Voidspire Tactics

[CryptRat]

Spoiler

Have any of you guys tried to do the secret necromancy dungeon linked to the crypts area? Also I backtracked to the mines today and found a path to a giant spider boss which was pretty neat.

Spoiler

I'm not sure of what dungeon you're talking about, so I'm not sure but I would say that I missed it. I fought the big spider, I also fought a weird eye in a cave somewhere in the first pink area near the beginning.

 

[Ent]

Spoiler

I missed the eye cave then. The dungeon I'm talking about is in the area filled with the undead that exp drain you on hit. I think you can only access the place with the gatekeepers teleport skill.

 

[glass blackbird]

I completely missed that. I'll have to go check it out!

 

[V_K]

It tends to fly under radars for some reason, which is a pity because the game is definitely better than anything else I've played this year.
Dear Infinitron, would you maybe consider adding it to steam curator list? The tagline could go something like that: "Despite its SNES-inspired looks, Voidspire Tactics is a very solid, if somewhat short, game that combines the best of two worlds: complex challenging combat of tactical JRPGs and open-ended exploration and highly interactive environments of Ultima series".

 

[Kalasanty11]

How much content is optional? What do you gain by exploration - going where you don't have to go? Only phat lewt? Somebody wrote that you don't gain new skills in this way, unfortunatelly.

 

[CryptRat]

How much content is optional? What do you gain by exploration - going where you don't have to go? Only phat lewt? Somebody wrote that you don't gain new skills in this way, unfortunatelly.

You gain only fat loot, yes.
The entire skill system is linked only with experience, no link with the exploration and/or the equipement.
I may be wrong but I'd say that at least 1/4 of the content is optional and hidden if not more and at least 1/4 is optional and not hidden if not more. I don't count that, like V_K rightfully said, most encounters are fundamentally optional since there's a way to avoid them.

 

[V_K]

I'd also add that phat lewt is actually a pretty good motivation to explore in this game because of very good itemization.

 

[Kalasanty11]

NEW PATCH

1.0.5

• new class: the Mechanist!
  
• added character shadows
  
• Blitz & Aqueous Band no longer have penalties
  
• Guardian Passive 'Bulwark' now protects against bad morale.
  
• Seal doors can now be opened via explosion
  
• fixed distant allies not aggroing when you attack a friendly unit
  
• fixed hang when dying from a Counter while you have 'Preserve' status
  
• fixed randomly generated enemies spawning with a bow and a shield
  
• fixed Bins being unbreakable.
  
• HP/MP indicators no longer show for invisible enemies
  
• added a secret or two (will only show up for saves that have not previously visited the areas the secrets are in)
  
• fixed triggers not firing if you walk into them from a specific diagonal angle
  
• added constant faint movement outline during your turn
  
• fog of war now clears more consistently during combat
  
• Minor interface improvements / bug fixes

 

[Eldiran]

Heya! I got a tip that there was a thread about my game here, and that I should check it out. I'm glad people are enjoying it!

I'm starting work on a new game with similar mechanics, so I'm keeping an eye out for feedback, especially regarding gameplay.

Speaking of, has anyone tried out the Mechanist yet?

 

[V_K]

I'm starting work on a new game with similar mechanics

That's great news!
You should probably do a kickstarter for it, just for the free publicity.

 

[Kalasanty11]

I'm starting work on a new game with similar mechanics, so I'm keeping an eye out for feedback, especially regarding gameplay.
Speaking of, has anyone tried out the Mechanist yet?

That's great, I was afraid that you may not want to try another game like that. I'm going to try out mechanist tomorrow.
As for the feedback - game is great! I love how there is no handholding, though there are some things that I think can be even better. Note, that I haven't finished game yet.
-Status effects descriptions. Maybe I'm just blind, but I haven't seen, for example, how big is penalty to hit when character is blinded. Or what the hell "itchy" does. Does it affect spellcasting? Or what does these trigger stones (ice, life) do. How do you use them? During battles? Crafting?
-Moar crafting recipes would be nice. Speaking of receipes - again, no handholding is great. I had to figure out how to make molotov coctails, and they saved my ass few times, so crafting is not useless, like in so many other games.
-Gameplay not focused all that much on dialogues and stuff doesn't bother me that much tbh. I would be happy with another rpg focused on exploration and combat.
-Classes don't seem to be balanced perfectly, but maybe it's just me, and some of them don't fit my playstyle.
-Bigger party would be nice.
-Generally, more of everything!
-Not the fan of respawning enemies. I hate level grinding, and love the game that don't have it and are well balanced despite of that. Like the way it's done in Telepath Tactics or even Fire Emblem VII. For now, I didn't grind in Voidspire, and I'm rather satisfied with difficulty curve.
If something else will come to my mind, I'll post about it.

