Telepath Tactics Liberated News

Hey there, tactics fans! I took a short break from getting Together in Battle ready for Steam Next Fest (happening in just a few short weeks!) to address some lingering issues with AI performance and knock out some bugs reported over the past two weeks.

Here are the new changes and improvements:

-- due to a typo, the code that was supposed to turn off path-clearing AI behaviors in very large maps did the exact opposite, leaving slow-downs in place for large fights like Battle with Ebon Raban. This is now fixed.

-- the game now tracks how long the AI is taking to decide on a move; it will now cut the calculations short if it's taking more than a couple of seconds and the game has calculated at least one possible move. (This will make the AI a bit stupider in some situations, but the trade-off in terms of pacing is more than worth it.)

-- halved the delay after an AI character grabs an item sack before proceeding with the rest of the turn.

-- fixed: upon promoting or changing classes for proc gen golems, spriggats, and spirits, the game would overwrite the correct name of their portrait bodies, resulting in the game detecting a null portrait body and entirely replacing the portrait with a "human silhouette" placeholder.

-- fixed: the game would throw a range error in the promotion screen if you managed to promote Gunther Lathe.

-- fixed: an earlier fix that kept the game from spawning the dialogue menu when a dialogue tree was used purely to run a script with a Wait action and then EndConvImmediately, though it did fix that scenario, also ended up causing the dialogue menu to simply not spawn at all in dialogue trees that include EndConvImmediately in the initial branch following an "if"-type action, whether the end of the conversation was triggered or not. This resulted in situations where EndConvImmediately wasn't triggered but the dialogue could not be advanced, essentially freezing the game (e.g. as when leaving Fera's room without the map after Fera had left the room herself). The game now only suppresses the dialogue menu based on detection of an untriggered EndConvImmediately in the first branch if it also determines that there is no speaker, no dialogue text, and no more than a single reply option in that branch (i.e. there is no actual dialogue to display to the player).

-- fixed: in some situations, a bad move-and-hit AI move could freeze the game.

-- fixed: in some circumstances, the AddPortrait action could produce a null error.

Greetings, folks! I had some changes I wanted to make after Tuesday's patch, and it turned out that I was able to implement those changes very quickly, so I said to myself: "why not just push it out?" And so I have!

There are some cool changes to the way the game handles knockback into characters and spiked barricades, an in-game controls reference for gamepads, and more! Here are the new changes and improvements:

-- objects that deal damage when attacked (such as Spiked Barricades) now damage their attackers even when they are destroyed by the attack.

-- knocking units into damaging objects (e.g. Spiked Barricades) now not only deals the knocked-back unit regular collision damage, it also queues up bonus damage as though they'd attacked the object. (Shove them backwards into the spikes for a backstab multiplier!)

-- knocking an enemy into one of your allies can now trigger a counterattack on the enemy from that ally! (For this to work, the ally must have a melee-range counterattack available and they cannot be facing away from the enemy.) Note that your ally will still take collision damage if you do this--but the enemy will take a lot more damage overall!

-- added a gamepad controls submenu to the settings window laying out what function each gamepad button has.

-- fixed: in Crypt Diving, if turn 21 dialogue ending the battle failed to trigger due to the player already clearing all of the map's enemies, the player would simply remain stuck on the map.

-- fixed: the game would prevent characters from counterattacking AOE attacks if the attacker was facing the same direction as the would-be counterattacker, even if the attacker was not actually located behind them.

-- new script actions supported: IfGamepadGoTo and IfGamepadRun. These go to a specified dialogue branch number or run (a) specified script(s) if the player is using a gamepad to play the game.

-- added some missing documentation on how to add different types of custom images to campaigns, as well as an example custom object.


At this point, I'm pretty happy with the state Telepath Tactics Liberated is in. I'll continue to support the game, but I need going to start shifting development focus toward getting Together in Battle ready for its January 2023 Early Access debut.

If you haven't done so yet, I recommend going ahead and wishlisting Together in Battle--it's going to be something special! ;)


Tactically yours,

Craig

Hey there, folks! Today's patch sees three long-awaited features finally making it in-game: (1) the game is now fully playable with gamepad controls, (2) you can now delete save files from in-game, and (3) the game now supports custom destructible object graphics for player-made campaigns!

