KickStarter Telepath Tactics Liberated - deterministic tactical RPG inspired by Fire Emblem

[Zetor]

I have made it my personal mission to save both caravan guards in mission 3. (cue Rocky training montage)

e: also, chests being left behind unless you loot them in combat is going to give completionists an aneurysm and/or a permanent facial tic. I think I like it, though.

 

[Infinitron]

So, Codex Steam Curator worthy?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

If I say yes, will you renounce your brofists?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Somebody should do a Codex review. Zetor?

 

[Zetor]

Tempting, especially considering my love of SRPGs... but my next few weeks are going to be waaay too busy. I may step up if nobody else is interested, though!

(Random aside : apparently 'zetor' is a word in the lizardman language... )

 

[Anthedon]

I have made it my personal mission to save both caravan guards in mission 3. (cue Rocky training montage)

e: also, chests being left behind unless you loot them in combat is going to give completionists an aneurysm and/or a permanent facial tic. I think I like it, though.

And there are thiefs that steal chests if you don't get to them quickly enough. At least on the battle I just played it worked that way.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I have made it my personal mission to save both caravan guards in mission 3. (cue Rocky training montage)

You should, because

Spoiler

if you save the crossbow lady, you get an extra mission

Some more impressions

• For people who thought that Blackguards on easy was hard, this game isn't for you
• The game isn't holding your hands – the tough gal's axe broke and you don't have spare axes, well all she can do now is serve as a punching ball for the next couple of missions
• I'd like the option to toggle health / energy bar visibility – it's a bit tedious to mouse over everyone to get their status
• Technical: If you switch between fullscreen and window mode during a battle, the action bar window can end up unreachable outside the visible area
• Even more strong womyn now: I'm at one guy and 8 gals at the moment and a 9th is en route
• Even apparently minor characters (like the aforementioned crossbow guard)
  Spoiler

  can trigger extra missions
• Characters get lots of different abilities, for now at nearly every level up
• The missions can be hard, but not "I need to reload and hope for RNG luck" hard – thanks deterministic mechanics ;-)
• I like the addition of non deterministic mechanics (chance to dodge), they add a little bit of RNG excitement for people like me who like a bit of randomization, but they don't become a "I need to reload for RNG luck" incentive.
• In 5 missions I already used more traps than in Blackguards 1 und 2 combined

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Hey guise, make sure your Adobe AIR is up to date and all.

 

[summerloud]

Oh it's AIR? It looked good but...don't call me, I'll call you.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh it's AIR? It looked good but...don't call me, I'll call you.

Come on bro AIR is but a 16 mb dl.

 

[summerloud]

Oh it's AIR? It looked good but...don't call me, I'll call you.

Come on bro AIR is but a 16 mb dl.

How does it honestly compare to classics of genre like FFT? Is it hard? AIR just raises all my warning flags...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh it's AIR? It looked good but...don't call me, I'll call you.

Come on bro AIR is but a 16 mb dl.

How does it honestly compare to classics of genre like FFT? Is it hard? AIR just raises all my warning flags...

Soz bud, I ain't done played FFT, and I haven't started this yet because work, bought purely because I enjoyed the demo.

Also-

Well, I bought it, even though I don't really have the time to play much.

First superficial impressions:

• Keyboard shortcuts ftw.
• Graphics are serviceable, maybe more distinguishable characters would be better, fonts are a bit on the tiny side.
• Performance is a bit iffy (is it an AIR game?)
• Lots of strong women (your first group is 5 women and one guy)
• Lots of missable treasure (chests and drops on the battle map) – might lead to some kiting to pick everything up
• Backstab mechanic seems a bit strange at first (lots of running around behind the enemies every turn) (no ZOC)
• Story leaves you (intentionally) kind of clueless, but moves on a nice pace, so you don't have the time to wonder
• Already some fun ideas in the writing
• Battles are fun so far (permadeath on normal difficulty)

