Sure thing.

Here's a link to the website with instructions on running the game and a link to the download.
http://BlindAudioGames.com

I recommend that link because it has instructions on getting the game to run properly.

I was going to include a direct link to the user guide and download but the forum does not like me posting more than one link.

Hi.

I've just finished a battle on the first map, and thus far i'm impressed. It's one of these very simple little ideas that has absolutely great potential to be a really interesting game, and though the game certainly needs more sounds, the ones you have and the music are pretty good already.

it took me a little while to get used to the fact that all units, spells, attacks etc only work horizontally, including things like healing touch, but once I got this things were great.

As to the game, one rather basic feature I would like to see is the ability to see on the map the hp of friendly and enemy units, and the ap of your units. This could even be atmospheric, eg "The evil boar is slightly injured" and thus add more to the game's overall feeling and illustrating the war aspect.

For ap, it got a little irritating hitting u and having to go  through "So and so has zero ap" to get to whichever unit had ap left, indeed you might considder having the n key switch betwene your units one at a time, sinse if their ap was shown on the map it would speed things up very much sinse you could then just flick through the units until you got to the one you wanted to move.

I'd also suggest you think of a slightly more catchy name than "tactical battle" as well, though that would depend upon what you wanted to do with the plot.

other than that, it looks great thus far and has many possibilities, sinse there are so many different factors you could play with, different classes and spells, different terrain types that affect unit movement, ---- eg rough ground that took more ap to traverse, missions and experience, collectable items on the map which you could move a unit to and pick up (though obviously that unit would then have to get back to safety without being got by the enemy), etc.

I'll be very interested to see where this one goes, and if your looking for story text and plot perhaps I could help there too.

I'm not sure stewee, myself I thought that the text was about right. Possibly if there were more than about 10 units a side all having a go some sort of brief option would be needed, but I'm less convinced of that thus far.

Still, if it were an optional settings file then everyone could please themselves.

Really nice job so far. As mentioned, more sounds are a must in my view. For example with archers, i think there should be the shot of a bow followed by the arow making contact. This is just an example, but it would still be cool to see things like that used.

Hi Dark

Thanks for your great feedback.

Regarding the output of HP and AP.  You can currently press the U key to have the remaining AP of all your characters announced.  It will not announce any unit with 0 AP.
When on any friendly or enemy character you can press I to have all their unit information announced.  It first announces HP, then AP.

You can hit F to get the positions of all friendly units and e to get the positions of all enemy units.

These keys could be changed to announce HP as well.

Pressing N to rotate between your units that still have AP is a very good idea.  I'll be sure to add that feature.

My concern about announcing a units HP and AP when moving your cursor to a square is that I announce tile effects afterward and I didn't want to put too much information before that.  That said, most tiles do not have effects on them and the only effect I currently have for a tile is Blaze which I could indicate with some sort of fire sound.

So I can probably add AP and HP to the announcement when you move to a tile.

Regarding the name.  I absolutely agree.  Unfortunately I don't have storyline and I'm not sure exactly where I want to go with it.  I think there are a lot of possibilities to expand the game and even to make different games that run in the same basic engine but with different stats, themes and storyline.

I wanted to get the game out there to see if there was interest in it before I lost interest myself.

I initially had an idea about a larger game where you would hire mercenaries of different classes that would gain experience and you would take on contracts for defending towns or escorting merchants.  This would cause you to have to make decisions about how much money to spend keeping units employed and how to split them up between different missions.  You would want to have larger groups to handle a mission but splitting up your units to cover multiple missions at once could gain you more income.

I left out experience and the larger game idea realizing that I could do this simpler version and get it out there for people to play and expand it into a larger game later.

If you've got plot ideas I'd love to hear them.  You can email them to [email protected] or post them here.

Thanks

Hi Ian.

Just as a moderation point, please don't double post on the forum, sinse it makes things rather untidy and makes your replies harder to read. If you write an initial post, then want to add to it, say taking into account other people's comments, please just use the "edit post" link to add later comments to your earlier message.

Okay that over, there are some very interesting thoughts her.e

I knew about all the keys you mention accept the i key, that is a useful one. If the ultimate plan (as I hope), is to have many more tile affects, you ar right that keeping track of these in one go could make for a long message while navigating the map.

however, if there was were keys to cycle through your units and through the enemy, hitting I on each one to see it's status wouldn't be too difficult.

i'd hate to see complexities and different terrains and tyle affects missed just for fear of having too much speech.

other sorts of damage such as ice, perhaps magically created brambles that block the unit and are harder to move through (ie they cost more ap to move over that tyle), as well as doing minimal damage, perhaps a marsh which effect which has the increased ap cost but no damage etc. There are lots of possibilities, it just depends upon what terrain you want in the game and what units, so I'd myself prefer to leave this as open as possible.

As to tom's point about wanting larger maps, myself I actually don't agree. I see this far more as a game where you put more time and trouble into managing a smaller number of in game units with their own strengths and weaknesses, than a game where you manage hundreds of less complex units.

Afterall, in a game like time of conflict, the units can only really do a couple of things, attack, scout etc and have very few hitpoints.

here, I see it much more as a game where you independently command a small force with distinct strengths and weaknesses, and need to use them in concert against similarly unique enemies, even more especially if things like missions were added.

the largest map size I could see working would be a 20 x 20, and that only when you had perhaps 20 units of your own.

As to plot and campaigne mode, to be honest the system currently reminds me far more of a strategic rpg battle system than something in a stratogy setting. I'd therefore myself prefer something where you had a specific story and goal in mind played out on a large world map, with intermitant turn based battles against groups of wandering monsters or agains the enemy forces, interspurced with bouts of exploring the map, finding items and uncovering the plot.

