VERSALIA'S PROFILE

author=Craze
now that Carmilla absorbs 30% of magic thrown at her as MP, her critical spell hits automatically inflict Blind, and she restores 40 HP when she hits any enemy that has an ailment inflicted. Her ability to deal damage and ability to withstand damage have increased, especially against spellcasting foes, and yet the game has remained balanced and she isn't a supreme goddess that crushes everything.

GW2, for one, has eliminated "stats" in favor of traits like Craze is describing, even further than GW1 already did. Basically, you have your Death Shroud, and then you can invest points in things like "poison enemies who touch you while Death Shrouded." It really drives along a sense of emergent gameplay while completely ignoring character-specific statistics.

By the way, GW1 has an entire wiki full of info on the game, and their attack/defense formulas - though complicated - are posted and explained so as to be completely transparent. They already barely use 'stats', but have FURTHER gone out of their way to remove any mystery from the formulas in the wiki.

author=Max McGee
Well that's because there's an important intermediating factor--defense.

+10 Damage and +10 Attack are different stat mods, they don't just have different opacity. One of them looks at damage before defenses, and one of them looks at it after. To me, at least.

You're almost too genre-savvy (formula-savvy?) - my game in particular uses defense and attack both BEFORE final damage is calculated, meaning +10 ATK and +10 DEF are in fact the same stat mod/cancel each other out. Jumping to conclusions about how things are formulated is a really good way to make the game's numbers seem more opaque to you immediately (and is a good argument for Craze suggesting that this type of formula is unnecessary anyway).

I think I agree with shiningriver and ashen_heaven - it's pretty modern, but really, it should technically be "FUTURISTIC"

That being said, redoing my title screen art is really low on my list of priorities for the game. I'll add it to my overall 'perfect game wishlist' though.

author=ArmorcladVampireBear_
blahblahblah

You are useless.


Otherwise, I suggest people stop thinking of "dungeons" as "DUNGEONS." Break that habit right now. Think of it as an "action phase." Town-Dungeon-Town-Dungeon is a setup that works (worked) because of its peak-and-lull pattern in the gameplay, allowing players to rest up, prepare for the next challenge, etc, then dive into it. You can do the exact same thing without actually thinking of your challenge as a "dungeon." Lots of games have an in-town action phase - for example, a thief has just stolen something from the relic shop, and you are sent on a chase sequence around town knocking out other thieves' guild members and hopping from roof to roof. It's all about the rise and fall of excitement and involvement.

author=Cozzer
In the first case... yeah, there's not much you can do to change it without making your game worse. The best thing you can do is to vary the "dungeons" and "town" (I mean, if you're a thief a town can be a "dungeon", and if you're a monster a dungeon can be a "town").

I like your idea of a thieves' city being a 'dungeon' (FF6 Zozo, anybody?). It helps subvert the thought pattern of THIS IS A TOWN AND THIS IS A DUNGEON, ONE HAS INNS AND SHOPS AND ONE HAS MONSTERS

author=Animetor
Is this like the dark hour from P3?
Y'know all the blood and the green and all that good stuff.

Yeah! It's not the Dark Hour but it is purposely designed to look that way.

Guys just release it.

I am going to release a demo with really bad spriting because it's SOMETHING even if I haven't finished all the sprite sheets.

Release A Thing.