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Progress Report

Changes to Blue Magic

The method of learning Blue Magic spells has changed. Initially, Dajh needed to be damaged by a learnable Blue Magic spell to permanently obtain it. This left healing spells out in the wind, since enemies never use them on party members, and there is no Manipulate/Sketch command in this project to force them to.

So I had a few dropped items in place to automatically teach those spells once they were in your inventory. How very Rm2k3 of me. Those items have now been removed, as they no longer serve any purpose.

Dajh's Analyze command has been replaced with Study, which will teach Dajh any learnable Blue Magic spells the target enemy can use. FFX's Kimahri learned his Ronso Rage Overdrive skills in the same manner.

Unlike Kimahri, though, the Study command won't instantly fill the Limit Break gauge or anything. =)

Just for fun, I left the Analyze command in the game, and it can be added back to Dajh's command list in place of Study using a Relic (Rabanastre Logbook), if the player wishes to do so.

One interesting thing to note: Dajh cannot use the Study command if he is under the effects of Darkness. =P

Announcement

Secret Character #2 Revealed!

After many, MANY incorrect guesses on your part, it's finally time to reveal who the second and final secret character is! This character comes to us from Final Fantasy IX. Before I tell you who it is, let me just give a bit of the history behind the decision.

Originally, I meant for this character to be Terra from Final Fantasy VI. She would utilize both White Magic and Black Magic, and be able to equip any piece of equipment. The goal here was to add in an overpowered character who could potentially solo anything in the game, if players wanted that sort of challenge. In the end, I decided that a different character was more appropriate.

So, are you ready for it?

He's awesome.

Hang on.

The secret character is none other than...
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STILTZKIN THE MOOGLE! KUPO!


I decided that this project needed a playable Moogle. There are plenty of Moogles in the game, but the traveling merchant Stiltzkin can be yours if you can figure it out.

One thing I should mention, I am NEVER telling how to get him and I will NEVER show him in any screen shots here. When you see his skills below, you'll understand why finding him on your own is worth it, and spoiling it would be evil.

Weapon Types: Dagger, Sword, Claw, Lance, Rod, Staff
Armor Types: Armlet, Shield, Hat, Helmet, Light Armor, Heavy Armor
Command Abilities: None
Ability Sets: Dance, Stash

Dance
While dancing, Stiltzkin will automatically battle and execute different special attacks based on the terrain he is battling in. If attacked while dancing, Stiltzkin has a chance to stumble and fall, canceling the dance. There are eight dances in total, and each dance has up to six special abilities.

Wind Rhapsody (Plains, Grasslands)
Desert Lullaby (Desert)
Forest Nocturne (Forest, Woods)
Earth Blues (Mountain, Cave)
Love Serenade (Town, City)
Twilight Requiem (Wastelands)
Water Harmony (Ship, Shore, Riverbed, Underwater)
Snowman Rondo (Snow)
Techno Shuffle (Factory, Castle)
Sky Aria (Airship)

Stash
Stiltzkin can use items from his merchant stash in battle. These items are actually abilities that affect the entire party and cost no MP (or items) to use!

Mega Potion: Restores 2,000 HP on the entire party.
Dry Ether: Restores 150 MP on the entire party.
Phoenix Down: Revives all fallen allies with 25% Max HP.
Unicorn Horn: Nullifies all negative status conditions on the entire party.
Al Bhed Cocktail: Restores 5,000 HP & 300 MP on the entire party.

Limit Breaks
Chocobuckle: Deals unblockable damage on a single enemy based on the number of times the party has escaped from battle.
Kupo Nut: Bestows Invincible on the entire party.

Invincible: Immune to all types of damage for three rounds.

As you can probably tell, Stiltzkin is REALLY versatile and can become a replacement for almost any attacker or healer. For this reason, he is incredibly difficult to recruit into the party, but will come in very handy in the optional endgame areas.

Progress Report

10-03-2012 Game Development Update(s)

Final Fantasy: Discovery Development Updates
October 3, 2012

Script(s)
  • The big subject of the day is animation timing! FF:D uses Victor Engine Animated Battle, and since it's latest update (1.14), a lot of things that used to work, well, no longer do. Basically, animation timing used to be handled automatically when settings a skill's pose sequence to "wait" at the end of it. Now, I have to manually input the wait times myself to make sure the battle flow remains the same as before. In a nutshell, damage and states are being applied before animations finish, even with an auto-wait applied to the pose setting, which is no good.

