Well, Craig, I just drooled. And I needed to create a thread just to say that (since you locked your thread). :)
Quote from: Ertxiem on May 29, 2011, 05:57:02 PM
Well, Craig, I just drooled.
Ditto, just looking at the minimap in the corner tells me a lot of work must be going into that game.
:-|
...
...
...
OH MY FREAKIN GOSH!!! I'm in shock. And what Ert and Duskie-Poo said above goes double for me. I'm way way excited!!! Telepath Tactics looks like anything one could want in a Telepath based game. But I'm going to try to contain myself until Craig starts releasing it. I just hope it'll be a free game.
I think it won't be free... I would bet on a free demo and a paid version. Just my feeling.
Darn... Maybe if it gains mega publicity I can get my parents to let me buy it.
I've seen the light... and it pure...
I'm assuming that the graphics in that screenshot are horribly alpha stage though...
I think a "Capture the Flag" game type would be great for this game... that's an opinion. :P
Is it going to have a storyline or just be about the battles?
Quote from: Duskling on May 30, 2011, 06:03:51 PM
I think a "Capture the Flag" game type would be great for this game... that's an opinion. :P
Believe it or not, that's already in-game and working. ;)
Quote from: Dean_Lukas on May 31, 2011, 01:09:24 PM
Is it going to have a storyline or just be about the battles?
Since it's going to be a multiplayer game, I figure it wouldn't make much sense to include a storyline.
OH! So this is that multiplayer idea you were talking about a while ago?
Possibly. I've had a lot of different game ideas over the past year or two.
Quote from: CraigStern on May 31, 2011, 07:13:29 PM
Quote from: Duskling on May 30, 2011, 06:03:51 PM
I think a "Capture the Flag" game type would be great for this game... that's an opinion. :P
Believe it or not, that's already in-game and working. ;)
How about "King of the Hill?" ;D
That's a likely candidate for inclusion in one form or another.
When you say "multiplayer", will it be on one computer like TRPG2 Duel or will it be at two different locations like XBOX LIVE?
Will it have a story and a campaign like Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Halo Wars?
What are some of the "24 unique unit classes"?
It would be great if it had single computer, LAN and a full blown multiplayer. as for the unique classes, I'll bet if you take a look at TPA2 you'll find most if not all of the classes there.
I think he meant "Unique from each other".
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 08, 2011, 12:09:42 PM
When you say "multiplayer", will it be on one computer like TRPG2 Duel or will it be at two different locations like XBOX LIVE?
Right now, it only supports hotseat play a la TRPG2 Duel Mode. The goal, however, is for it to support legit multiplayer as well.
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 08, 2011, 12:09:42 PM
Will it have a story and a campaign like Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Halo Wars?
No. However, I'm coding the engine so that it can easily be reused for future, single player efforts that will be story-based.
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 08, 2011, 12:09:42 PM
What are some of the "24 unique unit classes"?
Swordsmen
Spearmen
Bowmen
Crossbowmen
Assassins
Cavalry (scorpion riders)
Lizardmen
Engineers
Stone Golems
Bronze Golems
Energy Golems
Spirits
Mentalists
Pyrokineticists
Cryokineticists
Photokineticists
Skiakineticists
Psy Healers
Red Spriggats
Frost Spriggats
Black Spriggats
Golden Spriggats
Shadowlings
Phantom Armor
Would "Golden Spriggat" be along the same lines as "Light Spriggat"?
Quote from: CraigStern on June 08, 2011, 11:24:58 PM
Swordsmen
Spearmen
Bowmen
Crossbowmen
Assassins
Cavalry (scorpion riders)
Lizardmen
Engineers
Stone Golems
Bronze Golems
Energy Golems
Spirits
Mentalists
Pyrokineticists
Cryokineticists
Photokineticists
Skiakineticists
Psy Healers
Red Spriggats
Frost Spriggats
Black Spriggats
Golden Spriggats
Shadowlings
Phantom Armor
And I'm already dying of anticipation... don't worry, no pressure, so long as you can get the game up.
Lizardmen
Engineers
Mentalists
Skiakineticists
Golden Spriggats
These would be the ones I haven't seen before. I'm mostly curious about the Skiakineticists as I can figure out what the other classes are.
The video he posted explains Menalists and Engineers. I don't know what the Skiakineticsts are.
Ok, only if you guys want to spoil it for yourselves... I'll put what I found in a spoiler.
[spoiler=Caution, Telepath Tactics info][spoiler=Last Warning]http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1993;sa=showPosts[/spoiler][/spoiler]
To make the description easier to find, I'll add another link.
[spoiler=Unit descriptions]Telepath tactics: unit descriptions (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=14260.msg563184#msg563184)[/spoiler]
Thought so. Now I'm really anxious for Craig to release it.
Could Buh'Baque be a playable character Easter egg, maybe after being unlocked by beating the game (If there is single-player) on the hardest difficulty, or by fighting and winning a certain number of battles? ;D
That would be epic... Haha! Maybe it should be changed from "-opinions" to "-discussions".
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 09, 2011, 05:04:12 PMI don't know what the Skiakineticsts are.
Mentalist=Mental Psy
Pyrokineticist=Heat Psy
Cryokineticist=Cold Psy
Photokineticist=Light Psy
Skiakineticists=Shadow Psy
QuotePhantom Armor - the hardiest of the flying units, with powerful slashing attacks but low movement speed. Phantom armor can regenerate itself when damaged.
Will the Phantom Armor of Telepath Tactics (TT) be the Phantom Armor of TRPG2 or the Ghost Knights of TSoG?
Quote from: CraigStern on June 08, 2011, 11:24:58 PMQuote from: im2smart4u on June 08, 2011, 12:09:42 PMWhen you say "multiplayer", will it be on one computer like TRPG2 Duel or will it be at two different locations like XBOX LIVE?
Right now, it only supports hotseat play a la TRPG2 Duel Mode. The goal, however, is for it to support legit multiplayer as well.
It would almost require some type of internet connection between players, because it is difficult to organize people to play (much like it is difficult to get people to play even the most fun board games).
Quote from: CraigStern on June 08, 2011, 11:24:58 PMQuote from: im2smart4u on June 08, 2011, 12:09:42 PMWill it have a story and a campaign like Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Halo Wars?
No. However, I'm coding the engine so that it can easily be reused for future, single player efforts that will be story-based.
So Telepath Tactics will have little to no story like TPA2, while an improved sequal will be story filled like TSoG? I think the Telepath world has a very good mythos, so it would be a waste to not expand it.
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 11, 2011, 03:19:12 PM
QuotePhantom Armor - the hardiest of the flying units, with powerful slashing attacks but low movement speed. Phantom armor can regenerate itself when damaged.
Will the Phantom Armor of Telepath Tactics (TT) be the Phantom Armor of TRPG2 or the Ghost Knights of TRPG2?
The former. However, in order to make them interesting and useful as unique units, I've altered their characteristics.
Quote from: Craig
The former. However, in order to make them interesting and useful as unique units, I've altered their characteristics.
How so? Appearance, or capabilities?
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 12, 2011, 08:32:28 AMQuote from: CraigThe former. However, in order to make them interesting and useful as unique units, I've altered their characteristics.
How so? Appearance, or capabilities?
Capabilities, since they can now fly.
The idea behind the game seems very good, but I don't particularly like the character sprites. They aren't bad, but they weren't exactly what I was expecting.
Quote from: Rob on June 12, 2011, 07:44:17 PM
The idea behind the game seems very good, but I don't particularly like the character sprites. They aren't bad, but they weren't exactly what I was expecting.
The game is still in Alpha, and TSoG is the primary project on Craig's list at the moment, so don't worry Rob, we'll have a say in it when TSoG is complete.
I agree with Rob and I would also like to add: Would it be too late to change the name Telepath Tactics now?
Why change it? I like the name.
Quote from: Rob on June 12, 2011, 07:44:17 PM
The idea behind the game seems very good, but I don't particularly like the character sprites. They aren't bad, but they weren't exactly what I was expecting.
This game doesn't take place in a part of the world we've seen before, so many of the units aren't going to look especially familiar to you.
So is it still in Cera Bella? Or another continent?
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 14, 2011, 10:08:30 PM
So is it still in Cera Bella? Or another continent?
All in good time. :)
Also, I should point out that the character sprites you see are just initial versions. Final versions of each character's default pose should be completed within the next week and a half, followed by proper animations.
Ah. Looking forward for it. So who is doing the character sprites? Or is that another thing we can't/don't know?
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 14, 2011, 10:30:16 AM
Why change it? I like the name.
I don't know but it sounds....it sounds like a guide/walkthrough/tips/strategy on the Telepath series game to me though.
Why Lizardmen over Folk-of-the-Woods?
Is it because the area where TT takes place has a different native population then Cera Bella?
Or did you do it because you prefer lizardmen over another elf-like race? (I personally prefer lizardmen)
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 15, 2011, 01:13:43 AM
Why Lizardmen over Folk-of-the-Woods?
Is it because the area where TT takes place has a different native population then Cera Bella?
Or did you do it because you prefer lizardmen over another elf-like race? (I personally prefer lizardmen)
Well, I think a bit of both. The closest things we've seen in Telepath to Lizardmen were Spriggat (I believe), and we have already seen a Folk-of-the-Wood, granted, not in-depth. Yes, this also has to do that TT may/does not take place on Cera Bella, thus allowing more variety... but that means that Spriggats are greatly spread out throughout the Telepath universe. Finally, I just personally like the idea of a bipedal, walking iguana with a spear. :)
Edit: Fixed my statement on where TT is based, as it is, as im2smart4u said, a speculation.
He never said it wasn't on Cera Bella. He said we'd have to wait and see.
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 15, 2011, 09:56:02 AMHe never said it wasn't on Cera Bella. He said we'd have to wait and see.
I believe he was speculating; not stating it as a fact.
Quote from: CraigStern on June 14, 2011, 10:10:15 PM
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 14, 2011, 10:08:30 PM
So is it still in Cera Bella? Or another continent?
All in good time. :)
I'm sorry. This doesn't sound like speculation. :P
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 15, 2011, 08:22:58 PMQuote from: CraigStern on June 14, 2011, 10:10:15 PMQuote from: Bugfartboy on June 14, 2011, 10:08:30 PMSo is it still in Cera Bella? Or another continent?
All in good time. :)
I'm sorry. This doesn't sound like speculation. :P
I don't think you understand what speculation means:
to take to be true on the basis of insufficent evidence.It wouldn't make sense for me to say Craig was speculationing when he is the one who knows the answer. I obviously met Duskling was speculating, because he was basing his assumtion off of Craig's obscure answer.
Stay on topic, guys. We don't need to have a thread about the meaning of the word "speculation."
Sorry. It is difficult to keep a dicussion going when some people don't understand simple words.
I noticed that all sprites you have so far are armed and you discribe the spriggats having claw attacks. So, what classes will still use mind blast?
Are the Shadowlings of TT considered Psy Assassins?
Shadowlings in TT are essentially psy assassins of the Darkling (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Darkling) variety, albeit with somewhat reduced movement. They can Shadowport 2 to 3 spaces, and use Mind Blast and Shadow Blast.
All of the Psy Fighter classes still use Mind Blast as well.
What about spirit attacks?
Ah, indeed: spirits get Mind Blast too. Forgot about them. :D
Spirits also get Transfer, Soul Suck, and Drain (a less powerful version than the one Iblis has--it's purely an offensive PsP-killing attack).
Will enemies have a PsP limit as well, Craig?
Is... Traten possibly involved in TT?
Quote from: Bugfartboy on June 18, 2011, 07:37:32 PM
Will enemies have a PsP limit as well, Craig?
Everyone has a PSP limit. Since I'm designing it as a multiplayer game, all units are designed with human players in mind--the AI is going to be built from the ground up to take over playing the characters using the same exact rules human players have to abide by.
So far, I've got the computer successfully moving characters around in accordance with all the rules of the game, including character movement range. Suffice it to say that the days of enemies with limitless PsP and 3 spaces of max movement are numbered.
How difficult is it going to be to program AI for so many complex units?
Quote from: im2smart4u on June 19, 2011, 01:52:00 AM
How difficult is it going to be to program AI for so many complex units?
It will be challenging, at the very least; but I'm also a much much better programmer than I was back when I coded the AI for TSoG. We'll see how it shakes out.
Now I'm really excited for the game to be in open demo, provided there's going to be one. A fair and balanced battle, intelligent AI, and the ability to play against other people... Sounds like a really good game. Craig... Thank you!!!
I still want to try out the alpha. Is enough of the game and engine finished that it's actually possible to play VS. the computer without any errors? And by that I mean is it possible to play the computer and actually lose (while trying)? and what will difficulty levels affect? the computer's judgment? stats?
Quote from: rainen on June 22, 2011, 12:55:39 AM
I still want to try out the alpha. Is enough of the game and engine finished that it's actually possible to play VS. the computer without any errors? And by that I mean is it possible to play the computer and actually lose (while trying)? and what will difficulty levels affect? the computer's judgment? stats?
You're getting a bit too excited, methinks. Craig hasn't even fully completed TSoG yet, and you want to play a new game right now? When Craig decides to let us play an alpha or beta, he will notify us, until then, there's no point in putting him off track with questions such as those. My point being: Patience, just wait, and all will come in time.
Quote from: Duskling on June 22, 2011, 12:59:34 AM
Quote from: rainen on June 22, 2011, 12:55:39 AM
I still want to try out the alpha. Is enough of the game and engine finished that it's actually possible to play VS. the computer without any errors? And by that I mean is it possible to play the computer and actually lose (while trying)? and what will difficulty levels affect? the computer's judgment? stats?
You're getting a bit too excited, methinks. Craig hasn't even fully completed TSoG yet, and you want to play a new game right now? When Craig decides to let us play an alpha or beta, he will notify us, until then, there's no point in putting him off track with questions such as those. My point being: Patience, just wait, and all will come in time.
Yes, Master Yoda. :P I just think everyone is excited about the game.
I'm building the groundwork for TT right now; it's not really playable as a single player experience yet. All the AI does is move guys around at random--it doesn't formulate a plan or launch attacks yet.
When are we going to see the sprites for the units?
The artist is currently finishing up the tiles to be used in creating the levels, which will allow me to design battlefields for the game. Next on the agenda are graphics for walls and other destructible objects, followed by the units themselves. You can see the work that one of the prior artists did in the game's screenshots (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=918.msg37460#msg37460).
Will ice become destructible? It would be cool to make someone fall through the ice.
Funny you should mention it, I've been strongly considering making it so pyrokineticists can melt ice and cryokineticists can freeze water. Once TT development resumes, I'll see if I can figure out a way to implement that relatively painlessly.
Please do it! I read somewhere that your friends enjoyed pushing one another into lava and water, so I imagine that people would enjoy making the ice collapse under their enemies' feet with a explosive charge or a Pyro attack.
I am a little curious about the water freezing technicals:
*What will happen to the unit who is in the water when the water is frozen by a cryokineticist? Will the unit end up frozen or will the unit end up standing on top of the ice unhampered?
*Do you think the cryokineticist's water freezing could replace the engineer's bridge building? Will the bridge be better then the ice, because it is less vulnerable to damage and can be built over more then just water? Will freezing water be done in less turns then building bridges? Will the PsP cost make bridge building more preferable to water freezing?
*Will frost spriggats be able to freeze water, while red spriggats be able to melt ice?
*Can ice be damaged by physical, shadow, or light damage? Will damaged ice be repaired by ice attacks?
Will any units be able to swim? If a unit wants to cross a one tile wide river, will that unit be able to jump in the water by itself and then climb out on the other side? I understand that heavly armored units like swordsmen, calverly, and golems wouldn't be able to swim, but shouldn't lightly armored units like psy fighters, psy healers, and assassins be able to swim? If a unit does swim, will the unit be able to swim at the same speed that they walk on land?
Will any units be able to use Elemental Shields? If there are elemental shields, will they work differently from TSoG?
Will the Energy Golems in TT be like Dorgon? How fast will they be able to move or do they not move at all? Will they be able to use melee or burst shot like Dorgon? Will laser blast have an infinite range? Like in TSoG, will laser blast be able to go through every wall, boulder, tree, and unit?
That's a lot of questions! As of right now, the answer to most of them is "I don't know yet." One thing I can say, though, is that I have decided not to feature Energy Golems in Telepath Tactics for balance reasons.
Quote from: CraigStern on October 20, 2011, 07:30:41 PM
One thing I can say, though, is that I have decided not to feature Energy Golems in Telepath Tactics for balance reasons.
My name is Bugfartboy and I approve this message! :)
Quote from: CraigStern on October 20, 2011, 07:30:41 PMOne thing I can say, though, is that I have decided not to feature Energy Golems in Telepath Tactics for balance reasons.
I was curious how you were going to have a unit that has infinite range on a massive map. I just assumed that you would change the mechanics of laser blast such as stopping the laser after the first thing it strikes. I am relieved that I don't have to try to hide all my units behind walls and trees just to avoid an enemy on the opposite side of the map. Facing stationary Energy Golems might be fun in a campaign setting, but it just seems annoying in PvP.
Quote from: CraigStern on October 20, 2011, 07:30:41 PMThat's a lot of questions! As of right now, the answer to most of them is "I don't know yet."
I expected that. My post was more about bouncing ideas off you, then expecting you to have an answer.
Will Tigs be one of the destructible obstacles?
Most likely not. They might appear in a future single player game using the engine, however.
Ok, time for me to pop in with a suggestion: Multiple types of shadowlings. The basic shadowling is an assassin, but I'd love to see shadowling healers or shadowling guardians make an appearance as well. Another suggestion-make sure you can play single player mode! A lot of competitive online games just don't have enough players to consistently find a match, and you shouldn't be limited. If it has a map editor, and if its possible to allow users to upload maps, (which can then be downloaded by anyone else with the game) it can conceivably have a huge amount of content.
Those aren't totally out of the question, but I'm currently erring on the side of fewer flying units in order to make balancing easier.
