Touhou fantasy

[Xenomic]

A little To-Do list...

*Update the intro sequence: I feel now, after discussing this with my mapper, that it needs redone entirely. Well, maybe not the Rinnosuke and Reimu scenes, but other scenes could be trimmed down or taken out entirely, and different ways to approach it would be better. Also, need to put in a clearer reason for the game starting other than "items are raining into Gensokyo hur dur!". That isn't what the problem of the story is at all...maybe even have a tutorial battle in the intro somewhere?

*Update beta1 maps: This includes; Human Village (though does it really need updated?), Forest of Magic (expand into more maps?), Bamboo Forest (at least remove the instant game over traps...but does it need expanded more?), Eientei (get rid of instant game over traps...but would have to rethink a lot of things for this...), Scarlet Devil Mansion (I've remapped this thing 4 times already and still can't get it to look right. I think Voile looks alright, and the outside and roof as well, but every other place inside the mansion feels wrong...). I don't really think beta2-4 maps need redone at all.

*Condense music and/or other music options: This is probably the biggest complaint I've gotten about the game. So here's the options: 1) Remove a lot of the music and have a set amount of songs (every character will still retain their battle themes though, but bosses may only get 3-4 themes max for generic bosses. Dungeons I haven't decided on yet), or 2) Have an option for "vanilla" music (i.e. what would COME with the game) and an option for "extra" music (i.e. what's in the game already). So that those who don't want the large 1 GB filesize could opt for the smaller one, albeit less music. There would be an option to change the music options in an area (probably Human Village or some sort) for those that wanted to switch between the options and whatnot. What is everyone's opinions on this matter?

*Balancing enemies: This will always be an issue, since there's always new things added in and other things that I'd like to try. I think for the most part enemies are balanced in the game, save for later in the game. I'd need someone to help test this out though...

*Balancing levels: This is one of my biggest peeves with the game personally, and I don't know how to fix it at all..



There's obviously more, but I'm not going to go into that because people are obviously tired of me working on characters and skills nowadays it seems...but oh well. If there's anything else that you guys think need done, feel free to let me know. I'm not going to give up on the game...I know it can be done right. Just takes time when it's mostly a one-man army doing it all. MOSTLY I say.

[Soul Devour]

A little To-Do list...

*Update the intro sequence: I feel now, after discussing this with my mapper, that it needs redone entirely. Well, maybe not the Rinnosuke and Reimu scenes, but other scenes could be trimmed down or taken out entirely, and different ways to approach it would be better. Also, need to put in a clearer reason for the game starting other than "items are raining into Gensokyo hur dur!". That isn't what the problem of the story is at all...maybe even have a tutorial battle in the intro somewhere?

By a tutorial battle, do you mean something along the lines of Lufia or a number of Final Fantasy games, where you get a taste of power? If appropriately used, it could and would work as a good way to get the player interested in continuing. I know one of the issues I had when I played how ever long ago was that there was no action for the first 15 minutes or so.

*Update beta1 maps: This includes; Human Village (though does it really need updated?), Forest of Magic (expand into more maps?), Bamboo Forest (at least remove the instant game over traps...but does it need expanded more?), Eientei (get rid of instant game over traps...but would have to rethink a lot of things for this...), Scarlet Devil Mansion (I've remapped this thing 4 times already and still can't get it to look right. I think Voile looks alright, and the outside and roof as well, but every other place inside the mansion feels wrong...). I don't really think beta2-4 maps need redone at all.

Be warned that expansion isn't necessarily a good thing. If there's a good reason for it (like a clever puzzle or story-scene), then yeah, it's fine, but if it's for the sake of padding...well I personally am not a fan of areas that are long for the sake of being long. Very long dungeons really should be reserved for very major and important story events, like the halfway point of a game or the penultimate dungeon (and in this case, it should have some very memorable or defining music *Cough Cough*) or should be optional dungeons for the more adventurous players.

I'll say that the respawning demon doors in Eientei flat out made me quit playing. Well, that and the overly cheap boss fight right as you enter. I honestly can't remember if you could fast travel across dungeons you completed but if I'm right in thinking you couldn't the sheer fact that I'd have to pretty much travel the Bamboo Forest and a ton of random encounters all over again because I needed more healing items to re-do the hall and find the right door just made me want to give up. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Reisen wasn't total deadweight (I remember now, the door were immune to the dark attribute) there but it was just...frustrating. Maybe if Tewi didn't bail it wouldn't be so bad. I don't know. Just...something.

The Scarlet Devil Mansion might have been a touch too big for my tastes but I think the biggest thing to me about it was just that it was so empty. The rooms were alright and nice, but the halls were just so barren and devoid of life.

