2019-03-11 17:15:09

Sup my dudes,

   Hope erybody is doing well. I just wanted to say that Ian Reed's title Tactical Battles is an actual shit ton of fun. Very reminiscent of games like Age of Empires or Final Fantasy Tactics from what I remember from my sighted days. Apparently it's super easy to modify, and the game itself comes with all sorts of documentation on creating more content for the game. Very open source. Plus, it's freeeeee. I like free. Thanks Ian, keep up the good work.

As an aside there are map packs that you can download. I'm sure they're all rad, but might I immediately recommend the Rampage 2.0 and the Age of Warlords. Both are super fun with a pretty large amount of content. Ian Reed put in a Getting Started Map Pack with the game as well which can really lessen the learning curve, as I found out after I already got my ass whooped a bunch of times by the computer lol. Trust me, the game can seem deceivingly simple, but that's to its credit. Understanding when and where to move, attack with, or otherwise use your units can be a very intense process.

   Love Cody

2019-03-11 17:48:44

if you like that sort of games, you might want to check out the sound rts also
its also real time based instead of turn based

2019-03-11 17:54:23

hi
I played tactical battle but I didn't understood how it is works, can you please explane to me?

2019-03-11 19:35:27

@mahdi, there's a help section, but sure...
Basically, you are on a grid, and you are in turn based combat with other units. You can move your units around, and use different skills to harm or help or anything else that is in the map pack.

----------
“Yes, sir. I am attempting to fill a silent moment with non-relevant conversation.”
“You don’t tell me how to behave; you’re not my mother!”
“Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.” – Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2019-03-11 19:37:40

that game was like pozzle things

2019-03-11 20:56:29

does any interested to create any map campaign set in world war 2 or in any of modern war settings?

2019-03-12 01:54:13 (edited by defender 2019-03-12 01:57:17)

If you enjoy tactical battles, and you have the money, you might also enjoy time of conflict by GMA games. It too has many map packs.


You can also find a special version of tactical battles at the bottom of this page.
https://www.agarchive.net/pages/devs/IanReed.html

2019-03-12 16:42:14

Wooooord, I haven't tried the Demon Cycle yet. It seems Diablo-esque, and that's suuuuper rad. I will most certainly try time of conflict. I didn't realize it had map packs as well. I played the demo once upon a time and the basic world war II theme was great.

Also, seriously; the dude or dudette that wrote the Rampage map pack for TB is kind of the shit, yo.

2019-03-12 16:49:34

Nah time of conflict isn't nearly as good as tactical battle. And it has a few default map packs, but there isn't much to them. I feel like time of conflict could have been much better if it had been developed further, but as it stands tactical battle is better and has much more content.

2019-03-12 19:50:55

Thanks for the praise.
One of the things I think both Tactical Battle and Time of Conflict got wrong is that they don't use spatialized sound to help the player more easily build a mental map of the area.
My next project uses a grid system that uses stereo and pitch to indicate the position of your review cursor and the terrain or unit on that tile.
For large maps, it displays a 10 by 10 tile chunk at one time, and when you move passed the edge it switches your view to the next "page" of 10 by 10 tiles.
Chunking is a well known memorization technique.
I think spatializing the sounds, and chunking the map, will both significantly help players remember the layout of the map and the current positions of units.
Even games with small maps, like Battleship, Chess, Checkers, Stratego, and Jungle Chess should all benefit from spatializing your review cursor's position.

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

2019-03-12 20:36:18

You're creating a new version of Tactical battle?

2019-03-13 05:44:14

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT???? I can't wait for dat project Ian.

Keith, I actually downloaded your scripts, and I have a question. Are they actually able to be implemented into already existing stuff, or are they to help in the creation of new map packs?

2019-03-13 07:59:26

I use to play this years ago, BUT it had no online pvp back then, does it have it now? and where is a download link to the latest version?

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2019-03-13 18:12:56

Sadly the server has been down for months, but yes, it did have online play.

2019-03-13 20:11:45

They are just to improve and allow features into map packs that don't have them.
Of course you can add them into another map pack, or make a new map pack using them, though you'll have to modify the load_scripts line in the map pack settings.txt file, adding ,keith to the end.
That's after you moved my scripts to the tactical battle/deta for tb/scripts folder and unzipped them.

2019-03-14 09:36:37

isn't there a user on here, that has a server up for audio games for pvp like rtr? couldn't he run tactical battles through his server? his post should be on page2 or 3 on this forum

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2019-03-14 12:37:31

Well, currently I am stuck and can't even start playing. I enter my email, the game says email confirmed and then, nothing, the game is stuck, I can't do anything.
Any ideas why that could be?

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2019-03-14 13:17:50

I didn't really have issues with getting a mental picture of maps in tactical battle, but I was always lost in time of conflict. Probably because maps in tb are smaller, and you only move orthogonally which makes figuring out paths and distances much easier than when a diagonal move is possible. Sounds like an interesting concept though, it would be useful to have something that helps with getting a grip on larger maps.

