Combat Demo, Character Creation and Screenshots

[T-man]

After a long time just lurking around I finally brought myself to cross the doorstep. So, greetings to the community from Sachsen/Saxony!

While a DnD game from germany kinda feels like high treachery , it being based on 3.5e srd ruleset is an interesting asset. Sadly as a lot that makes the 4th and 5th DnD editions so bad is lore RB can't help with that either, sadly. Still looks very interesting, more than enough to keep an eye on it.

The effort you put into the demo... makes me guess it will be available for everyone later? Hope so. Because if there is one thing I'm really hesitant about, it's the very distorted perspective (something akin to military projection if I'm not mistaken). Really have to test if my eyes can handle the strain when playing.
TBH I'm quite curious why you used it actually. My first guess was because there is no transition between hexfield and environment in that case, but it's not that hard to do it, so I doubt that's the reason.

My hopes are up that interactivity is right, there is more to the gameplay than pressing button X and click on target Y to watch a light show or fancy animation. There's also a lot about the "W's" (what, when, where, why... and also how... and some other of the non-W-gang ).
Really hope to see more of that in the future!

best regards

[HobGoblin42]

After a long time just lurking around I finally brought myself to cross the doorstep. So, greetings to the community from Sachsen/Saxony!

While a DnD game from germany kinda feels like high treachery , it being based on 3.5e srd ruleset is an interesting asset. Sadly as a lot that makes the 4th and 5th DnD editions so bad is lore RB can't help with that either, sadly. Still looks very interesting, more than enough to keep an eye on it.

The effort you put into the demo... makes me guess it will be available for everyone later? Hope so. Because if there is one thing I'm really hesitant about, it's the very distorted perspective (something akin to military projection if I'm not mistaken). Really have to test if my eyes can handle the strain when playing.
TBH I'm quite curious why you used it actually. My first guess was because there is no transition between hexfield and environment in that case, but it's not that hard to do it, so I doubt that's the reason.

Hey T-man,
welcome to our forums!

In my youth, I switched from DSA (The Black Eye) to AD&D because I started to play Goldbox games such as Pool of Radiance. Where DSA definitely has a much better world design and lore, D&D offers the more tactical combat system and more interesting spells. But that's my personal opinion and I never enjoyed the combats in DSA computer games either.

Our combat demo/beta will be for backers only, but that's more like a beta for a particular system than a demo version that shows the whole feature set of the game.

The perspective in the game is inspired from Ultima 7 and we know, it's a little bit unusual. But there are some reasons why had to do it this way: occlusion, alignment to hexagons and the roofs.

[T-man]

Really hope there will be a demo later! Definately need a test drive for that visualization.
And ok, so the Ultima Nostalgia, would've been surprised otherwise, as everything else could've been improved without eyestrain.

...D&D offers the more tactical combat system and more interesting spells...

Well, wouldn't say that as genereically to be honest, but it's clear where that opinion comes from...

...I never enjoyed the combats in DSA computer games either...

TBH, there is IMHO no DSA(TDE) PC game released that does even the basics justice. And that's not counting the in some cases vastly worse rules of current (!) DSA versions. (same problem as DnD *sigh*)
"sad fun-fact": the once perfect example of the versatility of the DSA skill system, the Ecliptifactus spell, was streamlined so much in "recent" rulebook releases, that the terribly uncreative/lazy realisation of the spell in Drakensang is now closer to the rulebook than the original would be...

That said... I can once again just beg you to not flatten every edge into total anonymity. Have the courage to keep characteristics.

[Asbo]

From what I've seen form you guys so far, I'm drawn to the game even more since I first saw you offering it. I love the ultima era and the fact that this has inspired you can only bod well IMO! I'm a big fan of good lore so looking forward to messing about with the demo early next year. When you say January will this be during the holiday period or towards the back end please?

Cheers in advance.

Asbo by name Asbo by nature!

[daveyd]

From what I've seen form you guys so far, I'm drawn to the game even more since I first saw you offering it. I love the ultima era and the fact that this has inspired you can only bod well IMO! I'm a big fan of good lore so looking forward to messing about with the demo early next year. When you say January will this be during the holiday period or towards the back end please?

Cheers in advance.

Asbo by name Asbo by nature!

No solid date yet from what I gather.  Since the Xmas holiday is almost here w/o a solid release I'm going to guess the beta will probably be done towards the end of January.   

Also note: only backers who pledged for the Kickstarter at a certain level (55+ Euros) will get the combat beta demo.  Not sure if they're going to release a demo to the general public at some point, but they will start selling a beta version of the game on Steam Early Access at some point next year. 

[LukeClifford]

Wow, looks amazing!!!  I am so looking forward to escaping reality into this game.  Thank you for making this game!

[S-man]

Cool, hope there are more options to customize.

Also, are there a different bios available depending on race, class, and alignment?

[Ekkyo]

Hi, first, thanks for your great work ! I'm so exiting to play. I would like kickstart the project. But i want to know before the real plan of Release Date ? On the kickstarter page, it's notice "Combat Beta (mid of 2019), Early Access (end of 2019), Release (early 2020)" . But it seems that you are late since the demo is not yet released.
Nowhere do I see a note from you indicating this delay. So you understand I am wary of kickstarter projects that never go out.  If the deadlines are met then I will pay the full price to obtain the Gold Box Edition. Otherwise I will take the simple Digital Edition to support your promising project.
Thanks for your answer.

[Lucumo]

But it seems that you are late since the demo is not yet released.
Nowhere do I see a note from you indicating this delay.

Except in the very thread your are posting in?

Honestly, we underestimated the actual amount of work the combat demo would require. At the end, we don’t want to release unfinished gameplay elements and that’s why we need to spend more time in designing, implementing and polishing than originally planned. Therefore we are moving the release date of the combat demo to January.

[daveyd]

Hi, first, thanks for your great work ! I'm so exiting to play. I would like kickstart the project. But i want to know before the real plan of Release Date ? On the kickstarter page, it's notice "Combat Beta (mid of 2019), Early Access (end of 2019), Release (early 2020)" . But it seems that you are late since the demo is not yet released.
Nowhere do I see a note from you indicating this delay. So you understand I am wary of kickstarter projects that never go out.  If the deadlines are met then I will pay the full price to obtain the Gold Box Edition. Otherwise I will take the simple Digital Edition to support your promising project.
Thanks for your answer.

In addition to the statement Lucumo stated here is something Hobgoblin42 just posted today on the Discord in response to a similar question.

" We added much more to the combat demo than originally planned and therefore it will be much closer to the release version. We did that because we noticed that even the combat demo required almost every gameplay element of the final game.
The early access and release version are still planned for 2020.

The original release schedule on the Kickstarter page based on the funding of the KS campaign only but since then we got another 100.000,- EUR funding from the Bavarian game fund "FFF Bayern" that allows us to fund our team a little bit longer and to hire additional writer."

[SirPelinor]

Since November, I have not seen any information on launch dates.
Will we have a first version at the end of January? will the game be released in 2020?

[HobGoblin42]

Since November, I have not seen any information on launch dates.
Will we have a first version at the end of January? will the game be released in 2020?

Those are still the current estimated release plans.
Early access and the main release are definitely planned for 2020. As soon as we surely know when, we'll release the exact dates but right now it's too early for proper estimations.