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

[CULT|icycalm]

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: {LINK REMOVED}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: {LINK REMOVED}https://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=7276

P.S. 3: TaleSpire can look stunning in first-person: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1835773351524474740/B9C8ECFE0AE74FC20955604F92C7CAF48E851E93/

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.

[CULT|ChevRage]

The inclusion of this stuff would be fantastic. And I think it would elevate Talespire immensely if it would include these features.

I've been looking forward to using Talespire for a while now, but the lack of a decent fog-of-war mechanic has put me off of it for now. I can understand that maybe it would be difficult to include, given the third person mode, but an added forced first person perspective would work swimmingly, even as a placeholder.

[niko]

Tried to play with my table, need a first person or line of sight based system for more than just minis. It's better than flat maps, players liked the 3d nature, but the camera frustrated them to no end, and they kept asking for first person angles, and being annoyed they had to chose between seeing big blank spots (hide volumes) or seeing full dungeon layouts ahead of time. The line of site with minis is good though. Hide volumes were useful to hide whole floors at a time and make towers/caverns manageable, but were very immersion breaking in any other application. First person would fix my table's need for fog of war, fiddly cameras, hide volumes (for player view) and increase player immersion in one fell swoop. What if I want to put a bag over a characters head and have them kidnapped? Stuck inside a carriage with only slits for windows? Check out a view of the city from the top of a tower? How about revealing something only for the characters who would actually be able to see it? (sorry player3, actually pretend you don't see that, because you're behind the wall and wouldn't know that was there) I would pay a lot more for this exact program, in the exact same state, plus first person camera for players. My players would buy it too, but right now there's no point since they all would just have the same basic overhead camera anyways, and hide volumes apply to the whole board at once. So we just have me running two instances and sharing the player view. DM/build enabled version for $50-100 with first person. Player version with no DM or build mode (launch in player mode, disable B and Tab?) for $25 ?

[D_arka]

I agree with some of this post, but not the "Fog of war is unplayable" statement. Sounds like either a Bad DM who can't work around seeing entire maps without fog of war or bad players who meta game too much.

First person would be dope as hell though 100% agree

I don't understand the "bases" point even after rereading several times, do you mean the player / monster model bases or the Base platforms you build on?

There's tons of issues that are important, to state that these are more important is a strech. still one of the big ones they are working on is 3d model development and heroforge integration as well as permanent AoE rings and Duplicating whole campaigns, better board support with Dynamic loading and unloading. etc, etc. To see the roadmap google talespire roadmap.

I agree with another earlier post,

Originally posted by Medicus:

I think your message might be lost because of the way you phrased it.

but overall these are some good ideas.

[Caulkhead]

Worked perfectly fine when I was running 5e, and also just as well when running older versions such as BX. Sounds like a user issue.

[Caulkhead]

Oh you're that big conman guy, LMFAO

[Monster Tamer Bloba]

Very sassy but you are not wrong at all.

[Taffer]

100% agree with this post. I have run dungeon crawling campaigns for years and am unable to in this program. Hopefully one day they make it playable. First Person mode would be a godsend!