Hi all,

Krome Studios and inXile entertainment are pleased to announce that the new build of The Bard's Tale Trilogy now available includes native macOS support!

In addition to our MAC gaming friends being able to play the game, there are several bug fixes in this build (4.34):

• Fixed an issue where TRADE items/gold doesn't work on controller, when full legacy mode is enabled EXCEPT Automap is still available.
  
• Fixed an issue in Polish only; where you could not continue the game when you try to use the acorn, in BT3
  
• Fixed a missing translation when curing insanity.
  
• Replaced any instances of 'Phillipi' with 'Philippi' One L Two P's.
  
• Fixed the corners of the automap so you can cleanly map out the PASS letters In Dark Domain 2.
  
• Added songs remaining tooltip to songs (hidden if you have unlimited songs)
  
• Made songs list red if no songs are remaining.
  
• "Find The Scarlet Bard" tips no longer appear in the Destiny Knight when running with Legacy Songs mode, since there is no Scarlet Bard.
  
• Added long bow to the transfer item list, if it isn't in the shop.

If there are any issues, please let us know.
Enjoy!

Hi all,

Today we've pushed a new build for The Bard's Tale Trilogy live on the "beta" branch on Steam. This build has both an updated Windows build, as well as a build for OSX!

Fixes/differences for the Windows build from the previous release are noted below.

We're hoping to have a short open beta period on Steam only, and then, if all is well, do the full release for both Steam and GoG.

We've set up a new discussion thread for OSX issues on the "OPEN BETA" forum - please post any problems there!
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/app/843260/discussions/1/1607148447810808434/

Cheers!

Fixes since v4.29

• Fixed an issue where TRADE items/gold doesn't work on controller, when full legacy mode is enabled EXCEPT Automap is still available.
  
• Fixed an issue in Polish only; where you could not continue the game when you try to use the Acorn in BT3
  
• Fixed a missing translation when curing insanity.

We're happy to announce a new patch for The Bard's Tale Trilogy is now available on both "default" and "beta" branches!
This is a primarily a bug-fix release, though there are also some gameplay changes. Please see the notes below for details.
Additionally, we've added some support for overriding the selected language.

Any issues, please let us know!

LANGUAGE SELECTION
There is now an option to override the selected language (the one set by the "Language" tab on the properties of the game in your Steam library).
If you launch the game with the "-lang=" commandline (without quotes) you can select English, French, German, Spanish, Polish or Russian language by adding the 2 letter code, ie
-lang=en
-lang=fr
-lang=de
-lang=es
-lang=pl
-lang=ru

Additionally - once this new build has been run for the first time, there will be a new file called "lang.txt" created on your PC, in the "%appdata%/../locallow/InXile Entertainment/The Bard's Tale Trilogy" folder on your PC.
If you edit this file, you will be able to then override which language the game is displayed in; following the directions found within the file.

GENERAL FIXES

• Performance improvements throughout the game.
  
• Stability improvements throughout the game.
  
• Fix for performance issues when transferring characters from BT1 to BT2.
  
• Identifying an item at Roscoe's now counts as "using" the service, for a variety of achievements.
  
• Enable tooltips for legacy mode options on the main menu; even if you had disabled tooltips in-game.
  
• Fix for some commands being able to be activated and inappropriate times, eg “view inventory” while in combat.
  
• Lighting fixes for when inside Casinos.
  
• Fix for some taverns using the incorrect animation on their window, in BT3.
  
• A variety of language translation fixes.
  
• The entrances to dungeons in BT2 now fade as you enter/exit, to make the transition nicer.
  
• Removed ability to select equip/unequip when in battle, if there are no items in the inventory.
  
• Fixed PartyAttack so that it can target non-controllable characters.
  
• Fixed for cameos being able to get stuck at slightly wrong scale, when combat effects play.
  
• Fixed gate opening issue in BT1 on reloading a save game.
  
• Fixed issue where the treasure screen can get skipped by when pressing keys at the end of combat.
  
• Fixed for bug where player map would be switched off if you exited to main menu while in the AG, and then loaded straight into a map, instead of back into the AG.
  
• Added new purple textures for mountain walls to match the text description, for various levels in BT3.
  
• Fix for town gates rendering incorrectly from various angles.
  
• Fixed death snare timers from being able to be activated multiple times.
  
• Fixes for some minor clipping issues in the various Wilderness terrains.
  
• Fixes issues where AntiApar to other dungeon levels was working but shouldn't be.
  
• Using the joystick/keyboard to select next/prev character while viewing character profiles will now wrap top <-> bottom.
  
• Added carpet spell effect to “Major Levitation”
  
• Fixed the teleport not fully fading out to black.
  
• Fixed items getting lost when changing class in individual inventory Legacy mode.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• Harmonic Staff effects are now persistent when in Legacy mode.
  
• Changed Alliria's last ghost so that it only accepts the rainbow rose now. It was accepting white rose also before which allows you to skip a large part of the puzzle.
  
• Added support for “something odd” tiles. These reduce detection of traps/special/secret doors to 1 square instead of 3 and has its own automap icon and journal legend.
  
• Health and spell drain ticks faster and takes 5% of the players health/magic per tick (rather than fixed amount dependent on difficulty). Taking a percentage means it will balance across BT1 -> BT3 properly.
  
• BT2 - swapped path clues 1 & 7 in destiny stone so 7 is by the exit, and added a warning message before entering the snare, as per feedback from users so as to make things a bit more clear
  
• Removed the bottom center door from Oscon's fort lv3 that leads the player to the portals that they should never be able to access. We believe this was a bug in the c64 and all versions of the original game as the design clearly is trying to just tease the player with those portals, but their positioning suggests they are never meant to be used.
  
