>>-~-~-> 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.

[Shoggoth]

Thanks Iuliana, I will look into these ASAP.

To answer your earlier question, my top priorities are addressing anything that this update breaks. If the bug exists in both the live game and the updated game, I will probably leave that issue for a future update.

This update contains a whole bunch of under-the-hood changes, and I need to make sure I'm not breaking anything inadvertently.

The primary purpose of this update is really to tune the Bellower fight and the supplies situation in Chapter 6. The secondary purpose is to bring the 'News GUI' online so we can keep players informed of cool stuff and upcoming events. The tertiary purpose is to bring the engine up to date with TBS2's engine. The quaternary purpose is to fix any other issues that exist in the live build.

[Aleonymous]

John, I'm plaguing you with remarks in the Stoic forums[stoicstudio.com]. Marking the ones that seemed important in view of the engine update in Red, also in my previous two posts.

[Giopeppe]

I perfecly understand that is mandatory to have a fully functional transition to Saga2 engine (and having The possibility of using expressions opens up to more modification :) ) first, together with Bellow's battle, don't mind to much The supplies things, never percieved the thing as frustrating, the frostvellr supplies thing alone could mitigate it, anyway, aside from The various bugs of The live version listed in my fixpack (and if you need details, just ask), there are two things that i like to be looked into:

- On importing a save to Bs2, you didn't get renown from Bellows battle (and frankly i don't mind at all), but since the hero set-up that get imported it's the one of Hakon's caravan joining/ who will shot the arrow choice, it happens that all the promoting you could at The end will be lost, plus you will lose The item equipped by The dying hero before The last battle, a thing that is a bit annoying expecially the first time.



- I seems to remember that when you load a save while in Boersgard, something Mess up and you lose One day worth of fighters, this don't happen if you do all the section together. I could not be more precise at The moment, but hopefully Aleo remebers The issue and could point you to the right thread where it was discussed.

[Iuliana]

Thank you for the detailed answer Shoggoth. I’ll structure my feedback accordingly and try not to talk your ear off with nitpicks and suggestions ;)

A few more from me:

“Tempest” ability highlighting all the enemies instead of the ones who are going to be hit. So, 3 enemies instead of 2 and the like.
Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/huhdottv4hdjzyb/tempest.jpg?dl=0

Tip message for promoting heroes - “This unit has points available to spend…” shows up once every time I load the game. I think it’s meant to be shown the first time a hero is promoted in a new game, not repeatedly each time I load the game and promote a unit. Unless that’s how it’s meant to be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s17o7ebtq2opzzr/tip.jpg?dl=0

And a video of a few music jumps that were noticeable:
https://youtu.be/TN4jIpy-jOw

[Aleonymous]

Giopeppe a écrit :

- I seems to remember that when you load a save while in Boersgard, something Mess up and you lose One day worth of fighters, this don't happen if you do all the section together. I could not be more precise at The moment, but hopefully Aleo remebers The issue and could point you to the right thread where it was discussed.

Don't recall this, but will try to repro it in my current playthrough.

[Aleonymous]

So, I quit & reloaded almost on all days in Boersgard but never got a flytext with deaths of fighters (or population) on load... I do remember something like that happening, now that I think about it, but couldn't reproduce it now.

[Giopeppe]

Thanks for checking Aleo, with a little bit of searching i think THIS was the bug i remembered (wrongly):

http://steamcommunity.com/app/237990/discussions/0/364040166666782499/

Also, as far as I can tell, this is a bug: once you start the siege in Boersgard (once you start chapter 7), if you leave the game and return then the game will not remember that you protected your clansmen! So if you found lodging and protected your clansmen on day 1, then played to day 3 and turned the game off, when you return to the game on day 4 you will see a bunch of clansmen deaths - the game has not recorded you having protected them! What this means is that once you start chapter 7, you have to go all the way through (or at least up to right before the Bellower fight, where lodging will no longer matter).

[Aleonymous]

Hmmm. In my most recent playthrough I chose to look for supplies (that "mini quest" with Oddleif and the cup). Maybe that path does not trigger the bug, which only happens if you help Iver or check the docks?

[Giopeppe]

Possible. Tonight, hopefully, i will have access to a pc and will try to reproduce it. Anyway, it's something that will go with a second update, as John said.

