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Bard's Tale Kickstarter

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Worthington said:
I really need to get back to it and finish it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, just got side tracked with life and never went back to it. Enough patches have dropped that I almost feel like I'd need to start from scratch.
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You might as well wait until the next patch drops.....it supposed to be massive and adds that free DLC "Dwarven Haerenhold" something or other (which sounds really fun). This is in addition to lots of quality of life things and bug fixes. I bet we see that patch within the next few weeks.
 
DrMrLordX said:
If the puzzles are that bad, it kind of makes me wonder why they don't put an in-game oracle of some kind that will dribble out puzzle clues for gold. That would solve both problems (sort of). I remember the puzzles from Bard's Tale 1 and 2 being particularly hideous in some places. Those Destiny Snares . . . ugh.
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A lot of the puzzles in the game are awesome because they were clever and there were clues given (some directly, others more subtly).

But the puzzles towards the end were different monsters. There wasn't any cleverness to them just....here's the puzzle, wrack your brain to figure it out or you can't move forward. Those are the types of puzzles I wish I had solutions or more clues/options for in-game.

I knew BTIV would be a hard game. Brian Fargo said it would be in the KS campaign video (because the BT I-III were all considered to be hard games). So difficult is part of the charm. I just would have preferred a little more in-game help!
 
rivethead said:
But the puzzles towards the end were different monsters. There wasn't any cleverness to them just....here's the puzzle, wrack your brain to figure it out or you can't move forward. Those are the types of puzzles I wish I had solutions or more clues/options for in-game.
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BTII was like this, only worse: if you failed a Destiny Snare, you would just die. Instantly. You had a timer usually, and some of the puzzles were brutal. Plus the last dungeon before facing Lagoth Zatana had those stupid golems that would insta-kill you in one hit. If you couldn't go first and hit them all with Mangar's Mallet or something similarly-hideous, you would lose your front row quickly. Even if your AC was -50 or whatever.

BTIII was actually pretty easy-going on the puzzle side. The only thing I had trouble figuring out was the stupid spell wall in Gelidia. I had no idea you had to cast spells at it to make it go away.
 
DrMrLordX said:
If the puzzles are that bad, it kind of makes me wonder why they don't put an in-game oracle of some kind that will dribble out puzzle clues for gold. That would solve both problems (sort of). I remember the puzzles from Bard's Tale 1 and 2 being particularly hideous in some places. Those Destiny Snares . . . ugh.
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Heck at the time being 10?? or so I knew at that time with the graph paper this was a waste of effing time and asked for the clue books.

Guess I'm not giant masochist.
 
shortylickens said:
arent the solutions all over youtube and FAQ sites?
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Yes. But some are flawed. Some of the puzzles are so well hidden that Youtubers, in their rush to be the first to post content, missed them.

I approached this game determined NOT to use YouTube or the strategy guide. In the end, the game was too hard (for me) and I ended up using a little of both (the strategy guide only covers the main storyline).
 
I'm bumping this up just to let anyone interested know that the The Bards Tale IV Director's Cut is being released today.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinm...es-to-be-the-definitive-edition/#4bf9984853ff

I loved the 2018 release of the game, but it definitely had it's bugs and problems. The game was crowd-funded and, sadly, I think they just didn't allocate enough funds to QA or give it enough testing time before release. But with M$FT now owning InXile, they gave it another year to fix everything (and add content and improvements).

I'm looking forward to giving this version a play through.
 
If you're on GOG, CrowdOX is supposed to send you a link to obtain your key.

But that CrowdOx thing was a nightmare...…...
 
Yes my game is on gog. I go to crowdox (which I hate) and i see i now have a director cut version but it doesn't show the key - the other thing - backerkit or whatever is much better. death to crowdox.

rivethead said:
If you're on GOG, CrowdOX is supposed to send you a link to obtain your key.

But that CrowdOx thing was a nightmare...…...
Click to expand...
 
I picked up Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut on sale awhile back and finally got around to playing it. I wanted to write more about it, but getting trapped inside the new optional dungeon (Haernhold) has made me change my tune about this game.

This game is horrible.

They added a new dungeon and put in 8 bosses that are so difficult that you will probably have to respec your party multiple times to get through them all. Two of the bosses - horribly cheesy encounters with redcaps - can be skipped using Hide in Shadows. The last redcap jumps you as you're trying to leave the dungeon, but ONLY after you kill the main boss. So if you don't kill the main boss, you can leave whenever you want. If you actually finish the dungeon, you learn that you aren't done yet.

The last redcap has nearly 5k hitpoints, tons of opportunity, and can move + attack as often as it wants. It'll poison your entire party, and it heals 25% of its endurance when it kills one of your party members. Unless you're all Outlanders, you're probably screwed. It really isn't worth the time or trouble. But you're forced to fight the thing, and you can't get out of the dungeon any other way.

I tried finding a trainer to cheat my way out. The only one I found might have trojans. Windows Defender says its clean, but virustotal shows 9 detection algorithms that find problems in the executable. So not sure if I want to use it.
 
