Disquiet (Working Title) - Equipment and Item Concepting

[AndrewRogue]

Weapons

One Slot

Categories - Note, these are rough groupings of weapon types that generally share specific Atk/Dex Mod/Special Qualities

Knives: Piercing/Slashing, Low Atk, Highest Dex (Noemi, Eirwen, Jerneg/Bartol)
Swords: Piercing/Slashing, Moderate Atk, High Dex, Magic Bonus? (Noemi, Erastus)
Quarterstaves: Blunt, Moderate Atk, Moderate Dex, Eva Bonus? (Erastus, Eirwen)
Polearms: Slashing/Piercing, Higher Atk, Lower Dex, Something? (Eirwen, Isolde)
Heavy Weapons: Slashing/Blunt, Highest Atk, Lowest Dex (Isolde, Jernej/Bartol)

Bows: Piercing, Moderate Atk, Low Dex, No Counters (Kasia, Djai)
XBows: Piercing, Fixed Shot, High Damage, No Str Mod (Kasia, Djai)

Guardian Blades/Sheaths: Blunt, Moderate Dex, Low Atk (Mirek)
Crystals: Piercing, Fixed Shot/s, Moderate Atk, Based off Mag (Katarine)

Categories with Slashing: 4 (5 if you count Mirek's techs) (Noemi, Erastus, Eirwen, Jernej/Bartol, Isolde) (Mirek)
Categories with Piercing: 6 (Noemi, Erastus, Eirwen, Isolde, Katarine, Kasia, Djai)
Categories with Blunt: 3 (Erastus, Isolde, Jernej/Bartol, Eirwen, Mirek)

Rough Dex Line (Highest to Lowest)
Knives > Swords > Guardian Blades/Sheaths = Quarterstaves > Polearms = Bows > Heavy Weapons // Crystals, Crossbows

Rough Damage Line
Knives > Guardian Blades/Sheaths = Spread Crystal Formatino > Swords = Quarterstaves > Bows > Polearms > Crossbows = Focus Formation Crystals > Heavy Weapons

+Crit/Acc?
+Swords/Knives in particular likely need to be one damage type?

[AndrewRogue]

Armor

One Slot

Categories:

Light Armor: Dex/Eva boost, Lowest Def/MDef (Eirwen, Erastus, Katarine)

Medium Armor: Falls somewhere between Light and Heavy Armor, features special effects (Elemental Resistances, etc) (Noemi, Mirek, Djai, Kasia)

Heavy Armor: Highest Def/MDef (Possibly Resistance to physical elements?) (Jernej/Bartol, Isolde)

+Armor can be downworn (if you can equip Heavy Armor, you can wear Medium and Light Armor as well, if you can wear Medium Armor, you can wear Light Armor as well)

[AndrewRogue]

Accessories

Two Slots.

Think Relics from FF6. Unique/Niche effects (Status Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Counter/Crit Rate Boosts, Stat Boosts)

RESOURCE INTERACTIONS (accessory functions in relation to resources for the PC) FOR UNIQUE ACCESSORIES

[AndrewRogue]

Items

Healing Items fall off in general usability fairly quickly. Status healing items (some?)? Revival items are rare. Attack items should maintain general use throughout the game (niches?).

+Eirwen will likely require some for her skillset.

[074]

Andy wants people to handle weapon and armor baselines, so I guess I'll be making my attempt to handle weapon and armor baselines...

My first instinct is to have the differences on armor be a bit unequal, so to speak.  Heavy armor's big thing is simply that it's got very notable defensive power, so having it be more than a single step up from light armor would be nice.  So far I'm thinking a 1/1.4/1.9 scale from light to heavy; but then again, light armor gets those nice evade bonuses. 

Medium armor is expected to be the "baseline" for defense, I presume.  Magic defense is a whole different beast; it's noted that heavy armor is meant to be a cut above the other two for it, so to distinguish it there, Light and Medium armor I feel should have very similar MDEF values.

And given the numbers we're working with from the start...hm.

Starting values I'm thinking:
Light--14 Def, 14 MDef (+5 Evade)
Medium--20 Def, 14 MDef (Chances of adding status/elemental resists past the starter armor.  Starter armor sucks, it gets nothing.)
Heavy--27 Def, 21 MDef (Most likely doesn't have any notable quirks.  Not that it needs them?)

