The RPG Duelling League
RPG Debate => RPGDL Discussion => Topic started by: AndrewRogue on June 16, 2012, 06:58:44 AM
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Noemi Seredova
HP: 300 -> 728
MP: 280 -> 680
STR: 54 -> 131
DEX: 64 -> 156
VIT: 57 -> 138
MAG: 74 (74.4) -> 181
SPR: 57 -> 138
SPD: 72 -> 175
EVA: 25%
HP: C (5th)
MP: B (3rd)
STR: D (6th)
VIT: D (4th)
MAG: B (4th)
SPR: C (6th)
DEX: B (5th)
SPD: B (2nd)
EVA: C (4th)
Weapons: Swords, Daggers
Armor: Medium
Unique Action: Analyze: Increases Noemi's Defense and identifies weaknesses/strengths of an enemy.
Build Concept: Jack of All Trades. Should have a little bit of everything (-healing). Should be slightly worse than any of her companions at any individual skills, but not substantially, otherwise they'd be pointless! MP pool should be fairly deep so she can stick to using her skills for the most part, but a decent Dex stat and solid equipment options give her a decent fallback physical.
Noemi is a modern prodigy, possessing incredible ability to manipulate and alter the flow. She learns new things with incredible speed. Although her main field of study is the Disquiet, she has made a point to explore all facets of Flow manipulation in an effort to find new ways to halt, control, and dissipate the Disquiet.
Given that she has been planning an expedition into dangerous territory for quite some time, she has made a point of keeping herself physically fit, as well as learning basic self defense.
Focus Gain/Use: Focus is built by using her spells and builds relatively slowly (filling once on average in battle). Each of her skills should have an upgraded version that costs both MP and Focus and functions fairly powerfully.
Although she lacks the raw power of some of the world's most prominent practitioners, Noemi excels at building upon her own casting to create situations in which she can create effects that are equal to even the most powerful practitioners in the world. In addition, her talent allows her to replicate effects she has seen used before (although the conditions tend to be situational, meaning it is difficult to replicate her own jury rigged version).
Flare Shot(MP) - L1 Fire spell, damage over 3 hits
--->Flare Shell(MP+TP) - Boosted fire spell, increased damage per hit
Sleeping(MP) - Inflicts sleep upon a single target
--->Knockout(MP+TP) - Hits three randomly-selected targets. Repeat targets are checked for sleep per hit.
Spark Cluster(MP) - L1 Lightning spell, high accuracy, critical, and variance, single hit
--->Thunderstrike(MP+TP) - Boosted lightning spell, higher base damage, lower variance, ITE
Flame Blade(MP) - Makes target ally's weapon fire-element
--->Burning Armory(MP+TP) - MT version
Spell Buffer(MP) - Increases target ally's resistance to nonphysical non-Disquiet elements
--->Spell BarrierMT version
Lethargy(MP) - Lowers target enemy's speed
--->Binding(MP+TP) - Negates enemy's ability to counterattack
Flash Burn(MP) - L2 Fire spell, damage over 5 hits
--->Flash Bomber(MP+TP) - MT version, lowers enemy accuracy
Vanisher(MP) - Full-field dispel
--->Eraser(MP+TP) - Dispels effects from a single enemy
Empower(MP) - Boosts target ally's STR
--->Energize(MP+TP) - Boosts target ally's ATK
Necrolysis(MP+TP) - Deals Disquiet-type damage to a target. Deals fairly heavy ITD damage on the next turn. Ineffective on Disquieted.
Quieting(MP+TP) - Deals Anti-Disquiet damage and stuns the target. Ineffective on non-Disquieted.
Prodigy(TP) - Copies a spell from an ally to use for the duration of the battle. Is replaced by copied spell.
Prodigy -- Initial
Flare Shot/Flare Shell -- Initial
Sleeping/Knockout -- Initial
Empower/Energize -- C1
Spark Cluster/Thunderstrike -- C1
Flame Blade/Burning Armory -- C2
Spell Buffer/Spell Barrier -- C2
Lethargy/Binding -- C3
Vanisher/Eraser -- C3
Flash Burn/Flash Bomber -- C4 (replaces Flare Shot/Flare Shell)
Unnamed damage ability -- C4/C5
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Mirek Sebrle
HP: 289 -> 701
MP: 80 -> 194
STR: 60 -> 146
DEX: 71 -> 173
VIT: 45 -> 109
MAG: 65 (64.8) -> 158
SPR: 78 -> 189
SPD: 42 -> 102
EVA: 30%
HP: C (6th)
MP: F (5th)
STR: C (5th)
VIT: F (8th)
MAG: X (5th)
SPR: A (1st)
DEX: B (2nd)
SPD: F (9th)
EVA: A/C (Tied 2nd)
Weapons: Guardian Blades/Sheaths
Armor: Medium
Unique Action: Prepare: Increases Mirek's Defense and Attack and gains some amount of Focus.
Character Concept: Offensively Oriented Magical Tank.
As a Guardian, Mirek learned the martial arts of the Guardian. The Guardian Arts are a type of martial art that focuses on the amplification of one's soul, granting them superhuman abilities as well as inherent resistance too the Disquiet. Exceptionally powerful Guardians are able to hone this amplification into both a shield and a sword, able to protect allies from the Disquiet (and, as a consequence, Dissonance) and slay Disquieted enemies.
There are two weapon schools in the Guardian style, that of the Blade (a style based around killing Disquieted beasts with powerful, singular sword strokes) and the Bow (a style based around disabling and weakening Disquieted beasts before the kill).
Focus Gain/Use: Mirek builds Focus slowly both over turns and by attacking. Higher Focus increases his abilities in combat and, in addition, allows him to access his devastating Draw techniques.
Mirek's volatile emotions are both a blessing and a curse. Although they enable him to make incredibly powerful strikes, it takes him time to focus and sharpen them properly to be unleashed in that single, devastating strike. As such, he spends much of his time on the defensive, making probing strikes with the pommel/sheath of his blade.
Essence Flare(MP) - Increases own MDEF, raises chances of being targeted. Persists through battle. Dispels Bunker/Layered/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Bunker Soul(MP) - Increases party MDEF, lowers own slightly. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Layered/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Layered Soul(MP) - Greatly increases own MDEF. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Deflection Soul(MP) - Reflects magic(self-only). Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Buffering Soul.
Buffering Soul(MP) - Increases party resistance to Disquiet. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Deflection Soul.
Purifying Soul(MP) - Weakens stats of Disquiet type enemies (reduced effects for bosses/particularly strong types?). Lasts for 3 rounds. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Deflection/Buffering Souls.
Swift Cutter(TP) - Slashing attack that ignores counters. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Mail Cleaver(TP) - ITD slashing attack. Slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Revenger(TP) - Increases evade and counter rate. Lasts 3 turns. Consumes half of required TP.
Shock Blade(TP) - Impact damage on one enemy, adds heavy delay to target. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes = 1
Banishing Edge(TP) - Anti-Disquiet attack on one enemy (Disquieted types take high damage, normals take regular), slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Full Draw(TP) - Extremely heavy Slashing damage to one enemy. Slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Essence Flare -- Initial
Bunker Soul -- Initial
Mail Cleaver -- Initial
Banishing Edge -- C1
Layered Soul -- C2
Swift Cutter -- C2
Buffering Soul -- C2
Revenger -- C3
Deflection Soul -- C3
Full Draw -- C3
Soul Brandish -- C4
Purifying Soul -- C5
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Isolde Stolz
HP: 368 -> 893
MP: 200 -> 486
STR: 96 -> 233
DEX: 50 (49.5) -> 122
VIT: 72 -> 175
MAG: 89 (88.8) -> 216
SPR: 66 -> 160
SPD: 51 -> 124
EVA: 10%
HP: A (1st)
MP:C (7th)
STR: A (2nd)
VIT: B (2nd)
MAG: A (2nd)
SPR: B (3rd)
DEX: D (8th)
SPD: D (7th)
EVA: D/B (8th)
Weapons: Heavy Weapons, Polearms
Armor: Medium
Unique Action: Oversurge: Increases self STR and MAG for next attack and decreases HP by 25% (may increase MP costs and/or remove other STR/MAG buffs). Instant-use.
Character Concept: Bruiser
Isolde has spent a great deal of her life in training to join the Imperial Army. Although she proved a competent practitioner and possessed immense destructive power, she took it further, recognizing the weakness of being overly reliant on Dissonance alone. As such, she also devoted herself to learning melee combat.
By hybriding these two styles, Isolde distinguished herself among the army's ranks. The only downside is that many of her techniques require using Dissonance to enhance her body and push things beyond her normal limits.
Isolde is always fighting at max capacity. As such, she does not use Focus. Instead, she pushes herself to her absolute limits in combat, requiring she expend HP for several of her more intensive techniques.
Isolde, as a veteran soldier and the victor of more battles than can be counted. She is able to bring her best to every battle and, so long as her body can keep moving, is able to fight with everything at her disposal.
Cold Snap(MP) - L1 ice magic, slightly delays enemy on hit
Shockwave Burst(MP) - L1 earth magic, hits VIT instead of SPR, high power, low accuracy, MT
Compression Break(MP) - Inflicts ice-elemental magic damage, lowers target DEF
Magna Spiker(MP) - Inflicts earth-elemental magic damage, hits VIT, lowers target EVA
Crystal Lancer(MP) - L2 ice magic, three hits of damage and heavier delay
Upheaval(MP) - L2 earth magic, hits VIT instead of SPR, high power, low accuracy, MT
Erosion(MP) - Earth magic attack that reduces target's physical resistances (maxes to neutral)
Execution Bind(MP) - Deals heavy ice damage, may freeze opponent
Barrier Crush(HP+MP) - Weapon attack that dispels defensive (VIT, DEF, MDEF, resistance, some invincibility) buffs
Aura Scythe(HP+MP) - Weapon attack that lowers target MDEF
Jagged Edge(MP) - Weapon attack that inflicts bleeding
Freeze Cutter(HP+MP) - Weapon attack at increased power, inflicts Healblock on the target enemy. Ice/Weapon element.
Rending Blade(MP) - Weapon attack at increased power, but reduces Isolde's DEF/MDEF for the next turn. Earth/Weapon element.
Fragmentation Blade(HP+MP) - Multiphase attack: standard physical followed by an ITE ice spell
Impact Edge(HP+MP) - Multiphase attack: standard physical followed by a MT earth spell
Axion Breaker(HP+MP) - Deals extremely heavy composite damage to a single target. Cannot critical. Fixed Swings=1
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Erastus Sebrle
HP: 356 -> 864
MP: 320 -> 777
STR: 30 -> 73
DEX: 42 -> 102
VIT: 42 -> 102
MAG: 94 (93.6) -> 228
SPR: 60 -> 146
SPD: 45 -> 109
EVA: 20%
HP: A (2nd)
MP: A (1st)
STR: F (8th)
VIT: F (9th)
MAG: A (1st)
SPR: C (5th)
DEX: D (9th)
SPD: F (8th)
EVA: C (Tied 5th)
Weapons: Quarterstaves, Swords
Armor: Light
Unique Action: Cool Down: Increases Defense and reduces Focus.
Build Concept: Blaster Mage. If you need to nuke groups with burning death, then Erastus is the guy to turn to. Although getting on in years, Erastus is surprisingly hardy... at least when it comes to raw HP. In a stand up fight, he's going to have trouble against competent fighters. He isn't bad at avoiding the pokey end of swords, but just can't hold his own when the attacks start to land.
Although once renowned as one of the most powerful and capable practitioners in the world, since the Betrayal, Erastus edge has dulled and his scope has narrowed significantly. Rumors persist that he may have even lost his Sensing abilities. Still, his masterful control of fire, demonstrated by giving it shape and a seeming of life, illustrates the fearsome talent that he once was... and still is.
Focus is built at the end of the turn and when taking damage. Increases his damage and used for his magic burst style attack.
Flare Shot(MP) - L1 Fire spell; damage over 3 hits. Builds TP.
Ignition(MP) - Low fire damage over 2 hits, reduces target fire resist
Fireball(MP) - L1 multitarget Fire spell; damage over 4 hits. Builds TP.
Napalm Shot(MP) - Fire damage over one hit, inflicts damage over time
Searing(MP+TP) - Fire damage over 3 hits, reduces target's STR
Blasting Spread(MP+TP) - Fire damage over 3 hits, reduces target's VIT
Flash Burn(MP) - L2 fire spell, higher damage over 5 hits. Builds TP.
Funeral Pyre(MP+TP) - 50% Gravity effect--hit by fire resistance/immunity but not by fire weakness.
Napalm Bomb(MP) - MT fire damage over one hit, inflicts damage over time
Conflagration(MP+TP) - Deals fire damage over 7 hits (higher than average per-hit) to random targets. Subpar accuracy
Inferno(MP) - L2 fire spell; MT damage over 7 hits
Plasma Shot(MP+TP) - TP-Burst ability; burns all TP and deals damage proportional to the amount of TP Erastus has.
Plasma Storm(MP+TP) - Full Field fire spell; extremely high damage over 10 hits
[Passive] - Adds 1% HP regen for every 5 TP Erastus has.
+Summoning theme
Flare Shot -- Initial
Fireball -- Initial
Napalm Shot -- Initial
Searing -- C1
Blasting Spread -- C1
Funeral Pyre -- C2
Napalm Bomb -- C2
Flash Burn -- C3 (Replaces Flare Shot)
Ignition -- C3
Conflagration -- C3
Inferno -- C4 (Replaces Fireball)
[Magic Burst-alike] -- C4
Plasma Shot -- C4
Plasma Storm -- C5
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Kasia Jandova
HP: 311 -> 755
MP: 260 -> 631
STR: 72 -> 175
DEX: 53 -> 129
VIT: 66 -> 160
MAG: 60 -> 146
SPR: 69 -> 168
SPD: 57 -> 138
EVA: 20%
HP: C (4th)
MP: B (4th)
STR: C (4th)
VIT: C (3rd)
MAG: C (6th)
SPR: B (2nd)
DEX: D (6th)
SPD: D (5th)
EVA: D/C (Tied 5th)
Weapon: Bows, Crossbows
Armor: Medium
Unique Action: Rest: Increases Defense, Restores MP, and reduces Focus.
Build Concept: Healer. Kasia uses Dissonant healing, which is incredibly powerful but comes at a significant cost: anyone healed by Dissonant magic can't be healed again. Similarly, she has revival abilities, but they reduce the MHP of the character for the duration of the encounter. She also possesses a small array of buffs that cause negative feedback as well. However, don't underestimate her. She is a crackshot with a bow and knows a few tricks, allowing her to inflict a couple of obnoxious statuses with trick shooting.
Although Kasia lacks natural talent for Dissonance, she has more than made up for it by being focused and working hard. By narrowing her focus, she has developed impressive ability with medical Dissonance. In addition, in anticipation of Noemi's choices, she has also taken to making sure she possesses the physical wherewithal to endure expeditions to somewhat dangerous locales.
Kasia builds focus by attacking, allowing her to home in the weaknesses of her enemies and pull off her trick shots. Unfortunately, her magic distracts her, lowering her Focus whenever she casts.
Kasia is a precision archer, using the knowledge she has gained learning medical Dissonance to make her shots deadly and efficient. Unfortunately, it requires her complete focus to make the trickiest shots... meaning if she needs to use magic or do something else, she'll lose her focus.
Recovery(MP) - Heals ~60% HP to a single target and temporarily blocks further healing
Rejuvenation(MP) - Heals ~40% HP to the party and temporarily blocks further healing
Cleansing(MP) - Heals target of physical ailments and lowers VIT
Purge(MP) - Heals target of mental/spiritual ailments and lowers SPI
Resurrection(MP) - Revives one target to full while reducing mHP to 75% for fight duration
Bolster(MP) - Raises target VIT, lowers target SPR
Reinforce(MP) - Raises target SPR, lowers target VIT
Swiften(MP) - Raises target EVA, lowers target VIT/SPR
Resist(MP) - Raises target status resistance, lowers target VIT/SPR
Last Breath - MT Auto-Life effect that revives downed allies with 15% mHP and inflicts Healblock for X turns.
Poison Shot - Attack with a chance of adding poison
Arm Shot - Attack that lowers target DEX
Leg Shot - Attack that lowers target EVA
Retreating Shot - Attack that also lowers chance of targeting user (lowers user Odds)
Quick Shot - Attack at lowered accuracy, but with lowered recovery time
Barbed Shot - Attack that reduces target's Counter and Critical rates
Recovery -- Initial
Cleansing -- Initial
Bolster -- Initial
Poison Shot -- Initial
Barbed Shot -- C1
Leg Shot -- C1
Resurrection -- C2
Reinforce -- C2
Purge -- C2
Retreating Shot -- C3
Swiften -- C3
Arm Shot -- C3
Rejuvenation -- C4
Resist -- C4
Quick Shot -- C4
Second Wind -- C5
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Eirwen Glass
HP: 244 -> 592
MP: CHARGES
STR: 42 -> 102
DEX: 81 -> 197
VIT: 51 -> 124
MAG: 22 (21.6) -> 53
SPR: 39 -> 95
SPD: 78 -> 189
EVA: 35%
HP: F (9th)
MP: G (9th)
STR: D (7th)
VIT: D (7th)
MAG: G (9th)
SPR: F (9th)
DEX: A (1st)
SPD: A (1st)
EVA: A/B (1st)
Weapons: Knives, Quarterstaves, Polearms
Armor: Light
Unique Action: Evade: Increases Evade.
Character Build: Speedster Melee Support. Combat maid and resident mundane of the cast. Although limited by human abilities, Eirwen is naturally dexterous and quite quick on her feet, making her quite dangerous in a fight. She might not be strong enough to down a thug with one blow, but three or four are bound to take their toll. In addition, she is quite good at helping others reach their full potential and can assist them by providing limited healing, MP restoration, or even helping them Focus.
Eirwen does not possess any form of sensing and, as such, she is unable to use Dissonance. As such, she is limited to practical skills in combat. Still, she is well versed in martial techniques thanks to her father, and is quite dexterous naturally.
In addition, she has developed a working knowledge of basic first aid techniques (always important to be able to patch up your employer!) and a demeanor that helps inspire others to great feats.
Eirwen builds a large amount of Focus every turn, allowing her to keep busy in the fray. Her very limited MP pool is used exclusively for her support abilities which not only empties her MP pool very quickly, but also drains her Focus.
Eirwen is incredibly focused when working, and this carries over to fighting as well. Unfortunately, her focus is ultimately limited by her human capabilities, preventing her from chaining complicated techniques together.
First Aid(Item) - 36% health regen applied to ally over 3 turns
Recuperate(Item) - Heals physical statuses from target
Resuscitate(Item) - Heals incapacitated ally with 5% mHP
Refresh(Charges) - Restores 25% MP to a target.
Invigorate(Charges) - Increases TP gain rates by 5 for 3 turns.
Turn Boost(1) - Gives one ally an instant turn.
Speed Fang(TP) - Basic attack at half swings, takes half as long to recover
Dazing Flurry(TP) - Attack that has a chance to confuse the target
Offensive Posture(TP) - Increases own SPD, decreases EVA and MEV
Defensive Posture(TP) - Increases EVA/MEV, decreases SPD
Swarm Buster(TP) - Attacks all enemies, high TP consumption
Mad Flurry(TP) - Flurry of random-target lower-accuracy attacks.
