>>-~-~-> BETA TESTING!

[Shoggoth]

Banner Saga 1 is being updated to the latest version of the engine. Quite a bit of cleanup happened under the hood, but also this adds in some improvements that exist in TBS2. We need your help to make sure everything is working properly. Please report bugs and discuss the beta in this thread, or join us on our Official Stoic Forums[stoicstudio.com].

How do I access Beta?

• Right click Banner Saga in your Steam Library
  
• Click on Properties
  
• Navigate to the “BETAS” tab
  
• Use the dropdown menu to select “beta” branch
  
• Download the Update
  
• Launch Banner Saga

Changes in this build (2.34.29):

• Final Bellower battle tuned to be less difficult (see below)
  
• Chapter 6 supply opportunities increased (see below)
  
• Upgrade '+' sign shows up on hero icons in heroes tent when appropriate
  
• Extended tooltips in battle
  
  • on stat banner, buffs, and items.
    
  • on hazards such as slag-and-burn, coals, etc...
• Match Resolution:
  
  • Consequences tab shows injured units
    
  • Achievements tab shows new achievements
    
  • Items tab shows newly acquired items
• Idling close caravan now uses idle anims for heroes (e.g. at godstones)
  
• Fix missing normal ships after Vognir arrives in Strand
  
• News Ticker on Start Screen (see TBS2 notes)
  
• Injured units to not heal during travel, only when Resting in camp/village
  
• Injured units' str penalty now equals the number of days of injury remaining

A FEW MAJOR CHANGES:

1. Bellower Final Battle

...has been tuned down for normal and easy difficulty.

Bellower's ARM/STR regen during the first battles was +6/+6 per turn

It is now:

• Easy: +0/+1 ARM/STR
  
• Normal: +1/+3 ARM/STR
  
• Hard: +6/+6 ARM/STR (same as before)

Bellower's ARM/STR regen during the second battle is still +1/+1 for all difficulties.


2. Chapter 6 Supplies

...towns in the final world travel have more supplies and items for sale:

• 1. Haukstorp, the first village after Einartoft which was ransacked by dredge (now 50 supplies at 10/renown, and 3 items)
  
• 2. The first village past Sigrholm (now has 145 supplies, up from 98), and between 3-5 items.

General Notes

The game needs a full pass, including multiple difficulty settings, with particular attention payed to the complex situations in Frostvellr, Einartoft, and Boersgard. If possible, please compare this beta against the live build on Steam to make sure everything is still working as before.

Based on the upgrades, here are some potential breakages to take special care in watching out for:

• Variable Prereqs: things appearing or occurring in the wrong order or not at all. When the player makes a choice, the side effects should correctly affect events in the future just as before.
  
• Variable scene anims: things not animating when they should, or incompletely
  
• Save import. We run a risk of issues importing saves into TBS2. Issues could arise in BOTH SITUATIONS: from older versions of Tbs1 and new version of tbs1... into tbs2.
  
• Units may take on the wrong appearance: look like their TBS2 version instead of TBS1 version
  
• Bellower fight needs extra attention, in all 3 difficulty modes
  
• Talents should be entirely disabled and invisible to the player in every way

Developer Superpowers

You can run the game in developer mode to gain access to a variety of cheats, fast-forwards, bookmark teleports, diagnostics, and other fun stuff. For more information, please see this Banner Saga Developer Cheatsheet[docs.google.com]

Patch Changes (2.35.09):

• When returning to Frostvellr at the beginning of Chapter 4, supplies are now as they were at the end of chapter 2 (even though time has passed -- let's assume the party has been foraging)
  
• Fix missing Alette description in Heroes tent after final Bellower battle
  
• Fix issue where Rook walks ahead of Juno on the way to Godstone Strahvs
  
• Nid now starts at rank 2 when she joins
  
• Fix issue preventing snow from falling in snowy scenes -- please compare to live game for any discrepancies

Patch Changes (2.35.40):

• Console Error can flash on screen when changing game language
  
• [Suggestion] Increase loot drop chance for winning the second wave of a battles.
  
• Change default INT variable range from 1-20 to 0-100
  
• [ES][PT][RU] Insufficient Willpower messaging under the Special Ability button does not appear localized.
  
• [ES][PT][RU] Multiple fly text messages appears as placeholder.
  
• [ES][PT][RU] Consequences display does not appear to be localized.
  
• [ES][PT][RU] Small Party warning dialogue does not appear to be localized. Don't show dialog if translations don't exist
  
• [Suggestion] Varl that join the caravan after the Godstone in chapter 3 should have supplies.

[Aleonymous]

Good stuff. Will try to chip in.

By the way, there's no branch called "beta" in BETAS. You have unlocked it? Maybe you mean the "patch_2.17.06" branch?

[Shoggoth]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

Good stuff. Will try to chip in.

By the way, there's no branch called "beta" in BETAS. You have unlocked it? Maybe you mean the "patch_2.17.06" branch?

I had forgotten to push the unlock button, it is now available. You might need to restart your Steam Client to see it.

