Disquiet Battle Test 3 Rambling

[074]

Bug report time!

--It appears that MT interacts strangely with the First Swing script.  Only the last person targeted is affected by either as far as status goes (4th party member, so on).  Removing the first swing line fixes everything.

[074]

Now, I could arguably have edited the last post, but I feel this was worth a new post:

NEW VERSION UPDATES(NAMA'S SHITTY VERSION):

--Character updates--
Noemi's ST regen has increased from 3 to 4
Mirek's STR has been increased from 60 to 105

--Equipment updates--
Guardian Blades have had DEX mod switched to 1x, fixed at Single Swing, damage type changed to Slashing

--Item updates--
New Items added:
Field Tonic: heals 25%+100 HP, adds a 4-turn healblock
Antidote: Heals physical statuses
Smelling Salts: Heals mental statuses
Panacea: Heals most statuses
Elixir: Revives a PC with 65% HP.

--Skill updates--
-Flare Shot cost decreased from 6 to 4
-Flare Shot(Crescendo) power increased from 50 to 55
-Sleeping cost increased from 7 to 8, has spi_f 70
-Sleeping(Crescendo) cost increased from 7 to 10, has spi_f 70
-Empower cost increased from 5 to 7
-Empower(Crescendo) cost increased from 5 to 9
-Spark Cluster power increased from 181 to 190
-Spark Cluster(Crescendo) cost increased from 8 to 10, power from 223 to 240

-Mail Cleaver base power changed to 150
-Banishing Edge base power increased to 500, enemy resistances to Anti-Disquiet element changed to balance this.

-Searing base power increased from 38 to 42
-Blasting Spread changed: Rage cost 45, Base Damage 55, select 9 random targets

-Recovery cost changed from 8 to 5
-Bolster cost changed from 5 to 11, now targets entire party, now inflicts VIT up/STR down

-Speed Fang no longer generates Focus on strike.  need to remember to adjust this for other skills.
-Vulcan Chain cost increased from 10 to 12.

-Kinetic Buffer cost reduced from 7 to 5
-Staggering Impact no longer adds STR down, has SPI_F 70
-Sonic Boom CTB change increased from -22 to -30

--Status Updates--
-Most stat-ups and stat-downs altered from 3 to 4 turn durations.
-Ignition status renamed to Fire Resist Down, now adds a +40% extra damage bonus to incoming fire damage.  Go Erastus.
-Sleep extended to 4 turns.

[074]

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.

[Grefter]

So we are back to some play testing.

I am rolling through the starting area.

First dungeon trash can almost all be beaten with hold Accept strats.  Would buff to force use of healing.  We didn't apply first cost drop in Recovery we were supposed to, so for now that would suck.  Would apply more HP.  Longer fights better.  Will make intended (?) later design less jarring and make fights more than mash accept.  Still easy because healing is fairly strong.


Corpulent got into a cycle of Amplify and then Overhead Strike.  I had both characters stunned at once.  Unavoidable wipe with that and some Armour Crack in place.  Stun duration is fine.  Stun frequency was just through the roof.  More testing to be done. 

Things I noticed. 
- Heal Block from Field Tonic applies 4 turn Heal Block even if you currently are under another variant of statuses.  Need to make variations of Status either Immune to other variants or skills wipe other ones if we want them to overwrite.  Some dull database updates will fix this, just need to keep it in mind in future iterations of skills.
- Turn 0 statuses still being applied is still confusing as fuck to me as an end user.  Would prefer the displayed turn count to be 1 even if gamewise it is "0"


I think there is more trash than there needs to be.  Less fights, more XP per fight.

Erastus joins at level 1.  Erastus should not join at level 1.  There was more reasons to give cash than just to be generous.  It was to allow more expansive testing.  You know, if things cost something. Seriously, put stuff back though.

Shop script breaks because you RUINED PERFECTION ANDREW.  Sent new version.  This one won't crash the game.

Loading back for more Corpulent.

I think he is going to be obtuse as fuck for new players.  I would do the handholdy FF thing of in game messages when he does Recomposition.  Still of the opinion that Power Shot wins you this fight.  He is probably significantly more approachable with a turtle strategy once Recover is lowered, but still, eh.