2019-03-15 11:25:47

@keithwipf1, my next big project is a Moddable multiplayer gaming platform.
It is a pretty sizable project, and my life lately hasn't left me much time for programming, but I have been making some life changes and will hopefully be able to devote more serious amounts of time to it soon.
I expect a Tactical Battle Remake to be part of that larger project.
I think TB would be a better multiplayer experience if each unit had a speed that determined when it could take action, so that both players were getting to perform actions more frequently, rather than waiting for a single player to move all their units at once.
Additionally I think there should be something like a 30 second timer per unit, so that if you haven't performed all the actions you want to with that unit before the time runs out then it loses its turn and the game moves on to the next unit that is ready to perform an action.
I also expect to write several other small turn based and grid based games, which is why I have a strong interest in improving the audio interface for exploring and visualizing the map.
The Tactical Battle remake isn't really my focus, just something that is likely to be part of the larger project.
Eventually I will also have real time games such as platformers, top down, and first person games, though while I have prototyped some of that, it is farther off than the turn based games.

@Defender, I just checked and the currently running TBServer process has been up since October 16, 2018, which is no doubt the last time someone emailed me to mention it was down so I could restart it.
That is 5 months of uptime.
I can't say how long it was down before that, but I do restart it pretty quickly whenever someone sends me an email saying it is down.
If ever you're feeling sad about it, first try connecting to see if it is actually down, then if it is, send me an email letting me know you'd like to connect to it and I'll be happy to restart it.
We must all fight against the sadness! smile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y688upqmRXo&t=43

@simba, sorry, but I have no idea why that would happen.
I just downloaded a fresh copy of TB and confirmed my email, which then took me to the main menu of the game.
Have you tried downloading a fresh copy of the game?

@zakc93, yeah, I think it will be helpful regardless of people's current mental mapping abilities, helping them to be able to handle larger maps than whatever their current limit may be.

I'm also trying to focus more on sound effects that inform the player, rather than relying so heavily on TTS.
For example, in my new project you would hear the spatial position of your review cursor moving on the board via stereo, pitch, and volume adjustments, but wouldn't hear the coordinates announced every time you move to a new tile.
You would also hear the terrain and unit sounds positioned via stereo and volume, though not pitch since we don't want to distort those sounds.
There would still be a key you can easily press to hear more info about the tile such as the terrain and unit names, and the exact tile coordinates.
We need to find the right balance between both, but my previous games have been very TTS heavy, Tactical Battle being a very good example of this.

Another thought is that the 10 by 10 tile chunking could allow you to review a list of all friendly or enemy units that are on the current page of tiles.
The paging becomes a natural option for dealing with a smaller set of units at one time.
ShadowRine is a good example of an action RPG that uses chunking for its maps.
It is broken into rooms, like the original Legend of Zelda, and breaking it down this way makes it easier to remember how the rooms connect to form the overall map, while only needing a vague recollection of what is in each.
It also lets you deal with just the enemies that are in the current room, without even considering other rooms.

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

2019-03-16 05:47:21

I really like tactical battle.. If only people created more maps for it..
I've always enjoyed turn-based strategy games so I was a fan of mapes like age of warlords and one about modern day war.

2019-03-16 06:06:16 (edited by defender 2019-03-16 06:06:36)

Oh, I tried it like 3 times maybe a couple months apart between the last quarter of 2018 and the first of 2019 and it was down all those times, so I thought it was just down for good, but I'm glad to hear it isn't!


With TOC, even though the maps were sometimes really big especially with the big empty land masses, the jump to unit/building/ nearest what ever keys were really helpful, no the problem arose when their were so many units that each turn took like 5 minutes to complete, it was just, way too much to keep track of and got really boring, and that was only like half way through the game.
Maybe I'm just too impatient for these types of games, but I like smaller maps, with less units.

2019-03-16 11:24:40

Agreed with defender, TOC got very boring in large campaign settings because it was just a pain to micromanage so many units when you don't actually know where they are in relation to other units and cities. It was just impossible to keep track of everything on huge maps like that. Plus tb feels more strategic because the units can have many different kinds of abilities, so there's more you can do with fewer units.
@Ian:
There was actually a user who posted on the forum recentlyish who's apparently doing his masters on the topic of creating maps for blind people to navigate. He had a study where he interviewed people and gave us the map to navigate, and we had to perform some tasks and give feedback. Maybe you guys should get into contact? See this topic: https://forum.audiogames.net/topic/2788 … ital-maps/

2019-03-16 17:35:15

can any help me. i download a map star wars clone wars and i have some script eror when i try to start a game. i choosed a campaign and choose a map and i can not hear a intro story because i have this eror.

2019-03-16 17:43:47

In friendly, though direct counterpoint to the last 2 posts;

I personally very much enjoy the large scale, tactical warfare that Age of Warlords gives you. I find it to be a very good exercise for memory and the mind in general. I also believe there truly is a lot strategy that goes into that level of unit control, but this is truly one of those different strokes for different folks situations. I also very much enjoyed the smaller maps such as the rampage one. The maps could get large, but controlling only 1 or 2 monster/robots was f*#%ing fantastic.

@Ian
On the idea of unit use time limits:
If that was to be implemented, I personally think it would function beautifully as something like a hardcore mode. Even with smaller maps controlling merely 3 units, I can take quite the while to decide my next move. I consider this game much like a roided up, super chess on the crack cocaine. It's extremely easy to make the wrong move, but it can be veeeeery difficult to make the right one.

2019-03-17 00:34:01

realy i need a help. when i choose a episode 1 at star Wars the clone wars and i wait on introduction story i hear: did'nt find a script flag summon... how to solve this?