Vulcan Chain(TP) - Attack on a target that has a 1.5x swingcount
Bloodletting(TP) - Attack that has a chance to inflict bleeding upon the target
Vital Shrike(TP) - Attack that has a chance to instantly kill the target
Accelerate(TP) - Act twice instantly
First Aid -- Initial
Speed Fang -- Initial
Bloodletting -- Initial
Vulcan Chain -- Initial
Resuscitate -- C1
Offensive Posture -- C2
Defensive Posture -- C2
Recuperate -- C2
Mad Flurry -- C2
Dazing Flurry -- C3
Accelerate -- C3
Swarm Buster -- C3
Vital Shrike -- C4
Turn Boost -- C4
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Katarine Lebendslust
HP: 278 -> 675
MP: 220 -> 534
STR: 24 -> 58
DEX: 67 -> 163
VIT: 60 -> 146
MAG: 84 -> 204
SPR: 54 -> 131
SPD: 69 -> 168
EVA: 15%
HP: C (7th)
MP: C (6th)
STR: F (9th)
VIT: C (5th)
MAG: A (3rd)
SPR: B (7th)
DEX: B (3rd)
SPD: C (3rd)
EVA: D (7th)
Weapons: Echo Crystals
Armor: Light
Unique Action: Cage: Grants a Counter Rate for several turns and increases Defense. Reduces Focus.
Build Concept: Offensive Support Mage. Although she lacks the natural intelligence for being a practitioner, Katarine has transformed effort and study into an artform in and of itself. Through dedicated application to specific areas of study, she has proven incredibly apt at the manipulation of sigils, leading to her unusual weapon choice. Unfortunately, her efforts have lead to some diminishing effects for her personal upkeep.
Katarine has relatively narrow focus where her magic is concerned. Although her abilities are powerful, they are limited in nature. However, her talents allowed her to acquire one of a small number of echo crystals that were produced by the army.
These weapons are incredibly powerful dissonant foci, capable of being manipulated via dissonance.
Katarine's Focus starts full and is reduced whenever she attacks or switches weapons. It does not refill. The higher her Focus, the more damage her basic attacks will do.
Although versatile and very powerful, the minute manipulations required to utilize Echo Crystals to their fullest extent are incredibly difficult to actually manage. As such, any active use of the crystal requires the utmost concentration from Katarine.
Spark Cluster(MP) - L1 lightning spell: high variance and critrate, single hit, high accuracy
Executioner's Aim(MP) - Increases ally's ACC, reduces ally's EVA
Executioner's Precision(MP) - Increases ally's critical rate, reduces ally's EVA
Magnetize(MP) - Deals lightning damage to one target, reduces target's slash/pierce/impact/lightning resists for one turn
Executioner's Speed(MP) - Increases target's SPD, decreases target's VIT and SPR
Impulse Shock(MP) - L2 lightning spell; increased power from L1 version
Executioner's Power(MP) - Increases target's STR, decreases target's SPR
Executioner's Will(MP) - Increases target's MAG, decreases target's VIT
Chaos Spark(MP) - ITE lightning attack, high power, 100% variance
(Spread Formation only)
Suppression Fire Type-N - Low-damage random-targetting attack that reduces targets' EVA until their next turn.
Focused Fire Type-R - Standard attack that focuses all shots on a single target.
Supporting Fire Type-A - Attack that deals low damage but adds a flat increase to the damage the target takes from its next attack.
(Focused Formation only)
Sustained Shot Type-B - Attack at reduced damage that may inflict Burn on a target.
Locked Shot Type-V - Attacks with a 100% critical rate.
Cluster Shot Type-F - MT attack at reduced damage that reduces targets' ACC for their next turn.
[Passive] ATK increases by 1% for every 1 point of TP. I will adjust base weapon ATK values for this so that it doesn't end up with silly values.
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Bartol Broz
HP: 323 -> 784
MP: 160 -> 388
STR: 102 -> 248
DEX: 57 (56.5) -> 139
VIT: 84 -> 204
MAG: 55 (55.2) -> 134
SPR: 51 -> 124
SPD: 60 -> 146
EVA: 0%
HP: C (3rd)
MP: D (8th)
STR: A (1st)
VIT: S (1st)
MAG: C (7th)
SPR: C (8th)
DEX: C (7th)
SPD: C (6th)
EVA: F (9th)
Weapons: Heavy Weapons, Knives
Armor: Heavy
Unique Action: Taunt: Raises defense and makes enemies more likely to target self. Increases Focus.
Build Concept: Disruption Tank. Although a large and immensely strong man, Bartol prefers to fight, exploiting the weaknesses of enemies in combat and making it easier for his allies to capitalize on their openings. If push comes to shove, though, he has no issue holding his own with a unique combination of brute force and Dissonance.
Bartol loves baiting his enemies into underestimating him. While most would expect him to wade directly into a fight swinging some sort of massive weapon and crushing the enemies, he loves to defy that expectation, goading them into his various machinations.
By combining his strength with a clever use of Dissonance, he is able to deliver crushing blows that cripple otherwise intimidating enemies.
Bartol gains Focus by being hit by enemies or by using Taunt/Enrage. As he gains Focus, he gains access to further abilities which do not decrease his Focus.
Bartol is at his best when the enemies are playing right into his hands. Although he often gets bloodied in the process, many an enemy that has had him on the ropes has been surprised to see that being drawn in like this was all part of Batrol's plan and those coarse insults were the trap's bait.
Sonic Boom(MP) - STR-based magic attack, deals Impact damage. Delays target
Kinetic Buffer(MP) - Raises self resistance to physical attacks
Staggering Impact(MP) - Attack that reduces the damage of the target's next attack
Grand Charge(MP) - Attacks a single target for increased damage, lowers all enemies' STR
Sundering Edge(MP) - Attack that lowers the target's ATK
Sweeping Blast(MP) - As Sonic Boom, only MT. And slower to recover.
Stunning Blow(MP) - An attack that stuns an enemy for one turn
Infinite Superspeed Edge - ITD ITE attack that deals heavy damage. Low accuracy, heavy recovery. Fixed Swings =1
Fearsome Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's STR
Enrage(TP) - Berserks one enemy
Disorienting Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's ACC
Unbalancing Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's DEX
Arrogant Gambit - Greatly raises counter rate but lowers DEF for three turns.
Taunt -- Initial
Fearsome Strike -- Initial
Sonic Boom -- Initial
Kinetic Buffer -- Initial
Staggering Impact -- Initial
Disorienting Strike -- C2
Grand Charge -- C2
Enrage -- C2
Sweeping Blast -- C3
Arrogant Gambit -- C3
Sundering Edge -- C3
Unbalancing Strike -- C4
Stunning Blow -- C4
Infinite Superspeed Edge -- C4
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Djai Vaughan
HP: 266 -> 646
MP: 140 -> 340
STR: 78 -> 189
DEX: 60 -> 146
VIT: 54 -> 131
MAG: 50 (50.4) -> 121
SPR: 63 -> 153
SPD: 63 -> 153
EVA: 30%
HP: D (8th)
MP: C (2nd)
STR: B (3rd)
VIT: D (6th)
SPR: C (6th)
DEX: C (4th)
MAG: X (8th)
SPD: C (4th)
EVA: C/A (Tied 2nd)
Weapon: Bows, Crossbows
Armor: Light
Unique Action: Aim: Increases Focus and Accuracy.
Build Concept: Anti-Disquiet/Anti-Mage. As one of the elite eliminators in the Guardian's ranks, Djai's abilities have been honed to a deadly point, allowing him to kill quickly and efficiently. His particular training (and his desire to survive the Betrayal) has made him into a particularly nightmarish opponent for the Disquieted and practitioners alike.
Djai gains Focus by using the AIM skill, but it degrades over time. His Crit rate increases with his Focus.
Camouflage(MP): Lowers chance of being targeted (lowers odds stat). Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare.
Essence Flare(MP): Increases own MDEF, raises chance of being hit. Battle duration Cancels Camouflage, Dampening/Imbue/Stalwart Soul.
Dampening Soul(MP): Lowers MAG field-wide. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Imbue/Stalwart Soul.
Imbue Soul(MP): Attacks gain lessened Anti-Disquiet property. Self-only. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Dampening/Stalwart Soul
Stalwart Soul(MP): Improves resistance to magically-induced status effects. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Dampening/Imbue Soul.
Draining Shot(TP): Weapon attack that also does MP damage to a target
Clouding Shot(TP): Weapon attack that lowers target's MAG
Sealing Shot(TP): Weapon attack that may inflict Silence on an enemy
Locked Shot(TP): ITE weapon attack with increased damage
Purifying Shot(TP): Anti-Disquiet attack to one enemy.
Precise Shot(TP): Weapon attack that adds DEX to STR.
Vital Shot(TP): Weapon attack with a chance of instantly killing the enemy.
Rapid Shot(TP): Series of weapon attacks at reduced power. Very high TP cost.
[Passive] Critical rate rises by 1% per 4 TP gained.
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Well, between having to cook food for father's day and Andy getting the first post in, guess my wall of to-be-determined statistical test won't be first. Ah well.
Disclaimer: This is all one man's suggestions and subject to change.
[EditxTOOMANY] -- I guess with my numbers in hand, I'll try one at a time while keeping in mind each's concept to a degree. When I'm not in D&D.
--All letter values will be stripped of their +/- modifiers in this, given how this is still in rough matters of range
Noemi Seredova
HP:C
MP:B
STR:D
VIT:D
MAG:B
SPR:C
DEX:B
SPD:B
ACC:D
EVA:C
MEV:C
Weapons: Swords, Daggers
Armor:Medium
--Noemi's pretty much a well-rounder. Biases toward magic, and is a bit speedy, but can switch to physicals in a sufficient pinch. Prodigy lets her have more versatility than meets the eye, being able to steal most spells from allies (though not -all- spells, as a precaution. If it looks too good to copy, it probably -is-.)
--TP also goes for her Prodigy ability, which can notably copy another character's chosen spell. (In retrospect, no healing; she can Prodigy that)
Kasia Jandova
HP:C
MP:B
STR:C
VIT:C
MAG:C
SPR:B
DEX:D
SPD:D
ACC:B
EVA:D
MEV:C
Weapon: Bows, Crossbows, one other?
Armor: Light
--Healbotting is not going to be conducive to Kasia's TP gains. In fact, healing abilities for Kasia cost her her "focus" in a sense; any defensive buffs she may have do nothing, but healing lowers her TP despite not requiring it. Offense raises it, however. (but I'm still unsure how to split her skills aside from healing being in the MP-required category)
Erastus Sebrle
HP:A
MP:A
STR:F
VIT:F
MAG:A
SPR:C
DEX:D
SPD:F
ACC:D
EVA:C
MEV:C
Weapons: Quarterstaves, Swords
Armor: Light
--It's Erastus. He is now a mage. He does magey things. That aside, he's not too bad on his feet--can be surprisingly dodgy with the staff, anyway. Other than that, mage mage mage.
MP/TP interplay:Standard offensive spells run off of his very generous MP pool, and have moderate TP generation. However, his TP bleeds out some every turn, and his supernukes tend to require large amounts of TP to power.
Mirek Sebrle
HP:C
MP:F
STR:C
VIT:F
MAG:[Can be whatever the hell it wants to push the average towards C, because he's not a caster.]
SPR:A
DEX:B
SPD:F
ACC:B
EVA:A
MEV:C
Weapons: Guardian Blades
Armor: Medium
--So yeah, this is my shot at Mirek. He's...admittedly odd. Evasive, and magically tanky, but the second someone pulls out the ITE physical or ITD magic he's going to have problems. His speed does him few favors on top of that, though his strength is deceptive; draw techniques hurt. A lot. A hell of a lot.
Eirwen Glass
HP:F
MP:G
STR:D
VIT:D
MAG:G
SPR:F
DEX:A
SPD:A
ACC:B
EVA:A
MEV:B
Weapons: Knives, Quarterstaves, Polearms
Armor: Light
Hi Eirwen! You've changed the most of anyone so far; fast and dodgy as all hell, but dear -god- she needs it. Gamebest DEX, and a variety of weapons to play with on top of that. Just pray to god she doesn't run into a mage with accurate spells that can get them off before she has a chance to eviscerate them. She hates that. Oh, does she ever hate that.
--Seeing most of Eirwen's weapon skills running off of her TP, which is fast to regenerate. Her more tricky abilities, alongside her two heals, however, are built more around her MP, which is intended to have a very, very shallow pool. She can't use magic proper anyway, so...yeah.
Isolde Stolz
HP:A
MP:C
STR:A
VIT:B
MAG:A
SPR:B
DEX:D
SPD:D
ACC:B
EVA:D
MEV:B
Weapons: Heavy Weapons, Polearms
Armor: Heavy
--Isolde's HP is deceptive, as you can see below; while she is fairly durable at base (particularly given her HP and defenses), to get bigger power out of her skills, she burns her own HP. Still, heavy armor and above-average VIT more than compensates for her poor DEX and EVA, so in general she can take hits decently enough to more than give them back.
MP/TP Interplay: Isolde's more standard skills cost MP. Her nastier stuff, including Oversurge, costs HP, however (Isolde has no TP gains of which to speak of)
Notable Unique(?) Skills:
(may also get some generic Ice/Earth magic?)
Katarine Lebendslust
HP:C
MP:B
STR:F
VIT:C
MAG:A
SPR:B
DEX:B
SPD:C
ACC:B
EVA:D
MEV:D
Weapons: Swords, Daggers.
Armor: Light
--Going with Soppy's setup for her because at this point, why not.
MP/TP Interplay: Most of Katarine's standard offensive spells use MP, while specialized support and single-target nukes use TP. Her TP rises over time, but her non-generic MP spells lower it despite not costing it, breaking her preparation. Focuses on Ice and Lightning for elements, with some light-based(?) attacks in addition
Hot-blooded Cap'n Bart (Disclaimer, may not actually be hot-blooded)
HP:C
MP:D
STR:A
VIT:S
MAG:C
SPR:C
DEX:C
SPD:C
ACC:D
EVA:F
MEV:F
Weapons:Heavy Weapons, Knives
Armor:Heavy
--While he may not be shouting "IT'S YOUR AAAAAAAARM!", Bart I'm currently seeing as an odd case--his speed's deceptive because his attacks tend to have bad recovery on average. Definitely in the running for most physically durable, and his attacks...hurt. Furthermore, if he needs to, he has a light weapon choice to rip dudes a new one. Was going to give him the All Sword Set, but we've already got three sword users. Also, his fighting style doesn't give him much mobility to dodge, so he's pretty damn easy to hit.
--Changed to higher SPR to appease those who want him to not explode to magic. Also presumably he's going to be stuck with higher odds of being targeted because people seem to like more traditional tanking for some reason.
MP/TP interplay: Bart's TP skills are unusual insofar that once the TP threshold is hit, he can use them indefinitely for the fight. Conversely, his low-TP skills are not much better than his basic physicals, and there are a number of MP skills that require so much TP to use first (not quite sure of the division here yet either)
-Skillset consists of skills that tend towards interference with enemy offense and/or enhancing ally defenses as opposed to greatly enhanced damage. Very physically-oriented, has little to no actual magic damage.
[Edit]-had to disable emoticons.
[Edit]-Now that I've got the primary stat relations charted, I decided that the best option was to clear everything so I could start over with a more informed idea of things. Also distancing myself from it so that I can try and see how to inter-relate MP/TP on Kasia, Erastus, and Eirwen.
--see post on Relevant System Information on implementation; keep in mind that this is all subject to change.
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I am opposed to crit being a separate stat by PC, for reasons I gave two years ago (not really needed + stat clutter).
I have a lot to say about Str/Dex stats but that can probably wait for later in the balance stage. As a reminder, though, since I recall having to emphasise this last time: A/B on one PC is completely unacceptable unless there are passives or weapon types holding this in check. Please take a look at the stat builds on the wiki for reference.
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Crit is my fault. Misread the old wiki concept.
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Stats revised to remove cases of A/B and the crit stat that I thought would be there.
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Any link to said reference?
(that being said, I assume it has largely to do with the fact that we want the average to hover at C, so loading people with As and Bs across the board kinda makes that pointless)
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Actually, it has to do with me forgetting about how the basic physical's formula goes, and the A/B case was a case of someone with A STR and B DEX. Which according to my current charts, would amount to a resultant damage of 6.08x the difference between ATK and DEF of an opponent with average DEX and VIT.
http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/Untitled_IAQ_Project_Characters --here's the characters for reference; I admit I'm not looking at them too hard because I don't want the old IAQ to influence the current stats too much.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuLvDGc7DtaZdFFOcEVtcFZ5NnFFcnp3TUxkaDJZTUE And here's the chart it took me a day to complete. ATK/VIT and INT/SPR results are rounded to the nearest hundredth, for what it matters.
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All right. Further updated thoughts brought to you by I dunno.
Noemi: Averageish stats, erring higher in the magic categories, lower in the physical categories. Relatively deep MP resources, very slow building TP that comes from taking actions. TP can be used to cast upgraded versions of her spells or use prodigy. Basically, clutch once or twice per battle type limits. Should have a fairly wide range of abilities by endgame, including damage, buffs, debuffs, and status. Prodigy should be her only source of healing (if even then). Can fight using Swords or Knives. Medium armor.
Mirek: Physically damaging, slow, physically frail (but evasive), magically tanky (but not so evasive), and magically incompetent. Low MP pool used for party Magic defense and attacks. Low damage attacks are faster, while high damage attacks are slower. Builds Focus slowly over time and by attacking. Gains access to additional attacks as his TP increases. Higher TP increases his parameters/abilities, allows him to refresh his MP pool, and gives him access to higher damage attacks. Guardian Blades only. Medium Armor.
Isolde: Tanky Bruiser, somewhat slow. Moderate MP pool, used to power her physical, magical, and composite attacks. Attacks primarily deal damage, although a handful either increase her damage or lower enemy defenses/capabilities. Does not use TP, instead taking damage to use enhanced abilities. Axes and Polearms. Heavy Armor.
Erastus: HP heavy mage, though with middling defenses. Deep resource pool. Physically incompetent. AoE Fire damage and a little bit of debuffing. Does not use TP. Quarterstaff and Sword. Light Armor.
Kasia: Hm...
Eirwen: Evasive, but frail, speedster. Very shallow MP pool for support skills (Status recovery, healing for HP/TP/MP) (items connected?). Gains significant TP every turn which powers her physical skills and other techniques. Quarterstaff, Knives, Polearms. Light Armor.
Kat: Hm...
ToBeBart: Hm...
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Been thinking on Kat, I think I've crafted a pretty solid compromise between all the flavors of her. I had a huge writeup for this, but I lost it from the forums eating my post. It's like Mafia all over again. You'd think I'd learn my fucking lesson at this point. Anyway, point is I may skimp on details this time that'll be added in later.
So for her weapon, I was thinking just straight up focusing crystals that float in front of her and take different forms for ranged attacks. This would replace a normal weapon, and instead of other equips, she would instead gain more crystals to use for the following forms.
Form 1: Machine Gun
Gameplay
- Allows for multiple, smaller damage attacks that can be aimed at different enemies, or the same one. Kinda like Growlanser magic levels.
- Gaining more crystals gives more attacks, but not stronger attacks.
Fluff
- The crystals spread out and take aim at different enemies, or into a gatling gun barrel type thing if they're all aimed as one.
- Spritewise, can just do something simple like have 4 glowing dots in front of her, regardless of how many crystals she has equipped. For Form 1, they spin in a circle vertically in front of her.
Form 2: Sniper Rifle/Cannon
Gameplay
- High-power, single-target attacks.
- Gaining more crystals increases attack power and accuracy, but never gains more than one.
Fluff
- The crystals collapse and align in front of her to focus into one large beam.
- Here, spritewise they would for a stationary, sideways pyramid.
For the rest of her skillset, she would have some support/buffs and minor healing. She cannot cast magic while her weapon is up, and bringing it up, taking it down and formchanging costs a turn/delays her turn. Her weapon runs off one resource (though bringing it up/down and formchanging costs nothing), her magic the other. Done this way because Isolde's group needs a support character, and both Isolde and Bart are already offense oriented. However, as more and better healers come into the party, people may notice that later hey, Kat has some cool offense too. Gives her different ways of playing at different points of the game.
Uniqueness was an issue before, but her weapon solves it. It's a purely magic weapon, not simply a magically enhanced normal one (wasn't feeling an enhanced bow/xbow character, so started thinking outside the box). For variety, sure, she can't use more than one weapon type, but it's effectively two and she's got her reserve skillset, which should be balanced to make it usable as well, since Isolde's crew will rely on it early on.
