Voidspire Tactics

[Mustawd]

OK, I need to drop this for a bit men. I'll be pretty busy for the next few weeks as quarter end will be starting on Monday. Hopefully, I have some time to continue my playthrough.

 

[Turchil]

Is Voidspire Tactics skipping the steam sale?

 

[Eldiran]

OK, I need to drop this for a bit men. I'll be pretty busy for the next few weeks as quarter end will be starting on Monday. Hopefully, I have some time to continue my playthrough.

No problem; as long as the reason for dropping it isn't boredom, I'm content : P

Is Voidspire Tactics skipping the steam sale?

Yeah, VT went on sale about a month ago, so I figure it hasn't been long enough to put it back on sale again.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Kinda flawed logic since people binge buy on sales, regardless whether they follow the product or not

 

[Eldiran]

Possibly. I just want to be sure that people who show up after a sale, then buy the game at full price, don't feel shafted by the game going on sale again in a week.

Whether that's the ideal strategy or not I don't know yet. I'm feeling this indie dev thing out as I go.

 

[railway]

Picked this up in the recent sale and just started playing. Naturally I'm still at the beginning of the game but I like what I've seen so far. Reactivity and magic system remind me of Ultima or Divinity: OS. The class system looks nice, too.
Though to be honest I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't read about the game in this thread. Mostly because of the graphics, which look kind of like a RPGMaker game at first glance. On closer inspection Voidspire doesn't actually look bad at all (in fact I would be glad if the game I'm working on myself ended up looking half as good), I simply didn't expect such complex and interesting mechanics in a game looking like this.
Or, in other words, the problem isn't that Voidspire looks bad but that it looks a bit similiar to many awful indie games.

Eldiran : I encountered one bug, though. Overwriting savegames doesn't work for me. At least when manually saving, autosaves appear to be working just fine.
I just get an error message:

Error: Can't save/load C:\[...]\Roaming/Voidspire Tactics/Saves/save1\saveData.txt

I checked and the files are not read-only. One thing I noticed is the mix of forward and backslashes in the error message, could that cause any problems?

 

[Eldiran]

Glad to hear you're liking it! And I agree on the graphics. Voidspire looks a lot better in motion, but in stills, the repetitive tiles and RPGMaker-y style is what shows the most.

Agh, that bug. I've been trying to figure it out forever, but I can't replicate it at all. Thanks for checking if it was read-only. The slashes shouldn't be important.

If you have the time I have a ton of questions:

• What version of Windows are you running?
• Does the bug happen every time you try to manually save?
  
• Does saving work if you use a new name for the save?
  
• Do you have Antivirus software on your computer?
  
• Are you running other programs at the same time as Voidspire Tactics?
• How is your computer's performance with other games? (just a vague "it runs slowly/quickly" is good enough info for me)

I'd really love to get this bug fixed, especially before the next game comes out.

 

[Goromorg]

I'm having a blast with your game, bro!
Haven't finished yet because I restarted a couple of times in attempt to make an invincible team.
Managed to defeat that Grand Magus de Anonyme at the first meet (normal difficulty, doubt it would be feasible on other difficulties).

proof

Is this a tactical achievement?

P.S. I heard this game is inspired by final fantasy tactics? Never played anything from that series, should I give it a go?

 

[Eldiran]

Nice! That is an achievement. Clearly your restarts are working : )

If it matters to you, looks like you're running an older version of Voidspire. These are the latest changes you're missing out on. (Saves are stable between versions if that's a concern.)

P.S. Maybe! The original Final Fantasy Tactics has a great, deep plot, and very fun combat & class mechanics. No exploration though, and I personally have a few complaints about its XP system.

FFTA and FFTA2 drop the ball in many ways, IMO. They aren't nearly as good as FFT.

