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[RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloaded

Started by Caledor, 22, December, 2016, 03:56:07 PM

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Caledor

Quote from: Dark Mits on 02, August, 2020, 06:47:14 AM
Moving ahead... I'm currently stuck at the optional bosses. Here are some notes:
- I noticed something weird with the Attack stat. Balrog has high enough that any changes to it (Megaera, Blunt etc.) should be in intervals of 118/119. But Summoning Magaera once buffs him only by around 50, I assume because it reaches the ceiling of 999. But if I use Blunt on him, it doesn't reduce it by 118 as it should, but by only that amount of 50. Further Blunts normally reduce it by 118 (and Eclipse by 237 or so). Does the game allow stats to go over 999, but only visually caps them?

This is due to how buffs are calculated coupled with actual stats never going beyond the intended cap.

They work in tiers. Neutral is 0 and each buff or debuff changes that tier from -4 to +4. Then the game applies the corresponding multiplier.

So after megaera, his "strength buff status" was +1 (12.5%) but with blunt you dragged him back to 0 (since it applies -1), thus removing only the stats he gained. If you had cast Dull instead, he'd go to tier -1 (dull is a 2 tier decrease), and lose 50+118.

This also implies that if you reach the ceiling with a few buffs, all the next ones up to +4 grant some kind of resistance against debuffs since you won't suffer from any stat decrease. If you hit the cap at tier +3, going to +4 grants a buff of zero, but the next debuff that brings you back to +3 will also decrease by zero for the same reasoning as above.


Dark Mits

#781
I assume that applies to player characters once they reach very high levels, like 80+.
Does it work similarly for HP? If I remember correctly, unmodded game had a hard cap of 1999HP.

(Balrog again used Coatlicue near death)
-=EDIT=-
Balrog dead. Nothing fancy. He just didn't cast Coatlicue when he had the opportunity. Going for Sentinel.

-=EDIT 2=-
I forgot to mention. Avoid does not seem to work in Anemos Sanctum. Encounter rate was normal even after using Avoid. Intentional?

Caledor

Avoid is less effective if your character level isn't higher than the enemies you're trying to Avoid.

(Or something like that)

Dark Mits

Quote from: Caledor on 03, August, 2020, 06:06:01 PM
Avoid is less effective if your character level isn't higher than the enemies you're trying to Avoid.

(Or something like that)
Ah, so that the player cannot just zoom through an area if they are attempting a low-level run.

Sentinel down. Again no fancy tactics. Simple Summoning + Healing. It was pure luck that he never mind blasted the same character twice in a row without Shade or Flash. Off to Magician.
[spoiler]I assume that the intended design is to keep Sentinel's Psynergy sealed so that he is forced to only Attack and Mind Blast in order to significantly reduce total damage per round, just like in the unmodded game. On Hard mode this doesn't work because it's 500+ damage per Mind Blast, 600+ on a character with Djinn on standby for Summoning. His high Agility also necessitated the use of Coal / Zephyr with Kite on the healer to be able to Pure Wish twice in between his attacks on rounds where Granite, Shade or Flash was not available.[/spoiler]

Chronotakular

So I said I wasn't going to suggest anything and mainly focus on bugs BUT

[spoiler]I lied.[/spoiler]

Since this game has a Vial nerf (rightfully so IMO, that item is way too good in vanilla based on how easily accessible it is) It makes that chest in Air's Rock that requires Frost after you get Piers kinda... meh. It's really not worth the back track- I'm thinking this might be okay to switch with a forge item, one you can get as a drop around this part of the game; like a stardust or something. Thoughts? You can always keep it as a Vial too. Lol.

Caledor

Easy agree with not worth the backtrack (even before the nerf honestly), but if i'm to change it, i've got mostly 2 choices:

1) swap with a better item from air's rock (safest)

2) replace with water of life (slightly not safe due to impact on early game economy)

Any equipabble item has an even worse impact on early balance and i don't even know if i have something viable. As for forging, being Air's rock WAY before Yallam, the only thing i could add is tear stone.

Dark Mits

What if the Vial in Air's Rock switched places with the Potion in Piers's ship (assuming it can be done) or the Cookie in the wooden box at the cliff outside the ship? It is expected that the player will go to pick up the Air Rock's chest right before entering Piers's ship, so these items are almost one-next-to-the-other from a progress point of view.
At this point in the game, I think noone in my team had reached 350HP, so even with the nerf the Vial was still pretty much a full-heal.

Final feedback on Hard Mode run: Star Magician is the hardest boss in the mod. Over 50 attemps, all failed. Wondering if I needed to grind levels due to Hard Mode, I went for Doom Dragon which I expected to be even harder and see how long I would last. Instead, it died on first attempt with 2 deaths only (both from Condemn). So I went to Dullahan. After just 3 attemps I have manged to survive enough for him to use Djinn Storm 4 times before Game Over. I only need to learn again his action sequence so that I can play around Djinn Storm like in vanilla (btw, it's funny seeing Fulminous Edge deal 1100 damage  :heart: , noone survives that at level 46).
But Star Magician simply wipes the floor with me. I love it. Team levels range from 41 (Ivan) to 46 (Felix). The only tactic I haven't tried is to get 4 Guardian balls up and chop SM's HP by 50 every turn until both him and I die of old age  :happy:

Notes:
- There may be an issue with action priorities. Both Guardian Ball and Doom Dragon sometimes do not fire off their Guard Aura as an action with priority, but instead normally based on their Agility.
- When Psynergy-sealed, both Refresh Ball and Thunder Ball defend. Thunder Ball is quick enough so that it can defend before any party members act, and therefore it can benefit from the reduced damage. Refresh Ball however is slow and most times acts last, so it is essentially a lost action. Could it be given a regular attack?
- Thunder Balls use both Shine Plasma and Spark Plasma. Intended?
- Doom Dragon uses Mother Gaia instead of Grand Gaia during 1st form. Intended? It normally uses 3rd tier Fire psynergy in 1st form. I remember that one of the latest patches (v177 or v178) corrected the issue with Mother Gaia being used in 3rd form.
- When using Lull during Star Magician battle, the battle music does not entirely stop but instead one instrument continues to play. All other bosses and battle themes correctly stop during Lull's animation. I admit that I haven't checked if this bug is present in vanilla too.
- (The following is exacerbated during Star Magician, but it applies for all boss battles and encounters with 3 strong enemies):
Most turns go like this: 2-3 party members act, fastest enemy acts, 3rd and 4th party member act, slower enemies and/or boss 2nd/3rd actions take place. If party Agility has been buffed (or Moloch has reduced enemy team's), then all 4 party members go first and all enemies go last. A major "headache" is being able to fit a healing action between those last enemy actions in a turn, so as to prevent a party wipe due to the enemy team firing off 3+ AoE attacks in succession. It is not uncommon to have Spark Plasma, Mine Ball, Mine Ball again, Anger Ball kamikaze and Freeze Prism as the final actions of the enemy team. Would it be possible to give some non-important equipment negative Agility (shirts, boots)? Currently I have been using Kite on healers instead of damage dealers so that I can get that extra 5th party action in between enemy actions.

Chronotakular

#787
Hmm. Some interesting points here. The tear stone actually is a good replacement imo. Even if you get it later on you can forge a ring or something.

But, if we want to get a little bit crazy- the idea I'm toying with is the rusted sword that turns into the Robber's Blade can swap with the Vial.

I'll try not to make this a wall of text, but my thought process behind this is: You get this from a chest that you need Parch for at the end of Aqua's Rock. If you go to Aqua's Rock as soon as you get the boat (which honestly, most veteran players that this mod is aimed at probably do) and get this rusted weapon immediately, you still have it for such a tiny amount of time before it is outclassed. Main reason for this is where the Lightning Sword is obtained though; right below Yallam where you have to go to use the blade anyways, and is also blocked by Parch (Burst too, but Tundaria Tower is so short that makes Burst being an obstacle irrelevant)

But maybe the real solution here is slightly buffing Robber's Blade. Lol.

TL;DR Tear stone good, consider Robber's Blade?

Sfantul

I've never posted on here, but I wanted to make an account to reach out and just say I really appreciate this rom-patch. Golden Sun is one of my favorite games and as an adult having a version that balanced the game to make it more enjoyable to me. I beat GS TBS with this patch and I just beat Sentinel, Star Magician and Balgor. I have Doom Dragon and Dullahan left with a party of around lvl 40-41. It's been incredibly enjoyable to constantly mix djinn/classes up and I've thoroughly enjoyed this playthrough. Thanks! 

Caledor

Thank you for the kind words Sfantul!

Also i'll take this chance to say that my pc is currently under repairs so i can't work on the mod from the replacement i'm writing from ATM. As usual though, I read every post here almost instantly.

About Robber Blade, iirc it was removed to make room for the endgame wind Light blade. Honestly i'm at a point where i don't really feel like the midgame needs more weapons... and honestly fixing that issue in Air's rock wouldn't be worth a release on its own, since it's so minor.

Even if i decide what to do with it, i'd wait and pack it with some other changes in any case.

Sfantul

Doom Dragon has proved to be a difficult fight for me. My average level in my party is 42. I keep getting him to the final phase then I get annihilated by a djinn storm plus chaos ruin. I also noticed he has some new moves, specially in phase 2 and 3. He has that AoE breath, not Darksol Gasp but I think a new ability, that drains HP from the whole party. Watched him heal like 1.2k in a turn from it ._.

I'm looking to farm some forgeable items, namely Orihalcon and some weapons from Inner Sanctum. I've been following the RNG guide but can never manage to get the drop. Anyone have any tips on how you farmed these items? 

Dark Mits

Indeed Doom Dragon has True Collide / Dark Contact, but it shouldn't be that powerful. It targets 3 members max, deals about 150-200 damage per character hit and sometimes heals for 50% of the damage dealt. At worst case Doom Dragon should take 300HP back by using it.

Regarding the difficulty with Djinn Storm + Cruel Ruin wiping you group, what is your general approach to the fight? How many attackers, healers, wild cards?

Sfantul

Quote from: Dark Mits on 23, August, 2020, 06:46:02 PM
Indeed Doom Dragon has True Collide / Dark Contact, but it shouldn't be that powerful. It targets 3 members max, deals about 150-200 damage per character hit and sometimes heals for 50% of the damage dealt. At worst case Doom Dragon should take 300HP back by using it.

Regarding the difficulty with Djinn Storm + Cruel Ruin wiping you group, what is your general approach to the fight? How many attackers, healers, wild cards?

So, I misspoke. It does only hit 3 party members, didn't hit the fourth but he healed for like 650ish hp. He healed anywhere between 170hp to 290hp off each individual hit. I thought he hit all 4 the first time he used it on me and it caught me off guard, wasn't expecting the new attack! As for my set up I have this.

:Felix: Lvl 44 Jonin 4 :MarsStar: 5 :JupiterStar: I'm using all the dark matter armor/wep on him with the angel ring. The procs from the dark sword are insane.
:Jenna: Lvl 44 Guardian 5 :VenusStar: 4 :MercuryStar: I have it where she has a decent amount of PP with PP recovery and some bonuses to Mars. Her gear is kind of all over the place.
:Sheba: Lvl 43 Pure Mage 4 :VenusStar: 5 :MercuryStar: Her gear is alright, I got a fair bit of mercury/jupiter power from items to buff my attack psynergies and I have a decent amount of PP/PP Recovery items.
:Piers: Lvl 43 Destroyer 5 :MarsStar: 4 :JupiterStar: His gear is kind over the place too, but I find myself using him when I'm going on the offense or if I need to use some of his djinn. (I carry Flash and Coal on him)
:Isaac: Lvl 43 Chaos Lord 2 :VenusStar: 7 :MarsStar: His gear is centered around Unleashes of the Sol Blade, Have Sol Ring, War Gloves, Hyper Boots, Mithril Shirt, Valkyrie Mail. I just spam auto attack and the occasional buff and/or djinn.
:Garet: Lvl 42 Chaos Lord 7 :VenusStar: 2 :MarsStar: Tbh, I just spam his Unleashes too with Excalibur and his gear isnt ideal. mostly tanky gear.
:Ivan: Lvl 43 Arcanist 7 :MercuryStar: 2 :JupiterStar: Ivan has a fair bit of PP+/PP Recovery mixed in with +Ailment and some Jupiter Power increases. He's pretty solid.
:Mia: Lvl 42 Arcanist 2 :MercuryStar: 7 :JupiterStar: She has pretty much the same gear set up as Ivan. Pretty solid dmg/healer.

My general strategy for doom dragon has been to star the fight with Felix, Jenna, Piers and Ivan. I'll Shade with Ivan, use another mercury Djinn on Jenna, use kite on on Felix and I'll Haze Ivan with Piers (Ivan gets obliterated by this boss with this Djinn setup, as does Mia). I generally go for Eclipse summons and just try to keep party topped off while keeping damage up from at least 1-2 of my characters (Usually Isaac/Felix/Piers). I do well up until the third phase. I keep getting nuked by a djinn storm/chaos ruin combo. If I have people alive after the combo theyre too slow and get out sped by boss. It's essentially a wipe everytime he does that. I'm sure I'll think of something. I beat the 3 super bosses, not counting Dullahan, in the 40's. Star Magician was tough as hell.

Sfantul

#793
Oh, Idk if this was an intended feature, but I used Gale at the start of Phase 2 of Doom Dragon and skipped the whole phase straight to Phase 3. Oh wow, I Gale can cause the final boss to be done in 6 turns or less. Gale will make the boss fly away and reduce his phase hp to 0 allowing the next phase. Was this intentional?

Dark Mits

Ah, you have triple-element classes in front party. This may be why Djinn Storm is so devastating, because you spend extra turns at classes with lower multipliers. It may be easier if you switch to duo-element classes for the main group, since they will be slightly more durable while recovering djinn. Of course the downside will be that it will take longer to get to the 3rd stage.
Another advice I can give is to stack pp-recovery items on healers only, since you will be spending 50+ PP per round at least. If your attackers drop low, use Ether / Aroma / Ember.
Third advice is to replace Sol Blade with a Jupiter-unleashing weapon, since Doom Dragon is strong against Armageddon/Megiddo. For this boss fight, Sol Blade gains use if you use it as a stat-stick for "physical" Jupiter psynergy like Quick Strike and Death Leap.

I'm still kind of surprised at the damage numbers you report. Are you playing on Normal or Hard mode?

Also I suppose Gale instakilling bosses is probably unintentional, unless Caledor left it in there for speeding through the game for test purposes  :happy:

Caledor

Uploaded v1.78a for TLA which fixes a certain djinn bug, totally unrelated to the latest messages  :um:

Sfantul

Quote from: Dark Mits on 24, August, 2020, 03:25:53 AM
Ah, you have triple-element classes in front party. This may be why Djinn Storm is so devastating, because you spend extra turns at classes with lower multipliers. It may be easier if you switch to duo-element classes for the main group, since they will be slightly more durable while recovering djinn. Of course the downside will be that it will take longer to get to the 3rd stage.
Another advice I can give is to stack pp-recovery items on healers only, since you will be spending 50+ PP per round at least. If your attackers drop low, use Ether / Aroma / Ember.
Third advice is to replace Sol Blade with a Jupiter-unleashing weapon, since Doom Dragon is strong against Armageddon/Megiddo. For this boss fight, Sol Blade gains use if you use it as a stat-stick for "physical" Jupiter psynergy like Quick Strike and Death Leap.

I'm still kind of surprised at the damage numbers you report. Are you playing on Normal or Hard mode?

Also I suppose Gale instakilling bosses is probably unintentional, unless Caledor left it in there for speeding through the game for test purposes  :happy:

I managed to beat him with the party set up I had without using Gale. I just rearranged my front line to have only 2 tri classes and the other 2 were substituted with dual class characters. I definitely had to anticipate djinn storm in the third phase and make sure I had at least 2 tri classes in back line. I was doing near 800ish damage per unleash from the Dark Blade. It's a venus unleash and Doom Dragon is resistant to Venus lolwhat. Felix, who I has Dark Blade equipped, had his attack stat boosted to max and I just spammed Auto's and using Djinn like Lull to skip turns to get my Djinn back from Djinn Storm. Incredibly difficult fight for me, but I managed to prevail. I plan on doing Dullahan soon, but I am incredibly reluctant to attempt with my current levels.

Caledor

#797
Quote from: Sfantul on 06, September, 2020, 11:38:50 AM
I was doing near 800ish damage per unleash from the Dark Blade. It's a venus unleash and Doom Dragon is resistant to Venus lolwhat.

Acheron's Grief is non-elemental.

Also, I guess it's about time i start working on Dullahan.

Caledor

#798
v1.78b is UP

Changes are only to Dullahan. I revamped his movesed and move selection mechanic, from a 24-moves ordered list to 3 sets of 8. Also added new moves.

[spoiler=Moveset]

Dullahan now works just like other bosses that pick moves from different movesets at each turn, such as Poseidon.

Turn 1

21%Bravery18,4%Enfeeble
16%Swiftness13,6%Ward
11,3%Toxic8,98%Condemn
6,64%Break4,29%Djinn Blast

Turn 2

21%Fulminous Edge18,4%Grand Gaia
16%Dark Contact13,6%Thorny Grave
11,3%Charon8,98%Fulminous Edge
6,64%Charon4,29%Djinn Storm


Turn 3

21%Ward18,4%Dark Contact
16%Tempest13,6%Anathema
11,3%Bind8,98%Attack
6,64%Break4,29%Djinn Blast

Swiftness is a single target Zephyr: doubles his agility.
Toxic is the upgraded version of Poison.
Djinn Blast, as you already know, is the single target Djinn Storm.
Anathema is a full party Death Curse.

Main concern for this first iteration was "how often should Djinn Storm happen". ATM there's a 50% chance for it to occur once in 16 rounds, half of the old, mandatory occurrence every 8 rounds. Looks kinda low, so i balanced it Djinn Blast on other turns. Another option is to swap Djinn Storm and Charon and remove some Djinn Blast.

All the big hitters are on Turn 2 because it's the hardest turn to skip. If I didn't put those moves there, either Lull or Petra/Ground would've been too good.
[/spoiler]

ShiFT

#799
Looking forward to trying out the new Dullahan fight soon! Might be a bit until I can give any feedback though lol, I just started TBS 1.78 last night.
"There's no I in team, but team spelt backwards is meat" - Vinesauce, 2014