XENOMIC'S PROFILE

Yeah, the EXP thing is something I'm going to learn how to do, since as much as I'm against grinding personally, my game is pretty grindy itself (a bit of a hypocrite on that bit I am), mostly with money though (which is perfectly fine). The EXP however is horribly handled and I need to think of a better solution to it than the default...


I thought something was odd about how much he was getting back. That bit was what was making Elias one of the best characters up to where I was playing, as there was literally no reprecussion for using up all of his MP as he only wastes one turn to attack.


Well, unless you can fix up the encounter rate somehow, might be best to leave it as a "feature" or something, as it does let you get around it. Again, I'm using 80 for my encounter rates, and that seems to be working pretty well (the default 20, and even 40 which my double encounter rate is, kinda gives a bit of fighting). But that's up to you.

*About the Night System: I understand it's part of the game, but I don't know...I just feel like you could've taken a different approach to it other than instant Sleep at the start of the fight. It almost feels like it should be the one with reduced accuracy like Darkness is (then again, that'd make Darkness null and void I suppose), much like how Night worked in Final Fantasy Tactics (yes, it's a completely different game and genre really, but just a reference I guess). Like, hell...even making the monsters more aggressive than they are, or have a different AI pattern for when it's night, would suit it better than Sleep I think. For instance, in-game I believe it states that monsters are more aggressive at night, yes? So why not make it so that the fairy at the start of the game at night (if it were more aggressive. I don't know, maybe some monsters could be more aggressive during the day too), would have something like an AoE Heal that's weaker than their standard single-target Heal, or something. Just a suggestion.

*Oh, so that's why. Though it seems that Elias gains a hell of a lot more MP whenever he attacks just once, compared to Nevras who's on even level or higher, who has to attack 2-3 times just to gain his MP back, and Aqorm is just as bad. I wonder what that formula is...

*Well, it's not obvious right off the bat that that lever did anything to the hole (especially when it says when you pull it "Oh, it didn't do anything to the door. It must be broken". Now, if you already opened the door, then tried to pull it and it said something like "The door's already opened...but it felt like something moved?", then that'd be more helpful. Instead, it says the same thing which makes the player think possibly "Oh, then this must do nothing at all". Also, I didn't think the hole would even BE a thing you can fall in and die. I saw no other place to go, and saw the pit and thought "Oh, this MUST be where I have to go then!", and lo and behold, jumped into it and was greeted with the game over screen. It took a while, including having your help directly on it, to even figure out "Oh, the lever has to be pressed on THIS direction BEFORE jumping down the hole so it doesn't kill me". The hint was just too vague, and there was no dialogue or anything to suggest that pressing the lever, especially AFTER the door was already opened, would lead to anythi8ng.

*I've generally made money by selling everything I had (except Phoenix Meats and Healing Herbs, because no reason TO sell those), especially Alchemy items since there's no use for the Alchemy system as I've found. I've usually had at least 200,000 gold at some points just from selling everything I've had from around Phoenix to Kushiyama where I stopped playing. As stated above, if there's no real reason that people are going to bother with a system, why have it? Yes, I have systems in my game that people haven't used at all or probably won't use that much, but I'm trying to find ways to fix that so that they are used more.

*I never did the bounty hunts as I never had any real incentive to do so yet personally. I can understand you want to make it so people can have a fighting chance and all that, but there's still the lack of balance. You can still have a fighting chance even with balance (don't do what I do and make half of your cast weak to Poison, then make Poison deal 300% damage at A rank and then give AoE Poison spells! That's bad!). Like, the monsters at the beginning of the game are too much...you just can't handle most of them until you've fought and grinded off of that one enemy in the first shrine/town place until you're like....level 8 or something. And really, when it comes to this game, there's no reason you SHOULD have to grind like that. If you wanted a game where you had to grind, you should give a GOOD reason to do so. Roguelike games are heavy on grinding (yes, different genre, I know), but most RPGs generally aren't grind-heavy (I guess FFXII is kinda grind heavy in some areas? And maybe FFIII...I honestly can't think of too many RPGs where you have to grind that much).

*Let's see...I've encountered a Slagworm enemy lord knows how many times (I think that was the first powerful enemy I ran into? I think there was one before I don't remember it), then I randomly ran into Mr. Ultima Weapon, whom I stole the sword from before half of my party got killed (it missed the other half), and then I ran away with the sword). I do appreciate the fact that there are tougher monsters like that, sorta like how I have Notorious Monsters, or that one monster that will mess you up real easily. The problem I have though is that there's no real good way to fight them, and yes, they WILL rape you. I don't know if you intended on them being beatable at all or not, but if so, then I'd recommend doing something about that. If not, then...I guess it's fine. I mean, it DOES give you the option to run at the very start of the fight so there's that.

*I've noticed I've been getting that action cancelling bug lately too, especially since I moved my skills that used to be on separate pages into a Turns Elapsed x1 event (my 100% Flee command used to have its own battle page, for whenever the character used the command, but now it's in the Turns Elapsed x1 page. When it was on its own page, it didn't get interrupted by other actions at all. So I think it's the fault of actions being on the Turns Elapsed x1 command for things like skills. As for you being interrupted when attacking, I don't know. I've honestly only had that happen once (I was fighting one of my bosses, my character attacked once, the boss attacked, and then my character finished her second attack and went back to where she was. Was confusing).

*Why would it be stupid to have one item per monster? Most games tend to do that, or allow infinite stealing from the same monster (FFIV allows that, but the steals were generally garbage anyways).

*Hmm...perhaps you could relegate it to something that's not used by the system, such as the Shift key? The shift key is never used for anything else as far as I know (I was going to have that for opening a menu for overworld abilities, but ditched it myself. It doesn't seem to interfere with anything else as far as I know?). But that's up to you.

