Together in Battle News

[p]I keep finding little things that need fixing, and so I continue to fix them! Here's what's new in version 1.0.53:[/p][h3][/h3][h3]UI improvement:[/h3]

• [p]the game now gracefully handles weapon-switching while attack tiles remain visible onscreen.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed: a change to the game's code intended to let it gracefully handle missing dialogue lines in other contexts had caused it to stop generating missing response lines on the fly during camp, leading to a lot of "I don't know what to say" moments.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Reinforcing Spine item was not adding to the target weapon's max uses correctly.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then equipping a new weapon that retained access to the selected skill was not causing the game to update damage and to-hit-chance data reflected in the attack tiles based on the weapon's new stats.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then equipping a new weapon that causes the character to lose access to the selected skill (or the base skill the selected skill depends upon) was not causing the game to deselect the skill and clear its attack tiles.[/p]
• [p]fixed: selecting a skill and then unequipping a weapon that grants the base skill the selected skill depends upon was not causing the game to deselect the skill and clear its attack tiles.[/p]
• [p]fixed:  the game was using an item's full, base value rather than its modification cost when charging the player for repairs and engravings at the blacksmith.[/p]
• [p]fixed: human female hairstyle 20 had somehow lost its formatting, causing it to no longer show up.[/p]
• [p]fixed:  one of the snow-chasm-transition terrain tiles (snow-chasm3TipTL, to be exact) had incorrect rotation data.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the game was not wiping its memory of old characters when starting a New Game Plus (as it was supposed to be), meaning that custom characters recruited in the prior playthrough would not show up again during recruitment.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]And for campaign creators:[/h3]

• [p]updated the moddable version of the main Together in Battle campaign with scripting fixes from the last month of updates.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was overwriting character default facial expressions when filling in gaps at the conclusion of character creation.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Until next time![/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours, [/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]I have another small update for you all: version 1.0.52! We have some more class balance tweaks, interface fixes, some extra capability for the item editor, and other miscellaneous bug fixes. Let's get right to the changes:[/p][p][/p][h3]First, miscellaneous balance tweaks and changes:[/h3]

• [p]increased the salary and appetite of cavaliers somewhat for balance reasons.[/p]
• [p]reduced the energy gain on the Mant Lancer promotion from 10 to 8.[/p]
• [p]the "-arch" promotion variants for the four elemental psy fighter types now gain +20 accuracy on their relevant elemental blast skill instead of an energy cost reduction, making these variants more distinct from (and competitive with) the "-kurios" alternative.[/p]
• [p]in the Snow Leopard League qualifier, the boss, assassin, and psy healer no longer remain immobile if the player enters their area prior to round 9.[/p]
• [p]in version 1.0.52a: rapier-based attacks Thrust and Lunge now have a big +75 accuracy buff to help provide more counterplay against Dodge tanks and provide extra utility to rapiers.[/p]
• [p]in version 1.0.52a: increased the energy cost of Defiant Stance from 2 to 4.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed: character tooltips had begun showing up when mousing over attack tiles in battle (these could obscure targeting reticles for skills that hit multiple spaces laterally, like Impale or spriggat breath attacks).[/p]
• [p]fixed: character tooltips could be made to show up during the gap between an army winning and the victory/defeat window popping up onscreen; these would then obscure part of the victory/defeat window.[/p]
• [p]fixed: when choosing who to make a buy-out offer for, Ishita Svaamee was using characters' displayed levels instead of their true levels, leading to her making offers to buy out recent promotes (with a lower displayed level) instead of unpromoted characters whose true level was actually lower.[/p]
• [p]fixed: upon winning the battle in the northern stepwell or the smuggler's den battle, the game would progress straight to the calendar screen instead of back to late camp.[/p]
• [p]fixed: following the revenge quest battle, the player would return back to camp at a normal time instead of late.[/p]
• [p]fixed: if the player lost the treasure thicket battle, they would restart it instead of being returned to camp.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Sick camp event could display the wrong character name.[/p]
• [p]fixed: clicking one extra time during a specific window in the introductory dialogue to Battle in the Northern Stepwell, just before the kidnappee is shoved into the water, could result in babble sound effects playing continuously until the end of the dialogue sequence.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: because the brother from the brother leader arena event and the inspirational leader from the inspirational leader arena event shared a script ID, and because the brother from the brother leader event was saved as a persistent characters, if the brother leader event happened and then, in a subsequent battle, the inspirational leader event happened, the brother would deliver the death monologue for the inspirational leader in place of the inspirational leader themselves, in turn causing the game to lock up upon completing the battle.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: there were a couple of remaining cavosphere activity narrations that shadowlings could get which used the descriptor "kick."[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.52a: female human hairstyle 20 was sitting a little bit too high up on the head.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Campaign editor fixes and improvements:[/h3]

