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Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ysignal » 20 Mar 2022 14:34

I deleted the video and sent you a download link. I'd need to do some investigations to know how hard the first-person mod would be. I'll look at that next.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Mar 2022 07:05

Camping site in the middle of a swamp:

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Don't tell me it's not the cutest thing ever. Every bedroll, every pack, and the fire, have been placed individually exactly where each player wanted them, and if a fight breaks out it'll all have huge significance, and above all the exact spot chosen for the camp. Show me one other game that allows this.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Mar 2022 07:37

https://twitter.com/heimdal_3/status/15 ... 2247019521

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Zoom into this picture. It looks very realistic and that's BEFORE you've removed the bases. Two of the troops are on the ground, either dead or prone or incapacitated. In Fantasy Grounds you'd have to apply a condition and it'd be designated by a little icon, but here you see them on the ground, and it's clear what's happening. There are also mods for blood, and even blood that splashes on your screen when you take damage, and also people have made blood tiles so you can throw blood on the ground or splatter it on walls.

And this is only the beginning.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 23 Mar 2022 19:13

https://twitter.com/talespire/status/15 ... 8024031249

TaleSpire @talespire wrote:Even before your party could suit up, the enforcers were already on the prowl.
#cyberpunk #WIP

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Official TaleSpire sci-fi pic. Would love to see it without the bases. Looks great considering how zoomed-in it is. I am sure it'll look stunning a bit more zoomed out, and with tons of units and cities constructed by good creators.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 01 Apr 2022 04:28

Amazing siege equipment designed by BrotherHanan just got posted on Tales Tavern: https://talestavern.com/slab/siege-collection-catapult

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You really need to zoom into this image on a large display to make out the genius level of detail that's gone into this stuff. Also the insane scale. Look how tiny the miniatures are next to them. Check the trailer, after making sure it's set to at least 1080p:

TaleSpire Siege Collection (No Mods Needed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymocuV-kwE8

Normally I despise new types of assets made by using older assets in ways they weren't designed for, like when people make ships by using assets for houses etc., but this guy can SOMETIMES do an incredible job. Half of his stuff I dislike, but the other half is incredible, and I'll be using them for our TaleSpire campaigns, including these siege machines (with siege rules mostly cribbed from wargames). Apparently only some of them have been put on Tales Tavern, the rest you have to sub to his Patreon to get, and I'll be subbing soon: https://www.patreon.com/BrotherHanan

Stay away from his profiles as his work will play a MAJOR part in our West Marches and subsequent TaleSpire campaigns. He has designed entire world regions for us.

He's black, by the way, and easily a top 10 creator on TaleSpire, probably even top 5. To grasp the level of talent we're talking about, compare his Old Bonegrinder:

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to Demongund's, another top 10 creator, who even launched a Kickstarter recently to get Castle Ravenloft built in TaleSpire: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vt ... re-edition

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See the difference?

Not only that, but BrotherHanan's version looks even better than the original drawing in the Curse of Strahd book, despite the limited assets he had to work with:

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TaleSpire is art! and the difference between the average creator and the best of them is night and day. And our TaleSpire campaigns will only feature the best of the best stuff.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 11 Apr 2022 05:00

I've been looking through the mods, and I am floored.

There is rain, snow, fog, etc. There are blood effects when someone gets hit. There is smoke. There are all sorts of lights. Auras for spell effects. Tons of new miniatures. Even some proper boats and ships! Honestly it would take me a couple hours to post all this stuff here. Instead I'll just post the link to the mods page so you can go look yourselves: https://talespire.thunderstore.io

Here's just ONE example:

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There are eight pages of mods. I am on page three now.

If we add ALL this stuff to TaleSpire... it'll be insane.

I will aim to do this as soon as possible, and also keep abreast of new developments and add new mods immediately on release.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 13 Apr 2022 01:28

Love the dracolich! Everything else looks great too, and even better are the details for the upcoming cyberpunk assets. Note that I am sure Istallri and others will be able to use SOME of the cyberpunk assets to make great fantasy stuff. Like for example they have brick tiles that I am sure will be used to make brand-new types of fantasy brick buildings. So I am refreshing TaleSpire and Tales Tavern news every day waiting for this stuff. And let me annoy you once more by reminding you not to visit these sites if you're playing in my Battlegrounds.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 7867001943

Bouncyrock wrote:Early Access Content Pack 12: Monster Mash
BUILD-ID: 8545928 - Download Size: 78.9 MB

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Q: What do a Dracolich, Drider, Owlbear, and Black Pudding have in common?

A: They’re in this release pack!


Hello again! We didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long without an asset release, so we scrounged up these denizens of darkness for you in this small content pack we’re calling Monster Mash. We hope these creatures find a warm home in the guts of your adventuring party!

