Balrum

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blatherbeard
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Re: Balrum

Post by blatherbeard »

yeah im at 16 hours (prob 20 by now) and im STILL level 3, STILL learning the mechanics, AND STILL in the starter town LOL

Pets are pretty much a mainstay for combat, or youll have a bitch of a time. (i know, i just now rezzed my pet thats been dead for like 10 hours because i didnt think to look int he menus for a res button, i just assumed id have to find the spell lol)

I literally just cleaned out the place that your talking about, and dont get the whole copy rat thing either, but i wonder if its because you get diseased or something while fighting it, since when you kill the main, the others dissappear. (theres 2 down there btw, and a puzzle that youll figure out pretty easy im sure)

if you hadnt already bought it i was gonna say, for me, its def worth the under 15 dollar price tag.

I still get overwhelmed, but its becoming less overwhelming. And apparently they patched the game so when you start a new game you can choose to nerf the eating/drinking mechanic pretty heavily. (my bag is literally full with food and drink so its a non issue at this point, and i dont even farm.)

stealing from everyone is a good idea(dont get caught) and do every quest. Im on a tear to squeeze as much XP out of where i am before i hit anything else, just so i can have the skills i want, and some cash to get them.

Levels dont come easy, deer dont give XP and if you want to get the most bang for the buck, dont lure enemies to a barrel that explodes to kill them. Apparently inventive ways to kill enemies nets you zero XP, but at least you live. lol

Definitely recommend this game.
The armies joined in a bloody battle on this fine day, then storm clouds broke, and it rained.

So they all went home.---Story knots within blatherbeards Beard.
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Prismatic Maelstrom
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

Image Image

As a spellcaster you can see I have mastered the art of running round in circles! Haven't bothered with farming yet as food is plentiful. Don't have to steal from Ida's farm now. Running out of mana and the amount of walking I do are my biggest concerns now. Glad I'm playing on normal difficulty though as the enemy have enough health as it is! Are you still having fun blatherbeard?
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blatherbeard
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Re: Balrum

Post by blatherbeard »

yeah, still loving the game.

Still havent built anything in my safe place.

still have an inventory FULL of food and mats.

at least with a mage you can auto bake or half bake your deer. ;)

18 hours in, still level 3 and dont want to do the quest that sounds like it could move me to chapter 2 til im sure ive milked every last Xp, craft skill and killed every monster that has wronged me. heh
The armies joined in a bloody battle on this fine day, then storm clouds broke, and it rained.

So they all went home.---Story knots within blatherbeards Beard.
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Prismatic Maelstrom
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

Balcony Team wrote:Regenerated mana from wisdom gives back 50% more mana when not in combat. During combat mana regeneration has not changed!
New patch out and this is a very welcome change for my spellcaster. This is the sort of independent developer that you want to support. I'm about to enter the Necromancer's Tower, I've only explored 1/4 of Darkwood and played for fifteen hours. I'm a very slow player these days and I wish I had more time to play. :(
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Re: Balrum

Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Prismatic Maelstrom wrote:Image Image
That's a nice looking game! Wish I had some free time to give it a play through.
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Balrum

Post by SpottedShroom »

I wish they had ripped off a little bit more Eschalon gameplay along with the graphics :)
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Prismatic Maelstrom
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Wish I had some free time to give it a play through.
Perhaps you could do some R&D like you did with Fallout 4? :wink:
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Re: Balrum

Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Prismatic Maelstrom wrote:
BasiliskWrangler wrote:Wish I had some free time to give it a play through.
Perhaps you could do some R&D like you did with Fallout 4? :wink:
:D :wink: I can only use that excuse once or twice a year.
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

I've played just over 45 hours on this having explored all four areas of Darkwood. Most of the interesting locations are marked on your map and most of my exploration has unfortunately just been encountering hostile creatures which dragged on a bit. I hope the next area isn't another forest!

I found 8 pieces of a treasure map and combined them only to find out that I had already found the treasure. :(
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

Image

Just finished the game. It took me 96 hours to reach the credits and I explored everywhere.

Balrum starts off well but slowly goes down in quality after you leave Darkwood. This game could have greatly benefited from reducing the number of locations. As you can see from the screenshot above I had far too much gold and I couldn't sell most of the things that I found. Merchants don't have enough gold or sell anything special. They don't even restock items that I would use.

