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New Party Member: The Doomsayer
Red_Nova- 09/01/2017 09:06 PM
- 3346 views
This has been a long time coming, but today, we''re finally gonna talk about the final party member of Prayer of the Faithless! Why did it take so long to introduce them? Was it timing? Laziness? Crappy organizational skills? Who knows? Now, for all intents and purposes, you can consider this blog a sort of continuation of the last character introduction. Almost to the point where I should have introduced them both at the same time. Oh well. Can't change the past.
Chances are your eyes are already drawn to the picture just below and you might not even be reading this, so I'll stop here and move on to the part you actually want to read: Here is Serra Cadmus, the Doomsayer:
You know how in Reyson's introduction I mention that he's the last surviving retainer of one of Vergio's Oracles? Well, here's that Oracle! Unlike her relaxed and level-headed retainer, though, Serra is brash, headstrong, and easily flustered. Since you find them together, both her and Reyson will join the party at once.
As one of Vergio's precious Oracles, Serra has the power to speak prophecy and to see the future. For those that have played the demo, you'll know that Oracles all lost their powers at once years before the events of the game take place, as one of the omens of the impending apocalypse.
With one exception:
As you can tell, Serra is the one and only Oracle that actually has control over her powers. While she cannot speak prophecy anymore, she has regained the ability to see the immediate future. In battle, she can use her powers to predict an enemy attack, see weaknesses in a foe, and even influence the future somewhat to predict the immediate death of an enemy. As you can imagine, this makes her extremely useful in battle. The drawback? Serra only has Burst Drives, and absolutely no offensive capabilities of her own. She cannot attack, guard, or use items.
So how, then, do these powers of hers play out in battle? Remember a few months back in Reyson's intro blog where I said that Reyson has no Burst Drives of his own? Well, the reason (and this is why I probably should have introduced them both at the same time) is that the game treats Reyson and Serra together count as one single unit.
So Reyson will handle attacking, Drives, and item usage, while Serra uses her Burst Drives to round out the unit. Reyson is Serra's retainer, after all, so there's no way he was going to let her join the front lines. Better yet, seeing as Serra is using her Burst Drives and not Reyson, Serra can use her powers at NO cost to Reyson's Stamina.
However, like all abilities in the game, Serra has drawbacks to her powers. Since Serra's Oracle powers are seen as the two characters acting in tandemn (Serra uses Burst Drives while Reyson guards her), this will count as 2 actions out of your 3 action turn. The other drawback is that, even though Serra is the only Oracle in the world with her powers still functioning, they are unreliable. Sometimes they can even fizzle out completely.
Do you think it's worth using 2 actions to trigger powerful skills that may not even work? That's up to you.
And there we have it. All the party members have been introduced in various degrees of length and depth. Thinking back, I probably should have had a blog dedicated to each party member. Woulda added some nice variety into all the progress reports. Oh well, it's all in the past now. Thanks for reading!
Chances are your eyes are already drawn to the picture just below and you might not even be reading this, so I'll stop here and move on to the part you actually want to read: Here is Serra Cadmus, the Doomsayer:
You know how in Reyson's introduction I mention that he's the last surviving retainer of one of Vergio's Oracles? Well, here's that Oracle! Unlike her relaxed and level-headed retainer, though, Serra is brash, headstrong, and easily flustered. Since you find them together, both her and Reyson will join the party at once.
As one of Vergio's precious Oracles, Serra has the power to speak prophecy and to see the future. For those that have played the demo, you'll know that Oracles all lost their powers at once years before the events of the game take place, as one of the omens of the impending apocalypse.
With one exception:
As you can tell, Serra is the one and only Oracle that actually has control over her powers. While she cannot speak prophecy anymore, she has regained the ability to see the immediate future. In battle, she can use her powers to predict an enemy attack, see weaknesses in a foe, and even influence the future somewhat to predict the immediate death of an enemy. As you can imagine, this makes her extremely useful in battle. The drawback? Serra only has Burst Drives, and absolutely no offensive capabilities of her own. She cannot attack, guard, or use items.
So how, then, do these powers of hers play out in battle? Remember a few months back in Reyson's intro blog where I said that Reyson has no Burst Drives of his own? Well, the reason (and this is why I probably should have introduced them both at the same time) is that the game treats Reyson and Serra together count as one single unit.
So Reyson will handle attacking, Drives, and item usage, while Serra uses her Burst Drives to round out the unit. Reyson is Serra's retainer, after all, so there's no way he was going to let her join the front lines. Better yet, seeing as Serra is using her Burst Drives and not Reyson, Serra can use her powers at NO cost to Reyson's Stamina.
