Livestream with Slyakagreyfox on Twitch Nov 18!

[Khatie]

We're doing a Twitch play-through of BannerSaga2 with "Slyakagreyfox" on November 18th with a Q&A! We want your questions!

DAY: Friday, November 18, 2016
TIME: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
LOCATION: Slyakagreyfox's Twitch channel (see below)
WHO: Arnie, John, Khatie and Zeb

You can submit a question for consideration one of a few ways:

1. Tweet at us with #BannerSaga here: https://twitter.com/bannersaga

2. Submit them as a comment on the Facebook Page, here: https://www.facebook.com/BannerSaga/...3675250997647/

3. Comment in this thread below!

Sly's Twitch channel is here, if you'd like to Follow him early: https://www.twitch.tv/slyakagreyfox

More details about the stream will be coming very soon!

[Aleonymous]

Cool. For starters, I like to clarify:
(a) Who's gonna be there? From the Stoic devs, I mean. Physical presence, or something like a live-streamed teleconference?
(b) Timezone would be crucial for us non-USA-ans, to watch & participate live.

[Yellow]

[Edit by Khatie:
Hey Yellow! If you have a question for the devs as it relates to playing Banner Saga 2, please submit it.
The question you submitted is a question I can answer in a PM for you if you like. Thanks!]

[Khatie]

Cool. For starters, I like to clarify:
(a) Who's gonna be there? From the Stoic devs, I mean. Physical presence, or something like a live-streamed teleconference?
(b) Timezone would be crucial for us non-USA-ans, to watch & participate live.

Yep as soon as we have this information finalized I'll edit the original post (and bump this thread).

[Khatie]

Cool. For starters, I like to clarify:
(a) Who's gonna be there? From the Stoic devs, I mean. Physical presence, or something like a live-streamed teleconference?
(b) Timezone would be crucial for us non-USA-ans, to watch & participate live.

I've updated the original post with this information, Aleo!

[Aleonymous]

Gonna have to submit some questions for consideration then Got two more days for that.

[stoicmom]

So, I went to this twitch channel and followed for the upcoming stream . . . not a word on the page about this evening's event

[Aleonymous]

Oh, almost forgot about this. Thanks to stoicmom for reminding me

1. Saga3 - When?
2. Factions - Any news on this? You said you were looking into ways of supporting it in parallel with Saga development.
3. Who is your favorite character?
4. Who is your favorite hero (as in unit/battle-ability)?
5. What's on to of your "To Do" list for Saga3, from the feedback you got from Saga2?
6. Did the main story undergo big changes during Saga1 and 2 developemtn?

[Khatie]

So, I went to this twitch channel and followed for the upcoming stream . . . not a word on the page about this evening's event

Most Twitch channel hosts don't remember to update their channels daily - especially on days when they have two streams. The steam is definitely tonight; Sly was already up this morning practicing.

[Khatie]

Oh, almost forgot about this. Thanks to stoicmom for reminding me

1. Saga3 - When?
2. Factions - Any news on this? You said you were looking into ways of supporting it in parallel with Saga development.
3. Who is your favorite character?
4. Who is your favorite hero (as in unit/battle-ability)?
5. What's on to of your "To Do" list for Saga3, from the feedback you got from Saga2?
6. Did the main story undergo big changes during Saga1 and 2 developemtn?

Thanks, Aleo! Added to the potential list of questions.

[Aleonymous]

Just watched the stream recording, here: https://www.twitch.tv/slyakagreyfox/v/101920566 (hope it gets "saved forever" somehow, for future reference), almost 2hrs of it!

EDIT (14 May 2017): Video was re-uploaded several months later on YT:


Here's how it went down: The twitch host, Sly AKA "Grey Fox", was playing Saga2 in the background, while Arnie-John-Zeb-Khatie participated in a teleconference-like situation, through their computer cameras on the right of the video. At first it was mainly Sly asking them stuff as he played, to "break the ice", then Arnie & John got more talkative and explained stuff and near the end the Q&A session took place.

