Phantom Tactics development journal

i can honestly say that i have almost never seen this, and yet it seems like a very simple feature

and i've played my fair share of srpgs

cool

Yeah, it is very simple. FFT tries to do this, and it would have succeeded, too, except that the AI for whatever reason doesn't know how to use projectiles.


Exciting news: The level up display is finished! Oh my gosh you guys it was such a pain. I'm probably overstating this, but really, there was a reason I was putting it off for so long. It turns out that the reason is something along the lines of "because throwing together nine somewhat complicated strings is really annoying to program in HamsterSpeak." There's 90 lines of string manipulation just so I can display which stats leveled up.

Not-so-exciting news: There's no good way to display an arbitrary portrait along with a text box. Picture this: Miles joins you as a Bowman, but later on, he might be, say, a Marksman. He has a line of dialogue during a later cutscene. In order for the text box portrait to reflect his class change, I'd need a different text box just for the Marksman portrait -- and for every other class he might be. The other unsavory alternative is to use slices to make a "pretend text box." I filed a feature request in Bugzilla to get a proper "set portrait" function, but if that doesn't pan out, I'm going to have to go with the fake text box method.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Lots of fixes! Lots of features!

- Fixed the left-facing animation for Garland (I think).
- Took another look at that Pirate bug. The more I stare at it, the less sure I am that it exists. The code looks fine. (Update: Argh never mind I think I have fixed it.)
- Implemented the Skeleton class ability (respawn on death).
- ...And the Lancer class ability (push back defender after attacking).
- Oh, why not? Implemented the Zombie class ability (1 HP/turn poison; cumulative). There's no way to cure that other than finishing the battle! These undead dudes are major trouble.

Only Ninja remains out of the planned classes (though there will undoubtedly be more story character classes down the line). And, of course, this all still needs testing.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

yum. i'm digging this a lot - pushing stuff around always allows for all sorts of strategic choices

I thought I'd mentioned this, but I ended up deciding to let Lancers push an entire line of units if there are any behind the defender. It was originally just going to fail if there was anyone behind the defender, but I think this way will be more fun. Of course, it still fails if the unit last in line is unable to move to the tile behind him (e.g. you can push a Pirate into water, but you can't push anyone into a tree).

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Here's a handy tip: renaming your scripts can screw things up.

The journal's on hold for the next week. Don't get any bright ideas. I might do a little work on it during the week, but no promises!

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

My hotel has free Internet access! Rock on.

I bought Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume for my vacation. I've just started chapter four; it's embarrassing how much like Phantom Tactics the game is. Fun fact: Wylfred's father in COTP is named Thyodor. Janus's father in PT was going to be named Theodor. I'm going to have to change that now.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Shame on you! Playing video games while on vacation in Hawaii? That game had better be for use during travel-time. You better earn every minute of game-time with corresponding beach-time. Photographs of you sunburned will be required as proof.

I don't burn, I tan.

My wife got Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure, which is also great. Both of these games have surpassed my expectations, though I will admit to coming into VP:COTP with low expectations. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and say it's the best strategy game on the DS. Really incredibly fine-tuned difficulty. It got generally lackluster reviews, but the gameplay is nothing short of excellent.

Hatsworth, on the other hand, is Puzzle Quest meets platformer, executed with incredible style. It got excellent reviews, and with good reason.

In Phantom Tactics-related news, Twinhamster got me the rest of the chapter 1 graphics, so life is good.

(P.S. No, we are not spending Hawaii-time doing this stuff -- just travel time and downtime.)

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Aloha from the beautiful garden island of Kaua`i! We flew here from Oahu this afternoon, and this is where we'll stay for the rest of our vacation.

My wife is feeling pregnant right now, so while she sleeps, I'm working on Phantom Tactics. I choreographed 1-2.5 and I'm trying to test it now, but I don't have a post-1.2 save and I'm finding it a tricky transition back from COTP. On that note, I've decided not to change Theodor's name. I thought of it first, dang it. Any other similarities are also coincidental, with Twinhamster as my witness.

COTP uses something similar to the support system: all allies within attack range of the target will join in on the attack. This is subtly different from PT, where all allies within one square of the attacker/defender will join in on the battle. Notably, if you try to play PT like COTP, you'll get creamed. I haven't done that yet, but it was a little disorienting at first.

In other news, I've culled my old compositions looking for stuff that would fit into PT. I found about a dozen songs. Most of them are unused, but you'll recognize a couple of them from Vikings of Midgard.

Aw man, Janus just died. I have to replay 1-2 now.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Updates: 1-2.5 works like a charm; 1-3 is functional but reveals a lot of bugs in the AI. Aside from fixing those (some of which seem to be related to the exploit previously mentioned -- without a doubt, no one would stumble across them on a first playthrough, but they still need to be addressed), I also need to come up with a framework for adding reinforcements. Shouldn't be too hard.

Animations ready, need to be scripted:
- Knight
- Skeleton

A few more are ready, but I don't think they'll show up in chapter 1, so I'm being lazy about them. (Marksman and Gunner have been ready since before the demo and I still haven't scripted them.)

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

I sincerely hope she actually is pregnant, and doesn't just feel like it randomly.

Wait, if you're taking a break because your wife is pregnant, does that make it....a pregnant pause?

How differently are you scripting each unit?

She's seven months pregnant.

I was referring to scripting the animations: each unit has an individual battle animation, and some have more than one. (The Bandit is a good example. You can see in the demo how he animates differently when acting as a support unit versus as a front line unit.) Very few units will have special AI handling. (The Cleric is a good example, since it doesn't attack and it needs to be near wounded units.)

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

The game is thoroughly musicked now (needs testing), and I have all the maps for chapter 1. I think I'm finished with 1-3.5, but I haven't finished patching up 1-3 yet, so that'll have to wait. I also have 1-4 and 1-6 complete in theory. Oh yes, everything's coming together now.

The volume is inconsistent on the MIDIs I'm using. I'm going to have to alter most of them to make them louder. This isn't a long process, though.

I want to finish chapter 1 by August. This is an achievable goal, I think. Here's an approximate checklist:
- Script animations:
-- Knight
-- Skeleton
-- Zombie
- Get animations from Twinhamster and then script them:
-- Wraith
-- Demon
- Add sound effects:
-- Cleric's healing
-- Cutscene 1-3.5 (a "shiny" sound)
- Finish 1-5
- Write and script 1-6.5
- Test 1-3 through end of chapter

I might not do a public release before August, since this list relies on TH getting me some graphics. However, I can definitely finish up my part of the game by then, and that's the goal.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

I've written, I think, all of chapter 1's dialogue now. There's a lot left to plug in still, but at least it's ready.

Additionally, all of chapter 1 is playable now, in theory. There are several cutscenes missing, so it wouldn't all make sense, but at least it's all there. 1-3 still needs a little scripting magic and 1-5 doesn't actually have any enemies in it. I am going to fix that right now. (Fixed.) Cutscenes notwithstanding, the most jarring part of the game at present is the missing attack animations. I still haven't done any new ones and I'm still missing a couple.

All in all, an excellent week for Phantom Tactics, especially considering I was in Hawaii.

I'll be sending out playtesting copies sometime soon. Let me know if YOU are interested in playing a buggy chapter 1!

Soon: More animations!

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks