Patch 1.9.3 available now Tactics Maiden - Release Notes 1.9.3: - Move and attack range of non-player units can be visualized on the battlefield now (just tap on a unit) - Unit overview: XP progress bar added. Atk will be shown in purple in case of legendary weapon - New class Undead Rider (added to several scenarios) - Unit limit for Queen difficulty raised to 24 - Juliens apprentice Jennifer is an elite unit now - All non-elite units can be released now (new play through only) -Head Shot: The chance for a critical hit will be displayed at the cursor now - Sort button added to unit specific Buy screen - Fixed: Sort button showed up in the Armory sometimes when it wasnt supposed to - Fixed: Escape Shot cannot be countered any longer if escape was successful - Fixed: Enemies wont use Web Haul any longer if the victim would end up on an outpost or pillar - Units using Bewitch draw more attention now, so they will be attacked more frequently - Unhorse +3 damage increased - Holy Fire damage slightly reduced - Fire Bolt damage reduced - Beast Shot damage slightly increased - Escape Shot damage and escape chance increased - Gorgon defense values decreased - Troll physical defense increased - Vampire HP regeneration slightly reduced - Juliens basic Pow increased by 4 - Vance basic crit chance increased by 5% - Several scenarios visually overhauled - Scene 26, 114, 115: enemy level reduced by 1 - Scene 27: Lich boss added - Scene 111: Further increased defense buff for neutral priest Goldyna - Scene 121 (Deadly Ann): Reduced spawn chance of Vampires - Scene 125 (Trolls): Enemy pillar added - Scene 136: Overhauled. More effort to win, but easier to save the padlock units - Some scenario rewards changed (e.g. legendary items granted in scene 123 and 163) - Exchanged icons for some of the spears - Plenty of small dialogue improvements (kudos to Stephen)
Wow. This game really took me by surprise. The basic presentation was putting me off from trying this, but I'm glad I did. I'm 10 hours into the game, loving it. Gameplay is rock solid and can easily compete with the big players in the genre like Fire Emblem, FFT and Shining Force. What I like the most is how you really need to change your usual defensive tactics (like exploring choke points), required for most games in the genre, to an offensive mindset thanks to the outpost and pilar system. This battle for warfare is pretty cool because you can turn the tide of a battle seemingly lost with the right strategy. Sure, some battles can drag on too much over all the conquering, but the fast pacing of the moment to moment gameplay makes time go fast. This change of pace was nice after finishing Fire Emblem Awakening, which was a bit disappointing to me. I mean, it's still a great game, but the formula is getting stale by now (and Fire Emblem is my favorite franchise in the genre) and they didn't do much to spice things up in that game aside from the waifu stuff that was added. If Tactics Maiden had the presentation and production values of Fire Emblem Awakening it would be an instant classic, because gameplay wise I'm having more fun with it. I do have a question though. I still don't understand very well how the injury percentage of the enemy works. How do I know exactly how much units the enemy can spawn? Most of the time I feel like weakening most enemies to kill all in one turn is better than killing units one by one. Also, am I the only one using portraits? They look... interesting. Catelyn looks hideous though. Poor Catelyn. So yeah, sorry for the wall of text, but congrats on the great work niebau. If you ever do a sequel (and I really hope you do), better graphics, more songs, refined UI, new portraits and a bigger focus on story would be my only suggestions (sounds like a lot, but it isn't, most of the game is pretty dang great already).
