KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[mediocrepoet]

He actually asked for money. I thought this day would never come!

 

[Aegidius]

Backed and excited for July to play Augury of Chaos !!

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Backed at diamond. Now I must bury my wallet before the cops catch me.

 

[Cnaiur]

Only Pierre can be so out of touch to show up in a suit and tie sales pitch - with visual effects that would make the nineties cry - and still make it work as one big pile of messy but enjoyable clusterfuckery.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Only Pierre can be so out of touch to show up in a suit and tie sales pitch - with visual effects that would make the nineties cry - and still make it work as one big pile of messy but enjoyable clusterfuckery.

I think it's a big part of his charm. It's like how people can think the inventory can look like dog shit but still be unironically excited about the whole quirky package.

 

[Abu Antar]

If we do a codex fundraiser, I will contribute with the £164 tier. Otherwise, I will stick to the £65 tier on KS.

 

[Darth Roxor]

never thought i'd be excited about the prospect of playing maptools with myself, but it seems there's a first time for everything

 

[Mortmal]

~101 bucks, I must be crazy, but I'm also a hero! A broke hero!

Nah 101£ by the time your credit card is charged the conversion rate may be a lot more profitable for you.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Is Pierre the artist for the game, too? If I didn't already know the name of the game, I wouldn't guess it from this image.

Knights 2 Chalice: Of The

No. It's Knights of 2 Chalice the.

 

[Reinhardt]

I can't even donate because some fags destroyed closest atm few days ago and i'm too lazy to go to next one to throw some cash.

 

[Alex]

He should add a tier to the project where he will scrap the new graphics and go back to stealing them from the Dark Sun games.

 

[Tacgnol]

This is going much better than I was expecting. This is one project I really want to succeed so I've chucked Pierre a little more money than I normally would on a Kickstarter.

 

[AbounI]

Thanks Mortmal for your thread on Canard PC forum. You named me there but I self ejected from there few months ago when some retarded shitstormed me about the French translation of AoD

 

[Dickie]

It's now a little over halfway to base funding goal with 151 backers.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Is Pierre the artist for the game, too? If I didn't already know the name of the game, I wouldn't guess it from this image.

Knights 2 Chalice: Of The

No. It's Knights of 2 Chalice the.

2 Knights 2 Chalice

Spoiler

Knights of the Chalice: Faerun Drift
Knights of Chalice
Knights Five
Knights of Chalice 6
Chalice 7

Spoiler

 

[Mortmal]

Thanks Mortmal for your thread on Canard PC forum. You named me there but I self ejected from there few months ago when some retarded shitstormed me about the French translation of AoD

Glad to know hard work and dedication always pays....

 

[Mortmal]

BlueSalamander you might have a look at r/dnd and make your AMA there too. There's 2,6 millions subscribers there and more likely to be interested than r/gaming.

 

[moraes]

I'm going to sit this one out and wait on Steam for sane regional pricing, the current converted price is ~1/5 of my local minimum wage for a Steam key. It does release as soon as the Kickstarter is over, right?

 

[Tacgnol]

BlueSalamander you might have a look at r/dnd and make your AMA there too. There's 2,6 millions subscribers there and more likely to be interested than r/gaming.

Might be worth hitting the Pathfinder subreddits as well. They might be more receptive to OGL 3.5 stuff.

 

[Mortmal]

BlueSalamander you might have a look at r/dnd and make your AMA there too. There's 2,6 millions subscribers there and more likely to be interested than r/gaming.

Might be worth hitting the Pathfinder subreddits as well. They might be more receptive to OGL 3.5 stuff.

Yes probably more even.

 

[Dickie]

Here's an interesting tidbit from the Kickstarter comments.

For the Steam version there will be a relatively short wait. I've only started creating the Steam page for KotC 2 so there is much work left to do. Also I would like to have Steam achievements in Augury of Chaos. Finally, I want to use the feedback from KS backers to remove any bugs before launching KotC 2 on Steam. Cheers!

I had assumed it'd be on Steam immediately. It'll be a great excuse to start a new party, anyway.

 

[Mortmal]

I backed a little more money than i used too as well, those 3 extra modules better be worth it . 193 backers only and initial goal almost filled.
With a bit of adverstisement it could at least gather 2100 people like queen's wish ...110k+ £

 

[Tigranes]

OK mister pierre

I hope this money pays for that economics degree, ja

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/2847818

Update #2: My RPG design philosophy and dungeon-design process!

How to create the perfect RPG scenario, the perfect adventure map? That is the tantalising thought faced by all RPG creators!

My approach includes a number of steps.

It always starts with a cool idea. For example, in the case of KotC 2: Augury of Chaos, I wanted to have a map where the player would be faced with two warring goblin tribes. I also wanted the player to have to deal with a mysterious coven of witches.

The next step would be to decide on a locale where your idea materialises. The locale may or may not be very important. After all, you can meet goblins in a variety of places: caves, sewers, ruins, forests, a temple of Evil... So I would decide on the locale based on the available background graphics, or based on what the graphic artist is going to provide. Next, I would take the available graphic assets and play with them in Photoshop. Add some rooms and corridors, use the mirroring function, change the overall colour of certain areas for extra variety.

At this point I have a background image and a rough idea of the creatures that will populate the map. Now we launch the KotC 2 editor and start preparing the map: we set the background image, we paint the obstacle areas where the party cannot go, we place the light sources, sound sources, animations such as bugs, treasure chests, doors, additional graphic elements like pentagrams. We set the map’s music.

Next we need to focus on the creatures. In the case of the goblin tribes, we have to create two sets of goblin templates, one set for each tribe. In each tribe there will be a shaman and a chieftain, a number of fighter types with various classes such as Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger or Psychic Warrior, and probably a few caster types with a class like Druid, Wizard or Psionicist. To differentiate between the tribes, we give each tribe a different colour. We make each tribe a bit different by giving each one a preference for using axes, or bows, or psionics.

Now comes the time to place the creatures on the map and create the actual encounters, dialogues and quests.

My priority as regards encounter design is to make each encounter interesting and challenging. I also want to give the player options that will affect gameplay and possibly the subsequent storyline.

How to make the tussle between goblin tribes even more challenging to the player? Easy. Have the shamans summon monsters like Trolls, Giant Snakes and Giant Scorpions a couple of rounds after the battle has begun.

[OK here I have been trying for nearly two hours to upload an image but Kickstarter will not let me, so I'm just uploading it to my website and here is the link instead: http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/FWE/Kickstarter/A.png]

Giving the player options is important. Of course, the player can choose to join either tribe. But it’s even better if the player can choose to fight both groups indiscriminately, or if the player can choose to join one of the tribes and offer to destroy the enemy tribe without any help for a greater reward!

Non-linear adventures have great appeal and they offer tremendous replayability. I really like the idea of area interdependence, the idea that your actions in one area can affect the encounters, monsters and dialogues in the areas visited by the party afterwards. We will talk more about this in later update.

To create an encounter, normally you use the following sequence: 1) place the creatures and set them to behave as a group, 2) open the script editor to create a dialogue, 3) create any needed scripts associated with the battle or enemy AI.

When it comes to quest design, I usually start with the enemy group. Who are the enemies and where do they dwell? What have they done, or what are they planning to do? What do they have that the player needs? An item, a piece of knowledge, a captured companion?

Once I have decided on these elements, the next step is to think about 1) what obstacles will the player have to deal with in order to reach the enemy, 2) what rewards are going to be offered to the party, and 3) the quest hook: how will the party get to know about the quest?

I believe in paying attention to detail. You may be fighting three Orcs, and they all look similar... But one of them is the leader and if you open his character sheet, you’ll see that he has more Hit Points and he’s wielding a huge enchanted axe!

It’s the attention to detail that turns a good RPG into a great RPG. You chose to banish a dreadful Demon and you sent it back to the Great Abyss in the beginning of the adventure... A fine and heroic thing to do; but later on, that same Demon is summoned by an unrelated Wizard, and it remembers you!

I’m a firm believer in choice and consequence in RPGs. The choices made by the player should matter. You chose to resolve a diplomatic incident peacefully: great, you now have one more ally you can rely on; but you may have to keep bribing them. You chose to use brute force: okay, you’ve wiped out a hostile faction, you can collect their riches; but nature abhors a vacuum and in time, new monsters or bandits may settle in the area! (For more on this topic, please also see the form ‘Choices in CRPGs’ which can be downloaded at http://heroicfantasygames.com/FWE/Pages/FWE_FAQ.htm)

When it comes to puzzles, the more quirky, the more exotic, the more unexpected and surprising, the better! Puzzles should contribute to an RPG's enjoyment and not be a source of undue frustration. Imagine that a dungeon level requires answering the riddle “Watch the Shape to find the Truth”. Maybe the whole level, when seen from above, looks like a star, so the answer is Star! If you can't find the answer, a smart companion should pipe up: “the Shape... maybe they mean the shape of this whole area? It seemed peculiar to me, somehow.”

[Here again I have been trying to upload an image but Kickstarter will not let me, so I'm just uploading it to my website and here is the link instead: http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/FWE/Kickstarter/B.png]

I also love cryptographic puzzles, so I created a game system specifically for that kind of puzzle. The game's cryptography interface was inspired by the point-and-click adventure game Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Simply mouse over a symbol and press a key to see the result of your decoding effort instantly. It’s easy for designers to add coded messages to their adventures, and it’s fun for players to decode them.

Stronghold construction, development and defence can be a fun part of certain RPG scenarios. I liked the way it worked in Neverwinter Nights 2 with Crossroad Keep. However, Baldur’s Gate 2 was also remarkable because it offered a different stronghold depending on the character class of your main character: a Planar Sphere for Mages, a Keep for Fighters, a Temple for Clerics, a Guildhouse for Rogues, a Grove for Druids, a Theatre for Bards and so on. The variety of strongholds is one of the reasons why BG 2 is such an amazing game.

In my opinion, epic battles, particularly boss battles, are very important in nearly all RPG scenarios. There are many different ways to create interesting battles and we will talk more about this in a future update. A good start is to have encounters featuring enemies of various races, types, sizes and character classes. Enemies who can cast spells or use special powers can be used to increase the challenge level and make combat so much more exciting.

I have always thought that combat is an important part of cRPGs. That’s why I have spent a lot of effort creating artificial intelligence that’s even better in KotC 2 than it was in KotC 1. A lot of the fun of playing RPGs with turn-based combat comes from watching the actions undertaken by the enemies and observing their reaction when you alter the environment with spells such as Wall of Fire, Web or Solid Fog.

Two more important aspects of RPG creation are the abundance of quests and companion interaction. Villages, cities and castles should be quest hubs: places where the party members can always find new interesting quests allowing them to employ their skills, gain experience and progress on their overarching quest! A perfect example comes from the city of Athkatla in Baldur’s Gate 2. That was a huge quest hub.

Related to the concept of quest abundance is the idea that a great RPG should have no 'downtime', no boring areas containing 'filler' combat encounters only. Each area needs to have its raison d'être, so each area should receive the creator's attention to give each place a backstory, interesting dialogues and choices, challenging combat situations, and unique monsters and characters.

Companion interaction makes any RPG livelier by giving a personality to your companions and making them more endearing, more realistic and more useful. Two types of dialogue and companion interaction are of particular interest: humorous dialogues, for comic relief, and philosophical discussions, for encouraging us to think!

When it comes to companions, I like fun and quirky characters. Examples include Morte, Fall-from-Grace and Dak'kon from Planescape: Torment; Minsc, Aerie and Korgan from Baldur’s Gate 2; and Khelgar, Neeshka and Elanee from Neverwinter Nights 2. I think it's very important for RPG designers to focus on characters, good or evil, and to give them believable, true-to-life personalities, motives, thoughts and emotions.

Finally, in most cases I like to have a clear antagonist and a clear goal for the party to strive towards. I like smart Machiavellian villains... treacherous villains who will stop at nothing to consolidate their power! Manichaeism is fine in RPGs! If you only knew the power of the Dark Side... Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy!!

I would like to give special thanks to Tactical Adventures, the developer of SRD 5.1 CRPG Solasta: Crown of the Magister, for the kind help and support provided to the Kickstarter. You can check out the game at https://www.solasta-game.com/

I also would like to give special thanks to 6 Eyes Studio, the developer of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark, for their kind support. You can check out their website at https://www.fellseal.com/ and their Steam page at https://store.steampowered.com/app/699170/Fell_Seal_Arbiters_Mark/?curator_clanid=35047933

I also would like to give special thanks to Iron Tower Studio, the developer of The Age of Decadence, Dungeon Rats and Colony Ship. You can check out their website at http://irontowerstudio.com/

Tomorrow I will post an update about the three first companions. Hopefully Kickstarter will allow me to upload images that time.