Update 2.0 - The Destiny Knight arrives

[76561198827547584]

InXile Entertainment and Krome Studios are pleased to announce that Volume II - The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight - has been released for The Bard's Tale Trilogy.

To ensure that you have the latest update to the game with Volume II unlocked, please close and relaunch Steam, to add the download to your queue.

To try to cover some of the questions that people may have, on changes that have been made to The Destiny Knight for the remaster, we've compiled a short list of the major items below, along with general fix notes for across both games. We have blacked out some very heavy spoilers, so if you want to go into the game spoiler-free, please do not highlight the blacked out text.

Destiny Knight Changes

• Destiny Knight's mechanics have been tweaked to make the last fight more interesting - you're no longer invincible when fighting Lagoth Zanta. The Destiny Knight absorbs damage with mana and can die if their mana runs out.
  
• BT2 monsters use some art from BT1, if the image matches the monster better.
  
• Names of duplicate monsters (archer,archer,archer) now have unique names so players can learn them (Appentice Archer, Adept Archer, Master Archer).
  
• You now have to learn how to use the Dreamspell, which is located in the Destiny Stone dungeon level 1. And can only be learnt by Archmages.
  
• Additional sage questions have been added to the game.
  
• Destiny Knight text is now in your character sheet (in blue).
  
• Bards carrying over from BT1 will retain BT1 songs, but can learn the new BT2 songs from the Scarlet Bard. Bard characters created in BT2 will know BT2 songs but can learn BT1 songs from Scarlet Bard.
  
• The Dreamspell is now gated behind a new Saradon quest and clue set, the wizard that sent the players the original letter about Lagoth Zanta.
  
• All Magician, Conjurer, Sorcerer, Wizard and Archmage spells from BT1, BT2 and BT3 are now usable in BT2.
  
• The wilderness map no longer wraps like in the original. This was changed so that we could implement a decorated height-mapped wilderness, with seamless map transitions.
  [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33355397/5f415d10bbfae3da4acb9ec8b36bd9198e686c06.gif[/img]
  [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33355397/d3afdb7ef38f9cadc7dcd134b6cb4096afe67e9e.gif[/img]
  
• Rhyme of Duotime now gives a toHit melee bonus as well as its other benefits.
  
• Snare tweak: The Snare directions (that were originally in the manual) are now embedded in the game as clues, throughout the Destiny Stone Dungeon.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares still kill you - but you can't save if a snare is active, so you can't lose your whole game if you're running with 1 save game slot.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares now have red vignette on the game window and a heartbeat audio cue.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares now show how much time is left when hovering over the Skull above the Game Window.

Improvements, Bug Fixes and The Bard's Tale I Changes

CRITICAL GAME CHANGES

• Added a third dice to the character creation dice roll.

AUDIO

• Added audio for when traps disarm.
  
• Added Dork Ring sound.
  
• Add rooster crow for when dawn breaks, or when exiting the guild in the morning.
  
• Added a fizzle sound effect.
  
• Added save game sound effect.
  
• Add audio cue to when AwardItem forces us to drop an item.

THE BARD'S TALE I

• Added a casino to Skara Brae in Bard's Tale I to add ability to generate funds, and a bank in which to store your winnings.
  
• Gave Ogre Magi some magic.
  
• Add a new tip about spell casters identifying enemy spells.
  
• Dwarf King and Blue Dragon are a bit tougher to make Harkyn's Castle a bit more of a challenge.
  
• Mangar and Mad God now cast Disrupt Illusion at start of combat to protect against Mage Maelstrom and wind dragon.
  
• Setup random possession event in Mangar's tower.
  
• Added ability for changing walls and doors of a square - used this to make the "Something not right" area in Harkyns actually do something.
  
• Add some encounters with explicit spawn ranges to BT1, makes 396 berzerker balanced more like the original, makes Mangar battle tougher.
  
• All Magician, Conjurer, Sorcerer and Wizard spells from BT1, BT2 and BT3 are now usable in BT1.
  
• Removed some grind spots from Catacombs - this is for balancing the game in non-Legacy mode - grind spots will be retained in Legacy mode.

GAMEPLAY

• Antimagic now clears magical light, not music or lamp/torch light.
  
• Monsters only summon if there is a free spot.
  
