rpschamp

That's great to hear. As a follow-up question, does Almighty Magic armor's +1 spell level apply to Regeneration and Heal Light? (I know it says "damage" spells, but these spells have a level associated with them.) Just saw the new release today; just in time for a new game. Thank you!

I haven't figured out this item ring bug, but I'm paying close attention to it, i.e. checking it before every save. Hopefully something will reveal itself. I have, however, decided to move forward with my fantasy team of Hawk / Angela / Carlie (either Wanderer / Grand Divina / Necromancer or Dark Hawk / Dark Angela / Light Carlie), and I'm thinking about some of the new changes from pre-2.0. A few quick questions: 1. Does Orihalcon-enhanced Half Vanish damage cut in half mean maxHP/4 instead of maxHP/2 and maxBossHP/64 instead of maxBossHP/32? Has the 320/400 cap been changed? 2. Annihilator does Level 4 PIE damage. What is the max spell level now for all spells? (I'm thinking of Almighty Magic armor.) 3. Do the equipment set bonuses require both accessories or just one? 4. Does auto-debuff effect all enemies for single-target spells? 5. Does Angela's LUC capstone affect just her or everyone in the party?

Absolutely; I will keep a close eye on this. My best guesses so far are purchasing, moving items in or out of storage, an effect that manifests on a save, or some combination of the above, so I'll pay special attention to these. I've noticed no other bugs so far.

Hi everyone! After a bit of a break, I finally got a chance to start up on 2.021 over the past couple of weeks. So far, I've mostly been messing around with a few different teams through the early part of the game to get used to the new mechanics. A few observations/questions: 1) The big change from pre-2.0 is most certainly the dependence of items on TP. I love this change, but it can be tough for boss fights when you'd like to reserve TP to keep down hate with counters. The obvious ways to compensate seem to be HP-rasping equipment and increased reliance on MP healing; it's nice to have a few of these options available early in the game. I'm curious about how players are finding the cursed ring that teaches Regeneration - these are awesome in the early game, but are they indispensable? Are players preferring instead to hold out for Heal Light to preserve accessory/spell slots? 2) It's great to see the Chibikko bug fixed! However, a new annoying bug seems to depleting the number of items in my item ring at unpredictable times when they are above a certain number - 10 or 15? They usually drop to 5 or so. I've tried to pinpoint the trigger, but haven't had much luck - sometimes when I notice it, I will restart from a prior save point, perform the same actions, save again, and the bug will not reoccur. I seem to notice it after I save or move items between my item ring and storage, but this could just be due to my gameplay style. Has anyone figured out a sure way to avoid this? 3) Jewel Eater is still a monster, and it seems like every time I fight him I come away with a different idea about the relative importance of MDef and PDef. For the record, does anyone know for certain which Def each of his attacks hit against? 4) I haven't made it even halfway to Dolan, but seeing as this is potentially the most difficult fight of the game, especially with decreased access to items - are there any special considerations players are taking into account to prepare themselves in terms of party planning or party-level timing? I'm thinking a dedicated MP healer might be absolutely necessary (whereas before it was possible to get away with items), but I'm wondering if he/she can get away with Regeneration vs. Heal Light. I'm also curious about whether people are fighting Dolan early or holding out for the final weapons and capstones. 5) After trying a few different teams in the early game, I'm interested in running a SPI-weapon Wanderer with Regeneration ring and liberal use of the pseudo-saber accessories for my first game. Am I correct to assume that these accessories work with his capstone to propagate sabers to teammates? I haven't decided on teammates, but I'm drawn towards characters who could take advantage of the Regeneration ring without sacrificing too much such as Necromancer for the enemy-cast Dark Saber-resist and magic damage flexibility and/or an high INT/SPI Lise build.

Hi everyone! I just wanted to stop by and say it's good to see you all playing 2.0 in 2021; I'm looking forward to getting back into this and sharing new team build ideas based on all the new class builds/mechanics! I'm hoping to dive back in this weekend! Awesome to see a general aggro weapon; thank you, Praetarius!

Congrats on 2.0, Praetarius! From my quick read of the changelog it looks like you've made awesome progress :-) I've been focused on establishing myself in a a new job/new location these past few months and so had to put Sin of Mana aside, temporarily.... But I should have more time in the New Year, and I'm excited to get back into it; so many new character builds to choose from! I haven't started playing yet, but you can bet I'll be spending some time with this over the coming weekend. I for one am happy to see item usage nerfed with respect to alternative methods of healing.