• [p]when creating items for a custom campaign, you can now make up entirely new equipment slots at will (e.g. Tail, Shoulder, Eyebrow, Essence...literally whatever you want) for items to equip to.[/p]
• [p]when adding traits to characters for a custom campaign, the game now displays descriptions of the personalities, physical traits, and backgrounds at the bottom of the window.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the Neck equipment slot was missing from documentation (and from auto-completion in the item editor).[/p]
• [p]fixed: a previous fix to a different bug had broken the physical attribute and background selectors for newly created unique characters in the character creator.[/p]
• [p]fixed: camera bloom was making explanatory text in the character creator's text fields difficult to read.[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's all for the changes![/p][p][/p][h3]Custom campaign contest update![/h3][p][/p][p]In five days, there will be one month remaining in our custom campaign contest. All entries will be played live on stream, and the very best ones will win cash prizes of up to $100! I cannot wait to see what you all create. 😁 [/p][p][/p][p]To help out people new to this, I've been releasing video tutorials that walk you through the process of making a custom campaign. Here, for example, is the last episode I released (about making a custom battle):[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]I'm taking suggestions for future videos, so if there's something you want to do but don't know how, reach out and I may just make a video for you about it! 😉[/p][p][/p][p]All right folks, that's all I've got for this one. See you in the next update![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]Greetings, tactics fans! This is another small update in which I continue to fix bugs and improve the experience in small ways.[/p][p][/p][h3]Changes to the Main Campaign[/h3][p][/p][p]First, we have a few changes designed to make it easier to keep lower-level characters caught up with the rest of the team without risking their lives in the arena, and to ensure that that remains possible throughout the campaign:[/p]

• [p]increased the availability of battle primers somewhat in the shop to make it easier to catch up underleveled characters.[/p]
• [p]increased the range of levels where novice and intermediate battle primers are effective to keep them useful for longer.[/p]
• [p]in the shop, intermediate battle primers are now much more likely to appear instead of novice ones once the player enters Gharial League; and once the player enters Snow Leopard League, expert battle primers are now much more likely to appear instead of novice or intermediate ones.[/p]
• [p]added in version 1.0.51a: the game now actively checks non-Golem, non-Spirit custom characters when initiating camp and--if they're missing Practice, Clean, and Talk camp activities--adds them.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]fixed: the game was playing drowning sound effects when checking environmental damage for destructible objects submerged in water.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: custom characters were being generated without certain core camp activities available to them.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: mind controlling an enemy minion during Psy Clash would result in the minion's attack sound effect reverting to a sword slash sound.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: the epilogue used the word "screenplay" where "stageplay" was appropriate.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51a: there was a "the" missing in one line of Malatose's dialogue during her first interrogation ("Getting straight to point now, are we").[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: some background- and trait-specific camp activities for certain custom characters were still not showing up post-hotfix.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: portraits for certain generic characters were not loading due to a mistake in the code adding support for custom static generic character portraits.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: a bug fix from a previous update was causing characters already present among saved characters to not get recruited during battle (most noticeably during the character sibling event in the arena).[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: skills which place multiple holds or create multiple objects at once were granting experience multiple times.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.51b: skills which place multiple holds or create multiple objects at once were counting multiple times for purposes of how many times the skill had been used in battle.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Campaign Creator improvements[/h3]

• [p]you can now assign your own custom static portraits to generic unit types in the character creator![/p]
• [p]you can now manually select skin and hair palettes for generic character portraits (and, for humans, their corresponding unit sprites) in the character creator.[/p]
• [p]updated placeholder text in the tags field for the map editor's Unit Properties window, removing the long-since-deprecated "Add," text.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was formatting portrait data for generic characters in such a way that their hair layer wasn't being detected upon loading them in a custom campaign.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the character creator was not saving hair palette or skin palette data for generic characters.[/p]
• [p]fixed: the map editor was throwing a null error when trying to create tooltips upon mousing over FromPlayerRoster character stand-ins.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Create your own campaign![/h3][p]As you can see, I've been focused on fixes and improvements to the campaign creation suite. We are now just a bit more than 1/4th of the way through our campaign creation contest, and I want to make sure that campaign creation is as fun and painless as possible![/p][p][/p][p]In that vein, I've been uploading a series of tutorial videos designed to teach people how to create their own campaigns in the campaign editor. As of today, we now have four videos up--these (and all future videos in the series) appear in this Youtube playlist: [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][h3]New Playthrough Stream![/h3][p]In the meantime, SRPG luminary Titanium Legman has begun a series where he livestreams Together in Battle while recruiting as many player-created custom characters as possible. (Tonight will be the third episode--don't miss it! 😉)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Anyway, that's all I've got for this one; see you all in the next update![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Just a small update with improvements and some bug fixes: [/h3]

• [p]added in version 1.0.50k: the procedural battle generation algorithm now applies a negative weight to spaces close to treasure chests, making it less likely that enemies will spawn within move-and-attack range of chests. [/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50k: two different move-clearing methods in the game's AI module were conflicting when an AI character stopped moving due to wandering into a Hold, causing the second method to fail to recognize the held character as the current character and then fail to call for the execution of the next move in the AI module.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50k: it was still possible to get tooltips stuck onscreen when menus were in the process of appearing.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50m: when a character finished acting and their experience bar was animating to full, there was a short window where you could click to select a new character between the experience bar filling up and the level-up screen popping onscreen. This would both interrupt the level-up screen and prevent the actions bar from reappearing.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: when playing on Relaxed difficulty, a script action in Battle in the Print Shop was referencing the wrong coordinates, causing a window to gain passability Closed, thereby preventing characters from shooting through it.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: in Battle in the Print Shop, the central bowmen and guards near the top of the map would not react to enemies entering their move-and-attack range unless Sandesh Andhera had already reached the ledger.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: if Sandesh Andhera reached the table with the ledger in Battle in the Print Shop, the game would replace the wrong table object on the battlefield.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: stripping one specific type of non-aggro AI tag from an aggro group (e.g. Inactive or Passive) via a script action such as RemoveTag would automatically result in every other type of non-aggro AI tag also being stripped from that aggro group.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: one particular grass-chasm variant tile among dozens had incorrect rotation data.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50o: some of the unit buttons in the reserve supplies screen (characters 10 through 15) had misaligned mouseover tooltips.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50o: if the player chose to undertake an action that would return them to camp late (such as rescuing the blacksmith), any plot event scheduled to occur in camp that evening would be skipped--and not rescheduled.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50p: a few of the custom dialogue lines in the custom character maker had incorrect settings attached to them that could make them save in the wrong spots.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50p: the game would create log files whenever the player hit the 'L' key when typing in text in the custom character maker.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Gamepad fixes:[/h3]

• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: when playing in gamepad mode, if you tried to end combat deployment without filling all of the allowed deployment spots, the game would fail to switch gamepad focus to the popup window asking if you're sure you want to proceed. [/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: when playing with gamepad controls, in battles where a character left the battlefield via a dialogue option upon moving onto a designated space, the game could throw a null error when checking for interactables adjacent to the now-missing character.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: when playing with gamepad controls, using "B" to back out of the save game menu mid-battle would inappropriately return gamepad focus to the battlefield instead of to the new turn window.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: under rare circumstances, when playing with gamepad controls, it was apparently possible for the gamepad cursor to end up with focus in the Actions Bar even after the victory screen came up at the end of battle.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: gamepad cursor alignment was off on numerous buttons in the reserve supplies screen following its redesign.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50l: when playing with gamepad controls, the gamepad cursor was not visible on the victory screen when clicking to continue at the end of battle.[/p]