You should, because

Spoiler

if you save the crossbow lady, you get an extra mission

Some more impressions

• For people who thought that Blackguards on easy was hard, this game isn't for you
• The game isn't holding your hands – the tough gal's axe broke and you don't have spare axes, well all she can do now is serve as a punching ball for the next couple of missions
• I'd like the option to toggle health / energy bar visibility – it's a bit tedious to mouse over everyone to get their status
• Technical: If you switch between fullscreen and window mode during a battle, the action bar window can end up unreachable outside the visible area
• Even more strong womyn now: I'm at one guy and 8 gals at the moment and a 9th is en route
• Even apparently minor characters (like the aforementioned crossbow guard)
  Spoiler

  can trigger extra missions
• Characters get lots of different abilities, for now at nearly every level up
• The missions can be hard, but not "I need to reload and hope for RNG luck" hard – thanks deterministic mechanics ;-)
• I like the addition of non deterministic mechanics (chance to dodge), they add a little bit of RNG excitement for people like me who like a bit of randomization, but they don't become a "I need to reload for RNG luck" incentive.
• In 5 missions I already used more traps than in Blackguards 1 und 2 combined

 

[Anthedon]

Played about 6 hours now (on Normal, the highest difficulty). It certainly is hard, there hasn't been a battle I won on the first try in a long time. The freeze spell seems overpowered though, it works on every enemy so far and can be used as often as you have the energy points for it.


The inventory needs work, managing the gear of a small army of characters is going to be very tedious. The game itself runs fine, didn't notice any technical problems in my six hours of playtime.

 

[mastroego]

The inventory needs work, managing the gear of a small army of characters is going to be very tedious.

Sweet music to my ears...

 

[Elthosian]

...

Sup Craig, been playing this a few hours and after beating the first optional chapter I've got to say it's quite the enjoyable tactics game, but...

Spoiler

While playing said mission to rescue the winged black thingie I managed to kill every enemy including the leader thereby finishing the mission instantly prior to releasing the character I had to save, as a result I had no scenes or conversations whatsoever regarding said event and I'm now at the following main story chapter. Is that normal even when doing the mission "right" and going for the prisoner first or will the game assume I failed to rescue her? :/ Because now I can't even go back to retry it and it would be a real bummer.

 

[Craig Stern]

...

Sup Craig, been playing this a few hours and after beating the first optional chapter I've got to say it's quite the enjoyable tactics game, but...

Spoiler

While playing said mission to rescue the winged black thingie I managed to kill every enemy including the leader thereby finishing the mission instantly prior to releasing the character I had to save, as a result I had no scenes or conversations whatsoever regarding said event and I'm now at the following main story chapter. Is that normal even when doing the mission "right" and going for the prisoner first or will the game assume I failed to rescue her? :/ Because now I can't even go back to retry it and it would be a real bummer.

Spoiler

Ha ha, seriously? I've only heard of one person managing to win that battle that way, and I added in a final wave of way-too-hard enemies afterwards to ensure that that would never happen again! I guess I need to go back and add in a script to account for some master strategists among the playerbase. :D

 

[overtenemy]

Spoiler

Having just played it and run away, I didn't get any dialogue with the Spriggan either. I assumed it'd be handled after the next battle or something. Hope its not a bug.

Also, it doesn't seem difficult to clear the rescue mission in retrospect. You are given plenty of turns before the bandits come and can easily rush through the first group and take the hill. By the time Gulch is actually managing to get to you, everyone on the map should be dead, save for a few in the southeast and obviously the horde in the Northeast, who then have to fight into your three archers on the hill. If by the way-too-hard enemies you meant the level 7 spearmen with 28 HP, I don't think they'd present too much of a problem. There's too few of them, their damage wasn't stellar and they don't even counterattack if I recall correctly. The only preparation I reckon anyone would have to do in order to succeed is make sure every character has extra bandages because the damage from Gulch's crew would be a tad much to deal with before they get thinned out. Sort of kicking myself for not buying more bandages. The steel weapon Gulch had looked nice.

