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A Balanced Playthrough

Started by Rolina, 23, March, 2015, 08:08:12 AM

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Misery

Whenever I got to Bilibin in vanilla GS, I always bought the wooden cap for everyone. IIRC it gives more defense per gold than the open helm or whatever it's called, and it's also not possible to hand it down to Ivan or Mia when I find a better helm, so there was just no reason to buy that.

From memory, mages got really good defensive gear, but it couldn't be updated very often, and class multipliers meant they ended up with lower defense than warriors regardless.

leaf

Item classes should never be followed to the letter, anyway. It's a guideline, not a commandment. If in using them, you end up with an obvious outlier, you need to adjust it. If the class as a whole is underwhelming, then that's another story entirely, and needs to be looked at.
[spoiler=quotes]
[9:00:50 PM] Randel Peltier: Ok...what did I do last night?
[9:01:19 PM] Kain: Something boring, repetitive, and lasted for about sixty seconds.
---
[10:45:08 AM] Salanewt: But yeah, the elemental phalluses are being... Stroked up by Saturos and co., and the energy will go towards... Mt. Muffin, where the Golden Climax will arise.
[7:28:42 PM] Salanewt: An added bonus is that Isaac and co. were trying to stop Saturos and co. because their beliefs state that Mt. Muffin should remain a virgin.
---
[9:54:21 PM] Randel Peltier: Guess the number in my head an you get to pick what I say. Number between 1-10
[9:54:28 PM] leaf: 11
[9:54:36 PM] Randel Peltier: @#$%!
---
[8:38:13 PM] Randel Peltier: Shes like this queen up on a pedastal that I have yet to court.
[8:38:29 PM] Kain: You've tried courting her.
[8:38:43 PM] leaf: and failed spectacularly
[8:38:44 PM] Randel Peltier: Ive tried...shes the best dating game ever.
---
[12:24:35 AM] Salanewt: I need to find a picture of a naked person to put on the Christmas tree next year.
---
[2:19:06 PM] Zeadra: wait... Rief's a guy???
---
[1:09:57 PM] Zeadra: well if you want to know if its a new effect or something weird, just check GS1, if side step is there maby it is the nimble dodge thing
[1:10:35 PM] Kioll: For once, you've contributed something useful.  o.O[/spoiler]

Caledor

Maybe it's just me but I can't see the issue with the wooden cap. The trade is one point less in defense and 40 more coins in price on a side and later availability, higher accessibility and making a once completely skipped item (Open Helm) actually useful on the other. And item classes somehow existed in vanilla GS as well, see Steel Helm and Guardian Circlet or Silver Helm and Platinum Circlet, in both cases the Circlet has less defense and is priced higher.

Anyway, v1.20 is up.

Rolina

The developers also thought that a 99% unleash rate for 75% of the party was a good idea, and to make those same items the best defensive items in the game.  The point being here that the developers were wrong.  If defense is all an item provides, it should be priced accordingly - including the platinum circlet.  Reduced in cost to match the relevant prices of the other headgear, else given some reason to be worth more.  If mundane gear had additional traits that could be used to differenciate them, then that'd be a good way to do it.

Personally, here's how I lean:

Heavy gear boosts HP or Attack a little on top of defense.
Light gear boosts Agility or Crits a little on top of defense.
Mage gear boosts PP or Luck a little on top of defense.

If the wooden cap boosted agility by, say, 2 or 3 points, it might be worth the extra cash.  If the Platinum Circlet boosted luck by a point or two, it might be worth its cost.  My idea for weapon versatility didn't just apply to weapons - armor was always going to be part of it as well.  The problem with armor being, of course, that it uses lower values, and is a bit trickier to balance.

Caledor

And unleashes were among the first thing I fixed for a reason. If you don't like the concept of classes being with only defense, just think that it costs more because it is found later and/or because more character can use it. Come on, we discussed for about a page on 40 (forty!) coins, shouldn't we move on? I'm pretty sure there are much more important things to talk about.

Rolina

Forty?  It was hundred.  At that early in the game, that's a lot.  What's more... I thought you wanted feedback.  Well... we've given it.  Several of us now have pointed out that if defense is the only factor, then there's no reason for it to cost so much.  Availability between characters is a non-issue, especially when the wooden cap becomes available (you'd easily have better gear for your warriors), and "when it can be gotten" means nothing if it's lower-tier gear at that point.

Caledor

#26
And I said that one hundred was clearly too much and that 240 for the wooden cap would have been fairer, and this is in v1.20. Don't get me wrong I want feedback (the more the merrier) but now we've clearly reached a stalemate here cause we've been stating over and over our point of view without getting anywhere. Hence the "let's move on".

As a side note, I just remembered that i had to check the base chances of stun and the others... I'll probably make a v1.20a for that one within the next hour. Status success rate fix included in v1.20. Stun is now 55% and Sleep 45%.

Rolina

If it helps, it may be a good idea to have multiple instances of several stat ailments.  Basically, a low, mid, and high inflict rate.  That way, damage+effect can be balanced with effect only by giving effect only spells a higher chance of success.

Because the sting does damage too, you'd give it the lower infliction rate.  But if it had a spell that ONLY stunned someone, you'd have used the higher one.

Caledor

Quote from: Rolina on 27, March, 2015, 09:15:44 PM
If it helps, it may be a good idea to have multiple instances of several stat ailments.  Basically, a low, mid, and high inflict rate.  That way, damage+effect can be balanced with effect only by giving effect only spells a higher chance of success.

Because the sting does damage too, you'd give it the lower infliction rate.  But if it had a spell that ONLY stunned someone, you'd have used the higher one.
I tried doing this A LOT of times in the past but somehow it never worked, and I had other things that required my attention at that time, so I always gave up soon. Now it's certainly a good time to try again.

Rolina

Yeah - being able to give value to the effect only spells is pretty important to giving the player a reason to use them, and the best way to do that is to give them a decent chance of actually working.  Though, in some cases, like with Delusion, you'd have to overhaul the effect itself... but that's a different discussion entirely~

Rolina

End of the Fourth Day
This time, with out mechanical failure!

On my second attempt at the fourth day, the same thing happened - my controller didn't wanna work.  I, however, am kind of a b****, and refuse to accept its insubordination.  Got a program to crack the whip when the controller decides it doesn't want to work after an alt tab.  Anywho, got the treasure at Bilibin (far right, of course), sold it for cash, and headed to the Fuchin temple.  Met the old afro dude who has no right living into dark dawn, then entered the falls and HOLY HELL WHAT IS UP WITH THIS FREAKING DJINN?!

Okay, so here's the thing - this thing hits stupid hard, in a stupid wide area, and I have no freaking area healing.  I switch to a more djinn/summon centric strategy?  It runs.  And runs.  AND RUNS.  GOD DAMMIT, DON'T GIVE FLEE TO DUNGEON DJINN!  It forces you to save scum, and if you screw that up... well, we'll get to that bit of outrage later.  But seriously?  In no way shape or form should it have been this infuriating.  Remember - hard is fine.  Hard is good.  But frustrating is not.  Why do I say that?  Well...

Enter Mogall Woods.  First off, would like to mention a couple things - first, too few classes have weak psynergy.  Second, too many classes have redundant psynergy.  I entered the forest at the two level gap where I have no firepower, and pretty much nearly got broadsided by the sudden difficulty spike.  These guys are hitting for 60-80 damage a pop, and it's simply because I don't have gear yet.  That means I need to use offense as my defense, but... I have no new offense, either!  It was a bit of a struggle to get through these woods.  I had to save scum for the djinn again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the previous one - I think.  All I know is that I wasn't nearly as frustrated fighting this thing.  Got it, got to the end, and... well...