Hm. Interesting. I like many of the planned features...but I have to say I'm less than thrilled about the possibility of an evasion stat. I hate, hate, hate "miss" messages in RPGs. It's really unfair to completely negate a turn just out of a whim of the random number god. As I can personally attest to from my experience playing the horrible monstrosity that is Battle For Wesnoth, adding such game-changing randomization to a game that's supposed to be about strategy goes bad places fast. I have faith that you'll be able to work something out, though...I shall see.
I am rather intrigued by the new classes, though. Playing as an engineer or a mentalist sounds fun. Will psy healers be able to cure status effects, though?
Quote from: Chocobo_Fan on February 21, 2012, 06:18:05 PM
I am rather intrigued by the new classes, though. Playing as an engineer or a mentalist sounds fun. Will psy healers be able to cure status effects, though?
Hmm... If one can use a mind shield to convince one's body that it isn't hurt, perhaps they can at least reduce the effects of poison to a degree, by convincing a body that it isn't poisoned, giving it a will to live.
-Edit-
Or burned, frozen, paralyzed, etc.
Wait, is that how mind shields work? I thought it was just strengthening the target's natural mind shield...
That sounds like a description of feedback; mind shield just creates (or reinforces) a psychokinetic barrier.
Quote from: CraigStern on February 22, 2012, 09:44:15 AM
That sounds like a description of feedback; mind shield just creates (or reinforces) a psychokinetic barrier.
This may sound off-topic, but I'd just like to say that I'm really glad you aren't capitalizing things at random. So, so many games will capitalize absolutely
anything, to emphasize that it's important or just because the game writers felt like it, and it really bothers me. And then people capitalize the same terms in fanfic, even though it makes no sense, and D: (The Pokemon games are a particularly bad offender in this regard.)
Quote from: Chocobo_Fan on February 22, 2012, 06:42:32 AM
Wait, is that how mind shields work? I thought it was just strengthening the target's natural mind shield...
I believe so. I may be confusing mind shield with feedback/vengeance. But how mind shield works changed in-between TRPG1 and TRPG2.
Shall we get back on topic?
-Edit
Darn it. Craig beat me to correcting myself. I had this typed, but forgot to submit it. Oh well.
Hm. By the way, would it be possible to have a class like an "elementalist" that has basic attacks from all four elements, but nothing else? So, they can hit any elemental weakness, but they lack the raw skill and power of a specialist. Would this be plausible? Or are you too far along to consider adding new classes now?
Quote from: Chocobo_Fan on February 24, 2012, 05:37:28 AMHm. By the way, would it be possible to have a class like an "elementalist" that has basic attacks from all four elements, but nothing else? So, they can hit any elemental weakness, but they lack the raw skill and power of a specialist. Would this be plausible? Or are you too far along to consider adding new classes now?
Sounds like it is too powerful compared to other classes. It is all about balance.
They could be balanced by having less raw power than the specialists, and a lack of advanced techniques such as Dark Vortex.
Quote from: Chocobo_Fan on February 24, 2012, 05:37:28 AM
Hm. By the way, would it be possible to have a class like an "elementalist" that has basic attacks from all four elements, but nothing else?
Would it be possible? Of course. Will I do it? Probably not. There's an element of strategy in selecting your units now because they're so specialized: I don't want there to be a do-everything unit type that upends that dynamic.
Hm, I see. I guess a generalist would be kind of gamebreaking if you're trying to focus on more specialized unit types. I just felt that the elemental kineticists might be a bit too specialized -- I can't really see much difference between them beyond just elemental swaps, and it doesn't seem like they'd have a wide variety of attacks... I haven't seen the finished version, though, so I'm sure you have something planned.
Will TT spirits drain health and turn them into PsP like Luca, or will you make TT spirits directly steal PsP?
Right now, TT spirits have both Soul Suck and Drain: so, both. ;)
Update: I submitted Telepath Tactics to Indiecade today. You can see the gameplay video I put together as part of the submission right here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEjwnfEXg0).
Looking good all these units images. :)
Would using an ally or enemy as a projectile with a golem damage the projectile?
You mean, throwing an ally or a destructible object into an enemy? Yes, it would hurt the thing being thrown as well.
Do the teams have to be free-for-all? It would be nice to fight in teams too like one can do in other strategy games such as Age of Empries and Empire Earth. (If you ever plan on making a single player campaign, then having teams could come in handy with storytelling.)
Here are somethings I would like to do:
* Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team
* Three Player Team vs. Three Player Team
* Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team
* Two Player Team vs. Three AI Team
* Player-AI Team vs. Player-AI Team
* Player vs. Two AI Team vs. Three AI Team
Merely mentioning; I tried to look at the gameplay video, but it had been 'removed by the user'. Intentional?
Quote from: SmartyPants on April 17, 2012, 02:59:01 PM
Do the teams have to be free-for-all?
They are right now; I'd like to add in alliances, however.
Awesome! I honestly didn't want to buy the game if I could only do free-for-all.
All right: I've decided to add in a dynamic alliance system to the game. On your turn, you can propose an alliance to another player; when that player's turn comes around, he or she can accept or reject the offer. Allies win the game collectively. This formalizes a dynamic I already saw arising spontaneously in maps with lots of players: namely, players agreeing to work together against another player they were more threatened by. It allows for any sort of permutation of players alliances, and allows political maneuvering to enter the game in full force.
It'll be an option in the game creation menu--you can, of course, choose to leave it off.
That'll be interesting. :) Now I really can't wait to see how the game comes out.
An interesting concept. Are there any restrictions on if you can attack an ally? For instance, can a person propose alliance, then attack when their ally least expects it?
Quote from: SteelFist on April 19, 2012, 10:35:53 AMcan a person propose alliance, then attack when their ally least expects it?
Yes.
After playing TRPG2, TPA2, and TSoG, I learned that one Psy Healer isn't enough. Psy Healers being randomly assigned 1 out of 22 times is too infrequent. To solve this, you could either increase the chance Psy Hearler are put on a team or create another healing unit (Maybe add horns to a shadowling sprite and call it a "Shadowling Healer").
I wondering how elemental shields would work. It would be an interesting mechanic if elemental shields could increase one resistance, while decreasing another resistance. For example, a Heat Shield could increase heat resistance by 20%, while decreasing cold resistance by 10%.
Is there anyway to have alliances fixed before the match begins? Making and betraying allies would work for deathmatches, but it would kinda beat the point for game types like Capture the Flag.
Quote from: SmartyPants on April 19, 2012, 07:11:46 PM
After playing TRPG2, TPA2, and TSoG, I learned that one Psy Healer isn't enough. Psy Healers being randomly assigned 1 out of 22 times is too infrequent. To solve this, you could either increase the chance Psy Hearler are put on a team or create another healing unit (Maybe add horns to a shadowling sprite and call it a "Shadowling Healer").
Teammates are randomly assigned? While this will strain our minds to develop all sorts of tactics on the field (And strategies off the field) I think randomly assigned teammates should be an option (And one players should all agree to before starting, at that). If I interpreted that incorrectly, I apologize.
Random army assignment is only one option among many (and not even the default army composition method). Look at this post (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=14260.msg591068#msg591068) for the full listing of army composition options.
This alliance system intrigues me; are you going to offer game modes where you can't win collectively, to encourage backstabbing (This would further than political aspect you mentioned)? And are you going to restrict the number of possible alliances, to prevent players simply all allying together and all achieving victory?
Quote from: SteelFist on April 20, 2012, 12:49:49 PM
This alliance system intrigues me; are you going to offer game modes where you can't win collectively, to encourage backstabbing (This would further than political aspect you mentioned)?
I think the backstabbing will happen just fine on its own. ;)
Quote from: SteelFist on April 20, 2012, 12:49:49 PM
And are you going to restrict the number of possible alliances, to prevent players simply all allying together and all achieving victory?
Yes--you won't be able to form an alliance with the last player who isn't allied with you.
Quote from: CraigStern on April 20, 2012, 02:16:16 PM
Quote from: SteelFist on April 20, 2012, 12:49:49 PM
This alliance system intrigues me; are you going to offer game modes where you can't win collectively, to encourage backstabbing (This would further than political aspect you mentioned)?
I think the backstabbing will happen just fine on its own. ;)
I somehow doubt that; if there's no benefit but amusement to betraying an ally, it'll be rare. After all, what's the point if everyone in the alliance can all win?
If the winners receive points (or some other reward), divided equally (or not) by the allies, then I can foresee that some may be willing to betray their allies in order to get more points. In particular, this may happen if the points are divided by a number larger than the number of allies (for instance, by n+1).
Quote from: SteelFist on April 20, 2012, 02:54:09 PMI somehow doubt that; if there's no benefit but amusement to betraying an ally, it'll be rare.
I can imagine situations where there could be a benefit. Suppose that someone in the alliance is weakened, and someone outside of the alliance makes a play to replace them, perhaps by offering some items gathered from the battlefield as an enticement. That would be a situation where backstabbing might well happen.
Will there be any desert tiles in TT? Sand tiles and palm trees would also make good beaches.
Quote from: SteelFist on April 20, 2012, 02:54:09 PMI somehow doubt that; if there's no benefit but amusement to betraying an ally, it'll be rare.
Have you ever played multiplayer games? Some immature players will kill their allies (even if it lowers their score) because they find backstabbing funny.
Quote from: SmartyPants on April 20, 2012, 07:35:11 PM
Will 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. ;)
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.
Is the way the armies are colored mean that there will be yellow (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1042.0) and orange shadowlings (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1041.0)?
Quote from: CraigStern on April 20, 2012, 07:50:42 PMThe 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.
If people modify extra tiles, then will you and other modifiers have access to them?
Yes--there will be shadowlings of every team color as a matter of practical necessity.
Only other people who get the files and install them will have them.
The Telepath battle system has reached a stage at which I find acceptable the idea of payment for the game.
I will buy this game.
(Basically, I really like the Telepath games, and 1 and 2 made good and great free games, respectively, but TRPG:SoG was not quite over the "I'll-pay-money-for-it" threshold for me)
I like the look of that "Items" button! Knowing Craig, there's no way the items will just be the generic "Health" and "Mana" potions (Yes, "Focus Pills," I know).
Quote from: Duskling on April 22, 2012, 12:00:58 AM
I like the look of that "Items" button! Knowing Craig, there's no way the items will just be the generic "Health" and "Mana" potions (Yes, "Focus Pills," I know).
Keep Ert away from 'em. :D :P
From what I've seen, TT is over the I'll pay to buy threshold already.
I remember that at one point that Craig wanted to make TPA2 assassins able to use poisons. It seems like a much easier task in TT. Maybe one poison could slowly do damage, while another poison could drain an enemy's strength (like venom from a desert scorpion).
Like D&D rouges, TT assassins could disable explosive charges.
All units in TT have set stats, correct? The only thing setting a player above another is strategical finesse?
Quote from: TheWanderingShadow on April 23, 2012, 12:37:31 AM
All units in TT have set stats, correct? The only thing setting a player above another is strategical finesse?
Correct: stats are not randomized.
However, certain items that drop can permanently* improve a character's stats by a set amount. Thus, it pays to control as much of the map as possible so you can nab random item drops when they occur.
* that is, for the rest of the battle
Quote from: CraigStern on April 23, 2012, 09:41:11 AM
Correct: stats are not randomized. However, certain items that drop can permanently* improve a character's stats by a set amount. Thus, it pays to control as much of the map as possible so you can nab random item drops when they occur.
* that is, for the rest of the battle
What is the pacing of battles going to be like? (as in timewise)
In a game that takes a long time, (say, chess) map control is generally very important. However, it seems that it isn't that important to control certain tiles in the majority of TRPG:SoG battles. So are we going to be looking at longer battles?
Most of the maps are physically larger than TSoG maps, support up to 6 armies (as opposed to merely 2), and generally support more units per team (up to 24 per army). Meanwhile, characters move the same number of spaces, more or less, as they do in the earlier TRPG games. And I'm not even taking into account the fact that human opponents tend to think things through longer than a computer AI. I'd be very surprised if most TT battles weren't longer than TSoG battles.
Much longer, I should think. More like a game of chess or go than a quick, uninvolved sort of game.
I like mental challenges. I hate mathematical formulas, but I like chess. Telepath Tactics seems to become more and more intriguing with every glimpse you give us.
Hmm. Chess, not so much. But it seems to be shaping up into a nice - if lengthy - strategy game, and I'm certainly interested in how it progresses.
Will there be elements of resource management, unit creation/upgrading, etc?
Will there be a vital character, such as a general, that must be kept alive to win?
Neither Last Man Standing nor Capture the Flag features that. I'm considering adding that in as a separate game type.
Can the explosives have fuses, or must they be detonated by a ranged attack?
Quote from: Duckling on April 24, 2012, 03:40:32 PM
Can the explosives have fuses, or must they be detonated by a ranged attack?
The latter. Powder Bolt, as well as any fire attack, will detonate Charges in one hit.
Can metalists turn into one of the elementalists?
Nope: they're separate classes, and classes are fixed in any given match.
So... is there to be any single-player campaign in Telepath Tactics, or is it all multiplayer?
You can play any of the game's battles in hotseat mode against one or more computer AI opponents. As for an actual, full campaign...I'm not sure. Telepath Tactics' focus is on individual matches, and right now that's where I'm focusing my efforts. It's possible that I might add a campaign at some point, but it's not top priority.
Apologies if you commented on this already, but do you intend to include 'veteran' troops, etc?
After I saw this I thought why didn't I see this coming seems like this would have been made a long time ago. I'm starting to picture what the game would be like if it was Total War style.
I just took a look at the video and the pictures.
TT is getting a pretty good look and it seems rather interesting.
I agree, Ert. I really love how TT is starting to look. Wish I could be in Chicago just to try it out. :/
I guess my question really was, Craig, "Will certain unit types be able to swim more than one space in a turn?" when I said swim faster than others.
It's not planned for this game. I might consider adding an item drop that makes swimming useable multiple times per turn, though. We'll see.
Quote from: bugfartboy on April 24, 2012, 03:33:02 PM
Will there be a vital character, such as a general, that must be kept alive to win?
This is now a game type! In a "Generals" game, each player gets a bonus character, the General, that he or she must keep alive. To defeat other players, take down their generals. ;)
"I believe I can fly...I believe I can touch the sky...think about it every night and day...use some psy and Levitate..."
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/craigstern/WIP%20Screenies/Mentalist_Down_Levitate.gif)
Do you do the sprite art yourself? It looks really nice.
Nope--I'm paying someone else to do it. :)
I'm still finding probability-based skills to be worrying, especially now that I've seen one in action. How do you plan on mitigating the inherent problems caused by introducing elements of randomness into a tactical-based game? I imagine that whether or not a status effect is triggered could mean the difference between victory or defeat in close matches.
Telepath Tactics remains almost entirely deterministic, moreso than pretty much any other tactics game in existence (except for its predecessors). The only real exceptions to this relentless determinism are random item drops, dodging, and status effects. I'll address each in turn.
Random item drops only occur in multiplayer games. These are important to discourage players from turtling, which otherwise leads to incredibly boring matches.
Dodging is there to add a little more tension to battles by making them a little bit more unpredictable; they don't add that much randomness, though. By default, dodging is something only two units can do, and there are specific tactics to counter it: using Mental attacks (which always hit) and using Shadow attacks (which impart Slowed status, reducing max movement range and preventing units from dodging attacks). Can dodging decide a really close match? Potentially, in rare instances; but there are tools for managing the risks involved, so I'm not concerned that it will cause random chance to trump player skill.
Status effect randomness is there because status effect attacks would be way too powerful if you could always count on them working. All you'd have to do is load up on cryokineticists and freeze the entire opposing army solid! Cryo Cross would basically be a guaranteed death sentence to the enemy. So you need a backup plan if you want to use a status effect attack; you just have to incorporate the risk of the attack not imparting the desired status effect into your planning.
Will some units be able to move through water faster than others? (Like pirates from fire emblem.)
Will we be able to see units actually turn like in TSoG or will arrows define where the units are facing?
Will one be able to see through a teammate's fog of war?
Quote from: SmartyPants on July 27, 2012, 04:58:47 PM
Will some units be able to move through water faster than others? (Like pirates from fire emblem.)
No.
Quote from: SmartyPants on July 27, 2012, 04:58:47 PM
Will we be able to see units actually turn like in TSoG or will arrows define where the units are facing?
Yes.
Quote from: SmartyPants on July 27, 2012, 04:58:47 PM
Will one be able to see through a teammate's fog of war?
No.
Quote from: CraigStern on July 27, 2012, 05:17:05 PMQuote from: SmartyPants on July 27, 2012, 04:58:47 PMWill one be able to see through a teammate's fog of war?
No.
That would make the chance of betrayal more likely. It is difficult to trust what an ally is doing when you can't verifying that they are attacking who they are suppose to.
Quote from: CraigStern on July 27, 2012, 05:17:05 PMQuote from: SmartyPants on July 27, 2012, 04:58:47 PMWill we be able to see units actually turn like in TSoG or will arrows define where the units are facing?
Yes.
Does this also mean that characters will have attack animations like TSoG?
Character animations are in progress (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=918.0). ;)
Quote from: Craig
There's a million more things to say about this game, but I'll leave it at that for now. Finishing TSoG is top priority for the time being. That said, you You can look forward to playing TT sometime in the next year.
Is that the estimated time of full release? Or are you going to be looking for Beta-Testers before then? (Unless you've already filled that position)
The game's still in alpha; beta testing would be a tad premature right now. :)
I had figured that much. When it does reach that level, however, will you be putting a demo out for bug/beta testing?
I'll probably be hand-selecting folks for a closed beta. It's also possible that I will be doing a Kickstarter to get enough money to add extra goodies for the game, in which case beta access would probably be a reward tier.
Does that mean another pre-order discount?
I'm pretty sure that I'm going to sell Telepath Tactics at the $9.99 price point, which is plenty cheap for a game of its kind. I have no plans to discount it for pre-orders; the benefits of pre-ordering will be early access and input into the game as I complete it.
From a marketing standpoint, I don't see major sales increases from lowering the price from $9.99.
What kind of names will lizardmen have? Can you give an example?
Quote from: SmartyPants on August 10, 2012, 05:46:15 PMWhat kind of names will lizardmen have? Can you give an example?