 

[Eyeball]

Is this game entirely linear or at least somewhat freeroamy?

 

[HiddenX]

So, Codex Steam Curator worthy?

yes

 

[Elthosian]

...

Sup Craig, been playing this a few hours and after beating the first optional chapter I've got to say it's quite the enjoyable tactics game, but...

Spoiler

While playing said mission to rescue the winged black thingie I managed to kill every enemy including the leader thereby finishing the mission instantly prior to releasing the character I had to save, as a result I had no scenes or conversations whatsoever regarding said event and I'm now at the following main story chapter. Is that normal even when doing the mission "right" and going for the prisoner first or will the game assume I failed to rescue her? :/ Because now I can't even go back to retry it and it would be a real bummer.

Spoiler

Ha ha, seriously? I've only heard of one person managing to win that battle that way, and I added in a final wave of way-too-hard enemies afterwards to ensure that that would never happen again! I guess I need to go back and add in a script to account for some master strategists among the playerbase. :D

Spoiler

Well while it's a big challenge, like overtenemy explained it's not impossible, though I must say I did get quite lucky when Emma got reduced to 1 hp and had to be sent to the backlines until the healer girl got enough energy, but again that would not have been a problem if I had bought more bandages earlier :l

Anyways, excellent battle, lots of opportunities to use traps + grapple/pulll abilities, with the most dangerous enemies being no doubt the pyromancers which can deal 20+ dmg if taking burnt effect damage into account, not to mention the small units that try to flank you if you stick to the southeastern area of the map limiting your capability to kite the main groups.

Btw, can't help but to praise the deterministic approach you took, lack of excessive RNG influence makes me feel much more in control of the situation & responsible of my mistakes while the AI does an excellent job* in forcing me to double check placement, facing and enemies I am going to kill at every turn

*Except for those derp moments when it wastes attack opportunities by trying to move units farther from the frontlines first, sometimes even sending them away from combat because the chars it has not moved yet block the way.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1426761469/telepath-tactics-a-strategy-rpg/posts/1202523

Hey guys! I've been getting lots (lots) of emails since yesterday, and it's taking a ton of time to go through them all, so sorry if yours doesn't get answered right away!

There are a few things that I've been getting asked pretty consistently, so I'm just gonna post the answers right here for everyone to see!

• Question 1: When am I getting my Steam / GOG key?
• Answer: If you don't have it already, the answer is almost certainly "today"! Keep an eye on your email inbox.

• Question 2: Why won't the game load on Linux?
• Answer: I did some weird capitalization stuff with a few key files, and Linux is apparentlyreally sensitive about file capitalization. Not to worry, though--I've now uploaded a fixed version! Just download it from the same link you already have, run the installer, then select Replace. That should do the trick.

• Question 3: It says the installer is damaged. What do I do?
• Answer: Update AIR.

• Question 4: Why are you so handsome, Craig?
• Answer: I don't know! It's just one of those mysteries yet to be unraveled by modern science.

...okay, I made that last one up.

Anyway! I hope you all are enjoying the game--I'm going to get to work on sending out the remaining keys riiiiight meow.

--Craig

 

[Roguey]

So another jouisseur title succeeds where Josh failed, pity that I don't want this AIR crap on my computer.

 

[Infinitron]

Doesn't Steam just auto-install it the same way it does with Microsoft C++ Redistributables? If not, it should, Craig Stern

 

[Anthedon]

Doesn't Steam just auto-install it the same way it does with Microsoft C++ Redistributables? If not, it should, Craig Stern

Had to do a manual install on my machine (Win7 x64).

 

[pakoito]

Craig Stern the game is barely playable windowed due to the UI not displacing with window size changes. On my 15" 1366x768 I usually play on windowed 800x600, but in TT the controls are out of boundaries.

Is this something you can look into?