• Moved Alliria tomb entrance from N6,E0 to N0,E0; to match to the original hint book notes
  
• Moved Werra battle to the south east room, where it was clearly intended, judging by the text pretty much saying its there, and the room is the only anti-apar area on the map. Constructed a small room for the shield, since the text also says that it is in the next room.
  
• Status effects created by item magic now A) cannot be persistent -- automatically downgraded to 148 min timed; B) only has half-duration to normal spells - this makes items much less powerful and much more rewarding to find one.
  
• Invisible walls now use a normal wall icon since they are not passable and knowing they are invisible is not useful when examining the map. Railings - which are visible but can be passed through - use the same icon as crumbling walls, since they function the same. Invisible walls and railings can only be discovered by walking into/through them. Crumbling walls now appear solid until you walk through them.

Hi all,

We're pleased to announce that we have a MAJOR patch for the Bard's Tale Trilogy ready for release... actually it's out right now!

Here's a shiny new trailer showcasing some of these major changes!

For those of you who have been on the beta testing branch, please note that the below includes some of the features that were in the v4.07 beta release.

There are a LOT of changes to go through, so we've tried to break it down into major segments.

We hope you enjoy these additions to the game! Please let us know any problems you see.

Cheers
Linds

• Full language support for French, German, Spanish, Polish and Russian. Right click on the game in your Steam library, select properties, then the Language tab, to select a different language.
  
• All outstanding cameos have been upgraded and added to the game. We've continued to use the BT1 cameos as the default for character creation, but all the relevant cameos from the other two games are there, available for selection. For example:
  
• Our new In-game Bestiary tracks the monsters (per chapter) that you’ve fought, and progressively fills in their stats and details.
  https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1749945517
  
• The new In-game Manual has all the information you could ever want on how the game works, including information on the differences in Legacy Mode and how the game is different to the original releases.
  https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1749945262
  
• While we were at it, we’ve also added the Original Game Maps in to the game (and we even fixed the spelling of 'Philippi').
  https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1749945899
  
• Skara Brae (BT1 version) has received a bit of a make over. Each of the statues now has its own unique model.
  
• New dungeon wall sets for Hiroshima, Berlin, Harkyn’s Castle, mountain and forest areas.
  
• Over 30 new visual effects for combat, and to improve the environments (like new night-time skies).
  
• Controller support for everything other than text-entry. This utilises a radial selection dialog for the various options. It works quite nicely, even if we do say so ourselves.
  

• Updated the game icon.
  
• Improved textures for the text scroll and added animation.
  
• Changed path shading so paths head under gates. Each terrain blends the city entrances to the path used inside.
  
• Put in chapter specific frames around the 3D view and adjusted screen layouts to fit.
  
• Added BT2 and BT3 tavern window anims.
  
• Updated Tombs roof to use a skull/ground texture combo instead of grass/ground.
  
• Fixed gate code that was breaking the gates direction on load - this was causing the issue of when saving while facing sideways under a gate, on load it would make the gate face sideways.
  
• Hooked up VFX for shooting arrows in combat.
  
• Fixed BT3 review board final briefing to use correct cameo/portrait.
  
• Changed a variety of spells to have different or added SFX and VFX.
  
• Fix for the taverns in Ciera Brianna were using the bard window anim instead of the BT3 tavern window anim.
  
• Fixed BT2 Dungeon entrances transition into dungeons so it correctly fades into black.
  
• Made the gate backing now one sided so it is only black looking from the front.
  
• Cleared the apport effect on starting combat, to stop the blue light being on forever.
  
• Fixed Major Levitation not having the carpet effect because it wasn't a no-target spell.
  
• BT2 has had some adjustments to its sculpting and smoothing.
  
• Fixed Interdimensional teleports (BT3 Apport Locations) to fully fade to black before switching locations.

• Stopped the "click" sound from playing when the copyright is on screen.
  
• Fixed some instruments had the wrong music type set (horn of gods, shrill flute, willow flute, angels harp).
  
• Generic out-of-combat spell buff sounds now work.
  
• Changed a variety of spells to have different or added SFX and VFX.

• Fixed crash caused by bad fix of monster group suffix letters.
  
• Fixed hunstman gloves type that was creating a crash when on the treasure screen in the Mountain of BT3.
  
• Fix for non-progression if you leave moving state during the frame and then activate a command.
  
• Fix for non-prog if firing off commands (like view inventory) after combat had started.
  
• Fix for issue with selling items - was creating an exception when highlighting an item due to internal list item indexes being incorrect after removing an item.

• Adjust songs so they are no longer affected by Chapter Differences. Songs settings now resets both availability, effects and strength of the songs.
  
• Daggers now do 2-4 damage.
  
• Harmonic gem drop rate slightly reduced.
  
• Made the Maze Of Dread question persistent even in legacy, so you don't have to keep answering it.
  
• Fixed Allirias last ghost to only accept the rainbow rose. Previously it was also accepting a white rose, which allows you to skip a large part of the puzzle.
  
• Health drain ticks faster and takes 5% of the players health per tick (rather than fixed amount dependant on difficulty). Taking a percentage means it will balance across BT1 -> BT3 properly. Spell drain also switched to 5% of magic per tick. Drain tiles should be a bit less nerf'd now.
  
• Swapped path clues 1 & 7 in Destiny Stone so 7 is by the exit. Added a "there is a portal here. do you wish to enter" message before going into the snare to make it a little clearer as to which room is the "bad" one.
  