And, here's a breakdown of what was discussed, for those that can't afford to skim through it:

1. Introductions
2. Voice-over (VO): How it was initially planned for all VO to be in Icelandic!
3. History: Early development stuff; how the studio got together, early concepts, Kickstarter etc.
4. Concept art (sketches) from Arnie: an early Varl depiction, Folka, Aleo's village landscape
   * Just now learned that Iver is named after Arnie's son, who can be glimpsed as a toddler in the KS video and also pops up in yesterday's stream at one point
   * Stoic commented on some "hate heat" they got during development, due to some themes of their game (perceived socialism, Scandinavian culture, refugees etc).
5. Turn-based battles; why did they choose to go that way.
6. Caravan travel: How it evolved from early concept, through the KS success and the community feedback.
7. KS and community feedback helping shape the game, during its development
8. Map & Lore: How the map and all its tooltips served world-crafting and provide a means for non-intrusive lore-delivery into the game.
   * Einar (first varl king) was in fact the name of a KS backer of scandinavian origina that helped Stoic a lot with linguistics etc
9. Favorite Saga characters/heroes: They talked about Odd, Ekkill, Folka and Bolverk
   * On Bolverk, Stoic commented on why they chose to have you role-play a seemingly "chaotic evil" character.
10. "The Gift of Hadrborg", the Amazon eBook from James Fadeley, was talked about, as well as other fan art.
    * The book is mostly about Eirik, Strand's "Iron Turtle". We learned that Eirik's face is in fact inspired from Arnie's father!
11. Godstones; KS backers helping make them (looks & story); favorites.
    * Arnie hinted that some gostones (e.g. Igrid) have some "rainbow coloring" to them, which bears disguised meaning, in other parts of the game as well.
12. John showed a number of Norse mythology books, from which they drew inspiration for the story, world, races, characters etc.
13. Items; we learned that many of them were designed by backers. Tryggvi's necklace design is borrowed from the Techno Viking
14. The Dredge were discussed, and their role in the story/world. Spoilers, apparently
15. Difficulty of battles; Bellower fights, "crazed rook solo" (start of Saga 2, where our friend Akelaar was mentioned ) etc.
16. Music! Austin Wintory discussed, naturally, and SFX studio (KPow) as well.
    * We learned that the background music in the KS video was played & composed by Arnie on a small keyboard/synth Not bad at all! (multi-talented guy #1!)
    * John showcased his framed vinyl LPs from Saga1 OST which got Sly envious
17. Interaction with community: Stoic admitted that they often got into radio-silence during Saga1+2 development, which couldn't be helped at the time. They promised to try and increase their presence in the future. I'll hold you to your word there
18. Questions from stream-chat/twitter/reddit/forums:
    a How hard was it making choices carry over in a story game
    b Caravan clansmen impact; starvation and foraging mechanics. Arnie said that new stuff are coming with Saga3
    * Zeb showcased his Warbands miniatures in front of his camera, so the board-game was discussed.
    * We learned that John did a lot of miniature painting "back in the day" (multi-talented guy #2!) and that they got some pro-painting of those minis on the way.
    c Future of Factions; I posed that question, which produced, well, nothing new (and some awkwardness )
    d Favorite unit abilities. Heroes like: Bolverk, Alette, Yrsa, Oli were brought up.
    e Saga1 ending: Rook-vs-Alette dilemma.
    * We learned that this dilemma was not part of the original story, and kinda got in to put drama in the ending of Saga1, thanks to Alex!
19. Closing thoughts and "thank-you"s

That's all I noted. Hope I didn't miss anything too juicy Reposting my un-answered questions, and adding another two, in case Stoic comes over:

1. What's on top of your "To Do" list for Saga3, from the feedback you got from Saga2?
2. Did the main story undergo big changes during Saga1 and 2 development?
3. What do you think of the 'standard' turn-order used in Saga2 SM? Any chance of seeing it in main-game(s)?
4. Any chance of Mod-content/assets DLC for Saga2, as you had for Saga1?

Oh, and one last thing ---
@John: Does the PS4 version of the game, played by Sly during the stream, have a visual-indicator when auto-saving? If not, what was that red "rotating wheel" icon in the top-right corner that popped up several times?

[John]

That's all I noted. Hope I didn't miss anything too juicy Reposting my un-answered questions, and adding another two, in case Stoic comes over:

1. What's on top of your "To Do" list for Saga3, from the feedback you got from Saga2?

Free-form love-dodecahedron romancing ALA Dragon Age.

