TaleSpire

4 years ago a remarkable new way to build maps for games and play on those maps in 3D came into my awareness. TaleSpire. The tools were powerful, the art style beautiful, and it sparked my imagination in ways that 2d virtual tabletop programs didn't. It was one of the most remarkable and exciting innovations in the Virtual Tabletop space I had ever seen. 4 years later, I’m ready to talk about it. -Visuals- Visually this program is excellent. The assets are of a very high quality, they render well, and the program runs well even on lower end PCs. It’s fast, and I experience little to no stuttering, few if any graphical glitches, and a wealth of community content that one can use. -Tool Set- The building tools are robust. There’s a large amount of tiles, assets, and models to use,with more being added. One can even use their favorite Hero Forge models in the program if they are into that. The learning curve is a bit high, but that’s normal for VTT’s. It’s quite satisfying clicking things into place and moving them around, it has an almost tactile feel. It is easy to import and use sound in this program and easy to set up parameters for said sound. There are a number of rulers and measurement tools not just for building but for playing as well. And, that’s the good stuff. The problems are many. -Cost- If you think you can purchase this and invite your friends to play with you like any other VTTs, they will have to pay $25 for their own copy, or you must $15 to unlock a “seat” so they can connect to your game using the ‘demo’. $15 does not unlock SEATS by the way, it unlocks a SINGLE seat. There are no seats included with the initial purchase, not even to early backers. Seats should be as easy to assign to players or rescind from them as sending an invite to the game, I shouldn't have to worry about having spent enough money to unlock enough seats so others can play. It is $70-$85 minimum for a standard group of 1 DM and 4 players to use this. Compared to any other virtual tabletop, this is the most expensive option.There are a large number of free VTT’s out there beside the massive Roll20. Foundry only requires a single $50 purchase, and $40 for Fantasy Grounds. D&D’s Sigle (another 3d VTT) is free to play and $6/month for some nice features. I suppose Table Top Simulator IS technically more expensive, at $20 a player, but that’s a very broad program supporting many types of games of which only TTRPG’s are only a fraction. The competition is fierce, and it’s about to get even more fierce with some very compelling VTT’s on the horizon. I understand this program is a different type of beast, but currently Talespire is the most expensive option for running a TTRPG and it has the least amount of support. Asking that a standard group of players (4 players and a DM ) pay $75-$85 between them to play an open beta program with flailing mod support and lack luster updates -is- -a- -Problem-. -Community- The community is in dire straits. Steam Charts has this game averaging 300 users. Finding groups of people who have this program let alone who want to play on it has been extremely difficult. The most conversations being had are complaints and feature requests for the same features we’ve been asking for this whole time. It is vaguely possible to play 5e, but any other system? Good luck finding them. -Mod Support- They call these Symbiotes. These are not integrated with Steam workshop so they are being hosted by 3rd party sites. They don't want to tie down mod support to one exosystem, I can understand that, but right now Talespire is ONLY available on Steam, and that ecosystem is extremely robust. Steam Modders are very active. By keeping mods off Steam Workshop they lose all of that. Besides that, the functionality is spread between 3 different places, and there is nothing that tells you how to get, access, or use them aside from an FAQ on the website. Though you can browse available mods in the program, filtering them leaves something to be desired, and you can't see important information like dependencies or last time one was updated. -Early Access- This is an early access program. While it has been an early access program for longer than most indie games are in development, one's criticisms should keep that in mind. This is being developed by 2 people who, I suspect, are not developing this as full time jobs just based on the Steam Charts data to estimate sales. With that said, I have some issues with how this early access has progressed. The early access blurb is written thusly: “TaleSpire has already benefited hugely from the feedback of the community, and this is something we seek to continue. While we have a strong vision for where we want to take the game, we want to keep this dialog going so we can continue to make something that is honed to the needs of real players.” The developers are more than happy to respond to criticism and concerns, but do nothing about them. Worse, their responses often feel a little hand-wavy or condescending. I work in customer service and client support. I know how hard it is to communicate well, especially when there is criticism, but it vital to get it correct. Here is a list of some of the most basic features most requested that are missing from Talespire I went to the features request site and these are the most popular: -Fog of War -Adjustable light Sources (size and color) -Map Pins -Character sheet -Any kind of place to put notes, journal, character information, container contents -Inventory -A turn counter -The ability to prevent players from zooming around the whole map -Being able to define rules sets so we can tailor the game toward the TTRPG we are playing. -Secret rolls -Status effect indicators The community has been BEGGING for years for BASIC features like the ones above. Instead we get features like: -Hero Forge integration, which only a fraction of a fraction of people are going to use unlike any of the other ones on the list above that EVERYONE would use. -Builder Presence, to be able to keep track of what other people are building on the map, fair enough. -Board folders. They were so excited about the ability to group your boards and keep them organized that they wrote a release post about it. -Symbiotes: Mods. Just, seriously, call them mods. -Map Ping -A number of smaller ‘features’ that are really just UI improvements. Currently they are working on -Controller support, I’m ALL for accessibility features, but I would like a functional VTT I think, thank you. -Restricting player movement -Searching assets -Emotes -Status effect indicators So almost nothing we’ve asked for over the last 4 years. Something is wrong here. -Conclusion- I am frustrated at the state and direction of TaleSpire. Instead of basic functions, we’ve gotten Hero Forge, and poorly integrated mods. Hero Forge is expensive for many people and while the Devs don't control the cost, they do have control over what they spend their time on. Implementing Hero Forge this early was a waste of time. I’m still fuming at how far back it set other features. EVERYONE would have been able to use a journal/notes. Every DM would use map pins. Only a fraction of a fraction of people wanted Hero Forge integration; even fewer will ever use it. The developers are happy to respond to criticism, but nothing ever comes out of it. I have yet to ever see them address the community by actually taking up any of the most suggested features and doing something about it, not a single time, with perhaps the exception of pinging the map. But, really, in a VTT a map ping is a major feature release? TaleSpire is all but dead. You will spend $25 and have fun with making maps and importing maps, you might get together a group to play fueled by your excitement alone, you’ll play some sessions until everyone realizes it is too hard to play without basic functions, and then you will do nothing with it after that. After 4 years, that’s my conclusion.