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

Niektory

one of some
Patron
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
808
Location
the great potato in the sky
Something weird happened to my inventory. Lord Dakarai and Lakshmi Bana's inventories got swapped, and Zimmer Thrawn copied Scarlet Etoile's inventory (his previous items disappeared). Using version 1.025.
http://i.imgur.com/eUuPq1G.png
http://i.imgur.com/rk0cx1S.png
Saves before and after it happened: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4m2m2rctf0ncwiz/TTwm.swf.zip?dl=0

Any chance for saving during battles? They can take an hour or more, being unable to save for that long is quite inconvenient.
 

Anthedon

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 1, 2015
Messages
4,497
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Not to mention when you fail towards the end of a battle and one of your mages gets backstabbed to death.
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
Version 1.026 is up! Changelog here. Character promotions are fixed, and I went to the trouble getting the game to support campaigns filled with recruitable generic characters, a la FF Tactics.

That pretty much wraps up the serious, easy-to-address bugs--now I get to focus on the inventory swapping bug and fixing performance during larger battles.
 

Niektory

one of some
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Joined
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Messages
808
Location
the great potato in the sky
One of my mages got instagibbed by a throwing axe from the front. I thought what the hell, it shouldn't do that much damage. Turns out mages have negative resistance to slashing attacks.
 

Anthedon

Arcane
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Joined
Jan 1, 2015
Messages
4,497
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Throwing axes are indeed powerful, my bandit lady regularly one-shots rogues and mages with them. And I seem to find a lot of them, but no other character can use them so far.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
RPS review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/04/29/telepath-tactics-review/

I appreciate that TT wants to be an Epic Quest Game as much as it does as Tight Tactics Game (and hey, maybe the mysterious Fire Emblem made bedfellows of All The Talking and All The Fighting), but I get too engrossed in the delicate balancing act of the battlefields to want quite so much wittering keeping that stuff at arm’s length.

It’s crying out for a mid-battle save function as well. I fear Telepath Tactics is trying to be all things to all roleplayers: an unforgiving perma-death affair with no takebacks and a grand timesink. For it to be the latter, the option to partition it into digestible pieces (for our busy modern lives/terrifyingly limited attention spans) needs to be there. I appreciate that quicksave/load risks ripping the heart out of what’s intended to be supremely tense and heavy with consequence, but even a sometime savescummer such as I knows that there’s infinitely more satisfaction to be had from winning The Right Way.

The UI is clunky and unattractive to the point of occasional irritation, but given TT’s humble origins I can’t get too hung up on the appearance side of it. However, little things like being able to double-click on an adjacent foe to perform a default attack would be wonderful time-savers, while having to watch over a dozen enemies take turns to slowly trek towards you is agony even on the so-called ‘instant’ movement speed. It’s fairly buggy at the moment too – the dev’s updating it almost daily, but right now expect to encounter random stuff like your units swapping inventories at the start of a match, the interface not loading, and all sorts. I’m very confident given the clear care (not to mention several years) that’s gone into the mechanics and the dev’s pro-active approach to community that the majority of tech gripes will get sorted out in time, but fair warning and all that.

The lack of online multiplayer – there’s local hotseat only – will be a disappointment to some, I guess. It’s not something I personally demand, but I am disappointed that there are limited maps and army setups for player vs CPU skirmish, which is the mode I’d otherwise be most likely to return to TT for. However, get me a skip dialogue/cutscene option and I’d be well up for jumping back to into the campaign and rolling with consequences of my terrible tactical thinking.

Telepath Tactics, appropriately, has a beautiful mind. The rest of it is harder to admire, but even so, this is a game that people who crave patience, precision and strategy from their roleplaying battles are going to take to their hearts. In its quiet way, this is a huge game – big fights, lethal consequences, wide array of combat possibilities… Fire Emblem fans would love it, probably. I wouldn’t know.

Telepath Tactics is out now, available direct from the dev, Steam or GoG.

:M
 
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HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Patron
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
1,655
Location
Germany
Divinity: Original Sin Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Telepath Tactics would even be good if the gfx were only ASCII letters and input via keyboard only.

