Telepath Tactics Liberated News

Greetings, tactics fans! I've got one final(?) update for you all with some extremely cool new quality-of-life features, optimizations, and general polish courtesy of the continued development of Together in Battle.

[h3]First up, we have new quality-of-life features and miscellaneous improvements:[/h3]

• a much-requested feature is now in-game: show danger zones! During battle, you can now hit the 'Q' key to have the game auto-display every tile that can be reached and/or attacked by at least one enemy:
  
  
  
  (When in gamepad mode, you can do this by pressing the Y button on any space empty of units.)
  
• updated the "enemy range" tutorial in the caravan battle with instructions on how to show danger zones.
  
• you can now hold down the Alt key to see every character's health bar onscreen at once!
  
  
  
  
• when defeated in battle, a button to call up the main menu now appears in the bottom-right of the screen so you can double-check objectives, restart the entire battle, or go to the title screen.
  
• added a dark outline around danger tiles so they remain visible over lava.
  
• main menu buttons on the title screen now have tooltips.
  
• cleaned up photokineticist walk animations a bit.
  
• cleaned up assassin walk animations a bit.
  
• shaved about 1.1 GB off the game's file size.
  
• updated the game to a somewhat more recent version of Unity.
  
• AI improvement: the game can now string together additional moves after Use Once skills, causing higher-level enemies (swordsmen in particular) to take much more effective turns.
  
• AI improvement: the game now takes into account whether a target is frozen, blinded, or immobilized when deciding whether to mind control them.
  
• for randomizer playthroughs, replaced the convex shield in Fera's room with a more universally helpful set of leather armor--and replaced the knife in the basement rubble with a convex shield.
  
• for randomizer playthroughs, reduced the mental resistance of the bandit fortress basement guard by 20 to help prevent softlock situations in case Emma has been reclassed to a psy user.
  

[h3]Beyond that, we also have bug fixes:[/h3]

• fixed: Burning status was not being extinguished by a character being submerged in water.
  
• fixed: destroying a cosmetic bridge tile embedded in land via an explosive could result in a surviving unit standing on that space being "dropped" upward into the air and remaining there.
  
• fixed: characters could use self-move skills like Charge while immobilized.
  
• fixed: when using Charge against a target, ending the charge on caltrops, and killing the target, the target wouldn't get knocked back and the combat sequence wouldn't conclude, causing the game to freeze.
  
• fixed: upon clicking a skill, then opening the character screen and unequipping the item which grants the use of that skill, the skill's red attack tiles would remain present and clickable on the battlefield.
  
• fixed: switching to gamepad controls mid-game (as opposed to doing so on the title screen) would not disable the mouse.
  
• fixed: when auto-showing the shop tutorial in gamepad mode, the tutorial wasn't pulling focus for the gamepad cursor.
  
• fixed: when changing a custom string for the name of an army during a battle, the game would not update the army's name in the new turn window.
  
• fixed: proc gen characters with dialogue referencing their god would say "ERROR" instead of the name of their deity.
  
• AI fix: when scoring potential moves, the game was double-counting impact damage against a target when the target was shoved into another character even if the character they were being shoved into was an ally of the attacker, not a second enemy.
  
• fixed: you could lock up the game by blocking a character from moving at all during scripted movement.
  
• fixed: a character spawning onto the battlefield on top of a trap would not trigger the trap.
  
• fixed: if a character started its turn on a pressure trigger space, the game would ignore pressure triggers on the first space the character moved to.
  
• fixed: when killing an enemy by shoving an ally into them, if the enemy had a counterattack available, the enemy could sometimes counterattack the character who was shoved into them even though they had taken lethal damage.
  
• fixed: when explosive charges detonated on their own due to Burning status and thereby destroyed bridge tiles with characters on top of them, those characters would not fall fully into whatever hazards lay beneath.
  
• fixed incorrect palette highlight coloration for pants in the photokineticist sprite.
  
• fixed: the player could get assigned the wrong roster during the caravan battle prelude scene in a randomizer playthrough, resulting in them having no characters on the battlefield and thereby getting stuck in a "defeat" loop.
  
• fixed: during randomizer campaign playthroughs, Silithis's companions were appearing as part of the wrong army during the cutscene where she reaches Adelbrae.
  
• fixed: the bridge-building kit item was missing from the randomizer campaign.
  
• fixed: if randomizer mode unlocked while controlling the game in gamepad mode, the unlock message popup wouldn't gain gamepad focus.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.60a: the game was dropping frames during combat zoom-in and zoom-out.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.60a: gamepad cursors were misaligned to certain UI elements in the new turn box and the actions bar.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.60a: the game had begun triggering visual and audio cues for characters dropping into chasms when merely moving onto bridges above (or, in the case of flying units, flying onto) chasm tiles.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.60a: the TIB character creator (which is not supported in TTL and does nothing in the game) could be selected from the main menu of the title screen using gamepad even though no button for it was visible.
  

