icycalm wrote:Fog-of-war debacle would be solved by first-person mode in a few lines of code written in one eveningI 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.htmlP.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=7276P.S. 3: TaleSpire can look stunning in first-person:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 48E851E93/
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.
