Last week marked the release of Talespire’s last closed beta patch dubbed Chimera, an overhaul of the code and user interface for BouncyRock’s online tabletop simulator that redefines much of the board gaming experience. Backers have some time to acquaint themselves with the new design and options so they can provide feedback ahead of the Early Access release in two weeks’ time.
There are many important changes in this update to discuss. First and most visibly, the in-game layouts have been altered quite dramatically for both GMs and players- even more so for builders.
Campaigns that already existed need to be updated to Chimera which might be a crash-heavy process, though that was fixed quite quickly the day of release. The fourth button on the left is a tutorials window that details various things in Talespire for anyone to learn more about the software. The buttons on the right have been thinned out as the combination library has been moved to the bottom of the interface, and now they are just for unique minis and the chat/roll history – yes there is a miniature-based chat function and it is absolutely hilarious.
Beyond this flashy addition, there have been several major changes to how Talespire can be operated. For one, key bindings have been updated to allow for key mapping, and the very core of the software code has been reevaluated in terms of how miniature and dice physics work as well as how props and building blocks operate to make building in Talespire that much easier. You might notice that the game runs visibly smoother on all systems thanks to optimization of the graphical code; however these will take time to refine so that the foundations of Talespire are as sturdy as possible before release.
Down the line there are additional changes in the works: fog of war, line of sight, and the help/tutorial functionality being fleshed out before early access. As with any major overhaul there are and will be bugs in many segments of BouncyRock’s game program, some of which include persistent crashing in boards, miniatures floating when reloaded, and even being booted from a board if someone else is already present. These relatively-fatal errors can prevent you from using Talespire in sessions for a decent amount of time until they get ironed out but the team is working around the clock to analyze reported bugs and fix what they know are the urgent technical problems. We and the development team appreciate your patience as BouncyRock approaches their most critical juncture and public release begins this month!