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I'm planning a balance patch, though I won't be able to work on it for a couple weeks.
Send suggestions my way. Characters/equipment that were overpowered, what was too weak, how you broke the game to be able to beat the Harp Matriarch challenge battle with only 1 party member.
Also, an indepth response to Frejo's suggestions:
**
My thoughts are inline, in italics.
**
Accessories
Mostly just pointing out some Accessories that could be buffed:
-Black Powder: 100 damage is just too low by the time you get it. Probably either increase it to 500 fixed damage, or make it scale with COND (either 2.5x or 3x).
-Quartz Charm: a little bit more crit chance when at full HP is just too small and rng of an effect to be worth it. Maybe just change it to buff the user's PATK every turn.
-Lady Luck: same as above, could maybe make it give a big evasion boost (30-50%) when below half HP.
-Junior Assassin Badge: same as above. Maybe have it give guaranteed crits against enemies below 35% HP?
-Ruby Gem/Lost Ruby Necklace: could maybe buff the healing up to 20-25%.
**
I'm actually fine with some accessories being bad, especially ones you get towards the beginning.
Black Powder will get buffed. Not sure what the final numbers will be, as it can be potent on a Sita/Rick crit spam build.
I'll try out the other ideas. The crit chance accessories are tricky to balance. Since crits do double damage, if you do the expected value calculation over 100 turns, each +1% crit chance is +1% in damage. There's just a lot more rng in what the player actually gets.
**
Weapons
I feel like other than Kyme, weapon variety was a bit lacking. Kyme gets lots of weapons with different special effects (the early ones have 1 out of 3 different effects, and the later ones mix and match the previous effects). Emith gets 2 different effects depending on the staff, and everyone else gets no special effects at all from their weapons.
It'd be nice if the other players also had more choices when picking their weapons (and more unique Bead options for Ezekiel). Some potential special effects suggestions:
-Emith: Absorb Magic lasts 1 more turn. Slicing Gale hits two times. +1 Wet duration.
-Brave Wind: Non-damage skills gain "start of turn". Critical Hits do 25% more damage. Pin Down also debuffs DEF by 30%.
-Umbra: Self-sacrifice skills have their HP cost reduced by 20% (i.e. Epidemic would cost 40% max HP). Borrowed Blood skills have their HP cost reduced by 20%. +30% damage to targets with a status condition. Life Syphon becomes aoe.
-Sita: Start Battles with +25% Adrenaline. Attack buff limit goes up to 100%. 20% crit chance when above 90% HP.
-Rick: Stealth also gives +15% Evasion. Reload also buffs Attack by 75%. Crippling Shot can be used twice before needing to Reload. Backstab no longer removes Stealth. Twisting Fangs hits one more time if target is Poisoned. Throw Torch deals Explosion damage. Vial of Poison gives Opening Strike.
-Ezekiel: Sanctuary Bead (Aegis affects all allies, CD+3), Purification Bead (Heal Others also removes the latest one status condition), Crusade Bead (Smite deals 25% more damage to enemies with Holy weakness), Punishment Bead (Bludgeon has no CD, but no longer debuffs ATK/DEF)
**
These ideas are all great!
Ezekiel's beads are the easiest to add to the game. The others are a bit tricky, as they require a lot more weapons + ways to acquire them. Wish I had these ideas earlier in development to plan for them better.
Sita was going to have 100% buff limit as a passive, but the way the script worked, it was actually tricky to implement, so I scrapped it.
**
Other
While accessories give you a wide array of possible builds, I think other equipment should also have a wider variety of special effects. Armor/Robe/Head/Arm/Ring equipment are kinda dull since a lot of them just increase defensive stats and nothing else, so it just feels kinda samey. I think it's fine for more generic equipment to just give stat boosts, but anything more unique it'd be nice if they had special effects. Lategame armors do have a bunch of unique effects, but there still are a bunch like the Lamia Armor, Snake Skin Armor and Mother/Father Robe where it'd make sense to give some other bonuses. Also stuff you get from some of the tougher endgame bosses like the Gloves of the Swordman, Stranger's Mask or Moon Raven's Boots, it's bit disappointing because they just give a couple points extra stats compared to the next best option and that's it.
