FAQ
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the price of TaleSpire?
A: $24.99 USD
Q: Can we use any RPG rules?
A: the core game is rule-set agnostic, so if it's on a grid it's probably fine. There will be a rule system added in future but that will be optional to use on each campaign.
Q: Is there going to be a rule system?
A: Yes! Not in time for the Early Access but we have been designing a fairly game independent system of processing rules so that's something we want to attack HARD after the Early Access. When it is done it will be moddable so you can encode your role playing system's rules into it.
Q: I've pre-ordered the game on BackerKit, but I haven't received an email yet. Is that normal?
A: Please send an email to support@bouncyrock.com
Q: Can I purchase reusable 'seats' I can temporarily give to my players rather than each player having to own a copy?
A: Not currently. We have been asked this a good few times, and it's something we want to look at. But as of now (April 2021) this is not on the roadmap
Q: Will there be rulers?
A: Yes, we have point-to-point and AOE (circular and cone) rulers. We will look into how to expand these in the future.
Q: Will the be support for dark vision (and hiding things based on abilities)?
A: Certainly not for now. Different rules systems have rather different requirements here. Maybe we can look at this more once the rule system is in.
Q: How big are tiles in units/feet/meters?
A: A single tile is 1 x 0.25 x 1 units in-game. People are often interested in what that means in feet or meters, but we don't have an exact answer as it's not how we think about the assets when making them. We design the tiles and creatures in a way that would make sense for tabletop, and we leave the exact units up to the player.
Q: Is there a list somewhere of all the hero/npc/monsters that are currently in the game?
A: No, we should probably do that. Here is a lineup from 6 months ago, but there are plenty more already: Link
Q: Will there be water tiles?
A: There's a water plane you can currently adjust. We will continue working on this.
Q: Will we be able to customize our heroes?
A: Our goals is that, outside of a campaign, you will be able to tint, name and otherwise set up your hero
Q: I saw the character creator stretch goal and wanted to know more about how it will work and what will be possible
A: This has not yet been decided as it will need to go through the design and prototyping phase. One of our team has a bunch of experience making these kinds of tools and is very keen to get cracking on this, hopefully finding a nice balance between flexibility and ease of use. We'll keep you posted in dev updates as it happens.
Q: Are there windows in the game?
A: There are windows integrated into some tiles.
Q: Do you have any plans for a match-making service?
A: Not at this time
Q: Will it be possible to make our own spell effects?
A: We are definitely going to look into how we could expose spells (and other emotes) to being moddable.
Q: Will there be an in-game tutorial?
A: Yes, it's in the left-hand flyout menu.
Q: Any chance of D&D Beyond integration? It would be super cool
A: It would! We are always open to working with 3rd parties, but this specific partnership seems less likely these days :(
Q: Is there in-game video/audio chat?
A: No. We definitely want in-game audio and text chat in the future, and video may be possible too. However, we aren't confirming that feature today. We'll keep you posted if/when that changes.
Q: How about spell/breath weapon templates
A: Clearly, something in this realm would be useful. We expect this would fall under the rule system stretch goal, but until that has gone through some R&D, it's impossible to say to what extent we will support this.
Q: What is the pathfinding that has been mention in updates?
A: The pathfinding system will be a feature that shows all the tiles within a certain distance that your creature could reach. It will be activated by picking up a creature under your control, at which point indicators on the tiles will show where is reachable.
The first version will consider horizontal distance but not take verticality into the equation as the information required to do that well would definitely require an understanding of the game being played, the abilities of every creature, modifiers, environmental conditions, etc, etc.
The first version will consider horizontal distance but not take verticality into the equation as the information required to do that well would definitely require an understanding of the game being played, the abilities of every creature, modifiers, environmental conditions, etc, etc.
Q: I've read some of the updates and saw 'line of sight' and 'fog of war' mentioned a bunch. What are they, in the context of TaleSpire?
A: Line of sight is the name we have for the feature that does the following: If you control a creature A, you will only be able to see other creatures that A can see. That is, creatures that are in A's line of sight.
Fog of war will allow GMs to make regions of fog that physically occludes the tiles. We will then perform checks, whenever you place a creature, to remove areas of fog that your creature can see.
Fog of war will allow GMs to make regions of fog that physically occludes the tiles. We will then perform checks, whenever you place a creature, to remove areas of fog that your creature can see.
Q: Is there support for hidden doors, as in tiles that look normal but which open likes doors do?
A: No. making variants of all tiles for this would be an extreme amount of work and it is very quick to swap out tiles in the current system without breaking the flow of the game. Once modding is available this is definitely something people could do if they wanted.