[spoiler]As'syrik
Addir
Ak Rilik
Akro
Ambuur Fangiss
Ambuur Kalaw
Ambuur Predat
Ambuur T'ayil
Angura
Anol
Bacha Lisk
Bas Silisk
Bas'keen
Basak
Ber Zerik
Blud Fangiss
Blud Jowah
Blud Kalaw
Blud Predat
Blud T'ayil
Bramak
Chi'karik
Chi'tin
Des Serret
Dor Sal
Drakkon
Du Lap
Ekto Thirim
Eldar
Fangiss Ferat
Fas'ol
Fik'rik
Filesh Tayir
Firin'zi
Furak
Ga'tor
Ge'ko
Gra'wuul
Gu'warid
Habacha
Hee'la
Hibis'kis
Hik'wana
Hiss Fangiss
Hiss Ferat
Hiss Kalaw
Hiss Predat
Hun Tor Ferat
Huuk Fangiss
Huuk Kalaw
Huuk T'ayil
Hwa'ral
Jowah Ferat
Ka'lard
Ka'lyme
Ka'mil'yan
Ka'mo'tor
Ka'rapis
Kalaw Ferat
Karok Adyl
Keel
Klo'aca
Kon'strikt
Korliss
Kowaal
Kra'ko
Kre'pus
Kresst
Kri'kit
Kri'silith
Krikta
Krill'acha
Laan Fangiss
Laan Kalaw
Laan Predat
Laan T'ayil
Lim'mib
Liss Zarid
Lor
Mange
Monit Tor
Mult
Predat Tor
Prehen S'ayil
Prelen Seek
Ra'kaka
Ra'kirin
Ra'kuur
Ra'pet Fangiss
Ra'pet Kalaw
Ra'pet Predat
Ra'pet Tor
Ra'tok
Ra'tul
Ri'kit
Ros'tral
Ru'waar
Sa'kayil
Sa'kull
Sa'kute
Sa'nout
Sal Amand
Sal'bas
Salow
Samak
Sang
Scarl Fangiss
Scarl Kalaw
Scarl Predat
Scarl T'ayil
Sensiss
Serat Fangiss
Serat Kalaw
Serat T'ayil
Serepent
Shad Duur
Sharip Fangiss
Sharip Kalaw
Sharip T'ayil
Si'kink
Si'lith
Si'lyde
Sil'enduur
Silit Thur
Sna'ruul
Stok'kuur
Su'kwala
Su'pine
T'aleen
T'ayil
Ta'hong
Tak'sin
Takal
Tal Fangiss
Tal Kalaw
Tal Predat
Tarsik
To'kay
Tor Pir
Tuu'atara
Venn'imiss
Wirim
Ya'rik
Ya'seek
Yuro'mastix[/spoiler]
Wow, I only expect about three names. Those lizardmen names are pretty cool.
What gave you the ideas for the names you're using?
You have
no idea how long I spent compiling the names lists. ;)
The game has to have a unique name for each unit on the battlefield. Because the game features matches between up to 6 players with armies of up to 24 units apiece, there can be up to 144 units on the battlefield at once. If every player creates an army composed entirely of the same type of unit, the game will need to have a bare minimum of 144 names to choose from. So I had to come up with a
lot of names.
Quote from: bugfartboy on August 11, 2012, 12:41:19 AM
What gave you the ideas for the names you're using?
With the lizardmen, a lot of the time was spent researching types of lizards (monitor, basilisk, etc.) and reptile anatomy (cloaca, scute, dewlap, etc.) and thinking of how I'd imagine a lizardman saying it (Bas Silisk, Monit Tor, Klo'aca, Sa'kute). Some others are just nonsense words that sound a bit like how I'd imagine lizardmen talking (lots of harsh consonants like T and K, lots of S's and R's, pauses in between certain syllables enforced with an apostrophe or a space).
So, out of Swordsmen, Spearmen, Bowmen, Crossbowmen, Assassins, Cavalry (scorpion riders), Lizardmen, Engineers, Stone Golems, Bronze Golems, Energy Golems, Spirits, Mentalists, Pyrokineticists, Cryokineticists, Photokineticists, Skiakineticists, Psy Healers, Red Spriggats, Frost Spriggats, Black Spriggats, Golden Spriggats, Shadowlings, and Phantom Armor, I count either as few as five different sets of 144 names [since theoretically multiple classes could share names -- I mean, you're not going to have 3456 different names, are you?], up to possibly seven sets if spirits and phantom armors each have their separate name sets. That's between 720 and 1008 different names.
Those estimates made on my part, how many different names do you think you'll be putting in the game?
There are four sets of names that are shared among the human characters: male first names, female first names, last name beginnings, and last name endings. Three of those four are combined to make a character name. The other races each share their own sets (golem names, shadowling names, spriggat names and lizardman names). The spirits use human names. All told, the game comes with about 1,590 names.
I'm impressed!
How do you have those names stored? Hard coded in, or in a separate file such as a text file that the game accesses. If you're going with the latter, that'd allow for some player customization, provided they could safely change it.
Yup: just like pretty much everything else, names are kept in an external .xml file that you can easily edit with any basic text editing program, (e.g. Notepad).
This isn't as much of an opinion as I'm sure the game will be great. It would be really cool if there some sort of story/singleplayer to the game, but even if there isn't much, I'll be more than glad with all the other features.
Quote from: deathknight1728 on August 26, 2012, 03:12:41 PM
This isn't as much of an opinion as I'm sure the game will be great. It would be really cool if there some sort of story/singleplayer to the game, but even if there isn't much, I'll be more than glad with all the other features.
Guess what (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1156.msg42879#msg42879) :D
Would it be possible to modd a unit to be able to swim without taking damage like the Pirates (http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Pirate) of Fire Emblem?
Currently, you can do this by making a unit fly. However, to really make a unit like a Fire Emblem Pirate, I'd need to add a third movement type: aquatic. I was actually thinking of doing this at one point, but sort of forgot about it. It remains on the wish list, though it's not especially high priority just now. Feel free to remind me in a couple of months. :)
Is it possible for a Mod Character to use Multiply (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Multiply) like Cygnus? Instead of creating a solid state shield, barricade, or change, can a mod skill create another unit?
It is indeed possible to summon new units to the battlefield through user-created Skills! (For instance: I just now added a new "Summon Stone Golem" skill that allows you to plop a brand-new Stone Golem on the field under your control. It took about a minute to stick in the Attacks.xml file, then add to the Engineer's list of attacks. I just tested it and it works fine.)
You can even have Create attacks that summon more than one instance of a character type at once. (I just created a second attack that summons nine Stone Golems at once!)
However, with that said, it actually wouldn't be possible to recreate Multiply exactly, since Multiply (a) summons multiple different types of units at once, and (b) places them at randomized locations around the battlefield.
EDIT: For the record, I'm not going to actually keep Summon Stone Golem in the game--it would be massively unbalanced. I just created it to confirm that the functionality is there.
It's a very interesting possibility. Since the time it takes for a turn to pass (in game time) is short, I would be amazed if a stone golem was built in it. But will it be possible to take more than one turn to build something?
A workaround would be to build the golem with limited health and movement in the first turn and in the following turns the engineer could increase the health and the movement rate up to a reasonable maximum. That might keep things balanced.
Furthermore, if the engineer needed to gather some resources from different places on the battlefield, that would certainly solve the problem of building an army of expendable units in a short time. On the other hand, gathering resources could mean a different kind of game...
It is also possible to summon Barriers (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Barriers) or Charges that do elemental damage instead of explosion damage?
Quote from: CraigStern on October 15, 2012, 05:32:01 PMEDIT: For the record, I'm not going to actually keep Summon Stone Golem in the game--it would be massively unbalanced. I just created it to confirm that the functionality is there.
The only way you could get away with such an overpowered attack is to make the user into a boss.
Quote from: Ertxiem on October 15, 2012, 05:45:42 PMFurthermore, if the engineer needed to gather some resources from different places on the battlefield, that would certainly solve the problem of building an army of expendable units in a short time. On the other hand, gathering resources could mean a different kind of game...
That seems like unnecessary work unless Engineers also need to gather resources for bridges and barricades.
Quote from: Ertxiem on October 15, 2012, 05:45:42 PM
On the other hand, gathering resources could mean a different kind of game...
Perhaps another game mode? Resource wars? Maybe in a mod...
I've been thinking about adding a new game type with resource gathering and unit production; but that'll probably have to wait for an expansion, as creating that would be a huge endeavor.
Quote from: SmartyPants on October 15, 2012, 09:31:12 PM
It is also possible to summon Barriers (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Barriers) or Charges that do elemental damage instead of explosion damage?
I'm pretty sure the answer to the question about Barriers is yes. You'd need to create a new character class with a movement of 0, create its attack, assign it that attack, then name that new character class as the thing being created in a new Create skill. The only thing is that right now, it wouldn't attack automatically, and would probably be susceptible to backstab. I'd have to double-check to make sure, though.
As for the charges: right now, Explode is the only attack that triggers upon character death--there is not currently any way to create an alternate version of it, although you can always go into the Attacks.xml and modify the Explode attack itself, including granting it a different element.
Quote from: CraigStern on October 16, 2012, 02:23:47 PMI'm pretty sure the answer to the question about Barriers is yes. You'd need to create a new character class with a movement of 0, create its attack, assign it that attack, then name that new character class as the thing being created in a new Create skill. The only thing is that right now, it wouldn't attack automatically, and would probably be susceptible to backstab. I'd have to double-check to make sure, though.
Would it be possible to create Barrier by coping and pasting the Solid Stae Shield attack, but then change the name and adding an attack?
Also, didn't barrier also have a backstab issue in TSoG?
Quote from: CraigStern on October 16, 2012, 02:23:47 PMAs for the charges: right now, Explode is the only attack that triggers upon character death--there is not currently any way to create an alternate version of it, although you can always go into the Attacks.xml and modify the Explode attack itself, including granting it a different element.
There goes my hope of modding an Engineer into an Alchemist that uses a varity of elemental bombs.
Quote from: SmartyPants on April 17, 2012, 02:59:01 PM
Do the teams have to be free-for-all? It would be nice to fight in teams too like one can do in other strategy games such as Age of Empries and Empire Earth. (If you ever plan on making a single player campaign, then having teams could come in handy with storytelling.)
Here are somethings I would like to do:
* Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team
* Three Player Team vs. Three Player Team
* Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team vs. Two Player Team
* Two Player Team vs. Three AI Team
* Player-AI Team vs. Player-AI Team
* Player vs. Two AI Team vs. Three AI Team
Everything mentioned in this post is now in-game and working. ;)
Can't wait to try all those alliance battles!
Character movement animations are now in the game! I woke up early this morning and recorded a teaser video showing off the new animations; I strongly suggest watching this one at 1080p so you can see all the details:
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/craigstern/WIP%20Screenies/TeaserThumb.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LERFey-MgU)
I can't wait, it looks amazing. :)
I don't think the photo gives the animation justice. The Shadowling moving is kinda creepy, but that is what makes it so cool.
On a side note, why do all the sprites look down at the end of each move?
The directional rest sprites were originally created with red team coloration; subsequently, I implemented auto-palette-swapping based on the violet team. They need to be recolored violet before I can stick them in-game. The artist should have those to me pretty soon.
Will psy healers be forced to only have one Solid State Shield at a time like in TSoG and TPA?
No: you will be able to create as many Solid State Shields as you like. ;)
Will there be any sort of additional cost to maintaining more than one Solid State Shield? [I'm not entirely clear on how they work, but it seemed it took some effort for Set to maintain one... ?]
I believe the main reason for limiting the number of Solid Shields is that the TSoG game engine had limited character slots for the player and the TSoG map's space is too limited to have multiple Solid Shields.
If you want an "in-game" reason for the multiple uses of Solids Shields, then I come up with two.
- The Psy Healers in the Dundar Archipelago have overcome the limitations of psychic maintenance on the Solid State Shield technique. (I prefer this reason.)
- Craig could make the creation of each Solid Shield more taxing than the last by making each one costing more PsP than the last. (The same way Fury from TSoG costed more each time it was used).
Correct.
Quote from: Duckling on October 31, 2012, 08:29:45 PM
Will there be any sort of additional cost to maintaining more than one Solid State Shield?
Nope. Too confusing, and not really worth it given that the much more open levels ultimately make them less powerful than in TSoG.
By the way, did anyone notice that Telepath Tactics now supports mind control abilities?
Enthralled is now a status effect that is in-game and working, signifying the fact that you get to command the affected character for the remainder of your turn. ;)
Will ally Psy Healers unintentionally heal enemy units (reverse friendly fire)?
In the previous games, the maps were relatively small, and the player had much less flexibility in terms of moving units around. If players' shields caused friendly fire healing, then they would constantly be irritated by accidentally healing their enemies.
In Telepath Tactics, however, the maps tend to be much larger, and it's way way easier to maneuver your units around. So there's a lot of flexibility there. Shield friendly fire is something one can work around pretty effectively in the newer game.
Can you tag single-player enemies as Enthrall-immune?
[Obligatory boss immunity and all. It would be cool if you couldn't, seeing as boss immunity to status effects is done so much that it's rather taken for granted that you can't put a particularly large, powerful, and authoritative person to sleep using magic that works just fine on everyone else you've ever encountered.
So, if you weren't planning on making that a feature, don't feel obligated to or anything. It's just something I'm interested to know. :) ]
Quote from: SmartyPants on November 02, 2012, 06:37:03 PM
Will ally Psy Healers unintentionally heal enemy units (reverse friendly fire)?
Yes.
Quote from: Duckling on November 02, 2012, 10:41:25 PM
Can you tag single-player enemies as Enthrall-immune?
Characters will be immune to any given status effect if their resistance to the associated element is high enough. So if a boss has really high Mental resistance, it can be immune to Enthrall. I'm not making it a habit to give all the bosses that sort of immunity, though.
I was looking at the Telepath Tactics Modding Guide, and I can't find a way for an attack to change elemental resistances. Does this mean there won't be elemental shields (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Elemental_Shield) in Telepath Tactics?
I haven't added support for it just yet; I'll probably handle it using the affects attribute.
New teaser video! This one shows off directional character rest poses, animated health bars, global lighting and weather effects:
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/craigstern/WIP%20Screenies/Teaser8a.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fRQ5CQSfY4&feature=youtu.be)
Just how easy is it to create a battle in the Telepath Tactics map editor? See for yourself!
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/craigstern/WIP%20Screenies/MapEditorTeaser2Thumb.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RVz-WtM9NQ)
So, will TT have a fullscreen and a windowed mode? And if so, would there be multiple sizes of windows to choose from?
[This is not a request, just an inquiry.]
Quote from: Duckling on November 22, 2012, 09:27:10 PMSo, will TT have a fullscreen and a windowed mode?
Yes. Windowed mode allows you to resize the window as you see fit.
Awesomesauce. Sometimes my recording software has issues with fullscreen, so that's why I'm asking.
While adding weather effects, maybe you should think of adding falling volcanic ash for the lava filled caverns. It worked really well in an old pokemon game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccIGa8QJSE).
Quote from: SmartyPants on November 25, 2012, 12:48:17 PM
While adding weather effects, maybe you should think of adding falling volcanic ash for the lava filled caverns. It worked really well in an old pokemon game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccIGa8QJSE).
I added that in a few days ago, actually. ;)
Oh, 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!
That sounds awesome!
... if one were to make the custom death attack a shield move like some form of Big Shield or Titan Shield, could destructible battlefield objects be used as group healing canisters, to be destroyed when the group's health is low? I mean, there's friendly fire in this game so it should apply to everyone, if I'm supposing correctly, which means that this would work.
Quote from: Duckling on November 27, 2012, 06:12:32 PM... if one were to make the custom death attack a shield move like some form of Big Shield or Titan Shield, could destructible battlefield objects be used as group healing canisters, to be destroyed when the group's health is low?
Absolutely, yes: that should work just fine.
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?
Not today, no: but you will shortly after the Kickstarter campaign ends. ;)
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?
Yes and yes.
I'm sort of at a loss. What is meant by perceptions?
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.)
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 PMQuote from: CraigStern on April 20, 2012, 07:50:42 PMQuote 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 PMQuote 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?
Yes to desert tiles; probably not to the tigs, unless you're okay with unanimated ones.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (http://www.sinisterdesign.net/_Public_KS_Demo/a094rfnsdv9/Telepath%20Tactics%20%28Public%20Demo%29.exe)MAC / LINUX DEMO (http://www.sinisterdesign.net/_Public_KS_Demo/a094rfnsdv9/Telepath%20Tactics%20%28Public%20Demo%29.air) (you'll need AIR (http://get.adobe.com/air/) to install the Mac / Linux one; Linux users can nab AIR here (http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/2.6/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin))
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.
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!
When you code attacking barriers, are you going to add in a priority list? An algorithm to determine the more useful barrier to attack, i.e. "attack power and element to health and resistace" and which barrier is closer (provided multiple reasonable barriers are nearby)?
Will you be coding for enemies to strategically place barriers?
In addition:
Quote from: Kickstarter Page
Pyrokineticist - The Pyrokineticist is a psychic warrior specializing in heat attacks. Pyrokineticists are extremely valuable for their ability to destroy wooden objects, ignite explosives, and set enemy units on fire. A Pyrokineticist that builds up enough energy can launch a devastating AOE "Fire Gate" attack, so targeting these characters is a priority. Pyrokineticists rely on a psychokinetic shield for defense, and do not wear heavy armor.
I'm glad to see progress in pyrotechnics have been made. No more Pyro Hail as the only AOE attack for Pyrotechnics?
Quote from: bugfartboy on December 05, 2012, 08:06:30 PMWhen you code attacking barriers, are you going to add in a priority list? An algorithm to determine the more useful barrier to attack, i.e. "attack power and element to health and resistace" and which barrier is closer (provided multiple reasonable barriers are nearby)?
There is already a very good algorithm for determining which targets yield the greatest bang-for-buck with which attacks that the AI uses; the bigger issue will be recognizing when barriers are impeding the AI from attacking the enemy, then selecting the barrier that will provide it with the best route for reaching those targets.
Quote from: bugfartboy on December 05, 2012, 08:06:30 PMWill you be coding for enemies to strategically place barriers?
It's possible, but not a high priority at the moment.
Quote from: bugfartboy on December 05, 2012, 08:06:30 PMNo more Pyro Hail as the only AOE attack for Pyrotechnics?
It was a bit unbalanced that way, and I can't really have that in a multiplayer game, now can I? ;)
Out of curiosity, is is possible to code an attack without a base element? A Non-Elemental (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonElemental) attack of sorts?
Yup!
When the kickerstarter says "a second gender for each character class", does that include non-human characters such as shadowlings, spirits, and lizardmen?
That includes spirits, spriggats and lizardmen.
Wouldn't female lizardmen be lizardwomen? ;)
Quote from: Craig Stern on KickstarterI'd also like to add a "Trade" function; consider that on The List.
Is Steal (http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Steal) on The List too?
I am a little curious about how AI will work with some modd units. Lets say someone modds a Photokineticist to have a shield attack. Would that unit's AI know to use its shield like Ravinale Healers (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Ravinale_Healer) or would the AI, which is programmed to act like a photokineticist, not ever use its shield?
The AI knows how to use shields based on the properties of Shield attacks, not based on which class uses them. If you give a photokineticist a shield, it will know how to use it. Not only that, the AI is smart enough to target characters with healing abilities as if they were healers, even if it's a brand-new class.
That's rather clever. So I assume that if we create an attack the AI will look at the characteristics of the attack, like damage dealt (or healed) and area affected.
Does the AI also cares about the movement of the unit when prioritizing the attacks? A slow moving strong enemy with short range attacks may end up being easy to avoid if the field is clear, while a faster moving weaker enemy or one with a long range attack can be deadly.
(I. e., can we create a self-healing rock as a decoy to the AI? :P )
Quote from: Ertxiem on December 10, 2012, 03:59:06 AMDoes the AI also cares about the movement of the unit when prioritizing the attacks?
Nope.
The "I" in the "AI" sounds alot more impressive then I originally thought.
Will it be possible to modd in one's own in-game-portaits?
Yes, there will be support for custom character portraits. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on October 08, 2010, 05:06:05 PMQuote from: im2smart4u on September 18, 2010, 12:12:39 PMLuca
Pirouette-
Luca uses her mysterious powers to rotate her friends or foes 180°. This would help teammates face thier foes and enemies turn their backs on your friends.
Element: Spirit
Range: 2 Spaces
Cost: 5 Psy Points
Damage: No Damage
Ooh! Nice one. I like it. ;D
Will a turning affect be possible?
That's not currently supported, but I could add it. ;)
Is it possible to have a Capture Boss condition like we saw with Hellion in TSoG? You clearly know the benefit this condition has for storytelling.
That's not supported yet, but it's possible that I could add support for that.
Quote from: CraigStern on December 15, 2012, 04:44:20 PMThat's not supported yet, but it's possible that I could add support for that.
I look forward to it.
On a related note, could one give a boss condition to an non-character unit. For example: One can win the mission by destroying a bridge, bolder, or a monument.
Quote from: SmartyPants on December 17, 2012, 01:22:04 AMOn a related note, could one give a boss condition to an non-character unit. For example: One can win the mission by destroying a bridge, bolder, or a monument.
The ProtectChar condition looks to see if the player has eliminated all instances of the named character from the battlefield. Every destructible object has a name of "None," which means that you'd need to set the condition to "None"--the other player would then have to destroy every destructible object on the field to win.
That's not very flexible, though; I can probably create a variation on that where it looks to the unit class name instead of character name.
Would it be possible to use both types: character name and unit class name?
Sure! You can stack as many conditions as you like onto Telepath Tactics battles.
Quote from: CraigStern on December 17, 2012, 08:58:10 AMQuote from: SmartyPants on December 17, 2012, 01:22:04 AMOn a related note, could one give a boss condition to an non-character unit. For example: One can win the mission by destroying a bridge, bolder, or a monument.
The ProtectChar condition looks to see if the player has eliminated all instances of the named character from the battlefield. Every destructible object has a name of "None," which means that you'd need to set the condition to "None"--the other player would then have to destroy every destructible object on the field to win.
That's not very flexible, though; I can probably create a variation on that where it looks to the unit class name instead of character name.
Could one name the destructible objects before giving the ProtectChar condition? For example: One could name all the bookshelves "Enemy Intelligence" and then it would require the player to destroy all the named booksheleves to win, while not requiring the character to destroy all the non-named objects.
If a unit that has items in his/her inventory when he/she dies, then does he/she take the items to the grave?
Quote
If a unit that has items in his/her inventory when he/she dies, then does he/she take the items to the grave?
I thought it wasn't death, but rather "career-ending injury"?
When a character is eliminated from the battlefield, he or she drops all items from his or her inventory on the spot where he or she was standing.
I found another thing the AI needs improvement on. While it is sometime okay for the AI to cause friendly fire, it should almost be forbidden to do so to the boss. During the 2nd demo battle, it only took one Light Blast to kill the boss, because two enemy bronze golems hit their own boss.
With the TT Dialogue Editor, together with the Map Editor, it seems to me that Craig's cunning plan is to make it easy for a devoted fan to recreate TRPG2 and TSoG in TT! :)
With the added bonus that we may now play as the "bad guys"!
I like the idea of how the Dialogue Editor's multiple branches allow for the game to expand outside a restricted linear plot. This may make replaying the campaigns more enjoyable.
When giving custom attacks are the character animation and attack animation separate? Can you for example use a Cryokineticist's cast motion and have an arrow come out instead of ice?
Quote from: SmartyPants on February 11, 2013, 10:52:09 PM
When giving custom attacks are the character animation and attack animation separate? Can you for example use a Cryokineticist's cast motion and have an arrow come out instead of ice?
Yes, projectiles and special effects are going to be handled separately from the character animations.
How difficult should it be to design your own animations?
That depends on what you're aiming for. The game's default character animations are detailed and high quality, so you'll need some skill if you want to extend those. If you want to try creating something in a lower resolution, though, there's nothing stopping you. I both want and expect people to try creating total conversions with totally different graphical styles. :)
Quote from: CraigStern on February 16, 2013, 02:47:16 PM
I've finished adding a new dialog trigger into the game, OnCharAttacked. This one works just like OnCharDeath, but it triggers before an attack is launched. It specifically looks for a non-Shield attack launched by an opponent, so you shouldn't accidentally trigger it by healing a character. Good for boss taunts! I'll be adding some more variations on this in the future as needed.
Thanks Craig! Will any of these variations allow for you to trigger it with a specific attack?
No, though I am planning to create one that looks for a specific attacker.
I've been playing the demo a lot today, and I absolutely adore the music. It paints beautiful images across my mind's eye. You should congratulate Nick Perrin. It's
exquisite.
... I hate to say this, but having just now played the demo, I am thinking that this game is not really my cup of tea. I can't shake the feeling that the computer will always know what it's doing better than I do, and since unit placement and use are the most tangible advantages the player could have over the computer in this game [since units seem to share roughly equal capabilities]... I feel like I'm doomed to failure.
And then the permadeath scares me, because I hate surprises pertaining to the capabilities of certain units and their AI and the complex behaviour this leads them to, so in earlier games I'd rely on being able to load my game when my characters died while I learned enemy movement patterns. I mean, now there are a whole lot more emergent behaviours and yet the game makes it even harder to go back and try again knowing what you know.
I mean, I recognize that this is a multiplayer game first and a singleplayer game second. So I really shouldn't be kvetching about the campaign as much as I am. But the way you feel like the game punishes you a bit for experimenting [should the experiment result in drastic failure] is unpleasant, to say the least.
But then this doesn't really make sense given that I love roguelikes -- those games are unforgiving as all heck. But then again, it does. Roguelikes give you a quick start and don't represent a time investment in each game or run if you're not very good. In a game like TT, where you spend half an hour fighting a battle [or at least, that's my pace :L ], full restarts are a very, very scary thing.
Considering that I haven't played the game long enough to get a feel for the different classes [though I'll admit that this is because I broke down crying about five minutes into the battle], my concerns might not be particularly valid -- but these are they.
Hey Duckling, I wouldn't worry too much. Right now I'm focusing on making the AI as nasty as possible; this game is going to have difficulty settings which selectively turn off certain parts of the AI to make it a more accessible experience. ;)
If you're trying to make the AI as nasty as possible, you may want to make the AI intelligent to move units out of the way of other units. Sometimes they clog, and the order stops several from them from moving. Sometimes, the AI will move towards item sacks and end their turn, when they could easily move more. Unless you're already working on that?
It's on The List.
Quote from: Craig
Update! Enemies now attack objects you've constructed if they don't have any other, higher priority targets to go after. The major takeaway from this is that you can no longer just wall yourself in with barricades and keep the computer at bay indefinitely--if there is no other way for the computer to get at you, it will bust down the barricades.
Will they break down walls coded into the map?
Quote from: bugfartboy on February 26, 2013, 04:21:36 PM
Quote from: Craig
Update! Enemies now attack objects you've constructed if they don't have any other, higher priority targets to go after. The major takeaway from this is that you can no longer just wall yourself in with barricades and keep the computer at bay indefinitely--if there is no other way for the computer to get at you, it will bust down the barricades.
Will they break down walls coded into the map?
Nope; the AI distinguishes between objects built by enemies and objects that come with the map. It only targets the ones you build.
So, in the rare case that you could leave up existing barricades surrounding a defensible position, while just killing off the units inside with flying or teleporting units, enemy reinforcements would still be unable to do anything about the units inside that cleared-out enemy nest, non?
Barricades block flying units, so only units that can teleport would be able to do something like this. The only default units that teleport, in turn, are shadowlings, which are a little on the squishy side (especially against units with piercing attacks). IMHO, if you can pull off this sort of strategy successfully, you deserve to win. ;)
The freezing water is really cool! Pun intended.
:D
Normally the Cavaliers and Bowmen can continue to move after attacking. I was wondering if it was possible to modd those units so that they wouldn't be able to move after attacking. I would also like to know if it is possible to modd units like assassins or swordsmen to attack and retreat in the same manner as cavaliers and bowmen.
On a side note, I look forward to the start of a successful kickstarter campaign.
Hey Smarty, the answer to both of your questions is "yes." The game AI automatically has units retreat after attacking with any attack that allows a unit to move after attacking; thus, to disable that, you would actually edit the attacks the units have, not the units themselves.
To disable moving after attacking, you'd change the afterAtk attribute of the unit's attacks to to "EndTurn". Conversely, to enable moving after attacking, you'd change the afterAtk attribute of assassin and swordsman attacks from "EndTurn" to "CanMove". You can even stack things in the player's favor this way: if you want players to be able to move after attacking but not the enemy, just create two variants of each attack and assign one to enemy units (the "EndTurn" one) and the other to player characters (using "CanMove").
I pretty much went straight from the demo to pledging on Kickstarter. Even at this early stage the game-play feels very solid. The deterministic combat is great, and I really like how important positioning is. My favorite thing, however, is probably the shove/pull mechanic: for example, in the last map of the demo I had one of my units pull the archers off the tower with her mind. It was awesome, and, importantly, made me feel like I there were more ways to win then just sending my units up to stab the enemy in the face. The engineer likewise is a lot of fun, as it opens up the possibility of building barriers to funnel the enemy into a spot you can take advantage of. I hope you'll be keeping this stuff in mind designing the maps--I see a lot of potential to give people creative paths to victory.
Also, as a color-blind player, thank you thank you thank you for adding shapes to show which side a unit is on instead of just using a different color. I wish more developers did that.
The interface didn't win me over as much as the core mechanics did, and I'd like to hear a bit more about your plans for it. Specifically, I think context-sensitive clicks are sorely needed. For example, clicking on an enemy unit could bring up a menu of available attacks (if said enemy is in range), moving on top of a tile with a bag in it might automatically pick it up, clicking on an open tile could just move you there. Clicking on a button for every action works fine, but you could probably streamline things to the point where the menu-bar isn't even required. I also kind of liked the look of having buttons pop up on selected units rather then on a fixed bar, like in some of your old videos, although I'm sure you had a good reason for changing direction on that. Granted, I'm no game designer, so take my ramblings with the usual grain of salt.
Great game though! Can't wait to get the final version, and I'm glad the Kickstarter is going so well.
Thanks a ton! I really appreciate the feedback.
God, that interface. I've already revised the interface quite a few times now based on player feedback; I'm starting to think it's just one of those things where no one is ever going to agree on an ideal solution! A lot of people were like you, and liked the old "pop up buttons by the character" method, but a lot of others didn't like that the buttons weren't always in a consistent place on the screen using that method. So you have the current window, which lets you drag it wherever, but always appears in the same place on the screen. Maybe I'll add an option to the game to have it just auto-position under the current character whenever selecting actions? I'll have to give it more thought.
Anyway, I appreciate the thoughtful feedback, and am looking forward to finishing this game up for you. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on March 16, 2013, 04:00:51 PM
Thanks a ton! I really appreciate the feedback.
God, that interface. I've already revised the interface quite a few times now based on player feedback; I'm starting to think it's just one of those things where no one is ever going to agree on an ideal solution! A lot of people were like you, and liked the old "pop up buttons by the character" method, but a lot of others didn't like that the buttons weren't always in a consistent place on the screen using that method. So you have the current window, which lets you drag it wherever, but always appears in the same place on the screen. Maybe I'll add an option to the game to have it just auto-position under the current character whenever selecting actions? I'll have to give it more thought.
Anyway, I appreciate the thoughtful feedback, and am looking forward to finishing this game up for you. ;)
Yeah, you're never going to please everyone. The solution you posted sounds like a good compromise though, I'm sure you'll come up with something that works.
Anyway, this game has really gotten into my head. Here, have some art:
(http://i.imgur.com/KKwuAXr.jpg)
(Not sure if this should be posted somewhere else, but there you are.)
Welcome wartman. KZ's sig says everything:
Quote from: KZ's sigWelcome to the forums!
Read the rules, use proper grammar and punctuation, play the games, share your ideas and enjoy your stay!
But it seems that you're already following those!
Regarding the interface, if it's not too much to ask from Craig, it would be nice if both options could be chosen (fixed position and auto-position). But apart from the personal preferences, that may not be a crucial thing in game-play. After some turns we'll probably end up getting used to either way of placing the interface.
The golem vs swordsman is a great image! I really liked it.
(Just for reference, there are also a few Art threads (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?board=10.0) around here, in case you're interested.)
Craig: There is a colour code, named ColorADD (http://www.coloradd.net/) designed to help colour blind people. It may also be interesting to take a look at Color Oracle (http://colororacle.org/) that is a colour blindness simulator. I'm not seeing exactly how to fit both things into TT, but it still may be interesting for future reference.
I too played the demo and immediately pledged. I think the unit interface is pretty good in showing your available actions and unit stats, so i've got no complaints there. seems like a sollid tactics type game.
I'd prefer combat didn't automatically end, since I like bashing all the barrels and such (unless the gold auto loots and the items don't carry over, in which case it's truly pointless).
I don't have access to the full game, but the assassin in the demo seems CRAZY strong. can one hit guys, leap, and seems to dodge everything throw back at him/her. the enemy AI also doesn't seem to act very cohesively as a team, so it's pretty easy to split them up and pick them off.
anyways, i appreciate what i've seen, and look forward to seeing more - thanks!
Wartman--that art is totally awesome! I am totally going to share that, if you don't mind. :D
Quote from: bloodwars on March 17, 2013, 12:42:24 AMI don't have access to the full game, but the assassin in the demo seems CRAZY strong. can one hit guys, leap, and seems to dodge everything throw back at him/her. the enemy AI also doesn't seem to act very cohesively as a team, so it's pretty easy to split them up and pick them off.
Thanks for the feedback! The assassin is quite strong in the single player demo campaign mainly because the enemies in that campaign are relatively weak; if you play Local Matches, where the teams are evenly matched in terms of stats, I think you'll find that Assassins are more balanced. They are actually really bad against most front-line fighters, which get physical resistance and a counterattack. They are also easy to finish off with Mental attacks (since those can't be dodged). :)
Yeah, in the demo level the assassin has lots of soft targets to pick off and plenty of room to maneuver, plus she outlevels most (all?) of the opposition.
I'm actually wondering about the leveling/experience system. It seems like it's flat, i.e. no scaling factor based on the level of the opponent. Are there balance concerns here? What's the rationale for going with this as opposed to say, Fire Emblem where your XP gained scales with the level of the opponent, allowing underleveled characters to catch up and discouraging stacking all your experience on one character? (FE system certainly has what I would consider weaknesses, e.g. Jeigans leading to rather illogical play. Just curious about the design choices and not trying to advocate a change.)
(edit: Now that I check the demo again, I don't actually see levels on the enemies in single-player.)
Yes; at present, enemy level does not have any actual effect on enemies or on experience gained.
My prediction is that there won't any serious balance concerns with flat experience progression because of a few things that are handled differently. They are:
(1) Backstab damage. Not having other characters to watch your lone fighter's back will automatically put him/her at a big disadvantage.
(2) AI. You can't just send out a single over-powered character to attract enemies one at a time. Enemies will actively pursue your weakest characters, so you're making things much harder on yourself if you deliberately keep most of your characters weak.
(3) Defense is percentage-based, not directly arithmetical. You're never going to see something like the notorious "No Damage!" pop-up from Fire Emblem unless you both seriously overlevel and somehow manage to get resistance stat gains every single time.
(4) Even if you do manage to get close to 100% resistance in an element, this isn't a game where you just have Defense and Resistance; in Telepath Tactics, getting (for example) 90% slash resistance means there are still something like a dozen other elements where you character won't have resistance! The AI is smart enough to rely on attacks that your characters don't resist, so at best, your character will take minimal damage from only some of the enemies present.
In short: this isn't Fire Emblem. You can get a really damn powerful character through overleveling, sure, but that character is unlikely to successfully solo a battle--and in the meantime, your other characters are going to drop like flies. That, at least, is what I predict. I could be wrong. :)
Makes perfect sense. My impression playing the demo was also that I didn't see any particular advantage to be gained by overleveling a character. Along with your points, the variety of tactical situations and possible opponents should incentivize spreading out the experience among members of different classes.
