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Yup I do. My skype is Formiina (with a double i). ^^

Taking a look at the spreadsheet now, it looks very nice!

That would be awesome!

All of the formulas are up in the air right now, so I'm definitely interested in taking a look and seeing what you've done. I'd love to implement some custom classes, psynergy and items too.

Ehhh, this sounds a little broken. Too easy to max your power with 9 djinn. You're going to make elemental power boosting equipment useless if you go this route, and the elemental power boost from summons, too.

Right now the current plan is to remove the relative power / resist cap of 200 so hitting the cap won't be an issue. If +10/+10 ends up being too powerful, I can always revert to +5/+5.

I'm pretty sure the normal games actually do this and it isn't considered a bug; this is what makes abilities from your primary element stronger than from the others, which is also what plays a role in making base class spells stronger than spells from the other classes (to compensate for the lack of versatility that dual and tri-elemental classes offer). In fact, the game makes it so a djinni adds an elemental level, and each level adds the +5 bonus to the other two elemental stats, to make this possible.

Oh - sorry you are correct. I worded it badly, what my intentions were that each Djinni increased by +10/+10, but the bonus you got from your primary element of 5 elemental levels would only be +5/+5. So you would have an extra +45/+45 at 9 Djinn.

The elemental damage stat is supposed to provide an alternative way for offensive casters to scale and a way to differentiate from physical based Adepts. The idea is that +X (Elemental Damage) would be a bigger boost than +% (Elemental Power) when the base damage of Psynergy is pretty low, while +% would be better in in the higher levels.

If you're trying to make offensive spellcasting a worthwhile investment, wouldn't just adopting a new system based on GS be better?  It's what I did with the Casting and Warding stats.  Did well in creating parity between what physical and caster adepts are capable of.  Otherwise, all it's doing is serving to boost attack and healing power - it still won't really be worth it to cast spells.

This sounds interesting, would you be able to elaborate on this system? I'm not familiar with it. One of the goals is definitely trying to make offensive spell casting much more worthwhile so a caster team is viable.

Thank you everyone for the feedback, keep it coming!

Hi all!

Thanks Saturos, I have fixed that error now :)

Been a while since I posted, I have been lurking a bit though. I have been making some wonderful progress so far so I thought I would share the latest build of my project!

What's changed since last time?

- Equipment System! You can now equip various weapons and armour to increase your statistics during battle. Adept sprites will reflect what type of weapon is equipped.
- Djinn System! You can trade, set and standby Djinn on your Adepts. They work exactly like the original and all of the original classes are implemented, too! No Djinn in battles just yet though.
- Defend command implemented. Defending reduces all damage taken by 66% for that turn.
- You can full party heal outside of battles by selecting the Psynergy Icon on the menu.
- Red crystal for combat log now works properly
- Winning or losing battles now displays a message and exits appropriately
- Lots of new Psynergy and Items added (*Most* of the classes have Psynergy, some do not though - still implementing some)
- AI is significantly better but should be pretty easy to beat in this build.

Balance Changes (Differences from the original):
- Added a new stat: Elemental Damage. This increases the base damage of your spells before relative power is taken into account. The wooden stick increases your elemental damage by 3.
- Each Djinn increases your elemental power and resistance by +10, up from +5. Right now this is currently bugged and takes into account your bonus of +5 elemental levels for your primary element so you actually have quite a bit more elemental power as a result.
- Experimenting with various weapons increasing / decreasing other stats apart from attack. (For example, the long sword increases ATK but decreases DEF)
- Defend decreases damage by 66%, up from 50%.

What's coming next?

Just polishing up the menus (adding some Adept sprites to the Djinn, Status and Item menus once I get them from Miva, displaying Psynergy available when changing class, etc.), and then i'll be adding in some Djinn attacks during battles (Like Flint / Sap). Also adding in support for Psynergy such as Impact, Guard and Break.