• Removed the bottom center door from Oscon's Fort lv3 that leads the player to the portals that they should never be able to access. After playing through the original in both Amiga and C64, we're fairly confident this was a bug in all versions of the original game as the design clearly is trying to just tease the player with those portals (but their positioning suggests they are never meant to be used). Before this fix, we were matching to both Amiga and C64.
  
• Moved Allirias Tomb entrance from N6,E0 to N0,E0. Patches the automap on load to clear the old stairs icon and add a new stairs icon at 0,0.
  
• Moved Werra battle to the south east room, where it was clearly intended, judging by the text pretty much saying its there, and the room is the only anti-apar area on the map. Loading into an existing map that has completed that task will move the journal entries to the correct location. Constructed a small room for the shield, since the text also says "it is in the next room".
  
• Status effects created by item magic have been changed. These now cannot be persistent (automatically downgraded to 148 min timed) and only have half-duration to normal spells. This makes items much less powerful and much more rewarding to find one.

• Identify item special attacks for breath weapons are working now.
  
• Reset gold to 1200 on full reset transfer BT1->BT2 or BT2->BT3.
  
• Fix for identified figurines were showing bad "Use".
  
• Fix for using wrong character to differentiate monster groups of same monster type.
  
• Fixed Titan suit and Mithril suit to use the suit slot type rather than the armor type slot.
  
• Disarming map traps now counts towards "armless" achievement.
  
• Locked camera look around to only when in walking state and removed ability to lookaround when paused.
  
• Legacy settings now works with only empty settings.
  
• Removed the BT3 scarlet bard from Skara Brae in legacy songs mode.
  
• (??) info on objects where the range is unknown no longer shows in chapter differences mode (since you can't identify the unknown).
  
• Fixed BT3 map difficulty - all the run from battle difficulties would have been <very> easy in BT3, as everything was erroneously set to difficulty 1.
  
• Fixed the shop so it checks if you have space for wineskins before buying them.
  
• Fixed being able to collect multiple Harmonic Staff in legacy mode from Saradon's House.
  
• Fixes for town teleportation for Joystick/mouse modes.
  
• Identifying an item at Roscoes now contributes to popping the achievement (shopaholic)
  
• Allow the journal to be opened, if automap is disabled but we are in BT3 and chapter differences are enabled.
  
• Fixed the casino to be lit, no matter the time of day.
  
• Fixed healing cost in temple.
  
• Stopped death snare timers from being able to be activated multiple times.
  
• Added support for something odd (reduces detection of traps/special/secret doors to 1 square instead of 3, and adds an icon to the automap).
  
• Fixed issues where AntiApar to other dungeon levels was working but shouldn't be. Mainly effects BT1/BT2, because the system was written for BT2 per-tile flags.
  
• Disabled snare timer when in pause and restart it when we come out of pause.
  
• Fixed an issue where going down a portal didn't set the stairs flag, so if there was a script to go back up, like in nowhere (Tenebrosia), it would fire.
  
• Fixed items getting lost when changing class in individual inventory mode.

• Unity version and compile changes to a more recent version, which also required fixes to Steam integration.
  
• A variety of changes to reduce memory use.
  
• Fixes to various audio settings, for streaming and memory use.
  
• Fixed mesh creation to not leak meshes.
  
• Fixed clouds not getting disabled when doing a transfer from BT1 -> BT2.
  
• Fixed creating some debug meshes in Retail builds.

• Fix doppleganger UI bug - sorting the slots was updating them individually - but doppleganger update requires all other slots to be done.
  
• Roscoes identify items now show cost to identify each item, for identifying the “specials” of items, in non-legacy mode.
  
• Multiple miscellaneous spelling and grammar fixes, throughout the game.
  
• Fix for the flicker when drift background first appears on main menu.
  
• Fix for the mouse cursor not working over buttons.
  
• Improved rendering of all fonts.
  
• Made the "X" button of the stats and controller page close the pages.
  
• Force new games to default to Large view.
  
• Fixed drag-and-drop of character names for party order showing the character names offset.
  
• Hide mouse cursor during loading and during intros.
  
• Removed slash from in front of "TESTING" that shouldn't have been there, in the credits.
  
• Don't let escape key close a confirmation dialog, unless close button is active.
  
• Removed dead space at top of "heal all" character list.
  
• Fix for rename-character to detect when empty string was entered.
  
• Fix for text for party headings - was creating artefacts when small.
  
• Fixed the position of the top message of scrolling text.
  
• Fix slot numbers resizing awkwardly.
  
• Fix for spacing for normal heal text.
  
• Removed incorrect information about large view mode from tooltip.
  
• Stopped ESCAPE from opening pause menu during intro scene.
  
• Add tooltips when you arrow through options on keyboard so game is more playable on keyboard only.
  
• Stopped trade from appearing if there is no-one to trade to (ie. party of 1).
  
• Spells that are bought, now appear in a spell casters 'recent' spell filter tab, after being cast.
  
• Removed the (1-7) prompting for the statues for consistency.
  
• Fix overlapping destiny knight text in player info.
  
• Fix journal icon in BT3.
  
• Fix for that you couldn't see tooltips in legacy Options is you had toggled them off in game and returned to main menu.
  
• Stopped the option of equip/unequip in battle being available if there are no inventory items.
  
• Removed the timeout from temple messages / after heals. It just uses "Press SPACE to continue" now.
  
• Fix issue with large Heal All messages overlapping the PRESS SPACE TO CONTINUE.
  
• Fix journal legend not turning off "hint", "teleport" and "wall / secretWall" entries if none have been mapped yet.
  
• Teleport from sanctum to viscious plane now adds journal at destination, so you don't have to leave the tile and return to see it.
  
• Using joystick/keyboard to select next/prev character while viewing character profiles will now wrap top <-> bottom.
  
• Invisible walls now use a normal wall icon since they are not passible and knowing they are invisible is not useful when examining the map. Railings (which are visible but can be passed through) use the same icon as crumbling walls, since they function the same. Invisible walls and railings can only be discovered by walking into/through them.
  
• Fix for Alliria belt event to not show a blank page with "press space to continue".
  
• Fix bug where automap was updating during title screen.

inXile Entertainment and Krome Studios are pleased to announce that The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate has been released for The Bard's Tale Trilogy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd6n8hoa6EU&feature=youtu.be

As mentioned previously, Thief of Fate is huge in scope, and we hope that you all enjoy the blood, sweat and tears that have gone in to making it as fully realized as possible. We have greatly enjoyed remastering these classic games, and appreciate all the assistance that the community has given us for the remaster.
In addition to the release of Thief of Fate (now available on the default branch!), there are a variety of new quality of life and polish additions to all three games, as well as Legacy mode. A full list of changes is below, but the major points are:

Each of these options are available for selection ONLY when starting a new game. They can be individually selected, depending on your playing preferences!

• Individual character inventory.
  
• Miscellaneous changes (Special slot in BT1, no archery in BT1, no item charges in BT1 (has a chance to expire instead), more limited inventory space, wineskins restricted to BT3, rogues can only identify in BT3, spells and items restricted to those found in the respective games.
  
• Game specific songs, as per the original releases.
  
• Ability to use un-equipped items (as this was in <some> versions of the original release).
  
• Automapping can be disabled, including that "misc differences" will add in a mapping similar to the original BT3 release.
  
• Full XP requirements - to make leveling up more like the original releases, allows party attack anywhere, shops can buy and sell charged items at will. Oh, and battles are repeatable :).
  
• Option to only allow saving at the Guild or camp. With "Misc Differences" enabled, BT3 will still allow saving anywhere, as that was in the original release.
  
• Remove items and hints from empty houses.

There is also a "Legacy" button in the settings, that will display the legacy dialog so you can see what options are enabled, in your currently loaded game.

• The remaster now ramps off the 1/2 XP requirement at higher levels, so the very high levels now require more "like Legacy" amounts to reach.
  
• Added a confirmation dialog to "Exit To Main Menu" if game cannot autosave because you are in legacy mode "Save At Guild" and / or you are in a shop, combat, or an active deathsnare.
  
• Tweaks to Spell Song so that the big AOE spells don't break the game balance.
  
• Save games now show more information, for what legacy modes are enabled, the total play time, and the map you are saved in.
  
• You can now select a portrait for your character during creation, as well as after creation in the "More Options" section of the Guild, from a selection of "non-monster" portraits.
  
• Reduced the size of the minimap when on really small maps, so the minimap should never wrap.
  
• Added separate ranged and melee damage to item comparison hints.
  
• You can now identify the magical properties of items. Roscoe can do it (if you pay him!), the chronomancer Identify spell will also reveal the information, or asking Sage in BT2 will mark items as identified. This feature is removed in Legacy Game Differences mode.
  
• Inventories now have a party inventory divider. This can be disabled in the game settings. Shops have dividers for item class.
  
• Added a "Moderate Transfer" mode (and renamed Overpowered to Full Transfer). Moderate transfer from BT1->BT2 resets characters to level 24; moderate transfer from BT2->BT3 resets characters to level 33, with wizards and archmages reset to level 13. These modes allow players to continue with all equipment in the next game, avoiding the starting grind, without worrying about their levels completely spoiling the gameplay if they've over-levelled their team.
  

Once again, from everybody on the development team, thank you for all the assistance. For those of you who have not been in the Thief of Fate Beta, we hope you have a blast!


FULL CHANGE LIST

• Wilderness maps have been changed to terrain based, similar to that in Destiny Knight, with the placement of features to match the maps that were in the clue book. Wilderness maps no longer wrap.
  
• Thief of Fate just uses Badhr Kilnfest in place of Bring Around Ballad, as the songs are identical in function. Legacy mode will allow switching back to Bring Around Ballad.
  
• Chronomancer teleports have been reorganised to be more logical pairs, after discussions with original designers.
  
• The Ruins of Skara Brae now more closely reflect the city that you know and love, from Tales of the Unknown.
  
• Tarjan can now cast "Force of Tarjan" which is a breath, followed by a sandstorm.
  
• Longinus reappears to give his final prophecies.
  
• Redistribute the new remaster instruments to the appropriate bt3 dungeons based on damage - note that Molten Horn is the equivalent of the BT2/BT3 Flame Horn. The remaster Flame Horn is actually the weaker one from BT1.
  
• Reduced drop rate of harmonic gems in some maps.
  
• Add in remaster items Huntsman Gloves, Ring of Accuracy and Deadlyrang into BT3 drop lists.

• Add some Skara Brae journaling on the stables and the snow drift.
  
• Fixed Mangar casting Mage Flame (should have been casting disrupt).
  
• Fixed 99 berserkers not triggering.
  
• Fixes for resetting the gates in Skara Brae.
  
• Fixed melee disrupt spell of heroes like Mangar not working correctly.

• Fixed missing Arms Master of the Graphnar Fist encounter.
  
• Graphnar Lord - updated encounter to show the monster art and name, to make it consistent with other fight in this dungeon level.
  
• Fixed Oscons Fortress level 1 magic mouth to add appropriate journal notes based on the answers given.
  
• Added Review board to Colosse.
  
• Fixed grammar error in Destiny Stone dungeon magic mouth messages.
  
• Grey Crypt - Changed Sphynx to change up and down stairs based on answers given.
  