Q: Will I be able to get the game in more places than Steam?
A: We hope that for v1, the release (post Early-Access) we can do this. We don't want to force people into certain systems just to tell stories. We don't have any concrete news for you but we have been designing all the systems with the idea that the game won't be tied to a single system or store.
Q: Can we share things we made in the game, like houses and stuff?
A: YES. Simply select and copy some tiles and then you can paste it into discord or other text sharing service. Other people can then copy the text and paste it into the game and they get the same slab! One of our community is also making a site for this and we will possibly do something there too if it make sense for the players.
Q: How will modding work?
A: Adding tiles and minis to the game will be easy if you know how to model them. We will be providing TaleWeaver some time during Early Access (no ETA on that yet), which is how we get content into the game.
TaleWeaver is a Unity project (that works with the free version of Unity) which takes models, audio, etc and packages it up in the way TaleSpire expects.
Tiles will also be able to have scripts attached to them to give them behavior.
TaleWeaver is a Unity project (that works with the free version of Unity) which takes models, audio, etc and packages it up in the way TaleSpire expects.
Tiles will also be able to have scripts attached to them to give them behavior.
Q: Are all rolls visible to all players?
A: They don't have to be. At any point GMs can perform a GM only roll and the faces of these dice are only visible to GMs. We will also have a way for GMs to give GM dice to players so they can make rolls only the two of them can see.
Q: How will the scripting for mods work?
A: We are working on a custom scripting system called Spaghet.
Q: Can we import models from HeroForge?
A: Yes! You can find out how bring your creations into TaleSpire here: https://heroforge.talespire.com/
Q: Do I need a subscription for the base game?
A: No, the base game is a low, one time cost.
If subscriptions are your jam, we are currently considering having a way to subscribe to asset pack updates as well as being able to buy single packs. This would give you an ever-growing universe of assets to work with. The nice thing is that this doesn't need to be an either-or situation. Hopefully we can have options that cover a lot of bases, post Early Access.
If subscriptions are your jam, we are currently considering having a way to subscribe to asset pack updates as well as being able to buy single packs. This would give you an ever-growing universe of assets to work with. The nice thing is that this doesn't need to be an either-or situation. Hopefully we can have options that cover a lot of bases, post Early Access.
Q: What operating systems will you support?
A: We will start with Windows for the Early Access but we want to expand this to MacOS and possibly Linux, it just doesn't feel feasible in the 8 months along with everything else. (One of us uses Linux as their primary OS so we feel your pain here).
Q: What about wine on Linux?
A: We have alpha users who have been playing the game on Linux using wine and that's great! However we won't be supporting it so if there are bugs they aren't going to get addressed until we start supporting that platform properly.
Q: Would it be possible to make state transition. For example, turn a Goblin into a Wizard with some kind of effect?
A: Yes. We are still looking into what the most universal way to do this is. We might combine it with a way to group multiple minis into a single mini but that is just conjecture right now. Might not be available for the initial Early Access release.
Q: Is there a roadmap we can see?
A: There is this (Roadmap Link) with the high level overview. We aren't going to be sharing gantt charts or all that jazz but we will be providing regular dev-logs and updates so you can keep abreast of what is happening.
Q: Will there be provision for music cues when you swap between the different modes? Maybe battle music that can start when you enter combat mode, etc
A: The audio controls will be kept separate as it means we don't overload switching mode with too many meanings. Whilst the turn based mode is normally used for combat we are sure it'll be used differently by different folks.
Q: Will there be blank/cardboard tokens?
A: No. You can add them via modding but we aren't adding them as they murder the feel of the whole game and make us sad.
Q: How can I make terrain?
A: You lay down big foam blocks to make the elevation and then drag out tiles to decorate them.
Q: What will the price of asset packs be?
A: Good question. We haven't tried to work out the exact numbers yet so if we tried to answer now we'd just be pulling numbers out our butts, which we'd rather not do. However the whole game is $20 on KS which we hope suggests we are not interested in ransacking your wallets.
Q: Paying for each pack sucks. Let me subscribe.
A: This doesn't have to be an either or. Our plan is to have an asset subscription for those that want it and a way to buy individual packs for those who prefer that, post Early-Access.
Q: Is there a player only version?
A: No
Q: Why is there no player only version?
A: We are interested in looking into a version that gives GMs a number of 'seats' they can issue to players. Steam does not currently offer this option, so we'd need to handle this separately.
