Big list of weird questions and comments regarding the game

[Ayra]

First, sorry about this topic! I kind of like Telepath Tactics overall, but there's a few things sapping my enjoyment and I figure some answers could help.

1) Was there a campfire scene (Where you can talk to all characters) in the two chapters following the castle escape (the one where you build a bridge for Emma and the prisoners)? I know it's a strange question, but... My first try on that stage, I did a mistake and someone died. Restart. Second try, I got the drawbridge dropped on a character and they died (the bridge did not actually appear, just 1 of my units and 4 of the enemies that died). Third try, the drawbridge did not lower; I had built under where it's supposed to appear and then the game started going very slowly, before freezing entirely with Emma 2 squares away from the end. Fourth try I purposely built away from the drawbridge and managed to finish the mission through horrendous lag. Once the mission was over, I just a picture of Emma and Sabrina over a big gray box. It stayed there for about 10 seconds, then it switched to a discussion between the bad guys. I was fed up with the stage so I just continued on and ignored what I thought I missed.
The problem is that the same thing happened on the next stage (the apple gathering stage).... Then it just popped up to the merchant screen out of nowhere. I tried quitting the game at this point and redo the stage, but it had autosaved already so nothing to do there. I did get a few scenes (like Emma with her lover and nightmare scenes) but I really feel like I missed some important stuff.

Did I miss one of the big "talk with everyone" scene....? Those are pretty much the most important scenes and while I don't want to restart the game at this point, I really don't want to have missed one of those scenes.... The only one of those I've seen so far is the very first one.


2) Is there any permanent stat boosters of any kind? While Emma has about 8 base strength (before weapons) and over 50 hit points, Sabrina has 2 base strength and about 30 hit points. Both are around level 15 and Sabrina's damage is starting to become extremely pathetic. I know whetstones gives you +1 strength for 1 fight (at 50 gold each...), but is there any way to fix Sabrina's lacking strength besides crossing my fingers and hoping for the best? It's not as if I have the option to bench her...


3) What is the standard deployment limit later in the game?
and
4) Do you NEED mages or certain classes to get through the game?

I'm worried as all heck that I'm going to end up completely stuck later on in the game. One of my issues in Fire Emblem-like games is that I like too many characters and end up using too many so I'm trying to limit myself more here. The problem is way worse than usual in this game, mostly due to the fact that all chapters nowadays seems to have a deployment limit of 8 characters. Fire Emblem is generally 12+ characters; however here the characters vary a lot more in ability than in Fire Emblem due to their usable skills so the issue is much bigger here and underleveled characters are just going to be deadweight later on.

Here's my lineup (which I'm afraid is going to crash and burn entirely later on):
Emma (Required)
Sabrina (Required)
Louise (Main healer, has so many skills that she already breaks the interface just at level 15)
Madeleine (I've wanted an axewoman since forever in Fire Emblem, so she has to be in)
Lakshmi (She's Emma's lover, she has to get in. Plus I like having having a tough bow/crossbow user for once)
Meridian (She flies. I tend to have 2-3 pegasus knights each game + 1-2 draco knight; I love my fliers. And she's a must for chests).
Harynx (She flies too. Plus you can't mitigate damage too much in this game so a second healer is great)
Harriet (She's super tough, gains strength nearly all levels and has 1-2 range)

Harriet is the only one who seems to be replaceable in my team even though she's super-solid so far. The other two most likely canditates are Scarlet (Loved her though I dislike her utter lack of strength and counterattacks) and Gavrielle (shoot + move is great, 20 max hps at level 10 is not)... So I'm basically without an attack mage. Do I need one or will I be screwed with my current setup? Will I get more deployment slots later on (so that I should swap out some units to train more) or is 8 units the standard with only the occasional chapter (like the escape one) having more?


5) Emma's lover.
Well, I'm just curious actually; this one doesn't worry me. Both main characters are female: it's a very welcome change of pace, I approve. Emma's lover is another woman, great! I'm all for it.
What I'm curious about though is that Lakshmi is very easy to miss. She's sort-of hard to save depending on how she acts. What happens if she dies? Does Emma take someone else for lover, or does all those scenes simply not exist?

As a side note, I have to give two thumbs up at having so many female characters in this game. Generally, SRPG mostly have male characters with a few females, or half-half at best. This is one of the only ones I've ever seen with so many female characters (which was not an "harem" game) so it's a very welcome change, thank you!

[CraigStern]

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you like it. :)

To answer your questions:

1) There aren't any other scenes quite like the campfire scene, though character development gets sprinkled in more liberally once you're about to leave Coria.