I decided to take 40 DEF as baseline because largely, we need randoms to remain somewhat threatening in fights despite the HP auto-restore.  So setting it to 1/3 rather than 1/2 (as was taken in the IAQ) of the normal default value lets enemies still have damage without having to pump their ATK and STR to ridiculous levels.  I am aware that this may seem like a bit on the high-end damagewise, but a notable concern has been raised of fights getting too low-damage on either end.  Anyone who knows of SFxT knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Running "average" (60) attack against someone, not even factoring for STR/VIT differences, we'd be getting a flat 46/40/33 per hit.

However, it has been very notable that barring extreme cases, DEF is more notable (as can be observed here) against repeated smaller hits.  VIT is more of an effective defense against higher-ATK hits, by comparison.  We'll be looking at these values again later in the post.

Now, assuming endgame values go to about 2.4x (still on my kick from grabbing level 70 stats for everyone, shut up), we'd have resultant values of 34/34(Light), 48/34(Medium), and 65/50(Heavy).  This may end up being a bit too wide of a spread, but then again this may also be a bit too high level.  And there may be more "gimmicky" armor available as well.  This may need looking at later, but I feel it's a decent "spitballed" value.

Sidenote: One of the generic accessory options should be a MDEF booster.

Now for weapons.

First off, weapon DEX.  This is the trickier of the two primary statistical attributes to handle for weapons, because as it currently is, it affects PCs on two axes as opposed to ones; swing count, and a defense against multiswings in addition.  Notably tricky (and will be noted later) is that the current setup means that unless two values are exactly equal, one attacker will always only get one swing.

First off, it's worth it to note the three fixed-swing weapons: Crossbows, Fixed-formation Crystals, and Spread-formation Crystals.  These are unique in that their number of swings are always fixed and never depend on the user or enemy DEX.  Thus, I'm not factoring them (mostly) into the DEX average.

Second, NEB has wisely implemented a sanity cap of 8 swings in a given chain.  Of course, with the narrowed DEX spread, this should be much less likely than in the old IAQ, and thus such a value should be unlikely barring entering dungeons way way below your level.  In which case it's your own damn fault.

With this in mind, relevant DEX mods for each weapon type, because clearly I don't hate myself enough.  Spitballing here, I admit.  "Average"--or at least the centermost mods, is going to be 1x.

Knives: 1.25x (3 vs. average)
Light Swords: 1.1x (2 vs. average)
Guardian Blades: 1.1x (2 vs. average)
Quarterstaves: 1x (2 vs. average)
Crystals(Spread): 1x (fixed)
Crystals(Focus): 1x (fixed)
Bows: 0.93x (1 vs. average)
Crossbows: 0.93x (fixed)
Polearms: 0.93x (1 vs. average)
Heavy Weapons: 0.85x (1 vs. average)

You may notice that the curve is most definitely not even.  This is in attempt to not punish users of heavier weapons as much as those of lighter weapons.  I feel one slight nod to realism (or at least what I guess is some form of verisimilitude), however, is in crossbows; they're definitely not any lighter than bows, and while both don't have the leverage issues of the two melee weapons they share a side of the average with, you can't exactly parry attacks with them anyway.

Also yes, I followed the rankings where it mattered.  As I will on this next one.  Furthermore, taking damage samples as average DEX against average DEX, with defense values of 18/28/40/54/65


Knives:48
Crystals(Spread, assuming 2 for now): 24*
Guardian Blades: 53
Light swords: 60
Quarterstaves: 60
Bows: 68
Polearms: 73
Crossbows: 78
Crystals(Focused): 39*
Heavy Weapons: 80

*see Katarine's passive for further details

Keep in mind, again: pretty much everything not focus-crystals below Quarterstaves on the list will lower your singular DEX stat.  Which leaves you open to multiattack funtimes in turn.

