LAN021
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Posts posted by LAN021
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On 8/23/2020 at 12:51 AM, raics said:I tried it without the 'arcana' and it was a bit confusing because you'd sometimes forget if you're browsing the list of learned spells or the list of arcana and have to check, shortening some of the spell names was the lesser evil.
Well, I can only speak for myself, of course, but I never even once had that issue in my 220 hours of playing. There are only two sections of magic, browse and learn, and they are sufficiently easy to tell apart. When you're browsing, you usually see a longer list of the spells of the school/lore/type that unit is focused on; when you're learning, you see multiple categories with all the random scrolls you have obtained and certain spells are marked with the striking red "mastered" text. Honestly, I can't see how a single individual who is smart enough to play a game as involved as Tactics Ogre would have an issue with this. Maybe it's because when you are playtesting, you have all the arcana in the inventory? In that case, it could be an issue, even then a minor one at most, but that rarely happens when playing normally. I'd definitely reconsider this one since it seems to be one of the few injudicious choices you've made (although you initially made the judicious choice to change the names from the laughably pretentious latin grimoires, you just went semi-back on it).
Fair points on my other suggestions. Saw now that tarot cards are only shown to the left when hovering with move selected, not otherwise.
Have you also considered buffing the rogue class a little? It's seems a little underwhelming, other than for stealing (haven't tried it much in latest patch, admittedly). Maybe decrease the TP of Sneak Attack to 30 or 20 or even make it a passive skill, if that is possible. Also, maybe add some tarot cards for booby traps with basic effects like damage and stun/sleep to the store?
And how about giving familiars access to evacuate 1 and exorcism 1? That way, they'd be great alternate healers. I used them as such in my lower level alt-party, but the lack of those two spells made it a little difficult.
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Continuing this from my rather long post on moddb.
QuoteReally enjoying this mod after having spent a total of 216 hours on it -- and I'm only on chapter 4, on my way to Heim (just finished Vanessan Way). I take my time, leveling/building your characters is just so damn fun. Still, I think I'm pretty overleveled with my main party (they're 36/37) by now, but because of level scaling, a decent challenge has been maintained. Now, however, it seems that enemies don't scale all the way up in story battles (they're 33/34). I'm still playing 0.94a, by the way. I started playing 2019 and took several pauses because the game is so demanding. I had missed all the patches and, now, the changes are too great for me to update (might have to replay it with the latest patch one day).
While I have nothing but good things to say about your mod, I think that the game itself is lacking much in interface/text display/quality-of-life features, to a point that is almost hard to tolerate for a command-based game that is all about interface and usability.
Some of the most noteworthy issues:
-Class is not displayed when targeting units, it's only shown in the help text when free scrolling. This is very frustrating when targeting non-human units that all look the same, you have to exit the active character's menu to check the classes and then remember it. This is a basic interface/text issue and probably impossible/hard to fix in a mod.
It shows as:
"Lv. 03 Denam"
When it should be:
"No. 01 Denam
Lv. 03 Knight"-Tarot cards have similar issues, where the stat is not displayed anywhere. You have to exit the active character's menu to check the stats. Maybe this could be rectified by having the stats after the card's name: "The Magician (INT)", "The High Priestess (MIND)", etc.
-In the active character's act/skills sections, there's no way to quickly check the stats of a spell/item, without having to go to the condition screen. A function to hide/show the infobox with triangle could easily have resolved this. Such an unnecessary design oversight. Just like the previous two issues, this means too much back-and-forth, which becomes quite patience-testing over time. Also, no mention of vertical limit anywhere (if there even is one for aoe spells).
-Hit chance (%) for status effects is not displayed separately for spells/weapons with both damage and a status effect. Since not all spells apply their status effects 100% of the time (like Poison spells, I think), this is a little frustrating. Could you add this to the help text, perhaps? For 2H Swords, for instance: "May inflict STAGGER (40%)". I know it's in the mod document, but it's a little much to always have to look it up.
-The shop has multiple issues: you can't craft multiple items at once; you can only see equipment/inventory or price, not both, even though there's plenty of space at the bottom for the "Equipped/Inventory" display; and you can't see stats for craftable items before actually crafting them.
Still, really enjoyed this mod. Maybe one day Square-Enix will make another edition of this great game where they resolve these issues, add a hard mode with better AI and enemy setups and maybe include some of the changes from this mod.
raics's reply:
QuoteYeah, there are quite a few UI choices that are a bit weird and could be improved. I added the info about which stats they raise when you hover the tarot card and a few other tweaks here and there, but there isn't much I can do about most of it. Technical difficulties aside, if the code was changed substantially we'd probably lose compatibility with original PSP hardware too and that's something I'd like to avoid even if it means some issues remain unresolved.
Maybe I could change the description of the class to include its name when you target the unit, so instead of "This class is your resident tank" it could say "[Knight] is your resident tank".Anyway, thanks for trying it out, good to hear you still liked the whole experience despite the issues
About class names, aren't they shown first in the top info text when you hover over a unit? By help text, I meant the top text, to clarify.
It's when you target a unit that it only says "Select a target" or something and since non-human units all look the same, you have to exit then hover over the unit again to see its class.
About tarot cards, if you change the name of the card to include the stat, does it show in the bottom left? So if you changed "The Empress" to "The Empress (MP)", would it show here:
As for the hit chance of weapons' status effects, perhaps it could be added to the general weapon description in the select help text, since most have the same accuracy.
What about changing this to
Swords (2H) [HEAVY] [STAGGER 40%]
Long blades that require both hands to be used effectively.or
Swords (2H) [HEAVY]
Long blades that require both hands to be used effectively. May inflict STAGGER (40%), unless another status effect is stated.I don't think "Weapon Type" is really needed there.
The same thing could be added to top text for spells with less than 100% accuracy. Example "May inflict POISON (50%)." I don't know if you can edit the top text freely or if you're limited to the original characters, since some text scroll past the right edge.
Some other minor text issues:
- Maybe change uses of slash (/) to "and" or "or" for sake of consistency.
- Strengthen and Fortify aren't in all caps for Siege and Steadfast.
- I think the arcanas look better without the word "arcana" at the end. Some minor grammatical imperfections are perfectly acceptable in a mod, I think (when picking up the scrolls). Also liked most of the older spell names better, will miss Paralytic Wave and Icebrand. Perhaps you could change the Art of War spells to just use the basic names, too? So just "Decoy" instead of "Bodyswap Scroll" (or whatever it's called) and "[Something] Dance" instead of "Treatise on [Something or other]".
As you can see, I've now upgraded to 0.963b to see if I can adapt. There's certainly many equipment and spell changes that will take some time to get used to. I actually spent a lot of time getting two pairs of Arkhiatros Mitts, only for them to lose Healcraft (although I don't know if it was very useful to begin with). They instead have Tabula Rasa, which is pretty good, but has also been changed. I may report more after playing some more. Hope you'll consider my suggestions in this post.
Feedback and Suggestions
in Tactics Ogre: One Vision
Posted · Edited by LAN021 · Report reply
I forgot to mention that I also found a lot of the name changes questionable. Impale instead of Icebrand is not a good change, even the vanilla Iceblast is better, same thing goes for a lot of other vanilla names (Spiritsurge, Gravity Flux, Dead Man's Ivy, Major Heal, Word of Pain). I don't think it was an issue of space in all cases, either (seems to be 20-24 chars), so it was probably something you wanted to change either way. Of course, we, the players, have to get used to the names either way, but that's not a valid reason for questionable name changes. Just being honest with you, of course. I admire your dedication to this mod and think most of your changes are great and make the game more enjoyable, but this was not one of those changes. I don't know what feedback you have gotten on these name changes, but at least consider this piece.
There are also icons for browse (exclamation mark) and learn (checkmark), which you can memorize if you really have a hard time telling the sections apart.
Really? I see no reason to use them as a speedy fighter class over ninja, other than stealing. Ninjas even have the same ranged options, or very close. Decreasing the TP of Sneak Attack to 20/30 would be a good enough buff, it's a little TP heavy to use constantly. Maybe add automatic weapon proc, too, if that is possible (or another separate proc).
They still wouldn't replace clerics fully, they don't have mother's blessing, major heal and a few other spells. Evacuate and exorcism just means that they could be used as adequate replacements for clerics. They don't have anything other than divine magic, correct? Even though a lot of elemental spells are listed as learnable they can't actually use them.