Then it's time to start getting it looking like more of a game that you can progress through - exp, levelling up, account saving, and probably some sort of arena where you battle progressively harder fights, winning gold, items and Djinn!

Clicky to play this build, hope you enjoy! https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ

Thanks for the bug reports and feedback!

Just a quick update:

- Fixed Adepts being stuck in their hurt animation
- Felix and friends now don't cast Psynergy on themselves like dorks
- The controls menu will now tell you which buttons to press instead of START and SELECT.
- Battle AI is now smarter, so the fight should be more challenging now. (they will attempt to cast heals intelligently and cast more often)

Linkie: https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ

What's coming next?
- Implement Basic Equipment
- Implement More Psynergy (Up to level 8 is the goal for now)
- Leveling up + Local account saving (This will be temporary until the game becomes multiplayer)

As always, feedback is loved and welcomed!

Also, let me know if you still have the key bindings you set up as I'm not sure they persist through new versions, hopefully they will stay the same though!

Hi all!

I have gone ahead and added in an option to change your controls based on your feedback! You can now find it under the systems menu. The control scheme is saved every time so you should be able to set up the controls the way you like and have them stay like that from now on! ^^

Unfortunately, I do not have a game pad so I can't test to see if it works with them or not, though it would be awesome to have support for it.

What's new this week:

- Combat Log in battles now scrolls smoothly like in the original game
- You can view your party status from outside the battle (Still WIP)
- Adept stats are now saved between battles. See how many consecutive battles you can last before your party falls!
- Felix & friends now sometimes cast Psynergy to make battles more challenging :)
- You can now change key-bindings, which are saved between sessions. Set it up the way you like!
- (Minor Bug Fix): Psynergy Animations now display the entire length of the spell

Linky: https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ

Let me know if there are any bugs, particularly with the control settings. Feedback is always welcomed, thanks for checking it out!

[What's changed?]

Wooh, I can be a male witch! :P

That's the plan!

Djinn: Not too bad, but this also eliminates the ability to switch classes and open up new spells in the middle of battle. Even if those other classes are weaker, it's still great for making a unit more versatile.

Yup, that's a good point. I guess it's a trade-off since you lose stats too, making yourself more vulnerable in order to deal a massive amount of damage. If I do have summons (And I kinda do, because they're pretty iconic to the games), the damage will probably need to be tweaked.

Two turns/reviving: I love the idea of being able to either play my character defensively or offensively with those examples, but it also opens up the ability to have a full team of defenders and healers or some other team to stretch battles out anyway. Plus, if someone dies, then that team will mostly likely get wiped out with little opportunity for recovery. What if you were to make defend block 50~80% of all damage (would stick with jinn otherwise and leave out spells), and put some sort of limit on reviving? Djinni revives for example, or a reduced success rate for every reviving effect beyond items?

Great ideas and good points. Personally, when I played the games, I found the revive spell very powerful and fairly cheap for its effect. I want downing a player to have a significant effect for the rest of the battle, and I think it should be very hard (but not impossible) for the losing side to come back (So this puts a lot of pressure players to keep their Adepts alive). I'm not a fan of the Djinn revives, mainly because of its RNG success rate, but a revive limit is also a great idea and definitely something to consider!

If there were 2 actions per round, I think a defense-heavy orientated team could possibly work, but they would run out of PP eventually (since your basic attack is free). I guess I just envision people playing a balanced style to be on the safe side, with 1 action spent on defending almost always, and the other on something else. You then have the option of being aggressive at the cost of taking increased damage. Of course, I can't speak for everyone, and people will probably just spam 2 attacks per round. :P

However, a straight up buff to Defense could also work if the turn limit was one. I want it to be a viable action to prevent too much focus fire. But defending is a risky play with only one action, because it's a wasted turn if you don't take damage.

I like what you've done so far! Looks like you still need to add variation for sprite animations, transparency for battle animations, and element-dependent casting effects, but it still looks great so far. Camera works well, battles are pretty, and you even have the correct standard attack animations for each enemy/character (possible exception being enemy PCs, but I don't know how an enemy PC's attack would normally look in a battle anyway).