Thanks a lot for the praise, and I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the game. Achieving the same production value like Fire Emblem is certainly a challenge for (basically) a 1-person-developer like Mangobile. But it would be great, if 1 or 2 concept ideas find their way into one of the games of the big players one day. You are better off if you defeat units as fast as possible. Here are a few numbers to illustrate this: Example 1: ------------ Turn 1: Killed units: 3 --> Injured Rate: 16% Turn 2: Killed units: 0 --> Injured Rate: 15% Turn 3: Killed units: 0 --> Injured Rate: 14% Turn 4: Killed units: 0 --> Injured Rate: 13% (The enemy slowly recovers from its wounds, so the Injured Rate decreases slightly every turn) Example 2: ------------ Turn 1: Killed units: 1 --> Injured Rate: 6% Turn 2: Killed units: 1 --> Injured Rate: 10% Turn 3: Killed units: 1 --> Injured Rate: 14% Turn 4: Killed units: 0 --> Injured Rate: 13% There are two things you can see: a) In the end, the Injured rate is always the same, no matter whether you kill x units in one turn or in 5 turns. In the examples above the resulting Injured Rate for 3 kills is 14% in both cases. b) However, there is one huge difference. In example 1 you achieve a higher Injured Rate early on, which effectively leads to a lower total number of enemy spawns. For example, an Injured Rate of 40% means that enemies will spawn until 60% of Max Enemies are on the battlefield. Lets' assume Max Enemies = 10, for example: Injured Rate 10% --> 9 enemies on the battlefield Injured Rate 60% --> 4 enemies on the battlefield It should be also mentioned that in early scenarios the Inured rate goes down faster for each kill than in later ones. This basically reflects 'a larger army size' in later scenarios:
niebau - following on from heringer's post, I just wanted to say "Thanks" for these games! I slipped a disc in my back badly in November 2012 and spent a week on the floor in the spare room. The Kingturn series kept me going - day and night - and I bought and played them all. I was keen to pick up "Tactics Maiden" too, and it's an amazing game. It's clearly a real labour of love, and the playability is amazing. The only issue I have is with the forced orientation. Before we were in portrait, now; landscape. The placement of the buttons on the right feels arbitrary; I hit them by accident if the phone slips. And that square of wasted space rises to almost half the column if you include the zoom buttons. Any options to configure the orientation would be really useful, although that ship may have sailed. Again niebau, thanks for these superb games! Cleanly, intelligently, enthralling playable. Please don't stop - I'd buy all of the games again as Chrome apps like a shot, for example. best from UK S
Thanks a lot for sharing, SumOfAllForms. As a developer I sometimes wonder how much of a 'meaningful contribution' making games is. So it's nice to hear that Kingturn has helped you out in such a difficult time. To be honest, I prefer portrait mode over landscape mode myself. The prospect of publishing a game on other platforms as well (e.g. PC, Mac) makes a decision in favor of portrait mode difficult, though. While it would be awesome to have both modes, of course, that's quite a stunt to pull off for a game with so many dialogs. Seen in a sober light, the scope of Tactics Maiden is beyond anything that should be done by a single-person-developer. And if it weren't for TM's amazing beta testers, the project might have very well turned into a disaster. While the quality of Tactics Maiden has exceeded my own expectations by a far margin in the end, the same can't be said for the commercial side, unfortunately. I still intend to make games in the 'spirit of Kingturn and Tactics Maiden', but I have to tread more carefully in terms of time and cost efficiency. For instance: - procedurally generated levels instead of hand-crafted ones (every single scenario in TM took at least a full day: Thinking of a concept, scripting the level, rebalancing, tweaking and replaying it again and again. You can do the math what that means for the 85 scenarios available in TM) - drastically reduce story elements and dialogues (even having been backed up by a professional editor and writer, and the fan community, of course, writing 150+ pages of story dialogues is quite a task on its own for an IT guy and a non-native English speaker) - less complicated (some of my friends told me that they had no clue what to do in Tactics Maiden, despite the tutorial) I know that part of the 'charm of Tactics Maiden' is based on (some of the) points from above. However, having more time to focus on core mechanics and game aesthetics as well (for a change), might turn out to be quite beneficial for everyone in the end. This would result in a rather different game, of course.