For Rings too, I think it's fine for the "main line" of rings (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Miracle) to just give a generic boost to all stats, but it'd be nice if the other rings either gave more special effects or simply boosted a single stat a lot (or give a % bonus to said stat). Some random suggestions:
-Armor: Snake Skin Suit (Bleed Immunity), Vladio's Suit (+5 to all stats), Lamia Skin Armor (Paralysis immunity)
-Robe: Mother's Robe (Confuse Immunity), Father's Robe (Blind Immunity), Phoenix Robe (Burn/Wildfire Immunity), Celestial Robe (+5% Evasion)
-Head: Flame Seer's Headband (Freeze Immunity), Nefermaat's Crown (Poison/Disease Immunity), Sinister Mask (COND +10%), Stranger's Mask (+10% Evasion)
-Arm: Aa Ba Goop (Wet Immunity), Gloves of the Swordsman (PATK +10%), King's Gauntlet (75% ATK buff on battle start)
-Legs: Moon Raven's Boots (Second Chance)
-Ring: Shadow Claw's Ring (MDEF +50), Chronomancer's Ring (AGIL +100), Rooftop's Ring (PDEF +50)
**
One thing that frustrates me is not being able to use new, higher stat gear because it doesn't have the passive I need. That's why most gear upgrades are simple stat buffs, while the max stat armors are filled with passives.
Some of the suggestions are small enough effects. They give the items more flavor without being overpowered.
Gear rewards from the tougher endgame bosses are weird, because there are no enemies left to use them against. There more like trophies at that point. I could throw some extra effects on them since it won't hurt the balance.
**
Kyme
Kyme overall feels like the character whose kit works the best together. Inflict Bleed and tank, which accelerates Bleed damage; simple but effective. The only change I would suggest is making Sever Artery do one additional tick of Bleed when used on a Bleeding enemy, because Kyme will probably mainly be built for COND and defensive stats, so one more tick of Bleed will generally be better than just +25% damage on an attack that scales with PATK.
**
I like the idea of Sever Artery doing an additional Bleed tick. The +25% boost came from an earlier time when Kyme wasn't rewarded for doing more Bleed ticks.
**
Umbra
Overall a fantastic support character, mainly for spreading/maintaining status conditions. I think it'd be nice if she got a passive that makes her inflict Life Syphon on her first attack, also maybe make Life Syphon do something else if she uses it on a target that's already inflicted. I do think that Descending Darkness doesn't make too much sense with the rest of her kit, since she's probably not going to be built very offensively most of the time; maybe give her a spell that drains HP equal to damage dealt instead, and deals more damage the lower her HP is, this gives her a bit of extra self-sustain when she needs it.
I also feel like Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is a bit on the weaker side, maybe have it grant Opening Strike to all frontliners and make it cost 50% HP?
**
Will take a second look at Life Siphon and Descending Darkness.
Your suggestion for Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is solid. Will implement that. Brave Wind used to be able to crit on his support skills, so giving only him a guaranteed crit was pretty good back then. It's definitely weaker now.
**
Ezekiel
Jack of all trades, can heal and also deal damage (particularly considering Smite is one of only 2 aoes you get). I do feel that Prayer increasing item cooldowns by 1 is a bit harsh, it should only increase cd of skills that use MP (Bludgeon and Smite).
**
Ezekiel is one of my favorites. Prayer does feel a bit rough to use.
**
Rick
Has probably the most interesting kit imo, with 3 skillsets and some fairly synergistic passives, can do a bit of everything depending on how you build him. I would make it so Death Blossom only hits one target instead of being random though, it's really expensive at 5 Adrenaline, and it's honestly only good if all hits land on the same target for the instant 75% DEF down (its damage isn't even that good either at 125%). Also Vial of Poison feels like it isn't really strong enough to warrant costing 1 Adrenaline.
**
I'm always relieved when battling only 1 enemy, because then Death Blossom is guaranteed to land on all hits on the same target. Probably makes most sense to be a single target skill to being with.
**
Emith
Probably the best/most consistent damage dealer, by virtue of not being limited by CDs or Adrenaline, and Wet+Thunder deals a lot of damage. I do feel like a lot of his kit ends up being redundant as the game goes on, and he ends up just being reduced to Wet+Thunder spam. While he has multiple passives that give MP recovery, they all give too little to really bother with them, so you kinda just use Recovery anyway.
-Flame Lance: damage increased to 100% from 75%.
-Slicing Gale: I feel like its whole spreading Burn gimmick falls off flat once Umbra joins the party. I'd suggest changing its special effect to "if the target has burn/wildfire, deal one tick of burn/wildfire damage", this way it can piggyback off someone else's Burn/Wildfire.