Thanks!! Element-dependent casting effects is now done, I shall get the others done when I can. When you say transparency for animations, can you give me an example? I thought they were already transparent. XD

As for the very last part, I'd much rather see gameplay be altered from the original, yet still have a similar experience. Especially if you rebalance the luck stat and make ailments a viable option in battle.

Yup, there are plans to rebalance the luck stat and ailments. Here's the current plan:

Stun - A short duration effect that prevents the target from acting this turn.
Temporary Stun - The next action by the player is prevented (excluding defend).
Sleep - A longer duration disable, but it breaks immediately on damage. Can be removed by Restore.
Seal - Prevent psynergy from being cast. Can be removed by Restore.
Poison / Deadly Poison - Damage over time effect. Antidote can remove the effect.
Haunt - Inflicts 25% of the damage dealt to self. Can be removed by another separate Psynergy.
Delusion - All attacks miss including elemental physical attacks. Can be removed by Restore.

There will be CC immunity against repeated applications to prevent stun-locks. I want luck to play a factor in ailments but the implementation I am not sure of yet. Thank you for your feedback!

The problem is this assumes a 1v1 situation, while these battles are 4v4.

Yes, that's true. I guess the idea was most people play safe (as in, use one of their actions on Defend), so pretty much everyone has 50% reduction. Then you have the option of being dealing double damage at the cost of taking double damage, which I think would be a cool strategic choice. Of course, that's my ideal scenario, which probably isn't going to happen in practice. :P

As far as Barrier Djinn go, I guess it depends on whether or not Summons are in. If they aren't then my proposed idea would mean barrier Djinn would have a high recharge time, limiting their use, so you couldn't just unleash and set them continuously. Their defensive ability would stack with Defend multiplicatively (So granite + defend would be 75% reduction).

Increasing the number of actions per turn per team up to 8 would be very bad for the game's health. It would remove much of the decision making aspect, since you lose so little by having someone spend a turn to do something besides attacking in a game where you already have more than enough attacks available. To compensate for the massive number of attacks flying every round, you would need to drastically reduce damage taken by either messing with stats (via some combination of +hp, +def, and -atk) or directly altering the damage formula. Either way, you're changing a lot just for the sake of changing things.

Well, reducing the decision making aspect is not meant to be the goal here. It's meant to increase options, but I can see where you are coming from. You are right - there will be a ton of attacks flying around - so to compensate, HP would most likely be doubled.

If your goal is to make the defend command more useful, you'd be much better off directly attacking the problem by buffing the defend command. The current proposed solution is comparable to replacing a car's entire engine just because it needs an oil change.

This is also an option.

Basically, I want Defend to be viable against focus fire, and I just thought increasing commands to 2 might add some new spice in into the battle system and open up options that weren't previously available (I was a big fan of the Kite Djinni). However, you have very valid points and I am looking at ways to buff Defend to make it more useful with only one action.

For the time being, the actions are set at one, but I will test out two as well. One thing I could do is have different "Leagues" with different rule sets, so I could have something like a Classic Mode (Similar to the original) and then some funky other modes too for people who want something a little different.

I see. The post I linked discusses 3v3 because that's what the GS link arena uses, and it was about using vba to play matches online, but much of it could also be applied to 4v4.

Yup, it was a good read! Did anything ever come out of that? I have done much link battling myself so it'd be great to hear from more firsthand experience.

Making bosses less vulnerable to summons is actually pretty trivial if you're willing to adjust the hp% damage (e.g. 2% per djinni down from 3%) or give bosses additional resistance to summons specifically (e.g. making all summons inflict 75% of their normal damage when used against a foe with a "boss" flag).

Thanks! Both sound like great options.

I've got nothing against tweaking. In fact, I think it would be for the best. But, I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, like giving every character two actions per turn, or any radical changes to the djinn set/standby/recovery system.