*I was talking to people, and I did talk to signs. Sure, there's only the first town, the shrine, and the tree you can go to at the start of the game, so there's limited amount of people to talk to. But as far as I know in MOST RPGs (most anyways), whenever you get a new party member, it's usually not by talking to some random NPC (is trying to actually think of a RPG where that is the case...I...honestly can't think of one right now). So that bit was a bit confusing to figure out.

*Several of my maps do have problems with being big, aye, but my god man...LOOK at how big the first town is! It is way too big, and full of empty space. Kushiyama, while it has buildings and stuff, was also WAY too big for one map. That map should've been split into smaller maps, while the first town should've not been so huge (it takes like 2-5 minutes just to explore all of that first town because of its size, not to mention just talking to people and whatnot). Kushiyama is a bit of a nightmare to navigate as well, and it's really easy to get lost there because of how big it is.

I've had the decency of cutting down the sizes of some of my maps. Some of my other maps will eventually have my maps cut down to size or redone. Yes, some of them are pretty big still, but they're MEANT to be for the most part, to accommodate the random encounters being not that high (1/80 is pretty low as far as I know. That, and you do have a character in mine that can double overworld walking speed so there's that). That, and some of my maps have been intricately designed no thanks to SOME people on this forum getting me to do intricate mapping (I wonder who you guys are~), but this isn't about me.

The thing is, your game is marked as complete. Mine is still a beta. There's a bit of a difference there I would think. Hence, why some of my maps aren't available at all (I put the message that they're not available so people don't think you should go there at all), or some currently completed areas have areas you can't go into, because they're for LATER whenever I get around to them.



@ Corfaisus: Oh, trust me...I know when I have bad ideas in my game (instant game over pits that are still in one area of my game for one...). And I know that not all of my ideas are good ideas at all (LockeZ can attest to this. He's heard some of my ideas, and wondered wtf is wrong with me. ^^;; ).

That's because several areas AREN'T done at all. And that means...they're not done. They're for later on in the game when they're actually MEANT for it. Remember, the game IS still a beta, it is not a full game.

The music was meant to give each area an unique flavor without overusing the same track over and over for areas, as well as for boss fights and scenarios. Everything was chosen because it FIT with the scenarios they were chosen for. Now, like I said a million times already, such as with previous PMs and other places, the music thing will be taken care of SLOWLY. It's a matter of cutting out things for the vanilla pack...but the rest not for the vanilla pack will be put in the EXTENDED pack for those who want the full flavor.


It shouldn't be barebones at all considering I gave you the most recent maps and database. Yes, the areas aren't accessible that were not before, but again, THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE YET! Everything else that's for the beta, is accessible.

Well, first dungeon is meant to be the introductory dungeon (and I think I forgot to put the random encounters back in still now that I think about it). They didn't show up until the last 2 screens which may attribute a bit to that. Dungeon was meant to introduce basic puzzles and basic enemies (I had to tone down enemies long ago because physical damage formula sucks in this game). I'm still working on fixing physical damage as I explained in PM, which I hope will help the game somehow...


So yeah, second dungeon is where the game takes off the kiddy gloves and actually throws you into the main fray of what I had in mind. Yes, there are hard areas in the game, but that should be expected really (in case you're wondering, Touhou games tend to be...on the hard side. I intend on this being hard, but not HARD, if you know what I mean?).


And yeah, crafting materials. Originally wanted to put those in during beta1, but didn't because I didn't know how to do a crafting shop (wanted to do one similar to FFIX's synthesis shop). Then I saw Genius of Sapphieros and decided to try again...and well, I have it. Just that it's not very good right now.

A few notes to this, if I may add them:

*I have never been able to figure out a proper EXP ratio system, due to how crappy 2K3's default EXP system works, so that's part of the problem of the EXP (it takes like 600 EXP every level, so level 1 is 600 to level 2, then 1200 to level 3). Balancing this out with enemies has proven to be...rather difficult and a big annoyance factor.

*The vast majority of the dungeons are pretty straightforward really (only the first dungeon are you forced to take both Easy and Hard paths, and this was due to my mapper who revised that dungeon map). I will admit my mapping skills are terrible (they always have been), but I DO think they get better as the game progresses (well, IMO anyways). Scarlet Devil Mansion is a prime example of an area that I loathe because I cannot get it right under any circumstances whatsoever.

*Well, obviously the game is meant for those who are fans of the Touhou series, so for those who don't know the series that well, I guess it would be hard to follow. Making it easy to follow for those outside of the series would be...rather difficult, per say.

*Yes, I realize the story throws a lot of crap at you all at once at the beginning, but I did that on purpose to let the game tie things up as the game progresses. Beta5 is where a lot of the loose ends tie up.

*Of note, I don't know if you did it, but there were skills to buy, which is how you upgrade your abilities. Dunno if that was part of the problem you were having or not with battles. As for the Retreat option being grayed out, it's only ever not-grayed out when you get a Surprise attack. Otherwise, you have to scroll down in a character's command window to the Escape command to attempt to flee. That's just how 2k3 is with that bit.

*On topic of encounters, that's something I've been trying to adjust over time. The enemy abilities probably won't change though, since that's part of the strategy behind the game is figuring out how to deal with enemies (in early game there's not much in the way of elemental protection yes, but later on you start getting more and more available at shops). Again, it's mostly the EXP system I think that makes them not worth it (I think the Steals and Drops may need adjusting too, but that's an entirely different beast on its own).




Just my 2 cents on everything so far. This may be just me since I did make the game and know what to do in it, but in retrospect it's really not as difficult as it may seem. May seem like it, but it really isn't (unless you take the Hard path. It's called Hard for a reason of course!). ^^;