-Absorb Magic: now affects the entire party.
-Healing Waves: Emith passively recovers 5% max HP and 3% max MP each turn for every unit in the field with Wet.
-Fire Attunement: change effect to "when attacking an enemy with Burn/Wildfire, inflict Burn/Wildfire".
-Staves: instead of the Fire staves only increasing Wildfire duration, they instead increase both Burn and Wildfire duration.
-Water Attunement: change effect to "when using Sea's Sorrow on a Wet target, inflicts Wet to all enemies".
-Elemental Balance: whenever Scalding Steam is cast, Flame Lance and Sea's Sorrow gain a permanent flat 50% damage increase (i.e. 100%->150%->200%, etc) and +15 MP cost.
-Elemental Recycling: recover 10% MP whenever Emith uses a spell that the target resists.
The general idea is to give him some alternative build options, and a more clear cut path to MP recovery. The basic Wet+Thunder combo is still there and is mostly unaltered. The changes give two alternative strategies, first is to focus on spamming Slicing Gale to deal extra Burn damage, ideally you'd have someone with higher COND inflict Burn/Wildfire, then everytime Emith uses Slicing Gale he'll refresh the duration of Burn/Wildfire thanks to Fire Attunement, while dealing extra tics of Burn/Wildfire damage. The other path is to ramp up damage from Fire Lance/Sea's Sorrow by repeatedly triggering Scalding Steam, which thanks to Elemental Balance will make the 2 spells stronger each time (albeit it also makes them cost more MP each time). Water Attunement+Healing Waves allows Emith to quickly regenerate HP/MP if he spreads Wet to the entire enemy party.
**
Lot of interesting ideas here. I've had a lot of fun playing the Burn/Wildfire build, and definitely want it to be viable.
**
Brave Wind
Brave Wind is supposed to be a support/damage hybrid that build up Adrenaline with his support skills and then consumes it for his damage skills, but I feel like that concept doesn't really work out mainly because his support skills are too spammable, and his damage is just not that great, so he just ends up being pure support.
-Support skills: I think Antidote Signet/Nature's Blessing/Energizing Wind should get cds to make them less spammable (1 turn for Antidote, 2 turns for the others). However, Brave Wind also gets a Passive skill (probably replacing Infectious Serenity) that makes the effects of said skills apply on himself when used on an ally (Antidote Signet and Nature's Blessing extra Adrenaline conditions can apply twice accordingly, while Energizing Wind still only generates 2 even if it affects 2 targets)
-Pin Down: now gives +1 Adrenaline instead of costing 3, but has a 5 turn cd.
-Gentle Soul: remove or change its effect, Brave Wind really doesn't need a crit debuff.
-Marked Shot: I'd suggest giving Brave Wind a passive that makes Marked targets receive 10% more damage from all sources (including status damage), however, the status now only lasts 3 turns and needs to be reapplied. Since the cumulative damage bonus will also be reset if the status fades, could also make it stack faster (10% damage per use), but cap at 100%.
-Coyote's Fury: I think instead of its current effect, you could make it so it can only be used when Brave Wind is at full Adrenaline, it consumes all his Adrenaline and gives him one extra action per 2 Adrenaline. Brave Wind can't use items/swap equipment during these extra actions, but can otherwise use all his skills.
-Coyote's Fury+: change effect to make Brave Wind gain crit rate equal to the extra damage bonus when attacking a Marked target during Coyote's Fury.
With these changes, you can no longer spam his support skills repeatedly, but in exchange, the fact they can simultaneously target Brave Wind and a selected ally makes them a bit stronger. Marked targets receiving more damage from all sources heavily encourages you to keep reapplying the Marked status whenever it's going to run out. So now you have a cycle where you apply Marked, then use your support skills, now your support skills are on cd so you use the turn to reapply Marked, and now your support skills are off cd and so on. Once your Adrenaline fills to full, you can use Coyote's Fury, which turns all your accumulated Adrenaline into extra turns for a big damage turn where you just get to spam Market Shot (it also comes with a big crit rate buff against marked targets); while you can't use items, you can still throw a few support skills in if you want to (for reference, Coyote's Fury would consume all the Adrenaline and grant the extra turns on use, so getting extra Adrenaline during Coyote's Fury will not affect the number of extra turns you get).