My apologies if this has already been addressed in detail, but: would it be possible to set up a custom campaign so you can move between campaign levels freely and nonlinearly, without getting stuck going down any branches, and your position being determined in part by what map you were in before?
(let's say you had four maps, A1, B1, A2 and B2. A player in both A1 and B2 can travel to B1 and A2 and back at any time, but you can't go directly to A1 from B2. There may be a dungeon under B2, and its only exit is out to and its only entrance is in from B2.)
Yup! You can absolutely do that via scripting.
Quote from: Craig
When creating a new attack, if it isn't of the element Create, the game now takes whatever you put in the creates attribute as a sign of what you'd like to replace the attack's target with if it dies.
Yes!!!My wishes have come true!!! :D ~Edit~
From the same post, I believe I see why my "Undead Swordsman" characters weren't getting their names properly when I modded them in. Silly me.
Can an item give a one-time use attack?
Like explosives?
Not yet. I've just added equipment into the game, however, which will give characters granted attacks for so long as the equipment remains equipped.
Will the grapple chain move from being a regular item to a piece of equipment?
Most likely.
Does the dependsUpon works with non weapon items?
My initial though was having an orb that granted a special attack to the person holding it.
My second though was having a skill tree, where a skill to be available depended on certain stats, weapons and prior knowledge of lower level attacks.
Quote from: Ertxiem on April 22, 2013, 01:38:18 AM
Does the dependsUpon works with non weapon items?
DependsUpon is an attribute of attacks and skills, not items. Funnily enough, though, I did just add item requirements last night: check the devlog. :)
Can a unit willingly walk into lava? If not, could/would you add that in? (In the demo version I have, I don't believe I was able to but I may be wrong.)
It just occurred to me how there could be some, likely rare, times when taking 20 damage and losing a round to swim through a square of lava could be a wise tactical move.
In a similar vein, should units be able to 'jump' and take falling damage/stunning (if applicable) by moving off of a high-elevation panel onto a low-elevation one? I'm just talking about moving to the square next to them, not any additional movement.
Edit: on that note, I realized while playing through the campaign demo that the assassin could use Leap to jump (it seemed) any amount of elevation. I jumped from the ground to the top of the tower those two sniper-archers are on, for example. I assumed this was intentionally allowed--I appreciated how awesome being able to do that was--but I figure I'll mention it in case it was a bug not a feature :D (And, again, this was using a demo version from about a month ago.)
That last example is indeed intentional. :)
You cannot have characters voluntarily walk onto squares they can't normally walk onto, but you can shove them.
Quote from: CraigStern on April 25, 2013, 04:29:34 PM
You cannot have characters voluntarily walk onto squares they can't normally walk onto, but you can shove them.
With the modding features, could I create a tile that works like lava (deals 20 damage if you are non-flying on it at turn-start, and if you move off of it, it uses all your move, no action allowed, and 2 energy cost) except that units can move into it normally?
Can any tile be given the 'need to swim through' feature that water and lava have (i.e., the "if you move off of it, it uses all your move, no action allowed, and 2 energy cost" I mention above)?
If I can create such, do you know if it would cost 1 move to enter and then all your move to exit, thereby allowing you to move through without taking any damage, or all my move to enter and I'd have to wait until next turn to exit?
Quote from: JeenLeen on April 26, 2013, 08:56:58 AMWith the modding features, could I create a tile that works like lava (deals 20 damage if you are non-flying on it at turn-start, and if you move off of it, it uses all your move, no action allowed, and 2 energy cost) except that units can move into it normally?
Can any tile be given the 'need to swim through' feature that water and lava have (i.e., the "if you move off of it, it uses all your move, no action allowed, and 2 energy cost" I mention above)?
Yes and yes.
Quote from: JeenLeen on April 26, 2013, 08:56:58 AMIf I can create such, do you know if it would cost 1 move to enter and then all your move to exit, thereby allowing you to move through without taking any damage, or all my move to enter and I'd have to wait until next turn to exit?
You cannot voluntarily enter a space like that unless your character flies, just as with water and lava: the best you can do is use a second character to shove them in, then have the character swim out.
Is it possible to create a tile affecting solely flying and levitating/hovering units?
Or in another respect: a tile that only land units can cross?
Yes, you can make a tile that only non-flying units can pass--though there isn't currently a mechanism to make it so it damages flying units.
Quote from: CraigStern on April 30, 2013, 09:48:21 PM
Aaaaaand the fixed installers are up; just download and Replace your install. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Great! I was a few mere seconds away from complaining about it. I like the maps you've included in it, and can't wait to get the most recent version of the map-editor!
Quote from: bugfartboy on April 30, 2013, 09:57:29 PM
can't wait to get the most recent version of the map-editor!
Do we have any idea when that will happen?
Seeing as he's
finally delivering backer rewards, we can assume that it won't take too long. He does have over a thousand backers to satisfy at some point.
-Begin Double Post-
I like that there are now equipable items, but I don't like the fact that they shift the whole attack bar to the right.
Hey there! I just wanted to leave a quick thank you for delivering an early release that is fun to play! I'm positively amazed at how well this has turned out so far, I really look forward to further developments :)
I'm also really looking forward to the editor, the engine is just like I hoped it would turn out :)
Thank you! I'm glad you're liking it. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on May 05, 2013, 12:13:34 AM
Bug fixes!
- fixed a textfield error in the map editor that made it so you could only use hyphens and forward-slashes when naming the speaker (rather than allowing all numbers, letters and symbols other than hyphens and forward-slashes)
[...]
Craig: I just got a little worried about the "all [...] symbols" part. Perhaps you just used a loose language.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that it would be better to just allow letters and numbers and perhaps the apostrophe. It would be nice if accented letters would be included too.
However, allowing backslahes and other uncommon characters to be included in the speaker's name may allow weird things to happen afterwards.
Other than that, I'm really liking the way TT is evolving. Very nice work!
Quoteallowing backslahes and other uncommon characters to be included in the speaker's name may allow weird things to happen afterwards
Nope. The only reason I don't allow hyphens and forward-slashes is because I use those in parsing strings. Any other symbol will be fine.
Quote from: CraigStern on May 05, 2013, 12:30:33 PM
Nope. The only reason I don't allow hyphens and forward-slashes is because I use those in parsing strings. Any other symbol will be fine.
Even commas, parenthesis and brackets?
What about other encodings of the forward slash:
/ ,
%2F or
U+002F?
Quote from: Ertxiem on May 05, 2013, 04:51:35 PMEven commas, parenthesis and brackets?
Of course. Look in the demo: you see dialog with commas and parentheses, yes? In this context, it works fine.
I do not believe that those encodings will work.
Yeah. The commas and the parentheses were a bit silly of me!
All I can say is: the brain is a wonderful organ. I must remember to use it more often. :P
I'm having some trouble with the dialog box. I can see the first two reply options, albeit somewhat awkwardly, and can't see the third.
Hey Ert -- were you thinking something like this (http://xkcd.com/327/) might happen?
Also, I think there might be legitimate problems with U+202E, as there invariably are.
Quote from: bugfartboy on May 06, 2013, 05:15:08 PM
I'm having some trouble with the dialog box. I can see the first two reply options, albeit somewhat awkwardly, and can't see the third.
This should probably go in the bug section. Also: I noticed you're running the game in windowed mode. Does it do this for you in fullscreen mode as well?
Quote from: Duckling on May 06, 2013, 07:12:49 PM
Hey Ert -- were you thinking something like this (http://xkcd.com/327/) might happen?
Also, I think there might be legitimate problems with U+202E, as there invariably are.
Yeah. Sort of.
By the way, have you checked the name of the Daughter? Hoover your mouse over the cartoon. ;)
Do you mean problems like this (http://www.xkcd.com/1137/) one?
[I didn't even have to click the link to know which one].tnaem uoy
And yeah, I'm thinking that might be a slight issue, at least when it comes to using a custom name with U+202E in it along with other text in a larger text box. Like, you know, in dialog.
Quote from: CraigStern on May 07, 2013, 02:23:13 PM
The game now allows you to change a character's name or movement type using the SetStat action. To do so, set the StatName parameter to Name or MoveType, then add a fifth parameter onto the end with the new name (with first and last name delimited by a forward slash) or movement type (land or flying).
(NOTE: It doesn't matter what you use for the operation or amount parameters when editing Name or MoveType.)
I like this... :)
I'm finding that it's difficult to use basic math with the way the actions in dialog work. I appreciate them for their existence, but it's impossible to create basic sequences: i.e. UpgradeCost=CurrentStrength*25 is impossible.
No it's not: use SetValByStat followed by SetVal.
Sorry. I wasn't aware of SetValByStat's existence. I was just reading through the actions part of the manual, and didn't see it anywhere.
Ah, indeed; I forgot to add those in there. They're listed in the Devlog (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg45532#msg45532). ;)
I completely overlooked that, the sad thing being that the Devlog is the only thread on the site I have notifications enabled for.
If I've made any mods to the text files or created new text files for modding, will those modifications be preserved when I download a new version of the installer and click to Update?
I can easily save any mods in a seperate location if that is a danger, but I wanted to check.
From my experience, no. If you want to save them, keep a copy in a seperate location.
If you're working on a new campaign / new multiplayer maps, make sure they're saved in Documents > My Games > Telepath Tactics > User Campaigns and Documents > My Games > Telepath Tactics > User Multiplayer Maps; those should survive a reinstall.
Quote from: CraigStern on May 15, 2013, 10:32:08 PM
I thought this would be hard to add, but guess what? I figured out how to make a really simple exploration mode work in Telepath Tactics with just 10 minutes of tinkering. It's really darn basic, but it gets the job done.
Just like Kill-All Victory, Exploration Mode is a condition with only one parameter: true or false. Here's how you turn it on:
<Condition>Exploration Mode,true</Condition>
When exploration mode is turned on, it automatically turns off the Kill-All Victory setting, turns off features like undo, rotate and end turn, makes it so none of your characters lose steps while moving, and gives everyone a move range of 10. (It's kinda like this (http://youtu.be/xYHfedfKFog?t=13m56s), except without the limited move range and without ending your turn on you every three seconds.)
This is going to become a lot more robust once I add in player-triggered conversations and space-dependent dialog/script triggers--but for now, it's a start. :D
Darn you Craig. Just as I was
about to make a proof-of-concept improvisational "exploration mode", you do this to me! But I like that you're working towards it!
~Edit~
I went ahead and made one anyway. :D
~~Edit~~
You could theoretically use more than one "opponent" to talk to, but you'd need unique character names for all of them,
I'd just like to take this moment to point out that I'm thrilled that TT's campaign creation and documentation has officially become extensive enough that I am incapable of understanding it purely through osmosis -- I would actually have to pay attention to know all the things to know about it, and this thrills me; to me, it signifies that the game is a fully-featured, very professional endeavor.
I apologize for the implication that it wasn't before, but I just haven't been getting that vibe with the games up until now [no worries, I still bought TSoG eventually]. So now, TT is a must-buy, and not merely something I'd like to buy in order to patronize [the support meaning, not the being patronizing meaning] a cool indie game developer.
Quote from: CraigStern on May 26, 2013, 02:39:41 PM
Update! I have finally cast the much-disliked Right-Click Context Menu into the fires of Mount Doom. In its place, right-clicking an empty spot on the battlefield now deselects the current character.
To handle the functions that were previously in the right-click menu, there is a new menu accessible from the Actions window. Whenever no character is selected, click the "Gear" button that appears--it will open the new menu.
The installers have been updated.
Just from reading this, I'm not sure what I think of removing the right click menu. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps it could be returned as an option?
Quote from: bugfartboy on May 26, 2013, 10:22:33 PM
Quote from: CraigStern on May 26, 2013, 02:39:41 PM
Update! I have finally cast the much-disliked Right-Click Context Menu into the fires of Mount Doom. In its place, right-clicking an empty spot on the battlefield now deselects the current character.
To handle the functions that were previously in the right-click menu, there is a new menu accessible from the Actions window. Whenever no character is selected, click the "Gear" button that appears--it will open the new menu.
The installers have been updated.
Just from reading this, I'm not sure what I think of removing the right click menu. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps it could be returned as an option?
I felt iffy about it when I read it, too, but after seeing it in play I like it. Right-clicking brought up a toolbar, from which you can get to the options that were in the earlier menu. It makes it a lot harder to surrender or quit by accident.
Quote from: JeenLeen on May 28, 2013, 01:16:49 PMIt makes it a lot harder to surrender or quit by accident.
Yes, this.
Also, I got very consistent complaints from folks who thought they were accessing something they weren't supposed to rather than an actual in-game menu; and once they realized that it was an in-game menu, complaints that it felt unprofessional and janky because it was just a default system menu.
Just about all of the functions of the right-click menu are now accessible from the Actions window, and the few that aren't have hotkeys. Not a huge loss, I hope. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on June 06, 2013, 10:55:02 PM
The people cried out for nicer-looking edge tiles, and the gods of Telepath Tactics looked upon them and smiled! Behold: beautiful new Cave tiles, now in progress!
Were those (Dare I say it) ledge tiles?
Yeeeeeup. Soon, we'll be able to have elevation effects in caves. ;)
I must say, since the modding guide was made nearly complete, I've been having fun designing maps with different lights and such.
Are doors able to be opened? After not being able to figure out how to open them, I usually get frustrated and just destroy the door.
I was reading the "CharClasses" xml file, and I been wondering why "Drill" is the Bronze Golem's third attack, yet the attack isn't in the "Attack" xml file.
Quote from: bugfartboy on June 07, 2013, 04:27:48 PM
I must say, since the modding guide was made nearly complete, I've been having fun designing maps with different lights and such.
Good!
Quote from: SmartyPants on June 07, 2013, 06:59:25 PM
Are doors able to be opened? After not being able to figure out how to open them, I usually get frustrated and just destroy the door.
Openable doors aren't supported just yet; that's planned for the future. (For now, you can stick an OnReachingSpace trigger next to the door, give the player the option to "open" it, then use RemoveFromCoords on the door if they choose "Yes.")
Quote from: SmartyPants on June 07, 2013, 06:59:25 PMI was reading the "CharClasses" xml file, and I been wondering why "Drill" is the Bronze Golem's third attack, yet the attack isn't in the "Attack" xml file.
Drill was originally planned for the Bronze Golem, but I changed my mind before it came time to actually create it as an attack.
I love the look of the lizardmen portraits! They look like a mix between a velociraptor and a komodo dragon, while still seeming vaguely human.
David Hammond is doing a hell of a job on the character portraits. :)
Quote from: CraigStern on June 27, 2013, 11:41:07 AM
David Hammond is doing a hell of a job on the character portraits. :)
I'll say! All the artwork looks absolutely amazing!
Yup! I'm amazed at it, the portraits really look good.
I'll only make a few tiny comments on it (sorry about it): it might be my problem, but it's not very evident which is the male and which is the female cavalier. The same happens in the swordsman. And the lizardmen's noses are more different that what I expected... but what do I know about lizardmen?
I don't know what I think of most of the human male character portraits. The mouths just look strange to me.
I like the portraits, but I think they'd benefit from a stronger directional light-source.
It's easier to explain this in pictures then in words, so here is a rough paint-over:
(http://i.imgur.com/rJ4tf6Z.jpg)
Don't be afraid to stick the darkest and lightest spots next to each other either, especially with metallic objects.
Hope I didn't step on anyone's toes by posting this, I actually think the portraits are great: solid anatomy and lots of character and the lizard dudes are pure awesome. The lighting could just use a little love :D.
Interesting. These portraits are largely based on the Nintendo DS Fire Emblem style (see e.g. (http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk218/mijzelffan/sporclefeportraitsnumbers-2.png)), which employs pretty minimal lighting. My general impression is that these portraits are made with the assumption that the characters are outdoors in a sunlit setting, where strong directional lighting makes a bit less sense--but I could actually see a directionally lit variation for dimly lit indoor (or underground) settings being handy. I might leave it up to the mod community to make those variations, though, since we have a pretty huge number of portraits to get through.
Quote from: CraigStern on June 30, 2013, 04:15:34 PM
Interesting. These portraits are largely based on the Nintendo DS Fire Emblem style (see e.g. (http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk218/mijzelffan/sporclefeportraitsnumbers-2.png)), which employs pretty minimal lighting. My general impression is that these portraits are made with the assumption that the characters are outdoors in a sunlit setting, where strong directional lighting makes a bit less sense--but I could actually see a directionally lit variation for dimly lit indoor (or underground) settings being handy. I might leave it up to the mod community to make those variations, though, since we have a pretty huge number of portraits to get through.
Hm. Yeah, I think I see where you're going with this. I should probably hold off on critiquing till I see this stuff in-game -- context is everything, and what makes sense for a single image won't necessarily work when it has to work in a dozen different places. I'll trust your artist knows his stuff.
I wish there was a preview for the Map Editor so one can quickly and easily view and edit missions.
Craig: Can the "weapon degradation" be used to do something like giving the bowman 10 flaming arrows? So, the bowman would have that extra attack until the 10th flaming arrow was shot.
Quote from: Ertxiem on July 04, 2013, 05:50:11 AM
Craig: Can the "weapon degradation" be used to do something like giving the bowman 10 flaming arrows? So, the bowman would have that extra attack until the 10th flaming arrow was shot.
Yup! Just make a new weapon (a "Flame Bow," say) that is
consumedAfter 10,
useableWith Weapon Hand, and has
grantsAtk set to--say--
Bow/Flaming Arrow.
Cool! Thanks.
And the scripts seem to be a nice feature too.
I'm loving that TT is slowly becoming more and more programmable... Now we just need the ability to trigger scripts with specific attacks.
Do you plan on adding a dialogue trigger that allows a script to be run every turn?
Scripts can be run an infinite number of times.
If you're asking about making it so individual conversations can be triggered more than once per scene, that's something I'm planning to support soon.
Something I noticed while playing around in what of the "Frozen Hearts" campaign that there is: In exploration mode, you can attack, but attacking again with the same character is impossible without the turn ending and beginning again. Which is impossible.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll fix that in a moment.
My day is made (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg46123#msg46123). One less thing to work around!
