Thanks for this post! To start off, what class is the kineticist who created the whirlwind to move the ship? And is Kel'Vesh near wherever Ravinale is? How do you pronounce "Ishirea"?

I really love your writing, by the way; the text in cutscenes vividly evokes what dialogue cannot, and I wouldn't mind if you leaned heavily in to the visual novel aspect and wrote a paragraph or two about how characters move during dialogue I dare say this mod has better writing than the story campaign!

That said, I did notice a few typos like "emmerse" instead of "immerse," but they were very minor. Can't exactly go back to check the dialogue now :)

How did you come up with this plot?

The plot, locations and characters are all my own creations. I played Telepth RPG a very long time ago but I don't really remember the lore from it at this point. So, instead I have created my own world and locations, e.g. Kel'Vesh, Ishirea, and the other locations mentioned (Teshani slavers, Malyvani peacock). I mention Coria once in this game as a nod to the original campaign (when you meet the shop keeper), but beyond that this should be considered a completely different area of the Telepath world (or even a different world altogether).

Ishirea is pronounced ISH-EAR-EE-AH.

I call the whirlwind kineticist a Zephyr Mage. I have been experimenting with creating a couple of new classes for Chapter 2, but I want to make sure they aren't stepping on another class' toes. For example, I have created a "monk-like" class, but we already have a nimble character with Jade and another player character (that you haven't met yet) is a bare fist fighter, so I'm torn as to whether I use this class or not. The character will definitely still exist in the story but using Gasul as the class (Cleric rather than Monk) might fit the battle needs of the party better for that part of the story.

Thanks a lot for the positive feedback on my writing. It is great to hear! That is an interesting idea about adding more narrative during the dialogue scenes. Rather than doing that I chose to change character expressions on a regular basis during a dialogue, but I'm open to seeing if that is feasible or too finicky during Chapter 2. Space is quite limited in the dialogue box to add both narrative and talking, so it would require the creation of additional dialogue boxes.

Feel free to point out spelling issues when you find them. There is no spell checker in the game. Since I pretty much know the dialogue off by heart at this point, it becomes harder to find spelling mistakes since my brain goes into auto mode while reading it.

Some of the plot has been swirling around in my brain for a while now, long before I played Telepath Tactics. The characters of Kailyn, Catarine, Sir Garit, Tilly, Marcus, and Zeriph have been with me for a while. However, the tile sets, classes, and character portrait options available in the campaign editor have led to some changes along the way. For example, Zeriph and Sir Garit being from Kel'Vesh instead of somewhere closer to Ishirea was a result of the wealth of assets available with a Middle East/North African motif. Catarine was originally a more offensive magic user in my head, but the thought of the fun things that I could have her do in the game as she developed stronger push/pull abilities was enticing, so I made her a kineticist.

Other characters, such as Jade, the Chapter 1 PC character you haven't met yet, and a new character who joins in Chapter 2, all came to me as I was creating Chapter 1. All three of them now have their own back story which will be revealed in the next chapter. The Teshani slavers and their Drudge servants also formed as I was writing Chapter 1.

Thanks so much! I was horrified at the cliffhanger you ended things on (please don't hurt Cat too much); can't wait for Chapter 2! On second thought, for visual novel writing, you're doing very good! So keep it mostly dialogue, as per typical VN format. If you wanted to add more detail, though, you could describe the smells, sounds, etc - what we can't see in the character graphics above the dialogue box.

I have another question, this time about map design. How did you design the battlefields, and how long did it take? I'm working on a small campaign of my own, a literal joke compared to something as lengthy and serious as yours, and the first map I made, I used a procedurally generated one, but I'm not happy with it and I can't pinpoint why. Tried to craft a map of my own for the second battle, and while I'm pleased with the decor, there's not much strategy involved in actually fighting the enemies.

I already have some of the Chapter 2 cut scenes done involving Cat's fate , but (slight chapter 2 spoiler) I am currently experimenting with a battle that takes place inside Cat's mind as she mentally fights off her torturer. Hopefully I can make that compelling enough to include as well as the cut scenes.

