Titan Shield - turn-based TRPG (squad, missions)

[CryptRat]

I started to play this.

Trailer and description :

Spoiler

About This Game
Titan Shield is the game about bashing, slashing, shooting and casting powerfull spells – solo or as a party group. There is no place for gossip or long dialogs here. You have to rely on combat skills and tactic management to fight your way throught for the Titan`s head.

• The way to your goal is not that easy as it seems. About 16 h of gameplay to make it.
  
• 8 playable classes to choose from, each with its unique set of skills.
  
• Character customisation for each member of your party with different attributes, weapon styles and skills builds.
  
• Uncommon system of gear upgrade – allows to create powerfull weapons with a choosen effect.
  
• Choice of difficulty level for each run – that includes size of tyour party and starting resourses.

Also a video about a guy playing the beginning of the game because it was informative to me since the description does not explain the structure of the game :

Spoiler

You choose at the beginning of the game how many of up to four characters you'll eventually create, one at the beginning and more after earning some fame from the first few missions.

There are 8 classes with different equipment restrictions and a unique skill tree. "MPs" are also refilled differently depending on the class. You completely choose how to allocate characters's stats, nothing particular about them but you can really create different characters.

You can really create different characters especially since what could look like a quite boring and restrictive skill tree is in fact very open, there's no level restriction and you only need to put one point in one, two, or three skills, and depending on your intelligence you can start with 6 points for example, to unlock whatever you want. There are a lot of skills, from passive to active skills whose cost increase with its level, and every skill can be levelled-up a lot of times.

Creating another character costs fame that you gain when completing a mission, fame that you can also use to upgrade one stat of a character, or to unlocks better items in the shop.

The game is mission-based :

Base attacks cost stamina, and abilities comes with a cost in stamina additionnal to the resource used. Moving costs both stamina and movement.

I tried more than one character, like a mage using an ice sword, but fireballs seem more cool. First mission is not easy to win without using one or two potions.

You can't save your game, it's always automatically saved, which is one of the reasons which made me restart the game a few times, I even bought equipment I could not use, I don't know if what your character can use visible and I missed it. There's a "Return to inn" button during a mission you can use without penalty it seems, I'm not sure yet, but when you lose a mission you can resurrect your characters with gold (and so far, start the mission again since I've got only one).

You gain gold during missions, and also find quite a bit of items there, there are chests and such.

I restarted the game a few times, missions are about the same, the map is the same, the placement of the enemies is the same but these enemies can be different (the kobolds in the first map don't hold the same weapons when you restart). I'm not sure it's only when you restart the game or each time you restart a map.

More impressions to come but I like the character system and freedom regarding character developpement.

 

[CryptRat]

There are typos, including ridiculous ones, in case you think it's a big deal. My text is also trimmed and I don't know why.

It turns out creating heroes others than the first ones works a bit differently. For the first hero you roll stats but the game lets you decreases some stats to increase others as much as you want. For the other heroes you can't, instead you can only reroll by using a Fame point, which made me wait to have more than 5 points to create my second character, but I didn't reroll so I don't know if the number of total points, including or not including the points you can allocate, is fixed (I wonder because I had the impression that the number of points you get for your first hero was always the same).

Even without using fame the shop gets more items as you play.

Items are randomized with templates and such.

You can destroy an item to put the bonus on another one, with a penalty unless I'm mistaken :

Many abilities have cooldown, unfortunately, but not all of them. I rolled a stealth rogue by the way.

The AI is poor but I'll need to play more to know if it's an issue. There are some things I think I don't like, you can just wait turns after killing some enemies until you get back your HPs and far away enemies won't come. Also I spent the first scenarii just moving back and casting fireballs and firestorms each time I reach a new enemy, not that much engaging but it's not illogical with only a mage, I'll see how things evolve with a bigger party and different enemies.

From the missions I've played, some ask you to kill a certain number of enemies, and another one asks you to reach a point. In both cases you can leave the map whenever you want after you've reached the objective.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[CryptRat]

Her current lvl 1 backstabbing is a bit harmless so for now she does not use her dagger a lot, all she does is scouting hidden and when an enemy is on sight the mage nukes and she makes the last damages with her bow.

 

[CryptRat]

Update 1.55
22 mai à 15h02 - Strok Games
- starting fame for standard difficulty has been raised to 5 to allow hiring a second hero from start, making it slightly easier through the first few maps
- starting difficulty options are fixed
- Crafting screen will no longer have items dissapear
- other minor fixes

 

[CryptRat]

I don't think I encountered any bug myself, the game is quite stable, but anyway the few bugs people are facing are getting fixed fast.