**
I want to try out your idea for Coyote's Fury. I'm a bit hesitant to make such a large change, as with the game as big as it is, I'll undoubtedly cause some random bug or completely throw off the balance.
Gentle Soul was added from a pure numbers perspective. When building him for damage, and spamming Marked Shot, he had higher damage per turn than the actual damage characters.
**
Sita
I feel like Sita is probably by far the worst character, she's wholly focused on damage with almost no support but her damage is kinda just okay, and is far more dependant on Adrenaline than Rick/Brave Wind are while also having a harder time gaining it.
-Critical Artist: replace with a passive that gives her 1 Adrenaline when dodging, this helps her build Adrenaline faster.
-Critical Success: change effect to gaining +1% critical damage permanently every time Sita crits for the rest of the battle.
-Spin Heel Kick: special effect changed to 15% DEF debuff before damage.
-Perfect Finish: base damage increased to 200%. Special effect changed to just deal 50% extra damage at 0 Adrenaline.
-Jump Front Kick: base damage increased to 200%. Now gives 5% to crit rate instead of 1%.
-Her combos now no longer increase Adrenaline cost each time a new move is added to the combo, but are capped at 6 attacks. The finisher moves can only be used if the combo is at least 3 attacks long.
-Taunt: now only generates 2 Adrenaline, but can be used again, with a 2 turn cd.
-Recover: now recovers extra HP when used below half max Adrenaline.
Thus the general idea is for Sita to keep using Taunt to draw enemy aggroo, then for every attack she evades she gets Adrenaline she can then use on her combos, then once she runs low on Adrenaline she can benefit from the extra heal on Recovery, then she uses Taunt again and the cycle begins anew.
The increased Adrenaline cost on her combos is removed since it was very limiting, and made Hundred Punches a better option any time there is only one enemy. So the idea is to give more of an incentive to using her combos.
**
One of the earlier testers built Sita into a damage machine, and since then I've been playtesting with a similar setup. It's probably thrown off my sense of how good she is without specific accessories.
**
Send suggestions my way. Characters/equipment that were overpowered, what was too weak, how you broke the game to be able to beat the Harp Matriarch challenge battle with only 1 party member.
Also, an indepth response to Frejo's suggestions:
**
My thoughts are inline, in italics.
**
Accessories
Mostly just pointing out some Accessories that could be buffed:
-Black Powder: 100 damage is just too low by the time you get it. Probably either increase it to 500 fixed damage, or make it scale with COND (either 2.5x or 3x).
-Quartz Charm: a little bit more crit chance when at full HP is just too small and rng of an effect to be worth it. Maybe just change it to buff the user's PATK every turn.
-Lady Luck: same as above, could maybe make it give a big evasion boost (30-50%) when below half HP.
-Junior Assassin Badge: same as above. Maybe have it give guaranteed crits against enemies below 35% HP?
-Ruby Gem/Lost Ruby Necklace: could maybe buff the healing up to 20-25%.
**
I'm actually fine with some accessories being bad, especially ones you get towards the beginning.
Black Powder will get buffed. Not sure what the final numbers will be, as it can be potent on a Sita/Rick crit spam build.
I'll try out the other ideas. The crit chance accessories are tricky to balance. Since crits do double damage, if you do the expected value calculation over 100 turns, each +1% crit chance is +1% in damage. There's just a lot more rng in what the player actually gets.
**
Weapons
I feel like other than Kyme, weapon variety was a bit lacking. Kyme gets lots of weapons with different special effects (the early ones have 1 out of 3 different effects, and the later ones mix and match the previous effects). Emith gets 2 different effects depending on the staff, and everyone else gets no special effects at all from their weapons.
It'd be nice if the other players also had more choices when picking their weapons (and more unique Bead options for Ezekiel). Some potential special effects suggestions:
-Emith: Absorb Magic lasts 1 more turn. Slicing Gale hits two times. +1 Wet duration.
-Brave Wind: Non-damage skills gain "start of turn". Critical Hits do 25% more damage. Pin Down also debuffs DEF by 30%.
-Umbra: Self-sacrifice skills have their HP cost reduced by 20% (i.e. Epidemic would cost 40% max HP). Borrowed Blood skills have their HP cost reduced by 20%. +30% damage to targets with a status condition. Life Syphon becomes aoe.
-Sita: Start Battles with +25% Adrenaline. Attack buff limit goes up to 100%. 20% crit chance when above 90% HP.