As for Cyberpunk development, we now have two full tilesets finalized, a handful of new minis, and some new atmospheric elements in progress. But that’s just scratching the surface of this giant pack, so work continues and we'll have some more updates in the coming days.


Thanks again for your amazing support!
BouncyRock Team


BUILD-ID: 8545928 - Download Size: 78.9 MB


And of course I didn't neglect to troll them again: https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/e ... 2641488621

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Trolling programmers is what I leveled-up to after trolling blogoroids and forumroids for years.

And btw, here's a cool video of how the Hero Forge integration is coming along, from the latest devlog.

TaleSpire Dev Log 334
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/ta ... ev-log-334

WIP HeroForge Integration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-rDzGrKhg

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Fast and easy and looking great.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 19 Apr 2022 01:32

New Reddit thread by me: https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... e_hell_and

icycalm wrote:Here's why people aren't using the Hell and Alien/Aberrant tilesets

When these tilesets landed, I expected a flood of new boards on Tales Tavern based on them. This didn't materialize, but people still kept making taverns and towns, caverns and wilderness and even ships at the regular rate. This puzzled me for all of 2 seconds, and then I figured it out.

There just isn't that much to make with Hell and Aberrant tilesets. They just aren't very useful. These are endgame material in a D&D game, and how often does your group reach endgame? Many groups can play for years without reaching it.

Meanwhile, people continue churning out boats that look nothing like boats. Here's the latest monstrosity, among countless I could link: https://talestavern.com/slab/boat/

This guy has actually been extremely inventive with his sails design. It still looks crap of course, but he has poured an insane amount of intelligence into the program to create this crapness. Imagine what he could have accomplished if he'd had proper assets to work with.

So go ahead and take away my "karma". I know you have nothing better to do with your time, and that's okay. Every post I make in this subreddit gets this treatment, and the reasons are well-known (fan psychology). But I care far more about TaleSpire than online tribalism, and I am just hoping someone at Bouncyrock is paying attention to these signals the community is putting out, because the community's creativity is being wasted. Check out Tales Tavern, Bouncyrock. The community is telling you what it wants clear as day, and you aren't listening.

We do need endgame assets. But far more than that, we need early-game and mid-game assets, and neither of your last two tilesets, nor your upcoming one, are helping. When all is said and done, the spaceship tiles will be abused to create ships far more often than to create spaceships, because that's what the community wants more. The contemporary/sci-fi bricks will be used to create fantasy buildings far more often than sci-fi buildings, and so on.

Watch it happen on Tales Tavern over the next few months, and remember who predicted it, and what the solution is (better prioritizing, which presupposes an understanding of campaign design priorities, which Bouncyrock clearly lacks.


Lots of replies. Note that my replies to the replies are often hidden and you need to click on my avatar to see them, because of all the downvoting.

My favorite reply so far: https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... nd/i5a0w4w

wraiff wrote:I had to check to make sure this was the same guy that ranted about only the best campaigns having boats and horses, and I wasn't disappointed finding out it was. He's like the Tucker Carlson of D&D hot-takes.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Apr 2022 20:52

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They said you can't do round towers in TaleSpire. Well this guy did it just by taking a small piece and copy-pasting it appropriately, and he made an entire modular DIY kit for creators to use. I am not showing you the full tower he made: you'll see it in the West Marches. Nor I am linking his profile: he's the one who made our game's starting town, among other things, and he's fast becoming my favorite creator after Istallri. In some respects he's superior to Istallri, as you'll discover, once more, when you explore his creations in our West Marches.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 20 Apr 2022 20:56

P.S. I am posting a lot on the TaleSpire Reddit these days. It's entirely off-limits to my players unless I directly link you something.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Apr 2022 06:08

This is a new random terrain generation tool that is currently in alpha. Its results are astonishing, and I have given some examples below that it's okay to look at if you're playing in the West Marches campaign.

I used professional FX software to make 218 Acres of Terrain in TaleSpire! Check out these views! The board is available to all, links in the images.
https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... _218_acres

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Houdini_TaleSpire_Terrain_Generation_Toolset
https://github.com/Baldrax/Houdini_Tale ... on_Toolset

https://talestavern.com/slab/dolgans-peak
https://talestavern.com/slab/dragons-folly-forest-fire
https://talestavern.com/slab/midcrest-bay-area-map

If I can figure out how to use this, we will have passed the last technical hurdle to start playing in optimal fashion. We can still play without this tool, but I will likely have to compromise some features, particularly the 1:1 map fidelity I am aiming for.

There is no way I can figure this tool out on my own. Just looking at the Git site gives me a headache. If anyone can figure this out and teach it to me, we're in business. If not, we'll just have to hope that this guy finishes the tool and makes it more user-friendly and publishes enough documentation so that eventually I can master it. Until then, we can play with some compromises in map fidelity.