Side note: Turns out that the game will let an attack have a range of <0, but the attack becomes unusable in the process.
The AI is, quite literally, killer. In some sick twisted way it's kinda fun watching how it can take a mortal god and thrash your team with it. I congratulate you, Craig. It's more difficult to balance things, difficulty wise, than I originally thought.
Heh. I'm glad you think so; I'm always worrying about the inadequacies of the game's AI. :)
In my honest opinion: at this point the only thing that would make the AI scarier is if it could intelligently use create attacks, which you already said would take quite some time to code.
Any heads up on when specific dialog can be triggered more than once per battle?
~Edit~
On a side note, I'm happy the latest installer version worked for me! It was frustrating not having all the latest bug fixes and features (Namely the fatigue condition).
~Edit: Part 2~
How tricky would it be to add parameters to the OnAttackSelect? A character parameter and an attack parameter?
Will it be possible to have a win condition be to kill two boss instead of just one?
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 23, 2013, 09:40:41 PM
In my honest opinion: at this point the only thing that would make the AI scarier is if it could intelligently use create attacks, which you already said would take quite some time to code.
Another thing that's occurred to me is that the Assassin doesn't seem to ever use Leap attacks to extend its movement range or to leap over people to get a full backstab in.
Quote from: JeenLeen on July 24, 2013, 01:43:20 PM
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 23, 2013, 09:40:41 PM
In my honest opinion: at this point the only thing that would make the AI scarier is if it could intelligently use create attacks, which you already said would take quite some time to code.
Another thing that's occurred to me is that the Assassin doesn't seem to ever use Leap attacks to extend its movement range or to leap over people to get a full backstab in.
True! I suppose that would make it even trickier!
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 23, 2013, 09:40:41 PMAny heads up on when specific dialog can be triggered more than once per battle?
Soonish. ;)
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 23, 2013, 09:40:41 PMHow tricky would it be to add parameters to the OnAttackSelect? A character parameter and an attack parameter?
I don't see any reason why that should be too difficult.
Quote from: SmartyPants on July 24, 2013, 08:34:42 AM
Will it be possible to have a win condition be to kill two boss instead of just one?
You know you can do this yourself, right? Here's how you do it: have an OnCharDeath dialog for each of the bosses. In each of the dialogs, use SetVal to count up a variable (say,
bossesKilled or something) and then use IfValGoTo (or IfValRun) to trigger a player victory when that variable equals two. Easy peasy!
I noticed switch (and a pushing block, pitfall, and pressure plate) images in the Objects file... Are those magical intractable battlefield things from the Stretch Goals in our nearish future?
On a side note, is there currently any way to run dialog at the end of a battle, with a way to determine if the player won/lost?
Quote from: CraigStern on July 24, 2013, 07:11:20 PMQuote from: SmartyPants on July 24, 2013, 08:34:42 AMWill it be possible to have a win condition be to kill two boss instead of just one?
You know you can do this yourself, right? Here's how you do it: have an OnCharDeath dialog for each of the bosses. In each of the dialogs, use SetVal to count up a variable (say, bossesKilled or something) and then use IfValGoTo (or IfValRun) to trigger a player victory when that variable equals two. Easy peasy!
Thanks for the help. Now I can have twin bosses. ;D
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 24, 2013, 07:14:44 PMOn a side note, is there currently any way to run dialog at the end of a battle, with a way to determine if the player won/lost?
Not currently.
Do you plan on adding a way to load customized images into a campaign, without having to put the images into the installation directory? Object sprites, item sprites, character sprites, etc.
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 25, 2013, 01:03:16 PM
Do you plan on adding a way to load customized images into a campaign, without having to put the images into the installation directory? Object sprites, item sprites, character sprites, etc.
I've thought about it; it's not top priority, though. Is there any reason you don't want to have to stick them in the installation directory?
Simpler campaign installation, I suppose.
Quote from: CraigStern on July 25, 2013, 04:24:32 PM
You spelled Pyro Hail "Pryo Hail," and used "Hero" without any spaces on that action (on all the the others, you used spaces afterwards). After fixing these typos, it works fine.
That said, I've made a small change to the game so it won't crash like that the next time someone does this; it'll just fail to teach the character the attack.
So it would seem that late-night typing is not for me. I should have just checked it all thoroughly first.
Is there a way that I can play Telepath Tactics without the game being in fullscreen?
Control + F.
I love the dialog editor, but it's tendency to put every new branch underneath the first branch is a little irritating. It makes it hard to start a new dialog with a different trigger, without having to manually change the trigger every time.
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 24, 2013, 07:14:44 PMOn a side note, is there currently any way to run dialog at the end of a battle, with a way to determine if the player won/lost?
Never mind! I figured it out!
Quote from: bugfartboy on July 27, 2013, 01:26:06 AM
I love the dialog editor, but it's tendency to put every new branch underneath the first branch is a little irritating. It makes it hard to start a new dialog with a different trigger, without having to manually change the trigger every time.
Right-click a branch in the conversation you want to add to and select duplicate. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on August 05, 2013, 05:16:13 PM
I've begin some preliminary work on random battlefield generation!
[...]
Right now, the plan is to create an algorithm that intelligently cobbles together dungeons out of 5 x 5 prefabricated chunks. (Below is a picture of one such chunk.) I haven't 100% decided on all of the details yet, but I imagine that hallways will mostly be 3 x 5 in size, some with destructible objects to form choke points. I'll post more about it tomorrow when I make more progress. :)
The tough part of random battlefield generation is making diverse maps while avoiding isolated areas. They're great to increase the replayability of the game by adding diversity to multiplayer games and campaigns.
How random will the generation be? Is it just random, or do you have something more complicated? I understand the idea of the 5*5 chunks but I fear some obstacles will still be there, namely the problem of choosing a "good" neighbouring tile.
I was thinking about it and I have a somewhat simple but not perfect approach. You can think of tiles or chunks (like the 5*5 tiles you presented).
Lets start by defining an array P(i,j,k) of n*n*4 with probabilities (or something similar). The 1st number, i, would be the index of the current tile, the 2nd number, j, the index of the neighbouring tile and the 3rd number, k, would be the position of neighbouring tile: North, East, South or West.
Starting with any position on the battlefield (random choice), we would choose the 1st tile type i randomly.
The next tile type j would be chosen in the following manner:
- Choose a random position k, restricted to the ones that are not occupied;
- Choose a neighbour j in that position, with probability P(i,j,k)/(sum over all jj of P(i,jj,k)).
Now choose one tile that has "free" neighbours and choose the next tile. Repeat until the board is filled.
A more difficult approach would be a creation of paths such that all walk-able spaces are connected (if you don't want isolated sections of the battlefield). After that, the algorithm would need to choose the appropriate tiles for the walls of the path, having in consideration the neighbours' tile types.
There will be certain principles governing the way the map is generated (rooms will be connected by hallways, for instance). I've written a dungeon creation algorithm before; I just haven't used it in any game I've released. I know more or less how it's going to work, but I don't want to make any proclamations yet until I've finished implementing it and made any necessary changes.
I've edited a couple sprites and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get them in the game. I believe I put the images in the correct folders, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to use these sprites for characters.
Make sure these are in the Data > Characters > REST folder, and make sure you've changed the spritetype in CharClasses.xml. (Note: you'll also still need to change the WALK and Attack animations separately.)
I got the dying, walking, resting, and attacking sprites in the right folders. I just needed to designate a new sprite name.
Thanks for the help.
I noticed in the new Multiplayer Map, "Tavern", item sacks tend to spawn outside the walls of the tavern. While I like how the way items are now spawned makes turtling less appealing, I think it might be interesting to be able to set a condition that prevents items from spawning in certain spaces.
What is the 'Frozen Hearts' campaign? Is it just something to test things out in, or a very in-the-works / just-the-beginning of a campaign?
Quote from: bugfartboy on August 09, 2013, 09:44:19 PM
I noticed in the new Multiplayer Map, "Tavern", item sacks tend to spawn outside the walls of the tavern. While I like how the way items are now spawned makes turtling less appealing, I think it might be interesting to be able to set a condition that prevents items from spawning in certain spaces.
That's a good idea; thanks for letting me know.
Quote from: JeenLeen on August 09, 2013, 11:18:11 PM
What is the 'Frozen Hearts' campaign? Is it just something to test things out in, or a very in-the-works / just-the-beginning of a campaign?
The latter! Eventually, Frozen Hearts is going to be the official campaign; Kovit is actually the "test things out" campaign, believe it or not.
I freaked out, and had a party... This made my day! (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg46314#msg46314)
Hey Craig,
I just wanted to say that I just downloaded and played the demo after seeing the booth at PAX Prime yesterday. I really wanted to stop and find out more about it, but my son is just not into strategy games like I am. I love it! I've been desperately searching for a game like this since Numbunga's Ambition on NES years and years ago (yeah, I know I'm dating myself a bit).
Great job! I can't wait for the entire version to come out.
Billy
Thanks Billy! I'm glad you liked it. ;)
I don't know if this would be good or not, but should area attacks damage the terrain? Or an ice blast against an enemy in water also turn the water to ice? (Although the latter raises questions of if the person is now just on ice or if they should have some sort of 'stuck' status.)
For example, in the local match map where the majority of the map is wooden (damagable) panels, it makes sense to me that some of the psi attacks that hit an area should damage the panels people are on as well as those that they are not on. I could see the question of whether it's worth damaging panels in order to hit an enemy as an interesting tactical aspect, as I could cut myself off from a path if I hit a given foe. I'm not sure if non-area psi attacks should also damage the ground (could see it either way, depending on how you want to make the 'fluff' of the power).
Also, if it would be possible to target terrain someone is on instead of the person, that could be nice. (Break the ice or a floor someone is on, even with a sword, and send them into water or lava.) I could see it being too annoying to be worth it, though, either on the coding end or from a player perspective, depending on how we choose which to hit.
---
Overall, great game and I'm enjoying seeing the tactical aspects come to light.
Thanks!
Explosive element attacks damage both the person and any destructible objects they happen to be standing on; the others do not. As of right now, I'm pretty happy with that setup.
Quote from: Craig Stern
we'll have orb graphics available as well.
You mean I spent forever on my own orb graphics, only to have official models released?
Maybe? I bet your orb graphics will look different, though; that'll just mean more options for different types of orbs. :)
Hopefully all of bfb's orb colors don't overlap with the ones CraigStern is having made. Even if there is overlap, at least bfb has gotten some practice making graphics. When it comes to computer games, experience always helps (if you don't believe me, then you need to take a look at Telepath RPG 1 (http://www.sinisterdesign.net/TelepathRPGChapter1.html)).
Actually, they're the orb colors from TPA1. (Example attached) Still, it's nice to get new item graphics.
Also, I noticed today that the new red spriggat portrait doesn't have it's sash showing.
Yes; that was intentional. The sash is just a functional thing to help distinguish the character sprites of different teams on the battlefield.
How do I make an attack strike behind the character like Griffin did with his backhander (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Backhander) attack?
As of right now, you can't. There is currently no way to, and using a negative minimum range just results in very strange behavior. I've been trying that one for months now.
Quote from: CraigStern on September 09, 2013, 03:56:42 PM
Two new script actions: SpawnFloatingText and SpawnFloatingTextAt, both of which create your own little text pop-ups on the screen[...]
Note: do not use commas in the first parameter or bad things will happen.
Comas may be useful when writing text...
May I suggest the use of something like quotation marks as limiters of the text to use?
Of course that forgetting about the quotation marks may also make bad things to happen.
You really shouldn't need commas with the floating text fields; they're really quite small. We're talking four or five words max (for reference, these are the text things that say "Burning!" or "Grabbed item sack!")
I like the new orb graphics. Mine are much different I suppose.
I like exploration mode, but I feel that the ability to open no more than one door per character is a bit limiting.
Is it possible to have one character's death trigger another characters death?
Like having an Engineer's death trigger the death of his golem or having a psychic's death trigger the death of a spirit?
You'd have to have specific character names, but you could do something like this, from what I understand:
<Dialog branch="0" r="-1">
OnCharDeath/-1,None,The Engineer/Engineer/Lo I have been slain, and my stone golem shall fall with me!
<Reply>.../NewBranch/1</Reply>
</Dialog>
<Dialog branch="1">
OnCharDeath/-1,None,The Engineer/The Game/removing engineer and golem
<Action>RemoveChar/The Engineer</Action>
<Action>RemoveChar/Stone Golem</Action>
<Action>EndConvImmediately/</Action>
<Reply>.../NewBranch/1</Reply>
</Dialog>
When the engineer dies, the engineer blurts out some random phrase. After the dialog box is clicked, it removes the engineer and his stone golem. I haven't tested it, however.
Suggestion: if you want the character to actually die, and not merely exit the battlefield, use KillChar instead of RemoveChar.
Thanks for the help!
One a side note, I'm going to use "RemoveChar" for the golem and "KillChar" for the spirit.
I'm curious. Is there a way to kill or remove a character by class, rather than name? On a similar note, is there a way to modify the stats of a character or set of characters by class instead of name as well?
Not by class; but you can remove a character or object from a specific spot on the battlefield using RemoveFromCoords.
There is no way to modify stats by class using a script action.
I think I would prefer if the Hover power (granted by using the... sorry; forgot the item name, but the long-named thing that looks like a propeller-backpack. Steamthropter?) did not use your action for the round. Since it only lasts 1 round (or at least only has lasted 1 round for me), it seems fair to be able to move while flying and use an ability.
I accept if you feel it should use your action, though.
If you are flying due to it but end your turn on lava/water, would and should you take damage at the start of the round? (I don't know whether the system removes current status effects first or if it checks whether you are flying and thus to damage you first.)
FWI: it called the "Steamthopter (http://telepath.wikia.com/wiki/Steamthopter)".
Quote from: JeenLeen on October 09, 2013, 09:53:09 PMIf you are flying due to it but end your turn on lava/water, would and should you take damage at the start of the round?
I believe the answer is yes: if you lose flying at the start of a turn and you're over water or lava, you'll fall into it immediately and take damage. I could be wrong, though--it might be worth checking to make sure.
I've noticed (at least sometimes; not sure if consistently) that when I kill an enemy or drop an item, it appears on a square next to the former holder of the item, not on the square the person was/is on.
Is this intentional? It is kind of realistic that the item could be dropped nearby, but it makes more sense to me to just drop it where they were/are. (I may be a version behind on downloading the latest installer, by the way.)
Quote from: JeenLeen on October 15, 2013, 02:52:40 PM
I've noticed (at least sometimes; not sure if consistently) that when I kill an enemy or drop an item, it appears on a square next to the former holder of the item, not on the square the person was/is on.
Is this intentional?
That should happen if the space already has an item sack in it. Otherwise, though, it should spawn on the same space.
Quote from: CraigStern on November 01, 2013, 03:56:46 PM
[...]
Also: fixed a bug where trying to grab an item sack from on top of a bridge tile would result in the character grabbing the bridge tile instead of the item sack. (Whoops.)
That was an incredibly funny bug! I'm a bit sad that it got smashed. :D
After a new turn started, I just had a swordsman Pull a spearman (who just took the 20 damage from lava) out of lava, and the spearman had 0 move.
Is that intentional or a bug?
I thought move went to 0 after swimming, but maybe it was supposed to be if you start in lava (or, I assume, water.)
That's not a bug: if you start the turn in water or lava, you have 0 move for the rest of the turn.
I reckon you're aware of it, but I've noticed a couple things about how enemy AI interacts with item.
It still seems that, if an enemy gets to an item bag, grabs it, and uses an item, they then stop moving even if it makes sense to keep moving.
If an enemy can attack one of its enemies, it will not grab a bag (unless it is stepping on it when in position to strike its foe)*. I've seen enemy units walk over item bags without picking them up to get to and attack a foe.
*I think I saw one pick up a bag right before attacking, but I'm not 100% sure.
Also, I saw a unit attack my Spiked Barricade when it could have attacked my Swordsman. And sometimes I think I've seen psi-casters walk up to units that can counter-attack and use Mind Blast when they could have used their ranged attack (though I'm not 100% sure as did not double-check their Energy.) It seems they took the counter-attack damage for no reason.
On an unrelated note, I like that the AI is now taking facing into consideration. That part looks nice and solid.
I also noticed, or think this is what I saw, that the an AI-controlled unit will not attack someone whose counter-attack will kill it. That's a nice touch.
Quote from: JeenLeen on November 07, 2013, 10:14:36 AMsometimes I think I've seen psi-casters walk up to units that can counter-attack and use Mind Blast when they could have used their ranged attack (though I'm not 100% sure as did not double-check their Energy.) It seems they took the counter-attack damage for no reason.
The AI does, in fact, take the Energy cost of the attack into consideration; it also weighs the cost against its remaining Energy. If the ranged attack would have taken most of its Energy, that might be why it prioritized it below the lower-cost attack. It's hard for me to say for certain, though, without being able to see exactly what situation the AI was in when it made that decision.
Quote from: JeenLeen on November 07, 2013, 10:14:36 AMOn an unrelated note, I like that the AI is now taking facing into consideration. That part looks nice and solid.
I also noticed, or think this is what I saw, that the an AI-controlled unit will not attack someone whose counter-attack will kill it. That's a nice touch.
Thanks! The AI does, in fact, avoid launching attacks that will result in it dying from a counterattack. :)
I'm writing a campaign, and I have wondering if it possible to have a leveled teammate join the enemy.
I don't see why it would be difficult... I haven't tried it, but I think you can just add the character you want to the map under a different team number. (i.e. Bill the Engineer is team code 0 for the player, team code 1 for the enemy)
Quote from: SmartyPants on November 22, 2013, 06:02:12 PM
I'm writing a campaign, and I have wondering if it possible to have a leveled teammate join the enemy.
If it's not just as easy as changing the team code, I think you could create a variable, set it to the leveled character's level, and then create a 'new' unit on the enemy team for that battle with the same name/class and set its level equal to that variable. Mechanically, it should turn out the same... except for equipment, I guess.
I asked and received answers to some questions about leveling in this thread, which touches on such code in the last couple posts: http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1244.0 (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1244.0).