-Rick: Stealth also gives +15% Evasion. Reload also buffs Attack by 75%. Crippling Shot can be used twice before needing to Reload. Backstab no longer removes Stealth. Twisting Fangs hits one more time if target is Poisoned. Throw Torch deals Explosion damage. Vial of Poison gives Opening Strike.
-Ezekiel: Sanctuary Bead (Aegis affects all allies, CD+3), Purification Bead (Heal Others also removes the latest one status condition), Crusade Bead (Smite deals 25% more damage to enemies with Holy weakness), Punishment Bead (Bludgeon has no CD, but no longer debuffs ATK/DEF)
**
These ideas are all great!
Ezekiel's beads are the easiest to add to the game. The others are a bit tricky, as they require a lot more weapons + ways to acquire them. Wish I had these ideas earlier in development to plan for them better.
Sita was going to have 100% buff limit as a passive, but the way the script worked, it was actually tricky to implement, so I scrapped it.
**
Other
While accessories give you a wide array of possible builds, I think other equipment should also have a wider variety of special effects. Armor/Robe/Head/Arm/Ring equipment are kinda dull since a lot of them just increase defensive stats and nothing else, so it just feels kinda samey. I think it's fine for more generic equipment to just give stat boosts, but anything more unique it'd be nice if they had special effects. Lategame armors do have a bunch of unique effects, but there still are a bunch like the Lamia Armor, Snake Skin Armor and Mother/Father Robe where it'd make sense to give some other bonuses. Also stuff you get from some of the tougher endgame bosses like the Gloves of the Swordman, Stranger's Mask or Moon Raven's Boots, it's bit disappointing because they just give a couple points extra stats compared to the next best option and that's it.
For Rings too, I think it's fine for the "main line" of rings (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Miracle) to just give a generic boost to all stats, but it'd be nice if the other rings either gave more special effects or simply boosted a single stat a lot (or give a % bonus to said stat). Some random suggestions:
-Armor: Snake Skin Suit (Bleed Immunity), Vladio's Suit (+5 to all stats), Lamia Skin Armor (Paralysis immunity)
-Robe: Mother's Robe (Confuse Immunity), Father's Robe (Blind Immunity), Phoenix Robe (Burn/Wildfire Immunity), Celestial Robe (+5% Evasion)
-Head: Flame Seer's Headband (Freeze Immunity), Nefermaat's Crown (Poison/Disease Immunity), Sinister Mask (COND +10%), Stranger's Mask (+10% Evasion)
-Arm: Aa Ba Goop (Wet Immunity), Gloves of the Swordsman (PATK +10%), King's Gauntlet (75% ATK buff on battle start)
-Legs: Moon Raven's Boots (Second Chance)
-Ring: Shadow Claw's Ring (MDEF +50), Chronomancer's Ring (AGIL +100), Rooftop's Ring (PDEF +50)
**
One thing that frustrates me is not being able to use new, higher stat gear because it doesn't have the passive I need. That's why most gear upgrades are simple stat buffs, while the max stat armors are filled with passives.
Some of the suggestions are small enough effects. They give the items more flavor without being overpowered.
Gear rewards from the tougher endgame bosses are weird, because there are no enemies left to use them against. There more like trophies at that point. I could throw some extra effects on them since it won't hurt the balance.
**
Kyme
Kyme overall feels like the character whose kit works the best together. Inflict Bleed and tank, which accelerates Bleed damage; simple but effective. The only change I would suggest is making Sever Artery do one additional tick of Bleed when used on a Bleeding enemy, because Kyme will probably mainly be built for COND and defensive stats, so one more tick of Bleed will generally be better than just +25% damage on an attack that scales with PATK.
**
I like the idea of Sever Artery doing an additional Bleed tick. The +25% boost came from an earlier time when Kyme wasn't rewarded for doing more Bleed ticks.
**
Umbra
Overall a fantastic support character, mainly for spreading/maintaining status conditions. I think it'd be nice if she got a passive that makes her inflict Life Syphon on her first attack, also maybe make Life Syphon do something else if she uses it on a target that's already inflicted. I do think that Descending Darkness doesn't make too much sense with the rest of her kit, since she's probably not going to be built very offensively most of the time; maybe give her a spell that drains HP equal to damage dealt instead, and deals more damage the lower her HP is, this gives her a bit of extra self-sustain when she needs it.