*Condense music and/or other music options: This is probably the biggest complaint I've gotten about the game. So here's the options: 1) Remove a lot of the music and have a set amount of songs (every character will still retain their battle themes though, but bosses may only get 3-4 themes max for generic bosses. Dungeons I haven't decided on yet), or 2) Have an option for "vanilla" music (i.e. what would COME with the game) and an option for "extra" music (i.e. what's in the game already). So that those who don't want the large 1 GB filesize could opt for the smaller one, albeit less music. There would be an option to change the music options in an area (probably Human Village or some sort) for those that wanted to switch between the options and whatnot. What is everyone's opinions on this matter?

I think there's one important thing to note about music in video games...typically when we buy games (well, PHYSICAL copies) we don't have to download them and install them. When we buy that disc, everything is ready for us, we don't have waste any time. Keep in mind this is one of the reasons I'm not totally on board with digital media but that's a whole different conversation for another time...what I'm saying is that some of us may not have super-fast download speeds or for some people, they're restricted by their internet provider on how much stuff they can download in a given month. I personally wasn't a fan of the huge download for a bunch of songs that I would probably hear 2 or 3 times and then never again.

There's a reason most RPGs have only a few boss themes. First off, they probably don't wanna compose 20 different themes for 20 bosses that will use said theme 1 time. Think Super Mario RPG. Minor bosses had their own theme, the more important bosses got that deliciously awesome theme and there were some special bosses with their own themes (Culex, the Bowser fight at the beginning of the game, and Final Boss). There was also only 1 battle theme if I remember correctly (although hey, some games do have more regular themes that change based on things like the PoV character (FFVIII) or progress in the story (I think ToV changed themes midway through the game)). Also, space can be an issue. Remember how I said people may not have awesome download speeds or caps? Developers have caps too. While DVDs and Blu-Rays can certainly hold plenty of things, more musical themes means less space for other stuff.

I'd say go the vanilla route...you can offer a second version with all the extra music if you'd like but honestly, I'd rather have a smaller list of music that's not compressed a ton to save space for even more highly compressed songs.

*Balancing enemies: This will always be an issue, since there's always new things added in and other things that I'd like to try. I think for the most part enemies are balanced in the game, save for later in the game. I'd need someone to help test this out though...

Maybe it was just me, but it felt like my characters were weak as hell at times unless I spammed magic. I'm all for making magic useful...but I don't want it to be my only option and be screwed if I run out of mana. I distinctly remember Reimu dealing horrible damage pretty much all the time.

*Balancing levels: This is one of my biggest peeves with the game personally, and I don't know how to fix it at all..

Not really my forte, sadly. I'd probably take the most conventional route and just have stats slowly increase per level with enemies scaling similarly. That's just me though.

There's obviously more, but I'm not going to go into that because people are obviously tired of me working on characters and skills nowadays it seems...but oh well. If there's anything else that you guys think need done, feel free to let me know. I'm not going to give up on the game...I know it can be done right. Just takes time when it's mostly a one-man army doing it all. MOSTLY I say.

While working characters and skills is all good (and polishing definitely an important thing!!) don't neglect to work on the other aspects of the game and make sure their also sufficiently polished. You could have the coolest character designs in the game but it doesn't mean much if the game itself is unplayable.

Anyways, I hope I've been of some help.

[Kaitani]

Here's my two cents.

*Update the intro sequence: I feel now, after discussing this with my mapper, that it needs redone entirely. Well, maybe not the Rinnosuke and Reimu scenes, but other scenes could be trimmed down or taken out entirely, and different ways to approach it would be better. Also, need to put in a clearer reason for the game starting other than "items are raining into Gensokyo hur dur!". That isn't what the problem of the story is at all...maybe even have a tutorial battle in the intro somewhere?

I've only started this game from the beginning once, but I remember it being quite overwhelming with all the cutscenes. I don't if this is a good idea, but maybe you could have some of those scenes play bit by bit, like when entering certain parts of the first map(s)?

*Update beta1 maps: This includes; Human Village (though does it really need updated?), Forest of Magic (expand into more maps?), Bamboo Forest (at least remove the instant game over traps...but does it need expanded more?), Eientei (get rid of instant game over traps...but would have to rethink a lot of things for this...), Scarlet Devil Mansion (I've remapped this thing 4 times already and still can't get it to look right. I think Voile looks alright, and the outside and roof as well, but every other place inside the mansion feels wrong...). I don't really think beta2-4 maps need redone at all.

I really hate long maps with puzzle elements, in these cases the random encounters tend to get extremely frustrating. In my opinion you should have one or the other, not both at the same time, especially if the puzzle in question requires lots of running around. Perfect example of this in game is the Eientei part, which needs the most work to not deter players. If not for the LP on Youtube, that's where my playthrough would've ended...

Condense music and/or other music options: This is probably the biggest complaint I've gotten about the game. So here's the options: 1) Remove a lot of the music and have a set amount of songs (every character will still retain their battle themes though, but bosses may only get 3-4 themes max for generic bosses. Dungeons I haven't decided on yet), or 2) Have an option for "vanilla" music (i.e. what would COME with the game) and an option for "extra" music (i.e. what's in the game already). So that those who don't want the large 1 GB filesize could opt for the smaller one, albeit less music. There would be an option to change the music options in an area (probably Human Village or some sort) for those that wanted to switch between the options and whatnot. What is everyone's opinions on this matter?