• Fix dopplegangler was duplicating 1 spellpoint for non spellcasts due to some last minute drain level support.
  
• Change message in garths to just "Unidentified <itemType>".
  
• Monsters won't cast an already active buff spell again if it doesn't stack.
  
• Increased strength of freeze foes since it doesn't stack.
  
• Increased starter gold rate, reduced later gold rates.
  
• Fix antimagic - it was removing the smoke-in-your-eyes effect.
  
• Fix SkipTurn on monsters - Magestar and HypnoticImage were lasting forever!
  
• Add new instruments so people aren't stuck with HORNS for the entire game.
  
• Increase personal inventory size so that you can equip all item types at once - will enlarge inventories as it loads them.
  
• Added ability to stack arrows.
  
• Sped up spell regen and health drain squares.
  
• Rogues now auto-disarm traps if they have 100% skill.
  
• Doing a phase door now reports if it fizzles.
  
• Guild only resets to morning if you enter it at night now.
  
• SCSI spell now works in anti-magic zones.
  
• Add support for random possession squares.
  
• Remove shop recharge exploit - items that don't have full charges won't stay in the shop when you exit it.
  
• Cat's eye now detects hidden doors.
  
• Fix AI monsters no longer attack things out of range.
  
• Allow light spells to stack.
  
• Thieves temple no longer charges for rogues.
  
• Revamped item slot system. Shield, Wand, Bow and Misc items now use an Off-Hand item slot, while the weapons use Weapon-Hand item slot. This makes for a more intuitive equip system. Characters can choose to use shield, or throwable items, or a wand or a bow.
  
• All equipped items can now contribute to toHit bonus. toHit bonuses have been added to some items, as well as a few new items have been added to the game specifically to allow players to optimise for toHit if they want, usually at a sacrifice of AC. (eg useful for the Dark Crypt in BT2 with its melee-only, all antimagic nature).
  
• Increased monk toHit per level.
  
• Increased toHit bonus to attack from shadows.
  
• Add toHit bonus to Rhyme Of Duotime, makes it a very useful melee song - extra damage, faster attacks, better toHit.
  
• Fixed bug where Apport Arcane (or portals) after a teleport happened would confuse the automapper.
  
• Stopped the user being able to cast spells or do actions during a turn left / turn right.
  
• Fix automapping was detecting one sided walls from the wrong side.
  
• Add text-filtering for song playing.
  
• Level drain attacks now permanently saps 1000 xp as well as drop their level.
  
• Added some new toHit items - Huntsman Gloves (for hunter) and Ring of Accuracy (for all melee classes).

GRAPHICS

• Added spell effect for Apport Arcane.
  
• Added spell effects for Trap Zap, Detected Traps and Traps being Zapped.
  [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33355397/8f32394c7ba46131b254c73ed6dfc358f0fe74c1.gif[/img]
  
• Added snow to Skara Brae.
  
• Added spell effect for Mage Flame.
  
• Added spell effect for Apport Arcane.
  [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33355397/642bf6ae91a7c0bd1b688f48b7c257c72090710f.gif[/img]
  
• Added spell effect for light ignition - used for Torch, Lamp, LERE, GRRE, STLI, Lightwand, Dayblade.
  
• Cat's eye no longer flickers the light.
  
• Added a visual for detected spinners.

MISC

• Fix bug in proper nouns - was converting them to "Mangar".
  
• Fix bug in taverns where back button from tipping would take you to "who will tip the bartender".
  
• Fixed tool tip information on why a save is locked.

UI

• Traps now indicate when they are disarmed, on the maps.
  
• Misc fixes for tool tip sizes.
  
• Added confirmation to deleting or overwriting save games.
  
• Added color coding to autosave/quicksave slots.
  
• Added save game sorting by date.
  
• Made the cursor and mouse scroll work in save / load UI.
  
• Fixed an issue where the script was cancelling the street name prematurely.
  
• Mark secret doors on automap when you walk through them.
  
• New spinner & trap icons so they overlay better on the map.
  
• Fixed bug where overlayed icons wouldn't appear on the map.
  
• Added icon to indicate when a character can advance a level, or learn a new spell.
  
• Combat icons now go semi-bright when the combat is completed.
  
• Identify now filters only unidentified items and doesn't reset to top of list once an item is identified.
  
• Skull now lights up if you're standing on cursed or blessed tiles. Tooltip shows what the curse/blessing is.
  
• Fix automapping so it doesn't detect the reverse side of tiles.
  
• Skull now indicates if any active curses or anti-apport/anti-phase door is active.
  
• Fix the automapper discover - tiles weren't working around map wraps.
  
• Fix shop selling unidentified item but revealing the name.
  
• Fix input issues hitting escape on spell filter.
  
• Fix input issues hitting enter when spell filtering to 0 spells.
  
• Spells go orange if no targets are in range.
  
• Add ranges to spell tooltips.
  
• Fix double space in Sanctuary Score description.
  
• Show the current ToHit bonus on player info screen.
  
• Fixed skull centering and skull eyes centering.
  
• Fixed size of highlight bar in party slots.
  
• The maximum message scroll scrolling speed has been increased.
  
• Monster groups are now sorted by range at the start of each combat round.
  
• Selling items at Garth's doesn't reset to top of list each time now.
  
• Alphabetize song list selection
  
• Fix issue where pressing F10 from a settings dialog would put the UI logic in a bad state.

[Madpuppet]

Quick Notes on transfering your characters from BT1...

If you have a BT1 completed saved game, you can load that and go to the Guild. There will be an option to start BT2 at the top of the options list.

You will be given the option to continue as is - no changes to any of your party or roster characters, though any NPCs will be dumped from the party permanently.
All equipment, gold, experience and character conditions will carry across.

The other option is to reset your characters. This just saves you having to roll new characters of the same name/class if you already have your favourite team configured but want to enjoy the full game of finding gear and levelling up.

Once you save a game in BT2, you will not be able to revisit BT1 without starting a new game, or loading an old BT1 save game again.

Just remember if you start BT2 with a party full of lv50 heros with spectre snares, you're missing a lot of fun finding gear and building up your power levels, but thats entirely up to how you want to play.

[JPMcMillen]

My question is, why don't BT1 and BT2 use their own, unique, autosave files?

[Dragon20070]

Just Yesterday I finished BT1 and now BT2 is already available, YES. And ALL these changes are gorgeus. Only level drains which becomes permanent scares me XDD. Great work!! Thank you!!

[Wakawaka]

The store inventory of Garth's fully transfers. Actually this makes it identical to playing on my brothers copy of BT2, where the shop was already stocked with good equipment. So it recreates my BT2 experience perfectly.

[Tyler Durden]

I wish the level drain could be made optional if the player wishes, but aside from that, these changes sound great. I especially love the spell colour changing if you're not in range.

Stuck at work, but I'll play tonight when I'm off. So excited! Thanks so much, Krome and InXile!

[Madpuppet]

Originally posted by Tyler Durden:

I wish the level drain could be made optional if the player wishes, but aside from that, these changes sound great. I especially love the spell colour changing if you're not in range.

Stuck at work, but I'll play tonight when I'm off. So excited! Thanks so much, Krome and InXile!

The level drain xp loss is very small... worst case, if you're hit a lot in combat it might cancel out the xp gains you make for winning the combat... but level drain did need "something"... it was a bit of lame duck before.

it's not as severe as the originals where you lost your entire level worth of xp...
It would only be worth adding then when save-anywhere is removed in legacy, because people would instantly reload anytime that happened.

[Zenoen]

The "Inferior items will be deleted" is not just acceptable:
"Remove shop recharge exploit - items that don't have full charges won't stay in the shop when you exit it."

This means we have no way to recharge our instruments, Wands, Item Charges, etc
This means we cant ever sell arrows to the store becouse only 10 stacks of arrows are considered not inferior and when we combine the stacks it goes to 30.
we cant sell instruments or weapons to the store ever becouse they start with a random amount of charges so they will always be inferior.
This was not a bug and was working as intended for all purposes in the original game you would sell a item and buy it back to recharge it.

If you want to keep this change you need to give us a way to recharge. Allow us to replenish our stock of arrows and instrument/item charges at the store or roscows emporium. This new change breaks the game balance and makes no sence. Either give us another way to recharge our items and arrows or remove this change as it does not contribute to the game experiance in a constructive manner. Half of the items you get start with a random amount of charges on them if you decide you would like to buy that back later like was intended with Garths Equipment shop you will quickly find that you cant.