Patch 1.56
22 mai à 20h42 - Strok Games
- undead skill unlock bug fixed
- item popup is slightly more visible and lasts longer
- Lightning rod made less strong early on
- Shield bash freeze bug fixed

 

[CryptRat]

The save system and "Back to inn" button make some sense now that I control a party. When one or two of your character die you can choose to go back to the inn, resurrect them and restart or to go on with the risk that it'll just get worse. One time I won a scenario with one dead guy and he was resurrected then, I don't know if it's what always happens or if it's not that simple.

Resurrecting a character does not only cost some gold but also some fame (probably his or her level divide by two). You get enough of both to resurrect a character once in a while without reaching a dead-end but you're far from flooded, I haven't spent any fame yet other than to hire the full party. Anyway I can't say I love the system, since in this kind of games I tend to rush onto enemies and if it was a retarded move then I reload while in this game I spend many turns just making every character advance 1 tile ahead which is not the most exciting part, but for people who, on the contrary, hate playing with reloading mechanisms it seems like a decent system.

My, now at last level, firestorm used to kill most enemies in one hit, it does not anymore and I have to use all my characters to their full potential. Ogres and trolls for example can deal huge damages (that could kill my mage in one turn) and the death aura of a giant rat just killed my two warriors, the game is currently getting better rather than worse.

On a side not I think you get back the potions you used during a mission after resigning or winning the mission, but maybe I'm wrong in the second case.


The first maps could be better because fighting the different enemies does not feel that different, but they also could be worse, for example many of them contain one or even more than one optional fights against minibosses :

Although the objectives were different (kill all, hold x turns), I think these map where all enemies would just rush to the party from the start were the best ones :

Some loose screenshots :

 

[thesheeep]

Honestly, the graphics deter me - never been a fan of this top-down perspective. It also mixes top-down with other perspectives (e.g. walls, trees, etc.) making the whole thing just uncomfortable to look at as nothing makes sense to the eye (or rather, the brain).

On the other hand, the gameplay does look interesting.

On yet another hand, games that are sold this cheap deter me again, feels like getting a mobile game...
There's absolutely such a thing as selling your game too cheap.

 

[CryptRat]

So far the main reason I can see to be specifically interested in this game is the detailed character sheets. If you don't care or overly hate small squads then there's probably no reason to play it rather than Drums of war or Age of fear, but if you care then you should keep an eye on it. I guess their permissive ironman mode or however you'd call that could be another reason but I don't particularly like it myself.

 

[CryptRat]

The characters are indeed resurrected for free when you win a mission.

It's not that unusual but I like the stamina system of the game. The characters can eventually use multiple abilities in one turn. In particular thanks to an aura of one of my warriors increasing the stamina of characters, my mage can cast two fireballs in one turn now. My warriors can hit 5 times during a turn. Also there's a defense bar determining how many times you'll be able to counterattack during the opponent's turn, it can be important when dealing with some enemies. Human warriors will generally counterattack several times while, case in point, these two trolls, who regenerate quite a bit as expected, have a low defense so at least you can beat them in melee.

You're fighting a lot of characters using the same skills as your characters. This magician was the first one I faced to cast a fireball. Also this kobold was evasive as hell, using a potion requires to spend the opponent's turn undamaged and he did manage to effectively use one in a middle of the battle. He almost killed my warrior who is now hidden in the bottom-right corner out of the fight.

Applying a 1 Ruby on a +4 sapphire sword would give a +5 ruby sword. The cost in gold can get very high though', at first I was not paying attention and I'm sure I wasted some money, especially on a secondary hands crossbow I never use.

Ghost are immuned to most weapons, although demonic weapons work, I was wondering why they were expensive but they may be vorpal weapons in fact so this explains that.

I forgot about this earlier, there's a tile my characters cannot reach but would likely be able to reach with higher movement, if I'm right and if there's a treasure there like I assume it's pretty cool.

Just in case you would get there too, this turtle seems to be unable to spend its turn, the game gets stuck on waiting for "Enemy turn" and I need to kill the application and restart the mission. I think I'm halfway through the game and it's the first serious bug I faced so it's alright.

Some more screenshots :

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some more screenshots

:

What is game effect of those walls?
Block movement or defensible obstacle?

 

[CryptRat]

They only block movements. you can use missile weapons and cast spells like they were not there.

