Resource management

[renke_]

this is only boring balancing :) [and I don't have a chance to count SP/delay with the current system, with all the influencing variables like speed impact and buffs/debuffs]

[yayswords]

rotating party members is interesting, but it shouldn't be too easy/convenient.

Yes, of course that would be my job. Anima design the system and then the responsibility of the battle balancing/difficulty is on me as always.
But indeed one of the possible innovations would be really "horde" battles, which not necessarily means long, but could even be more epic

Two weeks later - I just remembered I wanted to say something about this.

Swapping members in and out constantly is not what I think would create a horde battle feeling. I only know that mechanic from Final Fantasy games where it most of the times felt like a cumbersome device to make sure all party members got exp for the battle. I'm not excited about it.

Horde battles would be best simulated by having two (or three? do we have eighteen toons?) separate 6 man parties fighting simultaneously, though I think that just swapping to party 2 when party 1 has won its battle won't express the right feeling. Something more creative would be in order.

[renke_]

I doubt that party member swapping will lead to more interesting battles (compared to the current constraints and functions of the battle system) but I believe the guards waves boss fight in act 1 would be more exciting if it would work similar to Chalassa's boss fight (when not killing all guards). Instead of 4 separate encounters one bigger one with overall 16 enemies, for every killed foe a fresh one out of the reserve will enter the field.

[yayswords]

If we're doing that then the game needs to memorize the battle conditions better. I always kill all guards after a rather annoying event of move Chalassa out of the most stupid spot on the battlefield -> guard joins -> Chalassa is back on the most stupid spot on the battlefield -> I lose. Furthermore in the Four Elements fight I once killed Air before they turned on Chalassa (someone else posted this same story even), but when Chalassa joined my team Air was on full health again.

The ant queen fight has pseudo-reinforcements, actually just a resurrection spell called Call Reinforcements. But you could have a rez with very low delay and a full HP/mana heal and it would simulate bringing in backup, provided it's okay the backup is a clone of someone who's already fallen. The amount of available reinforcements would be dictated by the rezzer's mana pool.

[renke_]

ah yes, the resetting sucks - see also the Yeldin encounter. But those are restrictions of Outdated Beta Engine(tm), I have high hopes in Shiny New Supports Everything Engine(pat. pend.).

[jack1974]

Yes is another hack I made since the engine didn't support this at all. The hack number 3908123, to be accurate

[renke_]

you're counting downwards? what happens when your counter reaches zero? :P

[jack1974]

When reaches zero, I release the game!
Well, I guess you've already noticed the consequences of working so hard on a RPG: you lose your mental sanity in practice