• Destiny Stone - Fixed case where the party is full on getting Zen Master and hitting escape or cancel falls through to finish the dungeon. Added message to say you got 'The Ring'.
  
• Fixes for various issues with the Snare puzzles on Destiny Stone and Grey Crypt not being reset correctly on load.
  
• The Winged Creature must now be alive to carry you over the gap (Dark Domain Level 4).
  
• The Old Warrior must be alive to disarm snare 1 (Tombs Level 3).
  
• The Zen Master must be alive to progress through snare 7 (Destiny Stone Level 3).
  
• Fixed missing secret door in dark domain level 3.
  
• Added some casino UI polish.

• Fix some grammar errors in the temples.
  
• Individual monster attacks are now spread throughout combat - they were just attacking in groups before.
  
• Warstrike now burns instead of chokes.
  
• Added missing full stop to "drop item" request.
  
• Casino double down now uses proper casino rules (hits you with 1 more card).
  
• Player strength increases chance to hit (>16 strength).
  
• Fixes for summon spell ranges and the Summon Help spell.
  
• Melee damage now takes drained-level into account.
  
• Fixed issue with teleporting into scripted empty rooms not running the scripts.
  
• Fog and skybox tweaks to BT1 and BT2.
  
• Updated blizzard effects for all volumes.
  
• Improved visuals of automap.
  
• Combat spells are now castable in noncombat but will fizzle - this is necessary as they are used to solve puzzles in Thief of Fate.
  
• Fix monster gender and Summon Help probability bugs.
  
• Rogues can now identify items. Failure to identify means the item can never be identified.
  
• By popular demand, change '#' back to '()' for item charges, in the UI.
  
• Added option for a Bard to stop singing their current song.
  
• Unequipped items are now usable outside of combat - saves the user having to equip,unequip etc., just to use an item.
  
• Fix for "Hide in Shadows" to always go first in combat.
  
• Fixed Push-Back spells not working for enemies.
  
• Monsters with a PUSH spell (Force of Tarjan, Far Foe, Sand Storm) will preference that if they are <50 feet from the player.
  
• Player ADVANCE now has much higher priority.
  
• Wineskins are now available in Taverns.
  
• Monks now use roll table from Thief of Fate - goes up to 2048 max damage.
  
• Elf cloak now wearable by everyone except warriors and paladins.
  
• Spell drain and unequip hit now show status on combat line.
  
• Allow healing of NPCs in temples, and Youth spell to work on NPCs.
  
• Fixed name of some summoned monsters (had "summoned" in name).
  
• Fixed hint for some weapons like Reds Stilleto which was wasn't showing melee damage.
  
• Hunters cloak now an item to be consistent with elf cloak.
  
• Autosave now happens before random fights - rather than after all fights.
  
• Changed Dark Priest and Wicked Lurker to cast Mind Jab / Arc Fire instead of Holy Water, since party characters are almost never evil/undead.
  
• Expand titanium and tungsten item names.
  
• Reduce wineskin sale price to 3 gold since its in BT1/BT2.
  
• Fix stuck and ouch messages so they appear each time they happen.
  
• Tweak the stacking maths for increase/reduce spell damage.
  
• Fix poison/possess/insane messages now appear on combat line.
  
• Remove trap protection from Sanctuary Score - only used for Zanduvar Carack now.
  
• Dagger damage now 1 -> 4.
  
• Tavern UI flow restructured to work better between the legacy / non-legacy modes.
  
• Added combat visual effects for Fire, Frost and Electricity spells.
  
• Lots of spelling and grammar fixes throughout all three games.
  
• Fix capitalization of 'YES' in confirm dialogs.
  
• Disable guild options when there is nobody in the party.
  
• Fix fog not working in levels due to fog shader stripping.
  
• Fix cloud issue when loading from BT1 Skara Brae into another level.
  
• Added travel sound for when travelling between levels.
  
• Added a "travel" fade in/out for going between cities and dungeons.
  
• Make traps cause a "press any to continue" to happen afterwards so you don't ignore the effect.
  
• Stopped the ability to drop items marked as quest items.
  
• Fix stacking arrows wasn't updating the UI.
  
• Reset time of day on transfer to new game volume.
  
• Fix fog not getting disabled during Portraits (so effects would be half visible).
  
• Fix fog not getting disabled during load, so load box could be fogged out.
  
• Added temple enter sound effect.
  
• Added ambient sounds to Bards Hall, Temple, Garths, Roscoes.
  
• Added player sting when purchasing music at bards hall.
  
• Tweaks to some UI sounds.
  
• Fixed calculation of spell save. Was capped in BT3 and uncapped in BT1/BT2 which is reverse.
  
• Fix skull animation - wasn't syncing with phase door rotation behaviour properly.
  
• Hook up wolf howl to play in the evening (matching the rooster crow that plays in the morning).
  
• Rogue disarm has been streamlined (again). There is now just 'examine' or 'trapzap'. If you examine, then it will tell you if anyone identifies the trap. If trap is identified you get the option for a rogue to disarm it. If trap is not identified you get the option for someone to open it. If you choose not to disarm or open, you only have 'trapzap' or 'leave it'.
  
• Anywhere with "press SPACE to continue", you can now press ESCAPE also.
  
• Added combat visual effects for Fire, Frost, Electricity, Blasts, Curses and Debuff spells.

Hi all!

As we have previously mentioned, we're working away furiously on the Thief of Fate remaster, but it's going to take a little more time to get all the various elements in place, to make it the best that it can be!

As promised, we have made a new BETA branch available in Steam, which has our current work in progress version of Thief of Fate. The game is fully playable (completable from start to finish), but various art for monsters, locations and environments are not complete; and there may be bugs throughout the game.

