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Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Feb 2022 02:24

Lots of new stuff has been posted on Tales Tavern recently, and it's been getting more skillful and detailed, with Istallri leading the pack as usual.

Riven – A full city in a snap of a finger!
https://talestavern.com/collections/riv ... -a-finger/

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Look at the scale of the pic above. Just freakin' look at it compared to the mini. Now you know why you need climbing. Or better flying.

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Look at the detail in this gate.

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These pieces have a level of detail not seen before. It's because he's combining pieces from many tilesets, and the more he has the more complex he can make everything. And of course he has the eye to make something beautiful, as opposed to a normal person who'd make something gross.

Lots more stuff to show, but I am not showing the stuff I'll be using early on in West Marches.

A dreamy jungle river crossing: https://talestavern.com/slab/chult-river-crossing/

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Crazy detailed fireplaces: https://talestavern.com/slab/blackwolf- ... ace-set-4/

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The House of Inspired Hands (temple of Gond) in Waterdeep (Forgotten Realms): https://talestavern.com/slab/house-of-i ... e-of-gond/

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Port of giant city that reminds me of Anno: https://twitter.com/TabernaDadoRoto/sta ... 2354168832

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More awesome stuff that I am not posting here because, as I said, you'll be seeing it in West Marches soon. Can't wait for you to stumble on them while dramatic music plays!
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Feb 2022 02:29

FUUUCK I JUST FOUND THESE PICS!!!

https://twitter.com/demongund/status/14 ... 1854507010

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Notice the partly and fully submerged lizards. You can make full use of aquatic combat rules in a way you never could before.

Stunning stuff.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 12 Feb 2022 20:52

https://twitter.com/heimdal_3/status/14 ... 0644829185

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I think this is a Western guy living in Japan, and he has shitton of minis in TaleSpire that no one else does. I need to keep working on my mini archive exchange program and get in touch with him. Look at that freakin' dragon. I've also not seen the guy with the gold shield anywhere.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Feb 2022 20:58

Video of Destiny models imported to TaleSpire: https://twitter.com/diceisrighttv/statu ... 7650948097

Also someone is posting free models in the TaleSpire Reddit: https://twitter.com/andrewlysium/status ... 0233175040

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They are of insane quality. How hard is it to grab them and put them in our archive? They can be found by scrolling down the TaleSpire Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire

Even better is browsing the posting history of the guy sharing the models as he is also sharing variants: https://www.reddit.com/user/GodfatherElite
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ysignal » 15 Feb 2022 21:40

If you go to this page you can see all his models distributed as TaleSpire mods:

https://talespire.thunderstore.io/package/Wulfstahn/

If you click through to each package and click "Manual Download" you'll get a zip that has all the mod data inside, including the painted models. The variants are included in the three mods.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Feb 2022 19:35

Lord Ashes keeps pumping out the mods.

Extra Gore Plugin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFZ3ENIjFBA

Light Plugin still working...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07dZdIpkM9g

The gore mod adds blood both on the mini and as a flashing effect all over the screen, and the light plugin has several effects besides torches: watch the whole video.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 23 Feb 2022 19:37

Every time a new content pack drops, it's like Christmas. Can't wait to see the new sets posted on Tales Tavern. This one even comes with new music and ambient sounds. Never seen that before, I hope it continues.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 4647175109

Bouncyrock wrote:Early Access Content Pack 10: Aberrations
BUILD-ID: 8258097 - Download Size: 325 MB

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Steel your thoughts, tether your mind, and brave the cosmic chaos of an alien world in TaleSpire's latest Early Access Content Pack - Aberrations.

This Content Pack contains the following:

  • Writhemind Lair Tileset (29 pieces)
  • 18 new props
  • 5 minis (Writhemind, MindCrawler, Dread Observer, Igril, Slaagoth)
  • 2 music tracks (Writhemind, Battle - Skirmish in the Deep)
  • 1 ambient sfx (Writhemind Lair)

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We hope this pack brings you many joys and horrors.