We expect to look into this after early access for two main reasons:
- After early access, we are no longer under the rules imposed by being in early access on Steam. This gives us more flexibility with pricing.
- Fulfilling the promises to our backers, fixing bugs, and making it to v1 are our top priorities. Hitting the stability of the first major release currently feels like a good time to explore these kinds of options.
Whichever route we take, we will not be making a version without building tools. This closes off too many interesting options for play and limits the possibility of players dabbling with being creators themselves.
Q: Will we be able to add our own music?
A: Long term, yes. We still need to work out the technical details as this would need to be synced to other players.
Q: What is the maximum map size you can create?
A: For the early access we know we can achieve 30x30km horizontally and 10km tall. However we want to go bigger than this and that will be addressed after the Early Access.
Q: Will there be a way for the GM to modify dice rolls to auto-fail or auto-pass? As if you were rolling behind a screen and wanted to fail or pass a roll for narrative reasons, etc.?
A: We never auto apply that kind of stuff for you. This means the GM always has the final say.
Q: Can multiple people build on the same board at the same time?
A: Yes!
Q: How about displaying the hp as the blue circle under the character model? Would be a nice feature to quickly see your hp
A: Nice idea! We might do this when we revise the UI for the stats system. When the feature suggestions site is up you should suggest this there.
Q: How do I point things out to players?
A: The GM flashlight can be used. Players can use rulers for now, but we'll be adding Player Pings later on as well.
Q: You have little animations for attacking, casting spells and such. Are there any plans for looping animations, such as the token wobbling around, laying on the floor, or floating?
A: Absolutely, we are reworking the emote system right now and those would be a great fit.
Q: I know this is pretty far in the future, but what is your perspective on VR/AR in TaleSpire?
A: It would be amazing right? An AR system that really leaned into the in room experience would be the best.
Q: Are dice trays or dice towers being considered?
A: We did do some testing and it didn't feel great in game. We could do more experimentation with it but its not in the road-map for the Early Access.
Q: It's been said that the plan is for TaleSpire to be system agnostic. Will there be various dice designs to support this? For example, Green Ronin's AGE system uses different colored D6
A: The dice will be customizable for the campaign so this shouldn't be a problem.
Q: How many people are in the team?
A: Five. Two of us are full-time (thanks to the Kickstarter) and the others are giving their free time to make this happen <3
Q: Is the team going to grow now you got funded?
A: No, we are in a much better spot that expected but we are still using that money for the original plan. To fund two of the team to be full time, to pay for servers, legal services and specialist contractors.
We would love to get the rest of the team on full time but when we succeed, that will come :)
We would love to get the rest of the team on full time but when we succeed, that will come :)
Q: Any plans to include a feature that would obscure the map view for players based on their figures line of sight?
A: We already hide minis based on line of sight. We aren't planning on doing this for tiles but we have the fog of war system for handling that part.
Q: What if two different players are in different areas of the map?
A: We have ways to jump quickly to players to see what is happening. If they are in different boards it's trickier unless you have multiple GMs.
Q: Is it possible to hide things from players?
A: Hide Volumes can be found in the GM Tools layer. We're also in the midst of implementing a 3D Fog of War feature. Currently experimental in Early Access.
Q: Would a short rest or long rest make the sun and moon atmosphere change at a faster rate?
A: Depends on the game being played and the rules the GM is deciding. For those reasons we are leaving that stuff in the GMs hands. Time is simple in some cases but fiendishly troublesome to automate in others. Better to be simple and robust than complicated and wrong.
Q: Are the minis animated?
A: There are emotes that animate the mini as a whole but not per limb stuff. We found that this keeps the feel we are going for and makes it WAY easier for modders to bring in content that feels like it fits.
Q: An in-game special effect/particle editor where you can combine few types, choose color, magnitude etc?
A: Nope, but for the Early Access you will be able to use TaleWeaver to make predefined ones.
Q: How long has this been in the works?
A: Since 2016.
Q: How will Bouncyrock fund the development after using the Kickstarter money?
A: The goal is that sales of the game and content packs will support the company going forward. Search for 'asset packs' in this FAQ for a few more details on our ideas there.
Q: Ultimately down the road, are you hoping to be a part of Steam Workshop?
A: We'd want a way that means people aren't tied into one system. Steam Workshop may play a part in this of course, it's a bit early to say.
Q: Have you guys considered partnering with other companies, such as <awesome companies here>?
A: Absolutely, we are always open to talking to interested companies. The role-playing game space is so cool and there is so much room for more cool tools and services. Of course our first and foremost responsibility is the backers.
Q: Will there be a slider to change size of objects like fire?
