Insane Difficulty: Dragon Trial 0.2a Released! (12/30/13) - Insane Difficulty

one thing I would suggest, in regards to meditation, mind you only if its possible, have any of the casters that can learn it via lvl stay that way, BUT make it a skill that they would get much much later in the game, although to even it out you would have to swap it out for a spell obtained around the lvl in which meditation would be learned, and give that skill a major nerf......

that way you could still keep it in game, just everybody would have to play thru it almost to the end to get it, and at the same time keep the skill they would normally get at that time at the lvl they used to get meditation and use said skill but it being severely weakened so it wont break the game

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 06:56 PM, said:

First of all, if something is broken enough to warrant its removal, it doesn't matter where you put it in the game, it's still broken. Once you get that skill, it's still broken as hell. That's bad design, barring the case where you get it after you've already murdered the game and it's just for funsies.

Meditation, like Focus, cannot be nerfed at present because it's hardcoded. The same applies to Aura as well. Honestly, I hate removing tools from the player's hands, and only do so when I absolutely cannot fix it without breaking something else.

Perhaps in the future I can rewrite it, but for now it's staying as is. That being said though, Meditation is something that I'm looking at because it's not quite as broken as Focus is, but with the changes I've already made to spells, I can see it being wicked broken due to the way the game calculates magic damage.

To elaborate, there's going to be a fair amount of dual element abilities in Dragon Trial. Magic is neutered pretty hard in Vanilla, but due to the way magic damage is calculated, giving an ability a second element makes it really powerful.

When you use an ability like Thunderflash or Simoon that has two or more elements, what the game does is it rolls against each resistance separately and then combines the damage. 2A can correct me on this if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.

So, Meditation is (at least, for now) staying as is.

Advent, on 07 January 2014 - 07:21 PM, said:

oh well it was worth a shot to ask......




either way tho, are there any plans on doing to the characters in dragon trial what darkkefka did to SMRPG Armageddon (swapping character exclusive abilities (besides ryu's transformations obviously) to other characters?

or adding them to other characters, like for example, between the aftermath of the belio/sunder fight in the beginning and until just after ryu grows up, you have no one (if I remember correctly anyways, outside of the one professor that will train you if you have I think it was something like 17 different weapons in your inventory) that could steal, which meant a loss of any possible good gear from the bosses fought during that timeframe

unless the player were to have hacked in rei's steal/pilfer skills to another character, and if they didnt then they would have to wait till at the earliest, when they get sufficient weapons to train for that

so basically, are there any future plans on adding either steal or pilfer or even both to any other characters? it would suck if that's out too, as it would make sense that it would be hardcoded, and the only reason why I would think of that being possible with games like SMRPG and not BoF3 is because the PSX came out later in the timeline, which meant more skills for the creators to hardcode that stuff, whereas back around SMRPG's time it wasn't as likely

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 07:39 PM, said:

No, but I go over each enemy with a fine-toothed comb to prevent stuff like that. That said, you can learn Pilfer via a Master.

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 07:39 PM, said:

I'm not sure you understand how programming works. The era it was made in has absolutely zero correlation to what is hardcoded. Capcom just apparently likes to hire 2.0 GPA programmers (and these are their best programmers; BoF3's programmers flunked like everything). BoF3 code is terrible. There's a massive amount of PSX games that are coded far better.

Advent, on 07 January 2014 - 08:02 PM, said:

I actually don't understand how it works, hence why I started a few threads on the general discussion page asking for anybody who knows of skills of that sort who could help/teach me how to do this, as I wanted to try hacking something rather basic (since im a flat-out noob at it), such as a couple of the more retro TLOZ games, more specifically the 2 oracle games, as they have seen the least bit of light in terms of hacks been made, whereas most other Zelda games (both before AND after the release of the oracle games have had hacks made of them), I didn't mean it to come out rude btw, if that's how it sounds im sry that was the only way I could explain it

and also that was the reason behind that question I asked about a while back also on the general discussion page about recoding a game so that no codes of any kind worked on it and that was answered, just now the one about my ideas I wanted to throw out there for the oracle set of TLOZ games

all that aside, seeing what you said does mean that it is possible to give the other characters moves in the same fashion that darkkefka did? if I heard wrong im sry but keep in mind that im not much of a rom hacker myself, I just like to test them for other people and come up wih ideas for future versions of said hacks is all

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 08:39 PM, said:

You're fine. I understand.

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 08:39 PM, said:

That's impossible. Gameshark codes and whatnot alter a game's RAM, or more specifically the RAM of the console it's being played on. There is no way of eliminating that and playing the game.

LongSword25, on 07 January 2014 - 08:39 PM, said:

Yes, that's one of the easiest things to do. However sometimes it can mess the game up. For example, take Ascension (Accession) and Weretiger. If any character uses those abilities besides Ryu or Rei respectively, the game freezes. Some abilities are specifically programmed to be used by a certain character, and when other characters try to use them, it makes the game shit itself.