Tutorial Walkthrough - Scenario 1 A few new players seem to struggle with Tactics Maiden's first scenario, so I've decided to publish a tutorial-like walkthrough today. Despite a 'Perfect' rating, I've done a few questionable moves during this playthrough. But I thought it might be more valuable to point them out in the tutorial, instead of replaying and recording it several times to achieve 'perfection'. I've used the upcoming version 1.9.4, so experienced Tactics Maiden players might notice two new features: - Improved visualization of enemies' walk & attack range (makes much more sense now) - New button 'Zoom Back' that can be used to snap the camera back to the previous distance Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Niebau, i know this is minor issue but it irks me a lot. Can you kindly bring back the old function where you can unselect a unit by tapping ONCE outside of its movement range instead of twice? It feels clunky now because i like my screen to be clean & not full of movement dots when i make a tactical decision.
I will gladly do so, if this is really an improvement. Allow me to explain, though, why I think your suggested solution has a drawback as well. Let's revisit Kingturn's design first: In Kingturn the only way to unselect a unit is the 'Cancel' button. Once a unit is selected, a 'No' icon pops up if you touch an invalid / free spot. While Kingturn's interface is a little bit clumsy in this regard, it is very consistent. In Tactics Maiden you can still use the 'Cancel' button in the same way like in 'Kingturn'. So basically, unselecting a unit via double tap on a free spot is an additional feature in TM. In the first draft of TM's user interface I've tried exactly what you suggest now: Using a single tap on a free spot instead of a double tap. And here's the problem I ran into: An imprecise tap on a target unit (e.g. for an intended attack) will immediately unselect your unit. Especially on smaller screens this can happen quite frequently, and I think that's even more annoying. A double tap (while more effort) is at least a conscious player decision.
Hi niebau, first of all, awesome game. It's I think the best strategy RPG on the platform, and definitely one of the best games. Just recently I noticed a problem with iCloud though. If I try to load an iCloud save, the list of save files is blank and clicking refresh raises an error message that says "Problem accessing iCloud". I also can't save to an iCloud slot as it gives the same error. iCloud works for other apps on my phone, and I tried manually deleting my iCloud profile for this game through my phone settings and it still didn't solve the problem. I'm not entirely positive, but I think this issue came from the last patch. This is on an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.X. Are you seeing this issue too or could it just be me? I appreciate it!
I'll have a look at it right away. While I didn't make any changes in regard of TM's iCloud access itself, there have been a few changes in the underlying systems for the last patch (e.g. Apple's iCloud API and one 3rd party library I am using). Until now I haven't heard of a general issue with TM's iCloud system, so this might be very well related to the last patch. I'll keep you up to date... In the meantime: If you urgently want to synchronize game saves and happen to have a Dropbox account, you can temporarily switch to Dropbox via Game Settings. You just to need to restart the game afterwards (not just pausing the game via home button but killing off the app). Dropbox and iCloud saves are completely independent of each other in Tactics Maiden, by the way. So there won't be any interference if you switch forth and back between iCloud and Dropbox. Edit: I can confirm that there is indeed an issue with iCloud access since the last version. Fix coming asap.
Niebau, quest 107 on rook is pretty impossible to capture that glyphs. The problem is those spiders keep dragging you away from glyphs even though i surrounded 3 sides of the glyphs with my units. They hit like a truck & take out my units in 2 hits... I think you should make the spiders unable to pull you away when standing on glyphs. Although i believe it is possible to win by keep killing those spiders until they can spawn less but it is very time consuming & not very fun.
Scene 107 is certainly one of the more challenging scenarios. Personally I think, though, that spiders snatching away player units from pillars is exactly what makes this scenario interesting. Keep also in mind that there are quite a few experienced Kingturn players who are looking for a real challenge. Higher difficulties like 'Rook' should force players to come up with more sophisticated strategies, imho. As a matter of fact, for the upcoming patch 1.9.4 I have increased the difficulty of 20 late-game scenarios. A lot of players have managed to finish the game on 'Queen' difficulty lately. Far too many for my taste . Here are a few tips: The player's starting position is very unfortunate. Try to pull the whole mob to one side of the battlefield, so Catelyn can sneak-conquer the outpost to the very south. In doubt give up on units that have been isolated by spider's Webhaul, and reform at the southern outpost. That's a perfect spot to start conquering the whole map. Use skills like 'Leg Shot' or 'Place Swap' to keep spiders away from pillars you want to conquer.
