Tactical Nexus News

Note: I'm going to conclude this article first because I feel like I'm going to end with this sentence when I read it back.
‘Now that we think about it, there is not enough content in Chapter-5, so we want to increase it soon (this year)’

*The thumbnail screenshots are from Chapter-7.　Just in case......

[On the repercussions of going free].
Hello.

It's been a day and a half since we went free, and the number of players per day has now increased by about eight times. (from just under 40 to just under 300).
What surprises me is that, population-wise, the percentage of day 1 players still playing on day 2 is quite high.
(Apparently, 70-80% of them play two days in a row.　We thought that less than 25% would continue for more than two days. ......)


Now that we've had a chance to think about this, I thought I'd write a little column mainly for existing players.

In this article I'm going to talk about DLC for a while.
If you're a recent newcomer to the game, DLC is content you won't be exposed to until you've played at least 100 hours of the main package.
Play the main package before you consider buying it.

All stages in the main package are designed so that you can reach full completion (Clear 3) without buying the DLC.
The DLC will not increase or decrease in price until at least 2027.
(Also, all stages of the DLC, with the exception of ‘Mystic Gate’ / ‘Last Inflator’ (see below), can be completed without purchasing new DLC.
The last stage in the main package, Chapter 2-6 Pop Tactical Road, is a very popular stage that was voted #2 by Discord players.
but if you are considering purchasing the DLC, bear in mind that Clear 3 of this stage is just a tutorial, so you will need to be prepared for the DLC to be released in the future.
It is recommended that you have at least 10 Silver to Gold Nexus Medals before purchasing the very first Chapter-3 DLC)



[regarding DLC for this game]

Now, have you ever seen the ‘ChapterList’ on the store page?

Chapter 1 -Tactical Ground- (6 Games) Recommended Sunstone:0
Chapter 2 -Tactical Earth-(6 Games) Recommended Sunstone:0
Chapter 3 -Tactical Cloud-(5 Games) Recommended Sunstone:30
Chapter 4 -Tactical Star-(6 Games) Recommended Sunstone:100~150
Chapter 5 -Tactical Night-(4 Games) Recommended Sunstone:250
Chapter 6 -Tactical Rainbow-(3 Games + 8 Gates) Recommended Sunstone:100-150
Chapter 7 -Tactical Aurora-(4 Games + 7 Gates) Recommended Sunstone: 400-1000
Chapter 8 -Tactical Moon-(4 Games+ 5 Gates+ 6 Inflator) Recommended Sunstone: 800~2000
Chapter 9 -Tactical Sun-(5 Games+ 4 Gates+ 17 Inflator) Recommended Sunstone: 1200~3500
Chapter 10 -Tactical Finale-(7 Games+ 3 Gates+ 11 Inflator) Recommended Sunstone: 2000~5000
Extra Chapter -Tactical Dream-(10 Games+ 26 Inflator) Recommended Sunstone:3000~7000
Extra Chapter2 -Tactical horizon-(10 Games+ 5 Gates+ 10 Inflator) Free DLC


In this text, you will notice that from Chapter-6 onwards there is a section called ‘xx Gates’ and from Chapter-8 onwards ‘xx Inflator’.

Gates’ refers to the number of items called “Mystic Gates” introduced in Chapter-6.
In the stages from Chapter-6 onwards, there are items called ‘Mystic Gates’ somewhere on the map.
By obtaining these, you can play the hard mode of certain stages.
(xx Gates is the number of Mystic Gates you can get with the DLC.)


▲ Using a Mystic Gate will make the enemies much stronger, but will also allow you to use special features called ‘Magic’ and ‘Legacy’.



▲ Using the Mystic Gate, you can use orbs in stages where orbs don't exist, gain equipment in stages where equipment doesn't exist, and do all sorts of crazy things!


This would be more convincing if we asked the victims who have had thousands of hours wiped out by this game on Discord than if we spoke, but the Mystic Gate system has been very well received by players.
(But you'll have to play for around 500-1000 hours to fully appreciate the Mystic Gate content, so new players should think twice about purchasing the DLC after Chapter-6 this year.)


Then, after Chapter-8, an item called the Last Inflator will appear.
This is another item that, like the Mystic Gate, and far more difficult than the Mystic Gate, will allow you to play the Very Hard mode.
(xx Inflator is the number of Last Inflators you can get with that DLC.)

The Last Inflator is not yet implemented (it will be soon), but the current plan is to allow you to equip two weapons and two ornaments (armour) each, to be able to teleport to any position up to three times, and many more things.
The programmer were asked to do about six times as much work by the game designer idiot who were told ‘you don't have to do so much programming this year’, but at the moment the staff's opinion of the Last Inflator is very high.

We often (98% of the time) tend to delay deadlines in the pursuit of perfection, but at any rate, we're confident we'll be able to produce satisfactory future DLC.


[regarding the relative lack of Chapter-5 content].
Now, with these details in mind, let's lump the Game/Gates/Inflator sections of each DLC together and rewrite them as ‘true stage counts’.

Chapter 1 -Tactical Ground-(6 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:0
Chapter 2 -Tactical Earth-(6 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:0
Chapter 3 -Tactical Cloud-(5 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:30
Chapter 4 -Tactical Star-(6 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:100~150
Chapter 5 -Tactical Night-(4 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:250
Chapter 6 -Tactical Rainbow-(11 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:100~150
Chapter 7 -Tactical Aurora-(11 Stages) Recommended Sunstone: 400-1000
Chapter 8 -Tactical Moon-(15 Stages) Recommended Sunstone: 800~2000
Chapter 9 -Tactical Sun-(26 Stages) Recommended Sunstone: 1200~3500
Chapter 10 -Tactical Finale-(21 Stages) Recommended Sunstone: 2000~5000
Extra Chapter -Tactical Dream-(36 Stages) Recommended Sunstone:3000~7000
Extra Chapter2 -Tactical horizon-(25 Stages) Free DLC

The DLC after Chapter-7 will be quite expensive, probably 1.5~2.0 times more expensive than the previous DLC.
As you may have guessed, the DLC after Chapter-7 plice will be a lot more expensive than the DLC before Chapter-6, with some people asking ‘What the hell, a rip-off?’ and ‘Heh heh, I'll finish this game in no time’, the DLC after Chapter-6 is aimed at destroying the lives of those who have been fooled by the game by sending them a huge amount of content, just like Dragon Ball's Yakon, and then blowing them up.

In addition, from Chapter-6 onwards, players who have played through Chapter-5 and think they ‘understand TacticalNexus!’ and to crush players who think they understand TacticalNexus, a huge number of special systems have been introduced in some stages.


▲Chapter 6-3, which was rated #3 in Discord player polls, introduces the system, where players can change their level-up bonuses and gain exclusive passive and active skills by meeting certain conditions.


▲In Chapter 7-4, an enormous amount of stage-specific passive and stage-specific active skills are introduced, as well as special conditions for status increases.
　This stage is one of the most highly rated stages.


▲Each DLC from Chapter-6 onwards contains at least one ‘Unique Enemy’ per DLC.　
　Unique Enemies are overwhelmingly strong and understanding the stage gimmick is important to defeat them.
　(As a staff member, we have tried to keep the balance of the game so that it can be cleared without obtaining strategy information.　It's quite fun to play these games solo without getting any information......)


▲The system exists in Chapter 8-1, which is temporarily included in the main package at present.
　Note that near the release of Chapter8-1, programmers worked 250 hours in two weeks at peak times.
　The game designer will pay with their blood.


----

And so on. We have no complaints about the quality and game volume after Chapter-6.
(At the time of Chapter-6, the staff clearly created a system that significantly increased the technical skills of programming and game design.)
However, this gives the impression that the number of contents in Chapter-5 is too small.

In fact, it was Chapter-5 that we struggled with the most, and Chapter-5-4, which we created as ‘the highest stage in the first half’, took us a whole year to develop.
However, from Chapter-6 onwards, the staff rethought the development structure, and at the cost of the health of some of the staff, we were able to create a development structure that was seven times faster and had enormous technical capabilities.

Around Chapter-3 and 4, the effect per Nexus Medal was greater, and clearing one stage increased replayability.
From Chapter-6 onwards, the introduction of content increases the amount of replayability to other stages created by one stage by a huge amount.

Chapter-5, some of the stages can earn quite a lot of , but that's about it. Now that I look at it, I feel that it's quite lacking in volume.
To be clear, you don't feel like you have to buy the Chapter-5 DLC to make that big of a difference.


----

Basically, our priorities are as follows.
Staff egos > Heavy users who play for a long time > New players.

We are completely focused on ‘long-time TacticalNexus players’, so we don't think too much about new players, although it might suck for a developer to say this.
(The free-to-play is just a measure to make sure we don't increase our revenue for no good reason.)

What we're looking for is a wrestling match between heavy users who've played the game for thousands to 10,000-odd thousand hours and have become muscular, and staff who've also consumed vast amounts of time and technical skills and have become muscular.
Of course, we don't intend to create stages that can only be cleared by a bunch of players, but rather ‘fun’ content that solo players can enjoy clearing by themselves without looking at strategy information.
However, this ‘fun’ does not mean ‘elements that anyone can easily understand’, but rather ‘elements that players who have already gained a great deal of experience can identify as good or bad, and can conquer’.
This wrestling exists to bring a ‘Victory’ resolution to the player.
But we don't intend to play against new players who are skinny and have not yet developed their TacticalNexus muscles.　Please go on a protein kick.

On the other hand, I've been getting comments from heavy users that they want new stages that are easy to play, like the old stages.
(Due to the need to place and , the stages after Chapter-6 are inevitably all quite large stages.)

So we are thinking of introducing some additional content in Chapter-5, either after Chapter-8-2, where the Last Inflator is implemented, or after Chapter-8-3, which is the next stage after that.
I don't have a concrete plan yet, but I'm hoping to create 2~3 simple stages ‘in some way’.

However, the number of stages from Chapter1 to ChapterEX-2 is 70, which is already planned, so I'm a bit hesitant to implement new stages like Chapter5-5 or 5-6.

It seems that ChapterEX2-4 is almost ready to be implemented, but we don't know when we will be able to release Chapter8-2 (maybe as an interim update).
(We think there will probably be an interim update to the Last Inflator experience.)

In the meantime, I'm trying to think of ‘ideas to expand the Chapter 5 content in some way that feels good’.

The main package is now free and the trial version (Demo) has been removed.


If you have played the demo version and want to copy the save, please copy the contents of the 'while the game is running' Tactical Adventure Demo\tmp1\wwdata\save to the Tactical Nexus\tmp1\wwdata\save.
(Due to the cloud synchronisation process, if you copy the save data before starting the game, it may not synchronise properly.
Therefore, start TacticalNexus, copy the data afterwards and restart TacticalNexus afterwards).

If you have already purchased the main package, you can get the upcoming Chapter-8 DLC for free.
(In the previous announcement, we mentioned that we were "giving away SteamKey", but Steam staff have suggested that only those who buy the paid-for main package will automatically receive the Chapter-8 DLC for free.
Therefore, in contradiction to the previous announcement, it seems that those who have purchased the main package will probably be able to receive the Chapter-8 DLC without any further processing.
More details will be announced again when the DLC is on sale).


The need to buy the DLC is only necessary after you have played the game for at least 100 hours or so.
(In fact, you can play 500~1000 hours of the main game alone.)

Please play the game thoroughly before buying the DLC.
(We made the main package free because the majority of players buy the main package without even playing it and we didn't want to get meaningless sales.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1141290/ announcements/detail/4256546298577921302.
More information can be found here).

I have just realised at this point in time that we are about to go free, but as long as we are declaring it free, we should have included all the data from the main package in the Demo version.
I'm sorry that our staff are a bunch of idiots.
Maybe now the Demo version has the Mainpackage data in it.　Please contact me if you find any problems.

(Also, the update of ChapterEX2-4 will probably take at least a few more days.　Sorry for the delay)

Announcement that the price of the main package will be changed around the end of July.

The other day, we received a suggestion from English-speaking players that we should write the store page like this, and we actually received the text, so we made changes to the store page based on that text.
Then, sales of the main package increased significantly in English-speaking countries (about 2.5 percent).
I felt this was very dishonest to those who have not been following our recent exchanges on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord, so I'm going to announce it now, although the schedule is a bit vague.


◆This contradicts previous declarations and announcements.　but we REALLY wanted to make it free, so I will make the main package free from 7/15.
　(Due to the procedure and the speed of work, this schedule may be earlier or later.　Sorry for the vague declaration)

◆People who have the paid main package will receive the Chapter-8 DLC(steam key), which will be available on 7/28, for free as a compensatory payment.