A: For now props and tiles can't be scaled but creatures have a few sizes they can be scaled to.
Q: Are there any build in dice macro systems?
A: Not yet but it seems like there are popular approaches out there so we will look into those. No promise for the Early Access but we have it on the wish-list.
Q: Custom Dice?
A: Yes, very yes.
Q: Once it ships, have you considered other themes? SciFi, Cyberpunk, <awesome existing game IPs here>
A: Totally. Making cyberpunk, modern and other kinds of sets would be amazing but we will need to have a solid foundation first so it's not going to be before the Early Access begins.
We did hit our stretch-goal for Cyberpunk, so that will start rolling out sometime during Early-Access.
We did hit our stretch-goal for Cyberpunk, so that will start rolling out sometime during Early-Access.
Q: Are you planning on adding toggleable visual effects? (for example, purple glowing outline for when enemies are affected by faerie fire)
A: We are definitely looking to make the emote system be able to handle some kinds of status effects. This system will be expandable so I can't give a fixed list of what possible yet but that work is already well underway so you can expect news on that fairly soon after the campaign.
Q: Can you customize controls?
A: You will be able to in the Early Access
Q: Will there be different weather effects? if so, will they be able to interact with objects? ex. snow falling on a tree model or on a character mini
A: Yes, this is part of the atmosphere system so you will have a small palette of weather effects you can enable and disable as you like.
We wont be supporting snow setting on things though.
We wont be supporting snow setting on things though.
Q: Will there be a way for the GM to see the range of the players view? Like highlight the edge of their vision.
A: Yes, we want to show fog of war, line of sight and the area the player is viewing. The only hard bit here is not overloading the UI so it feels like a soupy mess of tools.
Q: Is there a hex grid?
A: Not yet. It would be a big task so it's definitely a post release feature if we do it. I'm trying to design systems with this feature in mind though.
Q: Will there be support for multiple languages?
A: Yes. We'll be adding the code to handle this before Early Access. The team speak English and Norwegian so we will start there but will announce more language support as it arrives.
Q: How will language support work with mods?
A: It's not finalized but I'd like a system like subtitles files so the community can provide alternate translations to mods separate of the mod itself. We'll keep you posted as this develops.
Q: Do stats and creature inventories persist when you move the minis between boards?
A: Yes. A GM can select an creature and make them *unique*. This means that their information is stored on the campaign rather than just in the board. This is ideal for when something happens to a throw-away monster which means they now become a recurring character.
Q: How can I use the same character in multiple campaigns?
A: You will be able to set up and tint your characters outside of any campaign. You can then put them in a campaign at which point that campaign has a fresh copy of that character and all the events that befall them don't effect the original. Kind of like a template if you prefer that.
Q: Can I build underground?
A: Yes but the feature is coming in two parts.
Some time during early access we will have foam blocks which you can tunnel into. This means you lay down terrain and cut into it to make your underground regions.
Doing this is going to give us the experience we want in making tunneling tools so then we will implement the feature that lets you tunnel down through the play space without having to place foam blocks first.
Some time during early access we will have foam blocks which you can tunnel into. This means you lay down terrain and cut into it to make your underground regions.
Doing this is going to give us the experience we want in making tunneling tools so then we will implement the feature that lets you tunnel down through the play space without having to place foam blocks first.
Q: As a GM will I be able to able to see where other GMs are building?
A: Yes, but later in development.
Q: Will I be able to change a mini's base?
A: Yup, we will be developing this.
Q: Can I rotate tiles in any direction?
A: Tiles can be rotated by 90 degrees around the vertical axis. Props can be 15 degree increments.
Q: Why can't I just place anything anywhere?
A: We play tested it and it doesn't fit the feeling of what we are going for. There are other great systems that do allow this though, please check out Tabletop Simulator, they do great work!
Q: Can I place a mini on a table if I've already put a prop on there?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I place Fog of War?
A: Yes, we will providing high level tools so it isn't tedious.
Q: Walls are going to make it hard to control creatures, how are we meant to handle that?
A: We will be chopping away walls dynamically to make sure you can see and interact with your creatures. This wont interfere with line of sight calculations or fog of war
Q: What other things are you planning beyond the development that is being funded by the Kickstarter?
A: Man that question is so perfect it's almost like I wrote it.. which I did.
To answer my artificial question:
- NDI Support for getting video chat in-game.
- Wall climbing creatures
- Selecting and moving groups of minis
- Sexy effects for significant rolls (e.g. Nat1, Nat20, etc)
- Top-down/map view
- Little status icons ala JRPGs
- An in board hourglass (it just sounds cool ok :p)
- timed events
- Global in-game clock and calendar
- The rule system
- Flip a selection of tiles horizontally
- Atmosphere boundaries (so you can have rain only outside without having to turn it on/off
- Spawning images and text to show players
- Hex grid
- Angled walls
- Plenty more, the ones above are just ones we have already discussed directly with people who helped us in the alpha.
To answer my artificial question:
- NDI Support for getting video chat in-game.
- Wall climbing creatures
- Selecting and moving groups of minis
- Sexy effects for significant rolls (e.g. Nat1, Nat20, etc)
- Top-down/map view
- Little status icons ala JRPGs
- An in board hourglass (it just sounds cool ok :p)
- timed events
- Global in-game clock and calendar
- The rule system
- Flip a selection of tiles horizontally
- Atmosphere boundaries (so you can have rain only outside without having to turn it on/off
- Spawning images and text to show players
- Hex grid
- Angled walls
- Plenty more, the ones above are just ones we have already discussed directly with people who helped us in the alpha.
Q: Regarding the stretch goal, what does “customizable rule system” mean?
A: The stretch goal for the rule system is priced to give us R&D time too so I can't answer fully but I can give the angle we are taking as we approach this.
The golden rule is that we must not *ever* take control away from the GM. This means the heart of this stretch goal will be a system that, based on the situation on the board, presents all the relevant material from the rule 'codex'. The material presented should have easy ways to move from what is shown into an action.. so for example, if it's 'X does Y damage based on Z roll' then it should be trivial to summon the required dice and apply the damage to the target.
This makes it a sort of interactive database of the game being played which is filtering the codex based on the state of the game.
We will be shipping an example implementation of a TTRPG system both for us to prove the system but also as an example of how to use it.
Naturally we this is early in the lifecycle of the feature. As we iterate on it we will post dev-logs so you could see how this grows.
The golden rule is that we must not *ever* take control away from the GM. This means the heart of this stretch goal will be a system that, based on the situation on the board, presents all the relevant material from the rule 'codex'. The material presented should have easy ways to move from what is shown into an action.. so for example, if it's 'X does Y damage based on Z roll' then it should be trivial to summon the required dice and apply the damage to the target.
This makes it a sort of interactive database of the game being played which is filtering the codex based on the state of the game.
We will be shipping an example implementation of a TTRPG system both for us to prove the system but also as an example of how to use it.
Naturally we this is early in the lifecycle of the feature. As we iterate on it we will post dev-logs so you could see how this grows.
Q: Can we 3d print models from the game?
A: I'm afraid not. Our models are optimized for games, so are much lower poly and instead have a ton of detail in the normal maps. HeroForge is probably your best bet though, they are awesome!
Q: Will the community be able to make its own tilesets to integrate into the software?
A: Yes, via the TaleWeaver toolset (Not yet released)
Q: What are the guidelines for models?
A: ~250 vertices per tile and ~3k vertices per mini. Not a hard rule, but something we follow ourselves.
Q: When will the full version be released?
A: We aren't setting a date for that, the game will be publicly available in the Early Access and from there we keep working until we are satisfied enough with the base game that we slap the v1.0 sticker on it.
Q: Where/How can I support the game?
A: Well the community has already done an amazing job and, via Kickstarter, funded us more than we could have expected. The next place to put your cash will be the Early Access.
Even more exciting than that however is the stuff around the game. Helping out the community, filing reproducible bug reports, sharing slabs, modding. These things will really help the game grow.
Even more exciting than that however is the stuff around the game. Helping out the community, filing reproducible bug reports, sharing slabs, modding. These things will really help the game grow.
Q: Is there an inventory system?
A: For GMs there is a prototype of one. Not on creatures yet though but it is on the wish-list
Q: Is TaleWeaver already available for us to start making characters in?
A: Nope. We use it internally, but it's not ready for the public yet.
Q: Will we be able to set a walk route for minis instead of dragging them over where they're "walking"?
A: It's something we like the sound of but it's not on the roadmap for the Early Access. Lots of cool things to prototype and experiment with for this though. Good question
Q: Will there be a way to share handouts in game?
A: We'd like to have something like that. There are some interesting technical aspects and boring legal questions we will need to look into first.
Q: What will the minimum specs for TaleSpire be?
A: MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 64bit
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX11 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 2 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 64bit
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX11 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 2 GB available space
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 64bit
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX11 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 2 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 64bit
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX11 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 2 GB available space
Q: Any plans to add token labels, such as names?
A: toggle-able names are already in the alpha but the game will have a full GM layer which will allow more of the things you suggest.
Q: Is there a plan the highlight the squares to show maximum movement speed/distance of a character?
A: Kinda. We will have tools to show how far something could move horizontally but it gets really complicated and ruleset specific after that. It's probably best that, for now, we focus on making checking and viewing the move as fluent as possible.
Q: Will there be death/unconscious animations, such as the figures toppling over?
A: Yes, we will be making a bunch of "emotes" for tokens.
Q: Once it ships, have you considered other themes? Space Marines, WH40K, etc?
A: We definitely want to provide packs to expand beyond fantasy. We are already funded to make the Cyberpunk set which is amazing.
Naturally, we can't touch any IP that is owned by someone else unless they were to reach out and give us that permission, so don't expect WH40K right out the gate :p
Naturally, we can't touch any IP that is owned by someone else unless they were to reach out and give us that permission, so don't expect WH40K right out the gate :p
Q: Is there an initiative tracker?, If not it would be handy to have it so everyone can see when they are up in the order
A: Yes. It's very basic today but it's being expanded
Q: As nice as the dice rolling is, will be there be a way to macro specific rolls that automatically add modifiers?
A: Not yet. It's something we want, but also is something we'll have to look into.
Q: Did you guys come up with your own backstories or are they given to you depending on the character you choose?
A: We don't force any of that on you, it's up to you and your party to decide. In that way it's the same as playing at the table.
Q: Is there going to be like glass platforms or a way to make figures/models levitate as if they are flying or using spells?
A: Yes! You can toggle flying in the mini's radial menu.
Q: What files does TaleSpire support for 3d modeling?
A: Anything that Unity supports
Q: Are you going to expose live gamedata via something like a websocket?
A: Not for the early access but that would be insanely cool. So, maybe. We really want to do cool integrations so that people could see the data on streams. Not sure how that will work yet, but We'd love to.
Q: Any discord api integration?
A: We've spoken to discord briefly. Would be cool to see what we could do there. Really want to, just haven't had time.
Q: Can you move your character with arrow keys?
A: Yup
Q: Are there plans for single player gameplay? Maybe later in development?
A: Sounds very cool, but definitely not yet. Sounds like something that would be best served as a different product all together.
Q: I'm not a 3d modeler but really want to make a my own mini, how do I do this?
A: The 'creature crafting' stretch goal we reached will fund the development of this. We will have a system where you can snap together parts to make your own mini.
Q: What kinds of minis will I be able to make with the Creature Crafter
A: The first version will focus on humanoids but we would like to expand that in the future.
Q: How do you imagine using this for 'in person' sessions?
A: One way we really want to support well is having the GM on a laptop and the players in front of a tv (connected to some computer). This gives the GM a private view so the story isn't spoiled and the party still has a shared experience. Even in the alpha we've seen shots of this working well.
(this is also one reason we are looking seriously in how best to add gamepad support)
(this is also one reason we are looking seriously in how best to add gamepad support)
Q: This looks like too much work
A: GMs do indeed put in a lot of work to make the adventures. Regarding things specific to TaleSpire:
- Building gets much faster once there are a good selection of premade slabs to use in the game. In future searching 'tavern' from the game will get you many prebuilt buildings so you would only need to focus on the details (if you wanted to)
- Just like playing at a table there is nothing to mandate you have to make everything. Maybe you keep 90% in the theater of the mind and only break out TaleSpire for more geometrically complicated scenarios. Or maybe just for battles! We won't be forcing you.
- Slabs will be your friend!
All that said we are already seeing good evidence that the building time is not going to be a big issue for those who don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of that. Watch this space :)
Q: Are the modding tools (e.g. TaleWeaver) coming out at the same time as the game?
A: The game itself is the most important target for us. Ideally we'd love to get the mod tools out at the same time, but we are fine delaying them if it makes the difference between shipping the game on time or not. Good question :)
Q: What about unusual dice D3, D100, etc?
A: I'm pretty sure that whichever dice aren't available out the box will be modded in pretty quickly
Q: How many items will be in the base game?
A: We haven't picked a number we are limiting ourselves to. During the early access we will release many content packs (for free) to flesh out the core game and after that we will be selling packs too (not to mention the modding community).
Q: Can we tint dice?
A: It's not been shown yet but it's something we want to add.
Q: I saw interesting camera pans and things in the trailer. Can we make those in TaleSpire?
A: Yes and no. We will have a cinematic mode which we hope to include basic pans and such, however in the trailer we were using a more generic (and super hacky) system so we could script the mini movements and other events so we could record it, that system wont be shipped.