Changing the team code would be a lot easier, though. After thinking about it, I'm a little embarrassed to give this alternative route, but, well, could be helpful so I'll still post it :P
Would the items that unit is carrying carry over to the enemy team?
I haven't tested this, but I think that if you use the character's name and just designate it team 1 instead of team 0, the game should still find its stats and equipment in saved game data and spawn the character as it was when it was last under the player's control.
You should test this out and make sure that I'm right, though. :)
With the current scripts, is there an easy way to have an event that would create a teleportation square? For example, when someone steps on a certain tile, the game automatically teleports them to another tile on the map.
Would it be possible to have a random teleportation effect? Like the above, but the game randomly sends you to, for example, 1 of 4 different locations when you step on the tile?
I suppose if truly randomized (or as random as a random number generator in a program gets) is not an option, you could write something based on a created variable that goes up by 1 after each teleport, creating a pattern instead of a randomized 'port, though it might look the same the first time a player goes through that stage. Like, when PortNum = 1, send to X and PortNum = PortNum +1, when 2 to Y and PortNum = PortNum +1, 3 to Z and PortNum = 1 (to reset the pattern).
This is a very interesting proposition. I'll answer each question separately, then try to explain how they work together.
First off: the actual teleportation mechanic. This is merely based on my general knowledge of the game. I haven't looked into too much detail on it.
The teleportation script would work in this fashion:
1~ Save the 'teleporting' unit's health and energy to variables, likely named
teleportHealth and
teleportEnergy. 2~ Remove the 'teleporting' unit from the 'teleporter' tile
3~ Spawn the 'teleporting' unit on the 'destination' tile. (This would be the tricky bit. I can't think
of any way to have the game automatically detect which character was on the space without writing a unique
script and dialog trigger for each unique unit. It's possible, but would be highly time consuming. Hey! No one
ever said programming was the least time consuming thing on earth!)
4~ Set the Health and Energy of the 'teleported' unit equal to the corresponding variables you set in step 1.
There you go! That would be the general process a teleportation mechanic would likely follow.
Now let's move on to the proposed random teleportation mechanic.
Seeing as there isn't currently a random number generator built into the game, I've been working on a random number generator that works by forcing a specially created character to level up, and determine the random number by detecting which stats were altered.
(Ex. Increase in cold resistance = +1 to the total value, increase in heat resistance = +2 to the total value,
increase in light resistance = +3 to the total value, etc.)
Using this method would require inserting a couple steps into the above process.
2.1~ Spawn the randomizer unit.
2.2~ Using the proper dialog action, force the randomizer unit to level up, causing the OnLevelUp stats that you assigned to be changed.
2.3~ Set a variable
randomTotal to 0. This isn't necessary for the first use, but necessary if you plan on allowing more than one unit to ever
teleport.
2.4~ Using a long series of if/then statements, determine which of the stats are greater than they used to be, then increase the
variable
randomTotal based on the method I explained in the paragraph above.
2.5~ Reset the randomizer unit's stats to where they were before forcing the levelup. (This allows you to avoid the having to continually
keep track of the randomizer's stats for future use. It's easier if they're consistent.)
2.5~ Using
randomTotal , determine which 'destination' tile the unit will be spawned on.
In theory, this process should work. Unfortunately I've been unable to get the random number generator I designed working correctly, so this part is all theoretical. The downside to implementing a random number generator means you'd need to use more than just scripts. You would need full blown dialog to implement the if/then statements, and you'd need a ton of dialog if you want more than one type of unit to be able to teleport.
I hope this answers your questions.
Quote from: bugfartboy on December 06, 2013, 12:16:25 AMSeeing as there isn't currently a random number generator built into the game
Huh! I thought I'd made -R- (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg46503#msg46503) work on things other than chests, but maybe I didn't. I'll see if I can get that changed by this evening. ;)Okay! After a bit of digging, the game
does in fact let you randomly generate numbers. You just use
r as the operator type in
SetVal, and it will generate a number between 1 and the amount you name. It seems I somehow neglected to include this in the list of operators in the manual, but it works.
I think I remember reading something about that in the DevLog, but I wasn't sure if it was real or if my mind just made it up.
I noticed that in the manual the "Capture Char" condition is still described as "DESCRIPTION TO COME."
Ah, indeed. That is because I haven't coded it yet. :)
On another note, I think it's interesting how the AI will let a unit be cornered and do nothing when triggering a counterattack would end in its death. I think in some ways it seems a realistic.
Quote from: bugfartboy on December 17, 2013, 11:02:48 PM
On another note, I think it's interesting how the AI will let a unit be cornered and do nothing when triggering a counterattack would end in its death. I think in some ways it seems a realistic.
That is interesting. When I first saw it, I thought it seemed like a flaw in design, since from a tactical standpoint the character is probably best to attack, dealing some damage before dying. But from a personal perspective as opposed to an army-perspective, it is rather realistic. A soldier (depending on training, morale, loyalty, etc.) might act in a way to survive longer even if it makes no tactical sense.
It makes even more sense if the units cornering it have enough health that the cornered unit can't kill them.
In v 0.455.379, I really like how, if you put the cursor over the Move option, the movement squares appear. It makes it a lot easier to choose/think about whether to move while saving the player extra clicks (don't have to click Move, then go back to click something else.)
Also, it looks like the enemy AI is getting item usage down a lot better! They were intelligently using items, and even moving, grabbing an item, moving again, using the item, then attacking. Nice!
I kinda didn't like how the map seems to re-center on a unit after you move it, but I think I'm just not use to it yet.
Being able to hit the directional buttons to navigate around the map is really nice, though, and helps to alleviate any annoyance.
Are 'local match' battles supposed to have randomly decided armies? I activated the game (clicked my shortcut to start the game), did a Local Match at Donut Tower, then exited the game. When I opened the game a second time, did another Local Match at Donut Tower, I got the same army and they got the same army (although it reversed which starting location we were in.) Is that supposed to happen? I though the armies would be random.
Thanks!
There are different rules for army composition that you can select. When setting up your local match, select "Random Armies" or "Random + Identical" from the Army Constraints drop-down to have the game randomize the armies.
What is the difference between PlayMusic and PlayLoop?
They seem to be rather similar, although I understand that they were made for distinct ends.
PlayLoop plays looping sound effects, like wind or rain or crowd chatter or crickets; PlayMusic plays music.
Each draws from a different set of sound files, and uses a different channel.
Quote from: CraigStern on March 06, 2014, 10:16:43 PM
PlayLoop plays looping sound effects, like wind or rain or crowd chatter or crickets; PlayMusic plays music.
Each draws from a different set of sound files, and uses a different channel.
Does that enable you to have a Loop and a Music playing at the same time?
Do 'combat sounds', like a sword slash or from casting a spell, use a different channel as well?
Yes and yes. :)
Is the female pyrokineticist sprite shown in the recent devlogs the same one as the one in the demo?
It looks slightly different to me, but maybe it's just that the animation in the dev log is moving, so it's an optical illusion.
If it is different, would you be able to provide the original sprite for modders to use? Or would using the original lead to bugs due to improvements/changes in the new one that the old one would not have?
I think the pyro in the demo has a really cool 'arrogant, young jerk-wizard' look to it. The female pyro animation seemed to lack this in some way, but maybe it's just the animation and/or that I was particularly picturing an arrogant guy in my mind when seeing the old pyro sprite, so seeing it denoted as a female changes my perception.
Edit: looking at the sprites at the Character Classes thread, I reckon it is just my perception. Interesting how one can 'read' a sprite when it's representing both genders as opposed to being just one.
Yeah, it's the same sprite as in the demo. The male pyrokineticist is bald. :)
Quote from: CraigStern on April 12, 2014, 07:34:46 PM
--gave Douse and Melt to Cryokineticists and Pyrokineticists in multiplayer (skills which counteract the effects of Burning and Frozen statuses, respectively)
Will similar powers to negate what the Light and Shadow attacks can do be made, for Skia- and Photokineticist?
Nope; the Light and Shadow status effects are somewhat less deadly than those for Heat and Cold, so explicit counters don't seem as important. I'm considering giving Photokineticsts Blinding Cloak and Skiakineticists Fury instead.
Quote from: CraigStern on April 17, 2014, 11:11:02 AM
Nope; the Light and Shadow status effects are somewhat less deadly than those for Heat and Cold, so explicit counters don't seem as important. I'm considering giving Photokineticsts Blinding Cloak and Skiakineticists Fury instead.
That makes sense. I've thought since early on that Frozen is one of the deadliest status ailments.
From looking at the screenshot in the Dev Log, it looks like the Melt spell does a small amount of healing. Since this gives healing to them, have you considered giving a very weak damaging power to the healers? (I like the idea of a weak Dagger attack or something like that, but I understand having the healer just be a peaceful healer for style/flavor purposes.)
Also, would there be something in the displays of the Melt spell that says how much Cold Resistance it grants (which it does, according to the text for it in that screenshot)? Would that be a consistent buff that lasts for the rest of the battle (like using an item), or something that wears off after a while like a negative status ailment?
The "healing" is the amount of resistance imparted by Melt and Thaw; it's a buff that lasts the whole battle. It looks like the game wasn't displaying the info very intuitively, though--I'll fix that in a bit.
Wouldn't it be easier to make a LastBranch function with one new parameter: how far back would you go: either a number or 'all'?
Yes; I'm probably going to implement that at some point as an alternative. ;)
Looking at NextBranch made me think about two things:
- The first is rather obvious: NextBranch having a parameter like LastBranch;
- The second is the possibility of labelling branches together with the numbering - provided you could use either one, calling the following branch using a label would certainly make things easier when inserting a new branch somewhere in the middle.
I must say that I'm having fun checking the Devlog. It has been good to see the improvements, in particular in the easiness to create new missions.
Thanks! I'm doing my best to make it as easy as possible to do all kinds of crazy, awesome stuff. :)
The NextBranch parameter is a decent idea (though I'm not sure why anyone would want to use it that way); the label idea is better, though it would be a bit of a pain to implement. I'll keep these suggestions in mind.
[spoiler=this]
Quote from: CraigStern on May 28, 2014, 09:41:01 AM
--laid some of the design groundwork for making status effects moddable (which would allow you to change the parameters of existing status effects and create your own)
[/spoiler]
This is what I've been waiting for for a long time.
Now I am content.
I was looking back through the Devlog... modding damage for tags and weapons having AddTag.. this seems like a juicy opportunity for a little plot twist where holding a particular stolen legendary weapon could make the hero more vulnerable to the boss's new version of that weapon when they return, or make the stolen weapon [that is otherwise really good] useless against the boss in the future. I like this. :)
Does the extended range allowed by the RangeBonus tag cause the damage of the attack to drop off even further for attacks that have this behavior?
Correct; it affects maximum range, not damage fall-off.
Will we be able to modify range and height bonuses/penalties on attacks? I'd like to be able to make some attacks have no range penalty, and maybe one or two with a bonus.
On that note, will attacks be able to both move a character and damage enemies? I'm imagining an attack where a cavalier or something charges towards an opponent, doing more damage the longer the run-up.
Also, I love how mod-friendly this seems to be. Also literally everything else about it. The Bahamut Lagoonesque field effects, moving stuff around the field, a relatively low-randomness system... It's awesome and beautiful.
Thank you! I appreciate it. :D
There is currently no way to turn off elevation effects on attacks, though you can easily avoid those by designing battlefields without elevated areas.
Quotewill attacks be able to both move a character and damage enemies?
I've been seriously considering adding in this capability, but it's not in the game yet. We'll see if I have the time to make it happen. ;)
Looking at the image (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg47085#msg47085) of the addition to attack reticles, it says -10/18.. What does that refer to? Seeing as the attack selected is "Sword" I'm assuming it has something to do with the health of the target.
Yeah, the "18" was total health. I quickly realized that that was confusing, so I reformatted them today into something much more readable: http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg47087#msg47087 (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg47087#msg47087)
Demo feedback:
+Great fun game.
+Very nice graphics.
+Cool magic effects
+Well drawn NPCs.
+Scales down super-nice to 1024x768 to be able see fonts better! Graphics remains crisp.
- Please can you create a settings option for the camera to JUMP immediately to an enemy unit - when in enemy turn - and remain centered on that enemy unit as long as it moves? The current quick-scrolling of camera to enemy unit is straining to the eye, prevents enjoyment of gameplay, made me dizzy. XCOM camera immediately centers on moving enemy unit and is absolutely a joy to watch, exactly what I wish Telepath Tactics could do.
- 2x Bigger fonts option in the settings for the dialogues window couldn't hurt for the PC. Maybe darken the marble-ish background behind a fonts a bit more.
- If you can make an option in settings to always place the actions window to the TOP of the screen (sword icon, end-turn, etc..) so a gamer doesn't always have to move it, when it blocks out the view [of a soldier].
- don't loop the music infinitely. Play once then stop. Create short soundtracks, like in XCOM. Pause music for a while then start again.
- redefinable shortkeys maybe, but this is a minor issue.
Hi Mercy. Welcome to the Sinister Design forums.
Thanks for your feedback. (By the way, I moved your message to the opinions thread.)
Let me just build on top of your bigger fonts suggestion and propose that we could have an option to select the font size from a list of options or even writing a number ourselves.
Thanks for the feedback, mercy! I appreciate it. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on September 10, 2014, 03:41:19 PM
though it could also be used for teleporters or other things.
This makes me happy.
Quote from: CraigStern on September 10, 2014, 07:29:43 PM
--created new room in the fortress with a bandit that you can gamble your money with! (And playing the exact same dice game as you played with Gamblin' Jack in Telepath RPG Chapter 1, no less.)
This makes me happy for different reasons. It's rather nice to see even a little bit of reference to the previous games beyond sharing a series name. I like this, very much.
Quote from: CraigStern on September 17, 2014, 08:32:39 AM
--new dialog trigger: OnLoaded. Runs the dialog just as soon as the level loads, right before the loading screen is removed. This lets you make changes to the level via scripts before the player is able to see them happening onscreen.
I think I might have actually done a fist-pump into the air when I read this. Did I? I did. Is OnLoaded run after Persistent Dialog?
It's run after PersistentDialog.xml is loaded, if that's what you mean. Which is to say, you can put an OnLoaded trigger in persistent dialog if you have a script you know you'll want to run at the very start of every battle.
That's exactly what I meant. Thank you! This just made one of my currently abandoned projects a little easier!
I laughed at the shadow-using gif, because my juvenile side made me imagine the shadow-user being slapped for being a groper.
Heh. Okay, that made me chuckle. :P
Attacks like Douse seem to be a little overpowered. In the Guard Llama campaign, it is all too easy to simply fireproof your units while leveling Anu Partymember. Maybe adding a limit to how long the effects last would solve it. After all, someone could only stay wet for so long.
Thanks for the suggestion; I'll keep that in mind for later balancing. ;)
Something I've noticed when playing around with attack configurations: It's actually possible to have a damaging attack heal its target. If one uses an attack from a far enough range, the attack ends up doing negative damage. Take my "Gaze" attack for example:
<Atk elem="Mental" name="Gaze" d="0" cst="1" minRng="1" maxRng="9" shkMag="0" skhTim="0" strD="0" powD=".75" defD="0" backstabFactor="0" sidestabFactor="0" selfHealFactor="0" selfFocusFactor="0" accMod="0" statFX="None" affects="Health" afterAtk="EndTurn" AOE="single" particles="Sparks" targeting="free" moveType="Normal" knockback="0" creates="" createdOnTeam="" dependsUpon="" impactFrame="-9" soundAndFX="SFX[Charge Up:0],SFX[Mind Blast:8],VFX[MentalEffect:OnTargets:12]" desc="Psych out your enemy"></Atk>
Starting at space 8 you begin doing --1 points of damage. At space 9 you begin doing --3. It's just something interesting I noticed a few minutes ago.
EDIT: This has recently been FIXED (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg47177#msg47177)
I'm having difficulty getting the OnCharSelect dialog trigger to work correctly. I've been using the instance of it in "Training" as a guide, but I can't seem to get it to cooperate, even when I simply copy/paste from Training into my test map.
Attach a copy of your test map and I'll look at it.
It's a sort of proof of concept map. I'm shooting at a GUI attached to relatively invisible dialog to alter certain variables within a campaign. While I love how powerful the dialog system is, I'm trying to use it in a way that's not as text based.
Sorry for all of the complaints. I'm likely just missing something obvious.
Ah! That's it. The documentation states that there is an optional second parameter for the character's name, but it doesn't seem to exist in the code. I'll fix that.
Just updated and removed the second "parameter" from the dialog trigger. It still doesn't seem to want to work. I think I might just be missing something.
EDIT: Interesting. I went into my CharClasses file and changed all of the unit speeds from 0 to 1. When I launched that particular map the "OnCharSelect" trigger started working.
I got my proof of concept map working: I managed to pull together a Graphical User Interface using dialog actions and triggers. This is just a basic one that I'm going to use in other projects, but it can be reworked to do basically anything.
I designed the arrow sprite sheet myself, and I'm kind of happy with how it turned out. If you want to see things as intended, you'll need to put DirArrow_REST in "\Data\Characters\REST" in your installation directory.
There's nothing after the Stat Selection map. You'll need to use Ctrl + Shift + Q to escape to the title screen
or Alt + F4 to close TT completely if you're on a PC.
EDIT: Corrected typos and logic errors in the map dialog.
I spent most of my day and night working on it, but I managed to put together a way for players to input text into the game! Because Telepath Tactics was lacking in the area of keyboard input, prompts such as "Name your character" were next to impossible. Not anymore! This particular instance of my mouse-based keyboard supports up to 11 characters, although it would be a very simple matter to increase that number to a relatively large amount. The keyboard features all 26 basic characters, a backspace button, and even a Capslock button!
One thing that I'm relatively proud of is the fact that none of the keys or buttons are expressly declared in "CharClasses.xml". Blank characters were spawned and then edited by scripts that run when you load the map. By blank I mean devoid of all but the basics such as sprites and specific names. (As a side note, my copy of the map I uploaded previously now runs on the same principle. They share a CharClasses file, and none of the buttons are declared inside of it.)
Ha! That's super-impressive; well done!
I'd be really interested to see the code for that. :D
It's probably not as efficient as it could be, but it's what I managed to push out in about 12 hours. When I get caught up on homework I might go through as see how I could optimize it. I'll PM you the map file.
