KickStarter The Legends of Eisenwald Thread

[mindx2]

Aterdux Entertainment Hey it's nice to see your game on Steam's front page in the Featured PC games section. Hope that brings you in some more $$$.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Well... I'm going to buy it tomorrow morning, so that's something. It looks fantastic.

 

[G.O.D]

Still looking forward to play the game.

 

[Ulminati]

I dick around in some early access games, if I'm not interested in the story. I played a bunch of Faster Than Light Alpha, for instance. I'm planning to do the same with Darkest Dungeon. And I've probably got 4-500 hours in Kerbal Space Program by now.

 

[krist2]

I have some early access games, but most through kickstarter. I like to support devs that makes games that won't come from the big developers, and are "old school", games that tickle my gaming memories from the 90ies.
I think I would have bought this EA if I hadn't already kickstarted it! Played it as far as it goes a couple of months ago, and really liked it. (even though I used some time figuring out how too use horses...) :D

 

[Tzaero]

I just put some cash down on this.
Aterdux make me proud.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

mindx2, well, small featured section is better than nothing but still. I was trying to make them put us into a big section. Also, since it's less than 8 weeks after the Summer Sale, I couldn't enter a small discount to make it a bit more attractive. So, on both days we sold like 60 copies, which is way better than 2-6 copies a day but still uncompared to the first week of Early Access where we were selling thousands. But - a good news is that Steam might put us on a daily deal in the near future. Those who want to buy but don't have money can wait a bit. If it happens, should be in a week or two.

Tzaero, we will make you and the entire Codex proud! Well, at least we hope so. After all, Codex is the place where it all started and gave us the momentum in the beginning of the Kickstarter.

 

[RedScum]

Glad to see you guys pushing through!

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Do we have another choice, RedScum? We went through many things, even heart surgery, what can possibly stop us?

 

[StaticSpine]

Do we have another choice, RedScum? We went through many things, even heart surgery, what can possibly stop us?

That's the spirit!

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

This map is popular on our Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=290302552 But, guess what? It's empty! Do people vote just for a screenshot?

 

[Haba]

Well... if you look at the comments...

Yeah, "gamers" are a depressing bunch.

Unlike us cuddly-fuddly smart and smarmy, yet oh-so lovable Codexers!

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Yes, the comments there are quite an indication On the other hand, I guess we should be happy it's not the negative type of thing in there.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

By the way, the game is now on Steam Daily Deal. I know making discounts on Early Access is tricky but I didn't want to turn down Steam one more time (we did decline a request to participate on Daily Deal back in January, and now I think it was rather stupid on our part).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Now you only need to add Trading Card$ and you'll be swimming in dough

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

You can't make trading cards while on Early Access They are actually very easy to do, achievements are a bit tougher, and workshop is on impossible level almost.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm pretty sure you can, I've been getting cards for Vox...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/252770/

...and maybe Don't Starve (could have been giving out cards before being "released", but I'm not sure)

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

I saw a thread on Steamworks forum and Steam folks replied to focus on other featurs of the game and not on Trading cards until the release. Maybe it was possible in the past and not possible now, I am not sure.

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Wow, you guys are from Minsk? Now I just have to buy your game!

And... done.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Wow, you guys are from Minsk? Now I just have to buy your game!

And... done.

Yeah, not only tanks are made here!

 

[Aothan]

I just noticed the new tutorial being prepared on the Asterdux's website, I'm looking forward to that as I'm not sure how distance and other factors determine differences between bow and crossbow. But I just noticed the Preliminary Shot skill increases, or says that it increases, the bow's value by five, however wouldn't this be ten for bows and five for crossbows ? I understand that would have some potential to become overpowered against less range resistant types and also might have a bearing on the functional balance between bows and crossbows, nonetheless a little clarification would be appreciated.

also, whilst I imagine this might be listed somewhere, what is the difference between bows and crossbows for the Accurate Shooter skill ?

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Prepared shot is done through skipping a turn, so far it didn't look too overpowering.

The crossbow ignores 50% of the armor, so crossbow is better against heavy infantry. Archers are good about light infantry and against pikemen and spearmen. Accurate shooter skill is aimed shot for bow and penetrating shot for crossbow. Penetrating shot stuns the enemy and ignores the armor completely.

And hi from Gamescom

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

New interface is out! Here is the link to few more details: http://aterdux.com/patch-0-97-new-interface/ Feedback started to come in, a few things still needs improvement but in my opinion the game feels much better with it. More artwork has been added, which adds to the atmosphere quite a bit.

 

[Infinitron]

RPGWatch preview/interview: http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=255

Legends of Eisenwald Preview
by Emma Yorke (Aubrielle), 2014-09-11

Journey to Eisenwald, a land of medieval dreams, and prepare yourself for a long stay. But beware, for optimization issues still lurk in the shadows in this Kickstarter dream come true.

Imagine an idealized Middle Ages - possibly not the one you learned about in History 203, but one that you can still easily recognize. This is the medieval world from the daydreams of your youth, where sunlight sparkled on the green leaves of summer forests and where you were serenaded on afternoon journeys to summer fairs by the enchanting music of harps. Somehow, with just the right combination of art, music, and charm, Eisenwald manages to capture the Middle Ages you used to imagine, long before you learned all the grisly truths.

