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[Craig Stern]

I made a few changes to the engine to make it more flexible / amenable to modding:

1. Added accuracy as a modifiable character attribute. (In the game's normal campaign / multiplayer, character accuracy is always 100%--attacks miss only if the attacker is blinded, the target successfully employs a dodge ability, or the target successfully blocks while sitting in a defensive stance.)

2. Added support for elemental resistance buffs and de-buff attacks to the engine.

3. Added Extinguished, Thawed, Unslowed and Unblinded as attack effects that remove Burning, Frozen, Slowed and Blinded status, respectively.

4. Made it so Frozen characters are automatically Thawed when hit with Burning status, and Burning characters are automatically Extinguished when hit with Frozen status. (In other words, Frozen and Burning now override each other.)

I've also been working on story stuff for the single player campaign. More to come!

[Craig Stern]

More updates: I've added "actions" that you can tack onto the end of a branch of character dialog. So far, available actions are:

• RotateChar - rotate the named character to face whatever direction you define (Up, Down, Left, and Right).
• MoveChar - move the named character to whatever battlefield coordinates you define.
• SpawnChar - add the named character to the battlefield on whatever team, facing whatever direction, and at whatever coordinates you define.
• RemoveChar - remove the named character from the battlefield.
• KillChar - kill the named character.

So basically, this has makes it so I can easily script dramatic cut scenes where characters are moving around, turning to face each other, appearing on the screen and disappearing from it, or even dying onscreen. (I've already used all of these dialog actions in a couple of scenes, and I expect I'll keep using them in future ones.)

This being Telepath Tactics, all dialog actions are freely available to modders looking to script character behavior into their own campaign dialog.

Actions are optional and unlimited: you can have dialog with no actions, or have a branch of dialog with 99 actions tacked onto the end. It's your call. The only limitation at present is with MoveChar: this being a turn-based tactics engine, it currently supports moving only a single character at a time.

I expect the list of available actions to grow as I discover the need for more of them, but I think these 5 are a pretty solid start.

[Craig Stern]

In response to a request I received on Twitter, I've started writing documentation spelling out the Telepath Tactics ruleset. You can find the current draft of the ruleset document right here.

[Craig Stern]

The inclusion of Telepath RPG: Servants of God in the IndieFort Bundle has meant a resurgence in sales of the game--and with it, a resurgence of bug reports. Last night was spent squashing a couple of nasty ones people found concerning the attacks Feedback and Vengeance. (Which, of course, means that I did not spend that time working on Telepath Tactics. Sigh.)

Luckily, I did have some time to update The Manual with more information about the game and its systems. The manual now talks about the nitty gritty of how attack damage is calculated, lists all of the character stats, and talks about experience gain and leveling. It's also a bit better-organized now.

More to come!

[Craig Stern]

I've been thinking about ways to handle character death in Telepath Tactics campaign mode. My initial thought was that I should have permadeath, which would instill the missions with tension (and give fun little "I have been slain!" monologues).

However, it occurred to me recently that this would be problematic--I would have to create variations on the dialog in every single cut scene accounting for which characters are dead and which are alive. (I had to do this with the cut scene dialog in Telepath RPG: Servants of God, and let me tell you, it's a pretty big pain in the ass.)

So then I started toying with the idea of using a system modeled on the "Wounded" feature in the original X-COM, where characters could be badly hurt and unable to fight for a few battles, but eventually recuperate and return. However, I ultimately decided that that would involve more work than I wanted to put in; as it is, I already have too many cool-sounding features queued up right now, and not enough time to add and polish them all. I need something simple.

Cue the perma-non-lethal K.O.! I've only seen this used in Fire Emblem games--and even then, only for important characters that they can't sensibly write out of the game's cut scenes. The gist is that the characters have suffered injuries so bad that they can never fight again, but they're still alive and speak during cut scenes from that point forward. This suits my needs perfectly: it is essentially the same as permadeath for combat purposes, but has no impact on anything else.