Re your other question - it took me ~5 or 6 weeks to complete the entirety of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is going to take longer as I don't have quite as much free time at the moment and have only just started designing battles.

My thought process for designing a map was usually:

1) What is the story purpose of this map?
Map 1 was to introduce the sisters but to also get people used to the game mechanics with an easy fight (in case they hadn't played the main campaign for a while). The next 3 maps all focused on reaching an exit point as fleeing Shimmersea was core to the story.

2) What mechanics did I want to encourage players to use?
I really wanted people to make use of push and pull abilities. Map 1 has water tiles to encourage people to use push/pull. In the Sea Battle, the fact that there is no way to re-board the ship from the sea is deliberate. That is to encourage players to push enemies off the ship, but also to make sure the player didn't camp everyone out on the gang planks as the enemy could also push you off. But there is also more subtle stuff, such as keeping track of how many tiles Catarine usually moved each turn in the Chapel battle and the Chimera Gorge battle. I would then try move the "exit" tile that Cat had to reach a square further away than ideal so Kailyn or Marcus had to push Cat one tile in order for her to move optimally. For example, you missed out on the final item sack when fleeing the Chapel, if you had used Kailyn to push a character one tile closer, could you have reached it with a character before Cat escaped? For the Escape Tunnels, I wanted to encourage players to make use of choke points which is why there are some tunnel entrances that are only two tiles wide. By putting Kailyn and Sir Garit in the tunnel entrances, the squishier characters could be protected from assassin insta-kills. The reason the assassins had Stab as an ability at such a low character level was to make the player pay dearly for not using choke points.

3) What objects/tiles are available in the Campaign Editor?
The reason that New Allies in Shimmersea took place in a chapel was because I figured I could make a convincing chapel with the objects available. The statue, altar and bird bath objects all spoke chapel to me. The ship map was a little harder as, besides barrels, there aren't any decent ship objects, but I still think it turned out OK.

4) How many enemies should the party be up against?
Obviously this depends on how strong the enemies are and the type of mission you are designing, e.g. fleeing versus full scale battle. I would look to start with a roughly 2-to-1 ratio of enemies to player characters. If it is a mission with waves, i.e. enemy reinforcements arrive over time, then 3-to-1 might make more sense as a starting point. If all enemies are in the battle from the start, you might be better off starting at 2-to-1 and then working upwards as needed.

5) Test, change and test again,
The only way to balance the battles is to play them a lot. If you start with a 2-to-1 enemy ratio and it is too easy, increase the number of enemies. Alternatively add in a couple of more difficult enemies or add in a wave that arrives later. If you find that a particular battle strategy that you use with the player characters always makes the battle too easy, throw in a wave of enemies that arrives to attack them from their flank and messes up that strategy, or throw in more ranged units that will stop the player being able to just play defensively.

Hopefully this is of some help. Point 5 is incredibly important. The more times you test your battle the more you see how the AI behaves on your map. That might lead you to add more obstacles to delay enemy movement or more enemies to increase player difficulty.

Re the random battle generator, I have never used it. Could you perhaps try using that as a starting point for your first battle and then editing it to make it more to your liking cosmetically?

Thank you so much for all the tips, Banjax! I'll try using the procedural generator for my first map and tweaking it. Looks like I'll have to come up with more characters for my roster than a skiakineticist and a golem.

It's interesting you brought up Kailyn's shove skill in the chapel battle; I probably would've gotten the sack if Tilly had been able to reach the tunnel in time before being killed. Because of that, Kailyn had to push Cat to get her to the exit.

Originally posted by Wannabe Skater:

Thank you so much for all the tips, Banjax! I'll try using the procedural generator for my first map and tweaking it.

No problem. Feel free to upload the first battle when you are done if you want me to test it. There is an option in Steam Workshop to make your mod "Unlisted" if you aren't ready for it to be visible in the Workshop. I'm guessing that means you could post the URL here and I could still play it without it being visible.