Sword Coast Legends To Introduce RAGE OF DEMONS and Tile Based Editor

Dan Tudge of n-Space, makers of Sword Coast Legends, has just posted a major "State of the Game" announcement which recognizes that opinion on the game has been polarizing and that it does not meet the expectations of many, and how the company plans to address those issues. To that end, there's a whole bunch of upcoming update packs, which include more areas, control enhancements, a "cleared" outdoor area ready for placeables, new races, and the two seemingly biggest enhancements: a tile-based editor and the Rage of Demons storyline.

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As Dan Tudge says, the game has had its fair share of complaints (it's currently trending at only 20.5% here at EN World). The biggest complaints about SCL - at least as far as I can make out - have been the lack of free DM area creation, and the way the game does not really use D&D 5E rules. The latter issue isn't addressed, but the December update includes:

• Official introduction of mod support, including
• Tile based level editor
• Branching dialog editor
• Adjustable game systems, ex: round timer, loot tables, etc.
• Community facing development of these features to begin immediately
• Option to disable monster level scaling in DM campaigns

I don't know if this will mean Neverwinter Nights levels of customization, but it certainly seems to be a major step forward.

The Rage of Demons storyline was expected, and includes tile sets, objects, a tiefling race, creatures, etc., as well as an adventure.

The full list of five major update packs can be found here.

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm not paying full price for unfinished software, but the chances that I buy Sword Coast Legends in 2016 when it goes on sale just increased significantly.

The game is not unfinished. It is a complete game, plays just fine, has all of the features noted for launch. N-Space, like every other computer game company ever, is simply previewing their list of bug fixes, game updates, and game expansions. They are also stating that while they are very proud of the game they have created, they are actively listening to fan feedback and incorporating that into their revisions and expansions to the game.

How that translates to "unfinished" boggles my mind.

 

[Reinhart]

The game is not unfinished. It is a complete game, plays just fine, has all of the features noted for launch. N-Space, like every other computer game company ever, is simply previewing their list of bug fixes, game updates, and game expansions. They are also stating that while they are very proud of the game they have created, they are actively listening to fan feedback and incorporating that into their revisions and expansions to the game.

How that translates to "unfinished" boggles my mind.

It certainly doesn't have most of the features that I desire. For a lot of people, it clearly doesn't play just fine. The designers promised to have the tools for designing and running entire campaigns. What they delivered just doesn't fit the bill. Perhaps all you want or need from a campaign editor is a random map generator that you plop monsters down into, but a lot of us expect a lot more than that before it becomes useful. I need more direct control than they currently offer. So I'm going to wait and see what it's like with an actual level editor, dialogue options, and greater DM influence over monsters and NPC's. I find it strange that DM software that doesn't allow you to use orcs or dragons is somehow seen "complete."

So calm down and take a deep breath because your defense of the game comes across as a little hysterical. It's not that you like SCL that seems odd, it's the fact that you completely misunderstand the rest of us who don't.

 

[darjr]

Nope.

Well, it's the same guy, Dan Tudge, who has been the "face" of N-Space and Sword Coast Legendes. But Tudge has never been dishonest or unclear (to my knowledge) about what the game would entail at launch, or in any other way.

There is definitely folks misinterpreting what Tudge has said, but that's par for the course with the fan community.

Yup.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...s-face/page2&p=6740362&viewfull=1#post6740362


"One of the things I put to the designers when we framed this all up for them was, I want you to take this campaign, and I actually gave them the 5th edition starter set and I said I want you to take this campaign and I want you to reproduce it, I want you to reproduce it, and I want anybody to be able to reproduce it. And if they can't, the tools aren't done. And so uh, I think we got to a place where you can create that content real quickly and real easy and uh and just recreate your favorite homebrew or your favorite module or whatever your heart desires."

-Dan Tudge

Is that clear enough for you?

 

[Cody C. Lewis]

This game damaged my $500 EVGA 980 FTW.

Do not risk playing it if you are using a 980. It will blow up your card.

 

[Jester David]

Some of the complaints are responses to things they should have been fixing after Day One of the headstart or after 30 seconds of beta testing, such as letting the mouse move the screen.
Hopefully they'll also patch the rate your people say their catchphrases when you move them. Or change to the first time you click and then silence every additional click within 5 seconds.

