Insane Difficulty: Stann's General Feedback Thread - Insane Difficulty

Alright, so I've been playing and I just want to get all of my ideas in one place. Feel free to do whatever with the information.


Overall Balance


Well, this game is difficult to balance, especially without a tool as powerful as FFTPatcher. The changes to stat growths are a very good change, leveling in one job is not as pronounced as it was before. This allows you to switch jobs without feeling like you're wasting potential growth.

One thing I don't like is the starting stats of the Soldier class. Since Marche starts with around 30-40 less Mag.Power than a Hume Black Mage, he's pretty much a lost cause for the caster route. This is more of a flaw with the job system itself. If it was possible to make Marche start as a Blue Mage, or give Soldier similar all-around stats as a Blue Mage that would be pretty cool. That way you could go in any direction with him.

The change to abilities and their MP costs are good as well for the most part. (Although Sheep Count being a 4 range 1aoe sleep for 12 MP and Sleep being a 4 range 2aoe sleep for 10 MP struck me as funny.) Increasing the usefulness of abilities like Take Aim, Powerbreak, etc, that really didn't see much use in vanilla is great. (Except for Speedbreak, LOL, we'll get to that eventually.)

The change to caster weapons to include Mag.Power is nice, it makes them more than just a skill-on-a-stick. The sabre class of weapons is fun as well, as they boost almost all of your stats to some degree. Not much feedback here I guess, most equipment is either a straight upgrade or has a new skill to learn. The Circlet could probably use a boost, maybe +2~ Mag.Power just to let it compete with the Green Beret.

Enemy formations are where the current beta version I'm playing is sorely lacking. (hance mentioned that they weren't touched at all, which makes sense.) Nearly all the enemies are so underwhelming that I end up clearing every battle with little trouble. Fights against monster groups is sometimes a little touch-and-go thanks to some uber stat growths, but some Phoenix Downs and Cure spells can easily deal with their single-target damage. In particular, enemies need more abilities and reaction/support skills. Most things I've fought so far just have 1-3 skills in their primary job and that's it.


So What's Overpowered?


I mean, besides being awesome at the game.

Blind is severely devastating, and hance mentioned in Chat that it will be brought down from -50% accuracy to -35%. I think even -25% is fair, considering how much it affects, and that its duration is effectively infinite.

Wait in place. But we already knew that.

SPEEDBREAK HOLY SHIT. I use this skill every damned fight, on every enemy that I can. Hance and I spent a good hour or so talking about why it's so broken, and the conclusion seems to be "I don't know, but it sure is good." On paper, it's just a 10-15% reduction in the speed stat. But, it lasts forever and it can't be removed in anyway that I've seen. (If you're a 1.3 person, consider lowering an enemy's speed by 1 or 2 points. It adds up to a lot of missed turns over the course of the battle.) It's basically a permanent mini-Slow. I love it.

That's really about it. I feel like using Blind is a crutch and feel bad when I use it. Speedbreak is sweet though.

With regard to Speedbreak: based on this review, I'd recommend making it a high level spell/skill. The player must *earn* the brokenness of Speedbreak.

acsound01, on 11 October 2014 - 04:20 PM, said:

If something is broken, making it hard to get doesn't make it any less broken. >.>

It's difficult to say that it's broken. It's very strong, that's for sure. You can't spam it like you can in FFT, so it's just a one-shot deal. You hit them for 10-15% of their speed and it sticks for the rest of the battle. The problem that arises is that more turns is pretty much the best thing you can get in a turn based RPG. Just like more cards is obviously amazing in a CCG.

If I were to balance it, I'd probably do one of two things: Make its duration limited (But longer than Slow, because Slow is like -50% speed.) or make it cured by stuff like Esuna or First Aid.

I was more speaking to the ideology, but yeah that sounds like a good idea.

Based on your descriptions, it outright reminds me of Steiner's break abilities in IX.

The thing about it (again, based on what you said), is that it seems to be much of a 'required' ability, meaning an ability that should be in every team. And theoretically speaking, that doesn't sound ideal to me.

