Thanks for the feedback! I especially appreciate that you commented on and liked the facial expressions, since I'm proud of those and feel they add a lot.
I'm wondering whether monster drops should happen directly after a monter's defeated rather than at the end of battle, as I've seen in some other games.
Targetting is currently planned to be bound to the skill, so some spells target all, while others target just one. The variable targeting was something I stole from Final Fantasy, but I don't think it's typical for RPGs in general? This is one of the things I can definitely tweak if needed though.
I agree about the lack of impact Mind damage was having in that boss battle, and I've been unsure what to do about it. Technically since Mind determines the potency of that boss's Bat Breath, Emeela's spells are weakening it, but it's got so much Mind that it's barely perceptible. Reducing its Mind total might help with that, but then battles could all just end up with a not-exactly-satisfying fizzling-out intensity curve, where everything starts off trading powerful blows and ends whittling each other down with tired little slaps. I'll keep tweaking the mechanics I've already got, though I might have to rethink the general stats system entirely if it just doesn't play well in the long run.
1
JohnnyBoi45~4Y
I think either choice for monster drops is valid. Benefits of a screen include that you know exactly what you're getting and can see the full picture vs. it being slightly faster/you know exactly what monster it came from with the other system.
So I remember being skeptical about attack power being determined by current body and min stats, but I also understand what you might have been going for strategically during the boss fight. Steele was the main damage, Emeela was a debuffer of sorts, Deugan and Mardek were both supports, one for healing and one for buffing. The first thing I see is that while we have diverse roles, 3/4 of the team is only providing only support elements and no damage (not counting Mardek's 1 attack at the end.) Emeela is technically dealing damage, but it doesn't feel that way because it's only chip damage and it isn't to the pool we're really watching - health. I have a few thoughts about this.
- Maybe a solution is to give Emeela a choice somehow to deal body or mind damage. This would allow her to either contribute to the "main task" (killing the boss quickly) at the expense of sustaining a higher amount of damage for longer or to contribute to her own objective by making the boss's attacks weaker. It's a classic speed vs. safety choice.
- My other thought is to simply do away with the current stat scaling and switch to a percentage of maximum stats instead (maybe with some slight damage variance built in to be a little spicier), and make debuffs tied to specific skills as more of a status effect than a result of something else.
The more I think about the boss battle, I have basically 2 gripes, both actually coming back to the stats system:
- Emeela seemed useless (covered above)
- The bat breath skill put everyone on the defensive with no other options as they can't do any risky plays because they can't deal any significant damage with their stats low. This is exemplified when Mardek has to eat at the end before hitting and killing the boss.
I think the second one is not a problem necessarily - I distinctly remember Muriance doing something similar in ch2 due to the low party levels when you fought him. It's only an issue when it comes with the disadvantage of lowering damage, so much so that the only option is to spend the rest of the turn healing back up.
I'm wondering whether monster drops should happen directly after a monter's defeated rather than at the end of battle, as I've seen in some other games.
Targetting is currently planned to be bound to the skill, so some spells target all, while others target just one. The variable targeting was something I stole from Final Fantasy, but I don't think it's typical for RPGs in general? This is one of the things I can definitely tweak if needed though.
I agree about the lack of impact Mind damage was having in that boss battle, and I've been unsure what to do about it. Technically since Mind determines the potency of that boss's Bat Breath, Emeela's spells are weakening it, but it's got so much Mind that it's barely perceptible. Reducing its Mind total might help with that, but then battles could all just end up with a not-exactly-satisfying fizzling-out intensity curve, where everything starts off trading powerful blows and ends whittling each other down with tired little slaps. I'll keep tweaking the mechanics I've already got, though I might have to rethink the general stats system entirely if it just doesn't play well in the long run.
So I remember being skeptical about attack power being determined by current body and min stats, but I also understand what you might have been going for strategically during the boss fight. Steele was the main damage, Emeela was a debuffer of sorts, Deugan and Mardek were both supports, one for healing and one for buffing. The first thing I see is that while we have diverse roles, 3/4 of the team is only providing only support elements and no damage (not counting Mardek's 1 attack at the end.) Emeela is technically dealing damage, but it doesn't feel that way because it's only chip damage and it isn't to the pool we're really watching - health. I have a few thoughts about this.
- Maybe a solution is to give Emeela a choice somehow to deal body or mind damage. This would allow her to either contribute to the "main task" (killing the boss quickly) at the expense of sustaining a higher amount of damage for longer or to contribute to her own objective by making the boss's attacks weaker. It's a classic speed vs. safety choice.
- My other thought is to simply do away with the current stat scaling and switch to a percentage of maximum stats instead (maybe with some slight damage variance built in to be a little spicier), and make debuffs tied to specific skills as more of a status effect than a result of something else.
The more I think about the boss battle, I have basically 2 gripes, both actually coming back to the stats system:
- Emeela seemed useless (covered above)
- The bat breath skill put everyone on the defensive with no other options as they can't do any risky plays because they can't deal any significant damage with their stats low. This is exemplified when Mardek has to eat at the end before hitting and killing the boss.
I think the second one is not a problem necessarily - I distinctly remember Muriance doing something similar in ch2 due to the low party levels when you fought him. It's only an issue when it comes with the disadvantage of lowering damage, so much so that the only option is to spend the rest of the turn healing back up.