BUILD-ID: 8258097 - Download Size: 325 MB


Still no ships of course, and I whined about it in the comments. I'll be whining with every update from now on. They do read the comments.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 0190899575

icycalm wrote:Number 1 thing this game needs is ships. I will be posting this in every update thread.


https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 0191285249

Aurora_momo wrote:there are ships build in tavern by players ^^


https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 0191539807

icycalm wrote:And that's why we don't have real ships: because people have crap taste and think that a tent can serve as a sail. Plus the developers couldn't devise a proper list or priorities to save their lives.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 25 Feb 2022 01:39

Istallri has released a new board with the new assets. He had help from another creator too. They must have been working day and night since the assets released, or they had early access. It’s a great piece, and you’ll be seeing it in West Marches.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ysignal » 26 Feb 2022 06:43

Lord Ashes has a mass movement mod out now:

Mass Move Plugin - More Features
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIhogY22c2g

At the moment it seems to be keyboard-only, but according to the video he's going to add GUI controls soon.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 27 Feb 2022 22:13

That mod is EXACTLY what we need for TaleSpire wargaming with large armies, and for the hirelings in West Marches when leccosta can't find enough players to play them. And when the lieutenant hirelings get their own subordinates, each of them will have a squad behind him moving with these commands. Insane stuff. Everyone should check that video. That's the future of wargaming right there.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 01 Mar 2022 05:20

A scene from Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

Bridge – “Torm’s Blade”
https://talestavern.com/slab/bridge-torms-blade/

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We won't be playing it for years, so it's not a significant spoiler. Just look at the scale of the thing. Imagine it with rain and spell effects flying around.

They say this adventure is a prequel to Baldur's Gate III, so a sequel to BG 1+2.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 14 Mar 2022 15:03

https://mobile.twitter.com/anxarach/sta ... 8811269127

Since I picked up TaleSpire (3D vtt) combat has become so much more dynamic. Having an actual tree or rock that my players see in a 3D space has encouraged them to use cover more. They now climb, hide, jump, and hem enemies in.
It's been just so much fun.


We’ll be getting in on this action soon.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Mar 2022 04:12

It's Christmas again!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 9048171723

Bouncyrock wrote:Early Access Content Pack 11: Hellfire
BUILD-ID: 8371540 - Download Size: 867.8 MB

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Bubbling up from the abyss with new lava caverns tiles, vengeful demons, defenders of the heavens, and atmospheric elements to bind it all together is our latest Early Access Content Pack: Hellfire!

Included in the pack are the following assets:

A 35-piece Lava Caverns tileset

23 props of devilish design

10 minis, including:

  • Hell Hound
  • Kozra the Goatspawn
  • Blade Demon
  • Razgora the Seer
  • Fire Giant
  • Klojin the Cutter
  • Succubus
  • Kiroterror the flying skull

2 ambient SFX [Lava, Abyssal Winds]

1 battle music track [The Broken Circle]

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Oh, and heads up - while your party is busy driving back the hordes of hell, the TaleSpire art team will be working on our largest Content Pack to date… the Cyberpunk/Sci-fi release! No doubt some of you have already seen what’s in store and we’re super excited to get this content into your hands. That being said, there’s a lot more work we need to do before we can ship it out, so we’ll be going dark on assets for a bit. But don’t despair - the next time you see us, we’ll be reloading pulse rifles, jamming on cyberdecks, and sporting cool sunglasses under a neon sky!


BUILD-ID: 8371540 - Download Size: 867.8 MB


It's even more gorgeous than usual. I can't wait to see what people will make with this. The stuff they make is ALWAYS better-looking than the promotional picture, and this time the promotional pic is stunning.

That said, I dutifully screamed at them again: https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 8031129500

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If you have a moment to spare you might want to scream at them too. It'll surely help, they read everything.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Mar 2022 23:17

https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 8033648926

Baggers wrote:
Donut wrote:Loving all the new tile sets, but when can we expect things like Heroforge, fog of war and other mechanics?


HeroForge, soon (news on this as soon as we can nail down some details), creature modding is my task after that, which involves a package manager and a bunch of stuff. I expect I'll be starting r&d on the rule system around that time too. Fog-of-war is back on the drawing board as the current approach isn't good enough. We've made some limited experiments in this area for complementary features, though.
My gut says that we might end up getting creature copy/paste (which adds them to slabs and undo/redo) and sub-boards (which lets you move around big things like ships as one unit) before fog-of-war is worked out. But we'll have to see.
Being a small team, other stuff can crop up and force us to reprioritize (like if we have to replace the real-time networking service we currently use)
Cheers


He mentioned the word "ship", so it's on their minds. I'll take that.