The current system is more than capable of supporting characters gaining experience and improving their skills in damage or range, not to mention having new ones.

one fun idea indeed might be to combine stratogy and rpg with a mercinary theeme, so that you are a knight on a quest, but need to hier mercinaries to help you.

As you progress across the larger map you could find money or items, or information about the quest, and with this money could hier other characters by visiting inns up to a maximum party size, however your characters could be of different xp levels, and the longer they reamined with you the more experienced they got, ---- though you could also dismiss them and replace them with others to customize your group.

Of course ultimately the plan would be to get to the final confrontation and defeat some sort of nasty army.

one thing I like about a world map is that you could vary monsters and battles according to the terrain.

for instance, in a forest there would be lots of wolves, boars etc, and lots of trees blocking streight lines as well as obstructions like brambles, where as mountains would be more open and have rocks and rivers with enemies like trolls and goblins, ---- maybe even special tyles like scree or loose stones that could have chance of a stun effect on your character.

If you need help deciding upon an overall story, or writing dialogue etc, let me know, sinse I'd be glad to help there and do have at least some experience in that area.

I don't know why, I just personally saw the system far more as like a battle in an rpg than a military stratogy game.

hmm, does anyone know how to fix this problem? I have an error when I start th game.
---------------------------

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An error has occurred.  Please notify the game creator of this error.  You can copy the entire error to your clipboard by pressing control + C.
System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.

   at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)

   at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)

   at System.Speech.Internal.SapiAttributeParser.GetCultureInfoFromLanguageString(String valueString)

   at System.Speech.Synthesis.VoiceInfo..ctor(VoiceObjectToken token)

   at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis.BuildInstalledVoices(VoiceSynthesis voiceSynthesizer)

   at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis..ctor(WeakReference speechSynthesizer)

   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.get_VoiceSynthesizer()

   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SpeakAsync(Prompt prompt)

   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SpeakAsync(String textToSpeak)

   at TacticalRPG.HM.SpeakAsync(String text) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\HelperMethods.cs:line 88

   at TacticalRPG.GlobalState.set_Caption(String value) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\States\GlobalState.cs:line 15

   at TacticalRPG.LockedMenu.Enter(World ent) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\States\LockedMenu.cs:line 16

   at TacticalRPG.StateMachine`1.EndChangeState() in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\StateMachine.cs:line 52

   at TacticalRPG.StateMachine`1.Process() in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\StateMachine.cs:line 32

   at TacticalRPG.Form1.GameLoopTimer_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\Form1.cs:line 62

   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)

   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
---------------------------
OK   
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Weirdly, I have oher errors when runing kitchensinc and GMA games as well. for GMA games, it's always that there is a corrupted game.dm file.  witno error code or anything. For kitchens inc games, it always seys that one of the files was corrupted and t contact jim kitchen. This leads me to believe it's something with my computer. I am running windows vista. If anyone can offer help, I'd appreicate it

hm thx aprone. BTW the error with the gma games and kitchensinc was fixed. I had switched my system locale to japanese because I thought I had a japanese tts installed, and once I realized I didn't have one, I ddidn't bother switching it back.
Edit: trying to update directx doesn't work. I installed the setup that your web site links to, Ian, but it just says that I have a newer version, so no need to update. I'm not sure what version I have because it doesn't appear in programs and features.

Hi,

There were two different components to DirectX 9. There is the unmanaged libraries, I.E. the libraries for C/C++ applications, and the managed libraries for C# and Visual Basic .NET. Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with the standard C/C++ libraries, but do not come with the Managed libraries because Microsoft officially deprecated them in 2006. If you want the managed DirectX libraries, which is an extra component, you have to install them manually. That's why people are getting those errors because they are confusing the standard DirectX 9 libraries with the managed DirectX 9 libraries. Two totally different things.

Now, as to the issue of managed DirectX vs SlimDX I highly recommend upgrading to SlimDX for the following reasons. Microsoft deprecated the managedDirectX libraries in  2006 because they were buggy, and at the time they were launching the XNA Framework for the XBox and Windows Vista. DirectPlay, DirectSound, etc were scheduled to be deprecated and replaced by newer DirectX libraries so they got rid of the managed DirectX components. The managed DirectX libraries only still ship with the runtime and SDK for backwards compatibility only, and is for .NET 1.0 and 1.1 applications and was not meant for something like .NET 4.0.

That's why some open source developers got together and created there own .NET DirectX libraries called SlimDX. Unlike Microsoft's version it is fully up to date, and is constantly being maintained and updated on a six month to yearly schedule. In addition to all the older DirectX components like DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectSound, etc it also has .NET libraries for XAudio, XAudio2, XInput, X3DAudio, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11. Everything you need for a brand new system running Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. Right now they are using .NET 3.5, but I hear a .NET 4.0 version is on its way soon. So SlimDX is far and away the better solution than Microsoft's version.

No, when I switched my system locale back to english, it fixed GMA games, and probably kitchens inc, but not tactical battle. I will get this version 0.2 and check it out though.

Arg I'm so frustrated with myself!  I would have beaten mission 3 without losing anyone but I made a mistake.  I usually do my attacks first and finish up by doing any healing before I end my turn.  Right near the end I forgot to heal 2 of my guys who were in critical condition.  I hit end turn and they were slaughtered, thus dooming the rest of my team as well.  The strategy was working wonderfully but required every one of the units to be playing a part.  The loss of even 1 would have doomed me but I lost both.  Grrr!

How are others doing on the 3rd mission?  Is it only me who is having this trouble?