To me the music in this game is one of its strongest points, I really liked how I could choose my battle theme with lead character choice. Having said that, there seems to be a lot of extra songs in the music packs, like multiple versions of a theme. Then there's the original ZUN songs there which I don't think you can use in the final version anyway. Other than that, I hope to have that music collection kept, with a lite edition available to those who don't want 250+ songs in their game folder.

*Balancing enemies: This will always be an issue, since there's always new things added in and other things that I'd like to try. I think for the most part enemies are balanced in the game, save for later in the game. I'd need someone to help test this out though...

I agree, for the most part the enemies are balanced well enough (since I made it all the way to then end ), but there was one place that was too difficult. That was the place where all the mirror enemies of your characters appear (Muenzuka path?), all of which were tough bosses at that point in game. Later on that place is nice to try getting those rare drops from them, but it was pure hell the first time around. Maybe you could give those mirrors a Hard Path to roam in, with some extra treasures as bait?

*Balancing levels: This is one of my biggest peeves with the game personally, and I don't know how to fix it at all..

I've given my thoughts about this before, but I really wouldn't worry about this before you've finished the other aspects of the gameplay, since those can alter any balance you make. So, do what needs to be done with the first maps, then ask people to play the game from the start and give opinions on how fast/slow leveling is. (I was always grinding more for money than EXP)

[Xenomic]

http://www.mediafire.com/?upd9nx7d53xn6ea


Minor update patch. This'll give you a taste of the new intro (there are tutorial battles, akin to like say...FFIV, though try not to die ^^;  ). Do let me know if the battles are too hard or not...this is important! I had considered doing this as well for the Chireiden and Mima scenes, but I did not. Also, the Shikieiki scene has been completely removed. I felt it was useless to have...


In addition, I just realized that in the Crafting Shop, I DO have a shop for buying crafting materials. Guess I never go there much myself or I just plain outright forgot all about it ^^;;


Also, the only maps I'm going to revamp are SDM (somehow) and Eientei. The instant game over traps in Bamboo Forest now just send you to the start of that map, so less frustrating (though people may still opt to F12 and reload save to save time I guess...). There's really nothing terribly wrong with Human Village, Misty Lake was already revamped, and Forest of Magic seems ok (originally I was going to make Forest of Magic another maze, but that'd mean there'd be 4 mazes in a row, which is bad...). Dunno if Forest of Magic should be expanded at all or not...either it or Bamboo Forest will have an underground segment to it too (I'm thinking Bamboo Forest since it already HAS the pitfalls...).


That is all! Do let me know how that intro works for ya'll! I'm not sure if anything else needs done with it or not...still deciding on that.



@Soul Devour:

1) Yes, like those. From what I've seen, it's rather difficult to lose in the tutorial battles, but it's still somewhat possible I suppose.

2) The only reason I bring up expanding Forest of Magic is well, it just feels really, really short being one screen. It doesn't feel much like a Forest of Magic, but I suppose that's ok (we'll be going back to the Forest of Magic, and several other areas in the game, a few times later on in beta6 so there's plenty of room to have a more expansive forest).

The boss fight with Tewi and the rabbits does need rethought aye. I think I should cut down on how many rabbits there are with Tewi...probably by like half (so Tewi +3 other rabbits??). The respawning doors originally weren't meant to respawn at all...I still don't know why they do. I think I dun goofed something or something. But overall Eientei is TERRIBLE anyways (it was meant to be a puzzle-type dungeon, but it's not very puzzle-like at all...just annoying). I'd rather not make it a complete maze, since Bamboo Forest does the maze gimmick just fine. Any ideas on Eientei?

That has always been a problem with the SDM too. I tried modeling it after an actual mansion in the last revamp (remember, it has been revamped 4 times over...), but there's not much I can do with it. I could probably stick some fairy maids here and there in areas and give them some dialogue I suppose to make it more flavorable, but as far as touching up on the maps, not sure how I'd do that. Maybe it'll get fixed once my mapper does something with that. In other news, the basement it also very terribly designed and doesn't feel like the SDM basement at all...

3) I'm aware of that too (hell, my download speed isn't exactly that great either). The issue though is that every piece of music is handpicked for specific events (though I guess bosses don't really NEED every theme ever...just the dungeons, event music, and character themes/battle themes). I'm not sure what I'd cut at all! @_@;;

4) That's due to how RPG Maker handles physical damage. I'm looking into ways of fixing that (which means I'll have to rebalance a LOOOOOOT of things again). Think of this: Super-weak to physicals means 500% extra damage taken (very, very few enemies are like this, and Patchouli is the only one to fall into this), weak means 250% extra damage (several enemies and most of your characters fall under this), normal is 100% (a lot of enemies fall under this, and I think Meiling/Yuuka/Momiji do too), then it's 50% damage, and then 0%. If I revamped it, it might go 1600% > 800% > 400% > 50% > 0%. I'm not sure, it's handle stupidly and whatnot.