I've begun work on implementing this: the game now tracks character deaths and takes them off the player's army roster at the end of each battle. Next, I need to test the feature, make any final fixes, and edit the character death monologues into badly-wounded monologues so players understand why these characters reappear in the cut scenes.

[Craig Stern]

We're getting very close to having all of the unit walk animations finished in all four directions! Check out these great shots of the cavalry and stone golem walking downward:

 

[Moczan]

Cue the perma-non-lethal K.O.! I've only seen this used in Fire Emblem games--and even then, only for important characters that they can't sensibly write out of the game's cut scenes. The gist is that the characters have suffered injuries so bad that they can never fight again, but they're still alive and speak during cut scenes from that point forward. This suits my needs perfectly: it is essentially the same as permadeath for combat purposes, but has no impact on anything else.

I've begun work on implementing this: the game now tracks character deaths and takes them off the player's army roster at the end of each battle. Next, I need to test the feature, make any final fixes, and edit the character death monologues into badly-wounded monologues so players understand why these characters reappear in the cut scenes.

But in terms of 'realism' it limits your cut-scenes option a lot. Imagine a scene where your band of mighty heroes is about to storm their arch-enemy's fortress and one of the main characters is riding on his killer-mantis, rallying to bring the troops' morale up and seconds after that, he suddenly is badly-wounded and can't participate in battle, because he 'died' somewhere in the beginning of the game.
The 'died, not available for X fight' seems much better and shouldn't be that hard to code, it's just a one variable you have to check for after each successful mission.

[Craig Stern]

Imagine a scene where your band of mighty heroes is about to storm their arch-enemy's fortress and one of the main characters is riding on his killer-mantis, rallying to bring the troops' morale up and seconds after that, he suddenly is badly-wounded and can't participate in battle, because he 'died' somewhere in the beginning of the game.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me: he's alive and able to give a rousing speech, but he can't fight. What's so nonsensical about that?

The 'died, not available for X fight' seems much better and shouldn't be that hard to code, it's just a one variable you have to check for after each successful mission.

EDIT: I just realized that I misread this. It would still be a bit of a pain in the ass to code for a few reasons. First, there is no regular time measure in Telepath Tactics the way there is in X-Com. Even if a year passes in between in-game battles, the character would still be out of action for the same number of battles. So let's say that being wounded keeps you out of the next three battles. If Bob is wounded in the first of five battles in a row, then he'll have recovered by the fifth one even if they all happen in the same day. If Bob is wounded in the fifth battle, then a year passes in-game, and then five more battles happen, Bob won't be recovered until the fourth of those battles. Basically, there's currently no way to make it make chronological sense unless I code a time-keeping system.

Also problematic is the fact that cut scenes are created the same way as battles: they are basically just battles that trigger dialog before the start of the first turn and end the battle at the conclusion of the dialog. So wounded characters would instantly recuperate if a bunch of cut scenes occurred between "real" battles.

[Moczan]

Imagine a scene where your band of mighty heroes is about to storm their arch-enemy's fortress and one of the main characters is riding on his killer-mantis, rallying to bring the troops' morale up and seconds after that, he suddenly is badly-wounded and can't participate in battle, because he 'died' somewhere in the beginning of the game.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me: he's alive and able to give a rousing speech, but he can't fight. What's so nonsensical about that?

That depends on the reason why the character can't fight. If that's because he is bed bound with grave wounds, then it's nonsensical. If that's because his arm are wounded to the level where he can't operate them, it limits your cut scenes even more. If he can walk and fight, but his wounds aren't properly healed and there is a danger of getting damaged easier, than give him "takes +50% more damage" status.

About the other part you've quoted, that makes more sense now, I agree that if there is a huge disproportion in time between battles, the system doesn't make sense plot-wise.

[Craig Stern]

And this is why the system is going to be very, very vague about what particular wounds each character receives.

[Moczan]

As always, simplest solution is the best 

[Craig Stern]

We are now very very close to having all of the character walk animations done: the final shipment is due tomorrow! Once that happens, I will begin coding the blitting engine.

In the meantime, I've been making some changes to the map editor. Before now, the map editor would draw characters and objects out of the Multiplayer xml files, and you'd have to swap in any campaign-specific variations by hand afterwards. Well enough of that!

As of now, you can specify whether to use the Multiplayer classes or classes from a specific campaign by selecting from a handy dandy drop-down list. Once you make your selection, the editor will automatically repopulate the character and destructible object lists with the characters and objects that belong to your custom campaign, allowing you to place them at will.

The map editor still lags behind the main game in terms of support for new functionality--I need to add in support for item and dialog editing at some point. But that will have to wait for another day.

[Craig Stern]

I've fixed a couple of bugs with the map editor and improved usability a tad. Still waiting for the last set of walk animations; in the meantime, I'm moving on to designing the next single player campaign battle!

[Craig Stern]

And so Emma Strider led the company down from Fort Longbriar under the watchful eye of General Sophia.

They were accompanied by several soldiers Emma had never met before. There was Lakshmi Bana, a crossbowman with an easy laugh and skin the color of mahogany; she was an excellent shot.

There was also Bartleby Gutentag, an Engineer who spent most of his time reading obscure technical works and scrawling notes in the margins. He seemed friendly enough, but said little.

Still, Bartleby was a chatterbox compared to Astrid Shadowhand, Sophia's silent and stalwart guardian. Emma had heard stories about Astrid. She was an assassin, dispatched by the Magistrate to quietly eliminate threats to the Empire. Shadowhand wasn't her real name: it was a moniker she'd earned from a long career as a covert killer. No one knew her real last name.

Whether from training, habit, or simply from the deadening weight of the dozens of people she'd slain, Astrid was stone-faced and inscrutable at all times. Rumor had it that she had killed every man who'd ever loved her. It was just a rumor, but Emma still made it a habit to give Astrid a wide, wide berth.

The march to the outskirts of Ploutos lasted several days. Emma was acutely aware of the General observing her, taking her measure as a captain. That suited Emma just fine. She had always been ambitious, studious--driven. This was a better opportunity to prove herself than she could have ever asked for.

On the morning of the fourth day, they arrived.

[Craig Stern]

Fixed another little issue with the map editor that was bugging me.

I've also got a rough draft done of the Ploutos Weapons Depot battle; I just need to add in dialog (this is going to be the first battle with bridge-building, mandatory object destruction, and elevation effects--I'll probably need to mention those things to the player), then playtest and balance it.

Also, if the previous post didn't make it obvious: the single player campaign now has two new characters.

[Craig Stern]

Ugh. I sat down yesterday to do another pre-alpha teaser video showing off the multitude of ways in which you can mod the game, up to and including custom single player campaigns, when I made a profoundly unpleasant discovery: Windows won't let you save files in the program's install directory. Like, at all. I'm going to need to change where custom single player campaigns are stored, and how the game accesses them.

Oh well. Looks like I'll be wasting yet more time working around stupid OS behaviors.

[Craig Stern]

Sigh. Well. I've begun the process of recoding all of the XML loading code: from now on, all custom campaigns are going to be in My Documents/My Games/Telepath Tactics/Custom Campaigns. Unfortunately, I'd been using URLRequest, which does not have the capability to load XML from a full file path on the hard drive. This means that I am going to have to switch over to using File.fileStream(), which I strongly suspect is going to be a pain in the ass.

We'll see how it goes...

...stupid Windows.

[Craig Stern]

I am in California for Indiecade! On the plane flight over, I did a bunch of work on the issue mentioned in the previous post. I'm not done yet, but it's getting there.

And now: off to watch the Obama-Romney debate!

[Craig Stern]

Okay! I've discovered that openAsync() works in a very similar fashion to the URLLoader's load() function; the game now correctly detects both bundled and custom campaigns, and loads them correctly. There's a bug with the Multiplayer level selection screen, however, that keeps crashing the debug launcher. Not sure yet what it is: investigating!

[Gregg Williams]

Cool project, always happy to see more tactics style games in the works.

Looks like you've been working on this one for a really long time.