[h3]And for the campaign creation suite: [/h3]

• [p] added in version 1.0.50k: the campaign creation suite's character creator now lets you specify a class when procedurally generating a random character, with predictive text prompting based on the selected species.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]
• [p] fixed in version 1.0.50k: 19 of the proc gen dialogue line variants in CharAttributes.xml for custom campaigns were still using the deprecated -STR:TeamName- special character in lieu of -ARMYNAME-. [/p]
• [p] fixed in version 1.0.50k: in the creation suite's character creator, abandoning a character to start making a new character was not working as intended.[/p]
• [p] fixed in version 1.0.50k: in the creation suite's character creator, creating characters of a particular class would cause that class to stop appearing in the character class list until the editor was exited and reentered.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50m: the New Campaign button's tooltip in the campaign editor was displaying an outdated file path for where the campaign would be created (saying "Telepath Tourney" instead of "Together in Battle").[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50m: the invisible button in the campaign editor to edit a campaign's name and description was no longer in the correct location; it is now once again fully covering the area where the campaign's name appears.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50m: updating a custom campaign's description did not refresh its description in the campaign list, causing the old description to reappear upon clicking the campaign's name a second time.[/p]
• [p]added in version 1.0.50n: the character creator now lets you set a character's romantic preferences alongside their other traits.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: loading a character in the character creator was not setting the trait pickers to reflect their personality, physical traits, or background.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50n: babble dialogue noises could still play on dialogue branches where actual voice acting had been initiated via the PlayDialogue script action, thereby overriding the playback of the VA dialogue.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50p: a null error had started occurring when hitting "New Character" right after creating a new campaign in the campaign editor.[/p]
• [p]fixed in version 1.0.50p: the engine would suffer a null error if the player used the Recruit script action in OnLoaded dialogue at the start of a battle and then attempted to load that character into the deployment screen.
  [/p]

[p]In other news, in case you missed it, our campaign creation contest is now underway--create your own mini-adventure and send it to me by mid-October, and I'll play it on stream. (You could even win a prize!) More details here: [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Tactically yours,[/p][p][/p][p]Craig[/p]

[p]Hey all--I've decided to throw a two-month, custom mini-campaign contest![/p][p]The idea is simple: starting today (August 15th, 2025), you'll have 2 months to create a short custom campaign in Together in Battle's SRPG campaign creator. All entries will be livestreamed and there will be hundreds of dollars* in cash prizes given out for the top 4 submissions! 🎊 [/p][p][/p][p]*two hundred and fifty, to be exact.[/p][p][/p][p]Contest Theme[/p]

• [p]"Secret"[/p]

[p][/p][p]The Deadline[/p]

• [p]October 16th, 2025, 11:59 PM Central Time (UTC -6)[/p]

[p][/p][p]The Rules[/p]