2) No permanent stat boosters as such, though there are battle primers to level up characters. (You can also equip her with better weapons to try to make up for her low strength.)

3) Most late-game battles give you 12-13 characters, though the last battle gives you 18 deployment slots, so it's to your advantage to have leveled up a few second-string characters by that point.

4) You shouldn't need any one particular class to make it through the game, though I imagine you'd have a really tough time without psy healers.

5) Those scenes only exist for those two--she doesn't find someone else if Lakshmi dies or isn't recruited.

[Ayra]

Much appreciated, thank you!

It's fine regarding character development really: I was just afraid I had missed a big chunk of it due to that bug/issue.

Ah well for Sabrina... She's already carrying most of my best swords, so I guess I'll just have to hope she'll pick up the slack eventually. I wish she had Emma's Motivate skill (it's a great skill, but she's probably the best fighter overall on my team so she doesn't get too much use out of it).

Thanks for the information regarding deployment! I'll start using a few more characters instead of the same 8 all the time then (and hope it's not too late for them), which I don't mind at all since there's quite a few I like.

And kudos for Lakshmi: it's nice to see that decisions/recruitments actually change things in this game! It's more effort for you of course, but that helps in keeping a game more logical and consistent.

[Ayra]

*spoilers*

I just noticed that Teresa and Phoebe are not on my party roster... Thinking about it, I'm not sure if they actually were after the bandit fortress escape. Did I miss something to recruit them? I have the golem with me so it feels like they should be on my team too... Did they need to talk to the golem during the fight? Did it bug out (it's the chapter I got the weird gray screen at the end)? Or are they simply joining at a later date?

[Ayra]

Sorry for the triple post... Is there any ways to fix a saved game...?

I just got to the optional stage where Teresa and Phoebe needs protection. As soon as the stage starts, I get a "DEFEAT" instantly, probably because they don't appear in my party list. I don't have any other save so I'm completely screwed at this point in time...

[CraigStern]

Hm. I don't understand why they wouldn't have been added to the roster! To fix this, do the following:

--go to Telepath Tactics > Data > Campaigns > The Vengeance of Emma Strider > Maps > Generator Chunks > Dungeon
--open up Entrance.xml in a text editor (like Wordpad or Notepad++)
--in the following chunk of code...

Code Select Expand

<Dialog branch="0">
    OnLoaded/// [Set up area properly.]
    <Action>PlayLoop/None</Action>
    <Action>AddTagToArmy/1,Passive</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.1,Pick at Random</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.1,Pick at Random</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.1,Pick at Random</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.2,Pick at Random</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.3,Pick at Random</Action>
    <Action>ItemDrop/0.3,Golem Parts</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/99,RubbleDungeon,None</Action>
    <Action>RemoveObjective/???</Action>
    <Action>AddObjective/Defeat all enemies to win.</Action>
    <Action>AddObjective/Emma and Sabrina must both survive!</Action>
    <Action>AddObjectiveReticle/2,3,0xFFFFFF</Action>
    <Action>EndConvImmediately/</Action>
    <Reply>.../EndConv/</Reply>
  </Dialog>

...add these lines right after <Action>PlayLoop/None</Action>:

Code Select Expand

<Action>RecruitChar/Teresa:Dayo</Action>
<Action>RecruitChar/Phoebe:Wittler</Action>

[Ayra]

Thank you for getting back to me!

Unfortunately, it's not adding the units still and I'm getting the same problem. I think I've added the lines correctly; I've added some screenshots as well as the updated .xml file.

[CraigStern]

Darn. Okay--this might get a little dicey, depending on where it sticks them, but try adding this in addition to the lines I gave you before:

Code Select Expand

[code]    <Action>SpawnRandomly/0,Teresa:Dayo,Down</Action>
    <Action>SpawnRandomly/0,Phoebe:Wittler,Down</Action>[/code]

[Ayra]

That worked!!! Thank you very much! It has the slight drawback of making them spawn in random location (ie. surrounded by monsters away from the team), but since it's random I can just try until I get a workable layout. Onward!

[CraigStern]

Woo! Awesome. :D

[Chocobo_Fan]

Wait, sorry for necromancing this, but Emma and Lakshmi are supposed to fall in love? I definitely got that impression from them, but I never saw anything to that effect despite Lakshmi surviving until the end; her epilogue message was just about continuing to fight by Emma's side and find their meaning of life together, which definitely has that implication, but it's never explicitly stated. I would expect something in Emma's epilogue if so -- otherwise the relationship looks a little one-sided.