I also feel like Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is a bit on the weaker side, maybe have it grant Opening Strike to all frontliners and make it cost 50% HP?
**
Will take a second look at Life Siphon and Descending Darkness.
Your suggestion for Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is solid. Will implement that. Brave Wind used to be able to crit on his support skills, so giving only him a guaranteed crit was pretty good back then. It's definitely weaker now.
**
Ezekiel
Jack of all trades, can heal and also deal damage (particularly considering Smite is one of only 2 aoes you get). I do feel that Prayer increasing item cooldowns by 1 is a bit harsh, it should only increase cd of skills that use MP (Bludgeon and Smite).
**
Ezekiel is one of my favorites. Prayer does feel a bit rough to use.
**
Rick
Has probably the most interesting kit imo, with 3 skillsets and some fairly synergistic passives, can do a bit of everything depending on how you build him. I would make it so Death Blossom only hits one target instead of being random though, it's really expensive at 5 Adrenaline, and it's honestly only good if all hits land on the same target for the instant 75% DEF down (its damage isn't even that good either at 125%). Also Vial of Poison feels like it isn't really strong enough to warrant costing 1 Adrenaline.
**
I'm always relieved when battling only 1 enemy, because then Death Blossom is guaranteed to land on all hits on the same target. Probably makes most sense to be a single target skill to being with.
**
Emith
Probably the best/most consistent damage dealer, by virtue of not being limited by CDs or Adrenaline, and Wet+Thunder deals a lot of damage. I do feel like a lot of his kit ends up being redundant as the game goes on, and he ends up just being reduced to Wet+Thunder spam. While he has multiple passives that give MP recovery, they all give too little to really bother with them, so you kinda just use Recovery anyway.
-Flame Lance: damage increased to 100% from 75%.
-Slicing Gale: I feel like its whole spreading Burn gimmick falls off flat once Umbra joins the party. I'd suggest changing its special effect to "if the target has burn/wildfire, deal one tick of burn/wildfire damage", this way it can piggyback off someone else's Burn/Wildfire.
-Absorb Magic: now affects the entire party.
-Healing Waves: Emith passively recovers 5% max HP and 3% max MP each turn for every unit in the field with Wet.
-Fire Attunement: change effect to "when attacking an enemy with Burn/Wildfire, inflict Burn/Wildfire".
-Staves: instead of the Fire staves only increasing Wildfire duration, they instead increase both Burn and Wildfire duration.
-Water Attunement: change effect to "when using Sea's Sorrow on a Wet target, inflicts Wet to all enemies".
-Elemental Balance: whenever Scalding Steam is cast, Flame Lance and Sea's Sorrow gain a permanent flat 50% damage increase (i.e. 100%->150%->200%, etc) and +15 MP cost.
-Elemental Recycling: recover 10% MP whenever Emith uses a spell that the target resists.
The general idea is to give him some alternative build options, and a more clear cut path to MP recovery. The basic Wet+Thunder combo is still there and is mostly unaltered. The changes give two alternative strategies, first is to focus on spamming Slicing Gale to deal extra Burn damage, ideally you'd have someone with higher COND inflict Burn/Wildfire, then everytime Emith uses Slicing Gale he'll refresh the duration of Burn/Wildfire thanks to Fire Attunement, while dealing extra tics of Burn/Wildfire damage. The other path is to ramp up damage from Fire Lance/Sea's Sorrow by repeatedly triggering Scalding Steam, which thanks to Elemental Balance will make the 2 spells stronger each time (albeit it also makes them cost more MP each time). Water Attunement+Healing Waves allows Emith to quickly regenerate HP/MP if he spreads Wet to the entire enemy party.
**
Lot of interesting ideas here. I've had a lot of fun playing the Burn/Wildfire build, and definitely want it to be viable.
**
Brave Wind
Brave Wind is supposed to be a support/damage hybrid that build up Adrenaline with his support skills and then consumes it for his damage skills, but I feel like that concept doesn't really work out mainly because his support skills are too spammable, and his damage is just not that great, so he just ends up being pure support.
-Support skills: I think Antidote Signet/Nature's Blessing/Energizing Wind should get cds to make them less spammable (1 turn for Antidote, 2 turns for the others). However, Brave Wind also gets a Passive skill (probably replacing Infectious Serenity) that makes the effects of said skills apply on himself when used on an ally (Antidote Signet and Nature's Blessing extra Adrenaline conditions can apply twice accordingly, while Energizing Wind still only generates 2 even if it affects 2 targets)
-Pin Down: now gives +1 Adrenaline instead of costing 3, but has a 5 turn cd.