Finishing up gamepad support, in particular, took way longer than I'd anticipated--turns out, shoehorning gamepad controls into an elaborate interface designed for mouse and keyboard is pretty difficult, especially if you want them to feel good to use! 😅

Here's the full list of changes:

-- you can now clear saved game slots from the New Game and Load Game menus in the title screen, or from the save game menu in battle, by hitting the "X" button on a save slot. (The game will prompt you with a confirmation pop-up before proceeding.)

-- the game now officially supports Xbox One gamepads in addition to Xbox 360 and Logitech gamepads.

-- gamepad controls are now auto-enabled on the title screen if the game detects any connected gamepads, even if the Controls are set to mouse and keyboard in the settings. (This means that you can now use a gamepad to select gamepad controls rather than having to enable it with the mouse.)

-- if the game detects that you've hit a button on a gamepad while on the title screen, the game will now automatically leave gamepad input on going forward even if you didn't manually change the Controls setting to a gamepad.

-- the game now displays character tooltips when moving the selector over units using the gamepad.

-- hitting the "select" button (i.e. 'A' on an Xbox gamepad) on an empty battlefield space when using gamepad controls now immediately switches over the actions bar.

-- hitting the "actions" button (i.e. 'X' on an Xbox gamepad) when navigating the actions bar with gamepad controls now toggles focus back onto the battlefield.

-- when selecting a skill that cannot be used (because it's been used already, the character lacks the energy, etc.) with gamepad controls, the game now automatically kicks focus back to the actions bar instead of the battlefield.

-- when using gamepad controls, moving a character within skill range of valid targets will now cause the game to auto-shift focus to the skill buttons on the actions bar in order to allow quick and easy selection of attacks. (This makes the moment-to-moment experience of moving-and-attacking using gamepad controls much, much smoother.)

-- using gamepad controls, you can now click the left joystick inward to immediately undo the last move.

-- using gamepad controls, you can now click the right joystick inward to immediately rotate the current selected character.

-- when using gamepad controls in the character screen in battle, the shoulder buttons now cycle through characters.

-- when using gamepad controls, the right trigger button now cycles through camera zoom levels.

-- when using gamepad controls in battle, the start button now calls up the main menu.

-- when using gamepad controls, the D-pad now functions as an alternative to the left joystick.

-- added gamepad support for the "Download Campaigns" menu and its search options submenu.

-- added gamepad support for the battle main menu.

-- added gamepad support for the objectives window.

-- added gamepad support for the victory window.

-- finished adding gamepad support for the deployment interface.

-- updated gamepad menu navigator for the new turn box to support the start-turn button.

-- added gamepad support for the reports/objectives screen.

-- added basic gamepad support for the level-up screen.

-- added gamepad support for the promotion window.

-- added full gamepad-controls support for the character details screen, including full ability to use, give, and drop items in character inventory.

-- added gamepad support for the reserve supplies screen and its various sub-menus. (This one was a huge pain.)

-- fixed: it was possible for the game to freeze when trying to advance dialogue after the game attempted to move a character not found on the battlefield.

-- fixed: it was possible to cause errors by trying to move the selector off the edge of the map in gamepad mode.

-- fixed: the skill editor was not loading and saving custom power, length, or chance modifications to skill status effects correctly.

-- added support for a second custom string value to be displayed in save files for a campaign using ChangeSaveString.

-- fixed: custom save strings could carry over from one campaign to a different campaign during the same play session.

-- fixed: due to changes in the way the game processed status effects and damage, Gravity Spike and Gravity Well had ceased to insta-drop flyers into chasms or liquids.

-- added a sound effect for when attacks are blocked by a great shield.

-- tweaked the AI code to halve the effect of space danger calculations, making the AI much less likely to take no action with characters on the brink of death.

-- fixed: a quirk in the AI code made enemies ignore the danger of a space when evaluating whether to attack destructible objects, but not when evaluating whether to attack enemy characters, meaning that enemies in a dangerous position would sometimes inexplicably attack the scenery instead of enemies.

-- fixed: the game was canceling focus on the new turn box for the gamepad navigator upon concluding BeforeTurn dialogue, preventing the player from saving or starting the turn.

-- fixed cursor spacing when navigating the actions bar in gamepad mode.

-- fixed cursor positioning on the new turn box in gamepad mode.