It's a slightly complex weapon, gameplay-wise and story-wise, for a secondary character, but it makes sense for her for a few reasons. It requires a lot of magic power and focus. It's difficult to use and has obvious drawbacks, leaving even more powerful users with other obligations on the battlefield (like Isolde, who has to command as well as fight) to focus on simplier weapons they reinforce through magic. It feels right for Kat because it fits into what's been established about her character and also brings in the newer ideas. It's definitely the kind of thing that would put such a long-term mental strain on her, keeping up with training with that AND regular casting magic.
Djinn raised a good point that I should try to come up with something similar (though not identical) for one of the other PCs, or barring that, at least one of the antagonists to keep it from feeling too out of place. It feels like something that's not TOO rare, but is also limited because there are better, simpler weapons to use.
Thoughts on story stuff related to this idea? On how difficult it would be to implement in gameplay?
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Sad I missed the majority of last night's chat. Passed out and I don't even know why--it kind of sucks that my computer went on sleepmode, too, so I can't backlog. As such, might as well comment on what was posted, as is one of my talents.
Noemi: Averageish stats, erring higher in the magic categories, lower in the physical categories. Relatively deep MP resources, very slow building TP that comes from taking actions. TP can be used to cast upgraded versions of her spells or use prodigy. Basically, clutch once or twice per battle type limits. Should have a fairly wide range of abilities by endgame, including damage, buffs, debuffs, and status. Prodigy should be her only source of healing (if even then). Can fight using Swords or Knives. Medium armor.
No objections here.
Mirek: Physically damaging, slow, physically frail (but evasive), magically tanky (but not so evasive), and magically incompetent. Low MP pool used for party Magic defense and attacks. Low damage attacks are faster, while high damage attacks are slower. Builds Focus slowly over time and by attacking. Gains access to additional attacks as his TP increases. Higher TP increases his parameters/abilities, allows him to refresh his MP pool, and gives him access to higher damage attacks. Guardian Blades only. Medium Armor.
--Not so clear on this, if only because you declared an intent to throw Bart's TP gimmick on Mirek prior. Also iffy on the MP recovery, but eh.
Isolde: Tanky Bruiser, somewhat slow. Moderate MP pool, used to power her physical, magical, and composite attacks. Attacks primarily deal damage, although a handful either increase her damage or lower enemy defenses/capabilities. Does not use TP, instead taking damage to use enhanced abilities. Axes and Polearms. Heavy Armor.
--Largely works, seemingly no opposition to it, so I'll consider the fact that people might not want to use a self-damaging ability normally when taking into account her durability. Also, I'd still like to see greatswords as an option for her.
Erastus: HP heavy mage, though with middling defenses. Deep resource pool. Physically incompetent. AoE Fire damage and a little bit of debuffing. Does not use TP. Quarterstaff and Sword. Light Armor.
--If this was about the TP representing focus/concentration or whatnot, this was previously represented by how it'd bleed over time, in my opinion. As-is...eh, pretty standard to say the least. If that's how you want him. *shrug*
Eirwen: Evasive, but frail, speedster. Very shallow MP pool for support skills (Status recovery, healing for HP/TP/MP) (items connected?). Gains significant TP every turn which powers her physical skills and other techniques. Quarterstaff, Knives, Polearms. Light Armor.
--Strongly opposed to TP/MP healing here, as a sidenote--the former is either useless or a manner by which character mechanics are sidestepped, and the latter, well, we already have two resource sets, one of which is (currently) treated akin to meter in fighting games, the other of which can be conserved as desired and is fully restored prior to most bossfights anyway.
MAGIC CRYSTAL LASER STUFF
I'll comment on gameplay interpretation, because this may be a bit unwieldy to implement. Also, fuck post-eating forums.
Form 1: Machine Gun
Gameplay
- Allows for multiple, smaller damage attacks that can be aimed at different enemies, or the same one. Kinda like Growlanser magic levels.
- Gaining more crystals gives more attacks, but not stronger attacks.
--Okay. Spriting for this aside, the easiest way to consider this, I feel, is through a pair of weapons that gets constantly replaced throughout the game as each Funnel AEROD crystal is obtained, with a variable determining how many of the damn things she has at a given time (and thus which weapon she has). I'd have to see if NEB would be able to code a weapon for the system that could have a fixed number of attacks more than 1 (it's doable in YEM, but we've diverged a bit from this), but that'd be one of the bigger issues here. Each weapon would have a hidden auto-status attached to it which determines which skills are available, at that (will have to test YEM to see if this is implemented or not; enough's been dummied out or bugged that I can't quite leave it to good faith).
Now, for the bad news; targeting in RM is largely limited to three types when it comes to offensive skills--ST, MT, and random-target. (YEM does allow for AoEs, but those are silly and pointless in a game where nothing moves around anyway.) So we'd have to work within those parameters when it comes to specific targeting for abilities. Furthermore, basic attack largely amounts to single-target stuff, so we'd have to work within those parameters.
That aside, those two shouldn't be too hard to implement, I'd like to say--though I'd be curious as to whether you'd rate them as physical damage or magic damage in this case.
[EDIT] I do have one major implementation concern about this, and this'll largely be "This is going to be hard as all hell to animate", with what I know of YEM sprite animations.
Djinn raised a good point that I should try to come up with something similar (though not identical) for one of the other PCs, or barring that, at least one of the antagonists to keep it from feeling too out of place. It feels like something that's not TOO rare, but is also limited because there are better, simpler weapons to use.
--Given that some are leaning towards another Guardian as the ninth, it'd probably be shunted over to an antagonist. Incidentally, I do have a concept that could be easily shifted to that weapon type, so *shrugs*
I'll start on stats sometime later today with this in mind.
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Will comment on Kat after I have more time to mull over the concept.
--Not so clear on this, if only because you declared an intent to throw Bart's TP gimmick on Mirek prior. Also iffy on the MP recovery, but eh.
Unsure of whether I actually want to do that, so, for the moment, I reversed it back to mid-range TP gain but high-speed TP consumption. MP recovery can go, but his resource pool probably needs to be deeper in that case.
--Largely works, seemingly no opposition to it, so I'll consider the fact that people might not want to use a self-damaging ability normally when taking into account her durability. Also, I'd still like to see greatswords as an option for her.
Her HP should probably be slightly inflated to account for the cost, since the raw number would not be accurately indicative of her HP. And sure, no issue with Greatswords.
--If this was about the TP representing focus/concentration or whatnot, this was previously represented by how it'd bleed over time, in my opinion. As-is...eh, pretty standard to say the least. If that's how you want him. *shrug*
I'd be fine with a use it lose it style TP with him as well. Would likely shunt over his debuffs or something to it.
--Strongly opposed to TP/MP healing here, as a sidenote--the former is either useless or a manner by which character mechanics are sidestepped, and the latter, well, we already have two resource sets, one of which is (currently) treated akin to meter in fighting games, the other of which can be conserved as desired and is fully restored prior to most bossfights anyway.
Fair enough. Just tossing it as a conceptual option. Especially if the ability is unique to her, a very shallow MP pool would allow for the ability to be reasonably strong but, essentially, deny notable abuse.
Given the general direction people seem to possibly like for Kat, either upgrading Kasia to a more full fledged archer, making the 9th PC an archer (not unreasonable, even as a Guardian, since it'd be similar in style), or maybe doing something silly like going tanky ranged with Bart (dual Crossbow Pistols!)...
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Regarding the proposed "MAGIC CRYSTAL LASER STUFF", I already went over this with Sopko in chat last night, but basically everything there should be implementable with the exception of, as has already been noted, highly-specific targetting on the machinegun's multi-attacks. If we settle on making it MT or random target (perhaps focussing somewhat?) then we're good.
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Just posting that I noted last night in chat that NEB's points are fine. Was just going as high concept as I could for her initial build. Switching the targeting mechanic to something simpler is no problem at all. Let me know what the focused random targeting means. Sounds like an avenue to explore.
Similarly, it doesn't have to be animated as I said, can be done more simply. Just high conceptin'.
Trying to picture statspread. It pretty much leaves her with any possibility. The focus required kills her evade, doesn't require much strength, but maybe dex to properly handle it... Magic and Physical defense... I'd say it offers a level of defense to both?
HP: C
MP: C
STR: F
VIT: C
MAG: A
SPR: B
DEX: B
SPD: C
ACC: B
EVA: D
MEV: D
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Updating characters with what we've been working towards as their more solid concepts. We'll want to start hammering out additional details at this point, paying particular attention to any odd-ball mechanics or the like. Added post for the 9th PC who we can discuss later. Added post for the mysterious 9th PC.
Also keep in mind that, due to the episodic deal, we'll have a lot more room for tweaking skills between episodes, allowing us to enhance power bases or the like easily.
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Noemi (Note, I am not accounting for a magic burst skill, as I am not a fan of them. However, there has been interest noted in having one for Noemi)
Names are complete filler.
-Prodigy (MP/Focus): Noemi copies certain abilities from other characters.
-Burning Waltz (MP): Multi-hit AoE Fire Damage
-Crescendo: Burning Waltz (MP/Focus): More hits then Burning Waltz, and decreases enemy defenses.
-Dance of Winter's Fall (MP): Freezes an enemy in place (Stop).
-Crescendo: Dance of Winter's Fall (MP/Focus): Freezes an enemy in place, dealing heavy damage.
-Warrior's Dance (MP): Increases target's Str for a limited time, but deals damage to the target.
-Crescendo: Warrior's Dance (MP/Focus): Increases target's stats for a limited time, but deals damage to the target.
-Call of the Disquiet (MP): Lowers the target's stats for a limited time.
-Crescendo: Call of the Disquiet (MP/Focus): Lowers the target's stats for a limited time and deals massive slip damage.
-Dance Against Demons (MP): All characters gain resistance to Disquiet damage.
-Crescendo: Dance Against Demons (MP/Focus): All characters gain immunity to Disquiet damage for 2 turns.
-Crumbling Sonata (MP): Moderate earth elemental damage to all targets.
-Crescendo: Crumbling Sonata (MP/Focus): Moderate earth elemental damage to all targets and delays their next turn significantly.
-Raging Bolts (MP): Solid lightning damage vs one target.
-Crescendo: Raging Bolts (MP/Focus): Solid lightning damage vs one target that ignores defenses and resistances.
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Kasia (Names, filler, etc)
Invigorate (MP): Restores 100% of target HP. Inflicts Heal Block. Reduces Focus.
Raise Spirits (MP): Restores 75% of party HP. Inflicts Heal Block. Drops Focus to 0.
Lifesaver (MP): Cures Incapacitated and restores target to 100% health, but inflicts Heal Block and reduces their mHP by 25%. Drops Focus to 0.
Strong Body (MP): Increases party member Def/MDef for a limited time. Decreases their Atk/MAtk. Reduces Focus.
Deadly Body (MP): [Inverse of Strong Body]
Swift Body (MP): Increases party member Dex and Speed. Decreases all other stats. Reduces Focus.
Bleed Shot (Focus): Inflicts minor damage, but also slip damage for a long duration.
Joint Shot (Focus): Has a chance to stop an enemy for a brief time.
Graze Shot (Focus): Has a chance to draw the enemy's attention.
Triple Shot (Focus): Moderate damage, randomized between enemies.
Pain Arrow (Focus): Silences enemy for a brief time.
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Erastus (Names, filler, etc)
-Scorch (MP): Fire Damage, yo
-Incinerate (MP): Fire Damage, reduces fire resistance
-Flame Wolves (MP): Deals a number of fire damage hits random targets.
-Flame Vines (MP/Focus): Deals fire damage over several turns and slows the targets (all enemies)
-Ash Elemental (MP/Focus): Deals several, low damage hits to a single target with a chance of causing fear (lose action chance) in the target
-Flame Snake (MP/Focus): Deals several hits of minor fire damage with a chance of instant death.
-Agni Titan (MP/Focus): Plot. Deals Unfathomable damage to all enemies and all allies.
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Guess I might as well post what I have for who, idea-wise...
Noemi
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Flare Shot(MP) - L1 Fire spell, damage over 3 hits -> Flare Shell(MP+TP) - Boosted fire spell, increased damage per hit
Sleeping(MP) - Inflicts sleep upon a single target -> Knockout(MP+TP) - Hits three randomly-selected targets. Repeat targets are checked for sleep per hit.
Spark Cluster(MP) - L1 Lightning spell, high accuracy, critical, and variance, single hit -> Thunderstrike(MP+TP) - Boosted lightning spell, higher base damage, lower variance, ITE
Flame Blade(MP) - Makes target ally's weapon fire-element -> Burning Armory(MP+TP) - MT version
Spell Buffer(MP) - Increases target ally's resistance to nonphysical non-Disquiet elements -> Spell BarrierMT version
Lethargy(MP) - Lowers target enemy's speed -> Binding(MP+TP) - Negates enemy's ability to counterattack
Flash Burn(MP) - L2 Fire spell, damage over 5 hits -> Flash Bomber(MP+TP) - MT version, lowers enemy accuracy
Vanisher(MP) - Full-field dispel -> Eraser(MP+TP) - Dispels effects from a single enemy
Empower(MP) - Boosts target ally's STR -> Energize(MP+TP) - Boosts target ally's ATK
Necrolysis(MP+TP) - Deals Disquiet-type damage to a target. Deals fairly heavy ITD damage on the next turn. Ineffective on Disquieted.
Quieting(MP+TP) - Deals Anti-Disquiet damage and stuns the target. Ineffective on non-Disquieted.
Prodigy(TP) - Copies a spell from an ally to use for the duration of the battle. Is replaced by copied spell.
Nama's Notes - Only two real changes were wanted of Noemi, and that was two skill additions, as seen above. Noemi had the most solidified concept at first, and it showed. Her skillset didn't require much tampering with. Necrolysis was made the way it was because a straight damage skill felt plain (and she doesn't need a flat-out nuke. She's fast as all hell, and her attacks add up.), so instead making it a skill with a one-turn pseudopoison effect would work better to me. Quieting felt a bit too strong to me, so I instead put it as a magical Anti-Disquiet effect. Think Efess or St.Fire, only to Disquiet targets rather than demons. Not that there's much of a difference between the two given universe parallels.
Kasia
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Recovery(MP) - Heals ~60% HP to a single target and temporarily blocks further healing
Rejuvenation(MP) - Heals ~40% HP to the party and temporarily blocks further healing
Cleansing(MP) - Heals target of physical ailments and lowers VIT
Purge(MP) - Heals target of mental/spiritual ailments and lowers SPI
Resurrection(MP) - Revives one target to full while reducing mHP to 75% for fight duration
Bolster(MP) - Raises target VIT, lowers target SPR
Reinforce(MP) - Raises target SPR, lowers target VIT
Swiften(MP) - Raises target EVA, lowers target VIT/SPR
Resist(MP) - Raises target status resistance, lowers target VIT/SPR
Last Breath - MT Auto-Life effect that revives downed allies with 15% mHP and inflicts Healblock for X turns.
Poison Shot - Attack with a chance of adding poison
Arm Shot - Attack that lowers target DEX
Leg Shot - Attack that lowers target EVA
Retreating Shot - Attack that also lowers chance of targeting user (lowers user Odds)
Quick Shot - Attack at lowered accuracy, but with lowered recovery time
Barbed Shot - Attack that reduces target's Counter and Critical rates
Nama's Notes - Added the auto-life effect. Other than that, Kasia's largely turned out better than I thought. Nobody seems to have any objections, anyway.
Erastus
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Flare Shot(MP) - L1 Fire spell; damage over 3 hits. Builds TP.
Ignition(MP) - Low fire damage over 2 hits, reduces target fire resist
Fireball(MP) - L1 multitarget Fire spell; damage over 4 hits. Builds TP.
Napalm Shot(MP) - Fire damage over one hit, inflicts damage over time
Searing(MP+TP) - Fire damage over 3 hits, reduces target's STR
Blasting Spread(MP+TP) - Fire damage over 3 hits, reduces target's VIT
Flash Burn(MP) - L2 fire spell, higher damage over 5 hits. Builds TP.
Funeral Pyre(MP+TP) - 50% Gravity effect--hit by fire resistance/immunity but not by fire weakness.
Napalm Bomb(MP) - MT fire damage over one hit, inflicts damage over time
Conflagration(MP+TP) - Deals fire damage over 7 hits (higher than average per-hit) to random targets. Subpar accuracy
Inferno(MP) - L2 fire spell; MT damage over 7 hits
Plasma Shot(MP+TP) - TP-Burst ability; burns all TP and deals damage proportional to the amount of TP Erastus has.
Plasma Storm(MP+TP) - Full Field fire spell; extremely high damage over 10 hits
[Passive] - Adds 1% HP regen for every 5 TP Erastus has.
Nama's Notes - Switched around which skills have TP costs, and made the Napalm skills less MDEF-dependent. Plasma Shot got changed to a TP Burst format. Plasma Storm is still "HAX SIGN:BURN EVERYTHING."
Mirek
--
Essence Flare(MP) - Increases own MDEF, raises chances of being targeted. Persists through battle. Dispels Bunker/Layered/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Bunker Soul(MP) - Increases party MDEF, lowers own slightly. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Layered/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Layered Soul(MP) - Greatly increases own MDEF. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Deflection/Buffering Soul.
Deflection Soul(MP) - Reflects magic(self-only). Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Buffering Soul.
Buffering Soul(MP) - Increases party resistance to Disquiet. Persists through battle. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Deflection Soul.
Purifying Soul(MP) - Weakens stats of Disquiet type enemies (reduced effects for bosses/particularly strong types?). Lasts for 3 rounds. Dispels Essence Flare, Bunker/Layered/Deflection/Buffering Souls.
Swift Cutter(TP) - Slashing attack that ignores counters. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Mail Cleaver(TP) - ITD slashing attack. Slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Revenger(TP) - Increases evade and counter rate. Lasts 3 turns. Consumes half of required TP.
Soul Brandish(TP) - Damage and dispels effects on an enemy
Shock Blade(TP) - Impact damage on one enemy, adds heavy delay to target. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes = 1
Banishing Edge(TP) - Anti-Disquiet attack on one enemy (Disquieted types take high damage, normals take regular), slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
Full Draw(TP) - Extremely heavy Slashing damage to one enemy. Slow recovery. Consumes half of required TP. Fixed Strikes =1
[Passive] - SPD increases by 1% for every 2 TP Mirek has.
Nama's Notes - Mirek is admittedly a weird case since we kept a lot of the stat weirdness and lost some of the rest. His basic physical isn't meant to be so dominating anymore, for example, he starts slower, and he's a lot more dependent on burning TP for his big damage. Soul Brandish was removed to aid in removing some overlap with Isolde--ironically, he inherits one of Isolde's old IAQ skills modified to give him two benefits rather than one--A form of control that can be exerted on an enemy, and the only Draw skill that does Impact damage instead of Slashing.
Eirwen
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First Aid(Item) - 36% health regen applied to ally over 3 turns
Recuperate(Item) - Heals physical statuses from target
Resuscitate(Item) - Heals incapacitated ally with 5% mHP
Refresh(Charges) - Restores 25% MP to a target.
Invigorate(Charges) - Increases TP gain rates by 5 for 3 turns.
Turn Boost(1) - Gives one ally an instant turn.
Speed Fang(TP) - Basic attack at half swings, takes half as long to recover
Dazing Flurry(TP) - Attack that has a chance to confuse the target
Offensive Posture(TP) - Increases own SPD, decreases EVA and MEV
Defensive Posture(TP) - Increases EVA/MEV, decreases SPD
Swarm Buster(TP) - Attacks all enemies, high TP consumption
Mad Flurry(TP) - Flurry of random-target lower-accuracy attacks.
