Disco Sun - Balance Update 1/3 Q&A

[Salanewt]

So yeah, hi! I've been working on this intermittently for a while now, and I was hoping we could start talking a little about it so I can work on refining a few things. However, it's been so long since I started and I've done a fair amount, so I wouldn't know where to begin. The idea behind this Q&A is simple; you can ask me about anything at all (though balance-oriented stuff is the focus main focus), and I will answer. If something doesn't fit well, then I can ask you guys how it can be improved, etc. Another thing is I don't want to spoil too much yet, so I may not answer certain questions 100%.

I guess I can start off with some of the things I have done and some of the others I want to do for this update:

SOME changes:
- 5 PCs; two Mercury adepts, either of which can be the protagonist depending on the gender you select at the beginning (selection not in yet, this update will likely just have the male option)
- Changed base stats, growths, caps (some, not all)
- Summon changes, most notably the Simple Summons patch
- Fewer Djinn, now 12 of each element (WIP, thinking of changing this up a bit for later patches)
- New classes (154 of them, with three blank ones to break them up into four groups; I have a spreadsheet that outlines everything that I can post if anyone wants it)
 - No item classes yet, I haven't finished planning them (have five items, but I may lower this back to 3)
- New and tweaked formulas, mostly related to status ailments
- Utility changes, but most of them are merely aesthetic with a couple notable exceptions
- Some ailments/effects have been tweaked a bit, either in duration, success rate, or strength

Planned for this update:
- Assign classes to PCs based on type ID to limit sharing:
 - Venus and M-Mercury are base IDs
 - Mars and F-mercury are ID + 20
 - Jupiter is ID + 40
- Item balancing, includes adding/tweaking a lot of things (planning a lot of nerfs, with a few very notable exceptions)
- Enemies; there's a lot I can and want to do with them, like attack graphics, size, death cries, eStat tables, immunities...
 - Or even enemy summons that actually use multipliers
- Slightly revamped counterattack code, so the animation is based on the buff turn counter rather than PC/enemy ID check
- Animation list overhaul, which will grant access to a number of used and unused animations and make existing IDs more efficient (WIP patch that may be almost done, will upload either before or alongside this update)

Future:
- Time system (actually have a WIP patch that works pretty well, save for a couple ugly looking bugs with menus and stuff)
 - I have SO MUCH planned for this, a lot of which is also related to game balance
- Charm & Confuse (have a WIP patch that does this poorly for enemies)
 - Also Reflect
- Revive revamp, where HP is based on whatever the HP formulas give + 1 rather than how they work now
- More item attributes, mainly where I can have different combinations of eStat boosts take up one attribute each
- And at least a few more, chances are

NOT planned until sometime after balance updates, even if I already have a good idea about how to approach it:
- New plot
- New maps
- Any characterization
- New sprites/graphics (might consider a couple, like this game's enemy mascot or some new world map location sprites to try out a new style)
- Lots of stuff


You can also look into a lot of the patches I have made in the past, as many of them are also incorporated into Disco Sun in one way or another. Might give you a bit of an idea about what else I have done with it so far.

So, yeah... ask away! Going to be busy for the next little while though, so answers may be delayed a tiny bit. The questions should help me balance things well at least.