There'd still be other problems. (The boring combat in multiplayer where you hit a couple cooldown powers and then autoattack endlessly. The unoptimized graphics that can overhead even good systems. The amateur hour voice acting. The plot-BINGO opening.) But it'd be better.

Really, it's too little too late. They had one chance to make a splash. One.
There's not going to be a second wave of reviews. IGN or RockPaperShotgun aren't just going to take time out of the busy review schedule to revise their opinions. The initial feedback on Metacritic and Steam won't change. (It hasn't for Arkham Knight or Diablo 3.) And by the time the patches are done people will have a new Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, Fallout, Tomb Raider, and other games distracting them, plus any last minute Christmas releases.

This news is only for the people who bought the game without reading reviews and/or didn't manage to get a refund.

This game is dead, save for a surge of potentially curious people following a Steam sale at a deeeep discount.

 

[Jester David]

Nope.

Well, it's the same guy, Dan Tudge, who has been the "face" of N-Space and Sword Coast Legendes. But Tudge has never been dishonest or unclear (to my knowledge) about what the game would entail at launch, or in any other way.

There is definitely folks misinterpreting what Tudge has said, but that's par for the course with the fan community.

Other than [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION] 's quote, there's also this fun image from the official video:

View attachment 71506

Okay, yes, what that means is unclear. Which seems to be the best defense they can offer. Everything they said and did suggested a return to a Baldur's Gate style game but they never actually explicitly said that. Almost carefully so.
So, no, they didn't "lie". They just spoke in an unclear way that gave a false impression and never corrected that impression or clarified the truth. Completely different than lying.

 

[Reinhart]

Probably the #1 skill in game development is expectations management. And expectation management is partly a matter of marketing. It doesn't matter if you technically never lied or not. It doesn't even matter if you do lie. What matters is if the expectations of your customers are met by the reality of your product. And when you market your product your job is to create those expectations and draw mostly people excited about it.

Tetris is a respectable game. But if you thought you were buying Super Mario and I sold you Tetris? I'm pretty sure I'd have an irate customer and deserve it. I'm not sure who was in charge of marketing SCL, considering Digital Extremes and Hasbro both had their hands in promoting it as well. What I do know is they did a terrible job of it, because they made a lot of people very unhappy. As a result they have been hemorrhaging players. SCL has roughly 11% fewer customers now than there were at the beginning of the week. That means that since it came out, demands for refunds have outpaced sales!

Now, you might say "There's no way it's so bad it deserves that!" I agree, but that's why the people in-charge of the marketing for this game should be sacked. Because I think people wouldn't be upset if they had known what they were getting into. And there was almost a year of promoting this game where it was plainly apparent what the players wanted and expected. Basically, this was a disaster that was easily avoidable.

Now that we know what it is? I'm willing to buy it. Just not for $40, and not until it has the features that I actually want. I didn't pre-order this game because I was skeptical about n-Space's claims which seemed out of synch with the game they were actually showing off. I still understand and sympathize with the people who bought this game feel mislead though.

 

[Uder]

Probably the #1 skill in game development is...

Sorry to step on your quote, but the #1 skill for a game dev is making a game people want to play. They didn't do this.

 

[ppaladin123]

Wrong. Or, at least, I disagree.

As others have stated, this is an adaptation of the 5E ruleset, not a direct port. There has never, in the history of D&D computer games, been a direct port of a D&D ruleset. Of course, you may not care for how N-Space adapted the 5E rules, but that does not mean that the game is *not* D&D. To me, this is the same crap language edition warriors throw around about whatever version of D&D is not to their liking, as in "4E is a great game, but it's not D&D." BS to that kind of talk.

Yes but there are levels of fidelity to the rules. I think a lot of people were expecting a Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate-level of fidelity....adapted for real-time but with spell slots and feats and domains and opportunity attacks and per rest abilities and skills and so forth intact. Some of those are the things that make d&d different from other tabletop games and contribute to its feel.

This video game does not have any of those things. It does have skill trees and skill cool downs and "magic missile III." So yeah, there is no platonic form of "d&d" and people are free to call this whatever they want but I think we can at least agree that there were more dramatic changes to the ruleset in this adaptation than 1. were expected and 2. strictly necessary to make a video game (see games above) and that A. many of the things that were removed are things that draw people to d&d games (video or otherwise) and B. many of the things added turn off some people who prefer the approach to such things taken in the tabletop rules.

 

[EthanSental]

Free updates to a game I'm enjoying already is pure gold in my book!