Eschalon: Book II Now Available
Community Forums/Showcase/Eschalon: Book II Now Available
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The second book in the Eschalon Trilogy has just been released! Come get the demo directly from our website at http://basiliskgames.com |
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| Congratulations. |
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| Looks fantastic. Congratulations and good luck with this release. |
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| Hurrah! I don't see it on Steam though. |
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| I don't see it on Steam though. Steam hasn't signed on yet. But Impulse and Direct2Drive have. Both should have the game online within a week. |
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| Hello Tachyon, great game ! A question, you said that Eschalon is done in BMax. May I ask you what did you use to obtain that ortographic projection ? Did you use a 3D external library, or is all plain bmx ? Thanks in advance and again, best congrats for such a programming gem ! Cheers, Sergio. |
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| May I ask you what did you use to obtain that ortographic projection ? Did you use a 3D external library, or is all plain bmx ? Everything is plain Blitzmax. The isometric tiles are rendered in Studio Max and imported into the game. |
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| another way of doing it is to use my gfx rendering mod(in the code archives) and arrange the vertices so that it appears orthographic |
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| Thanks mates for the answers and tips. Sergio. |
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| Looks amazing! Great work! |
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| Purchasing Now. |
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| Man this is hard, I've got tape worms and I'm starving and penniless. But it's fun! |
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| Man this is hard, I've got tape worms and I'm starving and penniless. But it's fun! But what's the game like? (Vancouver sounds harsh!) |
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| lol I knew that was coming. |
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| ;) |
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| Ooh! Been waiting for this, will purchase at the weekend (or I'll get no work done today! :D) |
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| Congratulations Tachyon!. I am always happy to hear about bltiz projects that are completed, distributed and marketed. Good luck! |
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| Is there a plan for an OSX version? |
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| YAY! Just bought it. |
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| Mikehart: Yes, there's another thread that announces the MacOS release date. IIRC it was a month after the Windows release. |
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| The demo crashed for me: 1. I was trying to destroy the dragonfly nest via fire darts for an hour, 2. Got a level up. I added 3 points to Perception and 3 to Elemental Magic. 3. After I left the stats editor, walked a bit, I got the error message:  By the way: How can I destroy the nest as true mage? P.S.: I seem to have a working save file to reproduce the error... :/ |
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| I can't even find the damn nest, thought it was just out the back of that guy's farm but it wasn't, so guessing it's in the whole new map to the East. |
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| I spent around 15 minutes searching the backyard. Guess it's the way this quest is meant to be played. ;) !SPOILER ALERT! You're right about the map to the east. Look in the northern part, west of a a dead body :o)  |
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| Can hunger and thirst be seen as numeric values too? |
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| This game kinda looks like a mix between Illarion (screen) and WoW (Tools at bottom in a line) from the picture. |
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| The demo crashed for me Grisu: we have an update (beta) that fixes this problem. You can find it on our forums under Windows Support. |
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| Thanks, will check it out. |
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| @Grisu: Thx, found it just before I saw your post, but I can't destroy it with my sword (it breaks), need something better. Looks like you have a high cartography skill or have been spamming that cartography spell. Also you've got a level up just waiting there, how can you leave it like that, gasp! I've posted some hints and tips here: http://greyaliengames.com/blog/eschalon-book-ii-hints-and-tips/ |
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| You can destroy it, but it will takes ages. It would be great to have a text message if you make dmg to objects and how much hp they have left. Any clue where can I learn a lockpick spell? |
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| The nest is hard to smash, but there are other ways. Think about Demon Oil...or better yet, drag a few Powder Kegs over to it. |
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| Congrats on your release. I am curious about the tiles, did you make the tiles yourself, or were they contracted out, and if so was it expensive? I have been wanting to make an rpg game myself for years, but my graphics skills are really basic, so I was just wondering about how much of a cost something like that would be. |
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| @Tachyon: Thanks for the tip. I found out about how useful powder kegs were last night. Will use one. |
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| I tried being a healer out of curiosity, I spent some money on some armor but it didnt help me so i sold it, didnt have any money left to buy the heal spell. I also spent some money on cats eyes bottles so i could see the enemies to hit them with a bow down the well. tried to get the priest who is stuck down the well, locked doors are in the way and i dont know how to bash them down, and my swords have all dissapeared due to wear. cant go across the map to do wendy's favor because the dragonells kill me. The walking speed caused constant frustation so i quit. |
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| I also had some people reporting issues with Eschalon Book II. Hope that these things will be fixed till the OSX version is out. Btw were there any bugfixes for Book I and if so where can i get them? Are these the same links as the original emailed ones? |
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| Take a look at our forums for a link to the 1.02b BETA version of the game. It fixes every issue that has been reported so far. The Mac version will be 1.02 with all these fixes. If you don't want to download something that says "beta", the final version of 1.02 will be released to all the download sites tomorrow (Monday). |