-Gentle Soul: remove or change its effect, Brave Wind really doesn't need a crit debuff.
-Marked Shot: I'd suggest giving Brave Wind a passive that makes Marked targets receive 10% more damage from all sources (including status damage), however, the status now only lasts 3 turns and needs to be reapplied. Since the cumulative damage bonus will also be reset if the status fades, could also make it stack faster (10% damage per use), but cap at 100%.
-Coyote's Fury: I think instead of its current effect, you could make it so it can only be used when Brave Wind is at full Adrenaline, it consumes all his Adrenaline and gives him one extra action per 2 Adrenaline. Brave Wind can't use items/swap equipment during these extra actions, but can otherwise use all his skills.
-Coyote's Fury+: change effect to make Brave Wind gain crit rate equal to the extra damage bonus when attacking a Marked target during Coyote's Fury.
With these changes, you can no longer spam his support skills repeatedly, but in exchange, the fact they can simultaneously target Brave Wind and a selected ally makes them a bit stronger. Marked targets receiving more damage from all sources heavily encourages you to keep reapplying the Marked status whenever it's going to run out. So now you have a cycle where you apply Marked, then use your support skills, now your support skills are on cd so you use the turn to reapply Marked, and now your support skills are off cd and so on. Once your Adrenaline fills to full, you can use Coyote's Fury, which turns all your accumulated Adrenaline into extra turns for a big damage turn where you just get to spam Market Shot (it also comes with a big crit rate buff against marked targets); while you can't use items, you can still throw a few support skills in if you want to (for reference, Coyote's Fury would consume all the Adrenaline and grant the extra turns on use, so getting extra Adrenaline during Coyote's Fury will not affect the number of extra turns you get).
**
I want to try out your idea for Coyote's Fury. I'm a bit hesitant to make such a large change, as with the game as big as it is, I'll undoubtedly cause some random bug or completely throw off the balance.
Gentle Soul was added from a pure numbers perspective. When building him for damage, and spamming Marked Shot, he had higher damage per turn than the actual damage characters.
**
Sita
I feel like Sita is probably by far the worst character, she's wholly focused on damage with almost no support but her damage is kinda just okay, and is far more dependant on Adrenaline than Rick/Brave Wind are while also having a harder time gaining it.
-Critical Artist: replace with a passive that gives her 1 Adrenaline when dodging, this helps her build Adrenaline faster.
-Critical Success: change effect to gaining +1% critical damage permanently every time Sita crits for the rest of the battle.
-Spin Heel Kick: special effect changed to 15% DEF debuff before damage.
-Perfect Finish: base damage increased to 200%. Special effect changed to just deal 50% extra damage at 0 Adrenaline.
-Jump Front Kick: base damage increased to 200%. Now gives 5% to crit rate instead of 1%.
-Her combos now no longer increase Adrenaline cost each time a new move is added to the combo, but are capped at 6 attacks. The finisher moves can only be used if the combo is at least 3 attacks long.
-Taunt: now only generates 2 Adrenaline, but can be used again, with a 2 turn cd.
-Recover: now recovers extra HP when used below half max Adrenaline.
Thus the general idea is for Sita to keep using Taunt to draw enemy aggroo, then for every attack she evades she gets Adrenaline she can then use on her combos, then once she runs low on Adrenaline she can benefit from the extra heal on Recovery, then she uses Taunt again and the cycle begins anew.
The increased Adrenaline cost on her combos is removed since it was very limiting, and made Hundred Punches a better option any time there is only one enemy. So the idea is to give more of an incentive to using her combos.
**
One of the earlier testers built Sita into a damage machine, and since then I've been playtesting with a similar setup. It's probably thrown off my sense of how good she is without specific accessories.
**
Nomination November
Notes From Province
Chuck's note
Bernardo's note
The Stranger had a bigger role, but that part never made it into the game. Maybe I'll add it as a patch someday.
For the ghost husband story, I'll see if there's anything to add to make it feel complete.
You need to craft everything. There's an exact number of materials in the game, so it can be difficult to find them all.
Bernardo's note
Find him in Zephyre, the Harp Sanctuary. One of the dialog options there will give his note.
The Stranger had a bigger role, but that part never made it into the game. Maybe I'll add it as a patch someday.
For the ghost husband story, I'll see if there's anything to add to make it feel complete.
Notes From Province
author=blackassassin7
How do I deal with the strange rock? I think the pear I'm looking for is behind it.
The strange rock is the same type of rock found in the nearby dynamite cave ;)
author=Frejo
Okay, so I thought I could write-up some of my thoughts about the game, and also a bunch of balance suggestions.
Wow! This is awesome. Thanks for so much, in-depth feedback.
The story feedback was great. The balance suggestions are really good. The best idea there, to me, is the Coyote's Fury change. The skill never really landed as a burst skill, because you'd go back to supporting in between.
During the first half of the game's development, I had some hardcore players testing and giving balance feedback like yours that helped shape the characters and equipment. If I make this type of game again, I'm realizing I should have a wider range of testers giving this kind of feedback, since it's critical to a well-balanced, fun game.
Notes From Province
author=Frejo
Did a video of it
https://youtu.be/aWHsznHXJgo
Love to see it. Never thought of using the characters like that. Making me think the game's balance must be too easy at the end.
author=blackassassin7
Btw, I cannot find the last prickly pear for the Desert Fox. I managed to find 8. I searched the old western road area up and down but could not find it. Also, how do I reach the green chest near the Inn? There are no suitable jump spots to reach it.
For the green chest near the inn, the path starts in the top right of the map.
For the prickly pears:
- Along the main road in the first map
- One in the northern part of the third map
- In the cave with the dynamite puzzle
- Behind the strange rock near the waterfall
- One in Hector's Mine dungeon
- One in Radiant Hollow dungeon
- Two in Forlorn Keep dungeon
That's only 8, though. Honestly, I don't remember where the 9th is. There's definitely 9 in the game, and I found them during a 100% playtest. I know Frejo found them all too.
Acra's Playtesting Topic
Uploaded a .zip version. Should hopefully help out other people who have similar extraction problems.
Acra's Playtesting Topic
author=Acra
Notes from Province sounds like it's right up my alley. I'll see if I can't get a part done by the end of the week.
...Is what I'd say, if I weren't having the exact same .exe issue I had with Keeper of the Fog. I'll definitely need to look a lot further into this, as it seems like it's gonna be a recurring issue. If I ever get it to work, though, I'll absolutely play it. Looking around a little, I've found a fair few other people complaining about this 'extract failed' issue... back in 2016, and it doesn't look like they came up with much of a solution, either. If it wouldn't be too much of a hassle, could you make a .zip for your game, as well?
Did you try right clicking on the exe and selecting "Extract to Notes From Province"? That will extract the files with the software you normally use to extract a zip, rather than the RPG Maker extractor. If that doesn't work, I'll be happy to upload a zip.
Acra's Playtesting Topic
Acra this is awesome. If you have a chance, can you look at Notes From Province? It's long enough to scare away traditional Let's Players.
Notes From Province
author=blackassassin7
I managed to beat the opponent in Round 1 but when it moves to Round 2, the enemy battler does not appear and when I try to attack, I get the error above. Looks like a script error or a missing file.
Try the latest patch and see if that fixes the error.
author=Frejo
Also managed to get +100k damage on the Colisseum damage test.
Wow I didn't know that was possible. Most I got was 30k. What was your setup?
Notes From Province
author=Frejo
Now I only need to complete the Furniture Catalog and I'll be done. Though I'm also somewhat curious if I'm missing any Soul Cards (I've 17 right now, including boss monsters).
Yep, there's 17 Soul Cards, despite the UI having space for 18.
Thanks for doing a completionist run and finding bugs along the way! With a large game like this, there's always a worry that no one will actually discover/play the content you spent time making. I'm glad there's at least one person who has seen it all :)
Extra things in the game with no todo/note/reward attached:
- Find all 7 Miracles Rings, 7 unique end-game armors, and 17 Soul Cards
- Beat the Wandering Sword with a single party member by selecting the same character twice
- Cook all the food
- 100% furniture catalog
author=blackassassin7
A lot of the game's puzzles require some out-of-the-box thinking appearently.
This game is secretly a hardcore puzzle game D:
author=blackassassin7
Also, the game crashes during the Cerulean Tournament Round 2 due to some missing script.
I'm not able to find the cause for this one. What else was happening before the crash? Did you beat all the enemies in round 2 before the crash?















