New content?

[Tunnel-Master]

Hello, fellow Telepath-players! I haven't played Servants of God for awhile now (not since May of 2012, I guess) and I was thinking about starting up a new character. I was wondering whether any new content has been added to the game since I've been on hiatus - new side quests, for example - or if the updates over the past year have primarily been bug fixes and the like.

Happy gaming!
-TM

[CraigStern]

Hey TM! It's mostly been bug fixes. There's more on that here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ce8je/i_am_the_guy_developing_telepath_tactics_ask_me/c9fotch

[–]TwistedTeacup 2 points 2 days ago

Also, this question is about SoG: The game has an oddly incomplete feeling to it, for example I seem to recall only getting one assassination quest when I sided with the assassins. Do you have any plans to polish it in a later update, or have you completely moved on from it?

[–]SinisterDesigner 4 points 1 day ago

So, here's the thing. SoG was a victim of its engine. I hadn't ever built anything that big before I took that game on, and the framework supporting it just wasn't up to the task. It took an enormous amount of time to add any content to SoG, even at the beginning; and by the end, the game took so long to build that I actually worried I'd break it by adding any more content!

This was actually one of the things that inspired me to start tinkering with a brand new, better-designed engine (which is what Telepath Tactics uses). I made a point to make adding new content to Telepath Tactics really, really easy precisely because of what a headache it was in the last game!

So, to answer your question: I'd like to add more content to SoG, but I have a feeling that that would end up being really, really tough.

[Tunnel-Master]

Ohhh, that is a bummer. But I finished my second runthrough about a week ago and I feel like the game has good replay value. I did have a couple of thoughts about (hopefully small) things that might improve it, though.

[spoiler] First off, the battle with Iblis is very interesting and challenging, depending on how powerful your team is when you take him on. However, the quest reward is not that great. Simply increasing the gold you receive after beating him might help, but I think a more interesting and logical consequence of defeating Iblis might be increasing the number of troops you have. After all, when Al'Salaam first turned you on to the quest, one of the reasons he gave for the importance of clearing out the scorpions in the lower tunnels was to improve morale; therefore, once the problem is dealt with, it might make sense for a few more people to enlist. Just a thought. In any case, I felt like winning just 150 gold for combating this demon of the desert was a little anticlimactic. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]The second thing: I decided to try receiving slightly different endings for some of the characters for my second runthrough, including Luca. I thought it might be interesting to see what happened to Luca if Rajav never entered the picture, so as an experiment, I decided to finish the game without completing the fourth crypt. And I was a little surprised when I got to the epilogue and I saw the same paragraph talking about how Rajav kept pestering Luca until they finally went on a date, even though my character this time around never met Rajav. (Never finished the third crypt, even.) Is there supposed to be a different ending for Luca in the event that you don't enlist Rajav?[/spoiler]

Those are my only two bits of criticism, though. I definitely enjoyed replaying the game with radically different initial stats for my character and - of course - a different elemental affinity once I reached that part of the game. And even though you're focusing more on Telepath Tactics at this point, with a little luck, tinkering with those two areas I mentioned above won't end up being excruciating or tedious work on account of the engine limitations, if you decide that the points are worth pursuing!

[CraigStern]

Thanks!

[spoiler]I probably didn't do a good job making this clear, but you only get the recruitment mission from Griffin after you've cleared out Iblis's cave; that's how you end up being able to get more troops out of it. I can definitely up the gold reward, though! :)[/spoiler]

[spoiler]That's a bug--you should definitely get a different ending for her. I'll look into it.[/spoiler]