,--------------------------------------.  ,--------------------------------------.
| Ivan       | Lv13 Acolyte            |  | Mia        | Lv14 Officiant          |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
|   HP:   150             Attack:   95 |  |   HP:   154             Attack:   96 |
|   PP:   107            Defense:   81 |  |   PP:   106            Defense:   88 |
| Luck:     4            Agility:   78 |  | Luck:    14            Agility:   80 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Witch's Wand                   Staff |  | Blessed Ankh                    Ankh |
| Silver Circlet                  Head |  | Silver Circlet                  Head |
| Gauntlets                       Arms |  | Gauntlets                       Arms |
| Adept's Clothes                 Body |  | Elven Shirt                     Body |
| Turtle Boots                    Legs |  | Fur Coat                             | 
| Shaman's Rod                         |  | Weasel's Claw                    x 1 |
| Mountain Water                   x 1 |  | Dragon's Eye                         |
| Nut                              x 3 |  | Game Ticket                      x 1 |
| Vial                             x 2 |  | Mountain Water                   x 1 |
| Elixir                           x 2 |  | Apple                            x 1 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Forge    | ---      | ---      |  | Fizz     | ---      | ---      |
| Fever    | ---      | ---      |  | Sleet    | ---      | ---      |
| ---      | ---      | ---      |  | ---      | ---      | ---      |
`--------------------------------------'  `--------------------------------------'
,--------------------------------------.  ,--------------------------------------.
| Isaac      | Lv12 Practiciant        |  | Garet      | Lv12 Ruffian            |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
|   HP:   184             Attack:  155 |  |   HP:   218             Attack:  154 |
|   PP:    93            Defense:  103 |  |   PP:    73            Defense:   92 |
| Luck:     3            Agility:   71 |  | Luck:     6            Agility:   67 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Arctic Blade                   Sword |  | Broad Axe                        Axe |
| Bronze Helm                     Head |  | Bronze Helm                     Head |
| Gauntlets                       Arms |  | Gauntlets                       Arms |
| Psynergy Armor                  Body |  | Psynergy Armor                  Body |
| Catch Beads                     Tool |  | Orb of Force                    Tool |
| Mars Star                            |  | Mountain Water                   x 1 |
| Mountain Water                   x 1 |  | Elixir                           x 1 |
| Vial                             x 1 |  | Antidote                         x 1 |
| Nut                              x 2 |  | Nut                              x 2 |
| Broad Sword                          |  | Herb                             x 2 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Gust     | ---      | ---      |  | Flint    | ---      | ---      |
| Breeze   | ---      | ---      |  | Granite  | ---      | ---      |
| Zephyr   | ---      | ---      |  | Quartz   | ---      | ---      |
`--------------------------------------'  `--------------------------------------'


With that setup, took on the next boss.  It was... actually a rather decent fight.  Not frustrating by any means, but the guy didn't let up.  This was a proper challenge - though again, I found myself using more djinn-heavy strategies than I'm used to.  Really frustrating when you don't have the dual-element summons from TLA.  GOD, I wanna summon Megaera SO BAD...  But that's not the fault of the hack, so no worries there.  But yeah, I really liked this fight.

Made my way to Xian, made the woman wet herself drop the water bucket, got the djinn, did the things... ha ha... ha... Usless on-use item is still useless.  Ignored the worthless china dress, went on up north to the mars djinn.  This fight?  I'm okay with this.  The djinn ran several times.  But here's the difference between field djinn running and dungeon djinn running - 5 minutes.  No, really.  I just run around, and try again.  Dungeon djinn make me leave the room, redo ALL the puzzles, fight all the random battles in between and THEN I get to try again.  F***.  THAT.  Got the djinn, moved on to Altin.  Did the things, got new gear, moved on to OH CRAP NO!

Yup - I accidentally triggered the djinn fight when I tried to heal after a random fight that occured right next to it.  And look at that!  It RAN THE F*** AWAY!  You have no idea how pissed off I was at this.  It was infuriating in a different way than the jupiter djinn before.  See, I'd have taken it out before it could run had it only had one attack per round.  So I just wasted a large chunk of my time... and for what, exactly?  This is one of the big reasons people have pushed to make it so djinn don't flee.  How about this - for dungeon djinn, replace the flee command with the... Djinn command.  That is to say, they unleash themselves in that battle.  It can keep things difficult, but without making them frustrating so long as you don't AoE spam with spells 5-6 levels higher than what my party should be at before I get area healing.

Speaking of, after this I got area healing.  And when facing the boss...