DrMrLordX said:
I picked up Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut on sale awhile back and finally got around to playing it. I wanted to write more about it, but getting trapped inside the new optional dungeon (Haernhold) has made me change my tune about this game.

This game is horrible.

They added a new dungeon and put in 8 bosses that are so difficult that you will probably have to respec your party multiple times to get through them all. Two of the bosses - horribly cheesy encounters with redcaps - can be skipped using Hide in Shadows. The last redcap jumps you as you're trying to leave the dungeon, but ONLY after you kill the main boss. So if you don't kill the main boss, you can leave whenever you want. If you actually finish the dungeon, you learn that you aren't done yet.

The last redcap has nearly 5k hitpoints, tons of opportunity, and can move + attack as often as it wants. It'll poison your entire party, and it heals 25% of its endurance when it kills one of your party members. Unless you're all Outlanders, you're probably screwed. It really isn't worth the time or trouble. But you're forced to fight the thing, and you can't get out of the dungeon any other way.

I tried finding a trainer to cheat my way out. The only one I found might have trojans. Windows Defender says its clean, but virustotal shows 9 detection algorithms that find problems in the executable. So not sure if I want to use it.
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All you need is one bard with the Song of Compulsive Cavorting. That bardspell forces the redcap to dance for 3 turns. The rest of the party can wail on it while it's dancing. In fact, I think the bard can wail on it too if it has the gold-level lute which allows it to attack dancing enemies.

The key here is to make sure you pay attention to drunk stacks - you don't want your bard to pass out before the battle is over. You need your bard to keep playing that song and keep the redcap dancing. There are elven (?) armors with high intelligence that really help here. The higher the intelligence, the more the bard can drink without getting drunk. The more the bard can drink, the more the bard can play the song of cavorting. Been awhile, but I think I needed to play the song three times to finish the redcap off.

Haernhold was definitely a challenge. But the huge hint was right at the immediate beginning of the dungeon - a dwarven respec idol. It took me a few attempts before I realized - ok the devs put this here for a reason - you have to have a certain character (bard) with a certain ability (song of cavorting) to make this dungeon easier. It was still a big pain in the ___

This dlc dungeon was added because old-school Bards Tale players wanted the game to be difficult (just like the orginal games in the trilogy - known for their difficulty) and complained about it after the orginal BTIV was released. My opinion, but Haernhold was InXile appeasing those old school players.
 
So can you expand on why a single optional incredibly difficult challenge dungeon makes a game awful ? How is the rest of the game if you ignore that single dungeon ?

DrMrLordX said:
I picked up Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut on sale awhile back and finally got around to playing it. I wanted to write more about it, but getting trapped inside the new optional dungeon (Haernhold) has made me change my tune about this game.

This game is horrible.

They added a new dungeon and put in 8 bosses that are so difficult that you will probably have to respec your party multiple times to get through them all. Two of the bosses - horribly cheesy encounters with redcaps - can be skipped using Hide in Shadows. The last redcap jumps you as you're trying to leave the dungeon, but ONLY after you kill the main boss. So if you don't kill the main boss, you can leave whenever you want. If you actually finish the dungeon, you learn that you aren't done yet.

The last redcap has nearly 5k hitpoints, tons of opportunity, and can move + attack as often as it wants. It'll poison your entire party, and it heals 25% of its endurance when it kills one of your party members. Unless you're all Outlanders, you're probably screwed. It really isn't worth the time or trouble. But you're forced to fight the thing, and you can't get out of the dungeon any other way.

I tried finding a trainer to cheat my way out. The only one I found might have trojans. Windows Defender says its clean, but virustotal shows 9 detection algorithms that find problems in the executable. So not sure if I want to use it.
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rivethead said:
All you need is one bard with the Song of Compulsive Cavorting.
Click to expand...

They patched that out. CC (like Song of Compulsive Cavorting) only works once. Then the redcap becomes immune. Nobody's talking about it. All the people saying, "just use bard cheese" are now wrong. In fact, all the Haernhold bosses are now immune to that song after one use (except for the one warrior construct that is completely immune to it from the start). Some of the story bosses have the same ability.

Without that immunity, you can also stunlock most melee-capable enemies in the game with critical blocks. You don't even really need a bard.