Niebau i am wondering is there more rewards when u get mastermind? I try to strive for mastermind every round though at rook its much harder but it is extremely satisfying to get that. If there isn't better rewards, i hope u can implement that
At the moment there is no bonus for achieving a mastermind rating besides the satisfaction of the accomplishment itself. The beta version initially had a 1-4 star rating system with stars accumulated and displayed for all scenarios. Since there doesn't seem to be a simple way to make past scenarios replay-able, most beta testers advised against such a solution, and I headed their (imho) good advice. It might be a nice incentive to add a small bonus reward for achieving a top rating, though. I'm just worried that this will start a debate about replaying past scenarios at will again. For the record, here are just some of the reasons why this is an ugly can of worms to open: - At least some of the scenarios cannot (or should not) be replayable, e.g. promoting units to elite status or pad-lock unit missions where the player has to decide which of the units he wants to save if not all of them can be saved - Map markers of follow-up scenarios can fully cover map markers of previous missions, so right now these missions wouldn't be accessible. An alternative way for selecting (previous) missions would be required - There are a few potential problems with replaying those scenarios where (key) units automatically join the player's team
Not requesting to replay earlier scenario but just a bonus reward when u managed to clear a round with mastermind? It will force players to strive for mastermind which is really difficult lol.
Patch Notes 1.9.4 Patch 1.9.4 has been released today: - Fixed iCloud support - New button 'Zoom Back' that can be used to snap the camera back to the previous distance - Zoom speed configurable via Options now - Improved visualization of enemies' walk & attack range (everything inside the ring of grey squares is in walk + attack range of the enemy) - Summon and Ally Call wont end the turn of a summoned unit any longer. Instead a movement debuff is applied for 1 turn. - Fixed: Stats' screen instead of 'Gear' screen is set as default now in case of unspent skill points - Fixed AI bug which prevented enemy Assassins from using Flurry if standing on outposts or pillars - 'Beast Shot' damage substantially increased - Star Burst damage slightly increased - Spin Attack damage slightly increased - Unhorse damage further increased and required MP reduced - Bewitch chance capped at 90% (instead of 100%) - Vampires: HP gain per level lowered by 1 - If a commoner uses Replace he has to rest for 1 turn in the outpost - Aggro increased for using 'Shelter' - Aggro increased for using 'Send Home' - Mov+1 added to all legendary boots - Scene 138 overhauled and Bear Companion available now - Scene 29 (Newshore): Fixed dialogue, hints added, better reward - Scene 116: Fixed: Houses are blocking a unit's path properly now - Scene 126 (Ambush): Difficulty slightly lowered - Scene 119: Completely overhauled to make it more interesting - A few minor changes to make the following scenarios more challenging: 27 (The Holy Church), 117 (The Island), 120 (Handicapped), 137 (The Druids) - Scene 123 overhauled - Scene 30 increased enemy max, a few minor changes - Scene 31 a few modification to make it a little bit easier - Scene 32 better reward, visuals of 3 trees fixed - Scene 33 overhauled to make it much more challenging - Scene 35 overhauled to make it more challenging - Scene 36 slightly modified to make it more challenging - Scene 127 (Old Armory) overhauled - Scene 163 (Whispermaw) overhauled
Remember that you don't need to plant your guys right in front, you can put them one spot away as well to block a pull. so if the pillar is P and your characters are C, you are protecting this pillar now. Gives you a little more flexibility. Of course, if they web pull your blockers out of the way and then web pull the pillar, it's not super helpful. Still, it should help you take over slightly more confined spaces. xxCxx xxxxx CxPxC xxxxx xxCxx
Hi, I'm a lurker here mainly but wanted to log in to tell you that I just purchased the full version! I also want to applaud you for releasing the app for free with the first few levels for free. I fully support this method and I wish more devs did this. I would not have tried this game otherwise, and now I'm hooked I was looking for a fire emblem / FFT type game so I tried this on a lark and ended up getting more hooked every level. Just wanted to tell you that.