-- fixed: upon selecting a button that changes the active buttons within an interface element (e.g. a page button) using gamepad controls, the cursor would remain over the same spot until moved...even if the button it had just selected since disappeared.

-- custom object images for custom campaigns are now fully working!

-- fixed in version 1.0.36a: gamepad mode would not get switched off when loading an old game from the title screen with a gamepad that was plugged in but neither used nor selected as the preferred control method.

-- fixed in version 1.0.36a: beating the game in randomizer mode did not award achievements.


...phew! That's it for this update. I do still need to add a "control map" screen to the game setting out what the buttons all do, and I need to implement some alternate tutorial text for gamepad users. All in all, though, you should now be able to play the game from start to finish using a gamepad. The one thing you cant do with a gamepad now is use the campaign creator (implementing gamepad controls for that would be an absolute nightmare, so that's gonna remain mouse-and-keyboard only).

For now, here's a quick rundown of the gamepad controls:

-- left joystick and d-pad: move cursor (or selector, if navigating a battlefield)
-- right joystick: pan camera
-- bottom button ('A' on Xbox controllers): select
-- right button ('B' on Xbox controllers): cancel
-- left button ('X' on Xbox controllers): toggle focus to/from actions bar
-- right button ('Y' on Xbox controllers): open character screen for the character or object beneath the cursor
-- L3: undo last move
-- R3: rotate selected character
-- shoulder buttons: switch to next/previous character
-- right trigger: cycle zoom level
-- start: open main menu

Until next time!


--Craig

The main campaign in Telepath Tactics Liberated can now be played in randomizer mode!

Randomizer mode mixes things up by removing the cast of characters you know and love, and swapping in a selection of procedurally generated characters with classes chosen at random. This allows you to replay the main campaign with totally different units at your disposal--you'll get a fresh experience and a different challenge every time!

You'll also find new tools to customize your characters in randomizer mode. New limited-use items let chosen characters place traps and timed charges; special books teach characters skills they wouldn't ordinarily know; and Emma can be trained into a new class of your choice a few battles into the campaign!

I've also added a couple of new achievements in for beating randomizer mode: Roller of Dice and Master of Randomness. Are you up to the challenge?

To unlock randomizer mode, simply beat the main campaign on any difficulty. The next time you go to start a new game, select The Randomizer of Emma Strider from the list of campaigns and randomizer mode will commence! (If you've already beaten the game and received the Liberator achievement, the game will automatically detect it and unlock randomizer mode for you.)

[h2]Patch version 1.0.35[/h2]

This update brings the game up to version 1.0.35--and while randomizer mode is most definitely the crown jewel of this update, there are numerous other improvements joining the game alongside it! Among them:

-- the New Turn box no longer disappears upon clicking just anywhere onscreen; instead, there is now a dedicated Start Turn button that must be clicked to dismiss the box and commence the turn. This should help avoid players accidentally clicking past the opportunity to save at the start of each turn in battle.

-- the main battle menu is now accessible during deployment.

-- when the character screen is open in battle, scrolling the mouse wheel now cycles through the character screens for others in the same army.

-- when either the unit inventory browser or the character screen is open within the reserve supplies screen, scrolling the mouse wheel now cycles through other characters who have access to the reserve supplies.

-- the game now automatically sorts character inventory when opening the character screen, or when opening the unit inventory browser in the reserve supplies screen.

-- fixed: the reserve supplies screen's auto-equip feature would stop after auto-equipping one item given to the character.

-- you can now Store items from within the character screen while in the reserve supplies interface.

-- the character screen now displays "(X/12)" above the inventory, where X is how many of the character's inventory slots are being used.

-- tooltips for equipment now display the slot they equip to whether the item is currently equipped or not.

-- adjusted the proc gen cavalier skill progression: Charge is now guaranteed to be learned much earlier, and cavaliers learn either Hold or Sprint instead of always learning Hold and learning either Sprint or Great Shield Mastery.

-- boosted base Dodge by 5 for proc gen assassins.

-- when a proc gen character is first generated or levels up, the game now checks to see if they have any skills with an energy cost exceeding their maximum energy. If so, the game now automatically awards that character energy sufficient to bring their maximum energy up to the cost of that skill.

-- enemy units can no longer spawn on top of spaces containing player-created objects, such as traps and barricades.

