That's... annoying. I've hated Java ever since I installed a version of it years ago that was total garbage. To this day, I still have an "older" version of it I keep on a stick "just in case" so I don't have to use the bloaty new stuff.

Sort of bummed a game would require a separate install - didn't someone in here mention another GoG game that includes it in the game directory rather than as a discrete install? Why not do that?

More RPGs FTW!

Wishlisted.

My apologies if this has been mentioned (I haven't the time to check at the moment, just wanted to post this just in case):

If you backed the game on Kickstarter, they'll be giving out GOG keys by sometime next week. :)

*Thanks to both GOG and Balcony Team for that, by the way

I just stopped by to say thanks for the Kickstarter keys too. Looking forward to receiving it soon.

Thanks.

Can't you just RP being a male gendered person who wants to be woman gendered but the powers that be oppress you from being able to be your true self? or somesuch? it seems like if you could get over this aspect you'd be able to enjoy a lot more games - quite silly.

You shouldn't be.

I remember reading a thread a thread on the game when it was still in EA with a bunch of people complaining about hunger, but they're ridiculous. They must've been trying to survive off of apples and pears, which don't reduce hunger by a great deal. Which is what I was doing at first, and it doesn't work very well.

All you need to do is get wheat, and there's loads to be found in containers or in fields grown by others. You probably won't ever need to grow it yourself, if you don't want to farm.

Then you grind the wheat at a millstone, mix the resulting flour with water, and you've got dough. Bake a big ol' stack of bread and you won't have hunger problems. It doesn't require cooking skill to bake bread, and you can bake a ton of loaves at once, and keep a big stack in your inventory.

And for thirst, I would always drink and fill my canteen(s) whenever I passed a well. Thirst was never once a problem.

Much ado has been about nothing from those who just didn't know what they were doing, frankly.

It's not about what to do, it's about why you have to do it in the first place. A lot of people feel that a hunger/thirst system is just a chore that takes away from the enjoyment of an RPG.

Hunger and thirst have in many games a drastic impact on your character. In this game too. If you are hungry or thirsty, you begin to lose HP and that`s something I hate in RPGs. It mostly happens in such games that you run around in a dungeon and run out of food. If you don`t have luck then and find some food, your character dies without any hope to survive.

Then I guess this isn't for me after all.

Yeah, that's fair enough if people don't like the mechanic. I wouldn't miss it if it were gone. However, it's nothing more than a minor annoyance if handled as outlined above, and if it's the sole thing keeping someone away from the game, I don't personally feel that it's a big enough issue that it causes any real problems.
If you allow your hunger or thirst to reach 0%, i.e., the point at which you begin to starve; then you lose HP. The maximum is 150%, and above a certain point, (I don't recall the treshholds anymore), you get buffs from being well fed and well hydrated. If it falls below a certain percentage, then your health stops regenerating on its own.

I rarely ever got the point where I started losing HP, because I always has bread and water. It's easy enough to keep yourself fed, and therefore buffed most of the time.

Bugger.

I just bought Balrum on Steam on the 24th...

Really wish GOG would get faster release times. So many games I'd rather own here that only appear on GOG long after I buy them elsewhere...

Great game.

I honestly think it's the publisher/developers responsibility to choose where their game is going for sale.
If it's not on GOG, it's hardly GOG's fault. Steam s is after all the number one go to place for PC games. GOG generally isn't the first thing that pops into most PC gamer's minds, although I believe GOG is on its way there.

0% you are starving/dehydrated and lose health slowly. It takes LONG TIME to die from this condition if you are full/near full health when you get that condition. Iirc regeneration from well fed/fully hydrated and damage from starving/dehydrated cancels each others effect. If you are tired you get malus to your stats, nothing else happens.
1-99% you are not hungry/thristy
100-150% you are well fed/fully hydrated and slowly regenerate health

Keeping yourself hydrated is REALLY trivial as you can find dozens of buckets laying around and they are cheap to buy. Just get 10 or dozen, fill them up at nearest well and your set for week or two in game time.

As for food, you can steal tons of food (some farmers replant their crops too) and raw meat/flour is available cheap from vendors and there is deer/volves/bear to hunt. You can carry around months worth of food if you feel like it (one 64 stack of bread/meat lasts around a week or so)

Mining and cutting wood does make you become hungry/thirsty faster but you usually do that in areas you've already cleared so you can be starving, dehydrated and tired while doing it and you only need to eat/drink/sleep(or drink tea or coffee) after you've mined enough ore/cut enough wood.

There is even a setting at start up you can use to reduce food and water consumption if you want to make it really trivial matter. Survival skill also reduce the speed you get hungry/thristy/tired.

it is not quite so new, it was released 6 months ago, and is currently 40% off in the Steam summer sale. so the price matches.

Biggest problem probably was that you could get hungry/thirsty while in dialog or while shopping and you usually would start by talking everyone in village. You did not start with food and most people, having just started the game. did not know how to deal with it so lot of people complained. This was adressed in one of the first patches for the game. Later devs added an option at game start to reduce the speed you get hungry/thristy for those that still felt it was issue.