[Lord Retro]

Originally posted by Zenoen:

The "Inferior items will be deleted" is not just acceptable:
"Remove shop recharge exploit - items that don't have full charges won't stay in the shop when you exit it."

This means we have no way to recharge our instruments, Wands, Item Charges, etc
This means we cant ever sell arrows to the store becouse only 10 stacks of arrows are considered not inferior and when we combine the stacks it goes to 30.
we cant sell instruments or weapons to the store ever becouse they start with a random amount of charges so they will always be inferior.
This was not a bug and was working as intended for all purposes in the original game you would sell a item and buy it back to recharge it.

If you want to keep this change you need to give us a way to recharge. Allow us to replenish our stock of arrows and instrument/item charges at the store or roscows emporium. This new change breaks the game balance and makes no sence. Either give us another way to recharge our items and arrows or remove this change as it does not contribute to the game experiance in a constructive manner. Half of the items you get start with a random amount of charges on them if you decide you would like to buy that back later like was intended with Garths Equipment shop you will quickly find that you cant.

The way to recharge an item in Bards Tale is this:

Go to the Dungeon where it drops.

Grind.

Find item again.

Voila, recharged.

Rinse and repeat.

[Zenoen]

Again we could always recharge item in the past. It was a intended feature in Bards Tale that you could sell items back to Garths equipment shop and it would record the items you sold so you could buy them back later. Now if i sell a arcshield to his shop it gets destroyed if i sell 13 arrows to him there destroyed. I can always go to mangars castle and grind for hours but that doesent change that this was marked as a bug and it clearly wasent.

Bards tale keeps a list of all items in the store so you can change up your party and try new equipment you get. Hell, half of the reason people would have a monk in there party was just to free space for more items. This change deletes more then half of the items you take back to town. In fact, becouse getting a item that is full charges is often odds of 50 to 1 you could say that this change makes it practically impossible to stock up his store with all the new items that are in the dungeon and that was always half the fun.

[astrosha]

Originally posted by paul_inxile:

• Bards carrying over from BT1 will retain BT1 songs, but can learn the new BT2 songs from the Scarlet Bard. Bard characters created in BT2 will know BT2 songs but can learn BT1 songs from Scarlet Bard.

Can someone refresh my memory on where The Scarlet Bard is, in BT2? I took my party from the original BT into BT2, and without the BT2 songs I cannot complete the starter dungeon.

No, I don't need the stuff from the thing, I just want to be able to complete it without making a throwaway BT2 bard.

[76561198827547584]

Originally posted by astrosha:

Originally posted by paul_inxile:

• Bards carrying over from BT1 will retain BT1 songs, but can learn the new BT2 songs from the Scarlet Bard. Bard characters created in BT2 will know BT2 songs but can learn BT1 songs from Scarlet Bard.

Can someone refresh my memory on where The Scarlet Bard is, in BT2? I took my party from the original BT into BT2, and without the BT2 songs I cannot complete the starter dungeon.

No, I don't need the stuff from the thing, I just want to be able to complete it without making a throwaway BT2 bard.

What song do you think you are missing? You should have everything you need to finish the starter dungeon.

[Madpuppet]

Originally posted by astrosha:

Originally posted by paul_inxile:

• Bards carrying over from BT1 will retain BT1 songs, but can learn the new BT2 songs from the Scarlet Bard. Bard characters created in BT2 will know BT2 songs but can learn BT1 songs from Scarlet Bard.

Can someone refresh my memory on where The Scarlet Bard is, in BT2? I took my party from the original BT into BT2, and without the BT2 songs I cannot complete the starter dungeon.

No, I don't need the stuff from the thing, I just want to be able to complete it without making a throwaway BT2 bard.

The song you are thinking of... there is a similar BT1 song that will work there also...

if you really want to find the scarlet bard, ask around...

[astrosha]

One of the BT1 songs works, too? Cool ..

There should probably be some indication other than the in game clue about playing the last, because that one's NOT "the last" with the BT1 song set.

[Madpuppet]

Originally posted by astrosha:

One of the BT1 songs works, too? Cool ..

There should probably be some indication other than the in game clue about playing the last, because that one's NOT "the last" with the BT1 song set.

Yeah the clue you are thinking about was changed...

[christianaars]

* Added snow to Skara Brae.

Um ... wasn't there already snow in Skara Brae?