For those that don't know, you start the game with a choice of three preset characters, depending on the role you want your main character to fill. The Knight is a heavy melee character, killing and soaking up damage in the front. The Baroness is a ranged character, using bows and crossbows to deal death from the middle row. And the Mystic is a caster/support class for those that prefer to lead from the rear of the rear of their force.



The gameplay has much to offer. The lack of depth in character creation is offset by the promise of modding support, and even early in beta, modders claimed to have made main characters that looked like other models in the game - baronesses that looked and played like healers, and so on. The Steam Workshop is already up and running as well, waiting for the fruits of labor from patient mod makers. Knowing all this assures us that we won't be forced into roles in the game that we come to resent, and that whatever combat role we would like our main character to fulfill, it's certainly possible.

But any playthrough at this point (beta v.973) is an agonizingly slow process, unless you know a few unlikely tweaks. Horrible slowness can be avoided with a quick fix from the dev team, making the game smooth and fun again until they can get around to optimizing it.

Wanting to know more I contacted Alexander Dergay, the head of Aterdux Studios and one of the masterminds behind Eisenwald. He took some time out of his busy day to answer some questions for me.

Emma: One thing I've noticed - especially after you installed your gorgeous new UI - is that the game became a lot more demanding on my system, which is fairly powerful. The load times seem fairly lengthy at this point in the beta. Have you optimized the game fully to your liking? Can we expect more streamlined optimization closer to launch? Will the final client run more smoothly, or is this more of a future-proofed, next gen sort of game?

Alexander: Our game is demanding but not so much. If you have a good system and it loads very slow most likely it's your antivirus. Add the game to the exception list and if possible, also a folder of the game and it should run much faster. At home I play on a laptop with 640m card which is not that great. First time it loads slower [for the cache] but 2nd and subsequent loads it's [a lot faster]. The game is not much optimized at the moment though and it will be, especially for weaker configurations. Fixing bugs and putting remaining features in place has higher priorities right now. And it makes more sense to deal with optimization when everything else is done, SFX in particular. We also applied to some of the whitelisting programs of antivirus makers and maybe it will make things a bit easier.

Taxing or not, the graphics are certainly the game's strongest suit. The light glimmers off the leaves in the forest, and casts shadows across the landscape as the sun makes its transit. Natural light in the game is some of the most realistic I've ever seen. As day turns to evening, and evening turns to night, you can't help but feel like you're there - sunset feels real enough to make you think seriously about seeking shelter. As night comes and the moon rises, fields and woods are bathed in moonlight and washed in bleak tones. Specks of that moonlight reach the forest floor, but dense forests are so covered in shadow as to make them seem both impassable and dreadfully dangerous. These moods conveyed by sun and moon aren't just reserved for the overworld map - they remain with you as you descend into combat as well. You can probably imagine that combat at night feels both urgent and deadly.

It's not overdone, though. The designers have chosen tasteful minimalism over aggressive loudness, and here we can see its indie Kickstarter roots. Going into a village or a building gets you a quiet, pretty background illustration, setting the mood without getting in the way of the business you're there to conduct.

But I didn't just quiz Alexander down about the game's optimization and graphics. Modding looks to be one of this game's stronger points as well. Earlier this year, Aterdux released a scenario editor with the game. Now you can spin medieval landscapes out of your imagination, creating worlds for your band of adventurers to go traipsing through in search of brutal death glory. The ability to download scenarios from other players via Steam Workshop will extend the game's replayability scale tremendously. But it doesn't stop there.

Emma: I see you've already set up Steam Workshop support for Eisenwald, and you've released a really powerful scenario editor as well. Beyond that, just how much will modders be able to change the game? How easy is it to mod the game? Are assets like meshes and textures changeable?

Alexander: The game is pretty much moddable - you can create your own models, or modify existing ones, your own animations, weapons, change castles etc. It's not easy and might require some additional tools which we provide on request, these are mostly some 3D converters. Meshes and textures are changeable too.

Emma: Do you have any plans in the works for future content? Will we see future DLC's or expansions with other main characters to choose from?

Alexander: We would love to make much more than what we have. Denis (our AI and editor programmer) has several drafts of other campaigns and scenarios. We also have few other things that we can do like castle sieges, upgrades, new lines of characters. Interestingly, one of players made us realize that some castle upgrades are possible even now - the editor allows to lock-unlock different functions and many things could be done with that. It actually makes me rather happy since both our game and editor seem to have more variety and options than we ourselves thought.

Castle sieges? Castle upgrades? This is an exciting development, and I for one can't wait to see what that will add to the game. It sounds like there's a lot the developers would like to do with their title, and for a young developer like Aterdux, the sky is the limit.

The game certainly has various strong points such as: Immersive ambiance, Top-notch artistic talent, Stunning user interface, Beautiful soundtrack, Modding capability and Replay value. However there are also some weaker points: It is still very slow at this point in the beta (unless you use the antivirus fix), there are occasional text/grammar errors and the client is slightly unstable.

Talented graphic design without pretentiousness. Urgent, edge-of-your-seat combat without going over the top. If Aterdux can streamline Eisenwald's coding and features into a smoother, faster delivery, then they'll have produced a beautiful game that will remain fresh and relevant for years to come.

 

[V_K]

It takes real talent to write so much text without revealing any useful info. I'm impressed.