-- fixed: the "Ability" animation for cavaliers was improperly compressed, preventing palette swapping of the sprite.

-- fixed: although the game checked for duplicate first names in characters generated through the recruitment interface, it did not do so with one-off proc gen characters produced through the GenerateUnique script action.

-- fixed: multiple timed charges simultaneously detonating from burning damage within Explode range of one another would produce a null error.

-- fixed: if apples were dropped onto a space already containing an item sack with apples in it during Out of Food Battle, the game would count the number of apples dropped incorrectly.

-- 1.0.35a: characters chosen for deployment are now automatically shuffled to the front of the army roster for easier access going forward.

-- 1.0.35a: removed the "Start Turn" button from the turn box at the start of AI turns.

-- fixed in 1.0.35a: Unity was offsetting the raycast boundaries of the buttons on the new turn box for reasons I have yet to understand.

-- fixed in 1.0.35a: after panning the camera with the WASD/arrow keys, the camera would slow to a stop approximately 3 times slower in the vertical axis than in the horizontal axis.

-- 1.0.35b: removed physical traits for proc gen characters that had no impact on the systems used in TTL.

-- fixed in 1.0.35b: when testing multiple consecutive scenes of a player-created campaign, the game would start to save over ordinary player save files.

-- fixed in 1.0.35b: the game's internal list of sound loops contained misnamed versions of the two "crickets" loops.

-- fixed in 1.0.35c: various procedurally generated characters appearing partway through the randomizer campaign were being prematurely auto-recruited to roster 0.

-- fixed in 1.0.35d: in randomizer mode, Silithis Predat was still having her skills wiped in the Training scene, but they weren't returning afterwards.

-- fixed in 1.0.35d: in randomizer mode, Silithis Predat could be generated without Grandmace mastery (necessary to use her personal weapon, Fangiss Ka).

-- fixed in 1.0.35d: draining a character's Energy below 0 had ceased to roll over into health damage.

-- fixed in 1.0.35e: the game would not spawn characters directly onto the battlefield by script ID who were marked for saving, but who were neither currently present on the battlefield nor actually saved yet. This caused Annel's proc gen replacement not to spawn in the randomizer version of Battle with Ebon Raban.

-- fixed in 1.0.35e: the game would lock up upon trying to move a character not found on the map via the MoveUnit or MoveUnitBy script actions.

-- fixed in 1.0.35e: proc gen cavaliers could be generated with a blank entry in their skill progression.

[h2]Wanted: your review![/h2]

Are you enjoying the game? We need your review! Writing a Steam review is one of the best things you can do to help get the word out about TTL. The more folks review the game, the more Steam's algorithm will show the game to new players; the more players that see the game, the more players will buy the game; and the more players that buy the game, the more resources I'll have to keep adding in awesome new art, features, and content.

That's all I've got for you today. Next week, we've got player campaign showcase #4; I hope you're excited for it!


Yours in tactics,

Craig

Hey there, tactics fans! I've got another update for you. The next big content push is nearly done; I'm just taking care of some housekeeping before I kick it out the door. :)

New in this patch:

-- for performance reasons, the game now automatically turns off the path-clearing algorithm for the AI if a map's combined width and height are greater than 48. (This helps enormously in speeding up enemy turns for big maps like Battle with Ebon Raban).

-- tweaked the AI so that it will always disregard scenery-clearing moves which do less than 1/5th the object's total health in damage.

-- reduced the sample rate on unit idle animations to 15 FPS to better match the other character animations.

-- made Longbow Mastery a much earlier get in the proc gen bowman skill progression.

-- added documentation for SaveChar to the Guide.

-- fixed a small typo in Crypt Diving.

-- fixed: in some circumstances, the AI would move a unit after the unit's turn had ended.

-- fixed: title screen music would begin playing at full volume regardless of music volume settings.

-- fixed: the AddPortrait action was only looking for characters actively on the battlefield when used in battle.

-- fixed: the game would ignore script IDs used as reference name parameters in the ChangeExpression and PortraitParticles script actions.

--extended the click-and-draggable area for the dialogue editor downward to accommodate mouse navigation of much larger dialogue trees.


Thanks for sticking with the game; I'm excited to show you the new content I've been working on!


Tactically yours,

Craig