Vulcan Chain(TP) - Attack on a target that has a 1.5x swingcount
Bloodletting(TP) - Attack that has a chance to inflict bleeding upon the target
Vital Shrike(TP) - Attack that has a chance to instantly kill the target
Accelerate(TP) - Act twice instantly
Nama's Notes - Refresh and Invigorate vary between episodes on how many charges they have. Both will be low as all hell. As a sidenote, if we intend to make all the healing ones item-based, I demand a fairly low cap so that she can't stockpile the things.
Bartol
Sonic Boom(MP) - STR-based magic attack, deals Impact damage. Delays target
Kinetic Buffer(MP) - Raises self resistance to physical attacks
Staggering Impact(MP) - Attack that reduces the damage of the target's next attack
Grand Charge(MP) - Attacks a single target for increased damage, lowers all enemies' STR
Sundering Edge(MP) - Attack that lowers the target's ATK
Sweeping Blast(MP) - As Sonic Boom, only MT. And slower to recover.
Stunning Blow(MP) - An attack that stuns an enemy for one turn
Infinite Superspeed Edge - ITD ITE attack that deals heavy damage. Low accuracy, heavy recovery. Fixed Swings =1
Taunt(TP) - Makes enemies more likely to target self (raises Odds stat)
Fearsome Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's STR
Covering Attack(TP) - Attack that hits a random enemy before covering selected target until next turn
Enrage(TP) - Berserks one enemy
Disorienting Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's ACC
Unbalancing Strike(TP) - Attack that lowers target's DEX
Arrogant Gambit - Greatly raises counter rate but lowers DEF for three turns.
Nama's Notes - Nothing really of note here. Changed Sonic Boom/Sweeping Blast to make it into more of pseudomagic, though this could easily be changed to something else.
Isolde
Oversurge(HP) - Increases self STR and MAG for next attack (may increase MP costs and/or remove other STR/MAG buffs). Instant-use.
Cold Snap(MP) - L1 ice magic, slightly delays enemy on hit
Shockwave Burst(MP) - L1 earth magic, hits VIT instead of SPR, high power, low accuracy, MT
Compression Break(MP) - Inflicts ice-elemental magic damage, lowers target DEF
Magna Spiker(MP) - Inflicts earth-elemental magic damage, hits VIT, lowers target EVA
Crystal Lancer(MP) - L2 ice magic, three hits of damage and heavier delay
Upheaval(MP) - L2 earth magic, hits VIT instead of SPR, high power, low accuracy, MT
Erosion(MP) - Earth magic attack that reduces target's physical resistances (maxes to neutral)
Execution Bind(MP) - Deals heavy ice damage, may freeze opponent
Barrier Crush(HP+MP) - Weapon attack that dispels defensive (VIT, DEF, MDEF, resistance, some invincibility) buffs
Aura Scythe(HP+MP) - Weapon attack that lowers target MDEF
Jagged Edge(MP) - Weapon attack that inflicts bleeding
Heavy Cutter(MP) - ITD weapon attack
Freeze Cutter(HP+MP) - Weapon attack at increased power, inflicts Healblock on the target enemy. Ice/Weapon element.
Rending Blade(MP) - Weapon attack at increased power, but reduces Isolde's DEF/MDEF for the next turn. Earth/Weapon element.
Fragmentation Blade(HP+MP) - Multiphase attack: standard physical followed by an ITE ice spell
Impact Edge(HP+MP) - Multiphase attack: standard physical followed by a MT earth spell
Axion Breaker(HP+MP) - Deals extremely heavy composite damage to a single target. Cannot critical. Fixed Swings=1
Nama's Notes - There, Andy, more HP+MP costing skills for you. She only has one physical skill that only costs MP. I guess if you feel the effects are powerful enough to warrant such, fine, though Aura Scythe feels a bit on the low end for that, pending.
Katarine (disclaimer: Technique names in particular will most definitely not be final)
Spark Cluster(MP) - L1 lightning spell: high variance and critrate, single hit, high accuracy
Executioner's Aim(MP) - Increases ally's ACC, reduces ally's EVA
Executioner's Precision(MP) - Increases ally's critical rate, reduces ally's EVA
Magnetize(MP) - Deals lightning damage to one target, reduces target's slash/pierce/impact/lightning resists for one turn
Executioner's Speed(MP) - Increases target's SPD, decreases target's VIT and SPR
Impulse Shock(MP) - L2 lightning spell; increased power from L1 version
Executioner's Power(MP) - Increases target's STR, decreases target's SPR
Executioner's Will(MP) - Increases target's MAG, decreases target's VIT
Chaos Spark(MP) - ITE lightning attack, high power, 100% variance
(Spread Formation only)
Wisp Spread(TP) - Attacks each enemy with (shots/3, round up) shots
Nemesis Mirror(TP) - Attacks all enemies once, with a full set of randomly-targeted shots following
Lanzerkanone(TP) - Standard attack sequence based on DEX instead of normal shot count (specific multiplier)
Sword Breaker(TP) - STR-based attack chain on one enemy followed by ITE normal attack chain
O.O. Launcher E-type(TP) - Full attack chain on all enemies
Suppression Fire Type-N - Low-damage random-targetting attack that reduces targets' EVA until their next turn.
Focused Fire Type-R - Standard attack that focuses all shots on a single target.
Supporting Fire Type-A - Attack that deals low damage but adds a flat increase to the damage the target takes from its next attack.
(Focused Formation only)
Cross Smasher(TP) - High-CT attack with increased ATK
Halberd Shooter(TP) - Single shot followed by two randomly-targeted lower-ACC hits
Photon Laser(TP) - Attack with 100% critical rate
Lanzerkanone W(TP) - Standard attack sequence based on DEX instead of normal shot count (specific multiplier)
Mega Flasher(TP) - Attack with high power, but renders Katarine unable to act on her next turn
Sustained Shot Type-B - Attack at reduced damage that may inflict Burn on a target.
Locked Shot Type-V - Attacks with a 100% critical rate.
Cluster Shot Type-F - MT attack at reduced damage that reduces targets' ACC for their next turn.
[Passive] ATK increases by 1% for every 1 point of TP. I will adjust base weapon ATK values for this so that it doesn't end up with silly values.
Nama's Notes - Well, at least the war over Katarine's skillset is dying down. Lightning magic gives her a bit of (albeit unpredictable) offensive variety that lets her stay relevant, though I was half-tempted to give her low-level ice magic as well to diversify the cast a bit more. That aside, she's designed to be as offense-focused as possible--closest thing she's got to a defensive skill is Cluster Shot Type-F, and she can't keep that up forever.
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Mirek Sebrle (Filler Names, yes)
Guardian's Strike (Passive): Basic attacks increase in power the more Focus Mirek has.
Guardian's Shroud (MP): CT Boost, increases party MDef for a short time.
Guardian's Defense (MP): CT Decrease, significantly increases target MDef, as well as as grants immunity to Disquiet damage.
Guardian's Reversal (MP): Reflect incoming spells for a limited time.
Counterstance (Focus): Lowers speed, but increases evasion and counter attack rate.
Staggering Blow (Focus): Damage + Speed Decrease, Accuracy Decrease, Chance of Silence
Deathblow (Focus): Instant death.
Second Wind (Focus): Drops Speed/Eva and restores MP.
One Stroke (Focus/MP): Massive damage + CT decrease
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Eirwen Glass (Skill names, placeholders, etc
Patch-Up (MP): Provides regen to target character.
Encourage (MP): Provides an MP boost to target character.
Inspire (MP): Increases focus generation to target character.
Defensive Stance (Focus): Short duration Evasion boost, prevents Focus gain while in effect.
(Knife Skills)
(Quarterstaff/Polearm Skills)
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My plan was to generally Evaluate, Edit, Suggest, Supplant instead of invent. So I'll start with Noemi. Gonna go with combining the best aspects of Andy and Nama's stuff rather than ticking off all their stuff. In general though, I'm a fan of her proposed system of boosting certain spells via Focus. I'd require a bit more cost though, maybe a half turn to charge on average, and make the results similarly worth it. You can thereby improve/differentiate her from certain characters that have similar stuff to a greater degree.
Probably will be slightly lower on the amount of abilities than both, since planning for first episode. Too many skills doesn't leave us with many places to go (though I get too little makes it not as interesting)
Names are of course of no consequence, but I like the idea to call the limit attacks Crescendos.
Noemi
- Prodigy (MP/Focus): Noemi copies certain abilities from other characters.
(Obvious one. I would say though that it requires focus to both grab AND keep a skill, and she can restore the initial focus by cancelling the spell if thats possible).
- Flare Shot (MP): Single target, multi hit Fire Spell.
-Crescendo (MP+Focus): Requires a full turn wait. Hit all, multi-hit Fire spell. Increased fire damage per hit vs Flare Shot.
(Reflects Noemi pretty well. She's travelling with super-firemage Erastus, so her standby Fire spell is understandably going to get super-boosted on focus, reflects her ability to make jumps well, and the wait can serve to differentiate it from Erastus stuff)
- Dance Against Demons (MP): All characters gain resistance to Disquiet damage.
-Crescendo: (MP/Focus): Half-turn wait. All characters gain immunity to Disquiet damage for 2 turns.
(Don't see much need for change here. Reflects her Disquiet focus pretty well, but possibly better served on Mirek as a Guardian? His Reflect though works just as well for him, so this'll fit her. Timing... immunity is good, 2 turns... not so much in CTB. Speedy characters may even outspeed it's usefulness)
- Spark Cluster (MP): - Lightning spell, high accuracy, critical, and variance, single hit
-Crescendo: (MP/Focus): Quarter-turn wait. Boosted lightning spell, higher base damage, ITE.
(A spell for speed and a solid punch. You can make the focus hit a bit higher than normal to counteract the high speed)
- Crumbling Sonata (MP): Moderate earth elemental damage to all targets.
-Crescendo: (MP/Focus): Half-turn/three-quarter turn wait. Moderate earth elemental damage to all targets and delays their next turn significantly.
(Crescendo is more about the speed hit against the enemy than the damage. The speed at which she gets this move off depends on balance, really.)
- Knockout (MP) - Inflicts sleep upon a single target, good chance
-Crescendo: (MP/Focus) - Hits three randomly-selected targets. Repeat targets are checked for sleep per hit.
(Fills out the skillset nicely, doesn't need much changing)
5-6 seems right for most characters first episode, maybe 6 for Erastus and Bart. For Noemi, this covers her bases pretty well I think without going overboard, since it's technically 10+infinity skills considering Prodigy.
I like Andy's idea for her debuff, but that seems more like Episode 2 territory, full-field dispel as well but that also may fit another character better.
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Review of last meeting regarding skillsets:
*Noemi, Kasia, Mirek, Eirwen, and Erastus were mostly solidified.
*Low-level universal elemental spells attached to equipment were agreed to be a decent addition and if they interfered with balance too much, they were easy to remove or just turn into enemy-only skills. Appr. 5 spells planned, one for each major element. The equip is likely to be an accessory-type called Echo Sigils.
*Noemi's primary features are her Prodigy ability for variety, her Crescendos for MP/FP interplay, and the unique ability among the PCs to use Disquiet as a damage element. Her Disquiet spell will be used to allow her a method to 'keep up' on the damage scale with Mirek and Isolde. The Disquiet spell will likely feature some kind of turn-delayed damage or Damage-over-time effect (thus making it unlikely to be buff-able). It is likely that she will regen low amounts of MP on her physicals.
*Kasia's buffs need some retooling due to the combining of VIT and SPR into a single VIT stat. It was agreed that a 'panic button'-esque MT Auto-Life technique was a good addition to her skills. Second Wind - MT Auto-Life that revives downed allies with 15% mHP and inflicts Healblock for X turns. It was agreed that some of Kasia's heals/buffs/status skills should be available on at least one or two other PCs.
*Mirek was agreed to be fine as posted.
*Eirwen was noted as having some low-level ally-targeting MP/FP regen/healing to round out her "First Aid" style skillset. Might still be worth looking into a Hi-Item-type skill for her, but Items haven't been discussed yet.
*Erastus, for plot reasons, is getting a Summoning-type Aesthetic to most of his fire skills (Think: Andy's names, Nama's skill descriptions). It was also agreed that he gets a Magic-Burst style skill, most likely the Agni Titan.
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--Because we might as well complete the set. Currently assuming that bows/crossbows have single shot-count as of current.
PC Tentatively Named Dai
HP:D
MP:C
STR:B
VIT:D
[SPR]:C
DEX:C
MAG:[Whatever the hell it needs to be, damnit. Do Guardians even have a use for their MAG stat?]
SPD:C
EVA:C/A
Weapon: Bows, Crossbows
Armor: Light
TP mechanic: Dai is rather simple compared to the rest--his TP doesn't go up unless he actually bothers to spend turns aiming (IE: aim skill that boosts his own TP fairly significantly)...but it degrades over time.
Critical rate rises alongside TP.
Proposed skillset:
Aim(Free): Increases TP. Self-only.
Camouflage(MP): Lowers chance of being targeted (lowers odds stat). Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare.
Essence Flare(MP): Increases own MDEF, raises chance of being hit. Battle duration Cancels Camouflage, Dampening/Imbue/Stalwart Soul.
Dampening Soul(MP): Lowers MAG field-wide. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Imbue/Stalwart Soul.
Imbue Soul(MP): Attacks gain lessened Anti-Disquiet property. Self-only. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Dampening/Stalwart Soul
Stalwart Soul(MP): Improves resistance to magically-induced status effects. Battle duration. Cancels Essence Flare, Dampening/Imbue Soul.
Draining Shot(TP): Weapon attack that also does MP damage to a target
Clouding Shot(TP): Weapon attack that lowers target's MAG
Sealing Shot(TP): Weapon attack that may inflict Silence on an enemy
Locked Shot(TP): ITE weapon attack with increased damage
Purifying Shot(TP): Anti-Disquiet attack to one enemy.
Precise Shot(TP): Weapon attack that adds DEX to STR.
Vital Shot(TP): Weapon attack with a chance of instantly killing the enemy.
Rapid Shot(TP): Series of weapon attacks at reduced power. Very high TP cost.
[Passive] Critical rate rises by 1% per 4 TP gained.
Nama's Notes - Clarified the soul abilities and changed Aim to a free effect--it already costs a turn to get the TP off of that. Unsure about Precise Shot right now--as-is it's a bit on the weak side when compared to a basic attack against average- or low-DEX enemies. Though I guess it fills the niche against high-DEX...
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Dai looks more or less acceptable for the moment.
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Averages of a sort, since I was requested, assuming C is some nebulous 0, and each one above or below is 1 (so B = 1, D = -1, so on)
HP: C+1/9
MP: C-1/9
STR: C -2/9
VIT: C -1/3 (full C- in old IAQ terms)
DEX: C +2/9
MAG: Without Guardians, average is C+4/7. Guardians are now to be assigned either one D and one G, or two Fs, if we want it to average out to C (though that wouldn't quite be necessary. Doesn't matter in-game anyway)
SPR: C +4/9 (C+ +1/3 in old IAQ terms)
SPD: C -1/3 (See VIT)
EVA (using ad-hoc merging): C -1/9
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Topic updated to reflect 7/6/12 meeting
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Oh yeah. Unique Defend commands. We wanted those. People should theorize some about them here too/if they're worth it/what they do
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This one drifted through my mind. Erastus takes damage while defending as Fire damage.
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Even if we're not using Echo Sigils as skill-granting equips, I think we were leaning towards one-use Magic-casting items (a la WA Gems) running off of a PC's MAG stat, so there is a theoretical use for Guardians and other physicallers to have a MAG stat.
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Rough learning order for PCs! Because skillset learning order is fun and educational--well, okay, not educational, but it helps.
Currently using the assumed full-scale skillsets until that changes...
PCs debuting in C1
Noemi
Prodigy -- Initial
Flare Shot/Flare Shell -- Initial
Sleeping/Knockout -- Initial
Empower/Energize -- C1
Spark Cluster/Thunderstrike -- C1
Flame Blade/Burning Armory -- C2
Spell Buffer/Spell Barrier -- C2
Lethargy/Binding -- C3
Vanisher/Eraser -- C3
Flash Burn/Flash Bomber -- C4 (replaces Flare Shot/Flare Shell)
Unnamed damage ability -- C4/C5
Kasia
Recovery -- Initial
Cleansing -- Initial
Bolster -- Initial
Poison Shot -- Initial
Barbed Shot -- C1
Leg Shot -- C1
Resurrection -- C2
Reinforce -- C2
Purge -- C2
Retreating Shot -- C3
Swiften -- C3
Arm Shot -- C3
Rejuvenation -- C4
Resist -- C4
Quick Shot -- C4
Second Wind -- C5
Erastus
Flare Shot -- Initial
Fireball -- Initial
Napalm Shot -- Initial
Searing -- C1
Blasting Spread -- C1
Funeral Pyre -- C2
Napalm Bomb -- C2
Flash Burn -- C3 (Replaces Flare Shot)
Ignition -- C3
Conflagration -- C3
Inferno -- C4 (Replaces Fireball)
[Magic Burst-alike] -- C4
Plasma Shot -- C4
Plasma Storm -- C5
Mirek
Essence Flare -- Initial
Bunker Soul -- Initial
Mail Cleaver -- Initial
Banishing Edge -- C1
Layered Soul -- C2
Swift Cutter -- C2
Buffering Soul -- C2
Revenger -- C3
Deflection Soul -- C3
Full Draw -- C3
Soul Brandish -- C4
Purifying Soul -- C5
Eirwen
First Aid -- Initial
Speed Fang -- Initial
Bloodletting -- Initial
Vulcan Chain -- Initial
Resuscitate -- C1
Offensive Posture -- C2
Defensive Posture -- C2
Recuperate -- C2
Mad Flurry -- C2
Dazing Flurry -- C3
Accelerate -- C3
Swarm Buster -- C3
Vital Shrike -- C4
Turn Boost -- C4
Bartol
Taunt -- Initial
Fearsome Strike -- Initial
Sonic Boom -- Initial
Kinetic Buffer -- Initial
Staggering Impact -- Initial
Disorienting Strike -- C2
Grand Charge -- C2
Enrage -- C2
Sweeping Blast -- C3
Arrogant Gambit -- C3
Sundering Edge -- C3
Unbalancing Strike -- C4
Stunning Blow -- C4
Infinite Superspeed Edge -- C4
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List of status effects
These are "status effects" as defined by the engine, which includes things like buffs and debuffs, as well as passives. It is based on the information contained within this thread and is subject to change.
Incapacitated (1)
Buff: (22)
Oversurge (STR/MAG up 1 turn)
Empower (STR up)
(VIT up)
(MAG up)
(SPI up)
(SPD up)
Energize (ATK up)
(ACC up)
(MDEF up)
(MDEF up more)
Revenger (EVA/counter up)
(Counter way up)
(ODDS up)
Flame Blade
Imbue Soul (anti-disquiet attacks)
Spell Buffer
Reflect
Disquiet resist
Status resist
Regen
Auto-life
Quick
Debuff: (16)
(STR down)
*(VIT down)
*(MAG down)
*(SPI down)
*Slow (SPD down)
(DEX down)
(ATK down)
*(DEF down)
*(MDEF down)
*(EVA down)
*(ODDS down)
Erosion (phys resist down)
(fire resist down)
(lightning resist down)
(All stats down)
(damage up one attack)
Status: (12)
*Healblock
Bleeding
Ongoing fire
Binding (counter/crit down)
Weaken (damage down, 1 turn)
Blind
Silence
Confuse
Berserk
Stun
Sleep
Freeze
Passives: (4)
Mirek passive
Erastus passive
Katarine passive
Djai passive
Defend-specific effects: (?)
Negative effects marked with a star can be self-inflicted as penalties, which means we need to tread lightly with regards to (a) creating immunity to them, and (b) providing ways to heal them.
Note that RMVX provides natural support for some status effects "cancelling out" others... e.g. if the DEF Down status is applied to someone with DEF Up, we can set things up so both are cancelled. I recommend doing this, and of course that does provide one way to lift otherwise difficult-to-heal stat debuffs.
(Also, yes, I'm aware that modifiers to the Odds status effect could be considered either positive or negative.)
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So I want to raise a couple of questions, since these things are still bothering me.
1. Eirwen's MP. Especially given the way MP is working out at the moment, Eirwen's skills (flavorwise) really make no sense being tied to MP. What's a good solution here? The only thing I can immediately think of is deviate her from the MP/Focus norm and introduce a charge system or something for her.
2. Erastus' Focus. This one also doesn't quite sit right with me, and I'm not really seeing any major potential for gameplay dynamic from it. Maybe he should also deviate from the MP/Focus dynamic, giving us ~3 characters who are notably different from the norm? It would sort of make sense since the three are, in theory, different (Isolde and Erastus being significantly older/more experienced, Eirwen lacking magic).
3. Katarine's Focus. Actually need to solidify this. Kinda wishy-washy right now.
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It might just be because I am listening to a song with a lot of build up now (put a little mustard on that mustard) am a little pumped, but how about something a little different for Erastus.
You floated running him only on MP maybe to make him the more magey mage. Stick with that, but leave a focus style bar. Have it build up at like 2 points a turn. He has nothing to spend it on. Make him get 1% more damage for every point of focus he has.
Burn the world bro. Burn the world.
Edit OH OH OH make it go up double each turn and always start with 1 focus. MMMMMMMm dat fire.
Edit edit - Hmmmm So by turn 6 he would have doubled damage, I don't really like that I think it scales up too quickly. And then I realised you could make it sub for MP in the Magic burst skill and that shit is fucking hot. Trade long term damage for burst? Classic design choices wheeeee.
Edit edit edit - ofcourse if you only make it a 50% or 25% damage boost overall it is far less worrisome a scaling factor.
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Alright, since Andy has questions, I guess I can answer them with some degree of feasibility...
1: There's a couple of possible solutions here. YEM alternates to MP include not only HP and TP, but cooldowns, charges(restorable at the end of a battle or at a rest point), money-costing skills, and item-costing skills. Each has their upsides and downsides, though honestly I'd like to avoid the latter two on the basis that it encourages hoarding of items.
2: Eh. I guess if you want we can just make him a standard mage with super-deep resources or something. The other thought is just an odd sort of inversion of Eirwen's TP; MP starts at full, and regenerates so much every turn. Either way works, really.
Re:Grefter--as far as I can tell, it's not really possible to have a TP growth that goes and doubles every turn in VX.
3: Okay, yeah. Katarine's focus does need to be solidified, since as of current, it's a prototypical version of Kasia's. So let's see, so far we have:
Noemi: Limit-style TP build/usage--goes up with damage dealt.
Kasia: Builds with attacks, lowers if she has to cast spells.
Erastus: Whatever we're deciding on for him, but he's likely not in the standard TP club at this point, needless to say.
Mirek: Builds over turns slowly. Boosts damage or whatnot as well.
Eirwen: Builds over turns quickly. Spent in similarly large quantities.
Bartol/Jernej: Builds over taking damage and taunting/enraging opponents. Does not lower.
Isolde: No TP. Spends HP for higher-power attacks as well as Oversurge boosting.
Djai: Aim skill builds TP in large chunks. It's then used for varied skills in turn.
Looking at this, Katarine obviously needs to have something that stands out. Looking at the above, I can come up with the following suggestions:
*(From Andy): Start with full TP (or a high amount on battle start/end), weapon techniques drain it. Can be interpreted as a sort of ammo gauge, I guess. ...actually don't mind this, makes a bit sense if they'd need to be recharged between fights. Would need to probably give Eirwen-esque TP costs to prevent abuse in such a case.
*Alternatively, though it's a silly idea, an inverted version of Kasia's: boosts while using buffs--charge as you go? Possibly combine with the bleed concept from earlier--perhaps the devices lose their charge over time? Basic attacks, defending, and non-buff magic (more excuse for her to have some offensive magic, cough cough) being actions that'd end up bleeding her TP down.
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1. I do kind of feel like Charges (restore post battle) is probably the best bet, since Eirwen's skills are some mix of moral support and patching up. Cooldowns could also possibly work though.
2. I actually do kind of like the idea BURN THE WORLD bar. Not sure I like it increasing raw damage, but there is merit to the idea...
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I have no opinion on what mechanic you go with, but just chiming in to say we can easily make focus modify damage for a specific PC if that's what we want.
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One thought that had occurred to me was to tie it into his spell formula (when I was trying to work out how it would probably function, close NEB?) and realized that means you could make specific spells scale differently with his focus as well, so you could have one of his weaker spells scale up faster and overtake others or equal other spells later on giving you variations in cost effectiveness as battle goes on.
Two things I can think of doing this.
You make some spells you normally use for utility scale up to the level of raw damage spells, so at high TP levels he can be keeping around full damage while debuffing.
Also you could make cheap spells scale more than other spells so at high levels of TP his mana usage just gets more efficient.
I could also see combining them so you still have a cost to spamming status spells with the higher TP cost.
Sad you can't make a function for TP change at end/start of turn to call to itself to add. That probably rules out the other small dream I had of getting all Fibonacci up on this bitch and making them call back to previous turn's TP plus this turn's TP. It doesn't play properly at high levels of TP if Magic Burst skill burns up TP anyway (I don't think can make that work well while doing funky exponentially scaling TP gains anyway), but it was a fun idea I was toying with.
I suppose another option is to set a target for how long you want fights to go and set a raw TP gain to get his focus around a sane level at the end of fights? You could even make your expected turn count lower than the cap on his TP so if you drag fights on Erastus is going to finish this shit (Kind of inverse implementation of Zeboyd's enemy scaling functionally?).
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While I'm thinking about it, the other option would be the reverse. Erastus starts all excited about burning the world and just gets bored as things go on longer (not sure this works too well since we do have character switching, but we do have a lack of front loaded PCs, in theory).
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Too depressingly close to how anger really works not the sexy sexy peaking that those of us with anger management problems dream of.
Would favour whichever one suits his character best. Is he a slow burner or flash in the pan type?
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He seems more of the slow burner type in general. Mainly because he likes heinous/hilarious/painful revenge. So yeah. Build up would likely work better.
Might be worth considering that focus style for Kat instead (making it influence her basic attacks because rawr focus use is hard!)
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Well if you wanted a character to lead with that burns out quick then you could just make start at full and have stuff cost TP constantly and then regen in the back row if possible?
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Hopefully I'll have this completed in time for meeting tonight, so here we go.
Numerical stat assignments!
Seeing level as going from 1 to...hm, 65 or so (Not seeing much leveling in C6, admittedly), with PC stats doubling by level 51.
With that in mind, base stats as shown here (Note: Some characters have undergone notable or less notable build changes. Goddamn over-SPR'd cast.)
[EDIT] Now displaying: level 70 stats as well!
Noemi:
HP:300 -> 728
MP:280 -> 680
STR:54 -> 131
DEX:64 -> 156
VIT:57 -> 138
MAG:74 (74.4) -> 181
SPR:57 -> 138
SPD:72 -> 175
EVA:25%
Kasia:
HP:311 -> 755
MP:260 -> 631
STR:72 -> 175
DEX:53 -> 129
VIT:66 -> 160
MAG:60 -> 146
SPR:69 -> 168
SPD:57 -> 138
EVA:20%
Erastus:
HP:356 -> 864
MP:320 -> 777
STR:30 -> 73
DEX:42 -> 102
VIT:42 -> 102
MAG: 94 (93.6) -> 228
SPR:60 -> 146
SPD:45 -> 109
EVA:20%
Mirek:
HP:289 -> 701
MP:80 -> 194
STR:60 -> 146
DEX:71 -> 173
VIT:45 -> 109
MAG:65 (64.8) -> 158
SPR:78 -> 189
SPD:42 -> 102
EVA:30%
Eirwen:
HP:244 -> 592
MP:(CHARGES. So either 0 or 40. 40 is loltastic anyway by standard scale.)
STR:42 -> 102
DEX:81 -> 197
VIT:51 -> 124
MAG:22 (21.6) -> 53
SPR:39 -> 95
SPD:78 -> 189
EVA:35%
Bartol/Jernej:
HP:323 -> 784
MP:160 -> 388
STR:102 -> 248
DEX:57 (56.5) -> 139
VIT:84 -> 204
MAG:55 (55.2) -> 134
SPR:51 -> 124
SPD:60 -> 146
EVA:0%
Isolde:
HP:368 -> 893
MP:200 -> 486
STR:96 -> 233
DEX:50 (49.5) -> 122
VIT:72 -> 175
MAG:89 (88.8) -> 216
SPR:66 -> 160
SPD:51 -> 124
EVA:10%
Katarine:
HP:278 -> 675
MP:220 -> 534
STR:24 -> 58
DEX:67 -> 163
VIT:60 -> 146
MAG:84 -> 204
SPR:54 -> 131
SPD:69 -> 168
EVA:15%
Djai:
HP:266 -> 646
MP:140 -> 340
STR:78 -> 189
DEX:60 -> 146
VIT:54 -> 131
MAG:50 (50.4) -> 121
SPR:63 -> 153
SPD:63 -> 153
EVA:30%
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For purposes:
HP
Isolde (490) > Erastus (475) > Batojernej (430) > Kasia (415) > Noemi (400) > Mirek (385) > Kat (370) > Djai (355) > Eirwen (325)
Anything weird?: Erastus is technically odd, but flavoring it as him just being ancient and tough works out. Guy is tight as cord... and wouldn't die if you killed him, because it'd just annoy him.
Mirek's low HP is a little odd sitting below the Kasia/Noemi (neither trained combatants, and Guardian melee fighters would likely need to focus on deadly attacks and survivability), but can be justified fairly easy with his being a bit more fragile after nearly getting ganked in the Betrayal.
Djai is similarly weird and might need to be moved up a little, or plot justified a bit more.
MP
Erastus (320) > Noemi (280) > Kasia (260) > Kat (220) > Isolde (200) > Batojernej (160) > Djai (140) > Mirek (80) > Eirwen (0)
Anything weird?: Not hugely. For plot purposes, should probably give the Guardians bigger numbers (they could have been powerful mages) but counterbalance with expensive MP costs.
STR
Bartojernej (102) > Isolde (96) > Djai (78) > Kasia (72) > Mirek (60) > Noemi (52) > Eirwen (42) > Erastus (30) > Katarine (24)
Anything Weird?: Holy shit, Kasia is a baws. Seriously, she is weirdly strong.
Mirek is a little on the low side (falling below both Djai, an archer, and Kasia). No real issue with Djai being stronger on the whole though, as Mirek's shit can be justified in that he has singular powerhouse blows. Kasia though...
Eirwen also feels a bit weird being that low in theory, but can be balanced by the fact that she is naturally slight.
DEX
Eirwen (74) > Mirek (67) > Katarine (65) > Noemi (62) > Djai (60) > Bartojernej (58) > Kasia (55) > Isolde (53) > Erastus (48)
Anything Weird?: Not really.
MAG
Erastus (94) > Isolde (89) > Katarine (84) > Noemi (74) > Mirek (65) > Kasia (60) > Bartojernej (55) > Djai (50) >>> Eirwen (22)
Anything Weird?: Maybe. Plot wise, might serve to give the Guardians arbitrarily highish Magic scores (Guardians having been those with potential as practitioners), but at the same time you could just consider those scores their raw, untrained capability which makes them fairly impressive next to the highly trained individuals.
SPR
Mirek (78) > Kasia (69) > Isolde (66) > Djai (63) > Erastus (60) > Noemi (57) > Katarine (54) > Bartojernej (51) > Eirwen (39)
Anything Weird?: Not really.
SPD
Eirwen (78) > Noemi (72) > Katarine (69) > Djai (63) > Bartojernej (60) > Kasia (57) > Isolde (51) > Erastus (45) > Mirek (42)
Anything Weird?: Not really.
EVA
Eirwen (35) > Mirek (30) = Djai (30) > Noemi (25) > Kasia (20) = Erastus (20) > Katarine (15) > Isolde (10) > Bartojernej (0)
Anything Weird?: Not really.
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Stat rankings, as of current:
HP:
Isolde (368) > Erastus (356) > Bartol (323) > Kasia (311) > Noemi (300) > Mirek (289) > Kat (278) > Djai (266) > Eirwen (244)
MP:
Erastus (320) > Djai(300) > Noemi (280) > Kasia (260) > Mirek(240) > Kat (220) > Isolde (200) > Bartol (160) > Eirwen (0)
STR:
Bartol (102) > Isolde (96) > Djai (78) > Kasia (72) > Mirek (60) > Noemi (52) > Eirwen (42) > Erastus (30) > Katarine (24)
DEX:
Eirwen (81) > Mirek (71) > Katarine (67) > Djai(65) > Noemi (64) > Kasia (53) > Bartol (52) > Isolde (50) > Erastus (43)
VIT:
Bartojernej (84) > Isolde (72) > Kasia (66) > Noemi (60) > Katarine (57) > Djai (54) > Eirwen (51) > Mirek (45) > Erastus (42)
MAG:
Erastus (94) > Isolde (89) > Katarine (84) > Noemi (74) > Mirek (65) > Kasia (60) > Bartojernej (55) > Djai (50) >>> Eirwen (22)
SPR:
Mirek (78) > Kasia (69) > Isolde (66) > Djai (63) > Erastus (60) > Noemi (57) > Katarine (54) > Bartol (51) > Eirwen (39)
SPD:
Eirwen (78) > Noemi (72) > Katarine (69) > Djai (66) > Kasia (57) > Bartol(54) > Isolde (51) > Erastus (45) > Mirek (42)
Effective Speed:
Eirwen (130%) > Noemi (120%) > Katarine (115%) > Djai (110%) > Kasia (95%) > Bartol (90%) > Isolde (85%) > Erastus (75%) > Mirek (70%)
EVA:
Eirwen (35) > Mirek (30) = Djai (30) > Noemi (25) > Kasia (20) = Erastus (20) > Katarine (15) > Isolde (10) > Bartol (0)
Edits:
*Moved Bartol down two ranks in SPD.
*Moved Djai up one.
*Conversely, added altered DEX values. Wider spread now exists. Some people really hate this. Eirwen and Mirek are happy.
*Cut cast HP to 3/4 across the board. Still debating changing to 1/2 instead.
*Finally changed Guardian MP values to what is hopefully something Andy approves of.
*Swapped Noemi/Katarine VIT values as per Andy's request.
*Preparing to calculate damage outputs and recalculate durabilities. Bartol may need to be shifted around as far as HP goes.
*Rearranged DEX values; -5 to Bartol's, +5 to Djai's
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PC damage values! Assuming DEF of 15 (tried 30, it does funny things to attack centered around 60, namely skewing it toward the heavy weapons.) and DEX/VIT of 60. Taking assumptions that Katarine's weapons just substitute MAG for STR. Knives have been bumped to 48 ATK, notably.
A + next to swingcount (right number) implies being within 0.25 of gaining another swing. A - similarly implies being within 0.25 of losing a swing.
Noemi:
*Knives--125/3
*Swords--128/2
Kasia:
*Swords--108/1+
*Bows--127/1
Erastus:
*Swords--45/1
*Staves--45/1
Mirek:
*Guardian Blade--152/3
Eirwen:
*Knives--115/4
*Staves--126/3
*Polearms--162/3-
Bartol:
*Knives-168/2
*Heavy Weapons--221/1
Isolde:
*Polearms--185/1
*Heavy Weapons--208/1
Katarine:
Spread Formation(Full TP)--138/2
Spread Formation(Empty TP)--37/2
Focus Formation(Full TP)--176/1
Focus Formation(Empty TP)--67/1
Djai:
*Bows--206/2-
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PC Durabilities:
Due to the number of ways this can get taken, I'm going to end up calculating PC durability two ways: one with a single-hit method that would be the normal assumption for games in the DL, and a multi-hit method. Both are assuming an attack that would 2.5HKO an average person with average...everything, just about. Because I'm a masochist. Heaviest equippable armor is assumed.
Physical Durability(Single-Hit)
Bartol (1.597)
Isolde[Raw] (1.563)
Isolde[Practical] (1.274)
Kasia (1.142)
Noemi(1)
Katarine (0.838)
Erastus (0.809)
Djai (0.796)
Mirek (0.721)
Eirwen (0.658)
Okay, so yeah, frail cast against big single hits. 140 power is jacked up to WTF anyway and would hurt like hell in-game, but it gives a decent sample anyway.
Multi-hit method is going to be put on hold for a second, on the basis of the fact that determining a DEX value makes me want to punch kittens.
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Are you working these numbers in spreadsheets? If so you could construct the formulas there and fairly easily manipulate the raw data there and maybe even output to graphs if it helps you (or other less mathy people) visualise the scales here? Might help with making points and just showing stuffs.
Also you know as a DPS that the answer is either a sim or a good spreadsheet.
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Actually, I've just been doing it manually.
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Noemi
All right, I think I am 100% happy with her Focus methodology and mostly happy with her skillset. For plot purposes, I would like to add two more attacks to her arsenal: one designed to deal Disquiet damage, and one designed to function against Disquieted enemies. Both should probably require Focus in general.
So something like:
Contaminate (MP + Focus): Inflicts the Disquieted status on an enemy, dealing intense periodic damage and preventing them from healing for a time.
Disquiet Break (MP + Focus): Disperses Disquiet, stunning a Disquieted target and reducing their stats.
Mirek
Lessee. Might want to merge Essence Flare and Layered Soul (or have one upgrade the other), as he has a fair number of exclusive skills. Soul skills in general (for both him and Djai) should have fairly high costs and last indefinitely until the next skill is used. Allows you to be a little flexible, but prevents weaving them too much.
May want to consider allowing Mirek to maintain his Focus once it builds (or detailing how focus affects his base abilities), as his base damage is low and he is fairly slow. Unless Extremely high is EXTREMELY high (or we've got counter rates in mind or something), he is looking kind of mediocre at the moment. Other possibilities (Increase Weapon Dex Mod, Improved Counter Rate, Silly Damage, Lower Draw Cost, Passives, Maintain Focus, Regen Focus on skill use)
Revenger should likely last more then one turn on increase his chances of being attacked substantially.
Isolde
Aura Scythe and Barrier Crush should likely have HP costs added for story flavor. Might want to lose Heavy Cutter (she already hits pretty damn hard from what I've seen, plus between that and Barrier Crush, she and Mirek overlap a surprising amount).
Erastus
Need to reevaluate Focus on his skills if it is going to be concentrated into his Plasma Storm. Also need to determine how his Focus influences him (raw damage, or something sillier? We have a lot of people who scale offensively with Focus, maybe give him some sort of regen with Focus or something. Representing the sheer tenacity of ANGER RAWR)
Kasia
Don't think I had trouble here.
Eirwen
Still think I'd like to see some sort of minor MP restoration and Focus alteration trick on a very limited charge count. Something like...
Encourage (Charge): Restores X MP.
Motivate (Charge): Increase Focus gain by 5 for a short time.
Should probably also run Resuscitate off an item as well.
Katarine
All right, this can of worms. Let's rock.
Katarine starts with a full Focus Gauge, which will lower when using Basic Attacks, Skills, or swapping weapons. This Focus Gauge increases her basic physical damage substantially, the bonus decreasing as the gauge lowers.
Lose the two sets of formation based specials or swap them up to be offensive utility techniques (possibly moving the Spark Cluster capabilities/Magnetize abilities to simulate elemental "weapon attacks"?). Possibly include a damage shield type skill for her if possible.
I think that's where I stand with this one right now.
Bartol
Stand by my earlier comments. Lose Covering Strike, Arrogant Gambit either needs to increase his Odds further or last multiple turns.
Djai
Same Soul deal as Mirek.
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Erastus
Need to reevaluate Focus on his skills if it is going to be concentrated into his Plasma Storm. Also need to determine how his Focus influences him (raw damage, or something sillier? We have a lot of people who scale offensively with Focus, maybe give him some sort of regen with Focus or something. Representing the sheer tenacity of ANGER RAWR)
How very Darth Sion.
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Noemi: Okay, plotwise, I think that makes me happy. She has a nice set of abilities that represents her lower raw power/highly intellectual/wide reaching style quite effectively. Only real plot flaw I have remaining with her skillset is that Empower should probably have a downside for consistency.
That aside, skill names... eh. Not too happy here. Will think on it, but I feel like it needs to be something more... scholastic/bookish/clinical? Not exceptionally so, but moreso. That, and I like Crescendo: [Skill Name] for the upgraded versions for a number of reasons (most notably it makes it clear that they are improved versions).
Kasia: Looks pretty decent. Her magic is all thematically appropriate to a singular school of study and archery is a fine secondary concept.
Namewise... I don't like Resurrection (I dislike the "Dead" status, and this just feeds into the perception) but technically it works fine. Revive might work better?
Erastus: General shift looks good. May want to shuffle around his Focus costs, however, and move some of them over to his utility skills instead of all being on damage skills (encourage players to need to use it). Focus concept is good, although I feel it may allow his regen to go a little high?
Still would do a "summoner" theme for him name-wise, just 'cause I like it.
Mirek: Looks decent on both fronts, I think? Probably want to change Shock Blade's name (make it more implicative of a hardcore hilt strike or something). Speed increase may be a little too much, but, then again, Mirek does take all day to get moving offensively.
Eirwen: Looks fine.
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Character limit on spell names?
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There is one, but it gets pretty high. Most of the names shouldn't be an issue.
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Well just thinking if Andy wants to do Summonish names for Erastus then bumping into a character limit on spell names is a things. If you don't have room for Amon Mothma, Queen of Flames and Rebellion or something then it could dampen the impact of the theme.
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Well just thinking if Andy wants to do Summonish names for Erastus then bumping into a character limit on spell names is a things. If you don't have room for Amon Mothma, Queen of Flames and Rebellion or something then it could dampen the impact of the theme.
Erastus (Names, filler, etc)
-Scorch
-Incinerate
-Flame Wolves
-Flame Vines
-Ash Elemental
-Flame Snake
-Agni Titan
--Given that this is likely what Andy's going for here, as opposed to stuff with titles and whatnot, I don't think name size will be a big issue.
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H'okay. If I am recalling right in my current state of fuzzy incomprehension, we discussed character skillsets at the meeting and more or less determined things are cool and my concerns were addressed.
Limitations on Eirwen's item skills will be based off of cost of the item limiting infinite availability.
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Unique Actions: These fill the place of a "Defense" type command on the character's menu.
Noemi: Analyze: Boosts Defense and identifies an enemy's weakness/resistances/etc. 50% CT.
Mirek: Prepare: Boosts Defense and Attack. Increases Focus slightly. 50% CT.
Isolde: Oversurge (relocated from her skills to here).
Erastus: Breather: Defense Boost and decreases Focus. 50% CT.
Eirwen: Evade: Boosts Evade. 50% CT.
Kasia: Rest: Boosts Defense and restores MP, decreases Focus. 100% CT
Katarine: Cage: Grants a Counter Rate for three turns and boosts Defense, decreases Focus a small amount. 50% CT.
Bartol: Taunt (relocated from his skills to here, adds Defense boost).
Djai: Aim (relocated from his skills to here, adds an Acc boost).
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Tentative post for spells. But for now, largely listing characters with their STR and MAG scores, relevant spells/attacks for C1, and multipliers against standard VIT/SPR.
Assuming standard variance to be 5% unless otherwise noted.
Noemi(54/0.9x Physical, 74/1.23x Magic)
-Gains 15 TP per action.
*Prodigy (15 TP): Copies ally spells. Ally abilities that can be copied will be marked with a (C) before their name.
*Flare Shot (25 MP) - Power of 42x5. Assuming level 1 to level 1, Noemi vs. average, she'd be doing 168 a shot. MDEF-sensitive.
*Flare Shell (25 MP, 40 TP) - 55x5 power. This results in ~249 damage, with notably improved MDEF penetration.
*Sleeping (20 MP) - Adds sleep to a target, 70% base rate.
*Knockout (20 MP, 40 TP) - Adds sleep to three random targets, repeated "hits" result in repeated rolls, so it does focus in on enemies.
*Empower (17 MP) - Buffs target STR by 25%, lowers target VIT by 20%.
*Energize (17 MP, 30 TP) - Buffs target ATK by 15%. This is a weird buff insofar that it may arguably increase in effectiveness in a superlinear fashion as the game goes on--and notably increases vastly in effectiveness when against high-DEF opponents. (Conversely, it is ass against low-DEF opponents)
*Spark Cluster (42 MP) - 160x1 power, 15% critrate, 25% variance. Averages to 180 damage, but variance easily takes it from 135 to 225 before crits.
*Thunderstrike (42 MP, 35 TP) - 175x1 power, 30% critrate, 25% variance. Averages ~198 damage, ranges from 148 to 247 before crits.
Kasia(72/1.1x physical, 60/1x magic)
Kasia gains 25 TP per physical attack
*(C) Recovery (22 MP, -30 TP) - 30 power--heals roughly 180 HP, scales up as the game goes on. Inflicts Healblock for 2 or 3 turns.
*(C) Cleansing (15 MP, -30 TP) - Heals normal physical statuses, such as Paralyze or Bleeding and whatnot. Lowers VIT by 20%.
*(C) Bolster (17 MP, -30 TP) - Raises target VIT by 25%, lowers target SPR by 20%
*Arterial Shot (40 TP) - standard attack damage, 65% chance of bleed
*Barbed Shot (35 TP) - standard attack damage, lowers target critical rate by 10%, negates target counters.
*Leg Shot (40 TP) - standard attack damage, lowers target EVA by 30
Erastus(30/0.5x physical, 94/1.57x magic)
-Gains 10 TP a turn, plus 10 each time he gets hit by an attack or attack string.
*(C)Flare Shot (25 MP) - 42x5 again. As testament to his magic score, it does 215 damage.
*(C)Fireball (60 MP) - 38x5 here. Why so high on the MP, you ask? MT and it does 183 damage. To the group.
*(C)Ignition (20 MP) - 45x2. 95 damage here, but this skill isn't so big on damage as it is being a resistance-buster. He's kind of helpless against fire resist without this spell, so...yeah.
*Searing (35 MP, 20 TP) - 38x5 damage, and reduces a target's STR by 20%.
*Blasting Spread (40 MP, 30 TP) - 38x5 damage, and reduces a target's VIT by 20%.
Eirwen(42/0.7x physical, 22/0.37x magic)
- gains 30 TP a turn.
*First Aid(Item) - Power 20 heal, adds 12% regen for 3 turns.
*Speed Fang(35 TP) - Half swingcount...I'd presume round up, for half recovery time. Useful move for waiting for a prime turn.
*Bloodletting(25 TP) - Basic attack that inflicts Bleed as well at a 65% rate.
*Vulcan Chain(60 TP) - 1.5x swingcount attack, rounds up.
*Resuscitate(Other Item) - Revives target to 1% HP.
Mirek(60/1x physical, 65/1.08x magic)
-Gains 15 TP a turn
*Essence Flare(24 MP) - Increases self MDEF by 25%, increases self Odds by 25%
*Bunker Soul(40 MP) - Increases party MDEF by 25%, decreases self MDEF by 20%
*Mail Cleaver(40 TP, consumes 20) - Single-swing attack, deals Slashing damage. Treats enemy DEF as 0. 2.5x STR mult. (266 ITD slashing)
*Banishing Edge(50 TP, consumes 25) - Single-swing attack, deals Anti-Disquiet damage. Disquiet-type enemies take 5.5x damage from this (380 damage, 76 to non-disquiet)
Bartol(102/1.7x physical, 55/0.91x magic)
*Generates 7 TP every time he's attacked.
*Taunt(No Cost) - Raises Odds stat by 25% flat. Generates 7 TP. Takes 0.75x turn
*Fearsome Strike(Req: 35 TP) - Physical attack that reduces target STR by 20% for one turn
*Sonic Boom (32 MP) - Impact-element magic damage. Delays target's next turn by 40%. Base power 80x2 (119 damage)
*(C)Kinetic Buffer (22 MP) - Reduces Slash/Pierce/Impact damage by 40% for three turns. Self-target only.
*Staggering Impact (35 MP) - Physical attack that reduces the damage of the target's next attack by 50%.
Isolde(96/1.6x physical, 89/1.48x magic)
*(C)Cold Snap (33 MP) - Base power 60x3, delays target's next turn by 15%. Off of Isolde's notable MAG, we'd be seeing 205 damage. Assuming Oversurge is a 50% boost on both ends, it'd do 308 damage.
*(C)Shockwave Burst (52 MP) - Base power of 55x3, checks target VIT. Against average VIT, this spell does 182 damage. When Oversurged, expect numbers around 274.
Katarine(24/0.4x physical, 84/1.4x magic)
*Spark Cluster (42 MP) - 160 power, 15% critrate, 25% variance. With Katarine's higher MAG mult, this leads to her averaging 205 damage, ranging from 154-256 at base.
Djai(78/1.3x physical, 50/0.83x magic)
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Note to self: Need to reexamine when skills are gained, as well as which skills are gained throughout episode 1. The current list actually feels quite short.
May want to break up Noemi getting base skill/Crescendo skill at separate levels.
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Yo! Okay, so with a week of decent testing under our belts, we identified some major issues with the battle system: notably that Focus/M(S)P/etc, as we had them, were just really working the way we wanted them to. At all. Like, to the point of no fun.
So, we talked it out a bit and came to the conclusion that, as built, Focus just wasn't doing what we liked, and we let some weird plot stuff slip in as well.
Allow me to present our new revised concept for Focus (to be renamed?) and Stamina.
Focus will now be a lot closer to Wild Arms FP/Limit Meters/Etc: Builds slowly over the course of the battle (try to keep it character specific) and will be used for very powerful (but only a couple) abilities.
Stamina (SP) will be completely overhauled. It will now be on a much smaller scale (say ~8-13 points to a character, possibly growing a bit over the course of the game) that is consumed on use of attacks (variable costs, like 2-4 ish?). Stamina regenerate by a small bit (1-3) at the start of a character's turn, and can be additionally for some with their "Unique Action". Please note, we are also exploring options to continue to allow secondary cost styles on characters (ala HP, cooldowns, item use, etc).
This system will create an ebb and flow to resources in battle, allowing Stamina to actually function similarly to HP in a way (as the battle progresses, it will get tighter and tighter, giving less room for erroneous choices).
We'll be experimenting by overlaying this system over our current character builds and rechecking the Test Build. If we like it, then we can take a look at reconceptualizing some of the problem characters/reconceptualizing to better utilize the new system.
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Ho hrm. Some general thoughts. Mostly going off story here, trying to avoid altering things too much so we can test the Stamina system with minimal effort. Some characters really want more severe alterations to their builds then I'm willing to do at this stage.
Also only going to bother with the current Episode 1 skills (we can worry about deeper in later).
Noemi
Stamina: Average Stamina, Average Regen, Low Costs in general. Noemi is a prodigy and should, generally, be able to keep trucking as long as she uses her head.
Skills: Easy enough! Change Crescendo skills to Focus skills, leave all others on Stamina. Voila. Crescendo skills will need a huge boost to make it worthwhile, but hey.
Kasia
Stamina: Above Average, Above Average Regen, Higher Cost Physicals, Lower Cost Magic. We do want to create some dynamic in using her for offense and healing, but, with Heal Block (note: maybe consider Heal Block fucking with Stamina too?), we don't want to make it too hard to do.
Skills: None currently feel worth Focus =(
Erastus
Stamina: Large Stamina Pool, Low Regen, Moderate Costs. Much like his health, this old man can keep going for-freakin'-ever. Hates losing it all, though.
Skills:
Mirek
Stamina: Smaller Pool, Moderate Regen, High Costs on draw skills, Low (attrition?) on others.
Skills:
Eirwen
Stamina:
Skills:
Bartol
Stamina:
Skills:
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Made a tab to screw around with concept balance to see how it plays out.
I would note in its current form as of edits on 23/10/12 (suck it) that the pool sizes are universal without any differentiation made for character and are scaled higher than I expect them to finalise at want to playtest and see how the system feels with excess of resources first just to see how the resource system feels. This is also done with the assumption that everyone has equal base regen rate (of 1?). Costing is set at about where I would expect things on that gain per turn, but at about where I expect final stamina scale to sit (of ~= 12ish).
Played with some focus costs and put a couple of comment notes at the end of some stuff.
Edit - Put some more notes on stuff. Mostly just on Erastus MP pool not to finalised scale. Lots of babble about Kasia that I will copy paste in here. Eriwin largely untouched.
Edit 2 - Should transcribe some notes here, but lazy. Want to hash over with Nama and Andy (and anyone else interested?)
Edit 3 - I should also try to put in words why I like Mirek using standard MP system. He currently has nothing that justifies the regen, his stuff is costed high. I like that he has a unique system and it is full of choices that can be made fight to fight because the costing is restrictive. I think it gives him a unique gameplay niche with that and his primary offense being juggling Prep, basic physicals and Focus skills. There is some stuff I could think about doing with Prep, but are probably more effort than they are worth, it is neat enough having someone that has a rhythm between Prep and his normal moves.
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I'd try to cost a little closer to expected values (no super deep thought) just on the basis that the resource system will be a bit tricky to judge without running out of Stamina and a few other factors. Keep in mind, I agree we should change as little as possible to test the new system without investing a ton of work, but I do think we need to make some adjustments for it.
Noemi notes: Cooldown would work decently for Focus abilities on that basis (and it works decently well with the flavor of her Crescendos). The chain idea is interesting, but not sure if there is a good way to implement certain versions of it? Certainly would be a top end ability, though. Might be mixing too many mechanics with that though, especially with Prodigy laying around. Maybe not.
Might be reasonably easy to give her a way to use multiple Crescendos in a row, though. I do find the idea kind of interesting.
Even though you state nothing, I'm debating if Stamina should not be used for FP attacks if we can get multiresources going.
Kasia Notes: I'd almost be inclined to say that Kasia might be borderline too complex to try and maintain in her current form and might benefit from some reorientation more than most. Not sure if I like how she is currently constructed under this system. I need to talk her out more.
As Nama states, her Focus reduction from healing works because it isn't a cost, it just knocks her Focus down that much regardless of how much she has.
Mirek Notes: I think I get where you're going with him? I would actually consider something different and have his Soul skills negate (or later drain) Stamina regen. Creates a dynamic between always being buffed/buffing the party and his own abilities. I do like the idea of Prep -> Focus skill rhythm though. Combat wise it makes sense and all that, too. To be fair, he eats into Djai's unique territory if you do that, but developing similarities in the Guardian style wouldn't be bad. That and Djai might end up on the block eventually.
Eirwen Notes: Would be up there with Kasia for considering a reorientation. I feel like a moron for oversighting that I had been moving away from MP for terminology and flavor, which makes her state now kind of weird. Girl can go all night!
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Okay. Due to a combination of sleep deprivation and actually taking dudes up on the order of "take a damn break", I'm only posting now. Go figure.
Minor aesthetic detail that is important: Skills in the skill menu are sorted by their position on the database. Therefore: yay, more fiddly crap (somewhat) to get skill lists to display how desired.
On Noemi: Proposing 10 Focus, 2 Regen. She's pretty much the baseline here, and I figure 10/2 would definitely be "average" enough to work with.
-By that standard, I'd posit Flare Shot as a cost 3 spell. I'm never too big of a fan of indefinite casting of offensive spells or whatnot, so yeah.
-Sleeping...it's fairly standard status. Cost 3.
-Empower I'd be tempted to put as a cost 2. This technically makes it free for her under most conditions, though it blocks further SP regeneration as long as she's casting it.
-Spark Cluster...okay, going to be an asshole and suggest it'd end up being cost 4 minimum. Spoiler: Lightning magic costs are going to suck. Kind of like earth magic costs will.
-Crescendoes...okay. I think Noemi might be the exception to the rule on number of FP abilities by virtue of this alone. ALTERNATIVELY: Crescendoes have a "group cooldown" via a status that blocks them being self-applied with the casting of any Crescendo, or something. So she gets big spells that she can use, but you won't be able to use them for a while. I'll have to look into how this could be done in YEM, if possible.
Alternatively, a status enables them for one turn, FP skill self-applies it. Instant cast. Woo. She gets both it and Prodigy from the start, or something.
On Kasia: Okay, yeah. She needs a notable skillset refactor. To what degree, I'm not sure yet. I'll look over her at some point, though holding off now until after we can implement and test to see if this stamina thing works.
On Erastus: Ah, Erastus. You are such a pain to balance around the fact that you have MT, and will be notably the only one of such until C2-C3. 14 Stamina, 1 Regen. Putting it right here, Erastus is going to have problems with running out of gas if he's too happy with the big spells, but he's got a huge pool to draw from. This is going to be intentional. FP skills revolve around making his casting better or being nukes or something.
-Flare Shot still costs 3.
-Fireball costs 8 minimum. My philosophy on MT spells is that they should be less than efficient to cast on less than three enemies total. While he can eventually get to the point where he can cast two, it runs him dry.
-Ignition: On second thought, the way I am able to get this skill to work requires either a lot of brute-forcing statuses in the database, or would warrant a major boost in the skill's cost. Either or. This could raise the cost notably, though I'm not quite sure yet on which to go for.
On Mirek: Mirek's going to be in a weird position for his stuff. I'd say he gets 8 Stamina, 1 Regen, though the exact nature of his stuff means we don't have to worry so much about costs.
-Soul abilities in general can work one of a few ways. Expensive, moderate with them nulling regen--hell, cheap with them nulling regen. Nulling regen sucks. This leads me to believe he needs a free self-neutralize, though, just to let him start up again. Might have a FP ability that gives him some extra stamina in the process, though I'm just spitballing there and it's...meh.
-By that extension, skills would probably have to be reworked to a degree, conceptually speaking. Either we have it such that he has to balance that with basic physicals, or set up so his skills don't cost much and can use them with notable regularity when neutral.
On Eirwen: yeah, we totally overlooked Eirwen here for this. About as much my fault as anyone else's. asdf. Off of the top of my head, 8 Stamina, 3 Regen. She pretty much works best in bursts. Burns through a ton of stamina in one go, but then gets it back. Another candidate alongside Kasia for refactoring. Oh look, the two who need refactoring are the ones who are the healers. How am I not quite surprised.
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Noemi: Noemi is a very competent practitioner, capable of learning very quickly and having mastered a wide number of Dissonant disciplines. She lacks raw power of other practitioners, but makes up for it with speed, precision, and breadth of knowledge. So how to represent that and allow it to grow?
All right, we've talked Noemi quite a bit in the past, but it never hurts to recheck things. Especially since Prodigy may be on the block due to implementation difficulties.
Utility is the name of the game, and that means a couple of things.
Stamina-wise, she'll need to be pretty steady. After all, utility and variety isn't worth anything if you can't use it. The line needs to be walked carefully: she needs to not have infinite Stamina, but she needs enough to take advantage of her abilities. Of course, even her downtime shouldn't be too bad, with a decent physical available.
The main thing we'll want to look to doing with her skillset is making sure she has something effective to do in every battle. We might want to consider straight out not letting her be elementally walled (some sort of non-type damage?)
Analyze still works as a pretty awesome special skill conceptually and fits her character very nicely.
Focus-wise, I feel the whole Crescendo thing we have set-up is pretty. More expensive skills that take advantage of her setting them up (her Focus gain basically representing preparation) to be more powerful.
Later in the game she should get some interaction with Disquiet (offensively?) as a result of her studies, but that is definitely beyond EP1.
This all means her stat spread is pretty good. Speed is a blessing with utility and options, and everything else hovers a little above average/around average enough to work pretty well as a true jack of all trades.