In case you're wondering, damage formula for physical attacks is: (Attacker's ATK/2) - (Defender's DEF/4). Yup, that's how they decided to handle the physical damage. Great isn't it? An in addition, Magic and Magic Defense share the same stat (and by that notion, in a way, Agility and Evasion share the same stat). Don't ask what they were thinking with that...

5) Yeah, I generally do one thing and then shift to another. After working on background coding for abilities for about 7-8 months straight (That was with the Weapon/Armor Bless abilities), I decided to touch up on other things with characters, such as secondary command abilities and equipment. This was all after doing some map fixes and other bug fixes, of which after doing that for 7-8 months, and during my 4-5 month break, I did more bug fixes and whatnot (and apparently included that synthesis shop for buying crafting materials...). This also included putting in like 200+ animations for skills and such, which was needed badly as well. It's just hard to do multiple things at once (i.e. animations for skills, character balancing, monster balancing, mapping, eventing, coding, etc.) all at once, so I generally tackle one thing massively for a while. Hope that helps with understanding how I handle things! ^^;;



@Kaitani:

1) Should play Devil of Decline or Genius of Sappheiros then. Those are just as long and have just as much stuff as well (honestly, I didn't even think either of those game's intros were THAT long, but when I saw them again, it was like what...).

2) That's kinda why I axed out random encounters during Bamboo Forest (yes, during all 3 sign puzzles? There were random encounters. I got rid of them as I MYSELF got super annoyed at them...). Though not sure if that would make Misty Lake's puzzle hard or not. The maps generally aren't super big so you wouldn't run into many encounters in them, unlike Bamboo Forest where the maps are a lot bigger, and you have to do sign puzzles...hmmm...

3) That's why I'm thinking of repackaging the entire thing into one thing, with just the vanilla songs (again, need to decide which songs will stay around, and I'd have to do a lot of in-game scripting for the songs...).

4) Muenzuka is meant to be one of the harder areas, since it's around the later parts of Normal mode (yes, Muenzuka is still around Normal mode. Hard mode really doesn't pick up until around Eastern Forest. I think those elemental fairies are reason enough for that place being Hard). It's still possible to handle them (though the Sakuya Mirror is pretty nasty...).

[Kaitani]

The intro seems to make a lot more sense now, although knowing the upcoming plot as I watched it surely helped. It's not too long either, as the tutorial battles took more time than scrolling through the text. As for those two fights, the second one was very easy and tutorial-like, but the first one was quite annoying. The enemies kept spamming Healaga and my attacks kept missing, forcing me to use some items to win it. The characters also had quite a lot of skills available, and some testing was needed to find out the skills that actually work/do damage. Now that I think about it, the first fight gives a pretty good idea what the combat in the game is like: heavily item-dependant and unreliably hitting attacks. Quite a rough start for the game nonetheless.

[Xenomic]

Yeah, I don't understand WHY skills miss so much...considering most of them have a 90% accuracy. Yes, most skills have 90% accuracy, as with weapons. I don't get it either lol.


Though it seems right now that Chef's doing a good job in the game of not having to rely too much on items, but he's around level 30 at the start of beta3 (right where he has to go to Higan), so he doesn't have to worry as much there. Still will though since I think Higan will prove to be challenging...

Hungry Tiger is kinda broken right now, mostly due to the fact that is uses the PHYSICAL ATTACK formula, and not the PHYSICAL SKILL formula (the difference being that the PHYSICAL ATTACK is meant for weapons, while the SKILL one is meant for skills. It's a way to make it so that skills DON'T share regular attack formula, so that ya know, skills completely eclipse regular attacks (this is for when I do the great update on physical damage so I don't have to completely revamp all of the skills. They can still use the default 500% > 250% > 100% > 50% > 0% formula, while regular attacks use the 1600% > 800%> 400%> 50%> 0% formula or whatever).


I tried to make it flow better (Shikieiki's part just didn't fit well and felt like it disrupted the entire thing with nonsense), and the fights at least gave SOME action in the start as a way to hook in players hopefully. Also, don't worry...you'll be seeing our dog friend Inferno again, you can count on that~

As for the items, there's a good reason why I gave all of those items lol. Just in case...though those with 0 MP costs and no description, or read Shou Skill/etc. are those that aren't done yet. I haven't decided on what some will do!

[Soul Devour]

Went back and played the game again from the beginning to get a feel for the tutorial. The battles are alright and they do definitely give some of a hook for the player to continue, although the first can last a *long* time if those damn dragons repeatedly heal themselves. Shou and Kyouko also seem *alot* better than Nazrin, Shou because of Hungry Tiger and Kyouko with her 5 hit normal attack. It's definitely an improvement at least over what was done before. Also, cool seeing some Oath in Felghana love, The Strongest Foe is an awesome piece (I'm quite partial to Valestein Castle myself. If/When I decided to host that, I plan using fewer, although still primarily, Touhou song remixes and instead give some other soundtracks some love. Can't let myself be bound by common sense after all~.

Something that irked me the first time I played and still does...is there a way to see what a skill does before buying it or if I can't, is there a way to change the text from what it currently is "Teaches Skill X Level Y" to what does the skill does and perhaps a line stating it's an upgrade "Minor Healing to one character. More effective than Hakurei Whatever Level 1." It sucks buying something like Luminous Strike to find out I really didn't want an MP attack just yet.

Quick little note, by the way, Reimu's Pray was glitching up on the Cirno/Daiyousei fight (selecting it would consume Reimu's turn but would not provide the healing). I believe it started happening after I had used Luminous Strike on Cirno and immediately followed with Pray and would not work again for the remainder of the fight. Hopefully just a one time thing.

Last thing for now, I think I know what the problem is for some of your maps, the very large ones and it's a very off putting thing. When you have very large areas (and there's a couple of these in the Misty Lake and it's a big problem in the Scarlet Devil Mansion), the experience of the game and story really is taken down when you walk through these huge areas and there's just nothing in them or nothing going on. I should state that I'm not saying all the areas are like this, but there's some places where you could easily cut the size down of an area by half or more and it wouldn't make a difference at all. Something a lot of good RPGs do is that they won't make an area big for the sake of being big and empty unless there's a very good reason for it (I like to think of the Vault in FF6 as one of those justifiable places) and will favor smaller, more compact areas that are easier to traverse for the player, so there's a real sense of progress and more importantly, it's easier to make those kinds of areas feel more alive.

I think I understand why you've made them so big (and even the bottom human village comes close to being too big), you would to convey a feeling for the size of the world. You want the player to understand and experience that. At least, I hope that's the reasoning behind the huge maps. If it is, well, I do appreciate that and it is a step in the direction of a more realistic world...the problem, though, is that by doing that, you create a lot of dead space in your maps. Yeah, the world is huge, but it feels so empty and devoid of life. It's just crushing when I walk through parts of the Misty Lake and it's just one giant green carpet and absolutely nothing going on or to spend seemingly forever walking in the halls (not so much the rooms) of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Backtracking there takes forever too and that just compounds the issue of creating boredom. What I'm basically saying is that bigger isn't always better.

Anyways, it's coming along and while I say all this, just remember I'm saying it as a gamer who's played a decent number (although still not a ton) of RPGs. Just my own observations and recollections of things and formulas I've seen that work.

[Xenomic]

That's mostly due to Nazrin's incomplete skillset (originally I was thinking of making her a completely optional character for the player to get, and most of her skills were meant to work OUTSIDE of battle, such as finding hidden items and whatnot). In battle, she's not meant to be very good at all, but is meant to have high speed to make up for it (making her an able item user). Also, Shou's Hungry Tiger I goofed up on and gave it the PHYSICAL ATTACK formula, and not the formula for PHYSICAL SKILLS, so it does 250% more damage when it should only be doing 100% damage. But that's fine...it'll do 250% damage in that fight regardless because she's meant to be OP for that fight. I MIGHT make Healaga less likely to happen too, since that does seem like a lot (and Nazrin really doesn't contribute much, even with her Poison-elemental attack).

The Ys song originally WAS used in the actual game as a boss theme, but I dropped it and replaced it with Gensoumaroku's OUT!!!...and I didn't have any other theme that fit the situation for the intro, so that song was used (really, I have NO song in my RPG Maker for emergency situations like that, which is going to be problematic since beta5 has a few of those...).

Ah that...I was thinking of making a custom skill shop (much like the synthesis shop) where you can see information on skills before buying them. The downside is...well, if you've messed with the crafting shop stuff, you'll see why. Unless I made a custom menu system, which is a big pain in the arse to do, I'd have to do it that way. I'm limited on spacing in descriptions and whatnot, so I can't extend lines sadly. So unless people want me to deal with skill shops like crafting shops...

Yeah, I was told that by another beta tester, which is funny because I forgot to put in the coding for Reimu's Pray in that boss fight only it seems. Don't ask how I missed that...I don't know lol.

Yeah, SDM is TERRIBLE with how big it is (I'm assuming you're talking about the last 2 maps of Misty Lake too?). Again, tried to model it after an actual mansion but...it didn't work out so well. I am NOT good at judging how big hallways and such should be at all, though I think Cave to Makai turned out ok in that regards and several other areas, so why SDM gives me such a hard time, I don't know...I tried to make maps realistic to each area aye. SDM being prime example as already mentioned. The thing is, I wouldn't know WHAT to add into some of these areas to make them better (I COULD add random fairies or something in Misty Lake, but then people would think that they're random encounters because Fairies are random encounters there) and maybe more Fairy Maids or objects in the hallways for SDM, but I'm not sure...though I thought that Human Village was alright. I'm guessing not enough people there at all right?