◆The main package may be returned within 2 weeks of purchase.
　If you have already bought the main package recently but would not have bought it if it was going to be free, or if you have no intention of buying the DLC in the first place even if the DLC that will be free is cheaper than the current main package, please submit a return request.




◆We are conducting a survey on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord in advance to make it free.
　(but I think people who bought recently didn't know anything about the whole process.　Sorry.)


[More details about the free and Chapter-8 DLC]
◆When Chapter 8-2 is completed, the Chapter-8 DLC will be sold and the main package will be made free.
　(We had originally planned to sell the DLC after 8-3 was completed, but we wanted to make it free as soon as possible. ......)



[reason explanation].

.

This is due to the fact that the majority of players who bought the main package have only played the game for less than the demo, despite having a demo that allows them to play for dozens of hours.
As you can see from the reviewers, this game can usually be played for thousands of hours or more at this point.

We have also learned in recent months that there is a huge difference in cultural backgrounds between Japan and the rest of the world (especially the US), which is why this price point was provoking emotions, especially among foreign players.

----


TacticalNexus is an extremely expensive game, but we're not going to extort tens of thousands of dollars from people who don't play the game.
We have been declaring for several years now that we "will not be selling the game at a discount for some time," but we never intended to make a profit on it in the first place.
For reference, here are the sales figures for the first few months of TacticalNexus sales.

.

We were already working quite diligently on the Chapter-3 and Chapter-4 DLCs at this time, when there were no sales.
(TacticalNexus became known rapidly in April 2020.)
We will of course do our best to incorporate any feedback we receive and make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it, but essentially, we are trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it.　However, in essence, we do not need players and revenue for our development.

In Japan, games for "enthusiasts/niche" players are sometimes sold at high prices, but I have learned that such high pricing is perceived as "exploitative" in other countries.
(I recently learned that there are probably very few countries like Japan where the management class and the working class are not in conflict.)


We were marketing this game to a niche audience in the first place, and it doesn't matter if we make money or not.
Of course, we are willing to look at player feedback and find a path that seems compatible with our mutual goals.　But it is a fact of life for us that we lose months, sometimes years, in game development, and we develop the game the way we want to.　

But now the game is well known and the majority of players have never heard of Tower of the Sorcerer.
We can develop the game ourselves, and if only a niche audience enjoys it, that's fine with us, but we hate the idea of making uninterested players pay for it.

However, we have said for years that we will not reduce the price, and we cannot make the main package free and receive direct refund requests from those who bought the game long ago. (Due to the procedures and the amount of work involved......)
I've been wanting to do something about this for a long time, and I feel like I can solve this to some extent in the form of a SteamKey for the new DLC, so I've decided to do it that way.




Considering the psychological hurdle, if the main package is free and the DLC is paid for, I think it would eliminate the "I don't play the game, but I pay for the game."　Or rather, it should be so.
As I said, there should be no players who buy DLC before they have played the main package, which has hundreds of hours of gameplay.　Or rather, I hope they don't exist.


So that's why, contradicting previous statements, the main package will be free around 7/15.
(But we often delay updates so much that the DLC sales themselves could be even later.
We wanted to make the announcement after we had a bit more time to finalize it, but we felt that the main package was selling a bit too well and that this was a bad idea, so we made the announcement.)

★Fixed a bug that allowed users to re-purchase items that were sold out under certain conditions.

★The text of the overdrive has been changed to what was suggested in the Discord feedback.
Thank you for your suggestions.

★Fixed a bug in "Summon the spring".

★Bug report: Fixed a placement error in OLD.

★Changed the specification so that the player cannot enter the battle unless the damage inflicted is more than 1.

★Fixed a bug regarding the Raging blade of the Rainbow.

★Fixed a problem with the M key warping when HP is negative.

★Added Sunstone consumption history to the experience Sunwisher.

★Fixed a bug that caused the Orb of Resurrection to trigger when HP was below -1,000,000.

×The bug that items in xDigBlock are not affected by The Harvest will probably be delayed.　Sorry.

×We think there will be more abstract and opaque notations in the future, but I probably won't be able to fix that.

◆We will be working on integrating Last Inflator into the main script for a while, so we probably won't be able to update for a week or two.