However, like all abilities in the game, Serra has drawbacks to her powers. Since Serra's Oracle powers are seen as the two characters acting in tandemn (Serra uses Burst Drives while Reyson guards her), this will count as 2 actions out of your 3 action turn. The other drawback is that, even though Serra is the only Oracle in the world with her powers still functioning, they are unreliable. Sometimes they can even fizzle out completely.
Do you think it's worth using 2 actions to trigger powerful skills that may not even work? That's up to you.
And there we have it. All the party members have been introduced in various degrees of length and depth. Thinking back, I probably should have had a blog dedicated to each party member. Woulda added some nice variety into all the progress reports. Oh well, it's all in the past now. Thanks for reading!
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Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Yep. It's still subject to tweaks, but that's how the powers work.
...I should probably work on that readability, but hey, you read it right, so it's not TOTALLY garbage.
...I should probably work on that readability, but hey, you read it right, so it's not TOTALLY garbage.
Crystalgate
694
The red outline of her in the character page makes her look far more menacing than she does here. I think it's the red eyes and lack of teeth showing that does it.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Interesting. I wasn't going for a menacing vibe when making the promo versions of the characters (I thought the eyebrow placement would provide a good enough hint as to her nature), but that's what naturally happens with a black/red color scheme.
Oh yeah, I ought to update that page. It's waaaaay out of date.
Oh yeah, I ought to update that page. It's waaaaay out of date.
I've been a bit out of the loop recently, but I suppose giving my thoughts on this late is better than never.
First of all, I really like the idea of a duo effectively acting as one character in battle. It's efficient gameplay-wise, but can also be used to give the player insight into the dynamic between the two purely through their combat abilities. And after all, it only makes sense that some people would have abilities that could be useful in battle (such as foreseeing the future), but simply have no combat expertise on their own and need to rely on others to stay alive.
I do wonder a bit why in the status bar on the battle screen, only Reyson's portrait is shown for both of them together. Wouldn't it be more consistent to have them both show up, just like the full-size busts? Though I guess that would require quite some messing around with the graphics' size and placement.
The one thing you explained about Ressa's mechanics that I really don't like however is the fact that they have a high failure chance. I understand that this character is supposed to be a high risk high reward type, and that the idea is in line with the very relative and unreliable nature of prophecies in your setting. But introducing such a huge element of randomness just doesn't seem to fit at all with your concept of a strategically challenging RPG that emphasises careful planning over luck.
Personally, I think a good compromise would be to change Ressa's abilities so that the player always gets something out of them instead of having a chance to straight end up with no effect at all - the effect just wouldn't always be what the player might have hoped for. So instead of a failure chance, give her skills a chance to produce an entirely different effect. That effect can and should still be useful, but just not necessarily what the player wanted at that moment. This way, it's not a complete matter of everything or nothing, which can be very frustrating for the player, but the element of unreliability would still play a big role.
Also, just as an aside, I don't think it's that strange for Serra to give off a bit of a menacing vibe. Even though she seems to come across as mostly good-natured, looking at that permanent smile I can't help but be reminded of Aeyr's maniacal grin...
First of all, I really like the idea of a duo effectively acting as one character in battle. It's efficient gameplay-wise, but can also be used to give the player insight into the dynamic between the two purely through their combat abilities. And after all, it only makes sense that some people would have abilities that could be useful in battle (such as foreseeing the future), but simply have no combat expertise on their own and need to rely on others to stay alive.
I do wonder a bit why in the status bar on the battle screen, only Reyson's portrait is shown for both of them together. Wouldn't it be more consistent to have them both show up, just like the full-size busts? Though I guess that would require quite some messing around with the graphics' size and placement.
The one thing you explained about Ressa's mechanics that I really don't like however is the fact that they have a high failure chance. I understand that this character is supposed to be a high risk high reward type, and that the idea is in line with the very relative and unreliable nature of prophecies in your setting. But introducing such a huge element of randomness just doesn't seem to fit at all with your concept of a strategically challenging RPG that emphasises careful planning over luck.
Personally, I think a good compromise would be to change Ressa's abilities so that the player always gets something out of them instead of having a chance to straight end up with no effect at all - the effect just wouldn't always be what the player might have hoped for. So instead of a failure chance, give her skills a chance to produce an entirely different effect. That effect can and should still be useful, but just not necessarily what the player wanted at that moment. This way, it's not a complete matter of everything or nothing, which can be very frustrating for the player, but the element of unreliability would still play a big role.