You'll also find Chireiden/Palace of the Earth Spirits is, even though it's multiple rooms, one giant map. I'm thinking of cutting the map into smaller pieces so it isn't like that (this was an issue with Cave to Pandaemonium as well, which caused massive lag and slowdown, hence me cutting it up originally). Chireiden is also devoid of life too, but again, I'm not sure what to add into these areas. Mapping definitely isn't one of my strongest areas...I'm not a mapper, I'm a storyteller D:


I do appreciate the feedback at least. It's very good feedback and thorough on what's wrong and all that, as opposed to a lot of the responses I've had from RPG Maker forums and Poosh (several of which on Poosh were just to switch from RPG Maker 2k3 to RPG Maker VX/VX Ace, which isn't going to happen at all). Hopefully when my mapper gets to the maps next month (he'll be working on his game until then), he'll redo SDM and Eientei both next.

[Xenomic]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/lFjblmRXI18[/youtube]



I apologize ahead of time for the bad speaking and the whiffing in the mic. I don't know WHY it whiffs in the mic like that, but it does. Also, I don't know what happened to the volume in the second half. It kinda dropped out for some reason...


This video is in response to all of the reviews and criticisms I've gotten. Granted, mostly the negative ones. I HAVE had GOOD criticisms and whatnot, don't get me wrong and I appreciate it, but some of these criticisms man...I don't know!


So yeah...hopefully ya'll can understand what I'm saying here, and what I'm trying to get at. Can't expect a one-man army to do EVERYTHING perfectly. It's called a BETA for a reason after all!


And why yes, that is exactly how I sound.

[Xenomic]

So for those of you who've been keeping up with my game, or have played it themselves, they know that my crafting system is well...actually garbage. I'm in need of help with revamping this thing (which may result in cutting out a LOT of crafting items, redoing what enemies drop/steal/morph, what treasures give what, etc.), so there's going to be a LOT of coding on my end. I'm not exactly sure HOW I want to pull this off either...it's not like Final Fantasy IX's crafting system at all, and follows more of Genius of Sapphieros/Gensoumaroku's system (which is what I based it off of), though you can also say it somewhat follows Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates/Echoes of Time's crafting systems.


So yeah, if anyone is interested in helping on this, or has any ideas on how to fix this bad boy up so that things are USEFUL to craft (I HAVE the craftable items made already...just need to figure out how to MAKE them is the problem), do drop me a line. It'd require having to get the game, but ya wouldn't need the music at all, and would only require going to ? on New Game to go to Debug Room for testing purposes. Hope some of ya'll out there are interested in helping!

[Xenomic]

I am *gasp* actually working on the game! This is what's going down:

*Fixed beta5 bug that crashed the game in Pandaemonium
*Fixed speed bug from beta2 ending (after defeating Tiamat and then getting Komachi)
*Will be fixing up some dialogue to touch up on it.

*Currently working on fixing up the crafting shop. Crafting materials are still the same prices, but those will probably change eventually. However, I am not certain if the crafting material shop (shop for buying materials) should stay or go. Originally, the system was based around winning or stealing from enemies, finding materials from chests or characters, or being rewards from sidequests. They were NEVER meant to be bought, so having that shop there kinda is influencing how the system is working. It'll need some more testing, but if I must, I'll have to do MORE changes later, either to how many materials each piece of equipment needs or the drop/steal rates of how often they're dropped (which I'm trying to avoid due to well...that's more work than changing the materials needed). If anyone would like to help on this, please let me know. I can use all the help I can get...

Heck, even deciding on whether or not to keep the shop or not would help. I already have the original crafting shop data uploaded, so if you want to try and help, here's what they USED to be:

http://www.mediafire.com/?8ue07tht17z11xp


There won't be an update patch until AFTER I get the crafting system fixed up, so keep that in mind, ya'll! Still waiting on mapper as well before I can work on beta5 story stuff...

Unless you guys want to wait until I get the new crafting shop done and/or an item list (i.e. where to find all of the items in the current beta) done first?

[Xenomic]

http://www.mediafire.com/?n29jjcfdh8dda56


So I did a bit more remodeling than I thought. Here's what got changed:

*All accessories, except for Iron Duke, have had material costs dropped. In addition, some accessories have had some materials completely removed (for example, the HP/MP +20% and HP/MP +40% accessories both do not require a Dark Matter anymore)
*All shields have had their materials required dropped.
*Some items have had their material costs dropped.
*Several character specific weapons and armors, generally the first/second tier pieces, have had their materials dropped and/or coding fixed.
*Some items were added in the crafting materials shop, others moved to the appropriate levels.

Not EVERYTHING was fixed up/changed yet. In addition, I do not know if the crafting shop will still stick around or not, so there's that to keep in mind. Odds are, I won't keep it around (crafting materials were meant to double over as a way to get more money quickly too after all, as well as being some kind of battle item if need be). So if anything needs changed/fixed, do let me know. Also still need to know whether to keep the shop or not (which most are probably going to say yes for keeping, but...).

