Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Together in Battle - the next strategy RPG from Telepath Tactics developer - now available on Early Access

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
Damn, Minkov is such a professional. I raised the issue of his portraits not fully meshing with the backgrounds with him; he took the critique in stride, performed art tests, and got back to me with samples within a span of 12 hours! He's not just incredibly talented, he's someone I can see actually being a pleasure to work with--and when you're working on a project of this size and complexity, that counts for a hell of a lot.

I miiiiight need to run a mini-Kickstarter to make it work financially in the short term, but hopefully this will eventually pay off in better sales down the road.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
I don't understand why you would find a character whose traits and preferences are randomly generated to be interesting.
...
Why telepaths instead of mages?

The random generation is only part of it; what makes it interesting is seeing these characters grow and change. If I've done my job right, you'll find the characters interesting because they walk a line where they manage to be both coherent and surprising. It's not easy, and I expect to tweak and improve it for some time to come.

As for why I first picked psychic powers over magic...honestly, it's been so long that I don't really remember! But it's proven fruitful for enabling narratives that examine the weaknesses of human thought, a subject I've always found fascinating--so I've stuck with it.
It seems like this new game relies heavily on randomization for its systems. Have the opinions against randomness you expressed on your blog changed?
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,234
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
Damn, Minkov is such a professional. I raised the issue of his portraits not fully meshing with the backgrounds with him; he took the critique in stride, performed art tests, and got back to me with samples within a span of 12 hours! He's not just incredibly talented, he's someone I can see actually being a pleasure to work with--and when you're working on a project of this size and complexity, that counts for a hell of a lot.

I miiiiight need to run a mini-Kickstarter to make it work financially in the short term, but hopefully this will eventually pay off in better sales down the road.
Man sounds like he's worth the money.
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
It seems like this new game relies heavily on randomization for its systems. Have the opinions against randomness you expressed on your blog changed?

Nope! I'm still against overuse of randomized results. The new systems don't introduce randomized results, though: they introduce scenario randomness that the player is able (and expected) to adjust their play to. As I wrote:

Randomized results are not the only potential use of randomization in a game. Randomization can also be a valuable tool to build tension by creating unpredictable starting states for various scenarios. Card games provide a great example of this principle. Even if you know your opponent’s deck, you will never know what cards lie in his or her hand. The deck is shuffled: the hand is chosen at random. Consequently, the player faces some uncertainty about the options available to her opponent. This builds tension and makes a turn-based encounter more gripping.

In a spatial turn-based combat system, unpredictable enemy unit composition and positioning under a fog of war mimics much of the effect of a randomized hand of cards. The player must scout, or else take the risk inherent to issuing orders with incomplete information about what enemy characters the opponent has at its disposal. Other elements of the battlefield can be randomized as well: loot drops, spaces with healing or defense bonuses, and environmental hazards, to name a few.

Crucially, these each add unpredictability to the scenarios the player faces, and not to the results of individual player commands. The player is never compromised in his ability to control his characters; any random chance the player confronts in this way, the player has the opportunity to respond to and circumvent.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,234
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
All fine and dandy but if there's no player character that can join the combat it's all moot.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I don't understand why you would find a character whose traits and preferences are randomly generated to be interesting.
...
Why telepaths instead of mages?

The random generation is only part of it; what makes it interesting is seeing these characters grow and change. If I've done my job right, you'll find the characters interesting because they walk a line where they manage to be both coherent and surprising. It's not easy, and I expect to tweak and improve it for some time to come.

As for why I first picked psychic powers over magic...honestly, it's been so long that I don't really remember! But it's proven fruitful for enabling narratives that examine the weaknesses of human thought, a subject I've always found fascinating--so I've stuck with it.
Out of curiosity, how many portraits do you plan to have?
Like MRY I would go with Minkov for a realistic style, or Zakaria for a more "stylized" one (that could mesh better with the sprites and the rest of the game). I have also found that a key quality for an artist is how willing he is to give feedback on things that are not in the contract (like:"this part of the UI is horrible, you should redesign it like that", and how good he is at following directions.
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
Out of curiosity, how many portraits do you plan to have?

• 46 generic unit portraits (for enemies and rando NPC allies in battle), not including 8 recolors for the alternate spriggat types.
• 23 unique character portraits (for named characters and cut scene NPCs, both of whom demand more comprehensive emotional range).
• Dozens and dozens of heads, eyes, noses, mouths, hair, horns, snouts, etc. spanning 6 species that can be mixed and matched to produce a nearly limitless array of unique composite portraits for proc gen characters.

That's just for TiB. For the Telepath Tactics remake, I'll need several dozen more unique character portraits as well.
 
Last edited:

vazha

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
2,063
Pichette likely too similar to the originals.

Heh! Pichette literally did do the originals; I just included him for comparison's sake. :) These folks are all bidding to do the job on an identical budget (except for Minkov, who demands extra for reasons that may be apparent).
Kill Pichette, harvest his organs, sell them and hire Minkov at whatever rate he might be changing. Seriously. Original art is literally eye-bleedingly awful.
 
Joined
Oct 15, 2018
Messages
862
Location
Ali Ghaylān
The first sample I solicited was of the recruiter, a key character you'll be seeing regularly during the game. Here are the samples I received (with Matt Pichette's original portrait in the top-left for comparison):

EwiDP83WQAQRrXh
Minkov is the only truly acceptable choice. Manalon as a close second.

Grundza needs to lay the burn tool off for one. Movilla and Zakaria need to stop taking art lessons from tumblr and twitter. Grinins anatomy is prosperous. Emily has zero consistency and the anatomy is terrible.

Sent from my Nokia 6210 using Tapatalk
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
So you're saying.... the writing would shove the writer's political views down the player's throat?

Heavens! Somebody here told me that's just the worst!

I hope you are enjoying your Nokia 6210, friend
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
The game comes with a full-fledged campaign creation suite; any and all codexers who want to write campaigns with their own plots and characters are welcome to have at it!
 

Craig Stern

Sinister Design
Developer
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
398
Location
Chicago
Contract: signed. Initial payment: sent. It's official--Minkov is handling the portrait art! :D

In other news, I continue to slave away on cool under-the-hood features. The latest: per-army AI profiles!

These are presets which weight certain AI considerations to produce different battlefield behaviors. As of now, AI profiles include:
  • Balanced - Weighs opportunities for damage against defensive considerations.
  • Aggressive - Prioritizes opportunities to deal damage over all other factors.
  • Homicidal - Nothing matters but inflicting enemy casualties.
  • Defensive - Prioritizes the survival of characters over all other factors.
  • Greedy - Prioritizes the acquisition of items over all other factors.
  • Unpredictable - Moves are chosen rather capriciously, making behavior difficult to predict.
  • Stupid - Ignores most factors influencing a move; priorities might as well be random.
You can now create your own custom AI profiles in custom campaigns, and the game will load them.

-- the armies editor within the map editor now allows you to set AI profiles on a per-army basis.
 

vazha

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
2,063
Avellone as lead writer when? I dont think he'd charge significantly more than this Minkov person.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom