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General discussionRelease: Balrum(135 posts)(135 posts)
(135 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 28, 2016
Outgrowing the simple life.

<span class="bold">Balrum</span>, a tactical, open-world RPG about braving the epic or everyday challenges awaiting in and around your farm, is available now for Windows, Mac and Linux, DRM-free on GOG.com, with a 40% launch discount.

Darkwood is your adopted home, ever since your family had to settle there 20 years ago. Life has not always been easy but lately a disturbing sense of peril permeates the atmosphere and you intend to find out what evil lurks in waiting.
Your epic travels in this dangerous world of turn-based combat and real-time exploration will be interrupted by calmer moments of maintaining your growing homestead, crafting custom items, and taming a loyal companion to journey with you. Soon you'll become a powerful adventurer that can clear entire dungeons from horrible creatures but don't forget your humble beginnings and the people of Darkwood in their hour of need.

Grow strong and your own vegetables in the diverse RPG world of <span class="bold">Balrum</span>, DRM-free on GOG.com.
The 40% discount will last until July 5, 12:59 PM UTC.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rXnns5lBZnQ
Post edited June 28, 2016 by maladr0Id
Posted June 29, 2016
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paladin181: Vitality gains shouldn't be retroactive from a logic standpoint. Not that logic should apply in a game where fireballs shoot out of my fingers. But if I just gained enough power to increase my vitality level why would I get credit for having it from the beginning?
You just gained vitality. Therefore, you should now be able to take more hits now; it shouldn't matter that you were frail at the start of the game, or that you haven't leveled up since the Vitality increase.

Also, I note that typically *no* other stat works that way. In TES games, fatigue (which should really be called "stamina") and spell points/magicka are retroactive; if the relevant stat changes, so does the derived stat. Why should health be any different?

To put it another way, why shouldn't a Fortify Vitality effect give the target more HP?

Also, I don't like the effect non-retroactive HP gains have on optimal build strategies.
Posted June 29, 2016
It looks nice :)
Posted June 29, 2016
One other question: Does the game have random non-respawning treasures? I hate it when games do that.
Posted June 29, 2016
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sunshinecorp: You can't possibly compare the Adobe AIR crap to Java...
I'm not denying that there are shitty implementations of AIR; I remember using some AIR-based cross platform Twitter clients that were fucking awful. By the same token, I'm not denying that there are good implementations of Java in a desktop app (the graphics app ImageJ comes to mind here).

But by and large, I've never had any significant issues myself with the original AIR-based version of Defender's Quest, and this was on positively archaic hardware (Core 2 Duo MacBook with 10.6/GMA 950 graphics).
Posted June 29, 2016
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sunshinecorp: Exactly. But for some weird reason, Java is evil.
People, Java is one of the easiest ways to go cross-platform. Ever wonder why Minecraft is on everything?
Well, my complaints stem from the Java apps I've used suffering from sluggish performance, hogging RAM and CPU, and awful UI that's ideosyncratic compared to "native" coded apps.

But then again, this is a game meant to be run in full screen with its own unique UI, and performance is on the whole very good, even on low-end hardware.

I hope my earlier complaints about the game using Java doesn't come across as a knock against the game itself, because from what I've played so far I quite enjoy it. NEO Scavenger is another example of such a game; I thought it was one of the best games of 2015, and it ran on frakking Adobe Flash.
Post edited June 29, 2016 by rampancy
Posted June 29, 2016
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gr4phic: I found a solid gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSIS_LFiF8E
Judging from this vid it looks like you cannot really customize your character's appearance or, more importantly, pick a female character. Soooo... no.
Posted June 29, 2016
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OliD: Judging from this vid it looks like you cannot really customize your character's appearance or, more importantly, pick a female character. Soooo... no.
Female character was a goal, but it wasn't reached.
Posted June 29, 2016
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OliD: Judging from this vid it looks like you cannot really customize your character's appearance or, more importantly, pick a female character. Soooo... no.
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vanchann: Female character was a goal, but it wasn't reached.
This brings up one question:

Why didn't they instead make the female character the default and have the male character be the goal?
Posted June 29, 2016
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OliD: Judging from this vid it looks like you cannot really customize your character's appearance or, more importantly, pick a female character. Soooo... no.
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vanchann: Female character was a goal, but it wasn't reached.
Ah, too bad. I would not have made this an optional goal, though. But at least they considered it and maybe they will add a female character at some point.
Posted June 29, 2016
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dtgreene: Why didn't they instead make the female character the default and have the male character be the goal?
My guess would be something similar to
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dtgreene: There appears to be no gender selection, which is a dealbreaker for me (assuming the PC is male).
and assumed playerbase. If you are only going to add one character, go with the one you assume will be a no for fewer people.
Best to add both though, but not always possible.
Posted June 29, 2016
I noticed yesterday that Balrum was 7,99€ with -40% sale but today the price seems to be 8,19€ with the same sale percentage. What happened overnight? Why did the price increase?
Posted June 29, 2016
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Martek: Game looks interesting.

Too bad they choose to use Java.

Unfortunately, that makes it a big NO-GO for me.

I don't want Java on my system. It has too many vulnerabilities. Now, if I had something "important" that required it I might consider that as a reason to load Java; but thankfully I don't - and a game is definitely very not important enough.

Oh well, it does look interesting; I'll give it that..
The real issues with java are if you run it in the browser then it is easier to be invoked. If you ensure it isn't enabled in the browser shouldn't be a real issue.

--- edit, just noticed hyperagathon mentioned the same thing (great minds as they say :)
Post edited June 29, 2016 by deonast
Posted June 29, 2016
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Piirakkamestari: I noticed yesterday that Balrum was 7,99€ with -40% sale but today the price seems to be 8,19€ with the same sale percentage. What happened overnight? Why did the price increase?
There was a silent update to exchange rates.
According to the last update a $9.99 game should cost 8.79 euros. But if you check a (non-regional priced) $9.99 game like Planescape: Torment it costs 9.09 euros.

EDIT: I've made a copy of this message to "Local Prices Update" thread.
Post edited June 29, 2016 by vanchann
Posted June 29, 2016
40% off is a hefty discount on a new game?. How is it?
Posted June 29, 2016
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Martek: Game looks interesting.

Too bad they choose to use Java.

Unfortunately, that makes it a big NO-GO for me.

I don't want Java on my system. It has too many vulnerabilities. Now, if I had something "important" that required it I might consider that as a reason to load Java; but thankfully I don't - and a game is definitely very not important enough.

Oh well, it does look interesting; I'll give it that..
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deonast: The real issues with java are if you run it in the browser then it is easier to be invoked. If you ensure it isn't enabled in the browser shouldn't be a real issue.

--- edit, just noticed hyperagathon mentioned the same thing (great minds as they say :)
You may have missed my <i>other post</i> about Java.

While there certainly are security issues with regards to running Java in a browser session - there are also security issues with running the "Standard Edition" on the desktop.

I might make an exception to software that runs a "runtime" version of Java - that ONLY runs when that particular software runs; and then exits when that software is closed. BUT this software <i>requires</i> a separate desktop Java runtime to be installed.

No-way, no-how I would allow such a security risk to be installed (particularly for just a game).

It's too bad the authors chose to go that route. Well, at the very least (for them), it appears that most game-purchasers (judging by posts ITT) don't really consider the risks to be too-risky. Good for them. But speaking for myself; I won't allow it...
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Balrum(135 posts)(135 posts)
(135 posts)