[Kaitani]

I agree that most people are going to say yes for keeping the synthesis shop, since having more stuff to do is rarely a bad thing. But if the synthesis menu remains as hard to navigate as it is now and normal shops sell equal (or even better) gear, I know I would just buy my stuff from the normal shop and move on with the story.
Anyways, I had a look at the new synthesis shop and I like the material shop, for now you can buy the remaining materials to craft something even if the RNG decides to hate you. So, with the materials and money I had, I started crafting a new sword for Youmu. I got the second weapon made, which was still a bit weaker than my current swords, but the next one required loads of Asura's Blood, which I only had one from somewhere. They also weren't available in the shop, so I'm guessing this is the character-specific material? In what ways are you planning to have these available? I hope it's not an ultra rare drop from a very rare and hard enemy, since getting 15 of them would take forever...

[Xenomic]

Anything that is Level 1-Level 3 in the shop are all character-specific stuff really. Asura's Blood I believe was gotten from the Saigyou Yuyuko fight, so it's not easy to find (I need to figure out how to redo some of these crafts anyways). Are you talking about Youmu's level 3 crafting weapon that's character-specific? I'm assuming this is Northern Lights or Phantasmagoria you were trying to make, which most level 3 I don't want available till around beta4-beta5. I did not really change level 3-5 specific weapons mostly because of this fact. Anything that requires level 4-5 crafting materials will have to be gotten from enemies/treasures/rewards, if the shop stays.

[Kaitani]

Yea I was talking about the level 3 crafting weapon, Oblivion. I had/could buy all other materials required except Asura's Blood.
Btw, I noticed you can make some weapons in the Synthesis Shop that can also be bought in the normal shops. Isn't that a bit redundant?

I think the Synthesis Shop could work for making those niche type of weapons, which Oblivion really looks like to be, and for making the best of the best kind of gear. In my opinion, if you want to make the system work, you'll either have to reduce the available items, or make it more easily accessible with the use of a custom menu.

[Xenomic]

Yeah well...custom menu isn't happening. I don't know how to code that, and it requires a LOT of work to even do right.


The generic stuff that you can buy in shops is there in the event that you can actually GET them long before you can buy them (which in turns can save you money from having to buy them if you have the materials required already).

[Hanzo K.]

There's a possibility that there's already a custom menu out there that'll work for what you might need.

[Xenomic]

The problem is I can't import things like menus. I'd still have to custom code everything in, and that alone is a nightmare to do, especially if you don't know what you're doing with that. x_x;

[Hanzo K.]

Well, I tried at least, eh?

[Desu_Cake]

So today, I *finally* finished this game as far as it went, and I must say, I absolutely love it.
To be honest, before I started playing, I didn't have very high hopes, since I've played a lot of sub-par rpgmaker games before, but once I got into it, I realised just how much time and effort has gone into this, and how I had sold it short initially.

I'd really like to help out, if there's any way I can.

[Xenomic]

As I've said before, I think most people give up on the game because of either 1) The bad reviews it's gotten, mostly because people don't go beyond beta1 and 2) Well...beta1 itself. Being from start of game up to Eientei essentially. I think past beta1 is where it actually gets a lot better personally, but that's me. Someday, beta1 will get polished up....someday.


I'm not sure what all people can help with at this point. I'm currently typing up a list of where to find every item in the game (already did area data and monster drops. All that's left is to list what all items can be stolen from enemies). Once that's done, I'll be using that as a basis for how to fix up the synthesis shop. I'm actually thinking forcing each level of material to be used for each level of character-specific equipment (i.e. Reimu's level 1 material would be used mostly for her level 1 craftable armor and weapon, then her level 2 for the level 2, so on and so forth). Of course, I'll probably still have some of them used in other materials but...


So far, I'm seeing a trend too. Most items tend to drop at about 20-30% rate. I don't know if this is good, but I'm thinking of making it so that level 1 materials drop at 60%, level 2 45%, level 3 30%, level 4 15%, and level 5 no higher than 5%. Of course, the issue here is WHEN items are available (again, the Barrier item is available as soon as Underschool, which is supposed to be a late game item but...it's required in so many crafting materials...).  Also, apparently the Antidote is the most common status item that can be gotten outside of the shop. Some items so far can't even BE gotten outside of the shop x_x;;

[Desu_Cake]

Could I try remodelling the SDM a bit?
I'm not exactly brilliant at rpgmaker, but I could give it a shot.

[Xenomic]

Go for it, if you know how to work the maps. Just leave notes somewhere in an unused event (maybe say....top right corner of maps) telling me the name of the map (because when transferring maps, it doesn't keep the name of the map in the way that I transfer them). SDM has been redone 4 times over so yeah...also, try and NOT move events that are already there, so try and work around those if you can. Redoing events is a pain in the butt >_<

[Xenomic]

So, just put in the bosses for beta5 (yes, I did do a little work. Thinking of what monsters I want to put in for the upcoming section after the next 2 dungeons. It's surprisingly not that easy), and well...there's a grand total of 76 bosses right now. For one beta. Keep in mind, beta5 has about 18 some dungeons alone...I DID say that beta5 was going to be long, right? Yeah...