[Giopeppe]

Okey, i was able to reproduce it:

1) Find a Safe Place for clansmen --> Abandoned Houses --> Put someone in charge.
2) Quicksave (or just exit and then use "Resume Last Save".
3) Load and then Put Krumr in charge/Help Iver (No clansmen will come and tell you things are fine, +10 Renown)
4) Help Iver again.
5) On the new day a clansman will come and tell that things are bad: -88 clansmen.

[Oskar]

Nice improvements! Glad to see that Bellower is easier on Easy but not on Hard! Frostvellr supplies too, that seems huge!

And Nid got a well-deserved buff, very nice. How about rank 3, though? ;)

By the way, does Eirik still say "[...] what rat's anus they crawled out of" before the fight in Strand? It's been bothering me a bit (the phrasing is like a stylistic sore thumb), because the dialogue in the game is so perfect otherwise... :)

Injured units to not heal during travel, only when Resting in camp/village

Just to clarify, does this mean that scripted events won't heal anymore?

Giopeppe: Good job on reproducing the Boersgard bug, I've experienced it too.

[Giopeppe]

Just found two tiny mini-minor-stupid bugs in Chapter 1:

• In the tutorial battle, you get +6 Renown, but Ubin Caravan have just 5. Could someone check if it's the case also on the live branch? (Anyway it's super easy to fix).
  
  
• There is a case-limit bug: Since Sparring fight counts as kills, it's possible to train Ludin before the fight in which Vognir die, this totally break the event, since upgrading his armor prevent Dredge Scourge from rendering him unconscious.
  Dirty Solutiona: Remove Ludin from the roster when they first camp, add him back in Vedrefell OR don't activate Training Tent before that event. I cannot think of another similar situation in the game (don't think a fully leveled Iver could pose a serious treat to Bellower :) ).

Plus an odd thing in Chapter 2:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/254845729770459189/88670CBBC11417D342A53E442DFFA6AE8D38EDD7/

What the faen is this? An inside joke? :D


As a good news, seems the devs are correcting typos :)

[Aleonymous]

@Giopeppe -- Linked these bugs on Stoic forum as well. I've seen that Ragnarog error on Saga2/Ch8 once, but don't recall how/when it happened. John said it was an elusive/rare one.

Oskli a écrit :

1. And Nid got a well-deserved buff, very nice. How about rank 3, though? ;)

Injured units to not heal during travel, only when Resting in camp/village

2. Just to clarify, does this mean that scripted events won't heal anymore?

1. Yes, I think rank 3 would be more appropriate. It used to be rank 5 (first release), which was too much, and then it got down to rank 1 (too little).

2. What scripted events healed? I think it means that days-spent-on-the-road do not heal; only days spent in camp ("Rest").

[Oskar]

Aleonymous a écrit :

1. Yes, I think rank 3 would be more appropriate. It used to be rank 5 (first release), which was too much, and then it got down to rank 1 (too little).

2. What scripted events healed? I think it means that days-spent-on-the-road do not heal; only days spent in camp ("Rest").

1. Wow, rank 5, huh. Still, rank 2 is a real improvement, since you can put some points in Break to make her consistently useful immediately.

2. I think reaching Frostvellr heals the party. Or have I been fooled by healing-on-the-road? Reaching Hadrborg restores morale, at least.

[Shoggoth]

Build Updated to 2.35.30

• FIXED: Renown Count does not appear to match up between menus, expenditures appear to affect renown count differently based on menu.
  
• FIXED: A variety of internal errors
  
• FIXED: All caravan stats display as "0" in HUD
  
• FIXED: War poppening incorrectly shows "0 fighters, 0 varl" before battle, even if many fighters/varl are in caravan
  
• FIXED: Using rest building in Sigrholm does not appear to consume supplies, increase morale, or advance time.
  
• FIXED: Iver's battering ram animation is not playing during battle.
  
• FIXED: Japanese Text does not display when attempting to rebind gamepad controls.
  
• FIXED: Promotion Screen includes reference to TBS2 Talents
  
• FIXED: Gamepad "Stick sensitivity" text is cut off in some languages
  
• FIXED: Fasolt's promotion portrait is blank in battle-resolution screen
  
  
• CHANGED: Increase loot drop chance for winning the second wave of a battles. Increased to 100%
  
• CHANGED: Varl that join the caravan after the Godstone in chapter 3 should have supplies. Now gives 40 supplies
  
• CHANGED: Grofheim burning should be shown for a longer time before it cuts out to Chapter 4