The ending was extremely unfulfilling and the story wrapped up in just a handful of minutes.

This game isn't bad but it isn't good either. I definitely got my monies worth but I feel disappointed. If anyone wants to ask a question about the game, please ask and I'll respond.
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Calathon
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Re: Balrum

Post by Calathon »

Today I finished the game as well, having played for 110 hours real time and 150 days game time, saving 130.000 gold so far.

I think that it could be a really nice game if more improvements were made. The beginning in Darkwood is good and the pieces of lore you can find fit nicely into the story. At this point the developers did a good job because you will want to know why you and your people live in the woods and it is really exciting to learn about the past.

But unfortunately, after Darkwood I had the feeling that the story no longer had priority. You get a lot of infos about certain people and events but there does not seem to be any connection to the present. Some info like that (here and there) is okay, but if almost everything you read is of no importance to anything it is quite pointless to "feed" the player with such things. Even worse, if the questline of an NPC is done you cannot talk to them about certain other affairs - for example none of the Darkwood people is interested in what Balrum looks like today, none of the Balrum people cares about that there are others in Darkwood and so on. Most the time I felt that the NPCs are merely "quest-machines": do this, go there, thank you, end of conversation. And even though you are addressed as "boy" by most of them, a complex problem they have been dealing with for days or weeks takes no more than two lines of dialogue from your side to solve - and only in very rare cases you can choose what to say.

So long story short: as much as I like the huge amount of items, the option to build a house with everything you need, the crafting / farming / cooking / storing system and the nice graphics, there is still much to be done. The story is too thin and lacks of logic and depth a lot of times, combat often is an annoyance because almost every enemy you face has a lot more hitpoints and mana than you and spams a lot of magic and special abilities. :shock: And tactical fights? No chance!

I think this game has a lot of potential, but at this stage I will not do a second run as a mage or thief.

So, sadly Balrum did not meet my expectations (everything of Eschalon 2 + 3 with more crafting / survival options and a customisable home), but it was a nice experience nonetheless.

@Prismatic Maelstrom: Where did you get those large bags? The ones I can place only hold about 20 items each... :?:
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Prismatic Maelstrom
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

Calathon wrote:Where did you get those large bags?
They are known as "Krampus Bag of Holding" in the game and unfortunately I cannot remember where I found the recipe from. I'm sure I found it before leaving Darkwood though. Did you come across the Square Shaped Rune while playing? I've asked on the Steam forum and the developers themselves but no response.
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Re: Balrum

Post by Calathon »

Prismatic Maelstrom wrote:
Calathon wrote:Where did you get those large bags?
They are known as "Krampus Bag of Holding" in the game and unfortunately I cannot remember where I found the recipe from. I'm sure I found it before leaving Darkwood though. Did you come across the Square Shaped Rune while playing? I've asked on the Steam forum and the developers themselves but no response.
Ah, thank you! :) I have this recipe but did not use it yet, thinking that it would be just a bag you can place without having to drop something beforehand. :wink:

Yes, I have found all three shaped runes. I am not quite sure if I recall correctly, but I think the square shaped rune can be found in the northwest map of Balrum, somewhere near the southeast side of the lake (there is a small ruin nearby and it definitely contains a shaped rune).

Did you manage to get onto the small island (near the shore) with the chest in the northeast lake of Darkwood ? Teleportation potions do not work and the teleportation book you can find elsewhere only sends you to another island which cannot be discovered (or even seen) by any other means...
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Re: Balrum

Post by Prismatic Maelstrom »

Calathon wrote:Yes, I have found all three shaped runes. I am not quite sure if I recall correctly, but I think the square shaped rune can be found in the northwest map of Balrum, somewhere near the southeast side of the lake (there is a small ruin nearby and it definitely contains a shaped rune).
That would be the triangle rune. I'm sure I found the circle rune in one of the abandoned houses at Erdal. Just can't find the square rune.

I never got on that island in Northeast Darkwood. Tried the teleport potions and spell but it didn't work. Mentioned it on the Steam forum but nothing came of it. Apparently you could get on it but a patch broke it.
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Re: Balrum

Post by Calathon »

Okay, then the triangle rune was the last I found.

I visited NW Balrum at the end and have done all dungeons and the Old pastures to the east before. So the square shaped rune should not be at Misty Pines, the desert or Crocodile Island.
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