She doesn't need to do uber damage in every fight, but she should more or less feel like a very solid contributor in every fight she's in.
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Kasia: Although not as skilled as those around her, Kasia is trained in the art of medical Dissonance and quite capable in her own right. She has a keen eye, though she tends to get flustered when presented with a lot to do in a short time. Her knowledge of medical Dissonance is solid, although she is still just a bare graduate at this point. It does help her in a pinch when she needs to defend herself though, as she knows just where to hit. She just needs to concentrate on it.
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Erastus: Erastus is an old and formerly quite powerful practitioner. His skills have deteriorated as a result of a lack of practice and his experiences during the Betrayal, but he still possesses incredible abilities. He has always possessed an affinity for fire and has always used it as the focus of his Dissonant practices. He is a survivor, strong, resolute, and with a temper that simmers slowly and sustains him.
Erastus is all about fire. It matches his somewhat erratic and troubled nature quite well. He is an incredibly (though aged, damaged, and a little mad) practitioner, though, allowing him to use what many consider a simple element with incredible force and precision respectively.
I like the current conception of his Stamina: a large pool that regenerates very slowly. He has deep reserves and incredible control of his abilities, allowing him to work for quite a while, but his age is showing a bit and he can't keep it up as effectively as his comrades.
Skillset-wise, he is also in the right territory, but could use a little tweaking. I'm fine with him mostly being walled by fire defense (although, being who he is, a trump card isn't bad). Having thought about it, expanding his AoE potential (or just making sure it is fairly solidly part of his niche) makes sense. Fire Damage + Stat Downs are pretty good for variety, and we might also want to consider giving him some sort of Fire Defense buff (again, we want to make it clear he is the master of this shit).
His variety should probably be attached to Focus (as it is now). It is tricky to use fire in incredibly special ways.
His unique skill could probably use a little refining? But I like it conceptually. His passive should probably also stay in place, as it is a nicely flavorful thing, I thing.
His stat spread continues to feel right as well.
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Mirek:
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Eirwen:
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Just placing these notes here so they can be played around with.
Skill Acquisition:
Noemi starts with Flare Shot (and Crescendo) and Sleep. She learns Crescendo Sleep for the Bandit Hideout. Unsure on where to place Spark Cluster, Empower, and the respective Crescendos.
Erastus we are debating starting with all of his skills.
Mirek starts with Mail Cleaver. He gains Bunker Soul before the plantation, Banishing Edge before Legion, and Essence Flare before the Throne of the First (no fights currently).
Eirwen and Kasia we actually failed to discuss in this regard, so we should think about it.
I think Batrol's skill arrangement is fine?
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He should start with none and learn them just before the crab.
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Touche.
Note, because this totally occurred to me right before I fell asleep last night.
Mirek should probably have a skill that cancels out his Soul Skills period.
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Any preference on when to learn it? Baseline or later? I think he could function okay without it until he learns a couple more.
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Should probably grant it baseline just for simplicity? Rather, give it when he learns Bunker Soul (as he will definitely want it for Essence Flare, but it makes more sense just to intro it early). Nama suggests making it more or 0 net Stamina loss/gain and a free action.
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Quick rough skill list for Eirwen
Start with Speed Fang/First Aid, pick up Therapy ~Legion, Pick up Bloodletting ~Sebrle, Pick up Vulcan Chain on the Throne?
Quick rough skill list for Kasia
Start with Recovery/Power Shot/Bolster, Pick up Leg Shot ~ Thugs, Pick up ~Cleansing Legion, Pick up Confuse Attack ~Sebrle?
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Progression seems okay.
Alternately tie dumping soul skills in to some of his other moves? I could totally see Banishing Edge tuned along my vision for it to dump Soul Skills. Maybe give him a stam cheap attack that does it? (Incidentally we are way too conservative with making skills Stamina neutral. Skills that are a net Stamina gain can have a cost some other way. It gets players using skills instead of dumping and then conserving with physicals. We want the gauge moving in both directions.)
Edit - fucking phone typing.
Edit 2 - Thinking on it more I had another idea that would probably take reworking the eventing used for Soul skills at the moment, but could be neat.
And I lost the mechanical way I was thinking that it could work. Fuck. But I was thinking you would need to create a State of "soulskillinuse" that skills add so you track if one is in use to remove the bunch of stat up that Soul Skills kick in. Make an FP skill that removes the "soulskillinuse" so that he can use two different souls at once for the rest of that fight (and if you use one of the moves that costs Soul Skill it would wipe them both out), that was what I couldn't work out how to do.
This makes no sense because I am tired but at 11 at night after having woken up at 5 in the morning and then having had 3 shots of espresso in the last 5 hours it sounds so awesome you guys. RAPERAPERAPESENTENCESTRUCTURE.
Edit 3- For reference, excited Grefter that wakes up to make posts with ideas is not going to be super coherent.
Edit 4 - SILLY IDEA. Party wide Prepare buff as a skill. lololol burn phase much?
Edit 5 - I feel like I should probably discuss why I favour net positive moves for characters so much. There is a 3 things spring to mind that you need to keep in mind surrounding it, these are points that all interact.
1. The benefit to using a basic physical is this, it gains you your full stamina regen.
2. Skills need to do more damage than basic physicals, otherwise you are spending stamina for no reason.
3. With points 1 and 2 in mind. Having characters with net stamina gain skills lets you have a nominal reduction in stamina gain to output more damage, but not to the point that you need to cost them so high that the damage is a big step up from basic physicals. The nominal cost goes towards making the skill elemental or to run off Magic instead of Str or whatever extra benefit there is.
The reasons to do all of the above is twofold to giving options. A) It moves characters away from basic physicals as much B) It provides players more choices and C) it provides another avenue to differentiate characters. Erastus has no Stamina neutral skills. Noemi and Kasia do. Mirek doesn't in my model either but leverages basic physicals more than anyone else (which we want below 50% of the time still, so whenever I say a character built around his basic physical, he is still less so than like 90% of RPG fighters out there, it is all in the context of everyone else having options to get around it).
Costing to make stamina pools dwindle to 0 just drives more usage of the attack command. That isn't how I want to design the combat system and whenever we talk about basic physicals Nama has kittens. Lets stop designing towards driving players to use it.
All this is to say. I want Flare Shot to cost 2. I want Noemi regen at 3. That is the reasoning behind the line of thinking. So when I throw that in there you know where I am coming from.
Edit 6 - And as for why prevalent cost neutral is bad, you are just making the bar not move on cost neutral moves. Make the player shift up their skill use and get that bar moving. Don't have a cost neutral move that replaces basic physicals. Have 2 or 3 skills they can juggle to do the same effect and get that bar moving around. Make the player see it in action.
Edit 1 billion - So yeah I can't sleep because ideas keep getting into my head. It is also partly a player psychology thing. We are giving them multiple ways to still "gain" stamina while still only having the same passive intake system. It is in our control, but we give them more choice on how they interact with it. With that we also give them ways to spend Stamina on expensive moves that are only marginal DPS increases (Crescendos for Noemi in my design, they are a damage boost, but more inefficient or just Spark Cluster). They can afford to spend it because they are still "gaining" stamina, but it is still a net zero sum system. That is really the key, don't make moves have no impact on stamina, make multiple turns zero sum instead. It makes the whole Stamina system more effective as it allows more room for choice (and consequence!) while still filling the same basic functionality or making cost neutral moves.
Pretty much at the heart of it, get that bar moving and don't let it stop. Different characters will have different rhythms to it, but what we don't want to see is it sitting at one point on the bar constantly (Unless you are Erastus).
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Was reading through this, enjoying the concepting talk. Is there any place to see current information compiled?
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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap9Rajy9yCOBdEhSaTRKSEVzUFlId1IwTklJUGtDakE
It is a little behind these days, but voila.
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Edit 5 - I feel like I should probably discuss why I favour net positive moves for characters so much. There is a 3 things spring to mind that you need to keep in mind surrounding it, these are points that all interact.
1. The benefit to using a basic physical is this, it gains you your full stamina regen.
2. Skills need to do more damage than basic physicals, otherwise you are spending stamina for no reason.
3. With points 1 and 2 in mind. Having characters with net stamina gain skills lets you have a nominal reduction in stamina gain to output more damage, but not to the point that you need to cost them so high that the damage is a big step up from basic physicals. The nominal cost goes towards making the skill elemental or to run off Magic instead of Str or whatever extra benefit there is.
The reasons to do all of the above is twofold to giving options. A) It moves characters away from basic physicals as much B) It provides players more choices and C) it provides another avenue to differentiate characters. Erastus has no Stamina neutral skills. Noemi and Kasia do. Mirek doesn't in my model either but leverages basic physicals more than anyone else (which we want below 50% of the time still, so whenever I say a character built around his basic physical, he is still less so than like 90% of RPG fighters out there, it is all in the context of everyone else having options to get around it).
Costing to make stamina pools dwindle to 0 just drives more usage of the attack command. That isn't how I want to design the combat system and whenever we talk about basic physicals Nama has kittens. Lets stop designing towards driving players to use it.
All this is to say. I want Flare Shot to cost 2. I want Noemi regen at 3. That is the reasoning behind the line of thinking. So when I throw that in there you know where I am coming from.
Edit 6 - And as for why prevalent cost neutral is bad, you are just making the bar not move on cost neutral moves. Make the player shift up their skill use and get that bar moving. Don't have a cost neutral move that replaces basic physicals. Have 2 or 3 skills they can juggle to do the same effect and get that bar moving around. Make the player see it in action.
Edit 1 billion - So yeah I can't sleep because ideas keep getting into my head. It is also partly a player psychology thing. We are giving them multiple ways to still "gain" stamina while still only having the same passive intake system. It is in our control, but we give them more choice on how they interact with it. With that we also give them ways to spend Stamina on expensive moves that are only marginal DPS increases (Crescendos for Noemi in my design, they are a damage boost, but more inefficient or just Spark Cluster). They can afford to spend it because they are still "gaining" stamina, but it is still a net zero sum system. That is really the key, don't make moves have no impact on stamina, make multiple turns zero sum instead. It makes the whole Stamina system more effective as it allows more room for choice (and consequence!) while still filling the same basic functionality or making cost neutral moves.
Pretty much at the heart of it, get that bar moving and don't let it stop. Different characters will have different rhythms to it, but what we don't want to see is it sitting at one point on the bar constantly (Unless you are Erastus).
Okay. Did not get time to actually respond, because Eady came over last night to talk art and stuffs. So let me try to find some time to do it now.
Tying a Soul Neutralizer to another skill works well enough. The main concern is it doesn't quite mesh with the brain well (why can't he just cool it), but meshing it into some sort of "basic" attack would be good. Given his expensive costs to begin with, it might not be bad to make it Stamina positive to create upward movement for him. To this end, we might (also given the relative power of Bunker Soul and plot stuff and blah blah) create a Stamina Regen retarding effect on his Soul skills to make them, in general, a little less no brainer. It also gives a little more interest (and patterning) in choosing to break them if you have a positive flow Stamina skill.
Potential of maintaining multiple Souls at once as a later ability is pretty neat.
Mirek prolly shouldn't branch into party offensive buffs. >_>
Okay. The rest of this actually makes sense, but is going to take me a bit longer to formulate a response to, so let me post this in and edit the rest in as I have time.
Edit: All right, the basic idea works. It definitely shouldn't be universal (Stamina flow being more character based), but you've generally sold me on the reason Net Positive Stamina should exist in some places. The trick is to create a gradation of effectiveness and make sure it builds to the character.
IN GENERAL, I agree we shouldn't aim for zeroing out. What we should aim is denying useful response/utility abilities with Stamina. This does NOT apply to all PCs (for example, we want Erastus to burn down, I think).
More edits later.
Edit2: There is definitely a logic to the idea that we want to emphasize Stamina, so getting the bar to move as much as possible would be good. I kind of wonder if (gonna get hate for this) making Stamina damage a little more common might not be a bad idea in this regard, as it'll force more decision making, especially with +Stam skills. Hm. Hm.
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Crescendo Prepare >_>? I am just attached to ot because "Victory loves Preparation" (and dunno if anyone else has watched The Mechanic. Fun Jason Statham flick.)
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1.11 should be more or less consistent with the master doc now.
Also, noting first Accessory idea here: SP Damage Prevention
Current basic design for characters:
Noemi: The basic of the system. Simple attacks are easy and can actually net positive stamina, while her big attacks are pretty costly. Midrange regen.
Kasia: Similar to Noemi, but less control over her Stamina consumption.
Erastus: Leaning towards MP pool: deep but very slow regeneration.
Eirwen: Very small pool, but fairly stable as a result.
Mirek: Slower version of Noemi/Kasia. Consumes it in large bursts and generally regens slowly, but only needs those bursts intermittently and has one of the better basic physicals.
Batrol: Derp.
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Tons of edits because this is posted from phone and is wall of text. Just putting down some design intent and ideas to paper that I have talked about in meetings or had in my head.
Just to clarify, this isn't a treatise on like THIS IS HOW CHARACTERS SHOULD BE THIS IS THE VISION AND THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE. It is just kind of a Grefter's State of Design just to check in where my head is at with this and where I think the direction we are largely taking with characters at the moment. Maybe I am just doing BUUUUUURP COPYING MCA AND WRITING DEVELOPMENT BLOG. I don't know, but hey discussion points if anyone is interested!
Specifically Mirek is built to leverage his Guard command with greater frequency than everyone else. Forcing Prepare into his basic cycle roughly half the time gives you a character who is deceptively tanky without significant stat advantage. Really shines on Magic of course but makes him less soft to physicals than at first glance. Will make him play nicer with his Odds booster on fights with a mix of physical and magic damage.
Some random ideas that floated through my brain while talking about balance with Andy for stamina in 1.11.
Noemi rotationaly uses FP in smaller amounts than most for Crescendoes. This is good. She will need a good strong FP skill to compensate. Tossing up possibility of some kind of Stamina to FP conversion skill at some point? Could be Erastus cycle bleeding over in my brain though.
Kasia, I kind of want to give her heal block removal at high FP. This will struggle to see use since healing with her costs FP. More of a clutch recovery skill to pick up gaps created by random burst and item induced Heal Block. (Plays nice with the item having longer Block than Kasia) Probably has to be instant or super fast action (75%?).
I was toying with alternate Bolster design. I still want to try and find a way to make it worth using ST. Had toyed with it making Target defend, but I think that is too hard to implement. Another thought was to make it cheaper but cost target small bit of FP instead of spirit debuff.
Andy pointed out Cleansing is worthless while Antidote exists. Dropped Vit down and added Spirit buff. This needs work.
Erastus doesn't so much have a rotation or cycle so much as a skill curve he uses. I think there is a few possible choices as well. Long game use of Ignition and Flareshit spam, burn to 0 quickly and breather to drop FP skills every few turns (this is long valleys of damage). Or he can squat on his Stamina and build FP with Breather spam, dump an Ignition and then unleash. Basic idea here is that either Stamina is plentiful and FP is a cool boost for him in the first, FP is plentiful and Stamina is precious in the second and both are stockpiled at the cost of Erastus doing absolutely nothing for a chunk of the fight (which is a significant opportunity cost with him being frailest and slowest cast member. Breather helps with this, but he is still a resource sink while doing nothing for a while.
Eirwen has a small pool to keep her really simple. She has little stamina pool but regents it quickly. She doesn't have to put much thought into managing it but it is there to throttle her output somewhat. I am kind of happier with this design going forward if she is leveraging more Item costed skills as well. We might be looking at most of her physical skill set already. She grows broader in her utility rather than face punching.
Which is a point I should elaborate on since I don't think we have it written down. We nearly talked ourselves out of having skills costing items on Eirwen which I think was a design that was fairly well liked. Answer was obvious but we missed it at first. Make more item costed skills. Make items available. Problem solves itself. Make them different to the core item so she doesn't feel like she just has item boosting trait. Bam you have a niche character functionality. The thing I like with item based utility being free, she will barely ever us that basic physical while still being a "simple character". Also makes her gloriously mundane. If she wore flat shoes and studies Realpolitik she just might steal my heart.
Bartol is not fully formed in my brain, don't have a real grasp on the character (might have to talk to Andy and Sopko to get a feel?). So some of this is just pure design playing. I would like to see a character who uses FP more than everyone else. Have his pool move like everyone else does for Stamina. This came from his design with FP neutral skill he had. It could be fun to have him slow build and then by the end of a fight he is a bit of a juggernaut (bitch). Not sure if that is pure tanking or damage or what. Again not fully formed. Other possibilities is leveraging him as indirect attacks. Like ATM he is only source of impacting enemy turn order. Could expand on that so he controls enemy outside traditional shutdown control. So Stagger and Delay like he has, but expand on it a bit. Actually that seems to have been the original intent now that I think of the skill set. Hmmm just a question of how to grow it.
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Quick notes-
Corpulent should probably not triple hit Kasia (I actually lost due to an Amplification attack turn -> normal turn without a turn for her in between. Not common, but problematic, especially since this was under Bolster).
Possibly the generic thugs in the thug fight should break if the leaders are defeated? They can be quite tedious to beat.
Need to adjust Mirek's regen method likely because of Prepare allowing him to speed his regen really hard. In fact, may want to make Prepare his source of regen rather then turn based?
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Note for self, need to check master version has Mirek at 2 regen. 3 definitely felt like you describe. Probably wouldn't tie all the regen to Prep, but I think dropping him to 1 and loading some MP regen into it might work? I like there being an opportunity cost to dropping the Prep cycle in that you wasted the turn of The attack up. Baking regen into it might even reward chain Prepping depending on how we blow the skill set out (worth mentioning might be desired, not in my current mental framework). Edit - This was at 2. Hmmmm. Interesting. 1 regen with +1 MP from Prep is the closest we can get to 1.5 MP regen without adding a cost to Prep which I think is the wrong direction to go.
All his regen in Prep adds some stamina cost to item use that could be funky.
Could be more a need to boost Soul skill costs so he has less pooled. Or I think you have mentioned possibility of Soul Skills having SP maintenance cost (functionally just less SP regen per turn unless you get to 0 Stamina, which I honestly don't mind being unpunished). Hmm, thinking on it we could bake either of those into the Soul events I think (call to change his regen), but once we have Stamina damage it would be easier to bake into a status (soulskillinuse status rambled about before? Would make dual Soul Skill FP skill get rid of the regen loss until he used a second one.... Which would be okay actually.) Edit - after confirming above. I think making the soul skills cost 1 Stamina per turn is probably the right balance point to work with. It keeps his regen higher if he isn't using soul skills where he presumably is mostly just on the offensive. Adds more stark trade off to go on the defensive which I am okay with.
Noting we haven't done enemy balance changes, but in my versions I dropped Corpulent's dex by 5 and the durability gap between Kasia and Noemi didn't feel nearly as cavernous. The difference between medium armour and one swing and medium armour and three swings is extreme.
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New post time. This time with opinions on the version that has been dubbed v1.11. Going to be short and sweet because I have a good bit to do tonight, and I do not mean play Guild Wars 2, as awesome as that game is.
-First hit status is really getting to me. I'm of the persuasion that status chances should probably be altered to apply the intended rate over so many hits. I was 2 for 5 on Fire Resist Down.
-Power Shot? Awesome. After testing it a couple of times, I like it. It's tough to use due to the prereqs, but Kasia can pull upwards of 450 damage to Corpulent with it, which is nice. Didn't get much of a chance to use it in other fights, but with how they go, that's to be expected
-Elixirs! They can actually turn a fight around! 65% feels like it's just the right value, too. Good call on that one--should make the bandit fight reliably beatable for normal people possibly, in fact.
-On the subject of costs, while I understand Flare Shot being 2 for that "here have a net positive" skill, Spark Cluster feels a bit too low-cost. Perhaps it needs another boost, but I'm not sure where at this point; might be tempted to convert it to a two-hit effect as to not make it grossly high on base power, but I want it to definitely rank up there as more expensive. Something to justify a higher cost, largely.