Okies! Great points in your post and I definitely don't want to stray too far away from the original games. You are right, it doesn't need a complete overhaul, I just wanted to add some spice to make things interesting, that's all. Thank you for your feedback!

Whew!! Long post. Before I go, I did make some updates to the project over the week. Not as much as I would have liked, but it has been somewhat of a busy week for me.

What's changed?
- General graphical enhancements (Added in purple target crystal, cursor thingy when selecting Psynergy, added a border for most menu labels, information when choosing a target displays now). Special thanks to Luna_blade for the sprite rips!
- Psynergy damage and healing calculations now properly takes into account power and resistance values.
- Class bonuses are now calculated for each Adept (Only the basic classes are in so far - Squire, Guard, Wind Seer, Water Seer)
- Psynergy is now only available to the appropriate Classes (No more Whirlwind on Isaac and friends)
- Several new Psynergy have been added to each Adept with their respective effects (Sounds are coming soon). More coming with every update!

You can view it here: https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ

Thank you all for the responses!

@Luna_Blade,
Thank you for the rips, in the process of putting them in now. I took a look at the link you gave me and unfortunately they are lacking a lot of the low level Psynergy, such as Flare, Plasma, etc. I can rip these myself (by recording an video of the game playing with layers turned off) but if there is a better way let me know.

@JamietheFlameUser
Interesting idea. I was possibly thinking of adding in different variations of Defend (Defend Psynergy) - so you could have the base Defend that costed no PP, and defensive psynergy. Defensive Psynergy could be stuff like...:

Power Block - Jupiter Psynergy - Block up to 90% of all incoming damage. 25% of the damage blocked comes off PP. Effect does not trigger if you don't have enough PP.
Counter Attack - Fire Psynergy - Block 50% damage. Counter all hits with a physical attack. 8 PP.
etc.

@Leaf
Great read for your link, thank you! That is a good question, and one that i'm not sure of yet. I'm leaning towards level 60 being the maximum level for end game as well. However, you won't be starting at this level - I want there to be leveling up and adventuring as part of the game (and as such, will be focusing on low-level stuff first).

Regarding 2 turns, my logic was that by giving everyone two turns, they have a few more options (not including utility Psynergy such as Impact, Sleep, etc):

1) Deal damage twice (double damage output)
2) Heal twice (double healing)
3) Defend once, heal or damage once (50% reduction + damage or healing)

Thus giving a bigger choice to the player, and making defense a viable option as you don't lose your entire turn to get 50% reduction. If player A attacked twice and player B was defending, player B would only take half damage, and if player B attacked player A, he would take full damage and thus, take an equivalent amount of damage. Player A would have expended twice the PP though if he was casting Psynergy.

Thoughts?

About summon rushing: Sorry, it was like 12:30am when I wrote the reason. What I meant to say was that I wanted to discourage summon rushing in boss battles, as I'd still like to have Summons there. PvP Battles will most likely be 4v4, but 3v3 can also be an option too.

About Tweaking / Gameplay Alterations: I do want to keep the original spirit of the original games, but I think having some changes here and there could potentially make the game more varied and exciting. (New Psynergy, new types of Djinn effects and unleashes). I guess it really comes down to whether people want a game that emulates the original game with 100% accuracy (Or as close enough as possible) vs. a game that could be considered an expansion / re-balancing on the original mechanics while still maintaining the Golden Sun feel that everyone loves.

Okie dokie. New topic created. Lets discuss there! Thank you all again for your warm welcome! Also I can't seem to see your attachement. Can you try posting in the other topic please? Thank you btw! 

[Z]

Hi all!

I'd like to share my project I've been working on for the last couple of weeks or so. (Started on the 22nd May, 2014). It's a small flash game aiming to recreate the original game as close as possible in terms of look and feel. It looks like there have been other members working on similar things throughout the years, and this project of mine has already been through several iterations itself. You can find some previous screenshots here (Spanning 2006-2011): http://imgur.com/a/AYP2L (The main topic for the previous versions is on Golden Sunrise if you want to check it out!)