If you don't know why people are clamoring for fog-of-war, you will understand why this is a big issue soon when I explain to you how to use TaleSpire. It's no deal-breaker as things stand now, but it's tricky to make it work properly (exactly as it would be if we were moving minis on a tabletop on physical terrain).
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Mar 2022 03:57

So Istallri in his latest videos has completely removed the bases from minis and it looks insane (don’t look at Istallri’s videos, it’s a massive spoiler and I consider it cheating). I cannot imagine putting the bases back on, it would ruin the videos. So I’d like us to ditch them from day 1.

The question is if anything will break in the program because of this. I will start a thread on Reddit to ask the question. In the meantime, the only feature I am aware that we will lose is that you can color-code the bases to designate e.g. friends versus foes versus neutrals as in the Fantasy Grounds combat tracker (e.g. blue/red/green). Also, if say three players are playing hirelings with identical minis, you can color-code them for easier reference.

I hate to lose this feature, but it’s worth it. That said, I hope it’s possible to bring back all the bases with a click if we need them for a huge battle with many sides.

So I would like to ask ysignal to look into what we have to do to ditch bases, but in such a way that we can restore them if need be.

As for Hero Forge, I think we export the minis without bases anyway, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ysignal » 18 Mar 2022 13:51

I don't know of any existing mods that will turn bases on and off for all minis (I asked in the Discord). EAR might work for custom minis, but not the ones that are built-in. But based on the video you described it sounds like they might have a mod for this. In any case, if I can't find an existing mod I'll try making one.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Mar 2022 20:41

Great, keep us posted.

Meanwhile Lord Ashes is pumping out mods at a frenzied pace. I haven’t been posting all of them, and he just revealed a new one.

Custom Projectiles - Proof Of Concept
https://youtu.be/Vea56ABA95E
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Mar 2022 22:36

I made threads on Reddit and the Steam forum basically scolding the devs on their priorities. I make it sound like the game is unplayable only because programmers aren't very bright so you need to employ tremendous theatrics to get through to them. The game is playable, and the issues I outlined are annoying but workable. We won't have a problem running the game in a couple of weeks, but if they solved these issues it would take the experience to a whole other level. I am confident they will eventually solve all of them, and what they won't do, the modders will. I am just trying to speed them up by focusing their attention on what's actually important.

https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... irstperson
https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/d ... 4597785942

One of these threads or possibly both might get deleted, so I am saving the post here. I just hope the devs read the thing before this happens. If you think my language is too abrasive, you should have seen the 10x stronger wording that was going on in my head and which I had to soften and dumb-down to avoid the insta-deletions and insta-bans that would have inevitably followed.

icycalm wrote:Fog-of-war debacle would be solved by first-person mode in a few lines of code written in one evening

I understand that programmers don't play games, and that's what I am here for: to give the perspective of a gamer who actually plays games, and therefore needs them to be actually playable. So here is the list of priorities for TaleSpire development from the perspective of someone who wants to play the damn thing, and not just mess around with its code for the sake of tinkering.

1. FOG-OF-WAR. Without it, your game is unplayable. demongund says in one of his videos that caverns are unplayable at this moment, a full year after release. Have you heard of a game called Dungeons & Dragons? I hear it's popular and I suspect a few of your customers bought TaleSpire to play it. It would be nice therefore if you made the dungeons playable. And you can do this, as the thread title says, in one evening of coding with just a few lines of code. Give us first-person mode! Then the players would see what their characters can see, with no need for complicated solutions. You don't have to like it. We know you don't like it. But we can't play the game without it, and don't you want us to play your game? Once you put in fog-of-war, sometime this decade hopefully, you can take first-person mode away from us if you want, though we've no idea why you would do this. Just please make the game playable at some point, if you don't mind?

2. HORSES. Remember that niche little game called Dungeons & Dragons that some people like? It also has horses in it. And the characters ride them. I know it sounds insane, but it's true, google it. Any epic campaign written for that game has horses in it, guaranteed. Look it up. So any idea when we'll get rideable horses? Hopefully sometime before we get SPACESHIPS? All you have to do is repose 10-20 character minis. You already have a horse. We aren't asking for variety. We're asking for the bare minimum. Please?

3. SHIPS. Half of the most epic D&D campaigns include ships in them. The D&D overworld maps are full of water. Any idea when ships are coming? Sometime before SPACEships would be nice if you don't mind?