-Saying it right now, not happy with Eirwen's pool being literally 3. I felt I had something with the 15/7/12 deal I had going in my rendition, but I just think that a discrepancy of that much simply does not feel right, especially since I'm feeling that we should probably be 50/50 with item/non-item skills with her, rather than leave her offensive skillset bare by comparison. Too much one way or the other, and the rest will feel tacked on.
-I feel enemies will need restatting once I'm done with it. Except maybe the bandit fight. That one might be just as good once everything's in place. reminds me, need to theorize on potential sidegrade stuff.
-Ignition, I'm currently feeling is more of an opportunity matter than anything else, rather than a fight-long debuff. Or at least, that's how it's coming off to me ideally. Probably needs its cost halved, on that note.
-forgot the rest of what I wanted to post, but whatever. I can come back to it later.
Trying to condense topics a bit.
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Hmm, hmm...
Nama, could you clarify your thoughts re: 3 v 15 pool size? I've been doing some math (oh noes) and the most appreciable difference is Vulcan Chain Frequency (Every 3rd turn with 3 vs Every 2nd then 3rd turn). Is it just the relative pool depths between the characters?
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1. 1 per turn, 2 per Prep might be good enough? Dunno, need to play with it a bit.
2. That is a good point about adding a pseudo cost to items.
3. See 2. I actually like the idea of Soul Skills having SP Maintenance costs. Implementation via SP damage or via regen deduction ("damage" prolly makes more sense?) should be possible with current tools.
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1. Keep in mind that, statistically, this makes no difference to status application, theoretically empowers Dex, and weakens evade. It may also cause issues with status resistance (this may or may not be an issue). I can see disliking it being front loaded due to how it "feels," but I want to check that the feeling is the objection.
2. Power Shot seems pretty solid. It is quite tough to actually get off, but item spam may make it more possible? Have to watch it.
3. Still need to experiment with Elixirs.
4. To be fair, we don't want it to be shifted too high. The idea is to give her three base offensive options. Weakest Physical with most Regeneration, Moderate Damage with Mild Regen, Good Damage with Stamina Lost. What would you want Spark Cluster costing?
5. I can see the concern with the full size difference. There was some sidetalk while pushing out 1.12 about the smaller pool giving her some unique interactions (being oddly vulnerable to stamina damage and, should it exist, oddly helped by Stamina restoration) that better defined her abilities. You were saying yesterday 9 is about the lowest you'd be comfortable with, but would 6 be possible?
6. Hm. I sort of disagree about the tacked on thing. Her physical skillset actually feels very complete at the moment. I wouldn't be adverse to picking up another thing or so, but I don't really think it is necessary to keep them at 50/50 to avoid the tacked on feeling. Keep in mind more items doesn't mean her offensive skillset is "bare." It is explicitly her physical skillset that is. Items can still be offensive in theory.
7. Small thought: Maybe make Vulcan chain a set number of hits? I need to look into expected hits, but it has actually occurred to me that High Dex/Low Str builds are actually offensively weak against high Dex enemies. Setting Vulcan Chain to fixed hits (and growing it as game progresses) gives it a solid niche and also makes her expected output less swingy.
8. Could you further explain your point, re: Ignition?
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While I doubt I'll have the time/energy to do deep testing unfortunately, one thing that is jumping out at me as I test things to do with coding (and has been for the last few weeks) is the game's lack of a quick "skip turn" action. This matters because sometimes you only want one PC to do things (usually the last action of the battle) and watching any other animations waiting for that is a waste of time. In most RPGs defend can serve this purpose fine, but our defend commands are a bit more time-consuming... mostly an issue with Noemi. Not sure what to suggest. A universal half-turn wait command, maybe?
Take this criticism with a grain of salt because while I do think it's an issue in standard gameplay (definitely the main reason I use defend in some games!), it's much more of one when testing which is of course all I've been doing with the engine of late.
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At the least just tossing in one for testing purposes would be fine. Wouldn't a full turn skip be more ideal though?
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Changes determined at the meeting.
We will need to toy with Noemi's Focus consumption.
We will be (for now) rolling with 3SP for Eirwen.
We will be attempting to reduce Mirek's regen while he is using Soul skills (MPWall). Also, still need a Soul Skill cancel for him.
We will try a few variations on Cleansing to see what works better for it.
We will try out both Grefter and Nama's takes on Ignition (longterm debuff vs short term debuff).
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Still fiddling with Bolster in the same way as Ignition.
For reference it is just building two variants in the database and testing how they feel in one consistent version rather than running multiple versions of the game like we had been now that we are largely on the same page and happy regarding majority of system implementations.
Edit - on Cleansing I know I said during the meeting that it feels like I reach for fast action a lot (which I might ramble on sometime) but if we want to leave the item a relevant choice (at least in Ch 1?) then fast action might be the best way to achieve it. Fast expensive action that you pay for the flexibility or you use item?
Not convinced it allows the skill to grow in a way that doesn't feel like a nerf if it drops back to standard action. An interesting dilemma I hadn't considered when we talked about item availability when going over Eirwen's skills. If they were more expensive the item savings might solve it (not recommend route to go down).
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Really, yes, just a big post of brief concepts. But I'm wordy and pressed for time so I haven't edited this. At all. Half the numbers I might've been pulling out of my ass.
Slothful:
Turn Expectation--3-4, depending on how much magic is used and availability of
Details--Starter enemy. Hits fairly hard physically and can inflict minor status to boot (thinking Slow or Stagger). Weak to fire attacks, and is slow.
Unwanted:
Turn Expectation--2-3, depending on the number of physicals used.
Details--Starter enemy. It'll throw out Disquiet-type magic, which loves to come with added rider effects. Bad physical durability.
Verminous:
Turn Expectation--2
Details--THAT FUCKING BASTARD THAT STICKS STATUS ON YOU AND THEN RUNS AWAY. Kind of frail, but can be ignored if desired. Speedy, and will go before you.
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BOSS: Corpulent
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Round Expectation--9, 8 with a lucky critical from Kasia. Crits are actually a thing at this point.
Details: First real challenge. Two phases: First phase tends to be very ST-oriented--single-target Disquiet and physical attacks. Second phase has more offensively-weighted stats and different attacks, with MT disquiet magic damage and stun.
Raider:
Turn Expectation--2-4, factoring in evasion.
Details--Evasive bastard. Will attack with a random magic attack item (Fire, Ice, Lightning). Also may inflict blind and other statuses. Knife-level power, fast and high swingcount.
Thrasher:
Turn Expectation--3-4
Details--Heavy on HP, mediocre on the defensive end. Built around smashing dudes fairly hard.
Smasher:
Turn Expectation--4-5
Details--DEFENSE. Not so heavy on magic defense, but they can definitely take a hit. Specialize in doing moderate damage and messing with your own defensive stats as well. Ow.
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BOSS: Gang Leader
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Round Expectation: 2-3, factoring in circumstances
Details--big, physically tough and strong, low DEX, a bleed move, a stagger, and a randotarget multihit attack. Synergizes obnoxiously well with the second-in-command.
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BOSS: Second-in-command (these guys need names)
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Round Expectation: 3, factoring in circumstances and evasion
Details--Magically tanky and good on DEX. Can provide element resistance and attacks with a variety of spells of single- and multitarget flavor. Fairly bad alone, makes groups of enemies into a notable threat.
Legbreaker
Turn Expectation--2
Details--They have okayish HP! And they hit hard! Everything else about them is terrible! ...okay they largely exist so the intro fight for Mirek is longer and so Eirwen shows off her awesome DEX and both show off their awesome evade.
Hired Asshole
Turn Expectation--4-5
Details--High DEF, DEX, and decent HP. Shows off why Mail Cleaver is awesome. Also may have minor special abilities.
Ephemeral:
Turn Expectation--5
Details--Resists physical, ice, and earth. Weak to Anti-Disquiet. Poor DEX. Can inflict Confuse, Bleed, and cast Disquiet spells.
Ambivalent:
Turn Expectation--4
Details--Resists physical, ice, and earth, despite subpar DEX and DEF. Weak to Anti-Disquiet. Magically tanky. Can buff allies' MDEF and do magic damage in MT and ST varieties--ST lowers target SPI, MT adds bleed.
Repugnant:
Turn Expectation--5.
Details--Tanky. Weak to Anti-Disquiet. Can do solid physical damage, has several moves that inflict damage and status(stun, stagger).
Enslaved:
Turn Expectation--2-3, factoring evasion.
Details--High SPD, DEX, and evasive. Strong to piercing, ice, and lightning, weak to impact, fire, and Anti-Disquiet. Slashing damage, and ST ice and disquiet spells
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BOSS: Legion
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Round Expectation--9-11, depending on party makeup
Details--Resists Pierce and Impact damage (...maybe also Fire? Not sure yet). Weak to Anti-Disquiet. No physical attack. Uses a soft pattern of Disquiet and Ice magic of ST and MT flavors with status attached, with self-boosting of its own MAG intermixed.
Guardian Striker
Turn Expectation--3-4, pending on evasion
Details--Evasive, magically tanky. High ATK, uses single strikes.
Guardian Skirmisher
Turn Expectation--3-4, pending on evasion
Details--Evasive, magically tanky. High ATK, can reduce MAG and EVA.
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BOSS: [name? Andy give me character info on this dude plz]
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Round Expectation--
Details--
<lobsterpeople>, need better name:
Turn Expectation--4-5 pending on tactics
Details--Particularly tanky versus physicals, resistant to slashing and piercing damage. Weak to lightning. Heavy ST physical damage that can reduce DEF as well as random-target and multihit physicals.
<anglegger>, need better name:
Turn Expectation--4
Details--Immune to Lightning, resists Impact. Very high HP, albeit low defense. Utilizes lightning magic(ST, two-target Random) and can inflict Blind. Have fun.
Envious:
Turn Expectation--3
Details--Weak to Slashing. Extremely high SPR and MDEF. Attacks with elemental magic attacks (Fire, Ice, MT Earth)
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BOSS: GIANT ENEMY CRAB/BEE
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Round Expectation--10
Details--Resists slashing (and fire?). Weak to Lightning. High HP and extremely high DEF. Heavy impact damage (ITD ST, ST->MT, MT, other), heavy MT Disquiet at low health.
Ambiguous:
Turn Expectation--4
Details--Resists physical, weak to Anti-Disquiet, has good SPR and MAG. Attacks with primarily MT Disquiet magic (weak+poison or strong) or ST(+SPR down)
Tormented:
Turn Expectation--3
Details--high physical stats all around, low SPR, average HP, and low MDEF, subpar magic durability, pure physical in abilities (slashing physical, two-hit random slashing, single-hit piercing with bleed, single-hit piercing ITD)
Despised:
Turn Expectation--5
Details--High defenses on both ends, weak to Impact. Uses two-hit RT stun, lightning magic, disquiet parasitic healing.
Unfeeling:
Turn Expectation--8+?
Details--high stats aside from MAG(average?), DEX, and SPD. Resists Slash, Pierce, Lightning. Weak to Ice. Uses some Earth magic(3-hit random+Stagger) and impact physicals (normal, single-hit followed by MT, single with STR down)
Tattered:
Turn Expectation--3-4
Details--Evasive, high DEX, SPD, and ACC. Below-average STR. Weak to Piercing and Lightning. Attacks under reconcepting.
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Right. So Andy told me to post boss patterns that I've come up with thus far. Keep in mind that either due to CTB or due to wonky interactions between YEM and the current engine additions, "turns" are a very loosely-defined thing in this.
Legion, AKA Grefter's favorite boss, on a 3-turn cycle with a changeup under Focus Power. All abilities are at priority 5 barring Focus Power abilities, which are priority 10
Turn 0: Desecration, Cold Snap, Focus Power, (Discordance when below 45%)
Turn 1: Desecration, Focus Power, Putrefaction, (Discordance when below 45%)
Turn 2: Putrefaction, Cold Snap, Hailstorm(6-hit random-target ice magic. 5% CTB reset), (Discordance when below 45%)
If under effect of Focus Power for the turn: Discordance, Cold Snap, Putrefaction
Giant enemy crab/bee: 3-turn cycle. Some ability usage variance shown (priorities will be shown with a |# format)
Turn 0: Attack|4, Blasting Blow|5, (Negation|4 and Sweeping Blow|4 when below 40% HP)
Turn 1: Killing Scissor|5, Blasting Blow|5 (Negation|4 and Sweeping Blow|4 when below 40% HP)
Turn 2: Killing Scissor|5, Tremor Hammer|5(attacks one target for impact, reduces entire party's EVA. SPI_F 60%) (Negation|4 and Sweeping Blow|4 when below 40% HP)
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Spitting this out here for Kasia real quick: Cleansing -> Quick Fix: Physical Status Heal, Small HP Heal, Very Small SP Heal, Healblock, 50% CT. Makes it into a very nifty and flexible skill that is primarily used to heal physical status but comes with some sexy riders.
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Some quick accessory concepts.
Note to self: Talk to NEB/look around net re: ability to get equipment to change states.
1. We should include some baseline give/take style accessories (if possible). Somewhat small, but useful, boosts to normal stats and detriments to other useful stats. These could also be replaced with instead minor beneficial stat boosts.
These should likely be very simple offense/defense switch items. We could consider a speed/dex booster here, but it needs to be REAL give and take to even consider. A small Evade booster might also not be out of place.
2. Resistances. Nothing major (not like, Fire Immunity or even 50% damage reduction), but stuff to shave off enough damage to make it worth considering. Bleed jumps out as something that should definitely be considered for this.
Hm. Maybe... 20% resistance to an element? Useful, but not overwhelming, I think. Make sure we only make ones for elements with some actual presence.
3. Powerful effects that modify Stamina/Focus. This plays into Grefter's concepts. Again, this deals a lot with give and take, but it is something we should take advantage of since it plays with our system. This may, however, require the note about figuring out how to apply states via equipment.
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Thinking more, we may want to cut to 1 Accessory Slot? Dunno. That's a toughie. Makes choice more restrictive, but more important. Thoughts are welcome here.
Now then, per my categories above, here are some rough additional ideas. Names still suck.
1. Stat Boosters!
Ferocity Charm: +15 Str, -7 Vit
Dissonance Charm: +15 Mag, -7 Spi
Health Charm: +15 Vit, -7 Str, -7 Mag
Soul Charm: +15 Spi, -7 Str, -7 Mag
Lucky Charm: +5% Eva
Pretty straightforward. Numbers prolly need tweaking. Defense oriented charms are done that way because they can be min/maxed pretty easy if it is just one axis. This may be desirable, but we should start with an even basis, first.
2. Resistances
Armor Reinforcement: Bleed Resistance 20%
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The offensive boosters feel much more potent than the defensive there. They grant +15% to a stat you know you will use, which is better than +15% to a stat which is only struck by enemies half the time. Similarly, the penalty on the defensive boosters is larger: -7% to a stat you know you will use (unless the PC is using stat-independent abilities such as items?) while the offensive boosts are only -7% to a stat hit half the time.
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Also definitely think 5% evade with no stat drops is the strongest thing there. Evade its everything.
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Some boss thoughts from over the holiday. Some of this is just rehashing/reinforcing.
Corpulent: As previously stated, I'd kind of like this fight to go reverse (start magically vulnerable/physically resistant, swap over after Recomp). To that end, I might actually to tune this even further: rely on his physical beatsticking in the first half, then swap over to DISQUIET effects in the second half. Also he needs to not triple-hit Kasia.
Thug Fight: Yeah, we've more or less hashed this one out. Just need to rebalance the threat. Raiders need to be more dangerous (it is currently easier to spam past them, it seems), MT needs to not be the only real threat, and it needs to be assured use but not spammed.
Mirek Mini-Boss: Needs to be tuned down a little further. Just prone to things going wrong really suddenly with no opportunity to intervene.
Legion: We mainly wanted to make Putrefaction (or at least his Putrefaction) be backloaded Bleed damage. To this end, the reconcepting of him with delay intrigues me as it is both neat and counterintuitive. Bleed needs folks to get turns to be dangerous, but them being delayed prevents that. At the same time, that makes higher Bleed more survivable so...
Sebrle: Hmm, hmm. I think Sopko was plotting a bit that this guy should be a one-shot. Maybe use Djai's old basic build (Mage Killer via status/Stam punishment) to illustrate some breadth to the Guardian art? Probably a fairly new hot shot or something. Hot-blooded, a bit reckless?
Crab: Similar problem to Thugs in that the fight can be really swingy pending how he uses MT. Maybe Lethal Scissor should be percentage based?
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NEB: Hm. True enough. (I'd also vaguely note that, since I was suddenly unsure of % based boosts, that those were presented as literal numbers, meaning the percentages are larger). I was originally toying with the idea to have them only be two accessories: +Str/Mag, -Vit/Spi and vice versa.
I would say, at the moment, given our healing and durability deals, that defense stats are probably more valuable then offense in general? Which is part of the assumption I was running off of when scaling these.
Grefter: Mebbe. 5% is a pretty small boost.
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Also worth remembering how evasion scales better the more of it you have and stuff. 5% boost on Eirwen is pretty good. Also I know what accessory Erastus gets and never ever takes off.
Edit - Below is probably better in conjunction with other accessories if we want these to be varied but impacting instead of mostly fire and forget.
Worth considering is making them work on a different axis than our standard dynamics? We have a lot of very explicit +atk -Def stuff.
You could try shifting up the points of attack more. + Dex - Spirit (with all the traps +Dex has for player understanding), + Str - Speed/Agi (in uneven amount so that Str is a net damage gain but with the opportunity cost of less frequent turns).
Also if we are going for something to just throw in the slot and forget about so there is filler, you probably want them to be weaker than that because 15% boost to either defense or offense is going to effect our incoming damage and time to kill a fair bit.
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You actually raise a good point. These may be a little too easy and dynamics scale along already existing lines.
I'm leery of Dex increases to a degree due to the general strength of Dex, but it might be possible. Working off different dynamics is a decent idea, though.
And we're not really aiming for filler (part of why I'm tempted to say we should drop down to 1 slot), we're aiming for various tactical options that modify how the character handles to a degree.
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To be fair, those AI patterns were defined when I was still under the treatment as Putrefaction as frontloaded MT damage with a bonus status. If that's the case then I'm going to have to further revise patterns to compensate for the fact that it is abso-fucking-lutely terrible as a MAG-boosted attack.
--Also keeping in mind the matter of Putrefaction currently finding use on three enemies right now. Two are bosses. Furthermore, I discussed in chat already about the fact that if we are going to be using Putrefaction on Corpulent, it will have to be early in the fight for it to be largely effective, otherwise backloading damage will result in the ability being, well, trash. That is to say, it needs to be on the first phase if at all, otherwise we'd be introducing another trash move, and I've made my recent hate of trash moves well-known by now, I believe.
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DoT works fine in final phase as part of a soft enrage. Damage doesn't need to be RIGHT NOW to be threatening. Putrefaction followed up with some other moves is a lot of pressure but gives more room for the player to react to it instead of it being LOLOLOL YOU ALMOST KILLED ME EAT HUEG DAMAGES NAO scenarios where Putrefaction would be what you are describing as a "trash" move. For it to be trash he needs to be nearly dead and the player needs to be able to kill him before he can capitalise. We are still looking at bleed being 45% over three turns right? That is a lot of damage no matter how you slice it.
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As I said, realistically, we can also just change Putrefaction on Legion to something else that causes the desired effect.
Grefter: While we're thinking, did you have any suggestions for the initial way to handle Noemi/Kasia's skill costs?
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Specific accessory ideas from a while back.
Stamina regen -1, +10 Stamina.
20% element resist, -10% HP. (Specific example was Disquiet).
I think there was a third, but it doesn't spring to mind.
Initial way to handle Flare Shot I was thinking you price it at about the price point of Spark Cluster (probably even +1, +2 on Crescendo) and then scale it back as more utility unlocks. Finalize them when you get Spark Cluster.