[h3]And finally, some additions and improvements for custom campaign creators:[/h3]

• added support for terrain tiles with built-in status effects.
  
• added two new cutscene backgrounds to the game: Dese Palace Garden and Dese Palace Study.
  
  
  
  
• added new destructible object: lavender flower bush.
  
• added the Overheat, Lava Burn, and Crowd Booing Muffled sound effects to the assets list for use in the campaign creator.
  
• added the Cut, Place Caltrops 2, Place Brazier, Levitate Other, and Shockwave skill button graphics to the assets list for use in the campaign creator.
  
• expanded the Map Settings screen in the map editor; added a fifth objectives field.
  
• fixed: on maps with more deployment slots than allowable deployed characters, players could bypass maximum deployment restrictions merely by deploying every one of their available characters.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.60a: a null error had crept into the cutscene editor and was preventing it from working properly.
  

And that's all, folks!

[h3]The Future[/h3]

I'm making progress pushing toward version 1.0 on Together in Battle, looking into a possible secret console port, and entering the first stages of concepting out the even more super-secret game that comes after TIB.

What I'm saying: as one dude with a day job, I'm really taking on kind of a lot. Too much, really. So I think this will probably be the final TTL update...for real this time. At least for a while. (We'll see if I can stop myself from going back and further improving things. 😅)

Anyway, I just want to take a moment here and personally, sincerely thank every last one of you who've been here supporting me over the years. Without you, this game wouldn't have been possible, let alone the (IMO) even better games to come!

Want to keep tabs on Sinister Design developments going forward? Well, I have good news: we've got a website, a Discord, and forums for that! I hope I'll see you there. The adventure is far from over. 😉


Yours in tactics,

Craig

Greetings, tactics fans! Telepath Tactics Liberated is now 40% off in the Steam Summer Sale--and to coincide with that, I figured now would be a good time to push an update incorporating all the improvements I've made to the engine as part of developing TTL's follow-up game Together in Battle.

Without further ado...

[h3]Miscellaneous improvements:[/h3]

• combat objectives now auto-display at the start of each battle! No longer will you have to infer your victory and loss conditions from dialogue (or manually open the objectives menu)--the game now simply gives this information to you automatically.
  
• gasuls now gain a new, distinct spriteset upon promotion!
  
• in battle, the "I" key now serves as a hotkey to open the current selected character's inventory. (Of course, this just amounts to opening their character screen, since that is where the inventory resides--but this should still be an improvement for new players who missed that in the tutorials.)
  
• move tiles, along with the step numbers and path arrows that appear within them, now have outlines to make them visible against snow and lava tiles!
  
• I was dissatisfied with the aesthetics of the New Turn box in battle, so I redesigned it with new, hand-animated painted banners. (I seldom have time to paint much new art myself these days, but I'm quite happy I did so here--I think they look a whole lot nicer than before! 🙂)
  
• constrained the pop-up text animation in combat a bit more to make it easier to follow (and easier to tell which character it belongs to in the event of an AOE effect).
  
• created a new sound effect that plays when a character takes environmental damage from being in lava.
  
• AI improvement: the game now scores the destination-and-facing back cover factor for a move relative to how dangerous the destination space is, preventing situations where the game overvalues a move because it protects the unit's back in a spot where no enemy is near enough to reach it.
  
• AI improvement: I capped the AI's space danger modifier at 3.0 for short-range moves to avoid situations where the AI chooses not to make optimal moves merely because the current unit is too low on health.
  
• lit battlefield objects (such as braziers, candelabras, campfires, and lamps) can now create islands of visibility within fog of war maps.
  
• decoys now have a tag that causes the AI to treat them as attack targets on par with other characters.
  
• added shoulder button support to the character inventory pop-up window within the reserve supplies screen when playing with a gamepad; the shoulder buttons now automatically switch to the next/previous character in the roster.
  
• added shoulder button support to the shop screen when playing with a gamepad; the shoulder buttons now automatically switch to the next/previous item category.
  
• when switching item categories in the shop in gamepad mode, the game now jumps the selector over to the first item in the new category instead of leaving the cursor down among the category buttons.
  

[h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]

• fixed: status effects would hang around on units after a battle if the scene was switched without the battle formally ending in a victory or defeat.
  
• fixed: non-flying, non-bridge units and objects created on chasm tiles would not immediately fall in.
  
• fixed: the game was not recognizing chasm tiles as instant-death spaces when calculating the value of knocking enemies in (and the danger of parking a character on top of them), leading to situations where the AI--on its highest settings--would nonetheless choose moves that damage a character in lieu of simply KO-ing them.
  
• fixed: the AI was not creating a move tracker for enemies it enthralled during its turn; thus, if the AI enthralled a unit and that unit's best move was a non-turn-ending attack, the game could get caught in a loop.
  
• fixed: an off-by-one error in the game's experience staling tracker was effectively causing all skills to grant an additional, unintended 12.5% experience if they'd been previously used on a different target during the same fight.
  
• fixed: the AI's scoring bonus for self-healing moves when very low on health was being applied to moves attacking allies, which in some circumstances could lead the AI to regain health on near-death units by attacking their allies with Feedback.
  
• fixed: the AI's scoring bonus for self-healing moves when very low on health was being applied even when the target was completely immune to Mental attacks, which in some circumstances could lead the AI to target objects and other things with 100% mental resistance when using Feedback.
  
• fixed: the AI could throw a range error when processing swim-back-to-land moves under certain circumstances.
  
• fixed: AI-controlled characters who were both immobilized and drowning in water or lava would nonetheless use items and skills (other than Swim).
  
• fixed: on certain occasions, the game could throw a key-not-found error when silently promoting an enemy in battle, causing the game to freeze.
  
• fixed: the promoted bronze golem's stomp animation wouldn't play on accompanying skills if they weren't facing downwards.
  
• fixed: the game could spawn a pop-up asking to auto-equip weapons or armor during the enemy's turn too, not just the player's.
  
• fixed: characters learned alternate skills from earlier on in their base class skill progressions upon promoting, resulting in characters having too many skills (and reducing diversity among promoted members of the same class).
  
• fixed: upon promotion, the game was overwriting the levels for any existing character skill progression, resulting in the character learning all remaining skills at once.
  
• fixed: the character screen always displayed 100 as the experience characters needed to level up even when characters had traits (such as Eidetic Memory) which reduce that number.
  
• fixed: in some rare cases, a counterattack could be processed twice (causing double damage).
  
• fixed: the game was not allowing objects to be thrown over other objects of the same category.
  
• fixed: item sacks would not collide with other units.
  
• fixed: fog of war tiles would not update when unequipping a torch or other Perception-affecting item.
  
• fixed: if an AI-controlled character blinded a player-controlled character in a fog of war map, the game would suddenly treat the AI army as if it were player-controlled for purposes of updating the fog of war, thereby revealing most of the map.
  
• fixed: the game was still showing the actions bar and portrait for AI-controlled characters hidden in fog of war.
  
• fixed: the game could show incorrect actions bar information for AI-controlled characters moving after an ally hidden by fog of war.
  
• fixed: the "Neutralized" status effect was missing from the localization file and causing the game to throw a null error when applied.
  
• fixed: the Transfer and Transfer 2 skills were causing screen shake.
  
• fixed: the AddStatus script action was no longer announcing the applied status effect.
  
• fixed: the game would still show the dialogue menu in the very first branch of dialogue even if the branch contained a HideDialogueBox action.
  
• fixed: characters using Light attacks and Staggering weapons could attack spiked barricades and fires without taking damage.
  
• fixed: due to a formatting error in the new, modifiable item attributes table, poisoned and blazing weapons were bugged and could freeze the game upon being equipped.
  
• fixed: on-death attacks were being applied twice, resulting in double damage (and double application of status effects) from explosive charges.
  
• fixed: at some point, the UI arrows had ceased appearing on reply buttons during dialogue when playing with gamepad.
  
• fixed: when playing with gamepad, the UI arrows were no longer appearing in their intended spots on buttons within the reserve supplies screen during deployment in battle.
  
• fixed: when playing with gamepad and using the reserve supplies screen during deployment in battle, the game would inappropriately shift gamepad cursor focus to the battlefield when hitting "B" to back out of an individual character inventory.
  
• fixed: the game was displaying character health bars when mousing over a character under an attack tile, thereby blocking the player's view of the hit chance text.
  
• fixed: when playing in gamepad mode, the game was pulling focus away from the confirmation window for auto-equipping newly grabbed equipment, essentially freezing the game.
  
• fixed: character tooltips could remain onscreen when dialogue was triggered mid-battle (particularly when playing with gamepad).
  
• fixed: it was possible for character tooltips to pop up over the top of the promotion screen when a character promoted in battle when playing with the gamepad.
  
• fixed: Lakshmi's sprites were using the wrong color for the brightest secondary highlights, resulting in the top of her shoulder on their non-crossbow-holding arm appearing red even when her secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed: unpromoted swordsman sprites were using the wrong color for the brightest secondary highlights, resulting in the most highlighted portion of their helmet plumes appearing red even when their secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed: promoted spearman sprites were using the wrong color for secondary highlights, resulting in the glossy bits of the top half of their tower shields appearing red even when their secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed: promoted shadowling sprites were using the wrong color for secondary highlights, resulting in half of their mask appearing red even when their secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed: both promoted and unpromoted cavalier sprites were using the wrong color for the brightest secondary highlights, resulting in the most highlighted portions of their flags and of the designs on their shields appearing red even when their secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed: both promoted and unpromoted crossbowman sprites were using the wrong color for the brightest secondary highlights, resulting in the tops of the shoulders on their non-crossbow-holding arm appearing red even when their secondary army colors did not include red.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: the space selector was inappropriately snapping to bridges and other objects that lay flat when mousing above them, as though they were characters with height.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: the auto-objectives screen could appear prior to turn 0 dialogue occurring after the dismissal of the turn box.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: if a map had BeforeTurn dialogue marked as repeatable, the auto-objectives screen could cause it to re-trigger after the objectives faded, trapping the player in a loop.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: text overlays could appear beneath the auto-objectives screen.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: when selecting Restart Battle, the actions bar would reappear while fading out the scene.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: if a text overlay was onscreen when selecting Restart Battle, it would reappear while fading out the scene.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: the Coria Bridge Battle objectives mentioned keeping the camp from being destroyed even though it does not appear in that battle.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: the Coria Bridge Battle had text stating the victory condition which was now duplicative due to auto-displaying of battle objectives.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: when spawning unique proc gen units in battle via a script, the game could produce units with no gender information and throw a range error upon reaching the name generation step.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: if a character did not have a stat listed among their growths and they gained a trait altering growth for that stat, the game would ignore the growth boost entirely instead of adding that stat to the unit's growths for modification.
  
• fixed in version 1.0.58a: the character generator was not interpreting traits with multi-operation growth effects and base stat effects correctly.
  

[h3]Improvements for custom campaign makers:[/h3]

• new human male portrait hairstyle: balding.
  
• new human male portrait hairstyle: long and curly.
  
• new human male portrait hairstyle: neck-length and wavy.
  
• new human female portrait hairstyle: big and wavy.
  
• new script action: AddDayLog. Creates a log entry memorializing an activity, event, or battle occurring that day. Three parameters: log entry category, log entry body, and (optional) number of days passed (in case you want the log entry to reflect an occurrence on a day other than the current one). These logs are visible to the player on the calendar screen for the corresponding day.
  
• the character creator now automatically marks all equippable items as equipped when you save a character with a built-in inventory.
  
• new object: Ice Patch! Ice patches reduce dodge by 75, accuracy by 25, and cold resistance by 50; non-flying characters who move onto them become Slowed (i.e. they immediately lose half their maximum movement and simply cannot dodge at all) for 1 round.
  
• new special character: -SPECIES-. Gets replaced with the species of the character who triggered the dialogue.
  
• new special character: -CHAR2SPECIES-. Gets replaced with the species of the secondary character in the dialogue.
  
• you can now set one of a unit's coordinates to a valid integer number and the other to -1 to have the game try to spawn them on a random space within a specific row or column of the battlefield.
  
• the SetWinAura script action now supports multiple operations in one call, delimited by commas.
  
• new, optional third parameter for the OnTalk dialogue trigger: Enforce Positions. If set to true, this specifically requires the triggering character to be as described in the first trigger parameter (rather than letting the second talk partner take on the role of triggerer).
  
• new optional parameter added to SpawnUnit and the Generate-Unit-type script actions: Drop Unit. If set to true, causes the unit to drop onto their space from somewhere above the battlefield when they spawn, a la an item drop.
  
• added a safeguard to prevent duplicates of the same character from ever appearing in a roster.
  
  
• fixed: the game's unit-spawning, unit-generating, door manipulation, change dialogue character, and roster manipulation script actions were still missing minimum parameter checks.
  
• fixed: the "Black" cutscene background was not usable.
  
• fixed: the CastleSandstone tileset's transitions between other tilesets were not working.
  
• fixed: the "Sex" field for procedurally generating units in the map editor did not actually force the resulting unit to be of the specified gender if the unit was a generic.
  
• fixed: when generating a unique named character from a class not defined in Classes.xml using the GenerateUnique script action, if the unit's species was not specified, the game would pull a species of "ERROR," resulting in the character having no valid value for gender, which would in turn cause the game to be unable to generate a name and freeze.
  
• fixed: the FindClosestCharacter script action could cause the game to throw a null error if used with a list of characters to exclude that didn't actually exist.
  
• fixed: golems created in the character creator were not receiving the golem voice set for their babble sounds.
  
• fixed: the SetStringByStat script action was not accepting First Name or Last Name as valid string stats.
  
• fixed: if the Babble script action ran after dialogue text had finished animating (or after its animation was manually skipped by the player), then the babble sound effect would continue without end until the player continued to the next branch of the dialogue.
  
• fixed: swapping positions via the SwapUnitPositions script action (used in skills like Twirl) wouldn't work properly if one of the units was in a position that would ordinarily be unmovable to the other.
  
• fixed: template enemies in proc gen battles without specified names (e.g. the dacoits in caravan defense battles) were not being leveled up to the correct levels, making job board missions much
  easier than intended.
  
• fixed: template enemies in proc gen battles without specified names (e.g. the dacoits in caravan defense battles) were having their names inappropriately changed to match their load IDs.
  
• fixed: when multiple scripts were attached to the same skill or item, the second script would have its first action run out of order.
  
• fixed: if OnVictory dialogue was spawned for the enemy army, using a WinBattle action or reply to change it to a player victory would not prevent the game from showing a "Defeated" pop-up regardless.
  
• fixed: strings typed in by the player during dialogue could end up not displaying properly (or at all) if they used commas or quotation marks.
  

And that's all I've got! If you're enjoying the game, please do make sure to leave a review (when a game has less than 100 reviews, every single review can make a really big difference!)

In the meantime, come join us on The Sinister Design Discord! I'm on there all the time and always listening to suggestions.


Tactically yours,

Craig

Hey there, tactics fans! I've been on a bit of a bug-fixing spree while working on the May update for Together in Battle, and I figured I should pass along those benefits to Telepath Tactics Liberated while I'm at it. Nothing too fancy here, but some of these fixes were important enough that I thought an update was called for.

First, a few small visual/interface improvements:

• when grabbing an item sack containing equipment in it in battle, if the grabber can use that equipment and they have nothing equipped in the corresponding equipment slot, the game will now prompt you if you want the character to auto-equip the thing they just grabbed.
  
• the game now tracks the last 20 loading screen tips displayed to avoid having repeats too often.
  
• item sacks now visually drop onto the battlefield when the ItemDrop script action is invoked.
  

And now, the bug fixes:

• fixed: the game was freezing whenever a player-controlled (non-AI) character used Defensive Stance.
  
• fixed: the Sick status effect had started making skills cost 2,000% their normal energy cost instead of 200%.
  
• fixed: after last month's introduction of the new, more efficient parabolic arc code, battlefield objects chucked with skills like Toss and Throw were no longer getting parabolic arcs.
  
• AI fix: due to a quirk in how C# handles integer division, the AI was not applying a penalty to its scoring of attacks against targets with non-lethal on-death attacks (such as explosive charges).
  
• AI fix: due to a quirk in how C# handles integer division, the AI was not applying any penalty to its scoring of attacks against targets with non-lethal counterattacks.
  
• fixed: when shoving a unit onto a space with an ornamental bridge tile below the terrain, the game would use the bridge for the destination elevation instead of the terrain, sometimes inappropriately causing the target to take damage and/or become stunned.
  
• fixed: on certain occasions, item sacks on top of bridge tiles became non-interactable.
  
• fixed: it was possible for inorganic destructible objects to get the Poisoned status despite having 100% Poison resistance, just so long as the skill conferring the status was not of the Poison element.
  
• fixed: if movement speed was set to instant, doors that AI-controlled characters moved through would not be opened and scripts triggered mid-move via the MoveOver trigger would not be triggered.
  
• fixed: attempting to use an item in a character screen during deployment at the start of battle would fail without providing a pop-up message.
  
• fixed: with equipment that would replace a filled slot, the shop interface was still only showing a comparison of one stat maximum (rather than the intended 1-3), and could display a stat penalty as a reason for wanting the equipment.
  
• fixed: the text sprite for Drowning Res. was missing (most noticeable in shop interface explanations for why certain characters want aquatic armor).
  
• fixed: with Vindictive and Vengeful equipment that would replace a filled slot, the shop interface was still failing to display the sprite for additional counterattacks granted by the equipment.
  
• fixed: the rear horn in a spriggat's portrait would appear incorrectly scaled, positioned, and colored if a prior character portrait contained a hair accessory.
  
• fixed: some safeguards to ensure that a fall into a chasm will always be an insta-K.O. (even if falling 10 levels of elevation might not otherwise cause enough damage).
  
• updated the description of Feedback to make its self-healing effects less ambiguous.
  
• fixed a couple of typos in the loading screen tips.
  

Finally, a few improvements for campaign creators:

• unit tooltips can now display a different fourth stat (besides counterattacks), as well as fifth and sixth stats when browsing characters within dialogue. Simply append the names of the fourth, fifth, and sixth stats after the list name, delimited by commas (e.g. -ShowUnits:UnitsInRoster,BASE Strength,BASE Psy,BASE Accuracy- will cause character tooltips to display the unit's base strength, psy, and accuracy in addition to their health, energy, and speed).
  
• new sound effect: Crowd Booing Muffled.
  
• added missing documentation for the pitch range parameter in the PlaySound script action.
  
• added minimum parameter checks to about a half-dozen portrait-related script actions that were missing them.
  
• added missing in-game documentation for the Move Over unit trigger.
  
• fixed a visual issue with the spot where the necks meet the ears in most of the male "NPC" portrait clothing sets.
  
• fixed: the blacksmith interface would show duplicates of weapons in reserve supplies when showing potential items to rename or repair.
  
• fixed: equipment-modifying items were not usable in cut scenes.
  
• fixed: the game could still display buttons in custom menus twice if they were preceded by hidden buttons.
  

Annnnd that's about it!


Tactically yours,

Craig

Hi all! It's come to my attention that the game the game was having issues with gamepad controls after the last update. I took a look at the code and I believe I've fixed it (but as always, please let me know in the forums if there's something more I didn't catch!)

[h3]Let's start with the bug fixes in this update:[/h3]

• fixed: on certain buttons, selecting them with the gamepad could double-invoke their methods, leading to errors (up to and including the game freezing).
  
• fixed: when playing with gamepad, at the very start of battle, the selector was spawning in the very top-left of the map instead of over someone in the player's army.
  
• fixed: actions bar button tooltips were displaying strangely in gamepad mode.
  
• fixed: the virtual cursor was not visible when choosing between yes or no in any in-battle warning pop-up windows.
  
• fixed: if an army in a battle was completely neutral by way of being allied to every other army, the game would treat them as having vanquished all enemies and immediately end the battle with them as the victor.
  
• AI fix: the retreat AI algorithm was not accounting for area preference or patrol tags, causing characters with no usable skills to retreat without regard for the areas they were supposed to be moving towards.
  
• fixed: mousing over a unit and then immediately mousing over the deployment window thereafter without ever mousing off the unit could cause the unit's mouseover tooltip to become "stuck" onscreen for a time.
  
• fixed: it was possible for cavaliers to charge across a path with an elevation difference of 2 or greater, just so long as they effectively charged off of the cliff rather than up it.
  
• fixed: in some circumstances, the game could save (and reload) past instances of generic templated units in a way that would reintroduce tags placed onto those unit types in past battles.
  
• fixed: changes to the code made it so generalized character death barks could again get queued in addition to specific death-triggered dialogue for the same character.
  
• fixed: bridges below the level of the terrain could cause the game to use the bridge's elevation instead of the ground's for purposes of calculating which spaces are moveable for a non-flying unit.
  
• fixed: under some circumstances where the AI had a character move and use a non-turn-ending skill, the AI could queue up further actions for the character where they moved and used a skill, but then fail to execute the "actually moving" part, resulting in the character attacking outside their normal range.
  
• fixed: proc gen battle map names were not being saved in the "battle start" save files used when restarting a battle, resulting in the map's internal file name displaying instead.
  

[h3]It's not just bug fixes; we also have some nice quality of life buffs (and AI improvements too)![/h3]

• a longtime request is now working in-engine: you can now create a mid-battle save on the first turn of a fight, right after deployment!
  
• the game now displays gameplay tips on the loading screen when transitioning scenes.
  
• when playing with the gamepad, switching to the actions bar with 'X' now defaults to selecting the first available skill.
  
• AI improvement: the AI now does a much better job of appropriately balancing the value of reaching a preferred area versus the value of moving toward a character it would like to attack (but cannot yet reach).
  
• AI improvement: the AI now imposes a scoring penalty for any move that would take a character who is already inside their preferred area outside of that area.
  
• AI improvement: reduced the minimum calculated value of usage before enemies will use items, avoiding situations where enemies won't use bandages even though it's optimal to do so.
  
• AI improvement: AI-controlled units now value Defending status proportionally more as they become more injured, and more based on their ability to counterattack.
  

[h3]And finally, we have a lot of new tools and bug fixes for campaign creators:[/h3]

• added the missing army palettes from the original Telepath Tactics (Orange and Pink) into the engine.
  
• the LevelUpArmy script action now works in cut scenes.
  
• the game can now process custom strings used as part of a scene's display name.
  
• new condition: Drop Items On Death. Lets you set a particular army to not drop items when a character in that army dies. Parameters: army number, drops items (boolean value--true by default).
  
• new script action: StripItemsFromUnit. Removes all items from the named character's inventory and places them in a roster's reserve supplies.
  
• new script action: AddNickname. Gives a character a new nickname to be used by a second character in dialogue. (To make it a nickname everyone uses, leave the Second Character Name parameter blank.) Parameters: Character Name, New Nickname, Second Character Name.
  
• new script action: HideDialogueBox. Allows you to manually hide the dialogue box during dialogue.
  
• new script action: ShowDialogueBox. Causes a hidden dialogue box to reappear.
  
• new script action: HideActionsMenu. Allows you to manually hide the actions bar during battle.
  
• new script action: ShowActionsMenu. Causes a hidden actions bar to reappear.
  
• new script action: AddTriggerCharPortrait. Adds the portrait of whatever character triggered the dialogue, without regard to whether their name is used as speaker for the current branch. Has the same parameters as AddSpeakerPortrait.
  
• new dialogue trigger type: OnSkillUsed. Triggers dialogue when a given skill is used. To satisfy the trigger, the skill usage must be effective in some way (i.e. not just attacking an ally or healing an enemy). Parameters: skill name, user army, and user name.
  
• new tag: RemoveAll. This tells the game to remove all existing tags from the unit.
  
• three new special string stats are supported for SetStringByStat: First Name, Last Name, and Nickname. (These are read-only, so don't try using them as a parameter with SetStat.)
  
• added last name as a supported attribute value for the SetStringByNPC script action.
  
• TargetPreference tags now support the use of custom string variables for their target name parameter.
  
• updated in-game documentation for the IfBioDetail-type script actions and the -BIO:X- special character with the default bio detail types.
  
• fixed: in-game documentation for the AddNPC script action was missing the tenth parameter, Blood Relative.
  
• fixed: in-game documentation for the SetStringByNPC script action was missing blood relative among the supported attribute values listed.
  
• fixed: getting a unit's load ID via the SetStringByStat script action would return an empty string for proc gen characters. (It now returns the unit's name, which can stand in for its load ID in virtually every use case.)
  
• fixed: the Delete Row and Delete Column algorithms in the Map Editor were faulty, with their use potentially causing the game to lose track of where units should be until the map was reloaded.
  
• fixed: in the Map Editor, adding a new column to the very rightmost edge of a map would secretly cause the game to add a second column, invisibly offsetting mouseover coordinates and making the selector appear in the wrong spot when mousing over units.
  

Greetings, tactics fans! It's been another month of work on Together in Battle--and that means there's another month's worth of engine improvements, bug fixes, and campaign creator goodies available for Telepath Tactics Liberated!

[h3]First, I rewrote a couple of things in the engine from the ground up specifically to work better for players with older (or lower-end) machines:[/h3]

• parabolic movement has been completely overhauled to improve performance on slower systems. Whether it's hopping between terrain elevations, the Stone Golem's Throw skill, or the assassin's Leap, parabolic arcs no longer lag behind the other, accompanying animations on slower machines.
  
  
  
  
• the game's dodge animations have likewise been overhauled so that they, like the new parabolic animations, are driven purely by code and math rather than Unity's Animator component. This massively improves performance and ensures that there are not timing mismatches on slower systems.
  
• the timing of combat sequences concluding is no longer tied to a Unity camera animation, ensuring that things progress at the intended clip regardless of system power.
  

[h3]That's not all, however! We also have a mixture of UI and presentation improvements:[/h3]

• received, incorporated a brand-new visual effect for Overheat!
  
  
  
  
• created a new sound effect for Overheat.
  
• the combat camera now pans over to the attack even if combat zoom is turned off, reducing graphical issues resulting from visual effect layering.
  
• reduced the height on the pop-up text animation to aid readability.
  
• cleaned up the timing on character "hop" animations when changing elevation.
  
• right-clicking rugs and other objects set to be treated as part of the floor no longer opens the character screen.
  
• status effect tooltips now dynamically display the actual power of the status effect conferred for those occasions where a status effect power differs from its ordinary default value.
  
• repositioned status effect tooltips within the character screen so the mouse cursor doesn't obscure any of the text.
  
• the Defending status effect can now stack in its power and is hard-coded to disappear when a unit gains a new turn or becomes Enthralled.
  

[h3]Next, we have a variety of bug fixes:[/h3]

• fixed: the deployment window's starting text was being overwritten by default localization values.
  
• fixed: the order of the Combat Zoom setting options was switched in the localization file, causing 'Attacks Only' to be interpreted as 'Off' and vice versa.
  
• fixed: sometimes, the tooltip for an item's Give button wouldn't show up upon mousing over it.
  
• fixed misaligned mouseover zones for status effect icons in the character screen.
  
• fixed: the counterattacks icon did not display correctly when providing in-shop explanations for why characters wanted Vengeful weapons.
  
• fixed: you could click an enemy to show their moveable spaces under fog of war.
  
• fixed: the AI could disregard a valid move onto an AreaPreference space if no valid skill targets existed within range of the destination.
  
• fixed: if a character was moved via a Teleport-type skill (such as Shadowport or Juxtapose), the game would not check to see if it should drop them into water, lava, or a chasm upon reaching their new position.
  
• fixed: you could undo after using a Move skill that also moves a second character (like Trade or Juxtapose).
  
• fixed: due to an oversight when implementing the new move-tracking code, the computer could fail to clear its internal list of viable moves when an enemy's attack slew a character and triggered a death monologue, which in rare cases could result in the AI proceeding with the second-ranked move without recalculating based on the updated state of the battlefield.
  
• fixed: the AI would get locked into an infinite loop when swimming with proc gen units generated with the Swimmer trait.
  
• fixed: due to recent changes in the AI code, the game would throw a null error if an enemy drowned to death at the start of the AI's turn.
  
• fixed: it was possible for an AI-controlled character with a preferred area tag and no viable moves to remain on the "calculate a move" list forever despite having no viable moves, thereby preventing the computer from ever ending its turn.
  
