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The Dark Eye Blackguards 2

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
Is it worth to try BG2 because they changed some of this for the better, or is it just more of the same?

BG1 opens up a bit in chapter 3, where you have more locations to visit and sidequests to do. However, BG is not really an RPG where you do any meaningful exploration. That's not the intention behind it.
I doubt that this has changed much with BG2.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
Regarding the concurrent / maximum player numbers on Steam, I wanted to add that this time, Blackguards 2 was available DRM free from launch, IIRC BG1 was a Steam only game until it was release on GoG (and maybe bundles) and also the retail versions were bound to Steam. This time the cheapest version in Germany was actually the 20€ DRM free retail version. And it seems, that in Germany parts of the TDE fandom are as anti-Steam as parts of the Codex. So I think the numbers cannot be compared directly right now.
Well, there was the month or so of Steam Early Access, but I'm pretty sure the actual release was concurrent on GOG. Either way, the retail version was definitely DRM-free from the get-go, and I think that unlike Blackguards 2 the first game didn't have a Steam code as an extra in the box (me not using such, I might be wrong about this last part, though).
Chains of Satinav is the only TDE game of Daedalic's that originally was only available with Steam-registration (and IIRC the only game of theirs period that had mandatory online DRM).

Yes, thanks for clarifying – I think I confused it with Demonicon which was Steam bound even in retail version.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Hey guys! I'm not so keen on BG 1 and only played it for a few hours. However, I heard some contradicting stuff about BG 2, so I'm not sure whether I should give it a shot.
What kept me from playing BG1 further:
-boring Itemization nvm
-Ultra linear and therefore...
-...nothing to explore
-Nothing to do outside of combat.

Is it worth to try BG2 because they changed some of this for the better, or is it just more of the same?

The entirety of BG2 has less exploration than the third chapter of BG1, but it has more exploration than the second chapter.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,765
Location
Copenhagen
Does anyone know whether there is an actual effect of hanging prisoners or letting them go?

For a mission that keeps pressure (aka forever respawning dudes) but is well designed - see Naurim recruitment mission. Mission itself is easy IF you don't touch any chests, but that's not the point, is it?
:retarded:
The map is mind-blowingly easy (on normal, and since you shouldn't engage in any fighting, likely on all difficulty levels), even if you go for all the chests.

That fight is also a showpiece of why this game seems to be 1 step forward, 2 steps back. On the one hand, it's a pretty interesting battle field that makes that Arcane Wall spell pretty relevant, and covering your tracks to slow down bad guys is fun.

On the other hand, 12 billion enemy units spending turns SLOOOOOWLY walking back and forth because enemy AI gets retarded when it has nowhere to go is mind-numbingly boring.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Does anyone know whether there is an actual effect of hanging prisoners or letting them go?

You can also either condemn several people to death or let them live and never hear from them again.

One example:
What about the prisoners that spawn on the enemy side during the following battle, if you let them free?
Another example:
What about the blind emissary that you can meet in Cuoris if you allow him to live?
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
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Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Alright, let's see how the achievement stats have changed after a week. Then:

- all the ones involving the "lure a creature into a circle and dominate it with a melody" puzzles are sitting at 0.1%. Just a completely useless mechanic.
- 62% of players have recruited Zurby and Takate, but only 46% have recruited Naurim, which takes about ten minutes extra. His mission is too hard!
- 38.4% have recruited the army, that's about 3-4 hours into the game.
- 8.1% of players have killed two of the game's world bosses (roughly the halfway mark of the game, takes about 8-9 hours)
- 2% have cleared the world map, and 1.6% have reached the epilogue.

Now:

- at least 1.7% of players have completed one of the melody puzzles. Clearly there is some demand there after all
- 71% have Z&T, 58% have saved Naurim. The gap has gotten slightly smaller, but it's still a big drop for a single short mission
- 51.9% have recruited the army
- 12.9% have killed two creators, 11% have killed all the creators. I suspect people are avoiding the bosses early on and then killing them all in one go, otherwise the play time difference alone should account for a greater difference.
- 9.5% have cleared the world map, 7.2% have reached the epilogue

There's still a huge difficulty gap between conquering Lorfas and actually killing two of the world bosses - I think a big chunk of those 39% of players can't beat the boss fights. After that it's basically smooth sailing - more than half of the people who killed two bosses also beat the game, which is a very strong statistic (aided by the fact that the game gets easier as you progress).
 

veevoir

Klytus, I'm bored
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Riding the train, high on cocaine
Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech
Alright, let's see how the achievement stats have changed after a week. Then:
Now:

- at least 1.7% of players have completed one of the melody puzzles. Clearly there is some demand there after all

I blame that on accidents. I mean, even if I wanted to use them - there was no tactical gain in herding the creature to the right spot other than getting achievement. It's far easier to deal dmg to them and be done with it. If they've maybe changed the mechanic (creature doesn't have to be in the circle, organs work for anywhere on map - so controlling them is a strategic resource) maybe this will work. For now using melodies is a waste of time.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Patch 2.0 Coming on February 4th

Dear colleagues,

We are happy to inform you that patch 2.0 for Blackguards 2 is on its way and will be released next Wednesday publicly on Steam. Please find the complete list of fixed problems and new balancing settings below.

Gameplay:
- Fixed issues with passing blow interrupting AI scripts on special occasions
- Fixed win conditions with petrified enemies in several end game battles
- Removed two possible timing issues with Sandghost "devour" attack
- Fixed soft freeze when Kulminatio level 3 hit its target
- Fixed possible soft freezes when AI's died during their turns
- Fixed an issue with speech being interrupted if app focus was lost
- Fixed an issue that made it possible to start the campaign with only mercenaries
- Fixed Korean book font
- Fixed Problem that potentially hindered the process of Zurbaran's story
- Fixed graphic glitches when applying overlays to pot helmet
- Fixed animation glitches in training fights
- Fixed a couple of battle-log issues with special attacks of monsters
- Improved sound fix in cut-scenes
- Fixed some issues with NPC barks
- Removed unnecessary colliders in scenes to improve performance and stability
- Improved crane load dropping precision
- Added “game over” trigger if thief in Labyrinth 3 dies before pulling the lever
- Added “game over” trigger if Cassia dies in Labyrinth 3
- Fixed alternative win condition at Niobe's estate
- Fixed Blood Organ's Jumper conversion issues and conversion count for achievements
- Fixed one minor AI issue with Legionnaires sometimes not using levers correctly
- Fixed a bug in Insectoid Archer AI concerning attacks on destructible objects
- Improved scripted camera movements during in-battle dialogues
- Added missing blood organ to battle of Mengbilla
- Fixed LOS issues with the inner wall in Mengbilla
- Improved escape zone functionality so players don't have to wait inside escape zones until win is triggered
- Improved take cover routines in AI. Melee fighters in cover will now properly fight back from within cover
- Fixed a win condition issue in the Lorfas preparation battle
- Cleaned up hex-field in Goblin mine, disabled cells with obstacles
- Improved team-AI reactions on bridge outpost battle
- Fixed an issue with the gate in defend battles of the first Chimera creator
- Fixed some minor issues in Ghouls' berserk behavior
- Fixed dialogue timing in first expedition battle

Balancing:
- reduced critical hit chance of bounty hunters to zero
- lowered Adamant's Astral Points, delayed Sandghost respawn in Adamant battle
- corrected Stamina consumption for several special attacks of monsters
- increased damage output of Cassia's trained spider
- increased fire resistance of insectoids and legionnaires
- Increased damage of daggers
- Increased stamina cost of dual wield maneuver
- Added damage bonus to 2nd level and above of "Hawkeye Marksmanship" spell
- Added knockdown resistance to "Standfast Catlike" spell
- Increased total adventure points gained in easy mode
- Increased parry chance of enemies in hard mode
- Trainers in Heldenrain before Jungle-fight
- Changed difficulty-value for Mengbilla and Adamant-Fights

Customers who bought Blackguards 2 on Steam or GOG will get the update automatically. A retail patch will follow shortly. If you are currently reviewing the game, please consider the patch notes.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
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Messages
7,817
- Increased total adventure points gained in easy mode.

:lol:

- increased fire resistance of insectoids and legionnaires

i.e. every enemy in the endgame. Depending on how much they increased the resistance, this may turn fireball from a win-button spell to a waste of xp. And since they aren't increasing the single target damage on fire lance to compensate for the extra res, that spell will be even worse. Doing damage as a mage might be all about the cold spell now.
 
Last edited:

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
- increased fire resistance of insectoids and legionnaires

i.e. every enemy in the endgame. Depending on how much they increased the resistance, this may turn fireball from a win-button spell to a waste of xp. And since they aren't increasing the single target damage on fire lance to compensate for the extra res, that spell will be even worse. Doing damage as a mage might be all about the cold spell now.

Gotta finish the game before the Wednesday then.



I certainly enjoyed the road movie atmosphere of the first game better, this one is definitely getting boring because there isn't a change in what's going on. Capture on checkpoint after the other – in BG1 the reasons given for many battles where more diverse and while i liked the initial variety of enemies, it quickly became less diverse than the first game, its mostly golden masks and insectoids. Melodies are irrelevant, it's far easier to kill the chimeras. Also the town screens are more boring than last time.[/QUOTE]
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,765
Location
Copenhagen
GOD, who the fuck thought adding more boring, standard units to the slow, meticulous turn-based game would be a good idea??? Half of this game is using basic abilities of basic-ass soldiers on other basic-ass soldiers who do the same to you.

Whoever decided to wreck the simple fucking formula that was BG1 should be shot or better yet dipped in honey and thrown into a nest of fire-ants.

It's still Blackguards, so it's still fun, but my God...
 
Last edited:

Darth Roxor

Rattus Iratus
Staff Member
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May 29, 2008
Messages
1,879,054
Location
Djibouti
Also, I have a question CreepyJohn_Daedalic regarding one issue that I've mentioned before.

You folks at Daedalic said time after time that you are against flanking because it just encourages bumrushing 1 enemy with as many dudes as you can to get them sweet flanking bonuses. Yet despite that, you added those new rules that limit dodging to 1 per turn, which leads to the exact same outcome - hit a dude twice with throwaway mercs and then unleash the whoopass with everyone else that does actual damage because it can't be avoided. What gives?
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
You folks at Daedalic said time after time that you are against flanking because it just encourages bumrushing 1 enemy with as many dudes as you can to get them sweet flanking bonuses. Yet despite that, you added those new rules that limit dodging to 1 per turn, which leads to the exact same outcome - hit a dude twice with throwaway mercs and then unleash the whoopass with everyone else that does actual damage because it can't be avoided. What gives?

Throwaway mercs like the Assassin do pretty good damage (36 with dual wield) - better than a spear wielding Takate.

I also don't like that you are getting auto healed after each battle, it completely takes away the resource management for consecutive battles / gauntlets. In BG1 you had to avoid wounds, especially before you got Tier 3 of Balsam, or at least take notice of them, now I couldn't care less.

The defensive battles are nice in theory, but become boring and pointless quickly. I have yet to lose a battle, actually, I have yet to incur a single casualty during such a siege. The traps are unnecessary – if you could skip their placement, and jump right into battle, it wouldn't change the outcome at all.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,818
Quick question: Is there any way to increase combat speed?
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,676
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://steamcommunity.com/games/314830/announcements/detail/248031890439246307

Hi all,

we’re sorry for all of you who experienced problems while playing Blackguards 2 in the past and therefor we’re happy and proud to say that we’re releasing patch 2.0 for Blackguards 2 right now.

The patch fixes a lot of major bugs like the often reported freeze-issues at some points of the game as well as some incorrect behavior of the AI at certain points. We also worked on a huge list of minor bugs like graphic glitches and smaller issues like not working Steam achievements. There also have been some reports about balancing issues. We also worked on that. All this bug-fixes and improvements will now hopefully allow you to experience a lot smoother gameplay in Blackguards 2.

And last but not least and - because of we can’t say it out lot often enough – Thank you for your support and feedback! You guys are awesome!

Please find the detailed change-log below. If you should experience further problems while playing Blackguards 2 please contact us here or our technical support team via support@daedalic.de so we can work on fixing the issue.

Your Team Daedalic

Changelog Blackguards 2 Patch 2.0:
Major Bugs:
  • Fixed issues with passing blow interrupting AI scripts on special occasions
  • Fixed win conditions with petrified enemies in several end game battles
  • Removed two possible timing issues with Sandghost "devour" attack
  • Fixed soft freeze when Kulminatio level 3 hit its target
  • Fixed possible soft freezes when AI's died during their turns
  • Fixed an issue with speech being interrupted if app focus was lost
  • Fixed an issue that made it possible to start the campaign with only mercenaries
  • Fixed Korean book font
  • Fixed Problem that potentially hindered the process of Zurbaran's story

Balancing:
  • lowered Adamant's Astral Points, delayed Sandghost respawn in Adamant battle
  • Corrected Stamina consumption for several special attacks of monsters
  • Increased damage output of Cassia's trained spider
  • Increased fire resistance of insectoids and legionnaires
  • Increased damage of daggers
  • Increased stamina cost of dual wield maneuver
  • Added damage bonus to 2nd level and above of "Hawkeye Marksmanship" spell
  • Added knockdown resistance to "Standfast Catlike" spell
  • Increased total adventure points gained in easy mode
  • Increased parry chance of enemies in hard mode
  • Trainers in Heldenrain before Jungle-fight
  • Changed difficulty-value for Mengbilla and Adamant-Fights
 
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
115
One of my biggest problems with Blackguards was that it didn't do much in terms of story to live up to the name.

I wanted a bunch of assholes going on an adventure that was the fucked up end of morally ambiguous.

Without spoiling too much, how's the story this time around?
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
Fixed win conditions with petrified enemies in several end game battles

If it wasn't for this, I could have finished the game yesterday. But it didn't register that I won the annoying fight because of one petrified enemy.
 

Whisper

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
4,357
Hmm, any advice - should i rush to free Mirai or wait?

Also looking at map, it takes like 8-10 battles to get to Mengbilla. And there are like 15 towns in total - am i missing something?
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Hmm, any advice - should i rush to free Mirai or wait?

Also looking at map, it takes like 8-10 battles to get to Mengbilla. And there are like 15 towns in total - am i missing something?

There are other prerequisite quests you need to do before you can access the final fight.
 

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