Q: Is it February yet?
A: /us panics in developer
Q: I want to know the chances of this project being cancelled
A: I'll play the pessimist for the sake of openness.
Currently the risk for backers is that we mess up and the project goes away. This is because the best way for us to start the project was with centralized servers. In future we want to add peer to peer which will decrease the risk as it would mean that our servers would not be required. Ideally, if we failed we would open source the code but, if we didn't follow through on that, there is still a minor risk that the project would bit rot and stop working.
That said, I clearly don't believe that is our future, the community is strong and we are ready to make something that lasts. We understand if it's too soon for some to back and we hope we can tempt you back once the Early Access rolls around :)
Thanks for an excellent question
Currently the risk for backers is that we mess up and the project goes away. This is because the best way for us to start the project was with centralized servers. In future we want to add peer to peer which will decrease the risk as it would mean that our servers would not be required. Ideally, if we failed we would open source the code but, if we didn't follow through on that, there is still a minor risk that the project would bit rot and stop working.
That said, I clearly don't believe that is our future, the community is strong and we are ready to make something that lasts. We understand if it's too soon for some to back and we hope we can tempt you back once the Early Access rolls around :)
Thanks for an excellent question
Q: I love the look of the Kickstarter dice; are there any plans to put them out in additional colors?
A: Yup, you will be able to tint dice and this will also apply to your Kickstarter dice.
Q: If the GM buys an asset pack down the road, will their players have to buy the same asset pack to play or will they still be able to see the models in that campaign?
A: Nope, if one person buys the pack then people who join the campaign will see those assets. Naturally the people who don't own it won't have it available when building their own campaigns though. It's kinda like everyone bringing their box of minis to the table and building together.
Q: If i want to use the app at session, while we are in the same home I need only one copy right?
A: You could definitely have just one copy, but I wouldn't recommend only running it on one machine as then everyone will see the GM view and that could spoil parts of the story you have planned.
One setup that does work in person is 2 copies. 1 on the GMs machine, 1 on a normal TV for all the players. I've seen alpha players do this so that might be an option for you :)
One setup that does work in person is 2 copies. 1 on the GMs machine, 1 on a normal TV for all the players. I've seen alpha players do this so that might be an option for you :)
Q: I understand that the client purchase is a one-time cost, but will there be a cost for server access, during or after early access? I know the game cost and a possible subscription model for assets has been mentioned, but I haven't seen anything regarding server access.
A: No server cost for players. Aim is to support game through continued content
Q: What can we do with the client if we cannot access your servers, if anything? I have had to deal with this before where an online-only game was supported, then for whatever reason, their servers were no longer accessible, or development was postponed and/or canceled, and I was stuck with a worthless collection of bits and bytes.
A: As of today nothing, that's probably the biggest risk for the community until we get the peer2peer
Q: If Peer2Peer is developed, will the existing client support it and require an update, or will it require an entirely new client, and either way, will it involve an additional cost?
A: No extra cost planned for peer2peer. Would just be a (big) update as far as I can see.
Q: Will sky be visible?
A: If you were wondering about totally free camera control then nope, that's not in the plan. However a low angle in a high tower and you'd surely see some sky! I haven't got anything on the road-map for customizing the sky-box right now though, I will make a note to look into that. Thanks!
Q: Will we be able to scale the figures?
A: Yes, you can resize in the radial menu.
Q: Hi guys, will it be possible to move the cam to an "totally top down" view? (A 90°angle to the floor?) Because i use an digital battle map table (Table with a touchscreen monitor inlay) and so no one would have an "headfirst" view to it.
A: That would be cool and is on our 'one day' wish-list but it isn't on the roadmap currently.
This is because is non-trivial to pick a good tile cut-off point for the top-down view when there are not explicit floors in the system. You may be doing so already but I would recommend checking out systems like DungeonFog and Arkenforge that do great work in the top-down map space.
Thanks for asking!
This is because is non-trivial to pick a good tile cut-off point for the top-down view when there are not explicit floors in the system. You may be doing so already but I would recommend checking out systems like DungeonFog and Arkenforge that do great work in the top-down map space.
Thanks for asking!
Q: Will card decks be supported ?
A: It's not currently on the roadmap.
Q: Will there be tinting for everything?
A: Nope. Only creatures, creature bases, and dice are planned for tinting.
Q: Is there a way to pledge now that the Kickstarter has finished?
Q: What about pets ?
A: Well the game doesn't force a specific rule set, so as soon as we provide animals (and if your GM approves) I can't see why you couldn't have a pet :)
Q: Can we get a glimpse at in-built mini creator?
A: We can't yet because they aren't built. The Kickstarter really is funding the development of the game. We are super happy that people have helped us reach so far that we can afford to prioritize that feature now, it's one we really wanted to be able to do. (2019-08-19)
Q: I'm curious if there will be text chat functionality for pure written narration/RP?
A: We have a chat system in-game.
Q: Can we build buildings with 2nd story overhang? It was an extremely common building practice in medieval European cities.
A: You certainly can. We don't force tiles to fall down, so if you place them on a certain build plane, they will stay there.
Q: How well would this run in a virtual machine? I don't run Windows, but I wouldn't mind running a VM for this.
A: I'd expect it would struggle unless you have some kind of GPU pass-through. If you are on Linux I do know that some of the testers have had success with Wine and Proton. Those aren't things we can support as official targets but it might be worth a shot :) Proper cross platform support IS something we'd like to add though.
Q: I can see lighting is being taken into consideration but will darkvision and low light also be represented ?
A: To begin with that will need to be in the domain of the GM. They will have the ability to show and hide things as needed (beyond the usual fog of war). It's a tricky one to encode in TaleSpire without tying it to a specific game's mechanics of how those vision modes work.
Q: Have you considered VR?
A: Regarding VR we have thought about it but it would be such a big undertaking we put it on the 'maybe one day' list and left it at that. We certainly aren't against the idea. AR might even be better than VR for a social experience once commercial hardware gets to the right point for it.
Q: Will there be looking for group feature?
A: It's not on the road-map right now but it's a decent idea. There are a bunch of ins and outs to this so we'd have to make sure it fits with the project before we make a call on this.
Q: Will there be a first-person view?
A: No
Q: I see that, when a creature is placed, line of site works as if the creature can see in 360 degrees. Will you implement 180 degree vision so thing like a creature sneaking up on them would work better?
A: The problem with 180 from my perspective (heh) is that it requires players to keep precisely turning their creatures in order to reveal the map. From testing this hasn't felt good. One thing the GM can do is to explicitly hide the sneaking creature and only reveal it if they decide the player's creature has seen it. The advantage of this is that it allows the GM to handle things that TaleSpire doesn't know about, like special vision abilities of the player's creature.
We will see how it goes.
We will see how it goes.
Q: Will the game remain rule-system agnostic?
A: Yes, we want to add useful tools but we want those to be optional.
Q: Hello, Please let us toggle a switch which transitions a wall into rubble. I think that would be fairly useful for those darned adventurers and their potion of giants strength!
A: Rather than adding extra features we want to just keep making building part of play. Here is a little example of exactly this :) https://imgur.com/elMjnS7
Q: Where does the community hang out?
Q: Is there a possibility to print out the maps and use the offline?
A: One reason for us not tackling this (other than there already being great tools for making map handouts) is that it's non-trivial to pick where vertically to cut up the world. Floors are not always trivially demarcated and doing it wrong makes for a bad experience. It's not impossible ofc but it's a decent enough sized research project that it's not on our road-map.
Q: Will it be possible to make seascapes and ships in the program?
A: We have water, but we don't have anything to build ships with - yet!
Q: Is 'free-form movement' possible in TaleSpire?
A: Yes! Originally we planned of keeping creature movement fixed to the grid but we have now relaxed this. Building is still fixed to the grid however.
Q: Is there a permissions system the GM can use to assign multiple creatures to a player? Along the same lines if a player was absent at a session would the GM be able to delegate that creature's controls to another player to control them?
A: Yes to both!
Q: Where do I submit bugs?
Q: How do you think TaleSpire impacts <Enter VTT here>?
A: We believe there is space in this market for a bunch of players with differing design philosophies. There are things we don't do that the others do and vice versa. Tabletop-simulator is a great example: brilliant execution of a different philosophy in a similar space.
Q: What about Tilt Five?
A: Tilt Five looks really neat but supporting it is not on our roadmap at this time as we have so much core stuff to get done. We would love to play with one in the future though :)
Q: Any plans for character sheets?
A: TaleSpire will definitely need something to handle that kind of information, but we haven't decided on what kind of presentation it will have yet or precisely what it will cover. Our focus will be on making it feel right, even if that means straying from the typical presentation.
There are many different approaches to character info UI out there in both digital and board games alike. We'll just have to find something that works for us :)
Regardless of approach, this will almost certainly coincide with the rule system stretch goal being developed, so don't expect it any time soon.
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