Honestly, I feel they can do with some tweaking.  But I'm tired, I don't want to try and tweak them on the spot, I'm done for now on this end.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Lowering PC defensive stats like that has two effects. One is that enemies manage higher damage without needing to rely on multi-hits (or jacked up STR/MAG), as you note. The other effect is that it makes the differences in armour effectively smaller, since defence takes a smaller cut out of enemy offence. 46/40/33 is not a very large curve, certainly smaller than the proposals for the last IAQ. I am fine with this, +/-15% is still a larger spread than some games, but others should probably weigh in.

I am assuming enemy defensive stats still average around 30 base?

[074]

Yes, I propose enemy stats would be comparable.

[EDIT] Derp.  Can't read.  I actually need to think on this for a bit.

[EDITx2] As evidenced by damage testing, I don't think enemy defensive stats should average around 30.   Whereas average enemy offense is going to be around the same as PCs (averaging around 60, more than likely, with some earlygame exceptions), starting enemy defenses will have to be around 15 for all weapons to feel relatively balanced.  30 at earlygame is in fairly heavy defense territory, as numbers would show.

[074]

C1 weapon/armor benchmarks to start.  Don't expect equip names/descrips out of me, I don't feel like looking stuff up.



Weapons (numbers in parentheses are damage against what is "average" enemy defense, assuming aSTR and tVIT as well as base DEX values are equal.):

=Tier 1= (average enemy DEF = 15)
*Knife1 - 49 ATK, 1.25x DEX, 95 ACC, 7% critical, Slashing damage. (136/3)
*Sword1 - 60 ATK, 1.1x DEX, 90 ACC, 4% critical, +3 MAG, Slashing damage. (Noemi starts with) (135/2)
*Staff1 - 60 ATK, 1x DEX, 90 ACC, 4% critical, +5 Evade, Impact damage (Erastus starts with) (135/2)
*Crossbow1 - 78 ATK, 0.93x DEX, 85 ACC, 4% critical, ignores counters, ignores STR, fixed Swings=1, Piercing damage. (Kasia starts with) (126/1)

=Tier 2= (average enemy DEF = 17)
*Knife2 - 54 ATK, 1.25x DEX, 95% accuracy, 7% critical, Slashing damage. (148/3)
*Sword2 - 67 ATK, 1.1x DEX, 90% accuracy, 4% critical, +3 MAG Slashing damage. (150/2)
*Staff2 - 67 ATK, 1x DEX, 90% accuracy, 4% critical, +5 Evade, Impact damage (150/2)
*Crossbow2 - 87 ATK, 0.93x DEX, 85% accuracy, 4% critical, ignores counters, ignores STR, fixed Swings=1, Piercing damage (140/1)
*G-Blade1 - 59 ATK, 1.1x DEX, 95% accuracy, 7% critical, Impact damage. (126/2)

=Tier 3= (average enemy DEF = 19)
*Knife3 - 60 ATK, 1.25x DEX, 95% accuracy, 7% critical, Slashing damage (164/3)
*Sword3 - 74 ATK, 1.1x DEX, 90% accuracy, 4% critical, +4 MAG, Slashing damage (165/2)
*Staff3 - 74 ATK, 1x DEX, 1x DEX, 90% accuracy, 4% critical, +5 Evade, Impact damage (165/2)
*Crossbow3 - 96 ATK, 0.93x DEX, 85% accuracy, 4% critical, ignores counters, ignores STR, fixed Swings=1, Piercing damage (154/1)
*G-Blade2 - 65 ATK, 1.1x DEX, 95% accuracy, 7% critical, Impact damage (138/2)
*Polearm0 - 89 ATK, 0.93x DEX, 90% accuracy, 15% critical rate, Piercing damage. (140/1)
*Heavy1 - 98 ATK, 0.85x DEX, 85% accuracy, 7% critical, Impact damage (Not for sale in C1--initial equip on Bartol) (158/1)

=Tier 4= (average enemy DEF = 20)
*Knife4 - 66 ATK (184/3)
*Sword4 - 81 ATK (183/2)
*Staff4 - 81 ATK (183/2)
*Crossbow4 - 105 ATK (170/1)
*G-Blade3 - 71 ATK (153/2)
*Bow2 - 91 ATK (142/1)
*Heavy2 - 108 ATK (176/1)
*Polearm1 - 98 ATK (156/1)