Let me know if you can help.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby ChevRage » 22 Apr 2022 16:11

I've taken a quick look, and damn lol, so far it looks really complex. It uses the procedural generation of a special effects program called Houdini, which will need to be installed if you want to create anything. The creator of the tool has a video showing off some of the features:

TaleSpire Terrain Generation Overview v0.7.1-alpha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193IomvemaA

Here's a link to the Discord:
https://discord.gg/fUp8eK2mgK

I'll have a play around with installing it and trying it out on the weekend. Anybody else who wants to try can follow the installation instructions from the github website.

https://github.com/Baldrax/Houdini_Tale ... stallation

Baldrax wrote:
  • Install Houdini 19.0.x, If you have the option in the installer I recommend installing Houdini Labs as well.
  • Launch Houdini, so it creates the proper working folders then close it.
  • Download and Unzip the release of this tool, put the directory wherever you want, I like to put it in Documents\TaleSpire\Houdini_TaleSpire_Terrain_Generation_Toolset
  • In your Houdini19.0 directory, usually located in Documents\Houdini19.0 create a packages\ directory and inside that directory create a file called HTTGT.json. Copy the following code block in to the contents of the file but replace the path with where you installed the toolset, make sure it points to the packages directory: ..\Documents\Houdini19.0\packages\HTTGT.json
    {
    "package_path": "D:\Users\<username>\Documents\TaleSpire\Houdini_Terrain_Generation_Toolset\packages"
    }
  • Launch Houdini and you should be able to create a TaleSpire_Terrain node in the /obj network editor. If you can't, something went wrong, check all the steps.
  • After placing the TaleSpire_Terrain node, go to the settings tab on that node and set the talespire_directory parameter to be the location of your TaleSpire install. This setting should persist for new scenes and nodes.
  • Create amazing Terrains and share your work!


Also, here's a link to the Houdini program he mentions:
https://www.sidefx.com/download/

Houdini has some tutorials for the terrain generator too, so take a look at this once you have everything up and running in order to learn how to use the program to create terrain:
https://www.sidefx.com/community-main-m ... -handbook/
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 26 Apr 2022 00:03

Our West Marches start just got a whole lot closer!

HeroForge to TaleSpire Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbknjcweTiA

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Official Hero Forge/TaleSpire integration is live. In beta, but whatever, same thing. And the awesome news is that ANY mini bought by ANY player will be available for ALL players AND the GM of whatever campaign is being played. So if you've ALREADY purchased Hero Forge minis, go ahead and follow this tutorial to link your two accounts together, then post in the #west-marches-crew Discord channel to let me know you're all ready to send me these minis to my campaign through TaleSpire. This way I don't have to learn how to manually import minis before we start the first session, so that will save me some time and we can start sooner.

If you HAVEN'T yet bought any Hero Forge minis, DON'T DO IT. Report this to me instead in the Discord channel so I can look over your minis and approve them. We need to especially add custom bases to them before I can approve them and we can export them.


P.S. Bouncyrock refers to Hero Forge as "HeroForge", presumably to match the spelling of their own program. We'll be using the official spelling instead.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 26 Apr 2022 12:22

https://twitter.com/ttrpgapothecary/sta ... 3178278916

Tabletop Apothecary @ttrpgapothecary wrote:The timing of the long awaited @talespire and @HeroForgeMinis integration came just in time for me to annihilate those pitiful adventurers with a well-organized hobgoblin army, led by Durgash the Cleaver!


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https://twitter.com/JakeEkiss/status/15 ... 7216839680

Jake Ēkiss @JakeEkiss wrote:Fuuuuuuck having my party in Talespire is just *chef's kiss*. Heroforge integration is going to bankrupt me, but what else is money for?


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https://twitter.com/JakeEkiss/status/15 ... 2386860032

Jake Ēkiss @JakeEkiss wrote:Look at all those sexy PCs. Look at them. 3 years in this game and finally they're in the program we use for playing.


https://twitter.com/heimdal_3/status/15 ... 4268710912

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https://twitter.com/pirateartisans/stat ... 7944757253

Pirate Artisans @pirateartisans wrote:Non-jewelry post: finally getting the D&D group back together next week, which means I *finally* get to show them all the cool shit I've been up to in Talespire. Gonna be so much fun.