The main focus of the game is competitive Multiplayer, so you'll be able to socialise and battle other players in real time.

Currently I have a small tech demo demonstrating a basic battle system right now. (The only commands that work currently are Attack and Psynergy) You can check it out here: https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ. Controls are:
Z = A Button
X = B Button
A = L Button
S = R Button
Arrow Keys = D-Pad

There will be regular updates as this is a fresh project. I have programmed multiplayer games before (including a prior version of Adept Battle Arena), but I have not done networking in Flash, so it will be somewhat of a challenge.

Now, onto the scope / features / goals:

The main goal of this project is to create an authentic looking Golden Sun Battle system that you can battle other parties (controlled by other players) in real time.

On balance / perceived balanced issues: There will be some formulas and mechanics that may need to be re-balanced to make multiplayer more fun and encourage new strategies that weren't possible in the original games. Constructive feedback and theorycrafting on balance issues are welcome, but some things may be set in stone and/or may be difficult to judge until people actually try them out.

Now, the main proposed differences between the original games and my project and the reasoning behind them. Nothing is set in stone just yet. (Feedback is welcome  )
- No summons in PvP Reason: Programming time constraints (difficult to program), unsure of the effectiveness of summon rushing - I want to discourage this.
- Djinn will be given a yet-to-be-determined recharge timer on use Reason: They will set back automatically. You will lose the passive bonus but not the class bonus while they are recharging.
- You can have more than one of each character Reason: To encourage unique team set ups. Want 4 Jupiter adepts? Go for it!
- 2 turns per round: Reason: To make the defend option more attractive and encourage more strategies. In the original game, Defend is pretty lackluster. Should also result in quicker battles.
- Remove the cap of 200 on Elemental Power, new caster items will boost Elemental Power : Reason: To make spell casting more powerful and a viable option to build a team around.
- Overall, health will probably be increased Reason: Avoid people getting one shot from the proposed changes.
- Items will be available, on an X-used per battle basis Reason: Consumables should be a viable, limited PP-less way of dealing damage or healing, but they will have a set number of uses per battle to prevent spamming. Example: You can buy a herb pouch from the shop. 5 Uses, recharges after each battle.
- There will be no reviving in PvP battles. Reason: To prevent battles from going on for a long time.
- Certain healing spells will be nerfed Reason: Their PP to Healing ratio is too damn high!
- No genderlocked Classes, Adepts will have standardized statistics for each Element Reason: Equality for everyone. You will be able to make a Fire Adept a Guard or Flame User, regardless of gender.

There will be a PvP Leaderboard of course. For awesome bragging rights. Who can make the most awesome party? ^^

So, that's all I can think of for now. There will probably be other things and issues that crop up along the way, but it'll be a fun journey! Again, the main focus is a balanced, fun multiplayer battle game, trying to stay close to the original games, but with modifications done as necessary. But ideally, I want there to be social aspects, perhaps PvE battles against cool and unique bosses (To earn Gold, Djinn and Items), or just play some minigames with your fellow Adepts to blow off some steam. Customized overworld sprites and portraits will be ideal as well, so you can be unique. Check out the demo if you haven't already!

How can you help?
If you're talented in Sprite Ripping, let me know. I could always use a hand (particulary when it comes to Psynergy effects!)
If you're good with math, feel free to provide some constructive and well thought out balance feedback and concerns.
If you're good with Programming, let me know and we can talk some C++ (I can't do assembly). XD
Otherwise, play and enjoy the game, and report bugs and provide feedback!

Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!

Yes, Miva has been helping out and been generally wonderful!

If you have the Red Crystal already ripped, that would be wonderful, it'll save me lots of time! There's also a targeting crystal thing that appears when you target a character which I need as well! Should I create a separate topic for this so we can collate discussion and ideas there?

