inXile Entertainment has released the third patch for The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep. According to the release notes, this patch brings several optimizations for improved performance, improves how the graphics benchmarking determined the correct graphics settings for your system, greatly improves the user interface when playing with 4:3 aspect ratio and packs numerous improvements to non-English localized text.

Moreover, this patch adds a sharpness post process effect and slider, which allows you to adjust how crisp or blurred the game appear, features several graphical updates in Baedish lowlands environment, adjusts the amount of time subtitles stay on screen and adds additional audio in a few areas where it was missing.

As always, this patch also comes with a number of gameplay fixes. For example it fixes several issues where certain doors and puzzles were not saving when exiting to the main menu or to desktop, several instances in which waypoints were not deactivating when you switched which quest was being tracked, as well as a couple of exploits.

Steam will download this patch the next time you launch its client, and below you can find its complete changelog.

The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep Patch #3 Release Notes

Stability:

• Improved how our graphics benchmarking determined the correct graphics settings for your system.
• Several optimizations for improved performance.
• Players who played in non-English languages and encountered issues with placing cogs into gear puzzles and had their save files corrupted should now have working save files again.
• Fixed a crash related to using Jarnel’s Eyes in certain dungeons.
• Fixed a crash related to skipping the post combat screen after defeating Mangar for the 1st time.
• Fixed several combat placement bugs across the game.
• Fixed a crash in the Cellars of Kylearan’s Tower caused by defeating Mangar and then defeating any remaining fights in the dungeon.
• Fixed a bug relating to how push-blocks reset themselves after being pushed into a hole multiple time. They’ll now properly reset each time Stone Remembers is sung.
• Fixed a crash relating to using Mangar’s Mind Jab in the fight against Mangar.
• Fixed several issues relating to certain performance actors not saving properly after escaping to main menu.
• Fixed an issue in which players could not access vendors after reloading a save game under some circumstances.
• Fixed an issue in which hidey bides wouldn’t work correctly if you exited the game before looting the cache or the cache reset itself.

Gameplay:

• Fixed several issues where certain doors and puzzles were not saving when exiting to the main menu or to desktop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Sharp, Keen, and Honed puzzle weapon boons to reduce your damage to 0 when you critically hit with a dagger or a bow ability.
• The description of the Wrecking Ball passive has been updated.
• Fixed a bug that caused 2-handed weapons to corrupt your characters stats when equipping and unequipping that item after purchasing skills.
• Fixed a bug in which the bridge to the Orkan Rookery could get stuck if you ran into it while it was assembling.
• Fixed a bug that resulted in Arthur de-spawning if you defeated the ritualists around him, but save/loaded your game before speaking with him.
• Fixed several instances in which waypoints were not deactivating when you switched which quest was being tracked.
• The Power Rush passive and status effect have a clearer description, and now correctly work with AoE abilities.
• Lute of Compulsory Cavorting no longer has question marks in its description and its Drunk effect works properly.
• Fixed an issue in the Sentry Tower that resulted in buttons on the 3rd floor getting stuck in the depressed position if you exited the game before they reset themselves.
• Removed extraneous waypoints in Castle Langskall.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed you to dupe items inside the merchant inventory.
• Fixed an exploit in which you could duplicate items via offering statues.
• The Guardian passive now has a clearer description of what it’s doing.
• Fixed an issue with status effects, like On Fire or Rend, stacking from different sources and not correctly calculating the effect. If two status effects aren’t the same strength, they’ll no longer stack on one another, and instead create a new stack.
• Fairy Powder Bombs will now play their explosion when they detonate, and will no longer harm your own team.
• Lowland Park Whisky now changes your next melee attack damage type to mental damage, as intended.
• Traps in the Sulfur Springs are now more lethal.
• Fixed a bug in which caltrops could trigger on dead enemies, causing caltrops to not trigger properly on living enemies.

Etc.

• A Sharpness post process effect and slider was added, which allows you to adjust how crisp or blurred the game appears.
• Anti-Aliasing & Post Processing settings are now updated when you adjust your Effects Quality in the options menu.
• Running the game in borderless window mode will now correctly match your monitor’s current resolution.
• Greatly improved the user interface when playing with 4:3 aspect ratio.
• Improvements to non-English localized text.
• Several graphical updates in Baedish lowlands environment.
• Fixed an issue where several settings in the Options menu weren’t properly saving.
• Updated the mesh seen in the inspection window for staves and Lowland Park Whisky.
• Street signs, offering altars, and elven altars now properly display in the correct language, based on your language settings.
• You can no longer choose to not help the Selkie sisters. When destiny calls, you answer.
• Fixed several backer quotes in the Main Menu.
• Fixed a bug in which the music on the Main Menu would stop playing after completing screen calibration.
• Fixed several typos in character dialogue.
• Updated how fullscreen tutorials show text in other languages, better accounting for increases in text size after translation.
• Adjusted the amount of time subtitles stay on screen.
• Fixed several issues relating to localized text over-running its boundaries in the interface.
• Added additional audio in a few areas where it was missing.
• Updated Fairy Golf music so that it plays through the entire fairy gold arena.
• The crafting menu now displays how many of a given item will result from crafting.
• Additional decals, statues, and effects added to Skara Brae underground.

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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