarter! Post-KS, I will probably create two new forum sections, one dedicated to KotC 2: Augury of Chaos (bug reports, suggestions and tips) and one for KotC 2 Module Creators (help and ideas).

In the last few days, I created new web pages for the game. The new pages include the following: KotC 2 Screenshots, KotC 2 Features, KotC 2 F.A.Q., and KotC 2 About Us. Be sure to check them out!

I also created a Twitter profile and Facebook page and I updated my Youtube channel. Would be very cool to have more 'Likes' and 'Follows'!

In addition, I completed the Kickstarter new-project registration procedure. But I still need to create the KS video and fill up the KS page with information, graphics, reward slots and stretch goals.

I've added links to the Kickstarter page, Youtube channel, Twitter profile and Facebook page in the website's menus, as well as 'Recommend' and 'Share' buttons on the web pages for KotC 2 Features, KotC 2 Screenshots, KotC 1 Features and KotC 1 Screenshots.

I also created the Windows installer for KotC 2: Augury of Chaos. The file is around 700 MB.

Work on the game was completed around 27 January. It wasn't an easy task, especially as my dad passed away in December at the age of 75.

Apart from module testing and tweaking, encounter improvement and debugging, the things I focused on included the following:

* Temporary companions: A non-player character may join your party for a limited time. Such companions appear and act just like a party member, but the party-size limit does not apply to them. Also, you cannot un-equip their equipped items, or give them new items.

* Spell scroll highlighting: The Inventory Screen of each character now highlights whether a spell scroll may be learned by the character, or is already known by the character. This is done using small 'Known' and 'Learn' tags.

* Destructible objects in combat: Combat encounters can now include objects that must be destroyed by the player's party in order to complete the encounter. Objects can be non-magical, such as a gate or barrier of some kind, or they may be magical, such as an energy orb, a magic mirror, a mystical crystal, an enchanted statue or a monolith that heals the enemy every round or inflicts damage to the party each round until destroyed. Maybe the object serves as the phylactery of a Lich that cannot be hurt until the object is destroyed.

* Timed riddles: The party may be given a certain amount of real time, such as one minute, to answer correctly as many riddles as possible.

* Fighters joining a combat in progress: When new combat participants join an ongoing battle, they all roll for initiative and join the initiative list according to their initiative roll. Previously, new combatants were added at the top of the list, giving them an unfair advantage.

* When potions and consumable items are used, they are no longer subject to the concentration checks that apply to normal spells and spell-like abilities.

* In the Artificial Intelligence page of the Creature Editor, I added new buttons to turn on and turn off automatic spells for the reviewed creature easily. Automatic spells are spells like Mage Armour and Mirror Image, which have a full-day duration and may be cast out of combat. High-level casters have numerous automatic-spell options.

* In the editor, mousing over a creature and pushing G now opens the 'Monster Groups' screen and highlights the group of the moused-over creature, allowing the module creator to select all creatures in the considered group easily.

* In the editor, when several creatures are selected, Alt + click on a creature allows the module creator to equip all of the selected creatures in one go. The Inventory Screen is displayed and any items that you equip the creature with are also equipped in the Inventory Screen of the other selected creatures.

Of course, I have plenty of ideas for improving the game further. I have ideas for new items and new feats; I will talk about these during the Kickstarter. I also want to implement New Feat suggestions, meaning that a few recommended Feats will be highlighted whenever a character levels up.

I'm not forgetting Steam, of course, for both KotC 2 and KotC 1. But for now I need to focus on the Kickstarter page, create videos and do some interviews with video-game news websites (if possible).

I've already posted many new screenshots in the KotC 2 Screenshots page, so there's no need to add a lot of new screenshots here. Still, here are a few extra screenshots just for you! Please click on a picture to enlarge it.

I expect that I'll be writing an email to all the KotC customers and forum users about 48 hours before the Kickstarter, so that we can have a good start. That's a nice thing about selling directly on one's website: you can contact the customer base. If all my customers were on Steam, I would have more of them of course, but I wouldn't be able to contact them. Yesterday, I installed new mailing-list software to allow me to send emails to many recipients.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to post comments! Till next time!

More information.

I'm ready with wallet in hand to support this project the moment it launches. And if you've not played the first game, and you like the gold box series games, you should really pick it up and give it a go.

Is the first game available on GoG or Steam?

Originally Posted by henriquejr
Is the first game available on GoG or Steam?

Just available on the website.

I really wish he'd make it available at great old games or steam, heck, both would be even better. This would be a great time to do it as the hype could only help the kick starter launch. But I'm complete idiot and had no trouble at all setting the game up when I bought it years ago, so if I can do it, anyone can.

Exclusive to his own personal store?! I simply won't stand for it!

One of his recent updates said that it would be coming to Steam in the near future.

KOTC was one of those games I long thought about buying, but never did because it was only available on his own store. I will buy it when it comes on Steam, or maybe get it through the Kickstarter if he offers it as part of a higher tier.

Here it is:
On the Steam front, I'm happy to report that I've finally got my own EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the US IRS. This is needed when a developer wants to start selling games on Steam. Hopefully, I'll be able to join Steam without too much difficulty in coming months, after I have released my new Youtube videos for KotC 1 and the prologue module of KotC 2. I wonder if I will have to pay the Steam self-publishing fee for each KotC 2 module, or just once?

Quoted from here:
http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/Fo…5&t=753&p=5025

Looks like he is really getting serious about KoTCII. Great news and will hook up his kickstarter campaign.

Two predictions about KS campaign:

1) People won't like the tile-based representation of units
2) People won't like the interface menus, which are the optical equivalent to someone screaming right in your face while you're trying to read an interface menu

Considering how (undeservedly) niche his first game was, I'm not exactly confident about the sequel with the dumbed-down (IMO) graphics and the absolutely horrible (empirical fact) menu interfaces.

Honestly, I don't give a good darn about what others might do or enjoy. I want this game, I'll buy copies for myself and friends, and that alone will give me joy. Even should the kick starter fail, he managed to put out the first game some time ago, and I suspect he'd succeed with this one just as well. It might not be ideal, but Pierre can pull it off, I have faith in him.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Honestly, I don't give a good darn about what others might do or enjoy. I want this game, I'll buy copies for myself and friends, and that alone will give me joy.

Even if your friends (who are others) don't enjoy it?

Hey Carnifex, don't forget about our old, everlasting friendship

Weird to see the map maker tokens for tabletop as icons. I think I’ll need to see a “let’s play” before judging

Let me be clear: if a friend of mine doesn't enjoy something, that has little to no impact or whether I'll enjoy the same item. It's happened with movies, novels, and games for all my life, I can listen to their concerns and still enjoy the product if it works for me.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Let me be clear: if a friend of mine doesn't enjoy something, that has little to no impact or whether I'll enjoy the same item. It's happened with movies, novels, and games for all my life, I can listen to their concerns and still enjoy the product if it works for me.

Yep that's my philosophy also. I've lost track of how many games & movies reviewers & friends called crap that I ended up enjoying. That's how it should be for everyone.

Looks at all those combat screens he's posted. It's token porn.

Hope the Kickstarter is successful. I'll be backing it, because….well, you know, I'm into token porn.

Found a video. I'm surprised he went with tokens given all the animation work and spell effects he is implementing. I find token abstraction difficult to relate to. I'd rather have to top of a character to look at even if it isn't animated. Even the Gold Box games have basic customization options on basic characters. Maybe he could add that to the Kickstarter?

I actually just received an email from Pierre today, I'm assuming anyone else that purchased the first game will also get this email.