Bard's Tale IV - David Rogers Interview

Stonekeep was a hell of a game, and still is. I've replayed that masterpiece a dozen times, most recently as last year, and it is a sheer joy to boot up and get back to that world, every time.

Also has premade characters though.

Ok, to be fair, it didn't have a predecessor which offered something different.
But if you think about it, Lands of Lore did the same. And Albion.

Well... Stonekeep came out in 1995. Things are a lot more expensive now. For me to play stonekeep I would require higher resolution textures. Lets face it 27 inch monitors were not in use in 95; i think 12 to 19 inch was the norm with the average probably closer to 12.

you said:

Well… Stonekeep came out in 1995. Things are a lot more expensive now. For me to play stonekeep I would require higher resolution textures. Lets face it 27 inch monitors were not in use in 95; i think 12 to 19 inch was the norm with the average probably closer to 12.

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Yeah, I think I had a 14" and 15". But after having played 2h now...it's extremely easy to get attuned to the graphics again, even on 27"

It

Kordanor said:

Also has premade characters though.

Ok, to be fair, it didn't have a predecessor which offered something different.
But if you think about it, Lands of Lore did the same. And Albion.

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I'm with Pessimeister on this one - I'd prefer to be able to create a whole party at the start of the game. I don't have nostalgia for the series though (I only played the first one back in the day, and never got that far with it) so it's not going to be a deal breaker for me. If the maps are fun to explore I'll still probably have as good time with it. And I understand you can still eventually roll your own characters instead of taking the pre-sets, which is good.

I'm more worried about the humour to be honest, which has been a bit jarring in the clips I've seen. But I'm trying to keep an open mind until I've played it.

I love to see more old styled RPGs being created

There has been a Kickstarter update which actually covers most of the complaints:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...le-iv/posts/2256701?ref=backer_project_update

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Zortok, we are increasing the number of mastery slots from 3 to 4.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as mdntblue, we are working on granting mercenary tokens earlier so that you can make you own characters sooner.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as dpisacane, we are speeding up how quickly you get to six party members.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Paranoiac, merchants will have multiple pages so that it is easier for you to sell your stuff.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Sirtechfan, along similar lines, we’re tuning the item economy for the early part of the game based on your feedback.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Drool, we are working on improved ways to compare items in the shop. You will be able to compare items in a store with items equipped on your characters.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Nystrom, one quality of life feature for inventory: we’ll have pages for inventory items, lore items, and quest items so players can more easily track/understand what they are picking up.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as lemiarty, starting inventory will be larger.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Jalis, after the eight main narrative quests, there will be significantly fewer waypoints telling you where to go. For the most part, it will be a destination marker and that’s it.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Omelet79, we are adding a cost to resetting your characters’ skill trees. It is no longer freely available anywhere. You now pay using a mercenary token at the Review Board to do so.

Courtesy of feedback from users such as Entrei, adding a “surrender” button on combat that allows you to reload your most recent checkpoint rather than play out a losing combat. We will be sure to add a “Are you sure?” double-check to avoid any accidental activations!

Well, this certainly proves that at least they are listening to feedback. Not only listening, but making significant changes.

I'm a little worried that they needed to hear from user feedback that the 3 mastery thing was a bad call.

To me, that tells me they don't really understand game design - and making such a significant change this late in development, doesn't bode well for their position on a balanced and well thought-out game.

At least, that's my gut reaction.

Darth Tagnan said:

I'm a little worried that they needed to hear from user feedback that the 3 mastery thing was a bad call.

To me, that tells me they don't really understand game design - and making such a significant change this late in development, doesn't bode well for their position on a balanced and well thought-out game.

At least, that's my gut reaction.

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I'd prefer to see it from the bright side. At least they changed it (or going to change it till release) and there are a lot of games which first release with these issues and then change it after release. You could argue that the Divinity Original Sin Games wouldn't need an enhanced edition if they got everything right at the start.

And some games just fail at release and never really get "fixed". One of the last games I played was Crossing Souls which has some nice elements, but horrible platforming areas. And there it also should have been apparent that they suck for lots of people. But yeah…got to deal with it. Or the boring tech tree and personel management in Railway Empire, or the…guess you can continue this list forever.
So let's just be glad they changed it before release this time and hope for the best.

That said, a Dungeon Crawler of 30-50h also does not need to be as balanced and "round" as an MMO or even a game with 100h of play time. It just needs to not break too harshly. In the end there isn't a single dungeon crawler which has a very engaging combat 100% through the game.

Kordanor said:

I'd prefer to see it from the bright side. At least they changed it (or going to change it till release) and there are a lot of games which first release with these issues and then change it after release. You could argue that the Divinity Original Sin Games wouldn't need an enhanced edition if they got everything right at the start.

And some games just fail at release and never really get "fixed". One of the last games I played was Crossing Souls which has some nice elements, but horrible platforming areas. And there it also should have been apparent that they suck for lots of people. But yeah…got to deal with it. Or the boring tech tree and personel management in Railway Empire, or the…guess you can continue this list forever.
So let's just be glad they changed it before release this time and hope for the best.

That said, a Dungeon Crawler of 30-50h also does not need to be as balanced and "round" as an MMO or even a game with 100h of play time. It just needs to not break too harshly. In the end there isn't a single dungeon crawler which has a very engaging combat 100% through the game.

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That's cool - some people prefer the bright side - and I, personally, prefer the side that's based on my experience with reality

But I'm not spelling doom or anything. The game could still be great - and I haven't played it.

I'm just saying it's a little worrying.

But when I say "worrying" - it's not that I'm actually worried. I don't really care about this game that much.

It's more my way of saying I'm a little sceptical about their approach to changes - that's all.

As for DOS Enhanced Editions - I'm not at all against design changes. I'm saying - and I thought I was being clear - that such seemingly significant design changes in a direct response to user feedback THIS close to release, is a cause for concern.

But that's because I generally prefer the overarching paradigms and design intentions to be established by the developers well in advance of release. To me, that tells me they have a clear vision and that the 3 mastery thing wasn't just some arbitrary choice they made one day.

Kordanor said:

Also has premade characters though.

Ok, to be fair, it didn't have a predecessor which offered something different.
But if you think about it, Lands of Lore did the same. And Albion.

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Νο Stonekeep had a predecessor and it was Ultima Underworld which basically was more than light years ahead of its time... And UU was a megabytes game while Stonekeep a CD one.. Just my 2 cents..

KeepitClean said:

Νο Stonekeep had a predecessor and it was Ultima Underworld which basically was more than light years ahead of its time… And UU was a megabytes game while Stonekeep a CD one.. Just my 2 cents..

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Even if that was true (development of both games started about that the same time), that wasn't my point. Stonekeep is a new IP from a completely different company and they don't have any obligation to stay "true" to it's predecessor.

My point is that newer crawlers (as in mid 90s) which weren't "limited" by it's predecessors, mostly used pre-made characters or even a one character only approach.