 

[V_K]

Or what does these trigger stones (ice, life) do. How do you use them? During battles? Crafting?

IIRC you just put them in weapon slots and receive the bonus to relevant magic skill(s).

 

[Kalasanty11]

IIRC you just put them in weapon slots and receive the bonus to relevant magic skill(s).

Ah, thanks. I tried to put them in necklace slot, that's why they didn't work.

 

[Eldiran]

That's great news!
You should probably do a kickstarter for it, just for the free publicity.

Haha, that might be a smart idea... though I'm sure you can tell I'm not great at marketing. I'd have to devote a month or so to running the Kickstarter when I'd rather be coding.

That's great, I was afraid that you may not want to try another game like that. I'm going to try out mechanist tomorrow.
As for the feedback - game is great! I love how there is no handholding, though there are some things that I think can be even better. Note, that I haven't finished game yet.
-Status effects descriptions. Maybe I'm just blind, but I haven't seen, for example, how big is penalty to hit when character is blinded. Or what the hell "itchy" does. Does it affect spellcasting?

Thanks! Yeah, there's no info on statuses in-game, I failed on that front. Blind reduces accuracy 40% and Physical Evasion by 25%. Itchy reduces Physical Defense by 1 and Physical Evasion by 15%. You can find those modifiers by hovering over the tooltip of the stat while you're afflicted, but that's pretty hard to discover.

-Moar crafting recipes would be nice. Speaking of receipes - again, no handholding is great. I had to figure out how to make molotov coctails, and they saved my ass few times, so crafting is not useless, like in so many other games.

There are a handful of oddball recipes but not too many. It's mostly limited to the weapon and armor kits. (Molotovs are super good though)

-Classes don't seem to be balanced perfectly, but maybe it's just me, and some of them don't fit my playstyle.

I tried to make all classes roughly equal in usefulness, even in the endgame. I'd love to hear which ones you think are weak (I can think of a few that need buffing myself).

-Bigger party would be nice.
-Generally, more of everything!

Coming in the next game : )

-Not the fan of respawning enemies. I hate level grinding, and love the game that don't have it and are well balanced despite of that. Like the way it's done in Telepath Tactics or even Fire Emblem VII. For now, I didn't grind in Voidspire, and I'm rather satisfied with difficulty curve.

I'm glad the difficulty is about right. I hate grinding as well. There are only a handful of respawning encounters, to let people spend their XP without fear of screwing themselves in the future.

 

[V_K]

I tried to make all classes roughly equal in usefulness, even in the endgame. I'd love to hear which ones you think are weak (I can think of a few that need buffing myself).

I found the gatekeeper not exactly weak (far from it, really), but very tricky to use because of long charge-ups and enemies quickly running away from the impact zone. Some way to expedite spellcasting slightly through, say, an expensive ability or a rare consumable would be nice. A small nitpick, but I felt there generally was a lack of high-level single-target spells - for one of my casters I even went back to picking scholar as a secondary class late in the game.
In other nitpicks, I wouldn't mind "look at" command implemented somewhat more conveniently e.g. as a right-click or something. And it's probably better to deliver lore through lorebooks, as you do late in game, than through looking at - it doesn't really explain how your characters know about all those extradimensional creatures and objects.

Of real criticisms I have two. First, as I've already posted above, the environmental puzzles are just too easy (not the secrets, but those that allow to avoid combat or just are required to pass through), throwing in some Dungeon Master-like (or at least Grimrock-like) evil brainteasers would be really great. And second, it would really be cool if the party could keep a formation while out of combat.
Otherwise, I can only second the "more of everything" request. But probably not too much more, to keep finding things meaningful.

Haha, that might be a smart idea... though I'm sure you can tell I'm not great at marketing. I'd have to devote a month or so to running the Kickstarter when I'd rather be coding.

I'm not sure it would really take that much effort. If you don't set an unrealistic goal, just preparing the campaign and throwing an update every 4-5 days should be enough IMO - after all, you already have a great game under your belt, it should attract a lot of goodwill on its own.

 

[Kalasanty11]

I tried to make all classes roughly equal in usefulness, even in the endgame. I'd love to hear which ones you think are weak (I can think of a few that need buffing myself).

It's just my subjective opinion:
Scout. I'm still using warrior and scholar as secondary classes, but scout just doesn't seem to be good at anything. Other classes just do what he does, but so much better.
Unmaker. I'm yet to fight any undead, so maybe that's why I don't find much use for him.
Passives of enchanter would be way more useful, if there were more spellcasters to fight in the game.
Shiftcloak also doesn't seem to have skills fitting my playstyle.

On the other hand, I love blade, balancer, sage... and most of the rest are really useful.
Mechanist is great class.You have to pay even more attention to positioning to fully use his skills. I didn't use walls ability all that often, my sage has similar one.
Also, Unlocking classes and abilities is little too fast for my taste. I'm maybe halfway through and I unlocked all except two of them.

On the side note, did you created ENTIRE game yourself, including music? It's nice, especially main theme. I'm even humming it sometimes

I'm not sure it would really take that much effort. If you don't set an unrealistic goal, just preparing the campaign and throwing an update every 4-5 days should be enough IMO - after all, you already have a great game under your belt, it should attract a lot of goodwill on its own.

Maybe contacting Craig Stern (developer of Telepath Tactics) would be nice idea. He also kickstarted his game - his first try was failure, but second one was quite successful. Maybe he would give some good advice.

 

[CryptRat]

I like how classes and class unlocking are built. What is cool is to build the good combinations between skills/passive skills/stat upgrades for each of your characters.
All classes are useful by the only fact that you'll have to temporary use most of them or find some appealing skill/passive skill/stat upgrade.

 

[Eldiran]

I found the gatekeeper not exactly weak (far from it, really), but very tricky to use because of long charge-ups and enemies quickly running away from the impact zone. Some way to expedite spellcasting slightly through, say, an expensive ability or a rare consumable would be nice. A small nitpick, but I felt there generally was a lack of high-level single-target spells - for one of my casters I even went back to picking scholar as a secondary class late in the game.

Next game I am planning a slight tweak to the timing system - I'll be moving the enemy party 15 tics back at the start of combat. That should make planning cast times more consistent, as well as fixing the paradox where being slower than the enemy actually makes it way easier to land slow spells.

And yeah, there's a regrettable dearth of strong single-target spells. I'll add some where I can. No shame in picking Scholar though, Scholar abilities are actually very good.

In other nitpicks, I wouldn't mind "look at" command implemented somewhat more conveniently e.g. as a right-click or something. And it's probably better to deliver lore through lorebooks, as you do late in game, than through looking at - it doesn't really explain how your characters know about all those extradimensional creatures and objects.

There is the L key, and you can rebind it - I can't remember if I let you rebind it to right-click though.

The journal info is sort of non-diegetic, I guess. I definitely want to add more lorebooks where I can fit them.

Of real criticisms I have two. First, as I've already posted above, the environmental puzzles are just too easy (not the secrets, but those that allow to avoid combat or just are required to pass through), throwing in some Dungeon Master-like (or at least Grimrock-like) evil brainteasers would be really great.

I agree, the puzzles were pretty wimpy. There is one more intricate puzzle in an optional area, but it can be easily brute-forced.

And second, it would really be cool if the party could keep a formation while out of combat.

Good idea! I'll give that a try, especially with the increased party size I'm planning.

I'm not sure it would really take that much effort. If you don't set an unrealistic goal, just preparing the campaign and throwing an update every 4-5 days should be enough IMO - after all, you already have a great game under your belt, it should attract a lot of goodwill on its own.

You'd think so, but my game is basically invisible to the press : P Hopefully I shouldn't need the funding anyway. If I do, though, I'll definitely be trying a Kickstarter rather than giving up.

It's just my subjective opinion:
Scout. I'm still using warrior and scholar as secondary classes, but scout just doesn't seem to be good at anything. Other classes just do what he does, but so much better.
Unmaker. I'm yet to fight any undead, so maybe that's why I don't find much use for him.
Passives of enchanter would be way more useful, if there were more spellcasters to fight in the game.
Shiftcloak also doesn't seem to have skills fitting my playstyle.

