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Telepath Tactics - opinions

Started by Ertxiem, May 29, 2011, 05:57:02 PM

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bugfartboy

Seeing as the KickStarter has been released, does thst mean if I donate a minimum of $25, I'd be able to start playing the current version of TT today?

CraigStern

Not today, no: but you will shortly after the Kickstarter campaign ends. ;)

SmartyPants

Is it possible to modd characters to have different perceptions than normal?

Quote from: CraigStern on November 26, 2012, 11:46:29 PMOh, also: you'll be pleased to know that I just finished adding in support for custom death attacks (i.e. attacks triggered when a character dies), so you'll be able to create your own custom exploding charges after all!
Cool!  Does this also mean that one could have fun to making exploding golems?

CraigStern


ArtDrake

#199
I'm sort of at a loss. What is meant by perceptions?

CraigStern

Perception is a stat that determines how far into fog of war a character can see. (I assume that that is what Smarty is referring to here.)

SmartyPants

You assume correctly.  Is there a different word to call the ability to see through the fog of war?

In the kickstater, you said that you want sprites for both genders.  I wondering if you also plan to add more shadowling sprites.  If shadowlings have an antagonistic role in any campaign, then the designer and player will have a difficult time dealing with just having one shadowling sprite.  Just look at the Loyalist forces from TSoG.  The five different kinds of shadowling enemies in TSoG had to share three different types of sprites (red shadowling, blue shadowling, masked shadowling).  If all those enemies had the same sprite, then it would be difficult for the player to keep track of what shadowling can do what--even on the small TSoG map.

Quote from: CraigStern on April 20, 2012, 07:50:42 PM
Quote from: CraigStern on April 20, 2012, 07:50:42 PM
Quote from: SmartyPants on April 20, 2012, 07:35:11 PMWill there be any desert tiles in TT?  Sand tiles and palm trees would also make good beaches.
They were originally planned, but cut for budget reasons. The game has full support for modding in extra tiles and destructible objects, though, so you could actually go in and add some yourself if you felt the urge.

Quote from: CraigStern on November 20, 2011, 04:25:38 PM
Quote from: SmartyPants on November 18, 2011, 11:28:22 PMWill Tigs be one of the destructible obstacles?
Most likely not. They might appear in a future single player game using the engine, however.

That said, I'm considering the possibility of a Kickstarter at some point to raise funds for ports to other platforms; that could also potentially bankroll new official tilesets and destructible objects.
Are desert tiles and tigs still on your Kickstarter wish list?

CraigStern

Yes to desert tiles; probably not to the tigs, unless you're okay with unanimated ones.

SmartyPants

I look forward to the desert tiles, because it open up whole new environments to play with. On a side note, a sandstorm would be a cool weather effect to go with it.

I don't think tigs would work if they weren't unanimated.  If there would be an unanimated plant that does damage, then it should be like a cactus or a thorn bush that does minor counterattack damage.

SmartyPants

The Public Demo was a lot of fun.  I especially enjoyed playing with the new engineer and mentalist classes.  I was also pleasantly surprised when Shadowhand was able to flank the impaler by leaping through a window.

I did however find a couple of issues:
*After awhile, one gets tired of waiting for the enemies' slow, mundane moves to be over.  It would be nice if one could fast forward through the AI's moves.
*The Engineer should get at least some experience for building.  My engineer was a vital part of the mission, but he had nothing to show for it, because he was busy building bridges instead whacking someone with a wretch.
*The Mentalist should get at least some experience for gusting and pulling.  Sophia caused someone to drown by pulling them into the water and she was able to clear several obstacles, yet she recieved no experience for her deeds.

SmartyPants

It is bug in the demo that an bandit swordsman was able to hit an assassin despite an elevation difference of 4?

Besides the possible bug, I enjoyed the elevation differences.  Facing the bowmen on an elevated tower was a tactical challenge that wasn't seen any of the previous games in the series.  The conventual of appoach of outmaneuvering and having all your characters attack wouldn't work well in this situation.  The elevation differences make it impossible for your melee units to attack and the range units couldn't attack without without being hit by a counterattack boosted by an elevation bonus.  This required me to have to think more outside the box than I had to do in TSoG.  First I had my mentalist pull one of the bowmen off the tower.  It was pretty funny to see the bowman fall from the safty of his tower, become near the brink of death, and turn helplessly stunned. (Too bad the mentalist never got any experience for using her skill.)  The second bowman also lost his elevation advantage when I had my assassin leap to the top of the tower and strike the bowman in the back.


bugfartboy

I tried the Public Alpha Demo, and I think that the careful integration of scripted battles and enemy AI made the first real battle of the campaign satisfyingly challenging. I was rather proud of myself when I beat the first battle of the campaign without losing any of my troops.

CraigStern

Quote from: SmartyPants on December 03, 2012, 11:32:50 AM*After awhile, one gets tired of waiting for the enemies' slow, mundane moves to be over.  It would be nice if one could fast forward through the AI's moves.
*The Engineer should get at least some experience for building.  My engineer was a vital part of the mission, but he had nothing to show for it, because he was busy building bridges instead whacking someone with a wretch.
*The Mentalist should get at least some experience for gusting and pulling.  Sophia caused someone to drown by pulling them into the water and she was able to clear several obstacles, yet she recieved no experience for her deeds.

Thanks for the feedback! That's useful info. And I can now report that the first of your concerns has been addressed! The demo now has the following features requested by various players:

- the second battle is rebalanced to be more challenging;
- items are now stored in the game's destructible barrels;
- you now have the option to set character walk speed to Normal, Double or Instant in the options menu (F1); and
- the computer no longer cycles through every character when ending its turn without moving.

As before, the demos are available here:

WINDOWS DEMO

MAC / LINUX DEMO (you'll need AIR to install the Mac / Linux one; Linux users can nab AIR here)

SmartyPants

Things I liked:
*Psy Healers can heal themselves!
*I enjoyed the extra enemies.  The psy healers made the level an actual challenge. The random spriggat was a little out of place, but I assume that will be explained in the non-demo campaign.
*I liked how you removed the door in the fort.  Before that, one could easily ignore the two spearmen.
*Watching the enemies not move was almost unbearable, so glad that was corrected.
*I didn't realize until the second time I played that an engineer can build more than one bridge piece at a time.
*The bandages that I found in a barrel saved Strider's butt.

Things I didn't like:
*I got a wierd white glitch appear in top left corner in the middle of the mission.  It didn't effect gameplay, but it did ruin the visual. Not sure what happened to trigger it.
*The AI may still need a little work.  I had my engineer block off a path with a wooden barrier, and the enemy swordsman accepted it and started pacing infront of it.  Also, the spearmen stayed by the windows as the crossbowman and bowman kept shooting them from out of the spearmen's range.
*When the assassin leaps on bolders and tree, it doesn't appear right.  When she leaps on a tree, the tree sprite and assassin sprite blended together.  Also, I try to see if she could use bolder remains of the destroyed bridge as stepping stones to cross the river.  When she landed on the bolder, she was forced to swim and she took drowning damage.
*Too many humans. I already familiar with the Telepath mythos, but other might like see more of the game's fantasy elements in the demo.  You promote the game as being steampunk with it own mythical creatures, yet one doesn't really see golems, lizardmen, shadowlings, or spriggats when the they play the demo.

CraigStern

The glitch: did that appear during the enemy's turn? (That's almost certainly a bug from the game loading a sprite sheet incorrectly.)

The AI is still in progress; routines for retreating and attacking barriers are already planned, but are not yet coded.

The assassin should not have taken damage while perched on the boulder; I'll fix that right now!