3. What do you think of the 'standard' turn-order used in Saga2 SM? Any chance of seeing it in main-game(s)?

I guess if people want it... I know that much discussion has been had around the pros and cons of the system. I love how the current system makes even the most overwhelming fights doable... and tends to lend itself to creating more nailbiting close battles than not. At the very least I could add a command line option to enable it.

4. Any chance of Mod-content/assets DLC for Saga2, as you had for Saga1?

Yes... I haven't gotten around to it yet but it's certainly doable.

Oh, and one last thing ---
@John: Does the PS4 version of the game, played by Sly during the stream, have a visual-indicator when auto-saving? If not, what was that red "rotating wheel" icon in the top-right corner that popped up several times?

Yes, on console we do show that save indicator. It's a requirement on console, and a good idea everywhere. Perhaps we should back-port it onto PC?

[Aleonymous]

a. Free-form love-dodecahedron romancing ALA Dragon Age.

b. I guess if people want it... I know that much discussion has been had around the pros and cons of the system. I love how the current system makes even the most overwhelming fights doable... and tends to lend itself to creating more nailbiting close battles than not. At the very least I could add a command line option to enable it.

c. (Mod content DLC) Yes... I haven't gotten around to it yet but it's certainly doable.

d. Yes, on console we do show that save indicator. It's a requirement on console, and a good idea everywhere. Perhaps we should back-port it onto PC?

a. I thought party-size was capped at 6 persons

b. I also enjoy the current system, but I can see how it discourages/frustrates a considerable number of players. A command line option to enable it would be nice; an ESC/options-menu toggle button would be even nicer

c. Not a priority, but it would definitely be handy to the (small) modding community. On this topic, a robust mod-import/export Zeno-feature (w/ documentation) would be a big step towards eventual Steam-Workshop integration. It's no secret that even AAA-games can get much awesome-r with modding, e.g. Bethesda (TES, Fallout), Witcher3, Dark Souls etc.

d. DEFINITELY! For Saga1 and 2, both.

[Khatie]

Thanks for finding and posting this, Aleo! I have been assured that Sly's videos are uploaded to YouTube and saved "forever" so as soon as I have that link I'll share it here.

[YaK]

@John

Free-form love-dodecahedron romancing ALA Dragon Age.

Strangely enough, every times i hear/read "Dragon Age", my skin starts itching.

I guess if people want it... I know that much discussion has been had around the pros and cons of the system. I love how the current system makes even the most overwhelming fights doable... and tends to lend itself to creating more nailbiting close battles than not. At the very least I could add a command line option to enable it.

Not everytime what people want is what people need. Don't take me wrong, i enjoyed A LOT "classic" turn order in Survival Mode (in which Krumr's Warleader ability became totally overpowered and I LOVE THAT OLD FART OF A VARL) but this doesn't mean the game should change approach. All the whines regarding the "maim-not-kill" strategy are completely pointless in my opinion. I am not "A Nerd Gamer" anymore, but in the ol' days of MMORPG playing, some guild mated of mine would have said - in an irritating way - "Learn2Play, N00b!"

Yes... I haven't gotten around to it yet but it's certainly doable.

Speaking of which...

I would be really glad to have a proper DECOMPILER (that let you choose which files or folder to decompile).

It's really nice to work directly on decompiled resources BUT there are two great cons:

a) You need to keep them constantly updated to the live version.
b) You need an additional ~3 Gb download and, that 3gb need to be verified with the base game every times something screws up. Pretty unpractical.

That is the reason why all modder (Well, "all" is big word, we are three... ) loves to use the ol' tool of yours: TBSDecompiler. Unluckily it's quite old and have problems with some kinds of resources compiling/decompiling.

Yes, on console we do show that save indicator. It's a requirement on console, and a good idea everywhere. Perhaps we should back-port it onto PC?

It could be useful and, i must say that the games would benefit a couple of more automatic savepoints. Not a huge deal for everyone that use developer's mod quicksaves, but for the casual player could be a good idea to have a few more in particulare points of the game.



Plus, i have a strange question:

In the console with developer mode there is the command "saga roster_add".

Am i missing anything or there isn't a command to "Remove" a unit from the roster?