=Tier 5= (Average enemy DEF = 22)
*Knife5 - 71 ATK (196/3)
*Sword5 - 88 ATK (198/2)
*Staff5 - 88 ATK (198/2)
*Crossbow5 - 114 ATK (184/1)
*G-Blade4 - 77 ATK (165/2)
*Bow3 - 99 ATK (154/1)
*Heavy3 - 117 ATK (190/1)
*Polearm2 - 107 ATK (170/1)

=Tier 6= (Average enemy DEF = 24)
*Knife6 - 77 ATK (212/3)
*Sword6 - 95 ATK (213/2)
*Staff6 - 95 ATK (213/2)
*Crossbow6 - 123 ATK (198/1)
*G-Blade5 - 84 ATK (180/2)
*Bow4 - 107 ATK (166/1)
*Heavy4 - 126 ATK (204/1)
*Polearm3 - 115 ATK (182/1)

=Tier 7= (Average enemy DEF = 26)
*Knife7 - 83 ATK (228/3)
*Sword7 - 102 ATK (228/2)
*Staff7 - 102 ATK (228/2)
*Crossbow7 - 132 ATK (212/1)
*G-Blade6 - 90 ATK (192/2)
*Bow5 - 115 ATK (178/1)
*Heavy5 - 136 ATK (220/1)
*Polearm4 - 124 ATK (196/1)

=Tier 8= (Average enemy DEF = 27)
*Knife8 - 89 ATK (248/3)
*Sword8 - 109 ATK (246/2)
*Staff8 - 109 ATK (246/2)
*Crossbow8 - 141 ATK (228/1)
*G-Blade7 - 96 ATK (207/2)
*Bow6 - 123 ATK (192/1)
*Heavy6 - 145 ATK (236/1)
*Polearm5 - 132 ATK (210/1)

=Tier 9= (Average enemy DEF = 29)
*Knife9 - 94 ATK (260/3)
*Sword9 - 116 ATK (261/2)
*Staff9 - 116 ATK (261/2)
*Crossbow9 - 151 ATK (244/1)
*G-Blade8 - 102 ATK (219/2)
*Bow7 - 131 ATK (206/1)
*Heavy7 - 154 ATK (250/1)
*Polearm6 - 141 ATK (224/1)

=Tier 10= (Average enemy DEF = 31)
*Knife10 - 100 ATK (276/3)
*Sword10 - 123 ATK (276/2)
*Staff10 - 123 ATK (276/2)
*Crossbow10 - 160 ATK (258/1)
*G-Blade9 - 108 ATK (231/2)
*Bow8 - 139 ATK (216/1)
*Heavy8 - 164 ATK (266/1)
*Polearm7 - 149 ATK (236/1)

=Tier 11= (Average enemy DEF = 33)
*Knife11 - 106 ATK (292/3)
*Sword11 - 130 ATK (291/2)
*Staff11 - 130 ATK (291/2)
*Crossbow11 - 169 ATK (272/1)
*G-Blade10 - 115 ATK (246/2)
*Bow9 - 147 ATK (228/1)
*Heavy9 - 173 ATK (280/1)
*Polearm8 - 158 ATK (250/1)

=Tier 12= (Average enemy DEF = 34)
*Knife12 - 112 ATK (312/3)
*Sword12 - 137 ATK (312/2)
*Staff12 - 137 ATK (312/2)
*Crossbow12 - 178 ATK (288/1)
*G-Blade11 - 121 ATK (261/2)
*Bow10 - 155 ATK (242/1)
*Heavy10 - 182 ATK (296/1)
*Polearm9 - 166 ATK (264/1)

=Tier 13= (Average enemy DEF = 36)
*Knife13 - 117 ATK (324/3)
*Sword13 - 144 ATK (324/2)
*Staff13 - 144 ATK (324/2)
*Crossbow13 - 187 ATK (302/1)
*G-Blade12 - 127 ATK (273/2)
*Bow11 - 163 ATK (254/1)
*Heavy11 - 192 ATK (312/1)
*Polearm10 - 175 ATK (278/1)

(Note: There will likely be no Tier-13 "standard" weapons, as this tier roughly equates to ultimates.  Instead there'd be a few sidegrades along this tier for each class.)