What causes the game to generate a log? I've noticed that some runs it will and others it wont, but I haven't been able to determine the difference.
It runs a log if it notices an "uncaught error" (typically, something that causes the game to freeze). I also have it set to automatically generate a log whenever the game is paused with the 'P' key.
Quote from: CraigStern on December 14, 2014, 10:37:37 AMstat caps
If implemented, would it be something modders or campaign creators could change?
It would, yes.
Is there a method of negating the ranged damage penalty under certain circumstances, without creating separate instances of an attack at each desired range?
Not currently, no.
hi there ! I was asking..When i play, game become slower during the turns. Turn 1/8 it's ok but after it start to be laggy.
Maybe it's my computer, dunno...But whatever, it's a great game. Interesting background and normal mode is a good challenge.
Long time i've not played an exciting trpg. And it's only the begining of the game, mod probably coming !
Good job Craigstern !
Thanks! :)
I'm aware of the slowdown issue--I'm looking into ways to fix it. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, though!
It took a little bit of a workaround, but my Mouse Based Keyboard now supports a spacebar!
Ha! Well done. :D
You can get some rather interesting coloration effects by using negative intensity values on <Light> tags. Screenshot01.png is the map's default.
Whoa! Crazy.
I just noticed that the TT release date, April 16, is the 2nd anniversary of the successfully funded TT's kickstarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1426761469/telepath-tactics-a-strategy-rpg/posts/1145692).
I'm looking forward. :)
By the way, it might be a good idea to update the thread About Telepath Tactics (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?topic=918.msg37460#msg37460).
Done. ;)
Quote
Soon, you'll be able to have multiple campaigns in progress at a time!
Will this allow multiple instances of the same campaign, i.e. will I be able to have several saves of the same runthrough at different points?
It will!
Quote from: bugfartboy on March 13, 2015, 10:55:03 AM
Quote
Soon, you'll be able to have multiple campaigns in progress at a time!
Will this allow multiple instances of the same campaign, i.e. will I be able to have several saves of the same runthrough at different points?
Thank you Craig! That's literally been the only thing I keep worrying about. I like switching between my serious hardcore campaign where I don't ever let anybody die and my casual campaign where I don't care because they'll be revived next scene, so this change makes a huge difference for me!
Did you intend for a negative selfHealFactor to have no effect, or was it just something you just didn't implement?
It's been so long since I coded that in that I honestly don't recall. What's the idea: an attack that damages the user?
I was thinking direct health transference at some ratio or sacrificing the caster's own health to damage an enemy, but essentially yes.
I remember you said a VFX action was difficult to implement because of how the game is set up, but I had an idea. I don't know if it will actually work, but what about an action that causes a character to launch an attack at a specified coordinate relative to the caster? I have no background on how the game works under the hood, so it's just speculation.
Part of the problem is that the game is paused when in dialog mode, so it's very likely that the attack would not execute without me fiddling around in the code. Anyway, right now I'm stuck in the fresh hell of making Steam's rickety depot creation process play nice with the persnickety nonsense that is Mac OSX, so adding new features is gonna have to wait a wee bit. :)
Like I said, just a blind idea. I wasn't really expecting any new features the week of the release date anyway.
Have you been designing the more recent sprites (http://sinisterdesign.net/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1224.0;attach=1839;image) on your own? It seems like you just keep churning them out.
Yup! The artist that was doing all of the item graphics, Julia Buge, left the project quite some time ago. I've been handling all the new item graphics myself since that time.
Congratulations on your game release, Craig! I bought it at launch and have enjoyed every minute so far. It gives me so much nostalgia, and yet it's a different beast entirely from your other games. Please don't stop what you're doing!
Thanks! I'm really glad that you're liking it. ;)
Small question: Can you do something about stalemate situations in local matches? I once had a Photokineticist, a Psy Healer and a Stone Golem left vs. a lone Shadowling, who could cross the water to evade me forever, but he can't beat me in a straight-up fight, especially since the healer could easily undo all damage he does.
EDIT: Theoretically, the shadowling would win (map is Cone of Cold) since only he could really reach the items to boost his resistances and gradually soften the enemies with terror, up to the point where he could beat them easily with Mind Blast. But that would have taken hundreds of turns to pull off.
Yeah; in situations like that, item drops will generally end up resolving it. Either the shadowling will pick up items to get strong enough take out everyone else, or the other team will pick up steamthopters and such to pursue the shadowling with. :)
Now I'm just imagining a shadowling caked with lead and thermal paste, bearing several sets of armor and shields, struggling to stay afloat under all the weight.
Ha, pretty much. :D
I can't help but wonder if I could script something for that. Speed/movetype limitations based on items carried, used, and equipped. I think I'm going to look into this, now.
Although I have no idea how a shadowling would get around, if not by floating. Are shadowlings substantial enough to roll? I'd hope so, if they're substantial enough to carry all of that gear, even if one does give them access to hammerspace.
Telepath Tactics and Fire Emblem have weapons break after many uses. While it is realistic that weapon wear and break, I don't understand the point of the breakable weapon as a game mechanic. I find it frustrating to spend most of my gold on spare weapons instead on more interesting things such as armor and gadgets. Is there some balancing effect to this game mechanic that I'm not seeing?
It adds a resource management element to the game that isn't present otherwise. It forces you to make hard decisions with your available funds, it forces you to scavenge supplies off the battlefield whenever possible, and it incentivizes efficient fighting (sticking around a battlefield and grinding for experience is going to put a strain on your equipment).
Exception to that is simply surrounding the last enemy of the map and shoving them around, then healing whoever he attacks; exp all around with no weapon damage :P
What's the point of "Bases for Generals"? It seems to be promoted units instead of default ones, but their stats are identical to the unpromoted ones.
EDIT: Nevermind, it's a difference in Generals mode. Would love to see a Generals mod where you can choose which base classes your General can recruit (maybe even one where you start with just him and need to build up your army using his skills)
It would be nice if I could scroll over a character and see how many counterattacks he or she has. It seem like more work than it should be to right click on every enemy to see if they can counterattack or how many counterattacks they have left.
Quote7. found and fixed typos in the Meridian rescue mission that unintentionally rendered the task of killing all enemies much easier than I had intended. (Unless you're a tactical genius, you're basically supposed to flee the battle at some point.)
Killing them all was really hard though! Does this mean I'm a tactical genius? :o
Would it be possible to implement a recruitment/shop dialogue that's easier to edit? So that all you need to set up is the buyable recruits/items and you're good to go.
Quote from: LightningLord2 on April 29, 2015, 05:17:39 PM
Would it be possible to implement a recruitment/shop dialogue that's easier to edit? So that all you need to set up is the buyable recruits/items and you're good to go.
After taking a couple good looks at it, my answer would be "No." While you could definitely stream-line dialog to require less input from the player, the actual process would be tricky to simplify further without losing functionality. In reality: as long as you take a few minutes to understand how the shop dialog actually works, it's not too difficult to modify.
Small request for future update: How about a single six player map? I'm a little confused that there's a 3v3 mode in the menu but you can't play a map it's suited for.
Ahhh, right. I actually had a couple of 6-player maps (Archipelago and Hotfoot Cavern), but I wasn't happy with them, so I nixed them from the release. I'd really be curious to see if any of you guys can do a better job than I did and make a 6-player map that's genuinely good. ;)
Quote from: CraigStern on May 05, 2015, 04:14:19 PM
Hotfoot Cavern
Yeah. Hotfoot Cavern was... not your best work. :P Too many bridge tiles.
Also, I'd like to have an army setup option that brings up the deployment window for each player so you can place your dudes where you want them to be. Leave the setup option as it is right now, though, in case you want a faster game. However, I find it hard to plan my team when they might end up in a bad formation since I don't know where which unit will go on the map.
Quote
--added a sound effect to the game so it's really apparent when a character's weapon breaks.
Why not just pop-up text?
There already is pop-up text, but people sometimes miss it. Adding an audio cue on top of it will make it hard to miss. :)
Minor suggestion, that I don't think would be too difficult to implement. When a character isn't selected in a battle, have the Esc key bring up the menu. It's just a touch annoying to hit Esc to deselect a character, and then have to mouse over to the menu button when I could theoretically just press Esc twice for the same effect, and then again to automatically resume the game.
-EDIT-
Also: being able to press L on the main menu to generate a log. I've run into a few issues where the game dumps me back at the menu, and being able to generate a log to see what's going on would be nice.
Actually I think in general, when a log is produced, there should be two logs; one that details everything that happened in the last session of playing, and one that is just the current event/encounter. That way, if a bug happened earlier, and you didn't catch it, the session log would still detail it.
Quote from: Thaecrasis on June 04, 2015, 10:46:26 PM
one that details everything that happened in the last session of playing
The trouble with that is the log file would get to be absolutely
enormous. The current log files only store the last 999 steps taken internally, and even that's cutting down on details. If a log kept track of everything since the game launched, it would be a lot longer and a lot bigger. The last log I generated alone was 62.6 KB, and even that's a lot of stuff to sift through. Add too much more info and it would take forever to find where a bug occured. With this in mind, I think the current system works pretty well.
The size of the log doesn't matter too much, so long as you know approximately when the bug happened. You can just use ctrl+f and search the relevant information e.g. a character's name and look for specific cues. That's what I usually do when sifting through the logs anyhow.
It's not that it would be hard to find where the bug occurred so much as concerns about taking up too much of the player's disk space. Even at 999 lines, those logs can add up. If the game was generating 6 MB files every time an error occurred, that would be cause for concern.
A few smallish requests:
- An "EndTurn" action with the same effect as the "EndTurn" reply
- The ability to change the remaining character stats (hurtParticle, shadowType, shadowY, lighting, ctr, onDeath, and defaultAtkAnim) with the "SetStat" actions
The topic of this thread seems to have moved away from "general opinions", so I hope I'm not committing a faux pas here, but I did feel the need to express one thing: Though I was very pleased by the game overall, I'm rather disappointed that the focus was moved away from the namesake of the series. The main character isn't a telepath (at least not in the same way the previous protagonists were), and most of the classes are physical fighters. One of the things I found unique and interesting about the first Telepath RPG is that it reversed the RPG standard of fighters being default and casters being exceptional, but now that standard has reasserted itself: there are only two psychics in the initial party of 8, and there is only one shadowling and one spriggat in the entire playable cast. The setting and atmosphere feel a lot more mundane as a result, and I can't help but feel the game loses something because of that. The original Telepath RPG brought a lot of novel and intriguing concepts to the table, but Telepath Tactics...doesn't, really. You could replace psychic powers with magic and the shadowlings with orcs or demons and it wouldn't really change anything. I can understand if you were aiming for a more "low fantasy" approach, but the shift is still pretty jarring to me.
Sorry if this was brought up before, it's a large thread.
The "Done" button is my nemesis. I'll be undoing a long string of actions, just to accidentally click Done when it slides into the Undo spot. Could the Undo button maybe get greyed out or something when it's no longer viable, instead of just removing it entirely? It'd get the point across, while also reducing the chance of accidentally cementing a character in place for the turn.
Playing through the game (I'm further than I've ever been) I'm realizing just how serious the slowdown issue is. I didn't think much of the complaints before, but seeing it firsthand is scary. I'm really hoping a solution is found at some point.
Well, the slowdown is a lot better than it used to be, so that's something.
Quote from: bugfartboy on August 11, 2015, 01:34:58 AM
The "Done" button is my nemesis. I'll be undoing a long string of actions, just to accidentally click Done when it slides into the Undo spot.
You can Undo hitting the Done button.
Hey, I just bought this game today and near as I can tell, this is the unofficial "suggestions" thread. My entire history of this genre can be summed up with the words "Fire Emblem", so I hope it isn't some kind of sacrilegious for me to compare Telepath Tactics to that series.
I wanted to mention a couple of things that have me stumbling as a beginner in this game, to be taken either as suggestions or as requests for someone to point me in the right direction if they already exist and I missed them.
The biggest hurdle for me right now is with ease of access to information:
• Weapon durability is found only in the inventory and not during the attack action itself. With a lot of characters to keep track of, each with a couple of weapons, you end up navigating a lot of menus before every attack to ensure your weapons are okay.
• I haven't been able to figure out when an enemy is able to perform a counter attack, or even what range they have on their weapons
• I don't think it says anywhere what actions are free/minor/standard. Attacks tell you when they end the turn but pushes, laying traps, picking up items, using items, etc do not. Unless I had already learned otherwise, I found myself always assuming that the turn would end after doing anything, just to be safe. Similarly, it does not say what actions are undo-able.
• Selecting an enemy will show the squares they can move to, but not the squares they attack. Also, only one enemy is selectable at a time.
• Cannot easily compare two units together. Primarily this is a concern when trying to determine if an enemy unit has a good chance of hitting you. You can view your Hit% immediately when attempting an attack, but to see an enemy's Hit%, you need to open your stat screen and look at your Dodge% and then open the enemy stat screen and look at their Acc% and then do some math with those two values to determine the Hit%. A tedious task when there is a few enemies to check.
• There is no penalty for changing weapons mid-battle, but doing so is tedious to check which option is better. You need to choose attack, hover over target, check the stats, hit cancel, open inventory, select second weapon, select equip, press close, press attack, hover over target, and check stats again. That's 11 steps just to see your attack options on a single unit vs a single other unit.
I hope this doesn't sound overly critical, these are all quality of life things, but left me stumbling when trying to get in the flow of the game. I am really enjoying this game so far and wanted to post a couple of the things I was thinking about in my first few hours playing.
Quote from: FreudianLisp on August 23, 2015, 01:56:38 AM
• I haven't been able to figure out when an enemy is able to perform a counter attack, or even what range they have on their weapons
I can't speak for anything else, but right clicking on an enemy should bring up their info screen. Mid-screen (ish) should be a "Counterattacks" stat. If it isn't there, they aren't able to counter. Otherwise, it should tell you the number of counters they have left as well as their maximum per turn. Beyond that you'd need to dig into the campaign files to see all the details.
(This has given me an idea for a new side project. If it ever comes to fruition, I'll share it with the forums.)
Quote from: bugfartboy on August 23, 2015, 02:09:34 AM
Mid-screen (ish) should be a "Counterattacks" stat. If it isn't there, they aren't able to counter. Otherwise, it should tell you the number of counters they have left as well as their maximum per turn.
Oh, interesting, I guess I missed that. Is this counterattack stat the same for the player controlled characters as well? Do Emma and Sabrina have a limited number of counterattacks?
Yup! If I remember correctly all characters are hard-limited to 4 counter attacks unless defined differently in their corresponding file.
Note that, while this does show you what they use to counterattack with as well, it does not explicitly tell you their range. Usually it's pretty obvious -- you should know that Spear is 1-2 spaces, Bow is 2-4 spaces etc. -- but that is still a potential blind spot in the game.
I can agree that it would be nice to have easier access to information -- including attack range into enemy movement range, in particular, would be nice.
I agree that the game could stand to have some UI improvements, but directly copying Fire Emblem would not do the job, as Fire Emblem is actually way simpler in terms of what relevant information there is for the game to show you!
In Fire Emblem, for example, each weapon gives you access to a single type of attack and that's pretty much it, so it's easy to compare them directly; in Telepath Tactics, by contrast, attacks are not always explicitly tied to weapons, and switching weapons can change access to (and properties of) multiple kinds of attacks at once!
Likewise, directly comparing an attacker to the target is easy in Fire Emblem because there are no AOE attacks and only one character can conceivably counterattack; but in Telepath Tactics, certain attacks can hit 9 or more characters at once, and each of those characters could potentially counterattack. I could definitely improve the UI in this area to show more information, but making it work like Fire Emblem would not be sufficient to account for the much greater range of tactical situations you'll find yourself in in TT.
Showing enemy attack ranges would also be of somewhat limited utility in Telepath Tactics for similar reasons: since most characters have access to multiple attacks, many with differing ranges, you'd never be able to tell what attacks you're at risk of being hit by.
So, yeah; I'm definitely open to improving the UI, but it's not nearly as easy as it first looks. :)
Ah, yes, I guess it shows that I am only a couple hours in.
Would it work to list the range and different attacks available in the tooltip for each weapon as seen in the stat screen of the enemy / the tooltip on the player's attack buttons? The ranges are obvious on a lot of weapons like swords and axes, but not as obvious for things like the long range bow attack or some of the mages.
As for comparing stats, being able to open more than one stat window at a time would be incredibly handy.
My idea is to display a small icon on every enemy that can counterattack if you attack with the selected skill.
Ah, kinda like the little crosshairs icon that shows up on enemy infobars in XCOM 2 when you mouse over a tile a given unit could shoot them from when moving.
I replayed the game recently and would like to phrase my thoughts on the game:
On the plus side, I really enjoy the general engine of the game. You have a lot of ways to design a map, make much more use of positioning than in most tactical RPGs and having variable attacks gives classes and characters a lot of flavor. The map editor is also easy to use and let me have fun making various multiplayer maps.
However, the campaigns both felt rather weak. The Vengeance of Emma Strider had some nice ideas, but the execution was rather bland. I'm not very fond of dark and serious stories, mostly because the characters tend to become too much alike and many writers refuse to let positive and fun things happen. The character interactions in the campaign were only mildly interesting at best and forgettable at worst. Also, the maps are obscenely oversized, it takes a lot of turns just to get to the next batch of enemies. It doesn't help that the AI plays rather slowly and attack animations can't be turned off. After the rescue Meridian mission, it became so bad that I stopped altogether.
Guard Llama is much shorter, but it's overall still not very good - while I admit that I liked Lorenzo (particularly the Llama puns), most of the 'humor' is simply repeating tropes and claiming they're funny because they're blatantly spelt out. The final map also has the trouble of being rather big and taking a while to traverse - it's also easy to die to the final boss when not moving properly, making this lengthy map rather grueling. However, it having a puzzle map, a more unique main character and a legit funny ending makes it the better campaign overall.
I know I should finish the main campaign to properly review it, but it was so painfully long and tedious that I just couldn't do it. Not to mention that permanently crippling/losing units for a single mistake magnifies this problem even more.