This BETA version is for the people who would like to participate in the final development push for the Bard's Tale Trilogy. It will be lacking in the spit and polish that will be in the final release. If you just want to play the game and relive past glories, we would recommend waiting for the full release.

If you wish to access this BETA build:

• Quit and reload the Steam client.
  
• Right click on the game in your Steam library.
  
• Select "Properties".
  
• Select the "Beta" tab.
  
• In the dropdown, select the "beta" option.
  
• Hit OK.

The BETA version including Thief of Fate will then be queued to download.
A special "beta bugs" subforum has also been set up in the Community Hub. Please post any problems, comments or questions there!
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/app/843260/discussions/1/

In addition, this BETA version has a partially implemented Legacy Mode available for all three volumes. Some Legacy features will not be available until work on them has been completed. Currently, the following Legacy Mode options are available:

• Original XP levels (characters level up more slowly).
  
• Grindable fights (99 Barbarians for teh w1n!).

As per the previous volumes, there have been various changes made, to fix bugs of yore as well being part of our remaster efforts. We've compiled a short list of the major items below. We have blacked out some very heavy spoilers, so if you want to go into the game spoiler-free, please do not highlight the blacked out text.

• Wilderness maps have been changed to terrain based, similar to that in Destiny Knight, with the placement of features to match the maps that were in the clue book. Wilderness maps no longer wrap.
  
• Thief of Fate just uses Badhr Kilnfest in place of Bring Around Ballad, as the songs are identical in function. Legacy mode will allow switching back to Bring Around Ballad.
  
• Chronomancer teleports have been reorganised to be more logical pairs, after discussions with original designers.
  
• The Ruins of Skara Brae now more closely reflect the city that you know and love, from Tales of the Unknown.
  
• Tarjan can now cast "Force of Tarjan" which is a breath, followed by a sandstorm.
  
• Longinus reappears to give his final prophecies.

• Add some Skara Brae journaling on the stables and the snow drift.
  
• Fixed Mangar casting MageFlame (should have been casting disrupt)
  
• Fixed 99 berserkers not triggering.
  
• Fixes for resetting the gates in Skara Brae
  
• Fixed melee disrupt spell of heroes like Mangar not working correctly.

• Fixed missing Arms Master of the Graphnar Fist encounter.
  
• Graphnar Lord - updated encounter to show the monster art and name, to make it consistent with other fight in this dungeon level.
  
• Fixed Oscons Fortress level 1 magic mouth to add appropriate journal notes based on the answers given.
  
• Added Review board to Colosse.
  
• Fixed grammar error in Destiny Stone dungeon magic mouth messages.
  
• Grey Crypt - Changed Sphynx to change up and down stairs based on answers given.
  
• Destiny Stone - Fixed case where party is full on getting Zen Master and hitting escape or cancel falls through to finish the dungeon. Added message to say you got 'The Ring'.
  
• Fixes for various issues with the Snare puzzles on Destiny Stone and Grey Crypt not being reset correctly on load.

• Fix some grammar errors in the temples.
  
• Individual monster attacks are now spread throughout combat - they were just attacking in groups before.
  
• Warstrike now burns instead of chokes.
  
• Added missing full stop to "drop item" request.
  
• Casino double down now uses proper casino rules (hits you with 1 more card).
  
• Player strength increases chance to hit.
  
• Fixes for summon spell ranges and the Summon Help spell.
  
• Melee damage now takes drained-level into account.
  
• Added ability for spells to heal OLD condition.
  
• Fixed issue with teleporting into scripted empty rooms not running the scripts.
  
• Fog and skybox tweaks to BT1 and BT2.
  
• Updated blizzard effects for all volumes.
  
• Improved visuals of automap.
  
• Combat spells are now castable in noncombat but will fizzle - this is necessary as they are used to solve puzzles in Thief of Fate.
  
• Fix monster gender and summonHelp probability bugs.
  
• Rogues can now identify items. Failure to identify means the item can never be identified.
  
• By popular demand, change '#' back to '()' for item charges, in the UI.
  
• Added option for a Bard to stop singing their current song.
  
• Unequipped items are now usable outside of combat - saves the user having to equip,unequip etc., just to use an item.
  
• Fix for "Hide in Shadows" to always go first in combat.
  
• Fixed Push-Back spells not working for enemies.
  
• Monsters with a PUSH spell (Force of Tarjan, Far Foe, Sand Storm) will preference that if they are <50 feet from the player.
  
• Player ADVANCE now has much higher priority.
  
• Wineskins are now available in Taverns.
  
• Monks now use roll table from Thief of Fate - goes up to 2048 max damage.

Hey everybody!

So we've been doing a lot of work on Thief of Fate - reading through the clue books and the manual; looking at the original map illustrations - and there is just so much that was layered into the lore, but wasn't able to be displayed on screen because of the technical limitations of the time.

We want the Bard's Tale Trilogy version of Thief of Fate to be the best that it can be. That means that we want The Palace to look like it's underwater. To make Gelidia not only be a land of eternal winter, but look like it too. For Urmech's Workshop to have mechanical walls (and occasionally, be filled with oil).

Because of all of this (and more - oh so much more!), Thief of Fate and the Legacy mode aren't going to be ready until early 2019.

We want to make it very clear that this is nothing to do with money, nor inXile's recent acquisition by Microsoft. This is simply that we (inXile and Krome) want to make the game be the best it can be - and we need more time to get it all in place.