4. BASES. Your top creator and streamer, Istallri Astra, is no longer featuring bases in his videos. Why? I don't know. You'd have to ask him. But if I had to take a crazy guess, I would say because he thinks they are BEYOND LAME. And maybe, just maybe, the top creator has slightly better aesthetic taste than some programmers? So would you please just add an option to remove all the bases so we don't have to remove them one by one ourselves?

Anything else you're working on has far lower priority than the above four tasks. The only priority I would acknowledge above these four are the Photon issues that make the game literally unplayable, and your sci-fi update, not because we NEED sci-fi assets at the moment when we don't even have freakin' horses or normal ships, but simply for marketing reasons, because you can get some exposure from those YouTubers who commissioned the update. I understand the game needs exposure and it makes sense to jump at this chance for it and delay some other updates. So good thinking there, congrats. But once the PR stunt is out of the way, it's time to get serious and make this game playable, and the above list will help you do that.


P.S. 1: TaleSpire is 2021 Game of the Year on the only videogame site that matters, mine: https://culture.vg/reviews/awards/game-of-the-year.html

P.S. 2: For the best commentary and analysis on TaleSpire, follow this thread that I've maintained for two years: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=7276

P.S. 3: TaleSpire can look stunning in first-person: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 48E851E93/

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P.S. 4: After the above task list is cleared, spell effects and weather should come next. That stuff is exhilarating to see and gives new life to the game. Social media would catch fire if you put this stuff in. Don't delay it. We need more people buying TaleSpire so you have more money to spend on more updates. Godspeed.

P.S. 5: Your game is seriously underpriced. Even $50 would be cheap for it. Consider raising the price.


If you like the game, you can help it by getting a Reddit account and upvoting my thread, and also by posting supportive comments on Reddit and Steam. Just post your own feeling on this. Are the things I talked about important to you? Do you see reason in my viewpoint? If so, it would help if you told the devs this, so they know it's not just me. Remember that they are programmers so they don't really understand anything beyond code. They need help to understand feelings.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 19 Mar 2022 16:13

Just look at this freakin' picture:

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You won't believe your eyes at the miracles you will encounter in our TaleSpire game.

Every jump you see requires a roll btw, or you're swimming. Super Mario & Dragons.

And that's BEFORE everything gets animated and weather and spell effects go in. Truly, a new era of videogames is upon us!
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ysignal » 20 Mar 2022 06:45

I made the mod for hiding bases:

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Here's a quick video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQnofwJCxg

At the moment you can't toggle the bases individually, but that's something we can add if it's needed. When you reload the board, sometimes it doesn't remember that you hid them in the previous session, but you can just toggle them off and it will work fine. I'll dig further into that issue and do some more testing another time.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Mar 2022 11:35

Wow! We’re in business!

Would you mind deleting that video and sending it to me to upload to the Insomnia channel? It would be nice to show the community we’re contributing something. Of course we’ll soon be contributing the best TaleSpire campaign and livestreams ever but it’ll go over their heads.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Mar 2022 11:51

Someone’s feeling threatened :)

That’s good, it means we’re winning. The jig is up and they can feel it.

https://mobile.twitter.com/liomelons/st ... 6278867971

talespire will never even come CLOSE to any of these


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I admit they are insane but even more insane are wars with thousands of units and space elevators. Plus the effort required to make these physical sets is probably about the same to simulate them in TaleSpire (which CAN reproduce them and even improve on them with animation, weather effects, etc.) And I am comparing here the effort of ONE group of tabletop gamers to that of the developers who’ll make the assets, not the effort of ALL tabletop groups added together, which would be insanely higher.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Mar 2022 11:54

So THIS is what TaleSpire is trying to simulate. That’s where they get both their mechanical and aesthetic cues. And that’s what’s stunting the project. Every advanced immersion feature struggles against these limitations. Let’s hope immersion wins.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Mar 2022 12:57

Any chance you could make a first-person mod, ysignal?

Something easier to make would be to just lock the players' cameras, so they couldn't move the camera at all. Not sure how playable that would be, but it's worth a try. I could turn it on only in dungeons, or even better in specifically cavernous dungeons that are hard to put hide-volumes in (hide-volumes is how TaleSpire currently deals with the fog-of-war issue, and it's cumbersome, and a nightmare to use in irregularly-shaped rooms like caverns).
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