I'm mostly agreed. Scout feels weak, although Trip Up can be amazing with a ranged weapon.
Unmaker can be pretty strong if you tailor your equipment to it. It's in an okay place.
Counter Enchant is not a great ability... unless you plan on hitting your own units with magic. Essence Flow is one of the best passives in the game though.
And yeah, Shiftcloak has potential, but needs tuning. It'll definitely see some tweaking next game.

On the other hand, I love blade, balancer, sage... and most of the rest are really useful.
Mechanist is great class.You have to pay even more attention to positioning to fully use his skills. I didn't use walls ability all that often, my sage has similar one.
Also, Unlocking classes and abilities is little too fast for my taste. I'm maybe halfway through and I unlocked all except two of them.

I think Balancer is my favorite : )

Glad to hear you're enjoying Mechanist. I hope I didn't over- or under-power it.

On the side note, did you created ENTIRE game yourself, including music? It's nice, especially main theme. I'm even humming it sometimes

Oh, I have no musical talent whatsoever : P

A ton of it was by Kevin Phetsomphou, who generously allowed me to use his music. The rest was Creative Commons aside from a track or two.

I like how classes and class unlocking are built. What is cool is to build the good combinations between skills/passive skills/stat upgrades for each of your characters.
All classes are useful by the only fact that you'll have to temporary use most of them or find some appealing skill/passive skill/stat upgrade.

Thanks! I think they turned out about right. You should be able to take any class through the whole game and perform well.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh hey, developer on deck.

Dear Infinitron, would you maybe consider adding it to steam curator list? The tagline could go something like that: "Despite its SNES-inspired looks, Voidspire Tactics is a very solid, if somewhat short, game that combines the best of two worlds: complex challenging combat of tactical JRPGs and open-ended exploration and highly interactive environments of Ultima series".

Hmmm, okay.

 

[CryptRat]

Speaking of, has anyone tried out the Mechanist yet?

I was just going to download the last version with the Mechanist, but it seems that the version currently available on itch.io is still the 1.0.1.

 

[Eldiran]

Infinitron: thanks for the shiny dev tag! : )

I was just going to download the last version with the Mechanist, but it seems that the version currently available on itch.io is still the 1.0.1.

Woops. I got sidetracked last time I tried to upload a new version on itch.io (I had trouble getting the non-Steam branch to work) but now it should be up and working!

 

[CryptRat]

Thanks, that was fast .

 

[Zanzoken]

Eldiran, congrats on the game, looking forward to purchasing and playing it once my backlog gets cleared out a bit.

Would you mind talking a little more about your development process? Like what kind of tools you used, how long it took you, etc.

Also what are your plans for the art style on your new game? It looks like Voidspire has some great systems and content but the art is pretty basic. I don't mean this in a shitty way, just wondering if better art assets might get your next game some more attention.

 

[Kalasanty11]

It looks like Voidspire has some great systems and content but the art is pretty basic. I don't mean this in a shitty way, just wondering if better art assets might get your next game some more attention.

I beg to differ. For me, graphics are just fine, and I'd prefer that Eldiran focused on developing more content - like new skills, new locations, enemies, crafting recipes, secrets and puzzles.

 

[Eldiran]

Eldiran, congrats on the game, looking forward to purchasing and playing it once my backlog gets cleared out a bit.

Would you mind talking a little more about your development process? Like what kind of tools you used, how long it took you, etc.

Thanks! Sure; the game's made in C# using XNA - not something recommended now that XNA isn't receiving updates anymore - and the primary tool I used was Microsoft Visual Studio. The graphics were all done in Paint.NET. Because I created my own engine from scratch, the game took me 2 years (!) full time, and some part time prior, to make. Thankfully, now that the engine's done, the next game can come much faster.

I did also take a 2-month sidetrack to make Depths of Boatmurdered as a public test of the engine, so that slowed me down.

Also what are your plans for the art style on your new game? It looks like Voidspire has some great systems and content but the art is pretty basic. I don't mean this in a shitty way, just wondering if better art assets might get your next game some more attention.

No, yeah, I agree. But as @Kalasanty says, as the sole dev, I've got to spend most of my time on content. For the next game I've decided to try a high-contrast NES style so that the game is more colorful and less brown-on-brown. I'll be using the same sprites (plus new ones of course) but with NES palettes. I think it looks pretty neat, and should hopefully get more attention.

Here's a crappy sample using some unrelated content from when I was brainstorming game ideas: