Development

[icycalm]

Also would it be possible to change the font of the box you type into? Not the font of the chatlog nor the font of the speech bubbles, but the font in the box you type into is a dumbass one where even lowercase appears capitalized, just smaller, and it will throw off people and cause lots of typos in the speech bubbles.

[ysignal]

He just made a new mod that logs the chat to a HTML file as you play: https://talespire.thunderstore.io/package/LordAshes/LogChatPlugin/

Regarding the private messages, this plugin should do it: https://talespire.thunderstore.io/package/LordAshes/ChatWhisper/

I'll ask him about the scrolling, font and narrative chat.

[icycalm]

Another thing to be done is to import the entirety of Owlcat games’ creatures, and these models must be given preferential treatment over Bouncyrock’s. This is because our creatures in Fantasy Grounds will be official Pathfinder creatures, and those are precisely the ones featured in Owlcat games. This means that for example the various types of spider and wolf models will match between bestiary illustrations (which will go in World Anvil wiki pages) and 3D models (which will go in TaleSpire), which isn’t the case with Bouncyrock’s creatures.

You just need to teach me how to import one creature, and I’ll do the rest myself.

I also need to initiate my Hero Forge exchange program and amass hundreds of these models.

I feel like a kid putting together the biggest toy collection in the history of the world. This would be fun even if we weren’t planning to play with all this stuff. There will never have been a game with such richness of characters and creatures. Two CRPGs’ worth, plus TaleSpire’s hundreds, plus Hero Forge’s thousands, plus from other games, plus that D&D 5E Monster Manual dude’s on Patreon. I will aim to populate these towns and cities 1:1 ultimately.

[ysignal]

The whisper plugin doesn't yet work properly with the chatlog, so if the GM sends a private message it won't show up in his chatlog. I left Lord Ashes a message about this so we'll see what he says. Once that's resolved I'll ask about the narrative chat. I didn't get an answer about the scrolling or font, so I'll bring those up again later.

I'll see what I can do about importing the Owlcat models. I've imported the raw models before but not the poses.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/Phobiedog/status/16 ... 9603308544

Talespire is pretty neat!

Look how complex this scene is.

Overturned table and chairs.

Stones and debris on the ground from the hole in the wall at the back.

Weapons on the table to the right, all of which can be grabbed.

All sorts of items that can be grabbed and hurled or used as cover.

Show me any other videogame with this level of interactivity.

This is the future of gaming. And who would have guessed that this future would be... interactive?

[icycalm]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/720620/d ... 5113731169



This is the third time I think that I am being temp banned from their Steam forum. I've been permabanned from their Reddit for ages.

Good times.

[icycalm]

Any news on this, ysignal? My guess is Lord Ashes lost interest in helping us out? At least it sounds like he took care of a couple of the issues before dropping out...

This is basically the story with all these guys. They'll help a little bit, but no one has the patience and dedication to create something truly good.

[ysignal]

No news, and he hasn't updated the github repo with the latest source code, so I can't try fixing it myself. I've sent him a follow-up. I haven't looked into extracting the models yet.

[ysignal]

He's given us a solution for chat logging that will log everything (just needs some config that I will explain later), but something I noticed while testing the whisper plugin is that if you mistype the name then it fails silently, which could cause a lot of confusion while we're playing. That should be an easy thing to fix, but I can't do it unless he updates the github repo. In any case, I'm still talking to them about all this. On the other hand, if the whisper functionality isn't important for West Marches, I can drop it and move on to something else.

As a side note, I also sent him a $200 donation and joined Hollo's Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/HolloFox) at the "Modder" level.

So far it looks like we might have to manually rig the Owlcat models in Blender in order to pose them, but I'll keep looking into that.

[icycalm]

Yes we needed to send them some money both because they deserve it and because it ensures they’ll keep helping us out, so thanks for taking the initiative on this. Make sure they know it’s you sending them this money, and I will mention you too when I send them some.

As for the whisper functionality, we do want it because we want as close to parity of features as possible across all our VTTs, but we don’t need it for the first session, and it’s that damned first session we need to get out of the way to get this party rolling, so you can move the whisper to the bottom of your priorities. You should start looking into it again AFTER we’ve played the first session.

The Owlcat models are super-important to us, especially the creature models, so keep working on that. Don’t do anything drastic like start working on Blender until you’ve asked enough modder guys to be certain there’s not an easier solution.

[icycalm]

The last fight. Can they destroy the portal and leave through it before it closes for ever.
https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... portal_and





This is not a pretty scene. I would never use a scene that looks this bad. The ones we'll be using are insanely superior.

And yet... you should be able to see, even in this subpar scene at the hands of this subpar GM, how superior this engine is to any CRPG ever, both aesthetically and mechanically.

[ysignal]

Lord Ashes fixed the issue with chat log not picking up the GM's own messages.

I asked about extracting the rigs, but nobody had a straightforward way. The good news is that non-humanoid models seem to come out of Asset Studio in a reasonable pose, for example:



I tried a few others and they worked as well. So for these it might be possible to repackage them for TaleSpire without using Blender (though you'll still need to use Unity).

I'll keep looking for a simple solution for the humanoids.

[icycalm]

Great progress! Keep us posted.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/PulsarMaps/status/1 ... 5059929088

Yo, I can do some alternate paint ups and decimate your minis for VTTs like @talespire if you wanna collaborate.

Saving this here so I can hit this guy up to collaborate. The quality of some of these minis and paint jobs is fantastic.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/jovian_lizard/statu ... 5190404097



lmao good luck waiting until CRPG developers give you anything like this. Even in big-budget FPSes you rarely see this kind of scale. And this isn't even a good set. The buildings are crap. Imagine this scale with Istallri-level sets.

And here's a cozier scene from the same guy:



Again, 3D spaces and mechanics that CRPGs just don't do, with every crate being liftable and throwable, or destructible, etc.

[icycalm]

Probe Plugin - Why Do We Need It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5GvMw-qC3E

It checks what plugins all the players have installed. Partly to avoid compatibility issues, but also because you can apparently load plugins as a player that let you cheat the dice lol. This shouldn't affect us much because we'll mostly be rolling in Fantasy Grounds.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/rogue_midnight/stat ... 1250518018



TaleSpire+Hero Forge versus classic D&D art.

[icycalm]

Picture from my campaign
https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... y_campaign



A good actual play screenshot. The terrain isn't very good (too blocky and lacking detail), and he hasn't removed the mini bases, but at least it's a complex, serious fight that you don't see often in people's TaleSpire screenshots (and never in CRPGs).

Now imagine it with better terrain, no bases, music, and a kickass campaign.

[icycalm]

The one thing that can't be imagined is the camera panning and rotating/zooming all over the place while I control it, to highlight every dramatic action. That has to be seen to be believed. I call it Gears of TaleSpire.

[icycalm]

Scenes from my games
https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... m_my_games

FINALLY some scenes from an actual game that are pretty good. Ours will be much better, of course. But here's a little taste of what the engine can do in the hands of a decent GM. For true greatness you'll have to wait JUST a little longer.

[icycalm]

FINALLY someone posted a screen of how a TaleSpire game should look! This is what every session of my West Marches will be like, and moreover looking even cooler with the bases removed. And when Menyr arrives, they'll even be animated and moving around. You'll be searching in crowds for a person. Have you ever searched in a crowd for a person in a videogame before? It's coming soon, exclusively to Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds.

[icycalm]

I don't know if you can see how insanely good these screens are. You have to see them on a large screen to appreciate them. The first two have crazy good lighting effects, and there's something about TaleSpire's artstyle that makes everything seem so SOLID, because it's made to resemble tabletop miniatures. CRPG models often look like your finger would pass through them.

And that last picture... Look at the scale of that. Look how tiny the characters are. One mistake it commits is one that TaleSpire GMs often commit: they let you see the edges of the board as they are abruptly cut off, and this hurts immersion as it makes the location seem fake. This can be mitigated by making huge boards, but even then, the party will eventually reach the edge, which is why I like to control the camera myself and NOT SHOW THE EDGE. I will just simply move the characters to the next board, without anyone ever seeing the edges. This will massively increase immersion.

And on top of all that, my sets will be 10,000 better than this one. But still... look how good this one looks.

[icycalm]

HUGE news on TaleSpire the last couple of weeks!

First off, the ships are coming VERY soon. And in order to make the ship rigging work they've introduced attachment points to some of the props.

BETA Branch: Attachment Points + Substantial Refactor
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/be ... l-refactor



This will simplify a lot of work, not only with ships, and builders are very excited for it.

Next, the Bouncyrock team continues to grow, with a backend engineer named Pavel, so basically a Russian warmonger. Now you know TaleSpire is built on the tears of Ukrainian children.

The team grows!
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/the-team-grows

Third, they're adding diagonal and circular tiles! Builders have been asking for those for ages!

TaleSpire Dev Log 383
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/ta ... ev-log-383

megadungeon tower test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOKldre5IwE



I think that the D&D VTT announcement [ > ] scared the shit out of them, so they're finally hiring some people to help them crunch and bringing out of the closet all the most-desired features people have been asking for, and basically going all-in to try to lap D&D before it releases in the hopes they can survive. Now you see why capitalism and competition are good for culture?

And since all the media coming from the devs are crap, because they are no artists, let me close this update with some out-of-this-world imagery of the kind of next-level shit that's coming soon, only on Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds.

https://twitter.com/heimdal_3/status/16 ... 6633525249



https://twitter.com/botcosmos_ws/status ... 4833007616



https://twitter.com/high_dead/status/16 ... 7007205377



https://twitter.com/Boomer_Buck/status/ ... 3765992448



https://twitter.com/talespire/status/16 ... 7772829696

[icycalm]

Weapons store in Alex Kierkegaard's West Marches. Every single item for sale is physically represented. Even Star Citizen shops lack such detail. The programmers have denied it to us for too long. And now they can no longer stop us from attaining it.

[icycalm]

I think I'm getting the hang of it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... hang_of_it



https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comm ... s_to_props

And I feel the same way about wanting my worlds to be perfect. To the point where every house in every city is fully furnished even though I know my players will probably never step foot inside it. It's a weird space to be in. Playing D&D but feeling like you're designing an entire open world video game.

These guys get it, and more and more people will be getting it in the coming years. By the end of the decade—hell by the middle of this decade—if you aren't playing VTTs, you aren't playing anything. It's practically a new artform.

And all we had to do to attain it was... get rid of the programmers.