 

[Goromorg]

I think you should buff all melee classes for your next game, Eldiran. Currently they are not quite on par with sorcerer, sage, spell archon. They need something like passive damage mitigation, lifesteal or health regen. Unmaker and gatekeeper could use a buff too. A shame that gatekeeper can't store a bike in other dimension

 

[Eldiran]

The melee classes can actually get really brutal if you focus your weapon skills and attack power - you can do upwards of 50 damage per attack. I do think Spell Archon is a bit overtuned though. Extra damage, potent statuses, AND no charge time is crazy good.

Sage is also in a problem place because nothing else provides enough healing to compete. Unmaker ain't bad, but I'd like to improve some of its weaker abilities.

And I agree. What Gatekeeper needs is Gate: Bike. : )

If only it weren't extremely buggy to use the bike in areas other than the Machine Graveyard...

 

[railway]

If you have the time I have a ton of questions:

• What version of Windows are you running?
• Does the bug happen every time you try to manually save?
  
• Does saving work if you use a new name for the save?
  
• Do you have Antivirus software on your computer?
  
• Are you running other programs at the same time as Voidspire Tactics?
• How is your computer's performance with other games? (just a vague "it runs slowly/quickly" is good enough info for me)

I'd really love to get this bug fixed, especially before the next game comes out.

Please excuse the late answer.
I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64bit.
The bug happens everytime I try to manually overwrite an existing save. Creating a whole new savegame does work fine, autosave and quicksave work as well (which is odd as overwriting old saves happens here, too).
I do have antivirus software but the logs don't show anything concerning Voidspire. Still, I will try deactivating it before running the game - just can't do it right now, it will have to wait for next week.
I'm only running Voidspire and Steam (+ antivirus).
My computer isn't the newest anymore. Performance obviously depends on the game. New(-ish) games with high processing and/or graphics demand would run slowly but it had no problems running Divinity: OS and Wasteland 2 for example (albeit on low graphics settings).

On a different note: I have finished the game now and loved it. It just kept getting better and better. Exploration is fun, the game really begins to shine once you're at the machine graveyard and the map opens up.
Great combat, too, with several memorable encounters (fighting a horde of animals near a giant tree on small islands in a swamp with lots of jumping over water; a pyrrhic victory against a sea creature after which two of my own fighters were dragged underwater and vanished).
The class system is great, the many possible trait and class combinations allow for lots of experimenting and replayability.
I like how low-level spells stay a valid option throughout the entire game by the way. The trade-off between stronger spells and longer casting times is a good touch and nicely balanced, I think.
Besides the saving issue I didn't really encounter any bugs - Steam achievements didn't unlock but I don't really care for that.

The ending came a little sudden to me even though it is stated clearly enough that collecting all aerostones is the ultimate goal. Guess I just didn't want the game to stop.
Your next game will probably be a day-one-purchase for me, really looking forward to it.

 

[Eldiran]

Please excuse the late answer.

No problem, the info is still super useful! I appreciate you looking into the antivirus, too.
If you can run Divinity: OS at all then performance shouldn't be the issue.

On a different note: I have finished the game now and loved it. It just kept getting better and better. Exploration is fun, the game really begins to shine once you're at the machine graveyard and the map opens up.
Great combat, too, with several memorable encounters (fighting a horde of animals near a giant tree on small islands in a swamp with lots of jumping over water; a pyrrhic victory against a sea creature after which two of my own fighters were dragged underwater and vanished).
The class system is great, the many possible trait and class combinations allow for lots of experimenting and replayability.
I like how low-level spells stay a valid option throughout the entire game by the way. The trade-off between stronger spells and longer casting times is a good touch and nicely balanced, I think.
Besides the saving issue I didn't really encounter any bugs - Steam achievements didn't unlock but I don't really care for that.

The ending came a little sudden to me even though it is stated clearly enough that collecting all aerostones is the ultimate goal. Guess I just didn't want the game to stop.
Your next game will probably be a day-one-purchase for me, really looking forward to it.

I'm glad you liked it! It's especially good to hear it doesn't drag later in the game. Pacing is something I was worried about. I'm also glad the low-level spells stayed useful - I specifically wanted every class to be viable for the entire game.