RockPaperShotgun = filthy casuals
 
Unwanted

Hatred

Unwanted
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
477
Location
Pit of Despair
Telepath Tactics would even be good if the gfx were only ASCII letters and input via keyboard only.

RockPaperShotgun = filthy casuals

^This. I watched one of them playing PoE on YouTube and he was crying that easy was too hard.:retarded:
 

pakoito

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
"I wish I could say something about this except that if I understood it it may not even be bad. Here's another old game I didn't play either you can compare it too.

I don't play games anymore. Being 30 and with kids sucks. I should be doing something to stimulate my huge intellect instead.

Donate to my friend's patreons so they can commiserate too."
 
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vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
If Infinitron 's quote is the whole piece, I wonder why they didn't mention the strong female cast, lesbian innuendo and the definitely not sexualized representation? After all, that's what RPS cares about most of the time?
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
Ha! Hotkeys aside, I thought Meer's criticisms were mostly pretty fair. (That quote isn't the whole piece, thankfully.) I'm glad that he appreciated the mechanics--after the ridiculous judge feedback I got from submitting the game to Indiecade last year, it's been really gratifying to see reviewers recognize that the game is tightly designed.

Here's another thing you might enjoy: http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/29/8514995/telepath-tactics-gameplay-overview-lets-play
 

Archibald

Arcane
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
Messages
7,869
Ha! Hotkeys aside, I thought Meer's criticisms were mostly pretty fair. (That quote isn't the whole piece, thankfully.) I'm glad that he appreciated the mechanics--after the ridiculous judge feedback I got from submitting the game to Indiecade last year, it's been really gratifying to see reviewers recognize that the game is tightly designed.

What was the feedback if its not super top secret?
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
What was the feedback if its not super top secret?

Two of the three judges stated that they enjoyed the game, but all three of them were apparently of the opinion that Telepath Tactics did nothing new or interesting to warrant inclusion in the festival (which seems absolutely crazy to me, but whatever). One of them bolstered this conclusion by stating that Pokemon had featured block-pushing puzzles many years prior. Another accused me of throwing as many systems into the game as I could without giving any thought to design, which I thought was especially curious given that I'd linked to this pretty clear explanation of the game's design philosophy in the submission materials.

I wasn't impressed by the feedback, basically; it suggested to me that the judges either did not give sufficient time or thought to the game, or else that they had such an inadequate baseline familiarity with the genre that they honestly could not understand the significance of opting for a complex deterministic system over a simpler system with constant die rolls. By contrast, Meer clearly gets it--and that feels like a small victory to me. :)
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Telepath Tactics would even be good if the gfx were only ASCII letters and input via keyboard only.

RockPaperShotgun = filthy casuals
Ironically, I think Alec Meer is the least casual of the RPS losers. He was at least able to get through some part of Blackguards.
 

mindx2

Codex Roaming East Coast Reporter
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Joined
Feb 22, 2006
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4,389
Location
Perusing his PC Museum shelves.
Codex 2012 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire RPG Wokedex Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'm slowly playing my way through this and I'm now at the Thieves Bar & Grill level. Here are just a few quick thoughts on the game so far:

+ Having never played a "Tactics" type game before I'm really enjoying the combat. I usually play each map at least twice since I end up dying or losing one of my party members that I hate to lose (like the thief)
+ even though I have no control over my characters stats on leveling up it doesn't really bother me. Every time I see the level-up sign pop over one of my characters during a battle I can't wait to click on them to find out what new neat little ability they've earned.
+ Love the fact that I'm always outnumbered as it makes victory that much sweeter.
+ Enemy AI is pretty good and they almost always go after my spell casters (healers, pyros, etc.) unless I position them safely behind my tanks.
+ Resources (money & supplies) are scarce which makes trying to get to that last chest on the map nail-bitingly hard. Do I try to go for it knowing I may use up some of my precious healing items just to get a few extra coins to hopefully have enough to buy a new lance?
+ So far there have been a large number of mission variety from simple survival by killing everyone on the map to infiltrating a stronghold and fighting your way out to just trying to cross a bridge to get to the other side.