One of the things that we’ve enjoyed since the game’s launch in August is the conversation with our fans. Now that we’re in the final stretch of development, we’re taking this delay as an opportunity to offer a peek behind the curtain. To that end, we plan on creating a Beta branch on Steam as well as a Thief of Fate Beta specific forum area. Before Christmas 2018, we'll populate this Beta branch with a version of Thief of Fate that will be playable (but will have some bugs) - with some of the art (enemy cameos, dungeon art and such) not complete. We welcome peoples' feedback and comments on the beta and we'll keep you all informed on progress as we approach the full release.

As Steam is the development platform for the game, this beta will only be available for Steam users. GOG users will, of course, receive the finished product on the same day as Steam users.

We've included a taste of the work-in-progress art below, so you can see some of these things that we're talking about and hopefully get a feel for what we're trying to get in place and why we're taking the extra time.

Cheers
Linds

Thief of Fate Remastering Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAcUTNs4cbs&feature=youtu.be

C-64 to Remaster Enemies
Please note we only had still frames for the C-64 images!
Urmech Dungeon Environment
Gelidia Environment - The Land of Eternal Winter
Chronomancer Female Portrait

InXile Entertainment and Krome Studios are pleased to announce that Volume II - The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight - has been released for The Bard's Tale Trilogy.

To ensure that you have the latest update to the game with Volume II unlocked, please close and relaunch Steam, to add the download to your queue.

To try to cover some of the questions that people may have, on changes that have been made to The Destiny Knight for the remaster, we've compiled a short list of the major items below, along with general fix notes for across both games. We have blacked out some very heavy spoilers, so if you want to go into the game spoiler-free, please do not highlight the blacked out text.

• Destiny Knight's mechanics have been tweaked to make the last fight more interesting - you're no longer invincible when fighting Lagoth Zanta. The Destiny Knight absorbs damage with mana and can die if their mana runs out.
  
• BT2 monsters use some art from BT1, if the image matches the monster better.
  
• Names of duplicate monsters (archer,archer,archer) now have unique names so players can learn them (Appentice Archer, Adept Archer, Master Archer).
  
• You now have to learn how to use the Dreamspell, which is located in the Destiny Stone dungeon level 1. And can only be learnt by Archmages.
  
• Additional sage questions have been added to the game.
  
• Destiny Knight text is now in your character sheet (in blue).
  
• Bards carrying over from BT1 will retain BT1 songs, but can learn the new BT2 songs from the Scarlet Bard. Bard characters created in BT2 will know BT2 songs but can learn BT1 songs from Scarlet Bard.
  
• The Dreamspell is now gated behind a new Saradon quest and clue set, the wizard that sent the players the original letter about Lagoth Zanta.
  
• All Magician, Conjurer, Sorcerer, Wizard and Archmage spells from BT1, BT2 and BT3 are now usable in BT2.
  
• The wilderness map no longer wraps like in the original. This was changed so that we could implement a decorated height-mapped wilderness, with seamless map transitions.
  
• Rhyme of Duotime now gives a toHit melee bonus as well as its other benefits.
  
• Snare tweak: The Snare directions (that were originally in the manual) are now embedded in the game as clues, throughout the Destiny Stone Dungeon.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares still kill you - but you can't save if a snare is active, so you can't lose your whole game if you're running with 1 save game slot.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares now have red vignette on the game window and a heartbeat audio cue.
  
• Snare tweak: Snares now show how much time is left when hovering over the Skull above the Game Window.

CRITICAL GAME CHANGES

• Added a third dice to the character creation dice roll.

AUDIO

• Added audio for when traps disarm.
  
• Added Dork Ring sound.
  
• Add rooster crow for when dawn breaks, or when exiting the guild in the morning.
  
• Added a fizzle sound effect.
  
• Added save game sound effect.
  
• Add audio cue to when AwardItem forces us to drop an item.

THE BARD'S TALE I

• Added a casino to Skara Brae in Bard's Tale I to add ability to generate funds, and a bank in which to store your winnings.
  
• Gave Ogre Magi some magic.
  
• Add a new tip about spell casters identifying enemy spells.
  
• Dwarf King and Blue Dragon are a bit tougher to make Harkyn's Castle a bit more of a challenge.
  
• Mangar and Mad God now cast Disrupt Illusion at start of combat to protect against Mage Maelstrom and wind dragon.
  
• Setup random possession event in Mangar's tower.
  
• Added ability for changing walls and doors of a square - used this to make the "Something not right" area in Harkyns actually do something.
  
• Add some encounters with explicit spawn ranges to BT1, makes 396 berzerker balanced more like the original, makes Mangar battle tougher.
  
• All Magician, Conjurer, Sorcerer and Wizard spells from BT1, BT2 and BT3 are now usable in BT1.
  
• Removed some grind spots from Catacombs - this is for balancing the game in non-Legacy mode - grind spots will be retained in Legacy mode.

GAMEPLAY

• Antimagic now clears magical light, not music or lamp/torch light.
  
• Monsters only summon if there is a free spot.
  
• Fix dopplegangler was duplicating 1 spellpoint for non spellcasts due to some last minute drain level support.
  
• Change message in garths to just "Unidentified <itemType>".
  
• Monsters won't cast an already active buff spell again if it doesn't stack.
  
• Increased strength of freeze foes since it doesn't stack.
  
• Increased starter gold rate, reduced later gold rates.
  
• Fix antimagic - it was removing the smoke-in-your-eyes effect.
  
• Fix SkipTurn on monsters - Magestar and HypnoticImage were lasting forever!
  
• Add new instruments so people aren't stuck with HORNS for the entire game.
  
• Increase personal inventory size so that you can equip all item types at once - will enlarge inventories as it loads them.
  
• Added ability to stack arrows.
  
• Sped up spell regen and health drain squares.
  