• fixed: if any of an AI-controlled unit's skills could affect a target worth affecting, all of that unit's skills would be marked as worth using as part of short-range moves toward a preferred area, leading to the unit potentially inappropriately attacking scenery.
  
• fixed: smashing an enemy up against the edge of the map could only ever deal a single tile's worth of collision damage even if using a skill with multiple tiles worth of extra knockback.
  
• fixed: Create skills would not function on spaces containing rugs or other objects with a true "treatAsFloor" attribute.
  
• fixed: door-affecting script actions such as Lock could trigger OnDoor dialogue when used in OnLoaded dialogue.
  
• fixed: the AI was not set to recalculate moves upon removing Inactive tags from a CPU-controlled unit mid-turn.
  
• fixed: under certain circumstances, dummy attack tiles shown upon mousing over an attack button could inappropriately vanish (or fail to appear at all).
  
• fixed: if a new turn belongs to an army with no units remaining, the game would skip to the next turn without triggering any OnTurn or BeforeTurn dialogue set to trigger on that turn.
  
• fixed: bridges below the level of the terrain could cause the game to use the bridge's elevation instead of the ground's for purposes of calculating movement and elevation bonuses.
  
• fixed: the in-battle pop up text showing experience gain from using a battle primer would scale the displayed experience against the resulting level rather than the level at the time of use, frequently resulting in it announcing less experience than was actually gained.
  
• fixed: a character portrait added to the left edge of the screen and that same portrait walking to the left edge of the screen would end up in positions about 5 pixels off from each other.
  

[h3]And last but not least, we have new tools and improvements for campaign creators![/h3]

• dialogue branches now support an attribute called "show single replies." This forces the game to show a reply button on this dialogue branch even if only a single reply remains--useful for moments when the player says or does a particular thing.
  
• new clothing for female human portraits: RoyalDese.
  
• new clothing for male human portraits: Blacksmith.
  
• added a new skin tone that can be used for character portraits: Ruddy Brown.
  
• added three new eye colors that can be used for character portraits: Aqua, Red, and Violet.
  
• new dialogue trigger supported: OnUnitAttacked. This works just like OnCharAttacked, except that the unit attacked does not have to be a character to trigger the dialogue. (Someone attacking a specified object, for instance, can trigger the dialogue with OnUnitAttacked.)
  
• new script action: AddTagToGroup. This works just like AddTagToArmy, but instead of specifying an army number, you specify an AggroGroup number. Every unit in the specified AggroGroup will receive the new tag you provide.
  
• new script action: RemoveTagFromGroup. This works just like RemoveTagFromArmy, but instead of specifying an army number, you specify an AggroGroup number. Every unit in the specified AggroGroup will lose whatever tag you provide.
  
• new optional parameter in the Deployment battle condition: maximum characters. This allows additional deployment spots to be placed on the battlefield without increasing the maximum number of deployable characters for the battle.
  
• new AI tag type supported: Patrol. This works like AreaPreference, except that it acts upon a looping sequence of areas for the character to prefer. Once the character reaches the first area in the sequence, their preference shifts to the next one, and so on.
  
• new option for the IfInArea-type script actions: you can now use an army in the Character Name parameter (e.g. "Army 0", Army 1", and so on) and the game will check for any character belonging to that specific army.
  
• new custom menu gray-out/warning type: avgLvl. Calculates the average level of the characters in the current roster and grays out the button or pops up a warning if their average level falls outside the specified range.
  
• the blacksmith interface now supports renaming weapons!
  
• it is now possible to alter a piece of equipment's name via an equipment-altering consumable using Name as the attribute to alter.
  
• added support for Name as an Attribute to Alter in the item editor within the campaign creation suite.
  
• updated the item editor's built-in guides to include Name.
  
• fixed: the "force name" feature for characters in proc gen map army groups was not being applied to units drawn from PremadeUnits.xml, only to units procedurally generated from scratch.
  
• fixed: bridges below the level of the terrain would cause the map editor to set the cursor elevation (and the elevation of further objects placed on the space) to the bridge's elevation instead of the ground's.
  
• fixed: in some circumstances, adding a row to a map could produce a null error.
  
• fixed a null error in the cut scene and map editors caused by the game expecting the online bug reporting component to be present.
  
• fixed: in some circumstances, displaying dialogue in the cut scene editor could cause a null error due to the game attempting to call the gamepad menu navigator component.
  
• fixed: the "force species" attribute could be used to create proc gen characters of a species not compatible with the chosen class, resulting in issues like missing portraits and sprites.
  

That's all for this update, folks! As ever, if you're enjoying the game, please don't forget to leave a review--it really helps a lot.

Want to chat with other players and make suggestions? The Sinister Design Discord is a great place to do that; I'm there myself quite regularly and love chatting with players. 🙂 Until next time!


Tactically yours,

Craig