He can totally out damage your healing capabilities if he focuses on a character, especially if you go into Recomposition with someone lower.  Putrefaction on form shift fucks you into such a HP deficit you can't dig yourself out of in that scenario that you are boned and need Powershot.  I wasn't able to Kasia Solo after Noemi went down.  Didn't find the revival item.  Higher incoming damage than incoming HP on Recovery easily leads to scenario where a character will just die to Putrefaction on form change.  Laying out the scenario, Noemi focussed for 3 physicals in a row.  Heal on the first one since it out damages Recover, so heal early.  2 more physicals that also do more damage than Recovery heals while heal blocked.  10 HP left.  Phase change.  Death.  Kasia couldn't outheal incoming damage solo.

Still volatile RNG impacts.  If you get Putrefaction on form change it is incredibly punishing.  If you go in to phase change on an Amplification turn you are at a significant advantage.  I would personally force some targeting scenarios on moves.  Only Armor Crack the highest HP PC or something.  Things that are hard for players to read, but balance in their favour. 

Evades still spiky on incoming and outgoing damage, even though they aren't as punishing now.

Shop screen tells you plusses and minuses and not what stat it is even impacting.  Needs work.  Knife 2 is for sale for free.  There is also 5 free nothings for sale.

Even getting kind of lost in the dungeon while swapping between music and stuff I still didn't get to level 3 off Corpulent.  Insufficient XP gains.


Learning new moves isn't removing old ones.  Screwed up growth table.

At level 2 warehouse trash easily has unhealable damage with 2 Raider 2 Thrasher fight.  The opening MT I understand.  Noemi gets to pick 1 of 3 people to heal when she is at 1/3 health.  Noemi lost the rolls and gets to die.

Enemies getting 3 swings against Erastus.  Lowest Vit and locked robes.  This works really well and is completely reasonable.  Amplified Thrasher gets 2 swings on him.  443 damage.  221 damage.  475 HP pool at level 1.



I am going to go edit scripts to get to level 3 after beating Corpulent again.

Also noted that leaving the warehouse teleports you to town, walks you down a step which then teleports you into a wall in the cave part of Disquiet dumping ground.



Edit - the jump in your damage from 1 to 2 on Corpulent is significant.

Edit 2 - Having to grind in the game you are making is a surreal experience.

Fuck this stun.  Fuck this stun.  It is bullshit.  Kasia stunned and then killed.  Noemi stunned, Recomposition.  Died before stun wears off.

[074]

Observable issues from this:

-EXP scaling formula needs to be altered for higher rewards
-Might have overtweaked enemy offense for warehouse.  Need to fix that.  Curse the Nama-Factor.
-Not sure if able to force targeting scenarios, to be honest.  AI doesn't have capacity for that on its own (and no, VX Ace AI doesn't either)
-...the hell's with the shops?  The "0"-cost is because we haven't decided on any monetary standards, though the blanks imply non-updated pointers.
-Intro dungeon fights are a paradox, insofar that they're short, but would be immensely boring if long, what with you only getting access to two party members.
-Erastus starting at level 1 is a product of not having gone past original playtest parameters.  Agreed that this should be fixed.  Similarly, Warehouse enemies are tweaked for level 3 characters.
-Going to admit, not sure how to pull off skill replacement like that outside of some creative switch use.

[Grefter]

One of the scripts I changed when fixing ones that crash t he game had one to normalise party level to 3 post Corpulent.

Edit - warehouse testing inconclusive.  Wait for level appropriate testing.

[Grefter]

Warehouse randoms, the extra level helps a bunch.  Not sure if scaling too strong on levels? 

Trash so far functions but is kind of dull.  Probably want to turn off randoms and just have fixed encounters.  They are boring because it is spiky damage incoming.  Someone either doesn't care or is probably dead.  Throat Strike isn't hitting?

Thrashers probably still OHKO Erastus under Amplification.  They were 2HKOing him without it.  Roll dice to see if he dies.

Erastus isn't gaining focus.  This makes him pretty boring.

Bandit Captain and 2 Thrashers fight is pretty okay.  Would be better if you hadn't fought 1 billion Trashers already and if they weren't in a corner leading to nowhere.

Walking around the warehouse is incredibly annoying.  Disquiet Dumping Ground has the way out obscured by a tile in the foreground.  Warehouse is full of crates that look like you can walk behind them that block your path.  No indication that crates are pushable (dialogue might fix), makes for a not fun time.

[AndrewRogue]

Nama/Grefter: To get the DDG randoms up to the length we're looking for, how much of a durability increase do they need?

Regarding Erastus: You're likely right. Best option is prolly to normalize his Dexterity/Defenses a bit? Is it possible to do it along one axis?

We'll look into fixing the Warehouse issue by making the area fixed encounter only (which makes a bit more sense, all considered).

[Grefter]

Try at double, tune from there.