 

[Galdred]

I tried the game, and found the system quite enjoyable.
But it favors moving everyone one step at a time every turn no enemy is in range (as you don't want to run into an enemy with no stamina left).
Also I didn't notice any Attack of opportunity.
The spells are weird: firestorm cleans home, and makes fireball and the other fire spell look paltry in comparison, but with my alzheimer and the lack of UI to show the impacted tiles, I butchered my own men twice with the firestorm.

Is there a way for the necromancer to raise a skeleton?

 

[CryptRat]

A Rogue : Stealth with the hiding ability can allow you not to move all your party one step every turn, but I agree it's a downside of having movement costing stamina, I tend to like movement points separated from action points typically like many D&D games (if I'm not mixing things up I think your game will do that too). I still really like the stamina system of this game anyway, I guess a good side is that a fast archer can't get back out of range of a warrior and target him with a volley of arrows every turn.

There is indeed no attack of opportunity. I have the feeling an attack of opportunity when a character is approaching would not matter much but an attack of opportunity when a character is backing away would be a good addition.

Firestorm has a cooldown so you're going to use something else in addition and for example you may eventually be able to cast fireball more than once in a turn. Besides the max level of firestorm is only 5 while the max level of fireball is 15 so it eventually gets strong (and as much expensive).

I can't help about necromancers, I never noticed an enemy necromancer actually raising a skeleton so maybe they just can't. However regarding necromancers more than once their death aura, or their death infusion ability, I don't know which one it was, dealt some serious damages to my characters so maybe it's something to dig.

 

[Trash Player]

Finished it solo in roughly 7 hours, mobile game length? Some nice ideas, but also many underbaked or bizarre ones. Feel like a turnbased Rage of Mages 2.

Ran with a Rogue: S spamming darts and sporting a longbow. It wasn't hard and became trivial less than midway through. Don't think the bonus xp matters much. Still have tons of rsources left unused.

Mission is mostly kill or run, there is exactly one hold x turns. Enemies aren't placed close or aggro in ways that can threaten the player. Hp bloat is prevalent late game. Encounter design is hot or miss with random skills and eqs.

Movement is slow/prohibitive and that often neuters AI. It performs decently in basic pathing and fighting but nothing else. Most abilities are used, to dev's credit, appropriately if not meaningfully.

Character systems is fun for a while with multiple resources management, skill order and exculsivity, and little gating. However, the challenge is not there. A little analyzing and optimization for the better options trivializes the game.

Sounds like a bad game from aboce, I know. It is worth the 5 USD and few hours for a run though. Not like a squad TB game with decent teambuilding options and functional systems is ever a bad thing.

 

[CryptRat]

I was thinking about this game. The single only thing I hate about it, and it's a big deal, is how you trigger monster groups by approaching. I wonder if it's because of the scale (the size of you team and enemy groups), I feel like I didn't like that in Fantasy General but didn't think too much about it, in Telepath Tactics where the scale is already a bit smaller it was worse and in this game it's even worse.

Is this really hard to fix? Isn't it a matter of a combination of the monsters roamming a bit, triggering them from further (distance of two turns + vision or something), adding some randomization to the trigger and the monsters coming anyway if you're taking too much time?

Craig Stern Have you got an opinion about this? Am I mistaken about Telepath Tactics and will you change something for next game?

 

[Craig Stern]

Hey CryptRat, I assume you're talking about enemies remaining stationary until you enter attack range? In Telepath Tactics, this behavior is applied to enemies on an individual basis based on the scenario; the default is actually for them all to be moving toward their best targets all the time, as you'll see happening in many of the maps!

"But why do it?" you ask. Mainly for the sake of tactical variety. If the enemy is always bum rushing you, then the optimal strategy for every map becomes "find a nice choke point and sit there." Having to react to different combinations of scripted enemy behaviors in each level is part of what makes each level feel unique. If you were being swarmed in every map, the game would start to feel same-y.

There is also pacing to consider. In order to have battles at the scale that Telepath Tactics has them, with the player vastly outnumbered, you can't just have the player fighting off a gazillion enemies at once from the word go. They have to be able to handle the enemies you throw at them. So either enemies would have to be weakened so much that they're essentially no longer playing by the same rules, they would have to come spread out in waves of reinforcements arriving from offscreen (which does happen in a few maps in TT where enemies aren't being passive, such as the camp defense map), or every map would have to be designed for a retreat win condition or a hunkered down defense (which, again, would become a real hindrance to level variety).

I'm actually using passive enemy behaviors way less in Together in Battle, but that's because the scale of the battles is different; they're mostly fights between teams of equivalent size, so this doesn't totally overwhelm the player.