UNITY'S PROFILE

Well deserved, congrats! :DDD

Super cool! :DDD

author=Dyhalto
Don't forget to make a stupidly huge long difficult final dungeon. Raise the bar a little from LA1 :DDDDDD

Haha, this time I should at least save it for a postgame XD

:DDD

author=Error

author=unity
Originally I was going to have you "buy" skills from a shop menu, but that lacked the flexibility I wanted.

I'm curious what the obstacle was. If I had to guess, it would be handling skill prerequisites.

(Context: RM's available customization hooks seem...not well documented. It's not clear to me what's easy, what's hard, and what's impossible.)

It's been 5 years so I don't remember exactly, but I assume it was something like that. I just remember it not feeling smooth or intuitive enough, for some reason.

author=Error
(epistemic status: talking out my ass) Such systems should either follow well-defined rules (e.g. opposites on an element wheel), or match everyday intuitions; otherwise, they come across as arbitrary. WaU's system looks like it's trying to take the latter approach, with mixed success. Examples: it makes intuitive sense that armored or spectral targets are resistant to physical skills, that nightmares are resistant to terror, or that machines are resistant to terror and sorrow. It's less clear why the Mystic type is weak to sorrow and resistant to the others (though I can sort-of-see it if I squint), and I can't see an underlying theory in the Oddity resistances at all.

Mileage probably varies a lot by play style. I care a lot about fair-play-insight mechanics because a lot of my enjoyment comes from learning the rules well enough to exploit them.

(on editing, I remembered that in the early game I had additional issues memorizing the icons themselves. A label or context-help button (a-la select in FFT) might have closed the gap)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'll see if I can work something like that into my next MZ project, there's some plugins that look promising.

Again, still not sure what I'll do with future projects in the W&U setting, but I'll have some time to stew on that and see how I feel in the future. If you could see what weaknesses and resistances you're hitting just by selecting the skill (before you confirm anything) then that could probably help a lot.

author=Error
Thanks, Sooz! :-)

I always had the impression LA was close to a one-woman show. Is WaU different in that respect, or was I wrong to begin with? Makes me feel a little bad for not crediting more people in AD's author's notes.

When it comes to writing, originally I did all of it in Luxaren. But Sooz and I are roommates, so I'd often show her parts I was struggling with and get her input. Somewhere along the line she offered to just be a cowriter and we've been going like that from Luxaren to Weird and Unfortunate.

Basically, I write the script and then she re-writes it. She has a much better grasp of character voice and showing rather than telling. I'm often too straightforward and have a much weaker grasp on how people talk casually. She's been a life saver for me and has made these projects a ton better, IMO!

author=Error
I notice that Dottie's eldritch spell was limited in a different way, but worked out fine. The difference seems to be that there was an opportunity cost for *not* using Eldritch Eye. If there were a similar cost to not spending bullets and pieces (a capacity cap, maybe?), spending them might feel like a better option.

Yeah, a capacity cap could have worked well. At that point I could have sold them in stores too, if I wanted. Definitely something to consider.

author=Error
(hidden for spoilers, not just for WaU but also classic FF)

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author=unity

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As for the one mystery character you mentioned, I in fact did not allow you to save them through any means. In the future I think it *would* be fun to allow you to save a character like that through a very esoteric method, so I'll keep that in mind for future projects.

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I was only partly serious, for the record. I'm reminded of all the contemporary complaints about Leo in FFVI or Aeris in FFVII, and those stories wouldn't have been improved by a revival option.

But it's fun to think about, and I'm sure there's stories where one could get away with it. Probably those where the death isn't character-defining.

(fun fact: I don't know if you played FFVI when it was current, but at the time there were a lot of hoaxes claiming that Leo could be saved or revived. All lies. Then, something like twenty years later, someone actually found a way to do it. It was totally unintended by the developers, required massive bug abuse, and was 100% awesome.)

Haha yeah, I played those games when they were first out and I remember hearing rumors like that XD I guess it's just natural for people to want that sort of things in games, tho that makes the possibility even more fun.

author=Error
Oh, I don't know about that. It felt like genius bonus to me. Or at least it made me feel like a genius for spotting it.

Haha, then I guess I did some good! I'll consider that a victory, then!

author=Error

author=unity
If you want a hint...

Mrgh. You might want to move that under hide tags; I didn't want that much of a hint. -_- But I was already looking in more-or-less the right place, so not much harm done.

Terribly sorry about that, there's been a period where I'm constantly getting asked that over on the Itch.io page and I've gotten into the habit of just telling people. I've gone back and hidden it.

author=Error
You're welcome. It's nice to be appreciated. :-) And whenever LA2 is in the cards, I'll jump on it with both feet.

On another note, back when I wrote AD, you offered to give me feedback if I ever dove into RPGMaker. Is that offer still open? I have a project in mind for the near future (if I can solve a certain structural issue with my intended plot), so I might want to take you up on it soon.

Yeah sure, I don't see why not :DDD It'll depend on how much time and available brainpower I have at any given moment, but I'd still love to give feedback!