    Really, the point of all this is to say that instead of a skill set having one pose action, such as all Black Magic spells sharing the same pose sequence, I now have to create a pose for each spell to ensure that the damage and states the skills apply don't get shown prematurely. It takes a little longer, but it's really not that much of an inconvenience.

    So far, all of the magic spells (White, Black, Red) in the game have been scripted up in the module to give them perfect timing, and I'm working on the poses for Blue Magic today. Other skills will come later, since most of them don't have actual animations just yet (Tools, Blitz, etc.).


  • The current script handling the visual representation of the HUD in battle has been scrapped and started again from the ground up. After adding in a few other scripts that handle visual things in battle, I need to make sure all the scripts are behaving nicely together.




Abilities: Limit Breaks
  • Full-Auto has been removed. The skill behaved too similar to another one of Priscilla's normal abilities, Rapid Fire. A new Limit Break ability has been added in it's place.
  • Rain of Chaos has been added as Priscilla's second Limit Break. It behaves much like Full-Auto did, dealing light physical damage to random enemies with multiple hits. The difference is that each strike has a chance to inflict a random status condition on the enemy it targets. Not all status conditions are included in this attack. Some of the status conditions that are possible to inflict include Poison, Darkness, Silence, Slow, Venom, Curse, and Mini.


Abilities: Survival
  • Tactical Retreat has been removed. The skill wasn't behaving as intended and was causing a lot of visual problems. In the end, if it's not going to work as I intended it to, then it has to go.


Abilities: Black Magic
  • The spell power of Drain has been reduced. This spell was draining way too much HP at lower levels, and needed a little bit of a nerf. It is still a very reliable spell, provided the enemy is not immune to drain attacks.
  • Toxify has been changed to Virus, with a new effect. Virus deals the same damage as Poison, but can also inflict Disease, which stops the afflicted from restoring HP and can spread to other battle members.


Misc. Bugfixes
  • Lancet, White Draw, Drain, Absorb, Magic Hammer, Whispering Wind, Shadowblade and Duskblade are now working properly. Previously, they executed normally but weren't draining HP or MP as intended.

Announcement

New Video & RMN Soundtrack Voting

Here's a short video I recorded earlier, just testing out some of the timing of some skills. But hey, you get to see Odin's animation! Yay.



Also, don't forget, the second round of polling is underway to determine some music tracks that will be used in the game. If you haven't voted, click the "RMN Soundtrack Voting" link on the top of the gamepage!

Progress Report

Character Unlocks & RMN Community Poll

Final Fantasy: Discovery Character Unlocks

The following features become available once these characters PERMANENTLY join your party. They do not have to be in the active party for the player to use them, but the associated character must at least be in the reserve party.

Character Unlocks
  • Cid: Synthesis (Menu Function)
  • Reeve: Jump (Map Ability)
  • Vicks: Draw White Magic (Map Ability)
  • Wedge: Draw Black Magic (Map Ability)
  • Parker: Airship (Map Ability)
  • Ellie: Nethicite (Menu Function)
  • Dajh: Bestiary (Menu Function)
  • Priscilla: Arrow (Map Ability)
  • Lyra: Draw Red Magic (Map Ability)
  • Leon: Green Chocobo (Map Ability)
  • Beclem: Smash (Map Ability)
  • Kelger: Master Smith (Optional Quest)
  • Cecil: Tail Collector (Optional Quest)
  • Secret Character 2: Item Collection (Menu Function)


What is a Menu Function?
This refers to a new section of the menu, accessible either by the player at any time, or through other means such as speaking to the appropriate NPC. Once a Menu Function has been unlocked, it is always available to the player as long as the associated character is at least in the reserve party.

What is a Map Ability?
Map Abilities are skills that can be used while exploring an area or the world map of Gaia. Jumping, for example, allows the party to cross short gaps by leaping across. Priscilla's Arrow skill can activate far off switches, among other things. Vicks, Wedge, and Lyra can all use Draw Points to learn new spells permanently by drawing the spell out of the Draw Point. Once a spell has been drawn, it is learned permanently and the Draw Point will dry up.

Menu Functions
  • Synthesis: Allows the party to use Synthesis Manuals to construct new items and equipment.
  • Nethicite: Allows the party to equip pieces of Nethicite to summon Aeons in battle.
  • Bestiary: Allows the party to view the vital statistics of any previously defeated foe.
  • Item Collection: Allows the party to view the vital statistics of any previously collected item or equipment.


Map Abilities
  • Jump: Allows the party to leap short distances to access new areas.
  • Draw Magic: Allows the party to permanently draw new magic spells from Draw Points.
  • Airship: Allows the party to pilot an airship to reach new locations and travel faster.
  • Arrow: Allows the party to fire arrows at distant switches and other targets.
  • Green Chocobo: Allows the party to call on a Green Chocobo to cross impassible terrain.
  • Smash: Allows the party to break through some obstructions and weakened walls.

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Community Poll: RMN Picks The Track!

If anyone hasn't seen my post yesterday concerning a poll I'm conducting that allows the users of RMN to decide which music tracks to use in this project, please click on the "RMN Soundtrack Voting" link on the top of the game page for more info. Vote soon!

Progress Report

More NEW Abilities

Black Magic
  • Shatter: Deals magical damage on a single enemy and nullifies Reflect. Deals extra damage on targets under the effects of Reflect.


Shatter will come in handy against enemies that use Reflect or have a passive Reflect state. In fact, since passive states cannot be removed, Shatter will be a great source of constant bonus damage against those targets. =)

Red Magic
  • Exploit: Deals magical damage on a single enemy. Deals extra magical damage for each negative status condition affecting the target.


So there, Lyra finally has a spell that deals HP damage. Quickening + Pain + Exploit = damage, son. For an even nastier use of this spell, have Lyra drop this on an enemy after Dajh uses Bad Breath. Ouch.

Progress Report

09-24-2012 Game Development Update(s)

Final Fantasy Discovery Development Updates
September 24, 2012

Limit Breaks
  • Holy Explosion: This ability has been renamed to Divine Ruination. This ability now inflicts Confuse and adds one stack each of debuffs to Defense and Magic Defense.


Dragonkin
  • NEW: White Draw and Dragonmend.
  • White Draw: Drains HP from a single enemy.
  • Dragonmend: Removes any debuffs from the entire party.


Dark Arts
  • Night Sword: This ability has been renamed to Shadowblade.
  • Dark Sword: This ability has been renamed to Duskblade.


Holy Arts
  • Stasis Sword: This ability has been renamed to Judgment Blade.
  • Lightning Stab: This ability has been renamed to Hallowed Bolt. This ability now deals Lightning-elemental damage, rather than Holy-elemental damage.


This completes the initial round of re-balancing character abilities. Players will now have more options for healing and removing bad status conditions.

Progress Report

09-23-2012 Game Development Update(s)

Final Fantasy: Discovery Development Updates
September 23, 2012

Today I'm continuing to focus on character abilities. I'd like each character to fill their role, but also be a viable choice at any time as much as possible. This required me to re-balance a lot of character abilities. Starting off today with Leon, whose Holy Arts were in need of a change, badly.

Previously, all of them dealt Holy-elemental damage and some had no actual "effect" to them, making them just progressively stronger attacks with elemental damage.

Holy Arts
  • Stasis Sword: Now deals physical damage instead of Holy elemental damage and may inflict Stun.
  • Climhazzard: Now adopts the element of the weapon Leon has equipped and deals damage based on Leon's remaining HP, similar to the Blue Magic ability Lifebreaker.
  • Cross Slash: Now deals physical damage instead of Holy elemental damage.


Limit Breaks
  • Holy Aura: Now adds Regen, MP Regen, and increases all parameters by 30%, up from 20%. This Limit Break ability has also become Leon's initial Limit Break, while Holy Explosion becomes his second and must be learned from a manual.


Blue Magic
  • Moon Flute: Incorrectly inflicted Haste on the entire party as well as Berserk. The spell now only inflicts Berserk on the entire party and has a small chance to miss, per ally.
  • Dragon Force: Now adds two stacks each of Attack Power and Magic Power buffs, rather than one.


As always, I'll be updating this blog post with any further updates I make today.

Progress Report

09-22-2012 Game Development Update(s)

Final Fantasy: Discovery Development Updates
September 22, 2012

Blue Magic
  • NEW: Micro Missiles, Limit Glove, Dark Spark, and Storm Cannon.
  • Micro Missiles: Deals light magical damage to all enemies.
  • Limit Glove: If Dajh's HP is equal to 1, this ability deals maximum damage to a single enemy and fully restore Dahj's HP.
  • Dark Spark: Reduces the level of the target by 50%.
  • Storm Cannon: Deals magical damage to a single enemy. Damage increases with higher levels.
  • Pep Up: This Blue Magic ability has been renamed to Transfusion.
  • Goblin Punch: The damage formula for this ability has been altered. Previously, it dealt damage based on the target's Limit Break charge. Now, it acts more the way it always did. Since the Stamina (Luck) stat counts as Level for enemies, the damage formula is as follows: 

    if a.level == b.luk; a.level * b.luk; else b.luk; end


    Simply put, if Dajh's level is the same as the target enemy, the two levels are multiplied and returned as the damage value. If there is a difference in their levels, then it simply returns the target enemy's level as the damage value.


Survival
  • NEW: Mixed Herbs and Resuscitate.
  • Mixed Herbs: Restores the HP of a single ally and nullifies the Trouble status condition.
  • Resuscitate: Revives a fallen ally (1-5 HP). Does not always work.


Command Abilites
  • Gil Toss: Gil Toss now functions properly. Damage is dealt based on the amount of Gil thrown. Damage is split between remaining enemies. Certain enemies have immunity to this ability. Otherwise, the damage is unblockable.
  • Jump: No longer applies "Jumping" or "Diving" states that cause Reeve to lose a turn after use. Jump now has a one turn delay in activating, but still executes immediately once the ability is performed.


Items
  • "Source" Items: These items have been removed. Since Nethicite offers permanent parameter growth when equipped during a level up, these items no longer served any purpose. Just for clarity, this refers to HP Source, MP Source, etc.


Relics
  • Highwind: This Relic has been replaced. Since Reeve no longer suffers a cooldown after using the Jump or Dive commands, this Relic no longer serves a purpose.

Progress Report

09-19-2012 Game Development Update(s)

Final Fantasy: Discovery Development Updates
September 19, 2012

Battle System
  • Certain magic spells and items are now able to be toggled to target enemies or allies, and are also able to be toggled to single target or multiple targets.


Command Abilities
  • Beclem's Chakra command has been renamed to Meditate. The effect of the skill remains the same.


White Magic
  • Curaja has been removed, as it had the same power of Curaga, with different target scopes being the only difference between them. Curaga can now target all allies by toggling the spell with the L button, and thus, Curaja no longer served any purpose.


Black Magic
  • Added the Toxify spell. This spell deals no damage, but targets all enemies and can inflict Poison.
  • Changed how Meltdown functions. It now deals non-elemental damage to all enemies and allies equal to the caster's current HP and can inflict the incurable Seizure status condition. Use with caution!


Red Magic
  • Added the Pain spell. This spell deals no damage, but can inflict Poison, Silence, and Darkness on a single target.


Survival
  • Medusa's Arrow has been replaced with Cupid's Arrow. The ability effect is the same as before, except it will now inflict Confuse, rather than Petrify.


Status Conditions
  • The status condition Aura now counteracts the status condition Curse.
  • The status condition Rage now counteracts the status condition Weak, and vice versa.


Limit Breaks
  • Beclem's initial Limit Break, Hamedo, has been changed to Chakra. This skill will heal the HP of all allies except Beclem equivalent to Beclem's Max HP divded by the number of party members (usually four) and also nullify Poison, Darkness, and Silence.
  • Beclem's second Limit Break, Bum Rush, has been changed to Sovereign Fist. This attack deals physical damage to a single enemy and also removes all buffs and beneficial status conditions affecting the target. Passive status conditions affecting the target are unaffected (i.e. Auto-Protect).
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