Also, just as an aside, I don't think it's that strange for Serra to give off a bit of a menacing vibe. Even though she seems to come across as mostly good-natured, looking at that permanent smile I can't help but be reminded of Aeyr's maniacal grin...
Crystalgate
694
I must admit I don't see myself using her power. In general, I only see this skill as useful on Amalie when she is taunting (ideally she also has 20% evasion from other sources). I would not use it on any other character even if the skill had a 100% success rate. With the 30% failure rate, I don't fancy taunting and then failing so that Amalie attracts attacks while having missing stamina.
If the duration is very long, it may be handy for boss fights still.
If the duration is very long, it may be handy for boss fights still.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
NeverSilent: It's fine. You're not the only one who's been out for a while! I'm glad you like the concept! I can try to squeeze Serra into Reyson's face portrait, but I didn't want to include her originally since it would look awkward. I'll play around with it a little and see what comes from it.
As for Serra's abilities, I don't think adding an alternate effect would work very well for a few reasons beyond just story inconsistency. I can tweak the actual % values for fail rates and/or evasion increase to provide more incentive to use the skills, but the intent was to have players intentionally run the risk of her powers fizzling out.
Just so it's clear, Insight isn't the only power Serra has. She'll learn more Burst Drives upon leveling up just like everyone else. In fact, the next one Serra learns is an AOE Insight. Maybe I can just replace the current Insight with the AOE Insight and come up with a new ability to learn instead? Would that be a good alternative?
As for Serra's abilities, I don't think adding an alternate effect would work very well for a few reasons beyond just story inconsistency. I can tweak the actual % values for fail rates and/or evasion increase to provide more incentive to use the skills, but the intent was to have players intentionally run the risk of her powers fizzling out.
Just so it's clear, Insight isn't the only power Serra has. She'll learn more Burst Drives upon leveling up just like everyone else. In fact, the next one Serra learns is an AOE Insight. Maybe I can just replace the current Insight with the AOE Insight and come up with a new ability to learn instead? Would that be a good alternative?
I think the base effect of adding 80% evasion is fine. However, I understand the point about the rate of that particular ability succeeding being too low. Though, if the rates of success are constant, maybe this makes sense, as it's probably based on the strongest ability she'd get. If they are based on how powerful the ability is supposed to be (or at what level she obtains it), though, that, to me, makes a more compelling case to raise it in this case.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
In that case, I'll look into raising the application success rate, maybe even scrap replace Insight with the AOE Insight. Serra won't get a stronger version of Insight*, so this is her only skill that applies an evasion boost to an ally.
*: For design purposes, I don't count the AOE Insight as a "more powerful" version of Insight here thanks to the difference in targets.
*: For design purposes, I don't count the AOE Insight as a "more powerful" version of Insight here thanks to the difference in targets.
I understand that you want to stick with the theme you've chosen for Serra's powers, Red, and ultimately this is your project and thus your decision. And I'm sure you'll be able to find ways to make her (future) abilities compelling for players to use. But in the end, I just can't summarise the point of my views on the matter in any other way than this: As far as I'm concerned, having a character whose main gimmick in combat is having powerful abilities with high failure chances is simply bad game design. And this seems especially true to me in the context of your usual approach to balancing.
Of course, there's a lot of possible countermeasures you could take, from giving Serra and Reyson preparatory skills that also boost the success rate of their other abilities to more advanced or multi-target versions, as you described above. But in the end, as harsh as it may sound, I just think the base concept behind Serra's combat role is not a good idea. And I also believe you could come up with a better system for her abilities that still keeps the high risk high reward spirit, but without relying on random chance so much.
Obviously, none of this has to mean anything to you. It's just one person's opinion, and you know your own project's workings better than I do. But I figured I'd rather provide some criticism you may end up totally disregarding than give no input at all. Either way, I'm interested to see how it all works out in the end.
Of course, there's a lot of possible countermeasures you could take, from giving Serra and Reyson preparatory skills that also boost the success rate of their other abilities to more advanced or multi-target versions, as you described above. But in the end, as harsh as it may sound, I just think the base concept behind Serra's combat role is not a good idea. And I also believe you could come up with a better system for her abilities that still keeps the high risk high reward spirit, but without relying on random chance so much.
Obviously, none of this has to mean anything to you. It's just one person's opinion, and you know your own project's workings better than I do. But I figured I'd rather provide some criticism you may end up totally disregarding than give no input at all. Either way, I'm interested to see how it all works out in the end.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
That's fine. You're right in that I'm not exactly staying in my comfort zone when designing Serra's abilities. Hell, I started this project with the intent of leaving all RNG in the dust. However, as development went along, I softened my stance on the concept a little, and spent time thinking about where I stand on some possible, non-intrusive implementations.
I would agree with you that RNG would be bad design if it's the be all/end all to strategy. If a player's only option in battle is to throw out attacks and literally cannot proceed until the dice roll allows them to, then I'd call that bad design. If the RNG forces players to adapt to different scenarios, then it encourages players to adapt their strategies on the fly, which falls in line with the philosophy of PotF.
Let's take Crystalgate's scenario for example and play with it a little: Say you start a battle, and want to give Amalie an evasion boost after she draws aggro. So Amalie uses Provoke, directing enemy attention to her, and you have Serra use Insight (the AOE Insight, since I've remove the single target skill). Oops! Looks like Amalie didn't get the evasion boost. Now it's the enemy's turn, and they're all attacking a more vulnerable Amalie since she has less SP to block damage with.
OR
You can start your turn by using Insight instead. After the move is over and you see that Amalie didn't get the evasion boost, you now have options to consider in your last action for your turn without a vulnerable Amalie. Those options are influenced by who, if anyone, DID get an evasion boost.
Did Mia get the buff? Great! There's a good chance she'll dodge enemy attacks and survive if she had lower stamina, so maybe you opt to use Lightning Draw to get some quick damage on every enemy and switch stances to prepare for a more offensive second turn.
Did Reyson get the buff? Fine! You can change his equipment and use one of many Drives he'll have available to get an early edge on the enemy.
Did no one get buffed? Unfortunate, but it's not the end for you. Throw an attack item to get some heavy damage in quickly or have a character set up a Counter Stance to reflect the first nonmagic attack that comes your way.
In the end, I don't think the random factor to Serra's abilities detracts from the premise of planning your strategy, instead giving you a chance to shake up the battle flow a little while still allowing for player strategy. At the current values (that can still be tweaked), you have three chances, at a 70% chance each, to have Insight buff an ally. That's some good odds SOMEONE is going to get boosted, and you can adapt your strategy to account for that. Uncertainty is a vital part of any good plan, and players should factor that in when determining battle strategy.
Oh no! Please continue to voice concerns. At best, you'll catch me on something I didn't think about and will go back and take another look at the design if I can. At worst, we'll just agree to disagree on design philosophies
I would agree with you that RNG would be bad design if it's the be all/end all to strategy. If a player's only option in battle is to throw out attacks and literally cannot proceed until the dice roll allows them to, then I'd call that bad design. If the RNG forces players to adapt to different scenarios, then it encourages players to adapt their strategies on the fly, which falls in line with the philosophy of PotF.
Let's take Crystalgate's scenario for example and play with it a little: Say you start a battle, and want to give Amalie an evasion boost after she draws aggro. So Amalie uses Provoke, directing enemy attention to her, and you have Serra use Insight (the AOE Insight, since I've remove the single target skill). Oops! Looks like Amalie didn't get the evasion boost. Now it's the enemy's turn, and they're all attacking a more vulnerable Amalie since she has less SP to block damage with.
OR
You can start your turn by using Insight instead. After the move is over and you see that Amalie didn't get the evasion boost, you now have options to consider in your last action for your turn without a vulnerable Amalie. Those options are influenced by who, if anyone, DID get an evasion boost.
Did Mia get the buff? Great! There's a good chance she'll dodge enemy attacks and survive if she had lower stamina, so maybe you opt to use Lightning Draw to get some quick damage on every enemy and switch stances to prepare for a more offensive second turn.
Did Reyson get the buff? Fine! You can change his equipment and use one of many Drives he'll have available to get an early edge on the enemy.
Did no one get buffed? Unfortunate, but it's not the end for you. Throw an attack item to get some heavy damage in quickly or have a character set up a Counter Stance to reflect the first nonmagic attack that comes your way.
In the end, I don't think the random factor to Serra's abilities detracts from the premise of planning your strategy, instead giving you a chance to shake up the battle flow a little while still allowing for player strategy. At the current values (that can still be tweaked), you have three chances, at a 70% chance each, to have Insight buff an ally. That's some good odds SOMEONE is going to get boosted, and you can adapt your strategy to account for that. Uncertainty is a vital part of any good plan, and players should factor that in when determining battle strategy.
author=NeverSilent
Obviously, none of this has to mean anything to you. It's just one person's opinion, and you know your own project's workings better than I do. But I figured I'd rather provide some criticism you may end up totally disregarding than give no input at all. Either way, I'm interested to see how it all works out in the end.
Oh no! Please continue to voice concerns. At best, you'll catch me on something I didn't think about and will go back and take another look at the design if I can. At worst, we'll just agree to disagree on design philosophies
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