Also, drunk stacks aren't that big of a deal. There's a quest item you can get that's wearable and makes bards immune to getting drunk (no stun). As long as you never complete the quest, you have the ultimate bardic headgear. Drink all the elven wine you want.

you2 said:
So can you expand on why a single optional incredibly difficult challenge dungeon makes a game awful ? How is the rest of the game if you ignore that single dungeon ?
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Because I'm stuck. Permanently. I can't finish the game! I can't even cheat my way out since the only trainer I can find has trojans. I might be able to hack my savegame to change everyone to an Outlander temporarily and beat it that way, but after killing off not one but 5 horrible dwarven constructs with 2500k+ HP each, I do not feel like grinding through that stupid redcap. Everything I have done up to this point is completely negated by the fact that the devs trapped me in this dungeon with a fight I'd have to respec/reteam to beat, and I can't respec since I can't even get to the statue at the start of the dungeon that let's you respec without going back to the guild. I can't hire new adventurers to deal with the problem either. I can load an old save from before I beat Gaerwyn, I guess? But I am not sure if I can beat Gaerwyn with a team that's also set up to beat the enraged redcap. The redcap fights are so tiresome that I don't even want to bother with it. Beating Gaerwyn took maybe two hours of retries until I finally got it right, and I had to remove one of my rogues and add a practitioner I didn't really want to use that was custom-built just for that encounter (and the stupid mage construct that has some of the same problems as Gaerwyn. Actually, the mage construct is worse).

It's like going to the movies to watch something that's maybe a great B movie or a mediocre Hollywood flic, only for some random smelly dude who hasn't taken a shower in a month to jump on you from the seat behind you and teabag your head. Whatever I saw on the screen up to that point is no longer relevant. I'm leaving the theatre, getting my money back, and filing charges by that point. My perception of that movie would be permanently ruined.

edit: I found a savegame unpacker for Bard's Tale 4. I'm looking through the file in a hex editor to see if I can find a way to alter my party location to sidestep the redcap and finish the game. So far I've found:

hex1.png

and

hex2.png

I replaced that data with data from an older save in the Old Adventurer's Guild. So far, no luck! Loading the edited, repacked save still puts me in Haernhold.
 
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Alternatively, has anyone gotten this game to run in a VM? I tried running it in Windows Sandbox, but it complained about the video card not being DX11 level 10.0 compliant. I have vGPU enabled.

edit: solved my problem. Cheat Engine apparently has some tables for Bard's Tale 4 if you really need them. Giving my party unlimited opportunity and zero skill cooldowns got the job done. Stupid encounter bypassed, back to the game as normal. It's still an incredibly poor design decision which mars the game if you're foolish enough to attempt the dungeon (which was a major part of the Director's Cut, so who wouldn't chance it at least once?).
 
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In other news, the game has a massive exploit that gives you unlimited spellpoints and unlimited casts of pretty much any spell you want, allowing you to end fights quickly by spamming spells like Mangar's Mallet. No cheat engine/trainers required. It works like this:

Get a bard with Rhyme of Duotime and a shofar (offhand music instrument). You need the right booze for this to work: basically, you want 7 drunk stacks within the first two turns. Two bottles of elven wine does the trick, and so can dwarven stout if you have the skill that gives you 1 drunk stack at the start of the fight. Trow squeezings are less useful here.

Next you need a warrior with a banner trinket and Code of Honor to unlock the To Me! stance.

Finally you need a practitioner who can equip sorcerer's slippers and has some attack magic. Mangar's Mind Jab should be sufficient, though eventually you'll want Mangar's Mallet or something else with better range.

Position the practitioner in your party behind the warrior. Put the bard pretty much anywhere where he won't die on the first turn. Added bonus if you have two rogues with Infiltrator since you start the fight in stealth for two turns. Two turns = game over for the enemy.

Turn one, have the bard drink something. Rhyme of Duotime will start the battle on cooldown, so even if you drink Devil's Brew (for 8 drunk stacks), you can't use it on turn one. Better not to get drunk on turn one. Have your warrior activate the To Me! stance. Other than that, just stay alive. The warrior, bard, and practitioner must survive and must not be terrified, stunned, or on fire. Actually the warrior can have any of those effects; it won't matter.

Turn two, have the bard drink again to hit 7 drunk stacks. It won't matter if the bard gets drunk this turn since the stun comes next turn. Have the bard activate Rhyme of Duotime. Now all skills are off cooldown until end of turn. Including Move. Have your practitioner (behind the warrior) move "towards" the warrior by making them switch position. Make sure it's the practitioner that initiates the move . . . not the warrior. The slippers give the practitioner +1 SP, and To Me! restores the opportunity you just spent moving. Move stays off cooldown, allowing you to do this an unlimited number of times.

And there you go! Unlimited SP. Spend it however you want. Mental damage is preferred for bypassing armor, though a fully-upgraded Gaufroi's Wand can let your practitioner tear through armor with ease using physical damage spells. Use taunts to move enemies around, and no cooldowns means all the taunts you want. Good thing you have a warrior right?
 
rivethead said:
Yikes. That must be a recent patch. I just finished the game last winter with the method I describe.

That sucks. You might need to wait for a further patch to fix some things.
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Right now the main bug seems to be that some puzzle doors like to close themselves after you've opened them. I had a dwarven cog door do it (fortunately I was able to redo the puzzle and open it again), and lots of people are having problems with the steel key door in the baedish lowlands.

Otherwise they've added immunity to chain-stun/chain-cc to most boss monsters. Maybe they'll fix the unlimited SP exploit at some point, but I have the GoG version without GoG Galaxy so if they patch it, I'll never notice.
 
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