rpschamp

I didn't realize that Snowman was buggy on spell with Needle Bird. (Goddamn Needle Birds. Always something.) I guess I need to play Rune Master more often. I wonder if the developers realized this too and switched Freya to Chibikko because of it. Even with the bug, I would still take Snowman on Freya. But I certainly see why a developer would not.

What do you think about putting Snowman effect on Freya instead of Chibikko? As of now, there is only one way to apply Snowman, through Rune Master's Cold Blaze. Since Snowman is bugged on attack, it has to be added through a spell. Freya would be a good vehicle for another Snowman option, also in concept. The effects of Lise's other summons make sense thematically: - Marduk, Star Lancer - an ancient Babylonian God associated with astrology among other things, i.e. the Silence of the cosmos - Jormungand, Dragon Master - also Nordic, but associated with the serpent, i.e. Poison - Lamia Naga - mythical Hindu serpent, associated with charm/trance, i.e. Sleep (spelling is correct; the n at the end of Lamian is the Japanese/Hindi nasal) But Freya? Snowman makes sense more than Chibikko: Vanadis and Freya are the most Nordic/northern-themed class and summon, and Snowman is the most Nordic/northern-themed status effect, also a pagan/Yule symbol. I don't get where Chibikko comes in, except perhaps as a symbol of dominance. Also, we already have other weapons and spells to add this effect. Also, many players avoid this effect due to lost experience. EDIT: This would also add something nice to Vanadis, which she needs since the after-battle heal will become more accessible.

Is Snowman bugged on attacks as well?

Got it. Still a great weapon for my main man Hawk who I always run on Luck-overdrive.

So it will lose counters or crits. Probably a good idea, this weapon is damn near indispensable right now. An HP steal accessory or HP regen spell can compensate.

Well, since Kevin and Hawk are probably going to have their tech gain brought down to 1 TP per attack in 2.0, I've decided to give up this spell-damage team for now and just focus on Purple Reign, my Ninja Master/Dervish/Sage team. I'm finally going to get a chance to start this week; I'm very excited about this run. It will be a good sendoff to everybody's favorite level 1 tech prodigies.

I think that's sensible. Do you plan to still keep the yellow damage/luck-based HP recovery weapons from the Dwarf Village? I agree that having the HP recovery options available earlier in the game makes more sense in terms of class selection; this way a player may not be so desperate to go for a Heal Light class.

Negative MP regen for piercing m.def would certainly be a big sacrifice with a big payoff, and a novel mechanic, worthy of a cursed item. I think you may be joking though, I thought you said a 1.5 damage modifier was too much haha I'm going to think on some of the other equipment/ideas you suggested. It looks like you're replacing one of the other Maia accessories; if Marble Ring will be used to teach Regeneration, then Leather Neckband should have something strong and basic too. This would be a good time to introduce a second learnable spell, if there are any good ideas.

So, with spell level +1, three of Angela's classes benefit +23% on at least half of their spells, and Grand Divina benefits +30%. Any equipment that increases spell level mildly favors Grand Divina (and Ninja Master); this is also true of the existing spell level +1/neutral element armor. I think a mild advantage for Grand Divina actually make sense in an accessory, especially if the accessory is cursed: as the versatility mage, Grand Divina is more reliant on accessories to perform her multiple roles. Equipping a spell power accessory would limit her to one other slot, and she would have to choose between Whitelight Ring, Protect Earrings, and Magatama, for example. Her other classes would not be so limited in this way. The same argument could not be made for Ninja Master, though. If you want to eliminate this advantage, you could instead implement the spell power increase simply as a larger gear bonus to m.atk than Crystal Ring. This would also have the benefit of boosting healing, making the accessory more universally useful. Crystal Ring and the helmet both give +2 gear bonus, and the weapon and armor both give +3. What would be a fair tradeoff for a reduction in MP regen? As before, I see two options: you could implement this as either (1) a normal accessory that gives somewhere between a +4 and +6 gear bonus to m.atk for each –2 adjustment to MP regen on tics, with the option to wear one (0 net MP regen) or two (–2 net MP regen), or (2) a cursed accessory, non-cumulative with itself, that gives somewhere between a +8 and +10 gear bonus to m.atk and a –4 adjustment to MP regen (–2 net MP regen). I prefer option (2), the more powerful, cursed option, to save the accessory slot and make it more of a commitment. I also prefer the gear bonus to the spell level increase, due to its impact on healing and therefore usefulness to non-primary caster classes. If the spell power increase doesn't work, I still really like the idea of some type of benefit gained by trading MP regen. I focused on spell power because it's something basic and universal to any caster, and the classes that would most benefit from increased spell power would also be making the biggest sacrifice. There could be other options, though.

I agree on the level 60 limit. This kind of thing is already abused with Protect Ring against Archdemon. I like this idea. There are a few ways to do this. A simple accessory might be +1/2 spell level, –2 MP regen on tics. Equipping one accessory would get you 1/2 level of spell power, basically twice as strong as a Crystal Ring, but 2–2 = 0 MP regen. Equipping two could get you a full spell level but 2–4 = –2 MP regen. You can make this effect cumulative with other MP regen equipment to give the player the option to offset this balance. Or, you could just have the accessory be +1 spell level, non-cumulative with the same accessory, but knock you down to –2 MP per tic; this way it only uses up one accessory slot. This is a pretty big bonus with a drawback, so I could see this being cursed. The question is whether you want to make this –2 MP per tic unchangeable or allow other equipment to alter it. With two other items giving a +1 bonus to MP regen, the caster could have the option to get her MP regen back to 0. I like the concept of a caster selling her soul (MP regen capacity) for extra spell power through a cursed item. Also, I agree that it's more important that this balance well for boss fights than random fights. Even during random battles though, in the late game, players should feel the lack of or negative MP regen.

Have you considered an armor or accessory that increases spell damage, but starts the caster at 0 MP? This could lead to interesting builds based more on balanced physical/magical stats so the caster can perform in melee while her MP builds through tics or MP stealing weapons/accessories. You could also include a limit on her ability to recover MP through tics, stealing, or Walnuts; maybe 2 or 3 MP per effect. It doesn't need to be a 1.5 modifier either; 1 spell level without neutralizing the spell element may be enough. Since this would likely impact the way the player builds the caster, this item might as well be cursed.

Anything to make strong attacks more useful, right now quick attacks in most cases seem to put out much more damage over time. This is why I was trying to think of more TP/MP cost effects on strong attack. I think the general problem with this is that unless you are holding a directional button, it can be difficult to control strong attack vs. quick attack, so you might eat up your TP/MP unintentionally. Perhaps strong attacks could be adjusted to require a longer A button depression? Great alternative to upkeep on transition. I was thinking earlier when you brought up the idea of upkeep - how would that work with MP-heavy single-target skills like Magic Shield? This armor could make that possible, at a cost of course. These are good, but what about an accessory to increase spell damage? Right now the only option is Crystal Ring, and it's usefulness decreases as your intelligence/spirit stats grow. I was thinking something like 1/2 maxMP, 1.5 spell damage modifier, cumulative with other effects (like the weakness modifier, or Archmage's extra 50% on weakness).

Technically possible but that would be arbitrary, I want to keep the number of exceptions to a minimum. The mod is complex enough as it is. I think this could be the only exception... unless you want to reduce Honey Drinks to 600 HP or something to limit their usefulness on undead monsters. I think of this exception as a small sacrifice in consistency for an awesome ability, like Rune Master's Stone Cloud being kept to single-target on her multi-target level 3 spell final weapon. I can see enemy-targetable items being a standard feature, since flipping scales won't be beneficial until invert armor becomes available halfway through the game, and using claws on enemies shouldn't really be that beneficial anyways until you hit Lugar, when you already have your saber spells. This also gives invert armor more of a purpose. Do you have any ideas for the weapon you're replacing? I once thought a weapon that could hit against magical defense instead of physical defense would be cool, but this might again take away from Antimagic and the ignore physical immunity/resistance weapons, and for other enemies, don't most monsters/bosses have physical and magical defense in proportion anyways (based on Lise's stats)? I will think on the list of equipment you're planning to replace. I'm also trying to think of something cool/internally consistent for that last set of accessories, unless you want to use them for separate purposes.

It’s okay - I do tend to get a little over-excited about these things. I’m honestly not good with forums. It can be difficult interpreting text messages from people you don't know, or getting a sense of how you're coming across. I think I've contributed enough for now though, I’d like to see what ideas other people have, mine are exhausted at the moment. Don’t worry, if I think of something else, I won’t be able to help myself :-) Though after this discussion, I feel like I need to get some basic hex editing experience so I can at least know what kind of ideas make sense, I get the impression that it's quite different from traditional coding....

Sorry, I was just trying to help generate ideas; I thought that was the point of the forum topic. I agree I may have gone a bit overboard. I certainly don't want to stress anyone out. I will step back for a while and let others contribute.

Could the Y-button effect just be blocked on certain items? For instance, if your item ring is turned to Stardust Herb and you press Y and A, can you check to see if the item ring is on Stardust Herb and if so then cancel the effect of the Y button? (I'm probably betraying my ignorance of how hex editing works, but there must be some way to achieve conditional statements? And some indication of which item is to be used?)

Thinking big-picture, something that would be incredibly useful to fill out the functions of a team would be an accessory that allowed you to invert the targets of items from players to enemies, or vice versa, just like spells. Scales and sabers could be used to achieve stat debuffs (with invert armor) or saber/resistance this way. Other items could be blocked or their effects attenuated as you see fit; this should not break the game or be used to replace other more expensive items (e.g., using Stardust Herbs in place of Specter's Eyes). Obviously, because of it's power, this accessory could be cursed/unequippable.

I agree, it would throw off the balance. I was thinking to limit the success rate, but would players really use this if it was too unreliable?

Another idea is to offer stat break accessories, which use strong attacks and TP or MP to break down physical attack, magical attack, physical defense, magical defense, accuracy/evasion, or buffs/debuffs (like Antimagic). You could make their success rate based on some combination of strength, agility, intelligence, or luck, so they are less reliable than their spell versions. A successful break might be indicated by a sabered strike sound.

Well, it could be done by just directly adding the spell damage into the melee damage, but this might be hard to see if the player already has a saber or an elemental accessory. Also, I'm not sure you really want to add more ways to get around physical immunity, making spells like Antimagic or negate physical immunity weapons even less important.

It doesn't need the spell animation; it could use the hit animation/sound from the elemental melee effects and just apply the damage at the same time as your melee strike, like when you hit Mispolm with a level 2/3 tech and get two damage numbers. The fact that you cast the spell would be indicated by the hit animation/sound, assuming you didn't already have a saber spell cast on you. EDIT: Maybe the magical damage could be colored differently to better distinguish it? This could even be applied as a general principle, so players would know that a Hawk spell is hitting differently than an Angela/Carlie spell. EDIT: I also like this because it offers an extra advantage to melee fighters with a high intelligence stat, apart from the minor tech bonus increase.

I'm interested in further exploiting this mechanic that uses TP or MP on a strong attack, giving strong attacks another purpose. What about a magic-sword effect? You could have a set that casts a single-target level 1 damage spell on a strong attack, costing MP instead of TP, one for each of the six main elements. It would be nice because the damage spells would offer another way to get around physical resistance, which the current elemental accessories do not, and it would fit in nicely as a final set of accessories. It would also give fighters something to do with their up-ticking MP. I don't know how easy this kind of effect would be to implement, though.

This requires some thought so I will post separately as I think of things. What about a set accessories to add a status effect (Poison, Silence, Sleep, etc.) with a strong attack? These could have a TP or MP cost to apply their effect to limit their power. You could have the stronger status effects, i.e. Petrify, cost more TP or MP. The mechanic would be similar to the low recovery strong attack with the new Wendel weapons, but more useful; this mechanic seems like it could be repurposed for other things as well.

Also,

Wow, I only switched Envy and Gluttony, I'm pretty pleased with myself hahaha By the way,