Telepath Tactics single player campaign

[CraigStern]

Is the campaign mode going to be linear? Because that'd make me feel better for killing my sister, if there were no other way.

It's actually not possible for either sister to kill the other during the training map; they're just sparring, and in any event, the battle ends before it's mathematically possible for either one to bring the other to 0 health.

About unit balance and permadeath: I'm considering a sort of middle way where units brought to 0 health are wounded for a few battles, but can be used again once they recover. This would provide a nice penalty for screwing up without making things too lopsided, or requiring that the enemies always have inferior units.

That said, the game does support unique units, so there will likely be at least a few battles where your units outclass the enemy's.

[SmartyPants]

That said, the game does support unique units, so there will likely be at least a few battles where your units outclass the enemy's.

Will that mean that the enemy will have their own unique units like stationary energy golems and phantom armors?

[CraigStern]

They'll have unique enemies, but no energy golems. I don't have the time or the budget to commission a bunch of unique character graphics just for the campaign mode, unfortunately.

[CraigStern]

The first proper, large-scale battle of the campaign is now in-game and working!

Battle at Dawbry pits you against a large group of bandits raiding a small woodland village. The bandits outnumber you, but are both inferior to your own troops and scattered at the start of the battle. This battle makes full use of the much bigger map sizes supported by Telepath Tactics, as it takes place on a 40 X 15 playable area.

Battle at Dawbry is probably a little too daunting for players to start off with, so I'll probably go back and sandwich in a smaller skirmish beforehand to let players practice using their six starting characters.

[bugfartboy]

40 X 15 playable area

So how big a map can the game support exactly? 40x15 already seems much larger than TRPG2-3 and TPA1-2.

[CraigStern]

The engine gives you unlimited space. In theory, you could create a map that 9,999,999 x 9,999,999. (Of course, that would be basically unplayable, both from a mechanical perspective and a system performance perspective.)

[Ertxiem]

That sounds great, I mean the flexibility of map sizes. Not the fact that, in theory, we could build a maze like map of nearly 10¹⁴ squares and put there only 2 teams (perhaps even single units), one against the other. We would die of old age before finding the enemy!

[CraigStern]

We would die of old age before finding the enemy!

Well...if you turned on fog of war or didn't use the minimap, then yes.

[CraigStern]

All right! I've added in another short cut scene after the briefing to better introduce you to the characters and start building their relationships, followed immediately by a short, very easy battle where you can get the hang of using all six characters on your team.

The game then proceeds to Battle at Dawbry, which now features (1) some dialog at the start of the battle and (2) enemy reinforcements (not respawning like in TSoG--I mean actual reinforcements).

I'll try to record a video tomorrow showing the current state of the campaign.

[Chocobo_Fan]

Sounds great! I may end up buying TT after all. (Also, looks like a female protagonist! Hooray for gender equality!)

Do you plan to include any dialogue trees, or will dialogue be purely linear?

[CraigStern]

Dialog in the Telepath Tactics campaign mode is purely linear: I'm cutting out the exploration and choice-based stuff so I can get the game out in a reasonable amount of time. (It takes something like four times as long to write branching dialog as it does to write the linear kind; and then on top of that, you have to program the game to actually remember and react to the choices the player made, or else it just feels like an empty exercise.)

[Chocobo_Fan]

Ah well. I'm sure it'll still be interesting. :)

Kinda disappointed to see that only two characters of the initial party are psy-users once again, but I suppose I'll see how it works out.

[CraigStern]

This game supports armies of unlimited size--expect to see many more characters joining the force than you saw in previous Telepath games.

[Chocobo_Fan]

...As in, one of every available class? That would be awesome. :D :D :D

[ArtDrake]

When you say armies of unlimited size, do you mean the number of units from which you can select to participate in a battle, or the number of units you can select?