,--------------------------------------.  ,--------------------------------------.
| Mia        | Lv16 Bishop             |  | Ivan       | Lv16 Acolyte            | 
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
|   HP:   217             Attack:  119 |  |   HP:   180             Attack:  129 |
|   PP:   136            Defense:  106 |  |   PP:   133            Defense:   98 |
| Luck:    14            Agility:  100 |  | Luck:     4            Agility:   94 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Blessed Ankh                    Ankh |  | Psychic Rod                    Staff |
| Chain HOod                      Head |  | Chain Hood                      Head |
| Gauntlets                       Arms |  | Gauntlets                       Arms |
| Elven Shirt                     Body |  | Silk Robe                       Body |
| Corn                             x 2 |  | Turtle Boots                    Legs | 
| Dragon's Eye                         |  | Corn                             x 2 |
| Mountain Water                   x 2 |  | Mountain Water                   x 2 |
| Vial                             x 1 |  | Elixir                           x 2 |
| Nut                              x 2 |  | Antidote                         x 1 |
| Shaman's Rod                         |  | Vial                             x 3 |
|--------------------------------------|  | Nut                              x 3 |
| Fizz     | Spritz   | ---      |  |--------------------------------------|
| Sleet    | ---      | ---      |  | Forge    | ---      | ---      |
| Mist     | ---      | ---      |  | Fever    | ---      | ---      |
`--------------------------------------'  | Corona   | ---      | ---      |
                                          `--------------------------------------'
,--------------------------------------.  ,--------------------------------------.
| Isaac      | Lv16 Practiciant        |  | Garet      | Lv16 Ruffian            |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
|   HP:   213             Attack:  163 |  |   HP:   249             Attack:  187 |
|   PP:   104            Defense:  124 |  |   PP:    81            Defense:  112 |
| Luck:     3            Agility:   85 |  | Luck:     6            Agility:   78 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Arctic Blade                   Sword |  | Claymore                         Axe |
| Chain Hood                      Head |  | Chain Hood                      Head |
| Dragon Shield                   Arms |  | Iron Shield                     Arms |
| Psynergy Armor                  Body |  | Psynergy Armor                  Body |
| Catch Beads                     Tool |  | Frost Jewel                     Tool |
| Douse Drop                      Tool |  | Orb of Force                    Tool |
| Corn                             x 1 |  | Corn                             x 2 |
| Mars Star                            |  | Mountain Water                   x 1 |
| Mountain Water                   x 2 |  | Elixir                           x 1 |
| Elixir                           x 1 |  | Antidote                         x 1 |
| Antidote                         x 1 |  | Vial                             x 2 |
| Vial                             x 2 |  | Nut                              x 2 |
| Nut                              x 2 |  | Herb                             x 2 |
|--------------------------------------|  |--------------------------------------|
| Gust     | ---      | ---      |  | Flint    | ---      | ---      |
| Breeze   | ---      | ---      |  | Granite  | ---      | ---      |
| Zephyr   | ---      | ---      |  | Quartz   | ---      | ---      |
`--------------------------------------'  `--------------------------------------'


This boss was a joke.  As frustrating as the djinn were, as fun and engaging as the blue ape was, this stupid statue went down like a b****.  The hell happened?   If I could make some suggestions for this boss:  Give them a higher PP total so their spells hit harder, and give Water Breath a Res Down effect.  I mean... Seriously.  The fight was Spark Mandrill levels of easy.  Called it a day at this point, figure two boss fights was enough for one post.




Now, there's a few things I've noticed with classes that though not critical, are kind of odd.  First:  The hell was wrong with Cleric?  What, Mia skips a rank and goes straight to Bishop now? XD  Second, and probably actually important to the hack... Why do some classes learn two power attacks?  I have Isaac able to use both Ragnarok and Astral Blast.  Garet can use both Raganrok and Planet Diver.  That's... kinda pointless.  They're roughly the same power, so why bother with one when you can just pick the stronger of the two?  Might I suggest using new spells?  Make them weaker, but give them effects, such as defense piercing, priority, or debuffs.  Something to make them stand out - lord knows I'd have loved to have taken advantage of them.  Also, make sure you're not overusing some of these.  That makes three class lines with Ragnarok.  I know it's cool and all, but... couldn't you make a new spell and give it the animation of Undead Sword?  Finally, we get to the Wizard line (not sure what you renamed it too - Ivan and Mia's Symbiotic Class line).  I never use this line.  You know why?  Because it's @#$% until you get 4 djinn.  Literally, it knows only two spells until then.  All classes should be useful at all points in the game - stagger some spells, give it some supports learned sooner, do... something.  ANYTHING.  Because only having Plasma and Prism five levels after they stop being useful is... just awful.