Steam achievements not unlocking is another mystery bug I can't replicate but need to tackle.

And yeah, the ending isn't exactly profound. Would you believe my initial plan was for the game to be 12 hours long? It ended up more like 17 for a normal playthrough, but people seem to want more, so I guess that was a good mistake to make : )

I'll be sure to post here with any news on the next game! I'm just chugging along on it right now.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

And yeah, the ending isn't exactly profound. Would you believe my initial plan was for the game to be 12 hours long? It ended up more like 17 for a normal playthrough, but people seem to want more, so I guess that was a good mistake to make : )

Hey, what was the plotline in Tetris? If a game is fun enough, it doesn't even need a story. Serviceable writing is all we really ask for -- there's no need write your own video game Ulysses. (Though, if a video game Ulysses is, in fact, what you're shooting for, all the power to you.)

 

[Eldiran]

Hey, what was the plotline in Tetris? If a game is fun enough, it doesn't even need a story. Serviceable writing is all we really ask for -- there's no need write your own video game Ulysses. (Though, if a video game Ulysses is, in fact, what you're shooting for, all the power to you.)

Someday! Someday I'll make my life-changing magnum opus morality play. But for now I'll just make fun games. : P

 

[ColCol]

Hey, what was the plotline in Tetris? If a game is fun enough, it doesn't even need a story. Serviceable writing is all we really ask for -- there's no need write your own video game Ulysses. (Though, if a video game Ulysses is, in fact, what you're shooting for, all the power to you.)

Someday! Someday I'll make my life-changing magnum opus morality play. But for now I'll just make fun games. : P

Speaking of games, how is the newest projecting coming along?

 

[Eldiran]

It's coming along alright!

That said, I'm pretty much sick of procedural level design. Thankfully I'm near the point where I get to make all the handmade custom areas, so that will be refreshing. It's great to have the functionality of procedural levels in the engine, but it's just not much fun as a dev to work with.

Most of the creature types are done; soon I'll be tackling the new classes. I have some fun ones planned, and will hopefully be able to give a more satisfying selection to melee characters. (Voidspire had a fair bit more mage classes than physical.)

 

[Rivmusique]

Just finished my first playthrough, had a ton of fun. I didn't really experiment much with classes, everyone stayed with a combo that I'd unlocked in the first few hours, so got plenty to see with another run. I also just read a review that told me that:

Spoiler

You can grow saplings in to ladders using heals

so there's probably a decent few things I missed as I never did that.

Thanks for this game Eldiran. Looking forward to more from you.

 

[Eldiran]

Awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

There's a number of little interactions like that. You can get a pretty brutal party composition by designing them around elemental combos.

Here's hoping I can get more out sometime soon!

 

[Jack Dandy]

Okay- I just started playing and holy cow! The character development system + combat seem really deep! I like it!

Also, plenty of neat little touches. I love how there's an encyclopedia for just about everything in the game world.
Also also, the music is really great!

I have a question, though- do the beginning classes only affect your starting +1 aptitudes? It seems they're not that critical.

 

[CryptRat]

I don't think that the beginning classes give you any permanent bonus. You can change at will.

 

[Jack Dandy]

btw, I gotta understand something - do you gain XP slower for your chosen secondary class? Also, in which rate do the other classes get XP?

 

[V_K]

IIRC, you only get XP for your primary class, so if you want to develop some abilities in your secondary class, you should switch it with primary for a time.
Other classes don't get XP either. To unlock them you need to gain a required amount of XP in 1-3 prerequisite classes. If you hover your mouse over the locked classes' icons, you'll get a tooltip with the requirements. Basically, the game is built around constantly switching classes.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Got it! Thank you.

Been keeping at it, and it's still great fun! Great exploration! Music is still amazing!

(I wish you didn't had more option of talking with humanoids instead of killing em, tho.. some of them seem kind of nice )

 

[Jack Dandy]

I hate to admit it, but that's what kept me from playing it at first as well.

But believe me, the gameplay & music definitely make up for it.

The actual battle animations are pretty good, too