If it had a duration though, then yeah I could see it being a good alternative to slow.

Well, with the way I play of having ~10 units to cover all bases and still have plenty of room left for dispatch missions, having it in every team is pretty difficult. I only have two units that can use it.

Speaking of that, I've run into my first mission that has required me to actively think about the party members I want to bring. Magic Wood is a very difficult fight, being a 5v7 in the enemy's favour. I had created a party specifically meant to status down the casters with Silence, and loading up on anti-arrow reaction abilities. Buuuut... then I went to the Card shop and traded for a no-AOE card, which effectively neutered the Summoner, Black Mage AND Time Mage. This went from a ball-numbingly hard fight to a no-brainer.


One thing about status curing, something is wrong here.

Esuna: Removes 'Petrify', 'Berserk', 'Frog', 'Poison', 'Blind', 'Sleep',
'Silence', 'Confusion', 'Immobilize', 'Disable'

Dispel: Removes 'Auto-Life', 'Regen', 'Astra', 'Reflect', 'Doom', 'Haste',
'Slow', 'Stop', 'Shell', 'Protect', 'Charm', 'Addle'

I have no idea why Dispel removes the negative statuses that it does. It would make more sense that Esuna could cure Charm and Addle.

Wasn't the patch that hance gave you merely a stat change patch? Not to say that that isn't 60% of the mod itself (and he did an amazing job) - but the changes to abilities and MP haven't been made on that current Patch that he sent you.

Yeah, I know. I'm just collecting opinions as I go.

Oh, just for the record, ability and MP changes are in effect in the version that I have, things like Sheep Count being single target and regular abilities having an MP cost. I'm not sure how complete the changes are though.

Also keep in mind that the next version will focus enemy formations around support skills as well. Blind won't be nearly as devastating because the AI will be more inclined to cure it.

Stann, on 17 October 2014 - 01:52 AM, said:

Mainly damages got changed. I tried to change the MP costs I could remember, but they definitely are not finished.

In regards to game breaking laws, laws that aren't a single status or single element are probably going to be removed. Target all and Target area are pretty stupid laws that absolutely break magic classes - and fight / limiting skill sets are really annoying as well.

Making laws prohibit one element or ailment seems to be the only way to make it at least a little more fair. It doesn't help that enemies can't use law cards.

Can you make it so there is no "Status Down" penalty? I have had to restart too many times because of that stupid penalty.

Immac, on 26 October 2014 - 10:47 PM, said:

I think that's a good thing.

The player losing to laws is good, IMO. Winning a fight because you played a law card is dumb.

The whole Law system is really bad.

Kjata, on 27 October 2014 - 01:16 AM, said:

Status down is a penalty, not a law, this means is that if you break a law, one of your units will have a stat lowered permanently, I accidentally break laws sometimes, and I don;t mind paying the bail money, but having a unit's stats reduced permanently is just too much of a penalty.

Having a penalty for breaking the law that's actually meaningful is a good thing, IMO. You should want to avoid breaking the law, and a permanent penalty is a good way to make it meaningful. If the only penalty for breaking the law is little things like shilling out some money, it becomes more of a nuisance than a game mechanic.

Stann, on 27 October 2014 - 11:12 AM, said:

I think permanent status down is literally the worst way to make laws even remotely close to a good idea.

Maybe a stat down during the fight, but after it's a little ridiculous. Originally I had decided to remove status down penalties.

FFTA, on 28 October 2014 - 08:19 AM, said:

I actually like permanent status down for breaking the law. Saying it ruins a character is pretty absurd unless you break the law every fight with them.

hance, on 28 October 2014 - 02:55 PM, said:

Punishing you perminatly for accidentally not checking the laws while fighting clan dip is terrible game design. That has nothing to do with mechanics. It would just be considered a habit to keep checking laws. I realize that you need to be punished for breaking laws, but not perminatly after the fight is over. It should effect you during the fight if anything. Unfortunately we don't have much room to be creative, but I absolutely hate permanent stat reduction from something that is hardly a mistake caused by lack of mechanics.