The complexity of how the skills work versus the knowledge of the player is to the point where the player must consult a guide on what exactly they need to do to even beat the first set of monsters.
Well... Not that I'm too indolent for writing detailed manuals, yet it's very tiresome to find and update corresponding entries on each change in mechanics. And with new equipment incoming, there are no way to avoid some further re-tweaking: there always should some reasons to both keep and toss away every piece of player's setup (except for clearly inane steps, like bringing Judas to battle without any weapon).
Some skills work on one but not the other, and in 3-5 quick turns the enemies kill you...so it's frustrating as a player not knowing how anything works at all.
Yes, it's exactly how I planned whole layout from start. In spite of established traditions, every enemy is coming to
stop player's party, not just grant some more experience points. Timing is essential, every single faults – trounceable.
1. magic/items/attacks need information on how they mechanically work in the game. somewhere in the game
There would be exact formulas provided (never seen any reasons to keep such stuff in secret) once I come to more-or-less satisfying battling scheme. Right now, basically, everything is not much more than testing model. Ever seen early prototype with detailed manual ?
2. The first enemies are far to strong for someone how doesn't have information about any of the above, if they need to read the lore to understand the lore needs to be readable in game (it passes by too quickly)
Well... Cyan received fair warning about incoming dangers. Slightly less than threat, slightly more then advice. And yes, there are no planned ways to pass any battle without pre-developed tactics. Fortunately, you got unlimited number of retries
storywise.
3. the chance to dodge/miss attacks is extremely frustrating when you dont know how the abilities actually work or what they do.
There, I suppose, goes following tip: your assailant is quite aware that people tend to:
1) ...Attack same-shaped target from left to right.
2) ...Focus firepower when possible.
Corresponding conditioning was made and, as overall feedback compilation seems, proven itself quite effective.
4. Enemy text passses by far too quickly to understand what is happening.
Agree. Problem is, 90% of battle engine was hardcoded like that by some smart people, who thought that logs, access to any status screen, result predictions
and/or any opportunities to implement some of mentioned without messing poorly-commented source code just isn't necessary for average RPGs. So, there are little to no control over corresponding GUI for me.
Items reduce stats and I have no clue what each stat does or what each item actually does, so how can I choose to add or remove items if I have no clue what either does?
As I said a little ago: “ask me questions”. Right now it's second most productive way to obtain any information of interest, trailing right behind direct sources exploration.
Please tell me the exact mechanical effects of
Dead-->Gone
as well as every ability.
OK, quick and dirty:
*
Dead->Gone: user.fludity * 2 - target.kismet of perforation damage. Single target, physical-based, 15% chance to apply 'Freedom' (OHKO) onto victim. Granted by 'Μαρια'.
*
Ignis fatuum: user.extra * 1.5 - target.inertiae of heat damage. Mass target, spiritual-based, 100% chance to apply 'Pyrophobia' (2x Heat damage for next few turn) onto each victim, 25% chance to apply 'Inceneration' (Intra*1.5, Extra*1.5, -25% VP regeneration, +25% RT regeneration, immunity to cold damage) onto each victim. Granted by 'Fire and Dust', base SP cost = 6.
*
The Wall: user.fludity * 2 - target.kismet / 2 of perforation damage. Single target (5 separate strikes), physical-based, 10% chance to apply 'Freedom' (OHKO) onto victim, 100% chance to apply 'Depleted' (disable usage of 'Dead->Gone' and 'The Wall' for few turns) onto user. Granted by 'Μαρια', base RT cost = 30.
*
Ardor aeternum: user.extra * 3 - target.inertiae of heat damage. Single target, spiritual-based, 25% chance to apply 'Pyrophobia' (2x Heat damage for next few turn) onto victim, 100% chance to apply 'Inceneration' (Intra*1.5, Extra*1.5, -25% VP regeneration, +25% RT regeneration, immunity to cold damage) onto victim. Granted by 'Fire and Dust', base SP cost = 13.
*
Merciless glitter: Single target, spiritual-based, 100% chance to apply 'Condemn' (Physical evasion - 100%, Kismet * 0, 'Freedom' applying rates * 1.5, physical-based damage received * 1.25) onto victim. Granted by 'Μαγδαληνή', base RT cost = 5. Consumes 1∞ on usage.
*
Memento flamma: Self target, 100% to apply 'Inceneration' (Intra*1.5, Extra*1.5, -25% VP regeneration, +25% RT regeneration, immunity to cold damage) and 'Soothing memories' (-25% RT regeneration, +25% SP regeneration) onto user. Granted by 'Sealed letter', base RT cost = 15.
*
Osculum euthanasia: user.intra - user.intra / 3 of dementation damage to SP. Single target, spiritual-based, applies 'Freedom' (OHKO) if victim's SP falls to 0 after usage. Granted by 'Dried eyesphere', exclusive for Cyanide, base RT cost = 20.
*
Ouija magnum: (user.sp – target.kismet) * user.kismet / 3 of rupture damage. Single target, spiritual-based, applies 'Indemnity' (initial SP reset, SP restoration cancel, 3/4 of reset SP recovering after self-removal) onto user. Granted by 'Lightbane', base SP cost = 1.
...Like that ?
then...the cut scene played and I went back to the menu?
Seems so. Adding content goes easy as long as it fall into Enterbrian' standard jRPG template. And for my style of game designing, everything...well, not really complicated, just irksome and quite time-consuming. Second round should go smoother since I have some script-base now, but there are still too much to do for every littlest thing. Do you, for example, know that there are no way to make proper animation in RPG Maker without
manually editing every frame ?
P.S. Sorry for loose writing, got barely few hours of sleep that night.
Developer