Advent, on 08 January 2014 - 03:29 AM, said:

yea, I knew that, what I meant by character exclusive abilities, was primarily rei's steal/pilfer so that way the player would be able to get better stuff to help them get to the other masters later on, as well as some spells that certain characters learned that others could/should have but didn't (I,e, making momo more of a mixed caster to resemble nina slightly in terms of both offensive and defensive casting) and, as darkkefka did make it easier to lvl during any possible testing, but I would probably do that around the time of dragon trial's final release, which is more than likely quite a ways away

LongSword25, on 08 January 2014 - 04:21 AM, said:

Like I said, Pilfer Steal is not and never has been exclusive to Rei. It's taught by D'lonzo in Vanilla, and I think that's unchanged in Dragon Trial. I don't have my spreadsheet in front of me or else I'd tell you, but I know someone teaches it in Dragon Trial.

LongSword25, on 08 January 2014 - 04:21 AM, said:

No. Characters have already been decided on, and as of right now I see no reason to change them.

Momo was the mostly defensive mage in Vanilla. She remains as such with a few tweaks. Momo has a couple more defensive spells (by virtue of comparison to other characters) and higher (I wanna say 90, which is the same as Garr and Peco) accuracy, making her into a potential hybrid.

If I were to spread spells around too much it'd end up making every character feel the same, which is something I am totally against. There's also the fact that Ryu's Momo Hybrid form expands on this and he gains a lot of her abilities.

I have more to say on this, but I'll do that once I get home from class today.

Okay, since I have my spreadsheet in front of me I can respond to this better.

Regarding Momo, she has 80 accuracy, 90 with an Artemis Cap bringing her up to Garr/Peco's level. This makes her more viable as a hybrid; she can do (moreso now) reliable physical damage. She's also the only character (barring Ascension) to have access to Vigor. Her spells for the most part were unchanged aside from that.

The Momo Hybrid and True Momo Hybrid expand on this. Momo Hybrid is more offensive oriented, getting her offensive status debilitations as well as Ragnarok and Combustion. The True Momo Hybrid is the opposite, instead being more defensive, gaining buffs, Remedy, and Vigor.

Momo can do things Nina can't, and Nina can do things Momo can't. At this time I don't plan to spread their spells out anymore, but we'll see.

Advent, on 08 January 2014 - 08:34 AM, said:

ok cant wait to see how it unfolds either way

Just wanted to stop by and say thanks for this amazing project, one of my fav games of all time. And waaaay too easy. Looking forward to playing.

nks, on 02 February 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

Awesome, thanks for the support.

Fair warning though, it's on a hiatus at the moment. I'm hoping I'll get to a point where I can pick it up again in the next few months.

Advent, on 02 February 2014 - 09:20 AM, said:

Hope this mod gets finished or at least worked on soon. I want to play bof3 again, but I'm not sure how much of this mod is done.

Would you consider the mod mostly done or just getting started?

Azurath, on 28 May 2014 - 10:42 PM, said:

Early alpha at best, so just barely getting started.

Any chance at gettign a sneak preview of the current spell lists?

Radiant_Gene, on 08 June 2014 - 05:34 PM, said:

I'm gonna just toss out some of the ones that have been changed the most.

Screenshots taken straight from my spreadsheet.

***Blue signifies a new spell for the given character***

Garr:



As you can see, Garr is setup to be a sort of "active" tank. As a tank, he has a more active playstyle as opposed to Peco being reactive. He also has the highest physical defense (with Peco being a magic sponge) of any character, which makes Charge a natural choice for him.

As a result, his power has taken a hit, which is one of the reasons he's gained Astral Warp (a boss-only Shadowwalk that the Amalgam in McNeil Manor uses).

Resist is probably one of Garr's most powerful (and potentially gimmicky) defensive abilities, making him take no damage on the turn it's used.

Ward of Light is there to give him an early defensive ability, raising his defense and reprisal rate.

Nina:



The first thing you might notice is that Nina learns Heal rather early, but she also has Raise Dead and Cure -- a 100% HP restore packaged with a status ailment cleanse, but this can only hit one party member. I want Nina to play as a bit more of a hybrid than before. Out of all the potential (natural) healers, she is in fact the weakest, but my goal was to give her options while letting her retain her feel overall.

At level 48 she gains Vitalize, a nice AoE heal, and the only one she gets.

Everyone else is mostly the same. The only other big difference is that Ryu has lost Vigor, making the only two characters able to use it Ryu (in True Momo Hybrid form) and Momo.

I'll say as a footnote that I'm trying to brush up on some of my programming languages (taking C++ and JAVA in the fall) so that I can potentially write an editor for this game. The hex editing is the biggest roadblock as it drains my motivation fairly quickly.

In other words, Dragon Trial is, currently, on the back burner. I know I say this a lot, but I feel it's important to let people know what's going on and not leave them hanging about it.

Looking good so far. I'm loving Nina's new spells. Makes dragging Momo around with you (not actually a bad thing) less necessary. I like Garr having the defensive skills innately. Have you handed out Inferno to someone else?

Radiant_Gene, on 09 June 2014 - 05:15 AM, said:

Not yet, but do keep in mind that I haven't done really any actual testing with these ability sets, so they're subject to change.