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| Thanks and how about my question regarding Book I? |
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| Made really good progress last night now my character is a bit more powerful. Got rid of that damn nest, explored a lot killing tons of outlanders, found some skeletons (ran away), cleaned out that spider cave, found my way into the port. Loving it. I'm playing the game on normal but I gotta say it feels like hard. I believe the game could benefit from more starting quests that are easy and give you gold so you don't starve and end up with broken weapons. I believe this would result in more people buying it after playing the demo. Basically it's quite hardcore and could maybe be casualized a bit imho ;) Perhaps for Book 3? |
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| the healer has got to be the hardest character to play, he doesnt have offensive spells so he has to spend money on weapons, he cant bash doors down because he is weak, he hasnt got the stats of a rogue to pick locks, spell scrolls are expensive, reagents for alchemy are almost nonexistant, except in stores where they cost 5x the value of the potion you are making. |
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| The forage skill lets you find reagents when camping. I haven't got it yet, waiting until later. Also don't use swords to bash stuff as they damage too easily, use a blugeoning weapon. The reagents do seem expensive but I'm guessing that as you progress in alchemy you make really good potions that would normally cost loads from the same ingredients. |
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| Big congrats! What an accomplishment! |
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| Making some progress, killed the wierdo in the well for the monk, killed some outlanders, wiped out the bees and stole the sword back for the smith. Havent been able to workout the bronze riddle in her brothers house to get at the chests though :/ My only moan so far is i cannot buy a beer in the pub to quench my thirst, only at the wells (but no biggie) :D |
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| ok i started again as a wizard, strangely if you want to get more than 1 one point in a skill in Char Gen it costs very little, so i trained magic and meditation to 4 and i could cast lvl2 firebolt , i was basically a human missile launcher who could kill rats in 2 hits, (never missing). But then i went into the sheriffs house at night (after paying him 60 GP for the jewelled sword and giving it to the blacksmith) and he thought i had commited a crime! So is there any way of stopping him attacking me? |
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| @Tachyon: I signed up to the forums but my authorisation email never arrived. Is the process manual? |
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| Nope it is automatic. If you are still not activated by the time you read this post, let me know what your forum username is and I'll manually authenticate you. |
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| @Tachyon So again, have there ever been bugfixes for Book I and if so how can people who once bought the game and maybe played with an older version get access to the latest versions? |
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| @Tachyon: user name = Grey Alien. Thx. |
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| taumel: Sorry- I didn't mean to overlook you. The latest version of Book 1 is 1.05. It is available only as a download from us (no patch was issued do to conflicts with other portal versions). If you don't have version 1.05, email me with some information (order number, email address used for the order, etc) and I will activate a new download link for you. Grey Alien: Looking you up now... |
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| Grey- your account should now be activated. |
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| Okay, i've sent you the information, thanks. |
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| So is there any way of stopping him attacking me? Yes, i managed to do it by just stealing it, it said he -hears- a crime but i managed to sneak away with him still blue (i only think he gets mad when he sees you with it). I took it to the blacksmith and went back and he was still peaceful. I want to know what the 2 chests are in that dead dudes house!(the mad chick in eastwillow's brother) its driving me nutty. |
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| i mean after someone sees you commit a crime do they ever stop attackin you? |
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| I can't wait for Book 3! |
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| i mean after someone sees you commit a crime do they ever stop attackin you? They will be forever hostile towards you...unless you Charm them. Either cast the spell, or throw a Charm Cloud potion on them. When the charm wears off, they will be friendly with you again. |
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| @Tachyon: Thanks! Posted about the cartography annoyance ;-) Been a long day but the only thing I want to do is play this game. |
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| Thanks from my side as well! |
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| Tachyon, I plan on buying book 2 in the future, but I have a suggestion: Will you be adding more resolution support? I tend to play games at 1680 x1050 (fullscreen). Thanks! Jason |
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| thanks for the tip |
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| Hi, i yesterday tried to install Eschalon Book I in order to replay it on my Mac (OSX 10.6.3, GT 330M, Core i5, 4GB) and sadly it doesn't work. Instead of a working menu i do get this:  |
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| This: http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3032 and this: http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3350 |
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| hey tachyon you can turn 2d images into iso, by using my unofficial glmax2d mod this is the image that i load:  and this is the result after adjusting vertex positions in the game:  without the middle image of the door half open of course this saves gfx memory and speeds up rendering because of the smaller pic size, even transparent pixels slow down rendering on intel gfx cards |
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| Interesting, slenkar. I'll look into your mod and see if I can benefit from it. |
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| hey slenkar, nice mod (;-) Oh, and on thread - sweet looking game Tachyon. |
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| Tachyon, I loved Eschalon Book I, can't wait to try this one. It is fantastic that BlitzMax can produce such awesome games :) Keep up the good work! |
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| @Tachyon Thanks, it works as a workaround. Once a fixed build is ready will we get the links automatically? |
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| Stopped short of a purchase. I have to limit my purchase price when buying my own games, as I can't justify anything too expensive with a family to run. Good luck with your release, I am sure the full purchase price is still worth it. |
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| A suggestion. Maybe you should have a bundle version as well with Book 1 & 2 for a slight discount? Maybe $5-$10 off? |
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| $24.95 is reasonable. Anyone can afford it. I will be purchasing the Mac version once it becomes available! |
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| Haha yeah. We always knew you had tape-worms and were penniless GA. But what about the game!! :) |
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| Book II for Macintosh and Linux is now available. Head to our website for links and more information! |
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| I don't have much time these days but i gave it a quick shot today. Eschalon II looks and feels nice as expected. What i disliked was getting something to eat. I wouldn't like to turn these options completely off but either i did something wrong or the pressure getting something to eat was too high. |
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| if you get foraging skill and the other skill that makes you regenerate quickly in open air(druid) it doesnt kill you :) |
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| Well, I wanted to download the MAC demo... 1st try, a torrent .... I don't touch these things 2nd try, another 3rp party place... tried... download rate is at average 80mbit/sec ....takes almost an hour to download.... canceled!!! I can easily go with 1500 mbit/sec. if there is a powerful server on the other end. Sorry, but I think it is to much of a hassle to download the demo for me. If you have a fast direct download, then I will try. |
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| @slenkar I did a rogue with rogue and magic powers. A nice one but his main quest seems to be not to starve. He should sit down in the city and best draw a sign with "Kill monsters and open chests for food, please help!". |
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| Please please add a speed up time key that I can hold down to walk faster? I'm pretty sure Baldur's Gate had a game speed setting and Avernum lets you run around super-fast. I believe it would help you convert demos into sales. @Taumel: get create food as soon as you can, and forage. |
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| @Grey Thanks, i'll try to survive and get these. What i still love in Eschalon is the lightning around you in the dark. |
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| And when it rains and the night sky is cloudy and your torches go out (until you get gravedigger flame) it really feels depressing, so I just camp it out till morning :-) |
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| I can't afford camping due to hunger. |
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| start again, i tried to soldier on with my first char and hit a brick wall. If you want it easy use a mage with elemental magic skill 4 and meditation 4. Free fireballs that never miss and cause good damage. |
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| From my experiences so far i think that it's not wisely balanced. As i said you starve way to easy, or keep on running around with -1 starvation hits, and i don't see the logic why you can't buy more food in a town nor why you can't order a meal and something to drink in order to fully restore hunger and thirst in a tavern. The game makes you feel like an apple is 100 times more worth than a gemstone, but this also only lasts for a few seconds. Oh and if there are wells around in the wilderness why aren't there things like Apple trees around as well or why can't i hunt some animals? I never came to the point where i cared a lot about the quests because my main task was not to starve. I would expect that camps of bandits also offer some food to loot. A feature which misses balancing and reasonable integration. |
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| its a good game overall, just the balancing and walk speed let it down |
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| Nothing that can't be fixed in Book III. :) The only thing missing for me is a larger viewport. I dislike games where the GUI eats up too much screen space. Btw: When will Book II be available on Steam? |
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| Quick note: Book II is now available on Steam, if you prefer. |
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| I saw that the other day! Thanks! Jason |
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| This weekend i was forced lying in my bed and due to this had some time playing through Eschalon Book II. Version 1.04 felt a lot better than the initial version to me, which i thought was kind of rushed. I enjoyed playing through it and with the experiences already gathered with the demo before, i quickly made my way in the beginning. What i liked is the overall silence, the space and the lonesome feeling of the game. Eschalon just doesn't scream at you like a lot of other RPGs. Maybe it's because playing as a thief is a bad choice but with such a character i found it quite hard on the default settings. What i really dislike in Eschalon is that the difference if you buy and sell something is so extreme. In my opinion this could be better done and you should get more for your stuff when you're selling it. If there was one problem i had, then it was money, money, money, i mean a constant lack of it. There was one situation where i knew how to do it but with the resources i had, it would take me ages, so i fired up an hex editor, gave myself enough to buy some potions, repair my armour and weapon (repairing magical stuff is too expensive) and voila, the game was fun again. Eschalon in V1.04 feels a lot better than the first one but it still needs balancing here and there. I liked the landscapes but at somepoint boom the game was simply over. I was quite surprised because dunno i would have expected something more to come. This was really a surprise as i somehow missed the point when it should have been obvious that i'm coming to an end, i would have expected about 1/3 or 1/4 more to come. Anyway overall i've defiantely enjoyed it but it could do better on a few aspects. Maybe it's primary a niche product but for a broader audience i find the price too high. And on a final note, i experienced zero crashes or hickups with 1.04, so very well done. Oh and i still find killing rats extremely boring and would prefer less stereotypical monsters instead. |
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