When you say more characters, do you mean like, being able to choose more than one / two of one type of Adept? Or do you mean parties of 5+ people? I also want to give everyone at least 2 moves per turn, as it may make Defend a bit more attractive to use (50% reduction against incoming damage vs doubling your heal / damage output). Thoughts?

Hey, thanks everyone!

I chose Flash because it seems to run pretty well in most common browsers and I didn't really want people to download an .exe as people would be far less inclined to try it out. Right now the current priority is to make the Battle System look & feel like the original games (as close as possible), but I will probably be modifying some of the mechanics and damage formulas to try and create a more balanced experience (If you have ideas, I would love to hear them). I want the main focus to be PvP battles (Like the linked battle Arena) so I want there to be cool and interesting strategies, but it'd be cool to have some interesting Boss battles as well for those who want a different sort of challenge too.

PvE battles are going to be easier to implement though, so i'll be getting those done first. Just finishing up Psynergy and then polishing up the small things - the little diamond cursor thing, the little hand cursor when you choose Psynergy, the layering issues and so on. The music is only temporary - I may remove it for the meantime as it adds a lot to the file size of the file.

Once I get all of that working, I want to add in some Multiplayer support (which will be difficult, so this part may take some time), so you can walk around in Town, chat and battle with each other! Then I can start adding in new features based on what people want. ^^

Slow on the map? I can always increase the speed of him. ^^ I haven't compared the speed against the original game just yet. And yeah, layering problem needs to be fixed. XD I've just been busy with the battle system at the moment.

Ooh, you found the hidden feature! XD Was that you who posted that patch? It was very helpful in writing the rotational code and being able to compare it with the original, thank you! ^^ I will take that feature out later on, it was mainly meant to test if the rotation system was working. :3

Oops, sorry! Read your post wrongly. ^^; 

Okay, here it is! https://db.tt/R4Jfs9wQ. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks now so it's nowhere near complete. The controls are the same as the default for VBA.. so your A button is "Z", B button is "X". Arrow keys to move around and navigate menus.

Currently the only thing you can do is open up the menu and battle against another party (By selecting the Battle option from the menu). Currently, you can attack and there is (very limited) Psynergy available. It's still kinda buggy and there's lots of things to fix up, so go easy on me!

It's not a ROM - its a flash game that I made, but it does contain sprites and sounds from Golden Sun. So i'm not sure if its legal or not. Atrius posted some flash demos before, so I assume I should be okay to do it? o.o

Thank you!!! I tried the second method you suggested and it worked perfectly. :) Changing the sound effect to x00 disabled the music and then I could play and record the other sound effects perfectly.

x00 to about x5D appears to be the music, and everything from x64 onwards are sound effects. ^^

Thanks everyone! And I will make sure to read the rules! I'm not sure if I can post a link to my project (It's a flash thingy, so you can play in browser), but if I can I'll gladly post so you guys can check it out. ^^

I took a look at what Atrius (I found some flash demo thingies of the overworld and stuff) and Kioll had done, but it looks like those projects never took off / finished. So hopefully I can fill in the gap there. XD

Hello!

I'm trying to record some sound effects from the Golden Sun using VBA, but the problem is the darn music keeps playing and if I disable the sound channels that play the music, several sound effects also get muted. Has anyone ripped the sound effects or does anyone know of a way to edit the music (to mute it) or point me in the right direction?

Thanks ^^

Ooo, I remember reading through that topic! Did it ever go anywhere? It seems like it kind of died off. o.o

I realize the project sounds kind of ambitious. XD Currently, i'm just aiming for a working battle system (against AI), then against other people, and then see where it goes from there.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I'm not really making a hack for the game, but more of a re-creation of the original games. I eventually want it to be online multiplayer, so you can team up with other Adepts to solve puzzles, explore the world, and also battle each other. I'm trying to make it feel like the original games by using the same sprites, sounds and effects. ^^

And.. no, I don't think so. xD Salanewt is confuzzled, maybe?