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:

Legacy Mode

• 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 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.

Quality of Life and Other Adjustments

• 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.
  

Thief of Fate Changes

• 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 [spoiler]more logical pairs, after discussions with original designers[/spoiler].
• The Ruins of Skara Brae now more closely reflect the city that you know and love, from Tales of the Unknown.
• [spoiler]Tarjan can now cast "Force of Tarjan" which is a breath, followed by a sandstorm.[/spoiler]
• 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.

Tales of the Unknown Changes / Fixes

• 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.

Destiny Knight Changes / Fixes

• 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 [spoiler]carry you over the gap (Dark Domain Level 4)[/spoiler].
• The Old Warrior must be alive to [spoiler]disarm snare 1 (Tombs Level 3)[/spoiler].
• The Zen Master must be alive to [spoiler]progress through snare 7 (Destiny Stone Level 3)[/spoiler].
• Fixed missing secret door in dark domain level 3.
• Added some casino UI polish.

General Changes / Fixes

• 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.