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https://twitter.com/Inkblitzer/status/1 ... 0007315462

Inkblitz AC, ??? @Inkblitzer wrote:Whoa, that looks really cool! Didn't know Talespire looked that neat :o


https://twitter.com/pirateartisans/stat ... 0784732160

Pirate Artisans @pirateartisans wrote:It's really cool! In this map, which is a sewer lair, I've turned off the global lighting for maximum spookiness and added a green light filter to make it feel grimier. They'll be adding Heroforge import support soon as well, which I couldn't be happier about
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 29 Apr 2022 22:23

https://twitter.com/TheSplitParty/statu ... 0635600896

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I don't think this is a particularly well-made board, so I won't be using it (and even if I wanted to use it I couldn't as the group that made it hasn't put it on Tales Tavern—though they'd probably give it to me if I asked). But the reason I am posting it is to show the sheer scale of the scenes that people are already playing with in TaleSpire. Nothing seen in a videogame is so big, with the possible exception of stuff like some Ubisoft open-world games. Certainly nothing seen in a CRPG. Zoom in to see the scale we're talking about. The characters are absolutely tiny, and this is a mere 1440p shot. Many of us will be playing at 4K, and in a year or two at 8K (also imagine the scene without mini bases, because they're all coming off).

And the craziest thing is that the devs recently said that they're looking into "board loading/unloading" to accommodate even LARGER boards, that scroll presumably forever.

I'll lose my shit if this happens.

They're also working on "sub"-boards to accommodate vehicles like ships moving as a unit.

Or check out the improvements to rulers they're experimenting with: https://twitter.com/talespire/status/15 ... 9069191169

TaleSpire @talespire wrote:Currently experimenting with two additions to ruler support.

A mode which you can turn on to show distances of moves.

And making rulers stick around while performing other actions. Great for tactical battles (and should play really well with multi-creature move)


Video in the link.

It's not even been a year since they launched, and the program is deluged with cool new content and features. I can't imagine how it'll be in another year.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby Robomoo » 05 May 2022 00:36

I got the terrain generation tool working and generated a random 400x400 forest map:

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It's not that hard to set up, but it will be hard to learn to use Houdini properly to make the specific maps we want.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 05 May 2022 09:22

That's amazing. I was beginning to despair that we'd ever get this working. This was the last piece of the puzzle to get West Marches started and realize 100% my vision. Absolutely nothing is missing now. I have to run two campaigns and one PA war this weekend, but starting Monday I am devoting 100% of my time to West Marches until we play the first game, which will hopefully be the weekend after. I'll be in touch so you can show me how to work this.

Incredible news.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 05 May 2022 10:00

In other news, we have the first pics of SPACE BATTLES in TaleSpire, courtesy of BrotherHanan who's creating the sets for the Dimension 20 show: https://twitter.com/BrotherHanan/status ... 3786185730

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Wait until we have full Starfinder assets and more builders join in. Forget about Star Citizen, this is the revolution. Can you imagine ALIEN PLANET assets? With the Houdini tool you'll be able to generate entire planets lol. It'll be insane. Hurry up and unlock Starfinder in Battlegrounds! I will show you the route when I build our World Anvil maps later this month.

And a small update from TaleSpire also hit today, with a cool animated gif to demonstrate it: https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 5825343782

Bouncyrock wrote:This patch includes the initial version of the Creature Move Ruler. The Creature move Ruler simply attaches to the Creature as you move them, allowing for quicker measurements while going in straight lines. We'll look into iterating on this feature in the future.


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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 07 May 2022 15:22

https://twitter.com/heimdal_3/status/15 ... 0901979136

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If you add in your characters and the NPCs and enemies as paper minis, you can basically turn TaleSpire into Tabletop Simulator with this mod that imports 2D maps. It's a lot of work importing all the paper minis, and I am not sure what would happen with the line-of-sight of the 2D maps: I think it'd be gone and there'd be no way to readd it since TaleSpire only understands 3D line-of-sight. But I think it would definitely enhance the experience in most cases: e.g. with urban settings. We could have your 3D characters walking around the 2D cities. It'd probably be less janky than Fantasy Grounds with the biggest maps, which make FG chug. And you could add 3D TaleSpire assets such as say home furniture to the 2D maps!

All this would be too much work for the short-term, but I can see myself getting into it in the long-term for sure.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 09 May 2022 20:48

GENGUS, a very good builder who mostly makes encounter maps, many of which we will be using, just posted a selection of small work wagons: https://talestavern.com/slab/work-wagons

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Imagine them without the bases for horses and drivers. They'll look fantastic in our massive terrain and detailed locations.

So now you'll have a wide range of choices for wagons, from these small ones to the larger ones I posted earlier.
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Re: PC TaleSpire

Unread postby icycalm » 12 May 2022 21:54

https://twitter.com/BrotherHanan/status ... 3641845760

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BrotherHanan's sets for the Dimension 20 show. They look like some JRPG, but with actual mechanics and interactive story. And it is only the beginning.

Zoom in the first pic to see how enormous the chamber is, and also the last pic to see the guy with the minigun.
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