ZAEL'S PROFILE

That stuff happening with Concuss is definitely a bug, nice catch, I'll fix that ASAP!

Filaris' Leap is basically a hard hit that runs off of a different damage formula that his weapon. Nothing Fancy, just some dmg to get rid of Focus.

Intercept Magic and Counterspell interrupt all actions and casting, both fully reset the enemy's ATB bar. :)

The skills that pierce wards ignore magical barriers and magical armor buffs. They don't damage them, they just go straight through them.

I'll look into Shield and the Elemental Resistances. :)

Thanks again!

Z

@HikiNeet Thanks for playing and thanks for the commentary. Dude, I was laughing so hard through that part about the cat. Everyone tries to catch it and that usually prompts some exploration of the area, so I've left it in. I'm thinking about making it a sidequest in town to bring it to a little kid or something just for you guys that chase it down right at the start like that. Now then, your turn for a wall of text. XD

After some playing around I discovered that in all RPG Maker MV Games, the F4 key toggles Fullscreen Mode. :)

I love hearing people's logic for the questions at the start because there isn't really a correct answer to any of them. They do determine some starting Runes, Stats, and Equipment though and that is the reason for the waits between the questions; there is stuff being processed in the background and I need some wait calls in there so things don't overlap.

The chick taking all those turns in the opening is some weird pathfinding thing that I haven't been able to iron out. She doesn't always take the same path and sometimes she goes out of her way to walk around things, it is really strange because the other two pretty much do what they are supposed to the whole time lol. My roommate and I joke that she has been drinking.

The Escape chances are going up in the next patch, that has been another common complaint.

I'd have to look (there are around 500 skills in-game so far and I can't remember all of them perfectly) but I think Trauma is actually one of the upgraded Linked versions of Pain. XD

As to the uniqueness of the Hero, his/her class skills are just better in some ways, maybe more direct is a better explanation. The Battle Wizard will get some crazy damage magic and the ability to convert Focus into Mana for essentially limitless casting. Harra gets a weaker Focus to Mana conversion and far less damage skills from her class, but she does get some really nasty debuffs that can enable you to shred bosses. She makes a nice anti-boss support Healer or Damage Dealer.

Just buy the Bandages, they can be farmed but it is easier to just buy them. ;)

I want to implement a Quest System, but I can't find one that isn't ultra tedious to implement...any suggestions?

If you like that Skyrim reference, keep your eyes peeled, there are several references to other games, anime, and movies hidden around. :)

Keen detective work, Filaris is indeed too trusting. That will be addressed later in the story. ;)

As to the large hits, a really easy way to compensate early on is to place two of the healing Runes (two of the same Rune) next to each other. This will give you another skill called Restore that is a huge heal that is super Mana effective at low levels. After the first boss you will swap to the second party which has a proper healer that has heals and barrier skills to make damage soaking way easier.

Thanks for the compliment on my Avatar, a friend of mine drew the character art and I colored it and added the background. It was a super fun project. :)

Thanks again for the post, I look forward to hearing more from you. :)

Have a good one and if you're gaming may all your loots be phat.

Z

@Fisherolol - Thanks for the detailed input and suggestions, I'm always trying to improve the game, and you are the first person that has offered constructive criticism. I've tried to clarify a lot and explain some mechanics and design choices below. I've also made a note of your suggestions, some of which were actually already planned and others which I plan to implement. I don't take any comments personally, the game is in an Open Beta and I'm constantly trying to make it better so I want this kind of advice. Thanks again! Now then, prepare yourself for a wall of text.

Gonna put the first one in bold and add it to the Summary so hopefully anyone with the same issue notices it.

- First things first, the big one: All the saving, fullscreen, and options issues are Windows issues. The saving and options problems can be fixed by simply Right-Clicking and Run as Admin. Sometimes that fixes the fullscreen issue you're talking about, sometimes it doesn't. Windows...

Now then, as for everything else lol.

- The mouse plugin conflicts with other stuff as do the battle command and the formula Plugins. I use a ton of Plugins (over 125 Plugins to date) so I have to be really particular about which ones I use. I'm working on getting the Mouseover Plugin to work because I really want that functionality though, but I have no idea when or if I'll accomplish it, my code skills are good, but admittedly not the best. :(

- The Royal Seeker learns a couple different Taunt skills as you level that will be permanent skills while Filaris has a Taunt Rune that you can remove and move around as you see fit. So you can easily just move the Rune to your hero and give him an extra Taunt. The Hero's starting Runes however are determined by the choices that you select when answering the questions during character creation. I'll probably end up adding a Taunt Rune to the starter pack of Runes that Filaris gives you so that you can just give the Hero one and not have to move things around. Side Note: With a Royal Seeker hero you could theoretically have 3 tanks in your starting party if you attain multiple Taunt Runes, the Hero, Rellik, and Filaris. I had a playtester in the alpha run a party of 4 hybrid tanks; he said that fights took forever but nothing could kill him easily. XD

- You'll be happy to hear that I've already adjusted the Miss chances for the next segment as this was a common complaint from playtesters. :)

- The major difference in spells are the enemy's elemental weakness which can range anywhere from 25% to 200%. Also, if you place 2 Runes of the same element next to one another they will link and you will gain additional spells. Next patch will see a lot of the spells re-worked with different AoEs, bonus effects and things like that though too. :)

- Rellik cannot use any Magic or Healing Runes because he gets Enemy Skills and if he had all access to all of them he would have a ton of skills, he can equip Melee, Status, Tanking, Special, and Statistic Runes though. The skill that he uses to learn enemy skills is also a Scan effect, so it has multiple uses. There is also a character that learns Enemy Skills by being hit with them, but that character cannot learn the healing and buffing Enemy Skills. Rellik can learn those with his observation style of learning and teach them to the other character as illustrated by this video: RPG Maker MV Tutorial - Breath of Fire III's Examine

- Nice catch on the Cast Times, I will adjust it next patch! Currently I'm working out the idea with something like: Cast times coming down through your Spirit stat so that your casters will have faster cast times than your melee characters although your melee characters will still have access to the spells. This will also improve their cast times as you level too. :)

- Encounter Rate has continually been adjusted down, but the problem is in how RPGMaker MV handles the chances of a Random Battle occurring. I am looking for ways to fix this and I'd love any Plugin suggestions since you seem to know your way around the Plugin world. :D

- Later on there are ways to force critical hits and raise your critical chances a ton, it is a little RNG but it does get a lot better as you progress. Also in some of the later areas, you will get a couple characters with Bleed, Poison, and Burn effects that are potentially the highest boss damage dealers in the game so far and those are not very RNG, just a really high damage over time effect.

- The mapping issues on that particular map are the bane of my existence, I had to do a ton to break the area in half. Much of this is also because of the Jump mechanic that you have yet to unlock. After the first dungeon you gain the ability to Jump freely on the map. You get to the second party, unlock jump, and you'll see what I'm talking about, they can enter that map from the other side but cannot get to the side you start on. When you come back to the area in the next segment for an optional quest, the map will have changed and a lot of the issues are gone and you can actually get to the other side of that area.

- Combat gets more and more deep as you level and progress. Once you have a couple of skills that use Focus you'll want to rotate those in for great effect. In the first dungeon there are some larger groups that you'll need to use some strategic play to beat; Taunting, healing, etc. I wanted that first area to be easy since you don't have a dedicated healer yet and some players might be new to this type of game. I try to bring new mechanics in slowly so I don't overwhelm people.

- The HUD is really helpful later on when traps and floor damage effects come into play, but if you don't like it or feel like it in needed, you can turn it off completely (or partially) in the HUD Options selection in the Menu and the game will remember your selection and won't reinstate the HUD unless you tell it to.

- The Time System already effects the Shops, Residences, and any other buildings that should close up at night. The Inn can be used to advance time in various increments as well as heal you up and the cost is very low compared to most stuff. Additionally the Encounter Rate goes up a little bit at night and Mini-Boss monsters become more prevalent. Some events and side quests are set up to work based on the time of day, season, etc. Despite seeming so daunting and ambitious, if you set up the Time System switches and learn the Plugin Commands it is actually really easy to work with and creates super immersive gameplay, so I've used it a lot. :D

- Lost in Lakeshire? Check the two buildings in the Northeastern part of Lakeshire, once you get Harra from her house and finish the short sequence in the Town Hall, you will be able to enter the first dungeon through the Docks that are accessible via the road in the Northwest part of town.

- I hadn't heard that about Soulpour777, it is kind of disappointing. I'll make a note of it though and watch what Plugins I use from him. Thanks for the heads up.

One thing to keep in mind is that for the Friends and Family Alpha Test, I created a randomly repeating Endless Dungeon (that will be available in the late game as an optional thing) and the Alpha Testers tested the Battle Mechanics up to level 150. The way that we ironed out the balance was to have the monsters have a lot of HP but not have their damage scale too high compared to the player's and then use Skills, Runes, Gear, Item Upgrades etc to create a lot of high crit scenarios with big flashy damage numbers. At high end, you can have some characters with around 65-80% crit chances, some abilities to just force crits, and the boss and monster health is scaled around that kind of huge damage. So that is kind of the fun factor that is built into the balance of the game and I have been building on that. Additionally, in the next patch stats are changing drastically in that the primary stats will all contribute to multiple secondary stats, so it will be possible to actually cap your critical chance at high levels if you stack Insight. Stacking Insight doesn't boost your raw damage in any way though so you'll want to stack Strength, Agility, or Intellect for bigger base damage. But I digress, the whole point of all that is to say that the Battle Mechanics have been tested a lot and while they are by no means perfect, the mechanics do get more robust as you level.

I hope that I've explained / answered / adjusted / prepared to adjust everything clearly, thanks again for the advice, I hope you keep playing, and that I hear more from you in the future. Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to address everything.

Have a good one, and if you're gaming may all your loots be phat.

Z

Thanks for the positive feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

The second segment is almost done, around one or maybe two more weeks til it is ready. It is about two to three times the length of the first segment, so it is taking a bit longer than expected.