- Weapons have a finite number of uses and that can be frustrating as resources are so scarce especially when one runs out in the middle of a battle.
- Since some maps are huge it can take forever for all the enemy units to make their moves even on the "instant" setting.
- Battles can be longggggggg (sometimes over an hour each) with no way to save during these battles.
- The game can feel a bit exhausting going straight from one battle to another with no break or exploration between them. There have been a few "interludes" where I get to talk to my party members and get to know them but honestly, they're all pretty much one dimensional caricatures of fantasy tropes. I find myself playing one, maybe two maps, then taking a break until the next day.

* Last observation which is really neither positive or negative: This is a women's world without a doubt. As of right now I think I have a dozen party members with only two men. Even the NPC characters we're introduced through cut-scenes are almost all female. It got to the point of almost comical when another character was being introduced and it was another female. It almost felt as if Craig was trying too hard by over representing the fairer sex even to the point of throwing in a lesbian romance. I feel these actually distract from the narrative and feel "forced." Maybe this balances out as I get further into the game...

Overall, I'm enjoying the game and when I'm not playing I find myself thinking about my last battle and how I should take different party members or deploy them differently to get better results. I would certainly recommend it to all our combat oriented Codexers around here.
 
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Mustawd

Guest
Spent 5 hours this weekend and today so far (which lately is 4 hours more than usual :negative: ). Quick thoughts:

-Totally not for the casual gamer. Played the tent defense map twice (30 mins a pop) and got my butt kicked both times. For me the difficulty level is just about right.

-Lack of in game save function prevents me from playing this more. Knowing that I need to possibly invest 35-45 minutes per map attempt at a minimum can make it hard to get into. I'm a busy guy, and would prefer a way to save in-game but not save scum (I.e. i die and in-game save is deleted).

-I like that I can lose some companions and still be effective. Makes consequences matter, but discourages save scumming (unless you"re mindx2 of course :troll:)

-Leaving guys out in open by themselves is asking to get killed. Brings back memories of X-Com, Always a good thing.

-Smart AI goes for my injured guys. Very cool. bit of weird AI sometimes has them go to damage traps that are not relevant. Otherwise, AI is pretty believable.

-Game slows down a bit during big battles. Much less so now with the most recent patch.

-Resources are scarce. I'm unfortunately now used to mainstream games where you can shop after every fight. Now, I'd give my left testicle for a cache of bandages.

-I second Mindx2's mention of going from one exhausting battle to the next. Not sure what you could add to break it up (for example, X-Com had base management), but it's there. My current approach is each play session = one battle. Played two back to back during the weekend, and while extremely satisfying, it kind of wore me out mentally. This might just mean I'm getting old though.

-When I'm not playing, I think about how to beat the last map that kicked my butt. So you're doing it right. Great effort on this game Craig. I can tell it'll be my next go to for tactical gameplay for the near future.

-Can't wait for the naked mods....
:codexisforindividualswithgenderidentityissues:
 
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Mustawd

Guest
* Last observation which is really neither positive or negative: This is a women's world without a doubt. As of right now I think I have a dozen party members with only two men. Even the NPC characters we're introduced through cut-scenes are almost all female. It got to the point of almost comical when another character was being introduced and it was another female. It almost felt as if Craig was trying too hard by over representing the fairer sex even to the point of throwing in a lesbian romance. I feel these actually distract from the narrative and feel "forced." Maybe this balances out as I get further into the game...

Can't wait for the naked mods....

:M


Seriously, the amount of female characters doesn't really bother me all that much. It's two hardcore sisters with a gang of other hardcore women fighters and a couple of guys (for breeding purposes). What's the problem again?

Maybe it's me but I'm slowly getting bored with the sausage-fest that most rpgs tend to be.
 
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Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
For those of you who inexplicably don't look at the front page of SinisterDesign.net every single day, a heads-up: the Telepath Tactics Soundtrack has been released! It's $5 and has more than an hour of music in it. Highly recommended. (Note that I don't actually make money from soundtrack sales--proceeds from soundtrack sales go to the composer, who richly deserves them.)
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
More news! The game has a free demo out now. (One that's actually kinda representative of the finished product, and not the super old alpha demo from the Kickstarter.)
 

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