[RM2K3] ENEMIES: DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE FIXINGS.

Aye, I use switch skills often, but not often enough with custom damage formulas and whatnot, nor with AI patterns (which I really should learn to use more often). Can probably go with the 2nd way, though battle events don't account for elemental damage so can't use that very well for doubling damage that could be halved or whatnot from elements. But I know what you're talking about.

You mean the one that's doesn't have Auto-Life as a passive? Because I'd assume that DPSing that one after the one with Auto-Life is down would be what you mean, right (then again, both of the bosses have it so you'd have to gun down the other really fast as well, and then you have Daiyousei in this updated version that has the Life spell and whatnot. Hmmm)? But yeah, the turns would unfortunately count every player's turn since 2K3 is kinda picky about that. I just haven't decided how many turns in general it should be before Fairy-type enemies get to revive.

As it stands right now from that coding, it doesn't really check if a specific character has a status on. But I know what you mean...however, the problem lies in A) If one character is under Freeze and the other is not, that will force both of them to take double damage, which is not the intentions here, and B) While I understand what you're getting at with the damage, again the problem lies in that elemental resistances and the like are not factored in the Change HP variable or any battle events. So let's say that Diamond Blizzard does about 120 damage. If the player has the Barrette helmet, that halves the damage to 60. If we were to make it so that it dealt double damage (240 damage does sound REALLY punishing, oh god lol...but it'll make the player learn a bit I think) via this method, it would still just take the normal damage and double that without consideration of anything else, so if the player has Barrette on, it won't halve the damage at all (could make it check for what the player has equipped, but that's a lot of checking in this game lol). I also see that you're taking the enemy INT into the damage formula, but that doesn't represent the damage the ability itself does. For instance, again with Diamond Blizzard that's 120 damage to everyone (Icicle Fall is about 60-80 to one), but Cirno's MAG stat is only 29, meaning the most she'd do then if you just used that is 52 regardless of what she used. Same thing with if she used Minus K or not, it wouldn't really double the damage properly.

That is one big paragraph and I'm not sure if I spoke about what I wanted to properly in that. x_x;

Alright, I'm redoing this all over again, especially since beta5 is getting closer to being done and I need to get enemies touched up. So, for the first batch, I decided to work on all of the Fairy Maid type enemies!


Fairy Maid:

Potted Plant: Non-elemental physical Blunt damage. Used more often when alone.
Barrel: Non-elemental physical Blunt damage. Used more often when alone.
Pot Roast: Restores all HP to one ally
Sour Milk: Non-elemental damage + Sap
Rotten Orange: Non-elemental damage + Poison
Squid: Non-elemental damage + Blind
Barley Tea: Restores 150 HP and cures statuses to party


The idea behind the Fairy Maid/Maid here is they're the most basic and common enemy in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and are generally very bad at doing their jobs (cleaning, cooking, etc. Sakuya basically does everything herself). So this skillset they have here is to take a jab at that to a degree with the bad food (though the Barley Tea and Pot Roast obviously aren't part of that). The Potted Plant and Barrel are just items they throw (Potted Plants are a homage to New Super Marisa Land where some of them carried these around, and they hurt you if they hit you).


Scarlet Maid:

Potted Plant
Crate: Non-elemental Blunt damage + ????. Used more often when alone.
Pot Roast
Sirloin: Fully restores one enemy's HP + Sleep
Tea: Restores HP + Regen
Coffee: Fire damage + Heat Lv1 to one target

Scarlet Maids don't formally show up in any games, but I denote them by the red color (they're generally worse to fight than the normal blue Fairy Maids in fangames). They're better than Fairy Maids, but since they're still just Fairy Maids in the end, they're not TOO super great. Being able to inflict Heat this early in the game might be problematic as there's no way to cure it nor prevent it (for those who don't know, Heat = Take any action with character = 9999 damage instantly. Comes from Final Fantasy IX.).


Elite Maid:

Pot Roast
Curry Rice: Restores one enemy's HP + Heat. Used more often when alone.
Potted Plant
Oil Drum: Non-elemental Blunt damage + Blind. Used more often when alone.
Caviar: ????
Truffle: ????
Foie Gras: ????