Armor:
=Tier 1= (Average enemy ATK: 60)
Light1 - 14 Def, 14 MDef, +5 Evade (46)
Medium1 - 20 Def, 14 MDef (40)

=Tier 2= (Average enemy ATK: 67)
Light2 - 15 Def, 15 MDef, +5 Evade (52)
Medium2 - 22 Def, 15 MDef, Resist Piercing (45)

=Tier 3= (Average enemy ATK: 74)
Light3 - 17 Def, 17 MDef, +5 Evade (57)
Medium3 - 24 Def, 17 MDef, Resist Poison (50)
Heavy1 - 33 Def, 25 MDef (Not sold in C1; initial equip on Bartol) (41)

=Tier 4= (Average enemy ATK: 81)
Light4 - 18 Def, 18 MDef (62)
Medium4 - 27 Def, 18 MDef (54)
Heavy2 - 36 Def, 28 MDef (45)

=Tier 5= (Average enemy ATK: 88)
Light5 - 20 Def, 20 MDef (68)
Medium5 - 29 Def, 20 MDef (59)
Heavy3 - 39 Def, 29 MDef (49)

=Tier 6= (Average enemy ATK: 95)
Light6 - 22 Def, 22 MDef (73)
Medium6 - 31 Def, 22 MDef (64)
Heavy4 - 42 Def, 33 MDef (53)

=Tier 7= (Average enemy ATK: 102)
Light7 - 23 Def, 23 MDef (79)
Medium7 - 34 Def, 23 MDef (68)
Heavy5 - 45 Def, 35 MDef (57)

=Tier 8= (Average enemy ATK: 109)
Light8 - 25 Def, 25 MDef (84)
Medium8 - 36 Def, 25 MDef (73)
Heavy6 - 49 Def, 38 MDef (60)

=Tier 9= (Average enemy ATK: 116)
Light9 - 27 Def, 27 MDef (89)
Medium9 - 38 Def, 27 MDef (78)
Heavy7 - 52 Def, 40 MDef (64)

=Tier 10= (Average enemy ATK: 123)
Light10 - 28 Def, 28 MDef (95)
Medium10 - 41 Def, 28 MDef (82)
Heavy8 - 55 Def, 43 MDef (68)

=Tier 11= (Average enemy ATK: 130)
Light11 - 30 Def, 30 MDef (100)
Medium11 - 43 Def, 30 MDef (87)
Heavy9 - 58 Def, 45 MDef (72)

=Tier 12= (Average enemy ATK: 137)
Light12 - 32 Def, 32 MDef (105)
Medium12 - 45 Def, 32 MDef (92)
Heavy10 - 61 Def, 48 MDef (76)

=Tier 13= (Average enemy ATK: 144)
Light13 - 33 Def, 33 MDef (111)
Medium13 - 48 Def, 33 MDef (96)
Heavy11 - 64 Def, 50 MDef (80)

In general, however, weapons will generally have the following non-ATK traits by type:

Knives: 1.25x DEX mod, 95% accuracy, 7% critical rate, Slashing damage.
Light Swords: 1.1x DEX mod, 90% accuracy, 4% critical rate, +MAG, Slashing damage.
Staves: 1x DEX mod, 90% accuracy, 4% critical rate, +5 Evade, Impact damage.
Guardian Blades: 1.1x DEX mod, 95% accuracy, 7% critical rate, Impact damage.
Bows: 0.93x DEX mod, 85% accuracy, 7% critical rate, Ignores counters, Piercing damage.
Polearms: 0.93x DEX mod, 90% accuracy, 15% critical rate, Piercing damage.
Crossbows: 0.93x DEX mod, 85% accuracy, 4% critical rate, fixed STR, fixed Swings=1, Ignores counters, Piercing damage
Heavy Weapons: 0.85x DEX mod, 85% accuracy, 7% critical rate, Slashing -or- Impact damage
Crystals(Spread Formation): 1x DEX mod, 85% accuracy, 4% critical rate, MAG-based, fixed Swings=N, Ignores counters, Random Target, Piercing Damage
Crystals(Focus Formation): 1x DEX mod, 95% accuracy, 7% critical rate, MAG-based, fixed Swings=1, Ignores counters, Piercing Damage