I know it was a while ago, but here’s my oh so wonderful entry into the MARTH contest, finally made available for public consumption. The game is about 3-5 hours depending on play style. It all takes place on one map, but there are a number of “acts” that are denoted by mid-chapter save points. You can also unlock turnwheel (aka: easy mode), if you need the extra help.
Summary
Tactics of Taming is a game centered around a man just trying to get out of a forest. You will start out outnumbered, but luckily this man has a certain set of skills that can change that.
Features
Pair Up
Supports
Skills
Enemy Recruitment
Reworked Stats
Small Army Size
Large Army Size
Scary Stuff
Good Tunes
Custom Backgrounds
Custom Mugs
Multiple Endings
Achievements
Gameplay Modifiers
A Lamia
Nameable Characters
“Beef”
Secret Characters
Easter Eggs
Monster Units
Tactics of Taming
Just open the folder and click the “double_click_to_play.bat” file.
Current Known Game Bugs
None right now, but if any are found I’ll be sure to update this as I go about correcting them.
For anyone struggling with the game, there is a fair number of tips and tricks at the bottom of the credits document included in the game folder. You can also find the unlock conditions for all of the game’s modifiers there.
And since there is an Easter Egg related achievement in ToT, I feel the need to share a trailer of my other project, Fate of the Fallen, that might help you unlock it without reading the secret conditions.
The Gimmicks used to recruit the monsters is well planned out and your harvest system is balanced.
Game looks hard at first but once you get the recruitment going it pretty easy to hold your own. granted early game units are pretty useless after a while keeping 1 alive to the end is pretty easy to do.
The Save points are well timed and none of the bosses are overpowering with the amount of troops you have to work with. Plenty of ways to heal your own troops is also a plus. kinda of wish there was a better heal to use on the lamia but other then that it pretty balanced.
Experience gains is very balanced for the pace of which the game goes at. Story is also good.
Also good replay ability with the clear achievements is another plus.
I been waiting for some good food for a while and you sir have delivered.
Thanks so much for playing, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Balance was something that I worked pretty hard to figure out, but the flexibility of the LT engine really helped with it. Plus, my favorite part of the pair up skill system is finding creative ways to break the balance. (I’m looking at you, Horse/Alraune, Cyclops/Wolf, and Dragon/Harpy teams.)
There is actually a Zombie Skill that heals all nearby units, but through the nature of RNG, it’s certainly possible to play through without getting a Zombie with it.
Again, thanks so much for playing and commenting. I hope you enjoy the future content I have in the pipeline.
Updated the OP with a new link for a new update. Nothing game breaking, but there were a few things I needed to touch up.
List of Fixes
-Changed the description of a few skills to better explain the ability.
-Modified The AI of the final boss to increase the challenge a bit. (Now they move).
-Fixed a typo in the options menu.
-Fixed a minuscule issue with the credits sequence related to music.
If anyone else comes upon any issues while playing, please let me know.
Maybe bug: the skeletons don’t gain exp at all by attacking or by defeating enemies and I don’t see any skill that cancel exp gain or something.
I named the Tamer and the Lamia to gain the achievement, is there a special name reserved for the Damsel-eater?
No special name for Damsel Eater, you should’ve gotten the Achievement alert shortly after recruiting your partner.
But that is a great catch on the Skellies, I think I know exactly what’s causing it. I’ll have a fix up shortly.
Thanks for letting me know.
Update:
It was exactly what I thought it was.
Skeleton’s now have weapons that will grant them experience. (Whoever said old/dead dog’s couldn’t learn new tricks?). Thanks for the catch, DBAV
I’ve updated the link and it shouldn’t be an issue anymore.
There’s no replacements for the weapons. Endless mode still tries to get you to focus on using your tamed friends. And if your weapons start breaking, you can always have Tamer become a partner unit to grant some passive heals, so he’s not completely useless.
Endless mode is fairly untested though (Didn’t have endless time to test it), and I’d be very interested to hear any thoughts on it.
Same goes actually for all of the modifiers. The base, unmodified game got the most test-play time, so feel free to share any thoughts on them.
I player around a bit more and the only negative with the endless mode seems to be the weapons, everything else is alright. I mean even in story mode there’s no way to break the weapons unless you don’t use the slave… I mean tamed friends so I don’t think making them unbreakable is going to screw anything, since you have the unlimited mode you can add on top of the endless different plays focusing on normal units or tamed beast are possible even with infinite weapons.
EDIT. Making the extra characters weapons unbreakable will add to the challenge.