Elite Maids, being the best maids there and the last of the Maid-type enemies (for now that I can think of), I wanted them to be the strongest and deadliest. Of course, I'm not sure how to do that with those last 3 items there (yes, I did take Castlevania as reference for the items mostly! I WAS thinking of using Crystal Chronicles food but decided against it). So if anyone has any good ideas for these, that'd help! There is no Oil status in the game, though I could make it reduce elemental resistances with a patch that was released (I still need to ask about that patch to see how it really works though...).


So yeah! This is what I'll be doing! It'll seem very blog-like, but that's how it is I suppose. ^^;


For those who are curious, this is their current skillsets:


Fairy Maid:
Attack (10)
Fire (10)
Blizzard (10)
Thunder (10)
Aero (10)
Water (10)
Cure (10)

Note: This skillset is identical to the Fairy enemy in the very first dungeon. Highest HP is about 600 at this point for your party, lowest being 300 HP. Fairy Maids/Maids have 350 HP, and has a 30% chance of dropping Bs (which cost 1,500 yen to buy and restores 100 MP. It's the Ether of the game).


Scarlet Maid:
Attack (10)
Fira (10)
Blizzara (10)
Thundara (10)
Aera (10)
Watera (10)
Cura (10)

Note: All of the level 2 elemental spells here hit upwards to 150 damage normally, double that for those weak to the attacks. Meaning that Meiling can get killed in one to two hits from Aera, while Cirno can get killed in the same manner from Fira. Highest HP is about 600 at this point for your party, lowest being 300 HP. Scarlet Maids have 550 HP, with a 30% chance to drop Tents (which cost 1000 yen to buy).


Elite Maid:
Attack (10)
Firaga (10)
Blizzaga (10)
Thundaga (10)
Quakera (10)
Breakga (10)
Aeroga (10)
Waterga (10)
Curaga (10)

Note: These spells can easily hit upwards to 600-1200 damage normally. At this point, characters may only have upwards to 1500 HP, if that. Elite Maids have 1,550 HP and has a 10% chance of dropping Oni Wines (100 MP recovery to party)


As you can see, I'm trying to differentiate them from the other regular Fairy enemies that focuses mostly on elemental magic. Plus, why would Fairy Maids have elemental magic anyways, right?

I suppose that is true. I guess I'm trying really hard to make them different from other Fairy-type enemies (they still fall under Fairy-types, but I have them classified differently for the time being), but I suppose giving them ONE or TWO elemental spells on top of what they have wouldn't hurt, hm? Coming up with ones that'll fit might be tricky, hmmm. Maid would probably have 1-2 level 1 elemental spells, Scarlet Maid with level 2, and Elite Maid with level 3. Though with Scarlet Maid, I don't know if I wanna give them Fira/Aera both since those can OHKO/THKO a character each. And on top of them using things like Sirloin and Coffee in the updated skillset, that could make things really hard to deal with. Hmmmm...

Ok, so gonna bring up some of the old stuff that was listed at the start of this topic, since I STILL need to go over them and whatnot. And since that doesn't really tell what does what, well...I'mma go more in-depth with it and see if people can't come up with some fixes (if needed). Starting with Misty Lake once again (keep in mind, HP for this dungeon is roughly 250-300 for both characters that you have here that are forced to go through here). Keep in mind, unlike the above listed Fairy Maid type enemies, these are the ORIGINAL skillsets of the enemies. I have yet to decide what to do to revamp them, if they need it.

*Notes: When it states ally/allies, it is referring to the enemy's side, not the player's side. When referring to enemy, it is referring to the player's side. Assume all enemies have the default Attack command available unless specified.

Fairy
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Fire: Inflicts 40 Fire-elemental damage to one.
**Blizzard: Inflicts 35 Ice-elemental damage to one.
**Thunder: Inflicts 40 Lightning-elemental damage to one.
**Aero: Inflicts 60 Wind-elemental damage to one.
**Water:Inflicts 20 Water-elemental damage to one.
**Cure: Restores 150 HP to one ally.
Suggested skillset changes:

As mentioned before, Fairies primarily fight using elemental magic, or well..magic in general. As fairies should. These run-of-the-mill fairies fight using the most basic of elemental spells, which is used to get the player used to magic-based attacks as well as elemental attacks in general (mostly with Marisa, as she takes double damage from Water-elemental attacks but absorbs Lightning-elemental attacks. Reimu is neutral to all of the elements used here). I don't THINK they need changed at all, unless anyone thinks they need to be buffed a bit to be a bit more challenging?? Fairies have 80 HP.


Eagle
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Beak: Inflicts 10 non-elemental physical damage to one party member.
Suggested skillset changes:

Eagles are...well, they're weak. Originally, Beak dealt 40 damage, but due to Eagles generally showing up in groups of 3 or 5, that generally wound up with players dying super quickly due to the Eagles being relatively quick. I don't know if I should increase the damage output or not (I think I have damage formulas increased for physical-related skills because 2K3 sucks with formulas). Otherwise, Eagles are just meant for dealing with quick enemies in large groups that rely solely on physical attacks. Eagles have 65 HP.


Hornet
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Poison Needle: Inflicts 28 Poison-elemental physical damage and Poison: oo to one party member.
**Poison: Inflicts 14 Poison-elemental magic damage and Poison: 00 to one party member.
Suggested skillset changes:

Originally, Hornets weren't too big of a threat outside of inflicting Poison. However, thanks to their attacks being Poison-elemental (Poison Needle wasn't originally), and the Poison-element being relatively strong (200% now for Humans, 300% for those weak to the element), Hornets are now pretty dangerous. Further testing may need to be done with them in order to rebalance them. Hornets have 45 HP.


Water Toad
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Water: Inflicts 20 Water-elemental damage to one party member.
**Blizzard: Inflicts 35 Ice-elemental damage to one party member.
Suggested skillset changes:

Water Toads are...kinda just there. What the Water Toad does, the Fairies do better. So...I'm not sure why these guys really exist in this area outside of being a source of a particular crafting item. Water Toads have 56 HP.

Note: Originally, the Mini and Toad statuses were going to be in the game, and all Toad enemies were going to have the Toad spell or a way to inflict this, including Suwako. However, since I don't think there's a nice way of doing sprites for that and the like, both statuses were dummied out early on in development.


Alligator
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Double Attack
Suggested skillset changes:

Alligators are the first Notorious Monsters in the game, and boosts the highest physical attack power of all enemies, double that of the second highest attack power. While all they do is attack physically, they hurt a lot and in addition have pretty good physical defenses. They're meant to be the first enemy to force the player to really rely on elemental-type attacks, as Alligators are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks, as well as utilize other skills such as Reimu's Blink-inducing Cautionary Border. Alligators have 145 HP.


Daiyousei
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Heal: Restores 40 HP to all allies. Used only when below 45% Max HP.
Suggested skillset changes:
**Keep Heal
**Regenga: Inflicts Regen: 50 turns to all allies.
**Cure: Restores 150 HP to one ally.
**Life: Revives one KO'd ally with 25% Max HP.
**Slow: Inflicts Slow: oo to one party member.

As of right now, as mentioned earlier in the thread, Daiyousei is kinda...there. She doesn't do much but do a little physical attack that does no damage. She will be revamped to have a better skillset as a support unit to Cirno, potentially getting abilities such as Cure, Regenga, Slow, and Life. Daiyousei has 550 HP, and is a check to see if the player is smart enough to DPS the support unit first. If left alive when Cirno is defeated, will run away if she has no MP left to revive Cirno.


Cirno
Fought at: Misty Lake (start of game)
Current skills:
**Icicle Fall: Inflicts 40 Ice-elemental damage to one party member.
**Icicle Attack: Inflicts 60 Ice-elemental damage and Freeze: 50 turns to one party member.
Suggested skillset changes:
**Remove Icicle Attack
**Keep Icicle Fall
**Minus K: Inflicts Freeze: 5 turns to the party.
**Diamond Blizzard: Inflicts 150 Ice-elemental damage to the party.

Cirno, as of right now, is only mildly threatening. She's meant as a check to see if the player was smart enough to buy the Barette and/or bring status healing items. She will probably be updated to use more of her skills, such as Minus K and Diamond Blizzard, while losing Icicle Attack. When revamped, if Daiyousei is defeated before Cirno, Cirno will "enrage", giving her Haste status but also reducing her hitrate. Cirno has 550 HP.

On a sidenote, Master Spark has a good chance of OHKOing, or severely crippling, either Cirno or Daiyousei, and will OHKO anything else in the area. Right now though, it's only single-target, and whether or not it'll become AoE at some point is yet to be seen.



So with that out of the way, any thoughts on what to update? Outside of Cirno/Daiyousei who will be getting their much needed revamp that is (unless you guys think giving Daiyousei Regenga is too much??.