• Rogues now auto-disarm traps if they have 100% skill.
  
• Doing a phase door now reports if it fizzles.
  
• Guild only resets to morning if you enter it at night now.
  
• SCSI spell now works in anti-magic zones.
  
• Add support for random possession squares.
  
• Remove shop recharge exploit - items that don't have full charges won't stay in the shop when you exit it.
  
• Cat's eye now detects hidden doors.
  
• Fix AI monsters no longer attack things out of range.
  
• Allow light spells to stack.
  
• Thieves temple no longer charges for rogues.
  
• Revamped item slot system. Shield, Wand, Bow and Misc items now use an Off-Hand item slot, while the weapons use Weapon-Hand item slot. This makes for a more intuitive equip system. Characters can choose to use shield, or throwable items, or a wand or a bow.
  
• All equipped items can now contribute to toHit bonus. toHit bonuses have been added to some items, as well as a few new items have been added to the game specifically to allow players to optimise for toHit if they want, usually at a sacrifice of AC. (eg useful for the Dark Crypt in BT2 with its melee-only, all antimagic nature).
  
• Increased monk toHit per level.
  
• Increased toHit bonus to attack from shadows.
  
• Add toHit bonus to Rhyme Of Duotime, makes it a very useful melee song - extra damage, faster attacks, better toHit.
  
• Fixed bug where Apport Arcane (or portals) after a teleport happened would confuse the automapper.
  
• Stopped the user being able to cast spells or do actions during a turn left / turn right.
  
• Fix automapping was detecting one sided walls from the wrong side.
  
• Add text-filtering for song playing.
  
• Level drain attacks now permanently saps 1000 xp as well as drop their level.
  
• Added some new toHit items - Huntsman Gloves (for hunter) and Ring of Accuracy (for all melee classes).

GRAPHICS

• Added spell effect for Apport Arcane.
  
• Added spell effects for Trap Zap, Detected Traps and Traps being Zapped.
  
• Added snow to Skara Brae.
  
• Added spell effect for Mage Flame.
  
• Added spell effect for Apport Arcane.
  
• Added spell effect for light ignition - used for Torch, Lamp, LERE, GRRE, STLI, Lightwand, Dayblade.
  
• Cat's eye no longer flickers the light.
  
• Added a visual for detected spinners.

MISC

• Fix bug in proper nouns - was converting them to "Mangar".
  
• Fix bug in taverns where back button from tipping would take you to "who will tip the bartender".
  
• Fixed tool tip information on why a save is locked.

UI

• Traps now indicate when they are disarmed, on the maps.
  
• Misc fixes for tool tip sizes.
  
• Added confirmation to deleting or overwriting save games.
  
• Added color coding to autosave/quicksave slots.
  
• Added save game sorting by date.
  
• Made the cursor and mouse scroll work in save / load UI.
  
• Fixed an issue where the script was cancelling the street name prematurely.
  
• Mark secret doors on automap when you walk through them.
  
• New spinner & trap icons so they overlay better on the map.
  
• Fixed bug where overlayed icons wouldn't appear on the map.
  
• Added icon to indicate when a character can advance a level, or learn a new spell.
  
• Combat icons now go semi-bright when the combat is completed.
  
• Identify now filters only unidentified items and doesn't reset to top of list once an item is identified.
  
• Skull now lights up if you're standing on cursed or blessed tiles. Tooltip shows what the curse/blessing is.
  
• Fix automapping so it doesn't detect the reverse side of tiles.
  
• Skull now indicates if any active curses or anti-apport/anti-phase door is active.
  
• Fix the automapper discover - tiles weren't working around map wraps.
  
• Fix shop selling unidentified item but revealing the name.
  
• Fix input issues hitting escape on spell filter.
  
• Fix input issues hitting enter when spell filtering to 0 spells.
  
• Spells go orange if no targets are in range.
  
• Add ranges to spell tooltips.
  
• Fix double space in Sanctuary Score description.
  
• Show the current ToHit bonus on player info screen.
  
• Fixed skull centering and skull eyes centering.
  
• Fixed size of highlight bar in party slots.
  
• The maximum message scroll scrolling speed has been increased.
  
• Monster groups are now sorted by range at the start of each combat round.
  
• Selling items at Garth's doesn't reset to top of list each time now.
  
• Alphabetize song list selection
  
• Fix issue where pressing F10 from a settings dialog would put the UI logic in a bad state.

Hi all,

We just wanted to let you all know that we're in the final stretch for the Bard's Tale 2 release. The game is going through QA testing now, and we're fixing various bugs as they come up. We are happy to announce that the game will be arriving tomorrow, Tuesday, October 23rd.

There are a few cool things coming in the release that we thought we'd share with you, as a taste of what is to come (soon!) in The Destiny Knight (please keep in mind these are compressed GIFs).

The Wilderness
Seamless Map Transitions
New City Art
And, of course, the monsters!
Spell Effects

• Traps visuals and Trap Zap
  
• Apport Arcane
  
• Visible Portals
  

In addition, we have several other cool updates and fixes for you to enjoy. As a taste...

• Confirmations on deleting saves :)
  
• Detect secret doors on the automap when you walk through them
  
• Added the Dork Ring sound
  
• An icon is displayed in by the player name when a character can level up or learn new spells.
  
• Monsters won't cast an already active buff spell again if it doesn't stack
  
• Identify now filters only unidentified items and doesn't reset to top of list once an item is identified.
  
• Rogues now auto-disarm traps if they have 100% skill
  
• The automap keeps track of which traps and encounters are active.
  
• And lots more!

Not long to go now! We will be pushing the update at 2pm PST on Tuesday the 23rd.

Cheers
Linds