I agree here; I've been running Ninja Master, Dervish, Sage, and these weapons are basically indispensable for my two double-hitters. I think Praetarius plans to nerf these by taking away the heal on Level 1 tech, though, which should nerf them by up to 50%, depending on how you use your double-hitters. This might be sufficient. Also agree. I've been happily using this on my Sage, but I can't imagine many other classes benefiting except for Bishop, Grand Divina, and maybe Heal Light-oriented Light Duran or Light Kevin. Damage casters in general are going to have a hard time using this. While this is not a debilitating problem for high Luck builds (which happens to be my entire current team), I can imagine this would really hurt casters that ignore their Vitality and Luck stats. Maybe this is intended? I had a tough time choosing between Death Hand and Dervish for my current team; I went with Dervish, mainly for Anti-magic and Poison Breath to support Sage's Rainbow Dust, which I can happily say I'm finally getting some use out of in the current version! I'm at the God Beasts as well, but early in the process; I've had to take a lot of time off to prepare for a new job, new location, etc., but I plan to do a write-up once I finally get the final weapons and finish off the God Beasts. Overall though, Hawk, Kevin, Carlie are pretty crazy in the current version; Praetarius's plan to nerf tech points on the double-hitters in 2.0 should help to balance the melee.

I don't. I'm just thinking based on the drafts of learnable skills per class you've posted here. Mainly old ideas for teams I wanted to try, but couldn't get the right balance of skills until 2.0. I'm not considering potential capstones, which will of course effect everything. There are a few of these classes in particular I'm really excited about, mostly Dark Lise, Ninja Master, and Kevin....

I would go for ???, like the seeds, since the effect is different for each class; this will direct the player to look at the docs. Champion and Ultimate are good too though. Also, I want to agree with everyone that the new item names are awesome; this will make it much easier for new players to get into this mod. Im going to do a write-up on my Ninja Master, Dervish, Sage team soon; after playing Angela-based teams for a long time, this has really been a breath of fresh air. And I'm already starting to think of teams for 2.0....

The thing is, those trap spells are very useful on bosses, especially Gorva and Tzenker in the mid-game. Plus, with Arrows hitting against physical defense, Poison Bubble hitting against magical defense, and Half Vanish doing HP-based damage, Wanderer has a simple damage spell for pretty much every occasion, and it would be nice to keep that diversity.

Yeah saw it. Both this and the Wanderer/Warrior Monk/Necromancer sound pretty damn good, I might try either of the two on my next run now that I finished my current run earlier. Did you ever end up running one of these groups? I've been focused on other things this past month, but am now picking up my Ninja Master/Dervish/Sage team again. I'm close to my second class change and deciding between Ninja Master and Nightblade. Having two double-hitters is a lot of fun and a nice break from my usual Angela-driven teams. I'm wondering if you ever ended up playing this or some other Hawk/Kevin/Carlie variation we talked about.

I've been thinking lately about your decision to give every final class the same number of spells. It's an interesting idea, very different from the base game and most other games of this type, and I'm interested in your design thoughts. I think I generally understand what you're going for - it's not the number of spells that matters, but how they can be used. Angela and Carlie (I actually typed Charlie), for instance, can get more mileage out of their INT and PIE stats through their spells, whereas other characters get more mileage through physical stats and may learn spells to work with those. Also, characters with complete sets like Lise or Dark Hawk can be more easily aligned with team strategies, and some spells are just useful in more situations than others. All this can be used to balance power. I can see why you have to be very careful about what you add or subtract, or any changes made to stats. By giving everyone 10 spells, you allow more teams to cover important skills, and roughly level the sacrifice for any unlearned spells or learnable spell equipment. Half the fun of this game is coming up with new teams and new strategies anyways, so anything to enhance this should be good as long as it doesn't lead to OP situations. Do I have this right? Or are there other reasons? Also, are you considering putting any other learnable spells on equipment?

Yeah, I meant it as a Mind Up that could only be self-cast and not upgraded with Whitelight Ring, but it sounds like it's one too many buffs. And it doesn't make the spell any more distinctive since it does the same thing as Mind Up, so you might as well leave Counter Magic the way it is. I'm also coming around to the idea of a fire-breathing monk, though I think Fire Jutsu or Earth Jutsu could be a good replacement if Warrior Monk is too similar to Dervish. I think 10-spell Kevin looks pretty good.

Not sure, it'd kinda ruin Bashkar's uniqueness. I love Bashkar (awesome colors, Bastard Slam; I'm actually playing him right now), but Warrior Monk gets Power Up, making him potentially a more powerful fighter in addition to learning Heal Light. If you REALLY want to make Bashkar unique, bring back Pressure Point for a 10-20% melee/tech boost after modifications. Yeah, I didn't think that through. Warrior Monk should stick with AGI. Fire Breath is fine, but Fire or Earth Jutsu might be better thematically. Plus it would distinguish him more from Dervish. What if you made Counter Magic self-cast only, but also with an Matk boost so he could have a way to improve his Double Spell? This would make it quite distinct from Magic Shield, and give players an option if they want to increase God Hand's multi-target damage options. Like you said, he already has quite a few support options.

Since Dervish and Death Hand both learn Rockfall, why not also give it to Bashkar to give him something to do with his MP? With Bastard Slam, Bashkar seems like a guy who could throw some rocks. He's a martial artist, OF COURSE he needs a proper breathing technique. So you're turning Warrior Monk into Dhalsim? Why not give him Fireball instead to bring him closer to Ryu? EDIT: More seriously, one of the Jutsus might be another option that uses his AGI. He already gets Speed and Mind Down, so Fire or Earth Jutsu might be a good choice. Earth Jutsu would give him another element, and also separate him a bit more from Dervish. I don't want Lunatic on GH since he already has Life Booster. And Holy Ball would make him too similar to Paladin. I still think that something needs to be done with Counter Magic. I don't think many players would ever choose to learn this - God Hand is going to raise PIE anyways to boost his Heal Light, so it's not like he really needs this spell. Plus, no other class can use this. Maybe make it multi-target so at least its not a off-brand Magic Shield? If you really want to do this, then God Hand needs multi-target Life Booster.

I can see that you've given Warrior Monk and Dervish both Energy Ball and Analyze. I like this a lot. This is kind of the same idea I was going for with my Pressure Point suggestion - Kevin can maintain Energy Ball as upkeep, and add Analyze during battle, making him a critical hit master. I think the only other class with both of these is Swordmaster. I like Water Jutsu on Warrior Monk, thematically. Who doesn't like the idea of monks meditating beneath near-freezing waterfalls? I also like the idea of Double Spell on God Hand as kind of a Wrath of God attack. I just have a few suggestions to fine-tune things: - God Hand trades Counter Magic for Lunatic or Holy Ball. Being stuck on single-target, Counter Magic is kind of a boring spell, especially with Magic Shield upstaging it. I would just get rid of it all together. - Warrior Monk trades Fire Breath for Rockfall. Thematically, this would keep with the waterfall training idea. I don't see why a monk would learn to breathe fire. - Death Hand trades Rockfall for Fire Breath. He can learn Demon Breath later, so Fire Breath would be a reasonable precursor; plus, he already has enough elements without Earth.

Unfortunately, it's really impossible for me to tell exactly when it happens since I've only noticed it when changing equipment after saving at an inn. It could have happened when saving at the inn or anytime prior, so this seems unhelpful. It's such a rare bug too, and no one else has reported it, so it might not be worth solving. I have not noticed it in the current 1.2 version yet. Cool, I'll just check back later at the forum. I'm excited to see what you're thinking of, your other 2.0 classes look awesome.

Yeah, sorry I can't be of more help here. I think this is just one of those bugs that can't be traced unless there is some obvious similarity between the memory values of, for instance, Garravilla and Black Hood or Faerie Hat and Ruby Band. (These are the only two switches I can remember for sure.) How is Kevin's spell list coming along for 2.0?

This is the first bug I reported back in 2018. I still have this problem: when I'm Chibikko and attack, the graphics go to hallucinogenic nightmare conditions, meaning tiled patterns turn into other patterns, the screen begins flashing, etc. This only seems to happen if the attack has a target; if I'm standing away from an enemy and no hit or miss is registered, the graphics stay normal. After invoking this bug, if I can navigate these conditions and direct myself to a save point, I can then restart the game and everything is back to normal. But I typically just reset. One other bug I previously reported: sometimes one of the helmets in my inventory will become another helmet in the game. I have seen this happen with multiple helmets, but not with any other type of equipment, so I can't verify whether this bug affects other types of equipment. Sometimes the resulting helmet will be for a character who is not in my party, so I know that I did not just purchase it by accident. Sometimes this is nice, as when my Faerie Hat turned into a Ruby Band, which I promptly sold at profit. But most of the time this causes me to revert to a previous save point or backtrack and buy a replacement if it's not too expensive.

I also missed physical element spells, which are important in their own way, but didn't effect the kind of balance I had in mind. Got it - Duelist is * feeling * the Aura Wave. I also think it will work out better this round.

(This is in response to the five class schemes you've posted so far (for everyone except Kevin), with two suggestions marked with an *.) Since there's a lot of new information, I took a more general approach here by looking at the spread of abilities by element. I love how you've spread out the sabers just slightly; this should help with options to access saber/resist. The balance of final classes who have access to these elements looks like this so far (with character/class names abbreviated): Earth - D(3), C(2), RM - 6 Wind - D(2), C(2), RM, V, NM - 7 Ice - D(3), C(2), RM, NM - 7 Fire - D(2), C(2), RM, V - 6 Light - D(2), B, SL - 4 Dark - D(2), N, SL - 4 Leaf - D(2), S, FK - 4 Moon - SM, FK - 2 Nice distribution, with the basic four elemental sabers roughly 50% more common than the other four, and I imagine that one or two of Kevin's classes will pick up Moon Saber to balance it out. The spread of direct damage spells is also interesting. The balance looks like this (including the multi-element spells): Earth - A(4), C(3), H(3), P - 11 Wind - A(4), C(3), H(2), L(4) - 13 Ice - A(4), C(3), H(2), L(3), P - 13 Fire - A(4), C(3), H(3), L(2) - 12 Light - A(2), C(4), H(2), P - 9 Dark - A(3), C(3), H(3), L(2) - 11 Leaf - H(4), M, FK - 6 Looks pretty good. Compared to the saber distribution, Earth might be slightly underrepresented, which is thematically a little weird since it's the most basic of the basic elements. This could be solved by giving one or two of Kevin's classes access to an Earth element direct damage spell. * Maybe Rock Fall could go on God Hand or Warrior Monk? I see this as similar in spirit to Monk's Earth Slash from Final Fantasy Tactics (though that may have been non-elemental). Kevin certainly would have the strength to push a few boulders. This would also help spread out Light Hawk's abilities a little more. Dark might be overrepresented, but I don't see this as much of a problem, since some of these spells seem more intended to spread out access to Curse. And with so few Leaf spells, I think you've done a good job of making them more accessible. Overall, the new class schemes look great, and I have only one other suggestion at this point: * I never understood Leaf Saber on Duelist, thematically (my understanding is that it's a relic from Duelist's former final weapon, which consumed MP). It seems like it would be a better fit on Lord, who is more of a helper class. Also, Lord's Power Up seems like it would be a better fit on Duelist, giving him another spell to increase his tech power, and making him the only one of Duran's classes with both Power Up and Protect Down (Kevin has two). If you don't feel strongly about it otherwise, you might consider exchanging these spells between these two classes.

"Super counter" was the logic by which I figured it out: Killer Spiral Moon always came after Energy Ball, so I tried normal counters, which didn't work, so I upgraded. To me, Dolan will always be the Soda Popinski of Sin of Mana. Thanks :-)

Most games today have to cater to a mass audience to be successful, and the popular wisdom for commercial game design is that nothing will make your game less successful than being too tricky to figure out. Nintendo's "Punch-Out" ("Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" when I got it for my birthday) is my counterexample. Goddamn if those bosses didn't take some outside-the-box thinking to figure out (Soda Popinski comes to mind). And that game was so popular as to be iconic.

"Power" alone doesn't communicate the need to counter something; a level 2/3 tech alone won't do any extra damage, * EDIT: or have any special effect unless it's timed correctly. * "Power" might also be confusing; with "Power Up", it could simply mean that he's weak against melee, which he is in a way, since he resists every element and damage spells are mostly elemental, while melee is not. "Charging" might by better by implying that his weakness appears while he's "charging" his killer spell. EDIT: It's the timing, as well as the power, that's important. Maybe "power, timing" instead of "power"? Dolan can be the one exception to the one-word rule for boss weaknesses.

But then you could just say, "Check the README...." EDIT: It could also go under Dolan's weakness in the monsters/bosses spreadsheet. Right now it just says "power"; you could change it to "super counter" or something slightly more obvious. It's interesting how situational some of these "bugs" are. I'm a fan of this armor, so I will keep checking it as the game progresses to see if it corrects itself at some point so I can provide more intel.