1. [p]Your campaign must be playable within Together in Battle (i.e. no custom engines, SRPG Studio, ROM hacks, etc.) You can use Together in Battle's free demo to make it, however! (The demo provides full access to the campaign creation suite.)[/p]
2. [p]Your campaign must be "mini": it must consist of exactly 2 battles and no more than 5 scenes total (i.e. 2 battles and 1-3 cutscenes). Each of your cutscenes can be any length you like.[/p]
3. [p]Your campaign must tell a complete, self-contained story. It's okay if your campaign takes place in the same setting as another campaign--but it must tell a story that feels complete in itself (i.e. it should provide all of the information necessary for the player to understand what's going on without having played a different campaign, and it should not end with a cliffhanger or "to be continued").[/p]
4. [p]Your campaign must relate to the contest theme in some way. For example: it can be about a secret conspiracy; unmasking a secret traitor; learning the secret to achieving some goal; fighting to keep a secret from coming out; secretly infiltrating somewhere; it can have a twist where a character reveals a secret that assures victory when things look hopeless; etc. Exactly how the theme relates to your campaign is up to you to decide![/p]
5. [p]Your campaign must be your own original work. You may team up with other people, of course, and communal cooperation on how best to use the engine is encouraged. You may use any assets which come with Together in Battle, custom assets you created yourself, or assets in the public domain (including assets with a CC0 license). For all non-public domain assets you use, you must have an appropriate license or written permission. You may not use generative AI in any form or fashion.[/p]
6. [p]You must email me your submission info and upload your submission to the Steam Workshop for Together in Battle by the contest deadline. (If you submit early, you can continue to revise your submission until the contest deadline.)[/p]
   • [p]Submission info to be emailed: the name (or alias) of everyone in your team; the name of your campaign; a short explanation of how it uses the theme; and any other special instructions or information needed to play it.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Scoring Criteria[/p]

• [p]All submissions will be scored on the following criteria:[/p]
  • [p]Gameplay (40 points)[/p]
    • [p]Pacing (10) - battles should pose tactical questions to the player at a steady pace, neither overwhelming them nor leaving too much "empty" time where the player has no interesting choices to make.[/p]
    • [p]Balance (10) - battles should pose an appropriate challenge without being frustrating; characters should all be useful to some degree, with distinct roles to play in the fighting and progression from leveling up that meaningfully alters their capabilities.[/p]
    • [p]Technical (10) - the submission should competently use a variety of the engine's features (e.g. elevation, special terrain, destructible objects, lighting, weather, triggers, dialogue interactions, etc.) [/p]
      • [p]Bugs will deduct points from this subcategory; make sure to test before submitting![/p]
    • [p]Creativity (10) - the submission should offer good enemy variety and successfully use gameplay to support the narrative elements; clever or unexpected use of game mechanics or assets, unusual objectives and battlefield conditions, and general originality will make up the remaining points here.[/p]
  • [p]Narrative (30 points)[/p]
    • [p]Plot (10) - what happens in the story? Does it make sense? Does it fit the setting and characters? Is it interesting, funny, or emotionally affecting?[/p]
    • [p]Characters (10) - who participates in the story? Do they have distinct personalities and ways of speaking? Does their dialogue sound natural? Do they develop and change over the course of the submission? Do they have entertaining interactions with each other? Do their motivations naturally play into the plot?[/p]
    • [p]Theme (10) - how well is the contest theme integrated into the narrative? Is the story built around it; are character arcs?[/p]
  • [p]Aesthetic (10 points) [/p]
    • [p]the submission should look and sound good. (This is obviously subjective, but at a minimum, try to avoid issues like excessively loud sounds or terrain tiles that don't work well together.)[/p]
• [p]Each submission will be scored out of 80 points using the criteria above. I will be judging each entry personally, but I may recruit other judges to help me--if I do, then our scores will be averaged to get the final score out of 80 for each submission.[/p]
• [p]The submissions will be ranked in descending order by their final score: the submission with the highest score will take 1st place, the submission with the second-highest score will take 2nd place, and so on. Ties will be broken on the basis of each submission's Theme score.[/p]

[p][/p][p]The Prizes[/p]

• [p]1st Place: $100.00 US[/p]
• [p]2nd Place: $75.00 US[/p]
• [p]3rd Place: $50.00 US[/p]
• [p]4th Place: $25.00 US[/p]
• [p]Regardless of placement, each and every campaign that is submitted will get a playthrough (with commentary) livestreamed on Youtube![/p]

[p][/p][p]How to Make a Campaign[/p][p]I'm planning to create a video series covering all the ins and outs of making a campaign in Together in Battle over on the Sinister Design Youtube channel--but for now, check out this excellent guide by community member Tacitus![/p][p][/p][p]I think that about covers it. Let me know if you have any questions below; good luck and godspeed! 🫡[/p][p][/p][p]--Craig[/p]