In other news, I am thinking of doing something crazy yet again, as I did with the Bless abilities. You see, Bravery/Faith (2x Attack and 2x Magic, respectively) don't really DO much per say on their own. Sure, they double the appropriate stats, but that doesn't seem to matter too much (especially magic). So what's my idea? I'm thinking of going in and manually making it so that skills that are of one type get double damage and skills of the other type get half damaged (for instance, a character with Bravery will do double the damage with physical skills, but half damage with magic skills).

This will require me to have to manually input each skill a character can learn PER LEVEL twice over, so that there's 3 copies of it. Keep in mind, I can't copy/paste past #5000 in the database. So yeah, there's that. It won't be NEARLY as bad as say, the Bless abilities, as I don't have to put in conditional branches and whatnot. Yet...I'll have to do those AFTER I put in all of the skills, but still not nearly as bad as the Blesses.


On top of that, Marisa MAY get an upgrade for her Attack or Steal command (I haven't decided which) in the form of Mug, depending on the weapon she has equipped. This will force me to have to make a new battle event page for it, but it's a thought~

Still waiting on mapper, but he's close to done now, so I'll be working on the game more soonish. Just...been putting it off a bit due to trying to figure out enemies and such and such...

[Kaitani]

In other news, I am thinking of doing something crazy yet again, as I did with the Bless abilities. You see, Bravery/Faith (2x Attack and 2x Magic, respectively) don't really DO much per say on their own. Sure, they double the appropriate stats, but that doesn't seem to matter too much (especially magic). So what's my idea? I'm thinking of going in and manually making it so that skills that are of one type get double damage and skills of the other type get half damaged (for instance, a character with Bravery will do double the damage with physical skills, but half damage with magic skills).

I guess 2x Attack or Magic isn't the same thing as double damage? Because if it is, that would be a lot of work for no benefit. I mean, if you use Bravery on someone to boost their physical damage, chances are you're not going to be using magic attacks on that character anyway.

Btw, what's the duration for those spells?

[Xenomic]

About 20 turns, this meaning it includes ALL participating characters turns on both your side and the enemy's side. So when there's more in a fight, it lasts shorter, but if there's less, it lasts longer. Don't ask why they decided to make it that way...


And well, it doubles the stats aye, but it doesn't DO much for skills that rely on anything. Since the damage formula for skills are terrible (I don't even know what it is), and they don't really change regardless how high your stats are...

[Kaitani]

I see Bravery and Faith mostly useful in (tough) boss fights, so would that make the 20 turn duration effect last for about 4 attacks on the buffed character? If one takes the time to buff a character's damage, that character will most likely be spamming her most damaging skill over and over. Thus I don't see the point of adding the 1/2 damage for the other damage type. Also, wouldn't including that basically double the amount of work you'd have to do to get it to work on all skills?

[Xenomic]

The thing is, enemies will be trying to inflict it at times is also what I hoped on doing. Since some characters can't use some types (Youmu and Momiji are severely limited on their options with magic, Patchouli with physicals), that'd hamper them a lot more. Though I do agree....

[Xenomic]

Also, keep in mind. Doubling a character's ATK or MAG stat does NOT change the damage output (well, not very much) for skills. So in order to emulate them being at double/half power, I'd HAVE to put them in manually (and switch the skills around appropriately via common events). It's just another way to make skills more useful (regular attacks will be more useful at a later date of course. I haven't tinkered with that yet though...)

Current formula for regular attacks is as follows (note: the default damage formula, which cannot be changed at all, is "Damage = 1/2 Attacker's ATK - 1/4 Defender's DEF"):


For Physical/Magical skills:

A = 500%
B = 250%
C = 100%
D = 50%
E = 0%


For Elements not Gravity/Poison/Mystic:

A = 200%
B = 100%
C = 50%
D = 0%
E = -100%



For Gravity/Poison:

A = 300%
B = 200%
C = 100%
D = 50%
E = 0%


For Mystic:

A = 200%
B = 100%
C = 50%
D = 50%
E = 50%


Attributes such as Ghost, Exorcist, and Absorb follow most of the other elements formulas. Mystic cannot be raised or reduced at all, even with equipment.


Right now, the idea for Physical damage (this excludes skills that use a completely different formula) would be:

A = 1600%
B = 800%
C = 400%
D = 100%
E = 0%


Not sure on how much THAT would work for regular attacks mind you...it's just an idea.

[Kumori]

The first battle in the intro was so annoying to me that I had to turn it off, skip the intro and go into the game completely blind. The first battle is practically a boss battle that should be kept or later in the game, not during the start.