[Aleonymous]

Thanks. No Steam client restart was needed for me.

[Bartleby]

Why are there more than 1 BETAS?
- beta - For public testing
- linuxfix -
- patch_2.17.06 -

Tried the first one and it wont start after downloading.
Using Xubuntu 16.04.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Bartleby:

Why are there more than 1 BETAS?
- beta - For public testing
- linuxfix -
- patch_2.17.06 -

Tried the first one and it wont start after downloading.
Using Xubuntu 16.04.

Maybe Linux is not fully supported in this beta branch, i.e. it targets PC & Mac, for now?

[Giopeppe]

I LOVE YOU ALL.

I am excited like a child looking at a ball rolling for The first time in his entire Life.

But i am also CURSING everything moves, stays still or don't even exist.

I am stuck with just a crap smartphone and a pre-colombian internet connection, more or less.

I would REALLY love to help, but can't until (finger crossed) The second half of november.

How long is planned to last The beta?

[Nafeij]

Devs, can you pin this post? Seems pretty important considering it tackles most of the major gripes people have with the game.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Giopeppe:

How long is planned to last The beta?

I would be interested to learn this, too.

Originally posted by Nafeij:

Devs, can you pin this post?

Done.

[Khatie]

The beta will last as long as it needs to, to make sure we suss out any bugs and make any adjustments needed. So the more people we can have participating, the better!

[DAOWAce]

Is this why my client was suddenly downloading near 3GB of content?

Looked into it and it was apparently the mod content.. released in 2014. Why my game was downloading it right now, against my will, is beyond me. Disabled it in options, so it's fine now..

Anyway, thanks for upgrading your old game, not many developers care to spend the time/money to do that.

[Shoggoth]

Originally posted by DAOWAce:

Is this why my client was suddenly downloading near 3GB of content?

Looked into it and it was apparently the mod content.. released in 2014. Why my game was downloading it right now, against my will, is beyond me. Disabled it in options, so it's fine now..

Anyway, thanks for upgrading your old game, not many developers care to spend the time/money to do that.

Aye the sudden Mod Content download affected lots of people suddenly a few weeks ago. It was during a period of no activity on our end, so nothing we did triggered it. Valve must have pushed out some kind of sweeping policy change on 'free' but 'never enabled' DLC? We haven't really heard an explanation for exactly how it happened, we just know that it did, and if affected pretty much everyone. I'm not sure if other games were affected as well with similar 'free' DLC. I bet most other games' 'free' DLC isn't 3GB, so it might have gone unnoticed. :)

[Shoggoth]

Updated the Beta. The following changes are now also listed in the first post of this thread. They are here as well for your convenience:

Patch Changes (2.35.09):

• When returning to Frostvellr at the beginning of Chapter 4, supplies are now as they were at the end of chapter 2 (even though time has passed -- let's assume the party has been foraging)
  
• Fix missing Alette description in Heroes tent after final Bellower battle
  
• Fix issue where Rook walks ahead of Juno on the way to Godstone Strahvs
  
• Nid now starts at rank 2 when she joins
  
• Fix issue preventing snow from falling in snowy scenes -- please compare to live game for any discrepancies

[Iuliana]

Do you want serious bugs and glithes or are punctuation, glaring design inconsistencies and the like are welcome too?

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Iuliana:

Do you want serious bugs and glithes or are punctuation, glaring design inconsistencies and the like are welcome too?

I suppose anything is welcome, with the understanding that not everything will be addressed :)

[Iuliana]

Well, here’s my first catch of the day.

Behavior issues (video link included):
New music sample playing over old one when a popup window appears when Frostvellr is reached.
First war battle (introduction to the concept of war). Existing warriors and varl not displaying properly (shown as 0 in popup window).
After first war battle, character screen displaying duplicate characters when scrolling through them in camp.
https://youtu.be/PqjBMItLWTs

On a lighter note:
Text in Tutorial Battle - "...at the cost of 1 Willpower per gold tile Red, pulsing tiles..." Missing punctuation.
Should be - "...at the cost of 1 Willpower per gold tile. Red, pulsing tiles..."
Leaving Strand - "Perhaps the governor expected you to a draw a crowd,..." an unnecessary “a”.
Should be – “Perhaps the governor expected you to draw a crowd,..."

Design suggestions:
On Character screen when help - ‘?’ is pressed, the section with text "Click the + and - buttons ...". Font size and alignment inside the box differs from the other tips.
In general, all the help notes formatting is a bit "all over the place", some text boxes are way bigger than the text, some fit snugly, some text is aligned ‘center’ some ‘left’.
A plea from your Friendly Neighborhood UX Designer – keep design consistent. Inconsistency = sloppy and confusing user experience. It’s especially important for first time users – it sends the message that the help tips were thrown together without a though, and I’m sure that is not true. Keep the help text formatting and window size consistent.

Will keep searching for more bugs.
If you have any questions, suggestions or need additional info, feel free to tell me so.